Originally Posted by billethkid (Post 2069969)

I for one do think FOR THE MOST PART, the majority does get along.

It is unfortunate that we have accepted the presentation of isolated or minority (not race) incidences as a general condition.......when they are not.

But always seem to get top billing!

Originally Posted by MartinSE (Post 2069954)

I think the "root cause" of our problems and all the vitriol is the internet. It is something new, it is sometimes called "information overload". We know everything that is going on everywhere all the time - that is good. The bad is EVERYONE has a bullhorn louder that even Presidents have historically had, which means fringe groups no matter how small and insignificant, that used to just be a "local annoyance" can now have international audiences. Most of them are wrong, but some of them can be very convincing.

This combined with 24/7 news which has to find ways to stretch 1 hours worth of news into a constant stream for 24 hours, competing with every other "news" stream for clicks. That leads to the sensationalistic/vitriolic headlines and stories written to spin a particular point of view or opinion.

And on the news, I don't think the news streams have any particular agenda, I think their motivation is to make money, period. The "agenda" appears because each outlet caters to their audience. Fox doesn't run stories about tree huggers in a positive light, because Fox News audience for the most part are not tree huggers. Same exact thing with CNN/MSNBC - they run stories that their audience will like. It is easy to say Fox or CNN have "agendas" and are brainwashing people that watch them, but I disagree. I think both want to make more money. PERIOD. And they have teams and algorithms that analyze their audience reaction to stories and fine tune their message to maximize their impact (clicks). Just watch the same story run a dozen times in a day and each time with a slightly different headline and a slightly different spin - that happens in real time as they adjust the story to maximize their audience reaction.

On the other hand, the good news is, I think this is all transitory. I think we will learn to handle the "information" overload. I think we will learn to put the wacky-doodles back into a position of irrelevance and I believe we will learn how to be civil again, but it is going to take time. Change is painful, it always is, but eventually "the people" get what they want.

I know these forums can be brutal at times and it can appear to entire world has gone crazy. But when I turn off the screen, walk outside and talk to my neighbors I see a different side of The Villages. My neighbors are friendly, my neighbors talk respectfully, my neighbors are neighborly. More so than any place I have lived in the past 30 or 40 years.

It's the "anonymous" angry people that cause the issues online. Each of us should learn how to deal with the constant flood of (mis)information and emotions and vitriol.

Each of us needs to remember the old saying, "If you can't say something good, say nothing at all".

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee (Post 2069931)

I think it is just another "phase" we are going through. This too shall pass at soe pint and things will settle back down again.

It could also be attributed to so much technology, social media etc etc. The less you know, the less you have to worry about. Nowadays we know so much about everything, and if we don't know it we can search for it on Google.

Originally Posted by DAVES (Post 2070039)

Re: the news
I recently read a book about the Wright brothers. Many of their letters have been saved.
Reminder first power flight was 1903.

I found it interesting and amusing. Background, there were many people, in different countries trying to achieve powered flight. Some of them were wealthy playboys. Some had long family histories and titles,

The Wright brothers complained about the press. People writing about things they did not understand and other reporters copying that misinformation. They also complained about national bias by foreign press.

So much of what we complain about is not at all new.

Originally Posted by DAVES (Post 2070047)

The good old days were not as good as we remember. I have movie proof. i have 16mm movies taken by, I think my uncle at several family events. We never had a 16mm projector, so I had never seen them. I remembered the streets were cleaner in the old days. In our movies sadly you can see trash everywhere. Toys at the park?
How did we ever survive that stuff? Global warming? When, I was a kid we had snow
up to my chest. I have proof. I was 3 or 4 feet tall.

We cannot, we do not want to go back. A car? Must have air conditioning-it was rare when we were kids. Automatic transmission-most cars were standard, manual shift.
Wipers ran off engine vacuum and would slow down or stop at lights.

THESE ARE THE GOOD OLD DAYS.

Originally Posted by frose (Post 2070157)

i don't mind what people say or think . the issue is when they get here from NY or NJ or California, they forget why they left and bring that crap with them wise up, remember why you left!!!

Originally Posted by MartinSE (Post 2070065)

Totally agree. I do think most people start with single wage earner as "the good old days", and then sort of see the rest through rose colored glasses.

Personally, I think having to have two (or more) wage earners today is very common and very stressful. I have no recommendations on how to fix that, but, I think the BIG change is that after the depression people worked hard to ensure their children had a better life than they did. Then slowly just keeping up require two wages earners. That much stress - how to feed my family, how to pay for my children medicine, etc, etc, leads to depression and anxiety and that leads to anger and violence.

These used to be a saying, war can only occur in a country where the people feel they have nothing left to lose. We are approaching a minority feeling they have nothing left to lose.

Originally Posted by frose (Post 2070157)

i don't mind what people say or think . the issue is when they get here from NY or NJ or California, they forget why they left and bring that crap with them wise up, remember why you left!!!

Originally Posted by MrFlorida (Post 2069909)

I don't wear panties, so I wouldn't know...

Originally Posted by madelaine amee (Post 2069996)

excellent piece. Of course i like it because it follows my personal thinking. Probably, in a very short time someone is going to reply and blow your post apart, and hang a very vitriolic name on you.

Originally Posted by jebartle (Post 2069847)

Seems like everyone has one, which is a good thing, my OPINION IS, why can't we get along, and move on, why oh why, "Get your panties in a wad", geeez!