Misunderstanding

Ok so in the 90's you used to hear alot of fear driven nonsense from, in my humble opinion, ugly as fuck middle aged women with disgusting jewelry and just doul crashing fashion sense. What I'm talking about is American talk shows on youth culture. Now I've never been to America, but I'm from Australia and we get alot of your guys' TV (who would have thought we'd live in a world where one day "That's so Raven" would be aired across continents) Show's like Donahue, Ricky lake, all that crap. Oprah's still going strong and we've got the joys of Dr Phil as well, but I was just watching an old youtube clip of Marilyn Manson on Donahue and I realised something that has really changed in the eyes of these middle class cunts. Or at least in the TV they like to watch.

On this episode of Donahue, they were attacking moshing at a Manson concert, and the objections that he was raising were so blindingly ignorant. Everyone that was not like Marilyn and the teenagers and stuff that were trying to defend the activity, were all just arguing amongst themselves over who's job it was to stop it. But on top of it they had to include all the ignorant shit about how "I feel very sorry for the parents,", "there's got to be a better way to get out you're anger" and "is there something bad going on in your life, are your parents hurting you," as if there was no way that an essentially normal, reasonably well adjusted young person, couldn't just enjoy this music and this style. Like unless you dress like a fucking soldier, you must have been abused. Like unless you agree with them, somethings gone wrong.

Well, the point I'm trying to raise here is just that it's funny that you don't really see this kind of thing anymore on TV. No one is going to be so horrified to see a Manson clip on a day time talk show anymore. I mean plenty of people still don't like it, but it's not going to get you ratings. I did see an add for a story on Today Tonight not too long ago about the emo culture, which I guess was in that vein of, "watch young people be different and be horrified," but for me it just stood to show the general lack of interest in that sort of thing now.

The only consistent attention grabbing story on young people is, well anything to do with cars. Speeding, drinking, Texting/talking on your phone, 17 years olds in V8's, people are going to tune in for that. But the music that I listen to now is far more offensive than anything Manson ever produced and no one seems to notice, let alone care. Death circles at metal gigs, people flailing around punching and kicking the air, while the singer screams from the depths of hell the lyrics from songs like 'sponge bob log cock' and 'barbed wire baby fuck'. I guess the beauty of it is that it's so confusing to the onlooker that it loses it's horror.

I think another part of it might be the Christian acquiescence of these rock and metal ellements. I remember when I was young going to Christian youth events, I'm not proud of it, I was young and experimenting spiritually. But there were some pretty heavy acts there, with tattoed band members, we were all moshing and croud surfing and all that shit, at a Christian event. No one is shocked by this shit anymore.

So I don't really have an answer for this, and I'm not asking the question rhetorically, I really would like to get an answer.

Why is it that the middle class is no longer so shocked by youth culture? It's certainly no less fucked up than it was 20 years ago, in fact it's probably more. Do these people know that the average 8th grader has seen a woman suck a horse dry these days? or is that just too edgy for TV. Have people really just gotten so used to the idea that they don't care anymore, or has the gap between generations just become so wide that the easily offended are sticking there heads up they're asses and pretending it isn't there. Or is it just that a different genereation is middle aged now, and the shit that puts their panties in a bunch is different to the previous. Things like using red ink to mark a kid wrong on a test, or letting them resolve their problems with violence the way God intended (read your bible kids).

It might also be that the political shit is literally just overshadowing any of that stuff. War, public health, boys kissing, republicans hate democrats and brown people, democrats hate everyone except brown people. Everything is falling apart and no one. Liberals are shattered and scattered, conservatives are ignorant and united and youth culture is just taking a back seat with regard to the ostentacious outrage of the public. Now don't get me wrong, on one hand I like this, alot. Because kids really do need to be left alone most of the time. Parents are by definition the least qualified people to advise children on the world, more than 50% of them had kids by accident. You accidently made a human being, didn't do the right and honerable thing of killing it before you had a chance to fuck it up, and people trust you with trying to shape and mold a productive and well adjusted citizen? Parents are the most ignorant, terrified, undeserving authority figures in the world. The more they stay out of their kids choices in life, the better.

But at the same time it's interesting to think that they aren't paying attention at all anymore. Everyone want they're kids to like them now days. Here's a tip parents, if you're kids don't fucking despise you, you're not doing your job properly. If they're like me, they will grow up and leave, and if you're a decent person, they will come to like you once they are adults, and they can meet you as equals.

So parents, this is your job. Keep your kid alive, push him to work hard, kick his ass for doing drugs, tell him he can't swear in your house, but let them date whoever they want, listen to whoever they want, dress however they want. The point is you cannot make you're kids choices for them, but you can make some harder for them. Drugs aren't all bad, but they're not all good either and you don't need to make them better by giving them somewhere to do it 'safely'. Teenagers should be doing drugs in the most unpleasant, sneaky, underhanded ways possible, that way they get a more realisitic picture of what it's like to have a drug habbit. Parents, think about what is actually going to damage you're kids chances at having a happy life. No education, no skills, too many drugs, bad vocabulary, inability to think for themselves. You don't need to make their decisions for them in order to provide a more realisitc environment for growing up.