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[Deleted member 20415]

I'm not saying the parade did or did not happen... but, folks, this is The Boston Herald, a tabloid rag of a newspaper that loves to create news, not report it.

It's a shell of its former self, and they've sold off about every asset they had to keep it afloat as some shrine to its owner. I should know, I worked for them as a reporter.

Take the details and the allusions with a grain of salt here until you see more reporting by other news sources.

 

[GitarooMan]

I'm not saying the parade did or did not happen... but, folks, this is The Boston Herald, a tabloid rag of a newspaper that loves to create news, not report it.

It's a shell of its former self, and they've sold off about every asset they had to keep it afloat as some shrine to its owner. I should know, I worked for them as a reporter.

Take the details and the allusions with a grain of salt here until you see more reporting by other news sources.

It's been all over the news from multiple sources, so it definitely happened and some people are definitely in a furor over it. You're generally right about the Herald though.

 

[The Blue Jihad]

These girls aren't public figures. These girls committed no crime. These girls aren't celebrities.

You're one-third correct here. The girls committed no crime. For your other two statements...

The girls became public figures the very second that news stations ran the story about their "pregnancy pact." The girls became celebrities (in the worst way possible) the very second that news stations ran the story about their "pregnancy pact."

Nobody is stupid enough to believe they can keep something like this a secret among dozens of now pregnant teenagers. These girls brought this upon themselves.

 

[whytemyke]

You're one-third correct here. The girls committed no crime. For your other two statements...

The girls became public figures the very second that news stations ran the story about their "pregnancy pact." The girls became celebrities (in the worst way possible) the very second that news stations ran the story about their "pregnancy pact."

Nobody is stupid enough to believe they can keep something like this a secret among dozens of now pregnant teenagers. These girls brought this upon themselves.

How is it anyones business besides the knocked up kids?

I honestly am stunned that there are posters on NeoGAF looking down their noses at some knocked up teenagers on the other side of the world/country from themselves.

They became celebrities? Maybe, but only because self-righteous moral police feel the need to place these kids on a pedastal to feel better about themselves.

 

[VeritasVierge]

Where are all the chauvanist male GAF posters to say anybody disagreeing is PMSing so that a mod can come along and lock this thread?

 

[The Blue Jihad]

How is it anyones business besides the knocked up kids?

I honestly am stunned that there are posters on NeoGAF looking down their noses at some knocked up teenagers on the other side of the world/country from themselves.

They became celebrities? Maybe, but only because self-righteous moral police feel the need to place these kids on a pedastal to feel better about themselves.

1. It never should have been anyone's business. And yet what happened? Surprise, surprise, a pregnancy pact among a group of teenagers got picked up on national news circuits. This pregnancy pact was going to get out. Shit like this never stays secret. We know this, and these girls sure as hell knew it, too.

2. "Knocked up" implies accidental impregnation. This pregnancy pact was not accidental. Like I said before, had it been one girl who got pregnant accidentally because the condom broke, I'd be sympathetic, because she was being responsible, and I would have taken immense issue with the float. This pregnancy pact, however...is utterly irresponsible. These girls are not saints; they're morons. Vague notions of "moral superiority" aside, I take issue with these girls because they're morons.

3. They became "celebrities" when their asinine story got picked up by national news networks.

 

[starchild excalibur]

3. They became "celebrities" when their asinine story got picked up by national news networks.

And yet you agree with what caused this asinine story to get picked up - a bunch of elitist kids deciding to obscenely mock these soon-to-be-parents in a public parade. If I make questionable assertions about Blue Jihad and you take me to court, I can't make the excuse "But my half-lies made him popular! He's a public figure!" I can't believe I'm in the minority here who's able to separate how I personally feel about someone from how I feel they deserved to be treated.

If I drove down my street yelling that someone who I knew slept around indiscriminantly was a slut and whore and built a float painting him or her as such, how would this be appropriate? Simply saying "B-but, it's the truth!" doesn't entitle anyone to ignore rules about obscenity and ignore common sense about where this type of stuff belongs. You guys act like privacy and obscenity laws should be ignored for anything you consider dumb, which is pretty sad.

 

[The Blue Jihad]

And yet you agree with what caused this asinine story to get picked up - a bunch of elitist kids deciding to obscenely mock these soon-to-be-parents in a public parade.

I was talking about the pregnancy pact news story getting picked up. Not news stations running a story about the parade. These pregnancy pact girls were "celebrities" long before (relatively) this parade happened. The parade had next-to-nothing to do with the pregnancy pact girls' infamy.

And to be clear, I don't personally feel anything toward these morons. It doesn't matter to me if they live or die.

But what I do take issue with is how many people are seemingly jumping to their defense with regards to this parade, as if the pregnancy pact girls are somehow defensible. Thing is, they aren't innocent in the matter. They aren't the victims, no matter how we spin this. They intentionally and wholeheartedly went ahead with this pregnancy plan, with the sole purpose being to have a group-wide pregnancy.

Like I've said numerous times before, had this been one or two girls, best friends maybe, who accidentally got pregnant if condoms broke, then I'd be up in arms about this parade just as much as you.

But the reality of the situation is that this was a group of teenage girls of barely high school age who were determined to get pregnant no matter what. They made a group-wide pact to that end. Some even placed themselves into extraordinarily dangerous situations to that end. These girls are not victims in the least, and I for one am more appalled at the criticism of the float, because the float is not the problem; the problem is the pregnancy girls' immaturity, irresponsibility, low standards, and what is sounding like some downright pathetic misunderstanding of Women's Lib.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Some of you guys don't understand the point of this mockery.

The preggo-pact-pack are not the intended audience of the comedy.

Other young women are.

This public lampooning serves as a warning to other girls to not be so foolish.

 

[starchild excalibur]

But what I do take issue with is how many people are seemingly jumping to their defense with regards to this parade, as if the pregnancy pact girls are somehow defensible. Thing is, they aren't innocent in the matter. They aren't the victims, no matter how we spin this. They intentionally and wholeheartedly went ahead with this pregnancy plan, with the sole purpose being to have a group-wide pregnancy.

But you are trying to spin this. Look at the title of this thread. The article is about the parade, not the pregnant women who everyone in this thread have already addressed as stupid for doing what they did. But regardless of their character, how the other kids acted in the parade was moronic and unnecessary. Why are you trying to defend them?

But the reality of the situation is that this was a group of teenage girls of barely high school age who were determined to get pregnant no matter what. They made a group-wide pact to that end. Some even placed themselves into extraordinarily dangerous situations to that end. These girls are not victims in the least, and I for one am more appalled at the criticism of the float, because the float is not the problem; the problem is the pregnancy girls' immaturity, irresponsibility, low standards, and what is sounding like some downright pathetic misunderstanding of Women's Lib.

Side tracking again. If you want to make a thread about the pregnancy, fine. I'll agree with everything you say. This is about the parade and how people should have handled themselves as such. Everything you say here has nothing to do with what the crux of the article is about and is simply trying to shift the blame by saying "Well, the kids were dumb! Who cares how they're treated!".

 

[The Blue Jihad]

But you are trying to spin this. Look at the title of this thread. The article is about the parade, not the pregnant women who everyone in this thread have already addressed as stupid for doing what they did. But regardless of their character, how the other kids acted in the parade was moronic and unnecessary. Why are you trying to defend them?

Side tracking again. If you want to make a thread about the pregnancy, fine. I'll agree with everything you say. This is about the parade and how people should have handled themselves as such. Everything you say here has nothing to do with what the crux of the article is about and is simply trying to shift the blame by saying "Well, the kids were dumb! Who cares how they're treated!".

The parade and the pregnancy pact are linked no matter how much you try to separate them. Even your posts earlier couldn't avoid mentioning why these floats were built. Earlier in the thread, you were talking about how nobody deserves this type of public humiliation. You were talking about the qualities of the pregnancy pact just as much as we are.

 

[M3wThr33]

I'm not saying the parade did or did not happen... but, folks, this is The Boston Herald, a tabloid rag of a newspaper that loves to create news, not report it.

It's a shell of its former self, and they've sold off about every asset they had to keep it afloat as some shrine to its owner. I should know, I worked for them as a reporter.

Take the details and the allusions with a grain of salt here until you see more reporting by other news sources.

As if VIDEO OF THE FUCKING EVENT wasn't enough?

 

[Count Dookkake]

So do kids get to go to that penis parade in Japan?

 

[starchild excalibur]

The parade and the pregnancy pact are linked no matter how much you try to separate them. Even your posts earlier couldn't avoid mentioning why these floats were built. Earlier in the thread, you were talking about how nobody deserves this type of public humiliation. You were talking about the qualities of the pregnancy pact just as much as we are.

Everything I stated backed up my feeling about my parade. I even had to keep mentioning that I find the pregnancies deplorable just so that some posters could maybe realize that it's actually possible to dislike what someone does while still being able to acknowledge that they deserve a modicum of tact. I never went on some rant about how bad the pregnancies were because I think it's pretty obvious that everyone within this thread already feels that they're a bad idea. And you never addressed whether you'd find it okay for anyone considered stupid to be publicly derided. Nor did you explain how you can find it ridiculous that such a small news story is being blown, yet support those who were largely responsible for this.

What I'm trying to get you to at least address is why you think it's appropriate and acceptable to publicly, and obscenely mock people that have nothing to do with you. I'm not asking about your views on the pregnancy. I'm not asking you to define what you consider a "public figure". I'm asking you to explain why you think it's appropriate and acceptable to publicly, and obscenely mock people that have nothing to do with you. If you can at least give me a straightforward answer to that, I'll accept it (though not necessarily agree with it).

No one who here who agrees with the float has given a rational excuse why they support it. They just tip-toe back to the whole "But they're morons!" response. Fine, they're morons. Now tell me why morons deserve to be publicly and obscenely derided.

 

[dabig2]

So do kids get to go to that penis parade in Japan?

I remember a pretty interesting picture of a small girl stroking a huge cock, so yeah, they don't give a shit

 

[The Blue Jihad]

Everything I stated backed up my feeling about my parade.

How did I do anything radically different from you? Everything I stated backed up my feeling about the parade. I have no problem with the float because it was pointing out how stupid and dangerous those boneheads were.

And you never addressed whether you'd find it okay for anyone considered stupid to be publicly derided.

I did, actually. It was just very, very subtle. When you mentioned how we're no longer living in the 1800s, the irony there made me giggle. Here's why. If you were to go back and study, say, Victorian England (1890), you're going to find a very scary social dogma of repression, restriction, and ignorance. The pervasive social mentality of that time period was one of "Behind Closed Doors." Sexuality was a topic that was never discussed nor was there ever any true public discourse about it. Even the blatant prostitution in the streets--something that everyone knew about--was brushed under the rug, so to speak. Everyone was trying to ignore the elephant. And that society crashed...hard. Is this sounding familiar yet? A society that doesn't want to have any kind of dirty laundry aired out in the public eye? A society that doesn't want to have to explain anything to their children? Sounding familiar yet?

It gets better. Public humiliation back then was often handled by a group of artists who were always getting into trouble with that rigid, repressed social dogma. You've heard of Oscar Wilde, right? You could consider him the Poster-Child for the Decadent movement. For all intents and purposes, he was martyred for the cause. I'm talking government trials initiated by corrupt officials, character assassination...it goes on and on. But the important--hell, the absolutely most perfect point that movement made...was that if you don't stand up and point out the stupid shit you're seeing going on in your society, why bother living? Wilde and his "friends" (put in quotes because most of them couldn't stand each other) came together to rile things up, to point out hypocrisy, to show the public just how absurd things were getting. They pissed people off because those people needed to get pissed off. Because that was the only way anyone was ever going to look around and take notice of the problem. Sounding familiar?

 

[starchild excalibur]

stuff

So basically your motto is "If you do something I consider stupid, I deserve to disrespect you with complete disregard to those that may be indirectly offended in the process."

Excellent. Who knew all these attention-seeking freshman were just expressing their philosophical beliefs? Surely there's no other way to call out someone else's indiscretions than with giant brown penises and sophomoric poems about drug use.

Thanks at least for giving me an answer. I disagree, but at least I know how you justify your beliefs. Peace.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

So basically your motto is "If you do something I consider stupid, I deserve to disrespect you with complete disregard to those that may be indirectly offended in the process."

Excellent. Who knew all these attention-seeking freshman were just expressing their philosophical beliefs? Surely there's no other way to call out someone else's indiscretions than with giant brown penises and sophomoric poems about drug use.

Thanks at least for giving me an answer. I disagree, but at least I know how you justify your beliefs. Peace.

I think the motto is more: It's healthy for a society to call people on their shit publicly in order to both let off steam and point out what is ridiculous.

This isn't torture or murder. It's not even really scarlet lettering--it's just people organizing to say: "WTF are these folks doing?" We have the freedom to do that in this country. And you have the freedom to think it is sophomoric.

Edit--Besides, at least it stimulates a discussion, which allows people to express their feelings on the issue and explore how others think. Better than just forming your own opinions and prejudices and hiding them.

 

[The Blue Jihad]

I think the motto is more: It's healthy for a society to call people on their shit publicly in order to both let off steam and point out what is ridiculous.

This isn't torture or murder. It's not even really scarlet lettering--it's just people organizing to say: "WTF are these folks doing?" We have the freedom to do that in this country. And you have the freedom to think it is sophomoric.

Edit--Besides, at least it stimulates a discussion, which allows people to express their feelings on the issue and explore how others think. Better than just forming your own opinions and prejudices and hiding them.

Exactly.

starchild excalibur, you could learn a lot here. And read up on the 1800s before you go spouting nonsense about it. Peace.

 

[starchild excalibur]

I think the motto is more: It's healthy for a society to call people on their shit publicly in order to both let off steam and point out what is ridiculous.

This isn't torture or murder. It's not even really scarlet lettering--it's just people organizing to say: "WTF are these folks doing?" We have the freedom to do that in this country. And you have the freedom to think it is sophomoric.

I agree completely. And I never said that they shouldn't be called out on it if you read my earlier posts - I just said that this wasn't the appropriate venue for it.

Edit--Besides, at least it stimulates a discussion, which allows people to express their feelings on the issue and explore how others think. Better than just forming your own opinions and prejudices and hiding them.

Agreed, but if we want to talk about issues that are actually affecting society, pregnancy pacts aren't exactly the most pressing. But I disagree with your second point - what the teens did was basically the result of forming their opinions and prejudices instead of having a mature conversation about it.

Exactly.

starchild excalibur, you could learn a lot here. And read up on the 1800s before you go spouting nonsense about it. Peace.

:lol

So could you - perhaps about frankness and less about giving harangues that tiptoe around my questions.

 

[The Blue Jihad]

:lol

So could you - perhaps about frankness and less about giving harangues that tiptoe around my questions.

Or maybe people could start reading again instead of this lame "too long, didn't read" bullshit I'm seeing, eh? Because two paragraphs is not a "tiptoe" around your questions. But whatever. Society is falling to shit anyway.

 

[starchild excalibur]

Or maybe people could start reading again instead of this lame "too long, didn't read" bullshit I'm seeing, eh? Because two paragraphs is not a "tiptoe" around your questions. But whatever. Society is falling to shit anyway.

edit: n/m

stick a fork in it - this thread's done.