Why is it that whenever there is a problem, people often seem convinced that there is a single, overwhelming causative factor?

/Not necessarily aimed at this, just in general

Tyrone Slothrop: More divine right of kings stuff. The powerful/rich deserve what they have, and the weak/poor deserve what they have.

Which makes it LOL IRONY that Santorum says Obama's taking us down a path toward the French Revolution.

randomjsa: You're still listening to that moron Krugman?

Don't you know that he's got a Nobel Prize, and there's tons of strawmen to burn?!?!

/Argument from authority is still a logical fallacy, bobblehead hipster kids

"You can make it if you work hard and believe in yourself!"

I'm stunned by the number of friends I have who have already forgotten that they got what success they have through connections rather than "hard work" (some of them I've known to be real slobs)

the_sidewinder: Why is it that whenever there is a problem, people often seem convinced that there is a single, overwhelming causative factor?

And that that single overwhelming causative factor is Teh Libs?

I don't want to imply that the conservatives are right on this issue, and I know it's only evidence-by-example, but the Great Depression wouldn't have been half so bad if not for all the poor people.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Republican party is the party of the selfish. They want to hold onto what they have, and they are not concerned about people who don't have it.

They disguise this in faux concern for the poor: "We want them to have the ability to help themselves and build themselves up without handouts." That's the whole "haves and the soon-to-haves" BS from the GOP response to the SOTU address. Which, as most people know, isn't a very realistic proposition.

GORDON: Can't spank because it might hurt a kids self esteem.

Can't encourage monogamy because kids are going to fark anyway.

Can't suggest waiting until marriage to have sex because that's just archaic.

So we end up with teen mothers with no education, no money, and no prospects. We end up with kids with single parent homes and young, stressed out, uneducated mothers, who go on to perpetuate the cycle and join OCCUPY! campouts because they can't figure out who farked them up so we MIGHT AS WELL BLAME PEOPLE WHO SUCCEEDED.


There is a hole in your cause-and-effect logic big enough to drive a semi through.

Mykeru: Arguing with conservatives is like playing chess with a pigeon. You can know everything about the game, have years of practice, and yet, that won't stop the pigeon from knocking over the pieces, taking a crap on the board, and strutting around like a dumb-fark.

Tip o' the hat to you, sir.

That's the funniest sh*t I've read on Fark in a good long while.

Welcome to the list.

On the one hand, my generation is an embarrassment. The Occupiers aren't helping by a damn sight either. The norm used to be look for a job, if you don't find one, look harder, if you don't find one, find one below yourself until you do find one which your skills are suited for. I still know people who take this route, and it genuinely looks better in an interview to do so because it shows real work ethic.

But it's quickly falling away from "the norm". The shift I've seen among peers and folks I've known since high school is now to look for a job, and if you can't find one in a few months, join up with Occupiers and demand people who wear suits give you money. I wish I was lying and making this up, but this is what these people actually do now. It's embarrassing to be associated with them. The study a few months back that came up here on the fact that recent graduates wouldn't take jobs without Facebook access made me want to punch all the things. A lot of these people make themselves unemployable, and they have themselves to blame for that.

On the other hand, these are the "new poor" kids who's parents have cut them off (possibly because they're even more embarrassed by their kids than I am). These aren't the folks in their 30's and 40's, trying to support themselves and their families working hard for low pay. There's plenty of bootstrappers out there who try their damnedest and will never get to where they want to be. It's a sad fact of life, but it's been that way since we came out of the caves.