Debating is Fun... Showing 1,501-1,550 of 1,623

[Yaa]

In Ghana its actually prestigious to be fat. When a man or woman is fat that means the person has lived a prosperous life, however, in the west it seems like its the exact opposite. When you are fat it's a sign of laziness and the person is made fun of.

I think plump people are beautiful. Look at Jennifer Hudson. I honestly think she looked amazing when she was plump that she is now...

People need to stop conforming to what society says is acceptable and just be themselves.

[Isaac]

Yaa wrote: "People need to stop conforming to what society says is acceptable and just be themselves."

Yes.

[Annemarie, hi]

Well... That's not exactly easy. What exactly is "being yourself" when you have no idea what yourself is because you've lived your entire life in this society, whether you like it or not.

[Yaa]

You need to know what you're comfortable with, it's true people spend their whole lives trying to figure out who you are but you always start with what you know you like and what you know you dislike.

[tesni]

Yaa wrote: "You need to know what you're comfortable with, it's true people spend their whole lives trying to figure out who you are but you always start with what you know you like and what you know you dislike."

but, consciously or not, what you like/dislike and all that is influenced by society, and reversing all those internalised ideals is much easier said than done.

[Elliott]

"People always say you should be yourself, like yourself is this definite thing, like a toaster or something. Like you can know what it is, even."

[[deleted user]]

"'Be yourself', whatever that means. Like, whose self would you otherwise be?" - Jordan Taylor

Sorry, that quote has just been on my mind since the topic came up. So there. I've said all I needed to say. XD

[Krys]

Society seriously pisses me off with the whole "be yourself" comment. From my experience, people are judgmental hypocrites. They say "be yourself"! Constantly, but the entire time there's that "under the table" pressure to be something you aren't. Even when you are generally accepted by society, there's still little snide remarks that people make, and commercials, books, television shows, etc. People are constantly pressured to be a certain stereotypical way, while always saying "be yourself", but when "yourself" is anything atypical, you're either judged, mocked, or ridiculed for it. Cliches and cliques, things that have lasted for years (jocks, preps, geeks, etc) force people to be into separate groups. And still, everyone is always saying "be yourself". This is a lot related to highschool, since this is mostly where I see it, but it also happens in every-day life.

The comment "be yourself" infuriates me. A lot of people who say it are hypocrites, or they judge people for "being themselves" if "they" are in a mold that doesn't fit with the rest.

SORRY FOR THIS LONG RANT. It just bugs me a lot. And none of you used it in this fashion, of course. It just reminded me of it.

[Mandy]

So uh...presidential election 2012 anyone?

[Elliott]

Ha. Ha. Ha.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Don't even get me started.

[Elliott]

I have a lot of pent up frustration because the place I live in is not very friendly to my views so I feel as if I might go overboard and bash people's opinions and that wouldn't be very fun.

[[deleted user]]

I have a lot of pent-up frustration, too, but I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to have a very valid opinion. *le sigh*

[Mandy]

Maxy wrote: "I have a lot of pent-up frustration, too, but I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to have a very valid opinion. *le sigh*"

Lav [I am glad to the brink of fear] wrote: "I have a lot of pent up frustration because the place I live in is not very friendly to my views so I feel as if I might go overboard and bash people's opinions and that wouldn't be very fun."

[Krys]

I could go on about this.

[Mandy]

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Don't even get me started."

Lav [I am glad to the brink of fear] wrote: "Ha. Ha. Ha."

xD Even if I could vote, I don't think I'd vote for either of our candidates.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Well, I'm voting. And you all probably know who I'm voting for because it's not like I'm all that quiet about my opinions. So yeah. :P

[Isaac]

Kriss wrote: "Society seriously pisses me off with the whole "be yourself" comment. From my experience, people are judgmental hypocrites. They say "be yourself"! Constantly, but the entire time there's that "und..."

I was actually going to talk about that because that drives me crazy.

[Isaac]

Mandy wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Don't even get me started."

Lav [I am glad to the brink of fear] wrote: "Ha. Ha. Ha."

xD Even if I could vote, I don't think I'd vote for eith..."

Pretty much.

[Annemarie, hi]

Green party all the way!

[Nepeta]

BINDER FULL O' WOMEN.

[Baxter, butts butts butts]

Annie wrote: "Green party all the way!"

You and me, Annie. You and me. STEIN STEIN STEIN.

[Baxter, butts butts butts]

So, not a debate topic, but how about that Jimmy Saville thing? Absolutely crazy.

For those not in the know, Jimmy Saville was a big personality in England and if I'm not mistaken was the first (or one of the first) DJs ever. BIG name. Turns out he molested more children that you could even believe.

Quick basics of the whole shabang:
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-ana...

The mad part of it all is the idea that not just people, but BBC in general knew about and ignored it. A sort of open secret for the people working around and with him. The BBC. Wow.

[Elliott]

Blah, I hate it when things like that happen. I mean, I know everyone is human and some people do terrible things and we probably shouldn't idolize celebrities and think that they are infallible but it's just so disillusioning and sad.

[[deleted user]]

^ What Lav said.

Ugh. Hearing about things like that makes me want to throw up.

[Elliott]

The Mike Lombardo scandal kind of crushed me.

[[deleted user]]

I recognize the name, sort of, but I can't put a face to it or remember what happened.

[Elliott]

He was on DFTBA records (a YouTube record label formed by Hank Green, I think, and Alan Lastufka) and he was amazing and I met him at a concert and we talked about piano for what felt like the longest time and then I emailed him a little bit afterwards and he was just this really great guy who cared about his fans and had perfect music and THEN the FBI or something found out he had been getting underage girls to send him nude pictures and things like that and he went to jail and now he's under house arrest and he can't go online and yeah.

[[deleted user]]

That's awful. I never heard any of his music or saw any of his videos, but wow. It would be like if I heard something similar about Jon Schmidt or Jordan Taylor.

[Mandy]

Awwh, that's sad. BUT NOO JON SCHMIDT IS TOO PERFECT FOR THAT. xD I hope so at least.

[[deleted user]]

I hope so, too, Mandy.

[Taylor]

I dunno about Jon Schmidt being too perfect. He has become a "manufactured" artist -- like any of the pop artists who only compose for the dough...not because he's feelin' it.

His older stuff is good. He plays with so little emotion today, but it's good.

[[deleted user]]

Really? I've met him, and it seems like he's very passionate about his work. But maybe that's just me..

[Taylor]

I've met him too. He DOES seem passionate...but when you've played a song hundreds of times, you kinda beat the emotion out of it. He's like a robot. A very talented, humorous robot.

[Mandy]

Timothy wrote: "I've met him too. He DOES seem passionate...but when you've played a song hundreds of times, you kinda beat the emotion out of it. He's like a robot. A very talented, humorous robot."

I don't think so. I think by the end of shooting a video he's freaking exhausted. But if he wasn't passionate, he wouldn't continue to practice and people would feel a change and dislike it. I think he's very talented and still passionate and emotional. But to each their own.

[Taylor]

Just...since Viva la Love Story (uh-mazing, btw), he just seems to have taken a more commercial view on his work. For one thing, most of his work is arranged, rather than original.

[Mandy]

Timothy wrote: "Just...since Viva la Love Story (uh-mazing, btw), he just seems to have taken a more commercial view on his work. For one thing, most of his work is arranged, rather than original."

Viva la Love Story is an arrangement from two different songs...and yes, I love it too. =)

He adds original parts to it all, though. Artists dabble in all sorts of things-even make entire albums covering other songs. Would you say they have no passion singing other songs written and created by someone else, and that it's all commercialized? I think it's just because what they wanted to do and that they liked the song. Same goes for Jon Schmidt. He likes the songs they cover and he probably thinks "I wonder how I can make this into something for me." And if you like something, there is automatically passion in it.

Hehe, don't think I'm arguing. I'm seriously just discussing my opinion...which probably isn't necessary, but oh well.

[Taylor]

I should have noted earlier that I am a composer that kinda works in the same vein as Jon Schmidt. I'm producing my first CD right now.

I apologize...permit me to include a qualifier to my unnecessarily broad statements. You can definitely write arrangements that have emotion in them -- I have done it before. However, it does not have the same level of passion that an original piece has -- no matter how many original elements you add to the arrangement.

[Mandy]

That's fantastic! I can't say I've done the same.

I'd agree. It's more personal when you personally put effort into a piece.

[Taylor]

Yay, we agree!

...

Darn...nothing to debate about. :P

[Mandy]

...

xD Oh, I'm sure we'll find a topic at some other point in time.

[Elliott]

BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE WAY HE SMILES IN HIS ALL OF ME VIDEO? JUST SAYING.
(I'm just really into that right now because I preformed All of Me tonight and I got that music rush that comes from preforming and playing well and getting into the music and really enjoying it and gah it's wonderful I WANT IT TO HAPPEN MORE OFTEN um yeah, off topic.) But I definitely see passion in him.

[Taylor]

Because that's "All of Me." An original piece.

[Elliott]

But it wasn't an original piece for me and I still felt it.

[Taylor]

Right...

This is an interesting point. I'll think on this more. But you may have just won the argument.

Actually...here's something I just thought. You can feel unoriginal pieces just fine. But you will feel so much more when you write your own.

[Elliott]

Ooh, and he did a mashup that included Faure's Pavane, which is rather unique.

[Taylor]

T. Swift loves what she's doing too. And her new album is emotionless swill.

[Elliott]

Her album is actually FULL of emotion, my friend. FULL OF IT.

[Taylor]

Not feeling it. Perhaps it's the pop. Perhaps it's because it's a bunch of breakup songs. Perhaps it's the fact that her older stuff has more variety.

[Elliott]

She must be doing something right. She's sold more albums than most of us ever will.