I liked Littlefinger too. He was a prick but damn was he a genius, a brilliant mind excelling at the Game. That's why I'm impatiently waiting for the new book and hoping it will be different.

You have a point with the reservoirs. Yet, Houston's dam didn't actually burst, it overflowed which, as serious as it is, makes for a much slower process than one would imagine. A burst dam is a much bigger problem because all the water which is held by it suddenly spills into its surroundings. The situation over there is bad of course but there was a lot of time to prepare and even the onset of the catastrophe was relatively slow. Yet, Houston is a low-lying city with a not so good infrastructure and layout which has admittedly made the situation worse.

Flash flooding is distinguished from "regular" flooding by taking less than 6 hours. 6 hours is still quite a lot, not to mention that the reports of the incoming hurricane were available days before.

You do know how flooding works, right? It's not like a dam burst into pieces and immediately flooded its surroundings, it's not like a tsunami hit the town. Flooding which is caused by heavy rainfall, aka in this case, is relatively slow at first, but as the water builds up, it becomes devastating. The dogs' owners absolutely had the time to at least open the kennel.
I get what you're playing at here. Trying to make us see how judgmental we are and that we shouldn't jump into conclusions and condemn these people right away because maybe this or maybe that. But the thing is, that approach would work in a situation where the details are unknown or unclear, if we really didn't know how fast the water was coming. But we do know what caused the flooding, we do know the details.

I thought the same but she's obviously in a dressing room just trying the dress on so it's okay

Grabbing keys and unlocking a kennel is a matter of 30 seconds. I get that they were under a lot of pressure when leaving their house but letting animals die because they couldn't spare 30 seconds isn't defensible, sorry.

My grandma called my grandpa "grandpa" and my mom called my dad "daddy" when I was little, because that's how (grand)parents refer to each other in front of their (grand)children, right? But in any other situation I find it creepy.

Nice Animal Farm reference! Though, alternatively, I remember a post where some guys were like "Yeah equality means we can hit women, sweet!" and I thought if beating up women is the first thing you think of when equality is mentioned, you need to check your priorities. What I'm trying to say is, there are horrible people on both sides, it's never only feminazis vs normal men or only abusive sexist men vs normal women.

Yeah, I hate sexualization too. Not because it's one sided sexism, after all men objectify women but also women objectify themselves and men get objectified too, however I think that it's a fairly recent trend to substitute good art with naked people. I see it in music videos, movies, video games... and it just annoys me so much, because basically the producers/developers were in the process of making the product and they said "Well, we could put something interesting, inspiring or emotional in this... but putting some naked people will save us effort and bring us the same attention and profits, so why bother?" Which is just a completely loathsome and disgusting attitude in my opinion. And the worst of all, it works. They wouldn't do it if it didn't. These producers know that the majority of people will still gulp it down and pay lots of money for it. Just like remakes, microtransactions, and similar crappy, unimaginative, greedy practices, it brings these industries lower and lower.

Bottom line is, we shouldn't group all rednecks in with the racists and sexists as those are a minority in the group. A very loud minority, but a minority nonetheless. At the same time though we shouldn't try to excuse their racism/sexism/homophobia/etc. with "Eh they're rednecks, that's just how they are." because it paints all rednecks in a bad light AND is a bad excuse for someone's shitty behaviour.
This reminds me of the "Boys will be boys." saying that so many people like to use to excuse bad behaviour of their sons. Firstly, it groups the shitty misbehaving boys with all other boys/men even though the vast majority of people in general are well behaved, secondly it's a bad excuse for bad behaviour and the person who's misbehaving will never learn a lesson if you keep excusing them like that. (2/2)

Haha no probs, I enjoy debating opinions too. The analogy with the child is a good one imo, I myself one reasoned with a similar one but put a deceased parent instead of child, because the parent is dead but they still owed your neighbor money or something and you can't simply wriggle out of it, but at the same time you can't feel guilty because it's not your fault. People didn't get it though.
You make a good point about a lot of people mocking rednecks, I see it a lot on the internet but honestly I'm not from the US and people in my country don't really have a "redneck culture". Maybe some village people are proud of being village people because they think city folk are pampered and prissy, but that's about it. We had no North vs South thing so people don't really remind themselves of the history on either side, since there are no sides to take. (1/2)

Just like the chef you spoke about, she's proud of the practical nature of the "rednecks" and there's nothing wrong with that. You seem to have a high opinion of her, she seems like a reasonable person, so I'm guessing that if she was asked about some rednecks being racist, sexist, homophobic etc., she would admit it and wouldn't try to wriggle out of it by making excuses. That is a healthy approach and one I fully support. However, what rachee has demonstrated in this thread is an entirely different approach. He/she a) generalized both groups, aka rednecks good and practical, college kids bad and dumb, b) tried to make excuses for the bad seeds instead of facing the fact that they exist. (2/2)

I think you make a very good point, guest. It's not wrong to be proud of things a group you associate yourself with has accomplished. But at the same time acknowledging that the same group has bad seeds in it should be common sense. For example, there are some SJWs who say that all white people now should be punished for American slavery which was abolished centuries ago. I disagree because the people now had nothing to do with slavery at all, there should be no collective guilt. But people should acknowledge that what happened was bad. At the same time though, there's nothing wrong with being proud of the many inventors and geniuses that have been part of the same group. Personally, I'm an individualist, I don't really care about group association and I usually judge people by their individual characteristics. But if you do want to associate with a group, you should be objective and judge both the good things and the bad things the group has done. (1/2)

Rachee
Sorry for not specifying it, I thought you'd figure it out by the content of my arguments since we both disagreed with rachee.
Also you didn't have any mistakes in your comments, I think.

"Now can we move on, and I'll just pretend you still think I'm some... nobody who was too lucky to die with the rest of the Grey Wardens."
And what does that make me?
"Some nobody who was too lucky to die with the rest of the Grey Wardens!"

Here's the thing, friendo. This isn't the first time an eclipse has happened. Humanity already has the experience that if you look at it without eclipse shades, your eyes are gonna get fucked up. The Sun has been up there for a pretty long time. It makes a lot more sense to read advice and follow it than "figure it out for yourself" all anew, blinding a person or two in the process. That's why we write shit down, because someone has already figured it out before us and it would be fruitless and senseless to do it all over because we'd just reach the same conclusions.
Also, I'm gonna be an asshole now because your English skills bother me.
*I'm *than *weren't *themselves *rednecks *hey *you're *than *you *you're *rednecks *themselves *feminazis *you're *won't *too

He's standing on a podium speaking about "both sides".

Some SJW college students get their panties in a bunch over someone misgendering them, just like some rednecks get their panties in a bunch over a mention of equality of genders, races, or sexualities. It's not all black and white. It's not all us vs them. It's not all with me or against me. There are idiots in the very corners of the opposing sides but most people are in the middle, facepalming whenever someone makes a stupid excuse to defend their "team", like your attempt at excusing uneducated people because of "duck tape".

They're a cute addition to one's garden. Not so much to one's violent ideology.

Polynesian style torches