Post: #51

(03-26-2019 06:32 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  I'd rather have bake sales and football games quite frankly. Doing a ton of homework and getting A's in every class is actually *not* a success strategy in the US workforce. The kids who play ball and Bs and Cs will out-earn the A student generally. That's the nature of the American economy.

That was true when you and I were kids. Employers would train even the dullest of lemmings to do something. Since then, between H1Bs, illegal immigrants and outsourcing, good luck with that plan.

Whenever I hear a parent complain about supposedly too much homework I have to wonder how much is too much. I don't see kids carrying books to school - why would they? Leave 'em in the locker. There is probably no such thing as a summer reading list now, but there was when I was in high school. Parents today would probably pass out at that idea - that ruins Disneyworld! Some schools still offer advanced placement classes, if only in places with enough Asians not scared enough of actual work to qualify.

A high school graduate today probably couldn't pass half of this test once given to 8th graders in 1912. To be fair, the "woefully underpaid" teachers of today probably couldn't get past the grammar section. How difficult could any homework copied out of a teachers manual actually be?

And the (nearly all white) kids back then did it all without fucking pills, iPads or therapy dogs. No small coincidence their mothers had them in their early 20s and the state didn't encourage the disruption of the family structure. Too much homework? How about life WAS work and everybody accepted that, at least until things got easy enough to deny reality.

Post: #52

A lot of being a kid now days is avoidance. They get shoved off to daycare at 12 months at a point in life where all they crave is love and attention. Even the overworked daycare workers are good enough - if only there were enough of them. Crying really loud seems to work, so they do this. But it has the opposite effect, and daycare teachers spend their time frustrated at the crying kids, while trying to their best to help the kids that want to learn.

Later in life this attention mechanism loses its strength, so they do it through annoying clubs like gender studies and xenophobia or what have you. Its still a cry for attention, but one with even broader bullshit. Along the way they are given all sorts of drugs or ideas on what is wrong with them. Couple that with no chores, no family structure and what I think is the real issue - no accountability and being able to run from problems.

Life can be insanely easy today. As long as you can handle a broken brain and not ask too many questions.

Post: #53

The sad thing is that conventional antidepressants are barely more effective than placebos, and even that may just be due to drug companies redoing unsuccessful trials.

Though, do not confuse placebo with ineffective. Fake hope is still hope, and a step towards recovery.

I was misdiagnosed with depression for a long time.(It turned out to be a minor stroke in the end, but due to my isolation and bad habits, I became genuinely depressed too)

For me personally, the various antidepressents I tried just made my symptoms worse.(Though, bad results must mean others must have had good results to keep the average a net-positive, and since in the real world, people discontinue the bad, and use the good, I cannot rule out the potential of SSRIs as a layman.)

What did work was me forcing myself to engage with the world, forcing myself to exercise and fake a smile at social events. I took a big step away from social media and comparing myself with others. Talk-therapy and other ways of learning to better handle your thoughts gets good results too.

SlickyBoy mades an excellent point about everyone used to have a way to contribute to society, but in this dehumanised and globalised world of business, imperfect cogs get discarded not polished and repurposed.

I am quite possibly this forum's biggest fuckup, but due to my reasonably high-IQ and unique life experience/brainmakeup, I believe I at least have value in potentia and that keeps me positive and heading in what I believe is a productive direction.

Post: #54

(03-27-2019 08:04 AM)SlickyBoy Wrote:  

(03-26-2019 06:32 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  I'd rather have bake sales and football games quite frankly. Doing a ton of homework and getting A's in every class is actually *not* a success strategy in the US workforce. The kids who play ball and Bs and Cs will out-earn the A student generally. That's the nature of the American economy.

I don't see kids carrying books to school

Right there you lost me. What school district do you live in? Cause it ain't any school district I've ever seen, ever, in the past 20 years.

Quote:A high school graduate today probably couldn't pass half of this test once given to 8th graders in 1912.

Again not sure if we live on the same planet. Kids in high school today have several chapters in their biology books devoted to DNA, RNA, cellular dynamics and genetics. I've seen it. Stuff that I barely know. Kids in 1912 barely knew that cells existed.

Post: #55

I'm not sure where some of these dudes are either. I used to tutor kids back home.

I'm from a "wealthy" state, so maybe my views are skewed but many of my students would be up until 11pm a few nights a week in high school doing homework.

I know America's horrible and everyone's a moron/immigrant but a lot of the kids are frighteningly smart.

I've seen students have mini-nervous breakdowns because they got under 1800 on PSATs or PACTs

Post: #56

I think anti-depressants do help a lot of people, however there's another side to the story...from Harvard (no less)

What are the real risks of antidepressants?

Quote:The risk that antidepressants will incite violent or self-destructive actions is the subject of continuing controversy. In 2004, the FDA first initiated a Black Box Warning on SSRIs — its strongest available measure short of withdrawing a drug from the market. The warning is still placed on package inserts for all antidepressants in common use. It mentions the risk of suicidal thoughts, hostility, and agitation in children, teens and young adults.

Post: #57

I had a bad patch when I was in law school. If you have a full understanding of what law school is, and the legal profession, then it is rather fucking depressing. I saw the university shrink and got some Paxil. I fucking hated it. It flattened me out. Sure, I was not "depressed" but I was not happy and I couldn't get a boner. Maybe it is that sense of not feeling ANYTHING that makes some people suicidal.

I think a solid dose of Jordan Peterson is much more effective. Buck up, Sunshine and deal with it.

Post: #58

(03-24-2019 09:20 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  

(03-24-2019 12:21 PM)Polniy_Sostav Wrote:  Guys , the USA looks like a circus when I read you.
I encourage all of you to move away from this country or to gather somewhere where you won't have this delirium .

One thing I have noticed is how women are usually prompt to take "something" as soon as they have a running nose. As if they couldnt wait 2 days to heal...

Yeahhhhh...but I'm not convinced it's that much better elsewhere. I've heard that in France, the "pill popping" thing is rampant.

At least in the US I know the legal system and can always move to Montana or Nevada. Every state is different. But that's me.

I wasn't talking about France. The poorer the country , the better values will be for women in general. But when a country is poor you have to face other problems.
The best is to get money in the West and live in the East. Very difficult to achieve but it s possible.

Post: #59

(03-28-2019 12:18 AM)MrLemon Wrote:  Right there you lost me. What school district do you live in? Cause it ain't any school district I've ever seen, ever, in the past 20 years.

Several different ones from NC to the northeast US. Hell, in the NC schools I witnessed they didn't even teach long division until the 6th grade - a skill that used to be taught to 4th grade students. About a dozen years or so ago, they had the audacity to rename all of the elementary schools "Math and Science" schools in a lame branding attempt to appear that they were primarily focusing on difficult subjects.

It's all bullshit - most college grads still can't figure out a tip without using an iPhone, have no idea how to use an apostrophe and never cracked a history book in their lives. They think an unaccountable and apocryphal train wreck like Wikipedia is a credible source for research papers. After supposedly drowning in demanding homework assignments throughout their high school tenure they have few acquired knowledge or skills to demonstrate how rigorous it all was.

Public school education is more about indoctrination, and, where deemed necessary, medication.

(03-28-2019 12:18 AM)MrLemon Wrote:  Kids in high school today have several chapters in their biology books devoted to DNA, RNA, cellular dynamics and genetics. I've seen it. Stuff that I barely know. Kids in 1912 barely knew that cells existed.

Kids in 1912 also didn't know what an app was and there was no such thing as a line of computer code, yet most of them were probably able to pass the test I referenced (you should try a few of the questions - they're ass kickers). Their brains worked much harder than the average mollycoddled suburban American kid nowadays ever will.

But it may actually be that the whole world is getting dumber in spite of technological advances.

Post: #60

Another problem with AD's is the violent tendencies that come with them, probably moreso linked to the withdrawal from the drugs. A very high percentage (90%ish) if mass shooters/killers from the last 15-20 years or so were on these drugs (Columbine, Virginia Tech, Parkland shooting, the list goes waaaaay on). This is rarely talked about in the media.

I can't remember if I posted this in a thread on a mass shooting or not, but this pdf from March 2018 breaks it down very well. It's about 60 pages long but has a lot of graphics and charts so it makes for a quick and very informative read.

https://www.cchrint.org/pdfs/violence-report.pdf

Post: #61

I want to take the time to thank Simeon_Strangelight for posting that info on the first page.

I've been taking the vitamins he suggested and I feel so great now.
I've got much more energy and I'm in such a good mood like I was when I was kid.

I even stopped smoking.
I just don't really feel like I need it to enjoy things anymore.