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5 Ways America Is Creating a Generation of Wimps
Townhall.com ^ | March 22, 2014 | John Hawkins

Posted on 03/22/2014 4:34:42 AM PDT by Kaslin

Americans rode in wagon trains across this country, tossed the Brits’ tea in the Boston Harbor, outfought the superpower of the 18th century to get our freedom, pounded the Indians, Mexicans, and Spanish into the ground to fulfill our Manifest Destiny and then for an encore, we saved the planet in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. Our pioneer-pilgrim, hard-fighting, gold-mining, wagon-training, gun-fighting ancestors were so hard, Kid Rock's American Bad Ass should have played when they walked into a room. We conquered a continent, built the Hoover Dam, went to the moon, and not only did our Olympic athletes refuse to dip our flag to Hitler during the 1936 Olympics, we made the most evil man who ever lived kill himself in fear before we could get to him.

That's the stock that Americans come from, which begs an obvious question: What the hell happened to us?

How did the toughest, most independent society since Sparta turn into a wuss factory full of people who've never had an adventure in their life outside of a video game? We now have an entire grievance industry full of losers who spend all their time complaining that they're "offended" by everything from the name of the Redskins to the "Patriarchy" to politicians using "violent language" like "crosshairs" and "job killing." Can you imagine a member of the Greatest Generation complaining because a Japanese soldier called him a mean name? Do you think the wagon trains on the Oregon Train were more worried about "isms" or trying to avoid dying of dysentery and being scalped?

So back to that central question: How did Americans get so soft, so fast?

There are a lot of answers to that question. The military has gotten smaller; so fewer people serve; a lot of manly professions have faded away; our society has economically prospered to the point of decadence even if many people don't realize it; liberalism encourages wimpiness and failure....we could go on and on. However, the biggest problem we have is that we're systematically teaching our kids to be wusses.

The problem is that it doesn't matter how pretty, rich, or gifted you are; life is a pile of bricks coming towards you at 100 MPH and no matter how smart you are, how hard you work, or how often you do the right thing, it's going to clip you ever so often. You're going to lose a job, someone's going to die or decide he doesn't want to be your friend any more, you're going to have a stretch of bad luck, your hard work will be unrewarded, you're going to face financial stress, people are going to laugh at you -- no matter how charmed your life may be, it happens to EVERYONE.

Is this how we're going to prepare our kids for those unhappy eventualities?

1) Ban "Bossy:" This is the hot new idea on the "Left." Apparently if we "ban" the word "bossy," little girls will all grow up to be decisive leaders or something. Of course, if being called "bossy" is enough to dissuade a little girl from being a leader, she probably isn't cut out to be a leader in the first place. It doesn't matter if it's online, in Hollywood, at your local PTA, or in school; if you lead or gain a little status, someone will immediately start to undercut you. Typically, the words used are a lot less benign than "bossy," too. Sarah Palin knows a little something about being hit with abuse for being successful and as she would say, either "buck up or stay in the truck."

2) Microaggressions: This is a bit of popular silliness that has taken off on college campuses. Basically, since liberals are having trouble finding any overt racism to complain about, the general idea is supposed to be that someone is committing a "microaggression" against you by denying that he’s a racist, sexist, or even just by annoying a minority in some way. In fact, including microaggressions in this column counts as a "microaggression." In other words, the idea is supposed to be whiny losers always have some "ism" to be aggrieved over every time they feel bad, which is pretty much all the time because that's what life as a whiny loser is like.

3) Trigger Warnings: This is another bit of wackiness that has taken off on college campuses and I'll just use the Urban dictionary definition of it since it's as good as any other,

Used to alert people when an internet post, book, article, picture, video, audio clip, or some other media could potentially cause extremely negative reactions (such as post-traumatic flashbacks or self-harm) due to its content. Sometimes abbreviated as "TW."

Translation: instead of encouraging people to talk to a friend, get therapy, or just get over whatever is bothering them, it's everyone else's responsibility to warn others that they might be saying something that could trouble the legions of easily offended left-wing groups out there. Try that at your job some time and see what your boss says about it -- and don't expect a trigger warning before you get fired. Life is not only full of unpleasantness, it's full of things that remind you of that unpleasantness. Part of leaving childhood behind and becoming an adult is dealing with that fact.

4) Zero Tolerance Gun Policies at Schools: After Columbine, it's understandable that schools might be on the alert for weapons at school, but they've cranked things up to Salem-Witch-Trial levels of hysteria. There are kids who've been suspended for saying the word “gun,” chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun or in the latest case, there's a girl being threatened with expulsion for having a razor blade in her possession for as long as it took to get it away from a kid who was trying to cut his wrists. Every man should at least know his way around a gun; firearms benefit women even more since they're unlikely to be able to outfight a man who wants to beat, rape or murder them. How does teaching kids to turn into a jellied mass of quivering fear because some kid chewed a gun into a Pop Tart square with the importance of knowing how to use firearms for adults?

5) The Self-Esteem Movement: There is actually a basic formula for building self-esteem. You find something you have talent at, you work at it, your ability is recognized and you feel better about yourself. However, we've moved past that formula and may have become the first society in history to almost entirely disconnect self-esteem from accomplishment. It's debatable whether our schools should be focusing on building the self-esteem of kids at all, but we certainly shouldn't be teaching every kid that he's a special little sunflower, regardless of whether he's done anything to earn it. Yes, God thinks all of His kids are special, but the rest of us generally aren't impressed with someone who has nothing going for him other than the fact that he exists and his teacher says nice things about him. The world doesn't owe you a living, you're not special just because your teacher didn't mark your papers with red ink, and the harsh truth is that the world values you for what you bring to the table, not because your life has been one long series of participation trophies.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: feminism; liberalism; usa
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1 posted on 03/22/2014 4:34:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

justification,Wussification


2 posted on 03/22/2014 4:49:59 AM PDT by Big Red Badger ( - William Diamonds Drum - can You Hear it G man?)
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To: Kaslin

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.


3 posted on 03/22/2014 4:53:56 AM PDT by Ancient Man
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To: Big Red Badger

Exactly


4 posted on 03/22/2014 4:55:08 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

dayuuuum! testify! love it. :) every now and then, I feel alone in those thoughts. Nice to see them here.


5 posted on 03/22/2014 4:55:30 AM PDT by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
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To: Kaslin

pussification of the male gender is deliberate. Today gays and lesbians are celebrated as courages, brave, hero’s and an inspiration to us all. Local and national news stories put a spin of a common interest about moms allowing thier male child to wear a dresss if he feels like it, painting his nails, playing with dolls. Male children are told it is wrong to win in any sport “we are all winners”. Anything associated being male or a man is frowned upon made fun of as being neanderthal. I see it in my family, the moms are so concerened that thier boys will grow up to be brutes so they sheletr them soften them up and fill thier heads with crap. Yet a women looks to a man and looks for a man for strength and stability in a relationship and marriage, nice to have a man who has feelings and cries every now and then but when then shtf ladies you dont want a man who sits by you and cries along with you and holds your hand for support rather than stepping up to the plate. Agenda driven, we are being assualted from all sides, all sides


6 posted on 03/22/2014 4:55:35 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Im missing a jumbo jet with 235 passengers has anyone seen it?)
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To: Ancient Man

You’re welcome


7 posted on 03/22/2014 4:55:51 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

take a cruise and “Get Out There!”


8 posted on 03/22/2014 4:57:41 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: Kaslin

Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy, Bossy


9 posted on 03/22/2014 5:01:41 AM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: Kaslin

Over accomodating MOTHERS and WEAK FATHERS trying to be FRIENDS with their kids and not wanting to say NO.


10 posted on 03/22/2014 5:01:50 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion.....the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

TV, Video games, unemployment compensation, useless college degrees, lowered expectations and removal of accountability for anything. Short list of why millenials aka 20 somethings have the motto - “It’s nice to be nice to the nice”.


11 posted on 03/22/2014 5:08:16 AM PDT by x_plus_one (Islam Delenda Est)
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To: x_plus_one

And all that spells L O S E R!!!


12 posted on 03/22/2014 5:14:06 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion.....the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Kaslin

I think of the Irish, Italian and Polish kids I went to school with and sloths Irish, Italian and Polish jokes we used to tell and enjoy. The expected response from the target group was genuine laughter and a topper xk going back. Today we’d all be suspended or expelled and the survivors would be sent for counseling.


13 posted on 03/22/2014 5:15:24 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (When I first read it, " Atlas Shrugged" was fiction)
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To: muir_redwoods

I have no idea where the word”sloth” came from in my previous response. My iPhone is getting a bit independent.


14 posted on 03/22/2014 5:17:29 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (When I first read it, " Atlas Shrugged" was fiction)
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To: Kaslin

Political Correctness

Liberal Takeover of College campuses

Abandonment of Parental Responsibility

Abandonment of Religion

A culture so caught up in selfishness and self-absorption, that they have ignored their civic duties and involvement in the political process.


15 posted on 03/22/2014 5:22:36 AM PDT by G Larry (There's the Beef!)
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To: Kaslin

Sorry, no time to read, gotta take my son to Hockey today.


16 posted on 03/22/2014 5:27:41 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: ronnie raygun

Women are paying a price for that wussification; whether because they feel unmanly or they’ve gotten smarter, most men are simply avoiding traditional roles (husband, father)and enjoying the prolonged childhood society has consigned them to. Ideas have consequences, and for the US they are showing in a more primitive younger generation of “Americans” rooted in the Third World. These “replacement Americans” are hardly progressive from a social standpoint; they have traditional views of gender roles and families.


17 posted on 03/22/2014 5:32:06 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: muir_redwoods

“I think of the Irish, Italian and Polish kids I went to school with and Irish, Italian and Polish jokes we used to tell and enjoy.”

Sounds like you grew up in the same neighborhood as me (though we had Portuguese as well, due to the Angola draft). I couldn’t imagine what today’s establishment would do with kids that acted as we did when we were younger; I do see a lot of the same behavior and attitudes in some of my sons’ friends (mostly foreigners uninfected by political correctness). I felt thirty years younger when my oldest son relayed a story about one of his friends (a red-headed Brazilian) that was bothering another (a regular American): “Get away from me, you ginger spic!”


18 posted on 03/22/2014 5:39:19 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin
Very interesting article, and I'd offer one underlying cause in all of this:

Basically, it's a combination of affluence and the human condition. When a person is so affluent and comfortable that he really has nothing to complain about, there is a strong tendency to go out and fabricate something to complain about. And the more affluent we get, the more ridiculous the subject matters of the complaints get when viewed in a historical context.

This is how you end up with millions of people living here in the U.S. with the highest standard of living in the history of mankind ... complaining that someone (government, taxpayers, etc.) must "do something" to correct something that never would have been considered a problem in the past.

19 posted on 03/22/2014 5:47:13 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: NTHockey

Waaahhhht? You sound like you are watching an Islanders game!


20 posted on 03/22/2014 5:48:08 AM PDT by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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