Making the world a better place

[ShaneK]

Do you try and make the world a better place? If not why not? If so what do ya do? I mean if someone like me can do it...

Personally I recycle, i help abused and drug addicted kids. I give my time and money to the homeless, animals, charities I believe in like PETA. I have adopted animals and brought some rainforest.

[Bath]

I'm a hardcore believer in peace, equality, and love. I try to be nice to everyone I meet, and I always make myself available to talk. I don't judge. I don't care if you don't like me or disagree with my beliefs, I will still hold the door open for you, or let you sit next to me if a seat is unavailable. a bit of kindness can start a chain reaction.

[PJay]

Same as Bethany totally - I love that i'm not the only one thinks like that.

I think its really important to be nice to ppl and try to be there for them. Like today some woman's mum got lost on a mobility scooter she was just trying to turn around but ended up driving around the store instead, was pretty funny, but she had the shopping bags her daughter needed so I went and found her.

Yeah i recycle and that stuff and i think its good to try to save the planet wherever you can, but I dont want to be obsessed about it, just make it part of life if you know what i mean so its a habit not an effort.

[Rutherford The Brave]

I go to protests, I consider myself somewhat vegan, I recycle, I am a low input person, I dont waste things. I have alot of clothes made of hemp, and I drive a fuel eficient car.

[Vonn]

I'm a decent person, which is something I wish there were more of around here. (RL, not VT.)

[Sage]

I call people on stupid bullshit.

[The Dark Lord]

I'm a hardcore believer in peace, equality, and love. I try to be nice to everyone I meet, and I always make myself available to talk. I don't judge.

Everyone judges in one way or another

People who recycle annoy me. No-one can seriously tell me that if I recycle my can of coke that I'm drinking now, climate change will be affected. I know people say if everyone did it, but they don't. With the Chinese's current climate policies, recycling is the equivalent to pissing against the wind.

Also I don't see why I should be nice to people that I don't like/ don't like me. I doubt holding a door open for them or complimenting them on their ridiculous hair cut will change their opinion of me. It's human nature not to like someone people and its to be expected that some people will not like you.

I support the work that charities do, but their is only so much one person can achieve. Ultimately it is governments, not individuals, that will change the world.

[PJay]

Human beings are a mix of emotions and logical thought, in varying proportions. Working with their emotions is a pretty successful strategy to avoid pissing people off - you are far more likely to get what you want.

If you form a judgement, you have a choice about how you use that. Sometimes its good to call people out on bullshit a la Sage, and I think thats a positive thing if done right. But equally somtimes its better to keep your mouth shut, and knowing when to do that can help lubricate social relationships.

Individual recycling efforts when multiplied over the whole population have an immediate impact. Your individual efforts multiply over your lifetime similarly. Eco hippies can be annoying, but as a society we need them to stimulate debate and thought over the issue. Individally they are quite kickable. Educating people about recycling makes them more inclined to understand and 'buy in' to the concept that we need governments who can further improve things.

Of course you don't have to be nice to people but see my first point. Interacting with people is a game and you can manipulate that game to your own ends if you wish. Most people won't react well if you come over all Spock but it could be funny to watch what happens :)

[The Dark Lord]

Human beings are a mix of emotions and logical thought, in varying proportions. Working with their emotions is a pretty successful strategy to avoid pissing people off - you are far more likely to get what you want.

If you form a judgement, you have a choice about how you use that. Sometimes its good to call people out on bullshit a la Sage, and I think thats a positive thing if done right. But equally somtimes its better to keep your mouth shut, and knowing when to do that can help lubricate social relationships.

Of course you don't have to be nice to people but see my first point. Interacting with people is a game and you can manipulate that game to your own ends if you wish. Most people won't react well if you come over all Spock but it could be funny to watch what happens :)

That is effectively manipulating people to get what you want. Don't get me wrong, manipulating people to get what you want is effective, but I'd rather I knew where I stood with people, rather than build artificial relationships with people who lack loyalty and friendship

Individual recycling efforts when multiplied over the whole population have an immediate impact. Your individual efforts multiply over your lifetime similarly. Eco hippies can be annoying, but as a society we need them to stimulate debate and thought over the issue. Individally they are quite kickable. Educating people about recycling makes them more inclined to understand and 'buy in' to the concept that we need governments who can further improve things.

Again if the chinese don't change their environmental policy, you are pissing against the wind

[PJay]

That is effectively manipulating people to get what you want. Don't get me wrong, manipulating people to get what you want is effective, but I'd rather I knew where I stood with people, rather than build artificial relationships with people who lack loyalty and friendship

Yeah ... all social 'lubrication' is fake and manipulative. You go through a door and some teacher tries to barge through the other way, I find I apologise even though I really want to say "get out the freaking way you arrogant beep". My fake reaction is self defense so I dont get into more trouble, so its manipulative but useful.

I think thats different to artifical relationships etc - totally agree with you on that one and thats is why I don't accept random friend requests, and why I have respect for some teachers but not for others (some are real people who you can relate to as a human being, others just put on a patronising 'teacher' act all the time).

Again if the chinese don't change their environmental policy, you are pissing against the wind
I hope you are wrong, I'm pretty confident you are, but i'm also pretty scared you could be right. I'll keep trying to do my bit in case it makes a difference :blue:

[The Dark Lord]

Yeah ... all social 'lubrication' is fake and manipulative. You go through a door and some teacher tries to barge through the other way, I find I apologise even though I really want to say "get out the freaking way you arrogant beep". My fake reaction is self defense so I dont get into more trouble, so its manipulative but useful.

I think thats different to artifical relationships etc - totally agree with you on that one and thats is why I don't accept random friend requests, and why I have respect for some teachers but not for others (some are real people who you can relate to as a human being, others just put on a patronising 'teacher' act all the time).

Your talking about teachers, who the fuck cares what teachers think of you. These people are here today, gone tomorrow. If your life and social skills are dictated by what your teacher thinks of you, then you have more pressing concerns than whether or not you should hold the door open for the "arrogant" teacher.

I hope you are wrong, I'm pretty confident you are, but i'm also pretty scared you could be right. I'll keep trying to do my bit in case it makes a difference :blue:

You clearly have no idea whether I am right or not. "I pretty confident you are", in reality you don't have a fucking clue. Doing your bit willn't make the blindest bit of difference. Unless you can produce evidence to contradict my premise, I'll presume your confidence was misplaced.

Have a look at this in the mean time. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_China#Environmental_ratings)

[PJay]

Your talking about teachers, who the fuck cares what teachers think of you. These people are here today, gone tomorrow. If your life and social skills are dictated by what your teacher thinks of you, then you have more pressing concerns than whether or not you should hold the door open for the "arrogant" teacher.

Here today gone tomorrow? Most teachers I know do it for life, and yeah I respect some of them enough to value their opinions and be influenced by them, but the ones I dont respect will still affect me (just hopefully not as they mean to). My behaviours are also influenced by the rest of society, I'm not suggesting teachers are a problem as such.



You clearly have no idea whether I am right or not. "I pretty confident you are", in reality you don't have a fucking clue.

That is unecessarily aggressive - see my earlier post about social skills :)


Doing your bit willn't make the blindest bit of difference.


On its own no, but a few countries doing their bit will make a dent. Lets say it won't though : if we're sat on a radioactive heap talking over old times in a few years, boy won't your face be red if it turns out we could have saved the planet if only we could have pursuaded another country to join the effort. :lol: I certainly can't see how you attempting to convince me NOT to do my bit is going to help.



Unless you can produce evidence to contradict my premise, I'll presume your confidence was misplaced.

I'm not even going to try. I think you are right to be worried about China. The science and statistics around all this stuff gets pulled apart so much I couldn't begin to understand it enough to make my own prediction about we have enough time to change things. Some stuff I've seen suggests its way to late already. But its not over until the fat lady chokes in unbreathable smog, so I'll keep on with the recycling.

[The Dark Lord]

Here today gone tomorrow? Most teachers I know do it for life.


Yes, but I presume that when you leave school, you won't be returning to find out whether that arrogant music teacher who never said thanks when you held the door has changed much.


That is unecessarily aggressive - see my earlier post about social skills :).


Would you prefer it if I lied to you and manipulated you like you recommend?


boy won't your face be red if it turns out we could have saved the planet if only we could have pursuaded another country to join the effort. :lol:

Yes I'm sure my reaction to the planet being saved would be embarrassment as I remembered some argument I had with some kid over the internet

I certainly can't see how you attempting to convince me NOT to do my bit is going to help.


I don't see what difference it will make, other than provide you with a much-needed reality check.

I'm not even going to try.

Because you couldn't

But its not over until the fat lady chokes in unbreathable smog, so I'll keep on with the recycling.

I want to throw away my rubbish, not fucking file it. Recycling is pointless, unless the whole world begins to take climate change seriously, then you can recycle all the old newspapers you want, you'll still be wasting your time

[PJay]

Yes, but I presume that when you leave school, you won't be returning to find out whether that arrogant music teacher who never said thanks when you held the door has changed much.


No I probably won't. I don't think I get your point on that one.



Would you prefer it if I lied to you and manipulated you like you recommend?

Yeah kind of. I was trying to be light hearted, but a bit of civility and politeness is more likely to make people think you are a reasonable person with a valid point of view.



Yes I'm sure my reaction to the planet being saved would be embarrassment as I remembered some argument I had with some kid over the internet

This one is called "humour", or my attempt anyway.



I don't see what difference it will make, other than provide you with a much-needed reality check.

Thats your opinion. I dont' believe I have all the facts, but you're not going to convince me with patronising statements like that.


Because you couldn't

You are quite right. I said so myself quite clearly I thought. Even I spend the next 3 years of school and a whole bunch of years at uni studying this stuff, I wouldn't claim to be able to predict the future about the enviroment or what China's likely to do.


Recycling is pointless, unless the whole world begins to take climate change seriously, then you can recycle all the old newspapers you want, you'll still be wasting your time
Recycling is not pointless as far as I'm aware : there are some bad ways of recycling that don't preduce a net gain (so yeah, we shouldn't use those) but there are some that work well. Recycling your coke can would take 5% of the energy of making a new one for eg. Pretty big saving right there.

Of course a lot of other big things need to happen to sort the planet, but this isn't an either/ or deal. It seems sensible to me to do anything that stands a chance of buying us more time to sort things out properly. A lot of experts (who have spent more time studying this stuff than either of us has been alive) feel its worth a punt. I don't think anyone is claiming its the only answer.

[ShaneK]

"I call people on stupid bullshit" - Sage

So what do you think or do? I suspect nothing at all

[Syvelocin]

All the environmentally friendly shit, plus I don't buy unnatural and processed foods. No pesticides, preservatives, and added hormones in my food thanks. As easy as that is to switch to, it does help. Not as much as recycling and carpooling and such, but getting local (no shipping long distances) organic produce without harmful chemicals being used on them is a step in the right direction.

I also do a lot along with nerdfighters to do what we call "decreasing world suck." Which all includes helping out charities and such as much as we can and being environmentally conscious.

[huginnmuninn]

I call people on stupid bullshit.

Very good that way those people will stop doing stupid bullshit. you are an inspiration to me

not sarcasm

[Noooooooooo]

When I see nazi bastards I start beating the shit out of em and then I take their money and give it to homeless ppl. When I see someone throwing something on the ground I start beating em up and then I make them throw their garbage in the waste bins. When I see rapists I do stuff to em when its dark. Yeah, I have saved a lot of ppl.
Nah just jk. I don't do any of that shit. :P Does taking the trash out count? lol