Sweet, sweet tears.

[ghost]

It's also become a part of internet culture to be a racist, homophobic asshole; it perpetuates itself basically because what kids hear other kids say, they repeat.

It's not just limited to kids.   

[Morat20]

It's not just limited to kids.   

Kids are the worst, for the simple reason that they don't know any better. Most won't say that sort of thing around authority figures -- they know it's "Bad" but don't have any real depth of understanding. So they say it when no one knows it's them.

It's part of the whole taboo thing, but mostly because no one has caught them yet and metaphorically beaten the snot out of them until they learned to keep their dumb mouths shut on some subjects.

[ghost]

I deal with kids every single day, all day.  My observation of the interaction between parents and their children is that the apple doesn't often fall too far from the tree.  Kids may say and do things that their parents wouldn't say or do in public, but you can be damned sure that the parents are thinking those things or saying them at home. 

[Sky]

he does have absolutely no idea of 'appropriote humor' and is thus fond of quoting comics or movies lines at a very bad time. It might be funny when the guy on stage or on the TV says it, but writing it in your freaking english essay for school is just plain lunacy.

I quoted Samuel Coleridge in my last monthly report, does that count?

[Morat20]

he does have absolutely no idea of 'appropriote humor' and is thus fond of quoting comics or movies lines at a very bad time. It might be funny when the guy on stage or on the TV says it, but writing it in your freaking english essay for school is just plain lunacy.

I quoted Samuel Coleridge in my last monthly report, does that count?

*snort*. Trying being in the middle of a snit because, fuck if I can remember what hurt his delicate little emo teenage feelings, while working on a science project, and deciding to adorn his poster with -- under Lessons Learned -- "I need to stop putting off starting so long, because when I'm trying to get it done I can't concentrate because my parents won't shut up."

We hadn't "shut up" because of whatever-the-fuck he'd done right prior, and gotten his ass in serious trouble. Yeah, I noticed that little addendum to his project and hauled him right out of bed to fix it.

His 'inappropriate quoting' is more like, I dunno, saying a line from a movie that has a context he doesn't fully grasp in front of his grandmother. Frankly as far as school is concerned, he only ever seems to get in trouble for not shutting up (not what he says -- I've yet to hear a complaint about that. Just talking while the teacher is, that sort of thing) and because, for some strange reason, he feels he has to blow off one class every six weeks.

So it's a string of A's and high B's, then a 71. And the 71 always changes. Science to Social Studies to Geomatry....it's like he's only got so much focus, and is taking one class too many.

[Sky]

Sounds just like me. Buy him a guitar :)

[HaemishM]

Kids, once they hit about 12, turn into crazy people. They're like bipolar. You never know if it's the 30 year old adult or the 3-year old tantrum that's going to show up, but you can rest assured they'll either be treating anyone older as they're too dumb to live, or at least need someone older or wise (the kid in question) to explain things OR....you'll get someone who throws tantrums like one of those damn pageant toddlers.

My wife says once they hit 15 or so, they sort of level out into just sorta dumb-asses.

But what's important to grasp here is that as late as 19 or 20 -- parts of kids brains just aren't hooked up right.

My dad always used to say that kids brain stems detach when they reach the age of 13 and they don't really grow back until at least age 21. So you're saying it's actually backed up by science? 

[Morat20]

My dad always used to say that kids brain stems detach when they reach the age of 13 and they don't really grow back until at least age 21. So you're saying it's actually backed up by science? 

According to my wife, yeah. Your brain develops over time, wiring things up and sometimes sorta side-tracking things for a bit, and you've got hormone levels and structures that aren't fully formed, that sort of thing.

Parenting and environment are huge factors, but at the end of the day some, they're not fully grown. I mean, they're still pretty adaptable little suckers, but yeah -- they don't think like adults, cause their brains aren't all hooked up.

It's exasperating as hell. :)

[Sophismata]

Sorry, posted to the wrong thread.

[ghost]

Kids, once they hit about 12, turn into crazy people. They're like bipolar. You never know if it's the 30 year old adult or the 3-year old tantrum that's going to show up, but you can rest assured they'll either be treating anyone older as they're too dumb to live, or at least need someone older or wise (the kid in question) to explain things OR....you'll get someone who throws tantrums like one of those damn pageant toddlers.

My wife says once they hit 15 or so, they sort of level out into just sorta dumb-asses.

But what's important to grasp here is that as late as 19 or 20 -- parts of kids brains just aren't hooked up right.

My dad always used to say that kids brain stems detach when they reach the age of 13 and they don't really grow back until at least age 21. So you're saying it's actually backed up by science? 

I think it doesn't so much regrow as change locations for boys.

[WindupAtheist]

Kids say "nigger" because it's the only word left that anyone besides their elderly grandmother actually refers to as "the (first letter)-word".

[Sir T]

Sounds just like me. Buy him a guitar :)

This actually isn't a bad idea.

[Trouble]

I was basically a good kid as a teenager. But I do remember saying and doing a lot of stupid shit, and I also recall that a large portion was simply a reaction to being told or forced to do shit I didn't want to do. Whenever I was doing shit I was ok with, I was super fine and a normal human being.

Problem with that is most teenagers can't be trusted to just do whatever they want to do.

[Teleku]

Kids say "nigger" because it's the only word left that anyone besides their elderly grandmother actually refers to as "the (first letter)-word".

I find that the N word as well as the C word (Cunt for those of you not paying attention) are the last frontier in swearing in America.  When I was a child, shit was at least as bad as the word fuck is now.  Saying the word fuck anywhere near an adult up until the age of 12 would have gotten me beat within an inch of my life.  That held true for all the other kids in school, not just my parents.  Now I hear the words Hell, Damn, and even Shit very commonly on cable TV.  If we were watching a show and that stuff happened when I was a child in the late 80's or early 90's(and they didn't read posts by Ironwood or other British posters), the TV would be instantly turned and the program banned.  My parents were pretty much atheist as well..

Nigger and Cunt (along with some other choice racial slurs in a particular context) are about the only thing left that can actually generate emotion by swearing.  Which is why they take advantage of them (but unless they they are actually smart/nerdy/emo enough to watch British comedy, no the word Cunt).

[Azazel]

The problem now is that nigger has become a lyric rather than "the N word", so most kids don't really perceive what it actually means to call someone that. They think it's what cool black people and rappers say to each other, where as the older generations know exactly how it came about and why it's never a good idea to say it.

Just like fag and retard. People would like to think they're insulting gays and people with disabilities, but to them it's just the same as calling someone an asshole. Or in Haem's case, a festering crotch pheasant.

Well, fag and retard mean pretty much the same thing over here (arsehole, etc), but the racist terms are pretty much specifically used as racist insults rather than general purpose ones.

Sounds just like me. Buy him a guitar :)

Dude. We've been over this. Guitars are for Old People.

As for kids. Yeah they do dumb shit and their brains are still developing, but still, making that into an excuse for the dipshits on Live doesn't cut it. I work with them all day as well.

[Morat20]

But I do remember saying and doing a lot of stupid shit, and I also recall that a large portion was simply a reaction to being told or forced to do shit I didn't want to do. Whenever I was doing shit I was ok with, I was super fine and a normal human being.

Problem with that is most teenagers can't be trusted to just do whatever they want to do.

As the proud owner/jailor of a teenager, I can assure you that you were -- in no way -- out of ordinary. They call it 'teenage rebellion' for a reason, and sadly that goes with all the good judgement of a suicidal lemming.

Anyways, this is all just teenage poor judgement, testoterone-fueled social jockeying mixed with anonymity. At least for the teenagers, ridiculous behavior, foul language, and racism are basically dick-measuring competitions.

[Sjofn]

Kids say "nigger" because it's the only word left that anyone besides their elderly grandmother actually refers to as "the (first letter)-word".

I find that the N word as well as the C word (Cunt for those of you not paying attention) are the last frontier in swearing in America.  When I was a child, shit was at least as bad as the word fuck is now.  Saying the word fuck anywhere near an adult up until the age of 12 would have gotten me beat within an inch of my life.  That held true for all the other kids in school, not just my parents.  Now I hear the words Hell, Damn, and even Shit very commonly on cable TV.  If we were watching a show and that stuff happened when I was a child in the late 80's or early 90's(and they didn't read posts by Ironwood or other British posters), the TV would be instantly turned and the program banned.  My parents were pretty much atheist as well..

Nigger and Cunt (along with some other choice racial slurs in a particular context) are about the only thing left that can actually generate emotion by swearing.  Which is why they take advantage of them (but unless they they are actually smart/nerdy/emo enough to watch British comedy, no the word Cunt).

My mom has a terrible, terrible mouth. She is the daughter of a Scottish merchant marine, and you can tell. Nearly every cuss word I know, I learned at her knee. And yet. She cannot stand a lot of swearing in movies or TV shows or whatever. She will flee the room, grumbling about how they swear "too goddamn much." My father finds this hilarious. I can only assume her delicate sensibility comes from her other parent, her excruciatingly proper Canadian mother who, when she was REALLY riled, might've said "damn."

I don't really recall specifically getting in trouble for swearing, personally, but I knew it Was Not Done. In front of grown ups, anyway. I don't think my mouth got really bad until high school anyway. You want your kids to start swearing A LOT? Make them get a part time job.

[ghost]

Kids say "nigger" because it's the only word left that anyone besides their elderly grandmother actually refers to as "the (first letter)-word".

This reminds me of when I was seven and brought an African-American friend over to my grandmother's house after school to play.  She said, "Oh, you're that little colored boy he's talked so much about."  That pretty much put an end to that friendship. 

[Bann]

I deal with kids every single day, all day.  My observation of the interaction between parents and their children is that the apple doesn't often fall too far from the tree.  Kids may say and do things that their parents wouldn't say or do in public, but you can be damned sure that the parents are thinking those things or saying them at home. 

I second this. I work in a k-8 school, and called a parent about the stunningly disrespectful attitude their child displayed towards one of our new teachers in the beginning of the year and had the parent reply with "When are all y'all gonna stop calling me about shit ***** does at school? He's your problem when he's there. -click-." That phone call was one of the saddest lightbulb moments I can remember.

[Strazos]

Hah, that kid will grow up to be a waste of life.

It should be illegal to be that dumb.

[Shrike]

You want your kids to start swearing A LOT? Make them get a part time job.

Quoted for truth. I was actually pretty well behaved through high school and even college. My language took a terminal turn for the worse when I got a summer job at a GM plant. UAW for the win! After that it was all over but for the swearing...

[K9]

It was working in a pub kitchen that did it for me 

[Strazos]

Grew up with a construction worker in the house.

[pxib]

Whenever the topic of those-fucking-teenagers comes up I like to post a link to this essay and I'm actually not sure I've ever done it here:

Adults can't avoid seeing that teenage kids are tormented. So why don't they do something about it? Because they blame it on puberty. The reason kids are so unhappy, adults tell themselves, is that monstrous new chemicals, hormones, are now coursing through their bloodstream and messing up everything. There's nothing wrong with the system; it's just inevitable that kids will be miserable at that age.

This idea is so pervasive that even the kids believe it, which probably doesn't help. Someone who thinks his feet naturally hurt is not going to stop to consider the possibility that he is wearing the wrong size shoes.

I'm suspicious of this theory that thirteen-year-old kids are intrinsically messed up. If it's physiological, it should be universal. Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at thirteen? I've read a lot of history, and I have not seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been cheerful and eager. They got in fights and played tricks on one another of course (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a bully), but they weren't crazy.

As far as I can tell, the concept of the hormone-crazed teenager is coeval with suburbia. I don't think this is a coincidence.

Kind of long and rambly, but worth the read.

[Murgos]

Hey LOOK!  Someone on the internet has an opinion with nothing but the breeze coming out of their ass to back them up.

Good job there.  I'm convinced.

Or, it could be vetted and proven hormones that cause them to grow 2 feet in 3 years and kick start their sex organs and the massive changes going on in their not fully formed brains

[Sjofn]

On what planet do parents do nothing about their miserable teenaged kids? I thought it was more in style to whine parents do too much for their miserable teenaged kids.

[Rendakor]

That would be Planet USA, where children are raised by TV and Xbox.

[Bzalthek]

Parents do everything they can to shut the little crotch muppets up and leave them alone.  The best bang for your buck is sending them to schooldaycare

[Sjofn]

That would be Planet USA, where children are raised by TV and Xbox.

No, Planet USA has the dread Helicopter Parents.

I forgot, no matter what a parent does, they're doing it wrong, and it's everyone else's business to tell you what a fuck up you've made your kid. And people wonder why I don't want any!

[Ratman_tf]

I forgot, no matter what a parent does, they're doing it wrong, and it's everyone else's business to tell you what a fuck up you've made your kid. And people wonder why I don't want any!

My aunt, bless her soul, has tons to say about raising kids and how everyone else fucked up, meanwhile she never had any of her own. 

[Slyfeind]

Hey LOOK!  Someone on the internet has an opinion with nothing but the breeze coming out of their ass to back them up.

Good job there.  I'm convinced.

Or, it could be vetted and proven hormones that cause them to grow 2 feet in 3 years and kick start their sex organs and the massive changes going on in their not fully formed brains

I like the part where he compared today's kids to kids in the MIDDLE FUCKING AGES. What a fucking retarded cunt. 

[Daeven]

Hey LOOK!  Someone on the internet has an opinion with nothing but the breeze coming out of their ass to back them up.

Good job there.  I'm convinced.

Or, it could be vetted and proven hormones that cause them to grow 2 feet in 3 years and kick start their sex organs and the massive changes going on in their not fully formed brains

I like the part where he compared today's kids to kids in the MIDDLE FUCKING AGES. What a fucking retarded cunt. 

Well, see obviously we don't beat our kids enough and let a third of them die to cholera, typhus and smallpox.

Stupid suburbs.

-Insert lots of babbling about neurophysiology and how adolescent brains rewire here-

[Megrim]

Hey LOOK!  Someone on the internet has an opinion with nothing but the breeze coming out of their ass to back them up.

Good job there.  I'm convinced.

Or, it could be vetted and proven hormones that cause them to grow 2 feet in 3 years and kick start their sex organs and the massive changes going on in their not fully formed brains

Good to see well warranted criticism backed up by factual and to-the-point discussion of the flaws in the arguments presented.

[UnSub]

Hey LOOK!  Someone on the internet has an opinion with nothing but the breeze coming out of their ass to back them up.

Good job there.  I'm convinced.

Or, it could be vetted and proven hormones that cause them to grow 2 feet in 3 years and kick start their sex organs and the massive changes going on in their not fully formed brains

Good to see well warranted criticism backed up by factual and to-the-point discussion of the flaws in the arguments presented.

Nature versus nurture arguments can get very, very ugly.

[HaemishM]

Actually, there's a very simple answer to why teenagers are such raging, mouth-breathing crocthpheasants with amphetamine attention spans and personalities that put the capital C in complete fucking cuntmuffin.

Because they can.

Teenagers are perceived to be little adults - they are old enough to not be considered "just kids" so are given a little bit of responsibility but they are too young to be given anything they can reasonably kill someone else with unless there is some form of supervision. Their world has been heretofore a set of very constrictive routines they have no control over and suddenly they see some of those restraints being loosened. Their bodies, though awkward were at least not complete fucking strangers before puberty. Now it's like they are driving a broken down hair covered spazz machine.

They are testing the limits of their new existence. And God help us all.