.

[Dixie]

And a crapload of other things...

While I would like to believe this article and he does have a reference (one I haven't checked out, mind you), the fact that it doesn't seem to come from a credible site (rense.com? what's that?) and especially the author unknown line are especially fishy to me. It's easy to say stuff and make it sound like it makes sense, especially on the internet...

[artisticdude]

Yeah, that article wasn't the best link I could have provided, you're right.

Amazon sells the book the article was taken from, with reviews and information about the book.
Wikipedia information about the author.
The author's website.
Other miscellaneous information, as provided by that search engine we all know and love.

All in all, I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that Michael Pollan knows what he's talking about.

[Moribund]

Hey am I allowed to give negative opinions? 'Cause I know in a lot of places that's not cool. If it isn't I'll delete my post or someone can go ahead and do it for me.

These are very populist views and are not really insightful or original. None of these are even controversial in any way; they simply show the obvious non-asinine view that is only opposed by a extremely small minority. These are roughly analogous to Jerry Seinfield going "What about airplane food, huh, huh?" Well, yes, you observed a phenomena, we are all aware of it. Malcolm Gladwell observes many things and sells millions of copies of books because of it. Scientists observe things and improve the quality of life. But the difference between Gladwell and you is that these observations are so trivial that it doesn't change anyone's state of mind in the slightest. It's not even good trolling as it doesn't even incite anger or strong opposition. The goal of a writer or a speaker -even an artist in some ways of looking at it, is to affect people's thoughts, positively or negatively. It is to change the way they associate or amalgamate ideas, it is to incite emotion and feeling. In that regard, your "rants" fail. I think part of the problem in that you don't synthesize or create new ideas, in fact your observations themselves are not even very original. They're almost tropes in their notoriety.

Some other issues I have is that most of your "rants" (I use quotation marks to signify how lightly I use the term) are very short, and that may contribute to the shallowness of the content. Another is that you tend to use the small amount of writing you do to meander around one broad idea, instead of getting to the point. On top of that, your writing style itself is very bland.

Basically, your rants are boring. But uh, if criticism isn't allowed, they're, uh very nice. I bet you are considered very intelligent for your age.

[Hulavuta]

Before I reply, I'd like to ask: Did I do something to you before? Because I find that your criticism, although valid, has already been brought up before, and seems more like trolling or a personal attack.

My goal wasn't to create a rant of anger or anything like it, as text can't really show emotions other than BOLD LETTERS AND CAPS LOCK ON, so I wasn't trying to incite anger or anything.

And while you are certainly entitled to your opinion that this is boring and whatnot, at least a few other people don't seem to think so, and at least a few people have decided to counter me. This topic has reached 9 pages, and my rants are only 1 post each. This has gotten people talking. And although it might not be intelligent/controversial, people at least read the topic and had actual discussion about it. So where my rants might not be "smart" or entertaining enough for you, a few people actually do find it worth reading. So if it's not your thing, just don't read it.


Blarumyrran brought up almost your exact same point, (paraphrased of course) and said it in a constructive way. Is it hard to not repeat him and not make it look like blatant trolling?


And about your last paragraph....I CAN take criticism, it IS allowed. If you read other parts of the topic, or any of my topics, I get run over with criticism. However, I find it highly offensive that you said:

"But uh, if criticism isn't allowed, they're, uh very nice. I bet you are considered very intelligent for your age."

I'm NOT looking for false praise, and I have no friggin' clue where you might get that from other than other people's reactions when you criticized them. I swear on my life that I would rather take honest critique than dishonest praise. And...what the hell? You're not going to take me seriously because I'm 14? It makes even your "praise" look like an insult.

Honestly put, the Theme Park rant was short because I only had one thing to rant on, coupled with the fact that I had to do summer work and discuss a new Wes-project with Dixie.

And it's not really smart to judge my intelligence from some Rants. Perhaps the rants are NOT enlightening because the things that piss people off are common? Most people get annoyed by the same things. Furthermore, this is because Rants are only for things you have a negative feeling towards. If I had come up with my own theories and related things, (which I actually have) I would not post them here, since this isn't the place to.



I'd like to finish by saying that, yes, most of your criticism IS VALID. Like I stated before, Blarumyrran stated the almost exact same criticism, so even if I said your criticism wasn't valid, I'd be lying. I simply don't like the way you criticize me like an outright troll.


If you really AREN'T a troll, and you still want to continue this conversation, than please do. I just don't want to discuss it with such a hostile atmosphere. If you ARE just trying to troll me, well, it takes two to fight.

(I'd like to kindly ask that you take it to PMs instead of discussing it here in the forums, I really don't want to clutter up this topic with a debate)