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design219 · Apr 7, 2009, 07:40 AM

FOXNews on the influence of Mr. Rogers. (YouTube clip)

News is just not what it used to be.

Oneota · Apr 7, 2009, 08:00 AM

Fox News isn't news at all. They don't even try to be the news. Never have.

besson3c · Apr 7, 2009, 08:19 AM

Heheh... check out the YouTube comments

andi*pandi · Apr 7, 2009, 10:13 AM

wtf.

Chuckit · Apr 7, 2009, 11:18 AM

I think those reporters are pretty…special, just for being who they are.

shifuimam · Apr 7, 2009, 11:29 AM

I don't get. Do you think that kids should be taught that they're special just for being them, and that they don't have to put any effort forth in life to make something of themselves? Should we be teaching children that they're entitled to whatever they want because they're "special"?

You're not special. Nobody is special just for being born. You are no better or more special than anyone else unless you do something with your life and make yourself special.

Michael Jordan wouldn't have been "special" if he didn't become famous for being in the NBA. If he'd been a janitor or a tax attorney his whole life, he wouldn't have been special - just kinda tall.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Mr. Rogers is to blame for all this, though. The feel-good BS propagated by liberal America is what has taught our kids that self-esteem and being special is more important than working hard, supporting yourself, and being a contributing member of society.

ort888 · Apr 7, 2009, 11:31 AM

Stupid liberal America... why are they so stupid?

Dakar V · Apr 7, 2009, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I don't get. Do you think that kids should be taught that they're special just for being them, and that they don't have to put any effort forth in life to make something of themselves?

What does the former have to do with the latter?

Perhaps we should be telling kids they're boring and no one cares about them?

Chuckit · Apr 7, 2009, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I don't get. Do you think that kids should be taught that they're special just for being them, and that they don't have to put any effort forth in life to make something of themselves? Should we be teaching children that they're entitled to whatever they want because they're "special"?

WTF? Have you ever even watched Mr. Rogers?

Laminar · Apr 7, 2009, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Dakar V

What does the former have to do with the latter?

Perhaps we should be telling kids they're boring and no one cares about them?

You're boring and no one cares about you.

King Bob On The Cob · Apr 7, 2009, 11:55 AM

I used to love Mr. Rogers, but the "your special" thing just was that: you're unique. Now get off your ass and use the talents that you have and no one else does to make yourself some money.

Dakar V · Apr 7, 2009, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Laminar

You're boring and no one cares about you.

I suddenly feel motivated to work hard, support myself, and be a contributing member of society.

King Bob On The Cob · Apr 7, 2009, 12:02 PM

I didn't watch the article, but I have a feeling I know what it's about, and to that I say:

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have
no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all
restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes
for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are
forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress."

-Socrates

ort888 · Apr 7, 2009, 12:02 PM

I'm going to start an artificial flower manufacturing plant! Thank you conservatives, for waking me out of my liberal stupor and making me a productive member of society!

And screw you Mr. Rogers.

Laminar · Apr 7, 2009, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by Dakar V

I suddenly feel motivated to work hard, support myself, and be a contributing member of society.

shifuimam · Apr 7, 2009, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

WTF? Have you ever even watched Mr. Rogers?

Not since I was about five.

Originally Posted by Dakar V

What does the former have to do with the latter?

Perhaps we should be telling kids they're boring and no one cares about them?

Come on. There's a big difference between telling kids they're worthless and not making them feel like unique snowflakes all the damn time.

Society today is all about coddling children. While I don't think that a complete lack of emotional attachment or affirmation is healthy, neither is the idea that the child is the center of the universe and deserves anything and everything they want, just for being them.

You are what you make of yourself...you don't become something special by just existing.

sek929 · Apr 7, 2009, 01:18 PM

I loved Mr Rogers, I also starting working at 12.

I fail to see how telling your kids they are special equates to a lifetime of entitlements and sloth. Yet another hollow argument rooted in partisan politics.

Chuckit · Apr 7, 2009, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

the idea that the child is the center of the universe and deserves anything and everything they want, just for being them.

Would you say that's an accurate characterization of what Mister Rogers told children?

ort888 · Apr 7, 2009, 01:22 PM

Sounds like someone needs a hug.

ort888 · Apr 7, 2009, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by sek929

I loved Mr Rogers, I also starting working at 12.

I fail to see how telling your kids they are special equates to a lifetime of entitlements and sloth. Yet another hollow argument rooted in partisan politics.

I grew up watching Mr. Rogers and now I just sit around all day smoking pot and collecting welfare. Why did you do this to me Mr. Rogers! Why!

sek929 · Apr 7, 2009, 01:27 PM

I blame Henrietta Pussycat

Dakar V · Apr 7, 2009, 01:28 PM

I didn't watch Mr. Rogers growing up, and I deal crack when I'm not directing snuff films or organizing my local church's bake sale.

ort888 · Apr 7, 2009, 01:31 PM

King Friday was obviously a thinly veiled analogue of Karl Marx.

sek929 · Apr 7, 2009, 01:32 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3KM0-m9hKg

Laminar · Apr 7, 2009, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

I grew up watching Mr. Rogers and now I just sit around all day smoking pot and collecting welfare. Why did you do this to me Mr. Rogers! Why!

You forgot to add in "playing Halo."

Originally Posted by sek929

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3KM0-m9hKg

hahahaha

besson3c · Apr 7, 2009, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

I grew up watching Mr. Rogers and now I just sit around all day smoking pot and collecting welfare. Why did you do this to me Mr. Rogers! Why!

Mr. Rogers wanted people to not be ambitious. Therefore, he wanted people to be on welfare. Therefore, he supported welfare. Therefore, he was a socialist. Therefore, he hated America. Therefore, he was a loser.

waxcrash · Apr 7, 2009, 02:53 PM

Anyone who wants to rip on Mr. Rogers or thinks he did harm can fark off. He was genuinely honest, nice and a great man that cared about kids and humankind.

Just watch this video of him speaking at hearing at a Senate panel in 1969...

Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate

ort888 · 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Mr. Rogers wanted people to not be ambitious. Therefore, he wanted people to be on welfare. Therefore, he supported welfare. Therefore, he was a socialist. Therefore, he hated America. Therefore, he was a loser.

Hey man, Mr. Rogers told me I would be rich some day... and while it hasn't happened yet, and I sleep on a pile of dirty mildewy laundry in my parents basement, whenever I smoke pot out of my red trolley bong I get taken to the land of make believe where I am the CEO of my own company and have a wife... and not just a wife in WoW, I mean like, a real wife with real boobs and everything and sometimes she makes me pancakes and life is good and then I wake up and realize I live in a basement and work at a carwash and I say to myself, when? When is it my turn to be rich? Why have you done this to me Mr. Rogers?

sek929 · Apr 7, 2009, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by waxcrash

Anyone who wants to rip on Mr. Rogers or thinks he did harm can fark off. He was genuinely honest, nice and a great man that cared about kids and humankind.

Just watch this video of him speaking at hearing at a Senate panel in 1969...

Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate

Sweet video. Straight answers from a genuinely caring individual who gets badmouthed decades later by taking heads that sell sensationalism to idiots.

Thank god PBS was in my childhood. I am sure it was integral in my development and fostered a lifetime of interest in learning.

Sh!t like Pokemon is actually rotting our society from within by glorifying the consumer whore. Rogers told us we could be anything we wanted to, what a terrible man!

besson3c · Apr 7, 2009, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

Hey man, Mr. Rogers told me I would be rich some day... and while it hasn't happened yet, and I sleep on a pile of mildewy dirtily clothes in a room in my parents basement, whenever I smoke pot out of my red trolley bong I get taken to the land of make believe where I am the CEO of my own company and have a wife... and not just a wife in WoW, I mean like, a real wife with real boobs and everything and sometimes she makes me pancakes and life is good and then I wake up and realize I live in a basement and work at a carwash and I say to myself, when? When is it my turn to be rich? Why have you done this to me Mr. Rogers?

It makes you wonder whether being told that you were special was really just a bunch of lies, huh? If he was lying about that, he could have been lying about anything! What if he really was a rapist or a terrorist or something, or even SATAN wearing sweaters? Maybe that guy at the senate was a Mr. Rogers stunt double (probably a relative of Obama's) that had a secret agenda to ban pancakes, boobs, ointment, and pot, and also giraffes?

Spheric Harlot · Apr 7, 2009, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

neither is the idea that the child is the center of the universe and deserves anything and everything they want, just for being them.

You are what you make of yourself...you don't become something special by just existing.

There is a HUGE difference between treating yourself as if you were special by just existing (because you are), and expecting others to do so.

Not treating yourself like you're special is a form of depression. Expecting others to do so is narcissism.

- - e r i k - - · Apr 8, 2009, 03:13 AM

Stephen Colbert couldn't write this stuff.

Jesus bloody Christ.

OreoCookie · Apr 8, 2009, 06:36 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

Society today is all about coddling children. While I don't think that a complete lack of emotional attachment or affirmation is healthy, neither is the idea that the child is the center of the universe and deserves anything and everything they want, just for being them.

I find it concerning that you're more bothered by someone who tries to instill confidence in children and not object to the other trash on television (e. g. quite a few cartoons). Or computer games. Don't you think there are more serious influences on children these days than Mr. Rogers?

Dakar V · Apr 8, 2009, 09:40 AM

Don't blame computer games, you wanker.

The best part is some church/schools teach you that Jesus loves you unconditionally, which really isn't much different.

OreoCookie · Apr 8, 2009, 09:46 AM

I'm talking of young children, not teenagers. And it's not about the games themselves, but rather the time children spent glued to computer and TV screens learning nothing.

OldManMac · Apr 8, 2009, 09:51 AM

Apparently he's become an easy scapegoat for a complex problem. Not uncommon for Faux News and the dittoheads who watch it.

osiris · Apr 8, 2009, 10:22 AM

Stop watching FOX - it pollutes and instills horribly negative appraisals of life that are not based on any reality - except the narrow blinder view of angry white conservatives looking to pass the blame.

Dakar V · Apr 8, 2009, 10:24 AM

Next up, the Cookie Monster glamorizes having an addiction.

Atheist · Apr 8, 2009, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by Dakar V

Next up, the Cookie Monster glamorizes having an addiction.

And don't forget Bert and Ernie promoting the Gay Agenda™

osiris · Apr 8, 2009, 10:28 AM

And Oscar with his garbage fetish and anger management issues.

besson3c · Apr 8, 2009, 10:37 AM

And big bird with his genetic mutation that is not the vision of God and Jesus.

andi*pandi · Apr 8, 2009, 10:44 AM

don't forget Big Bird's drug-induced hallucinations of a wooly mammoth.

besson3c · Apr 8, 2009, 10:46 AM

Well, Snuffy is real, but his name suggests support of snuff films.

osiris · Apr 8, 2009, 10:49 AM

What about that Speedy Delivery guy - what kind of crap was he hooked on?

besson3c · Apr 8, 2009, 11:16 AM

I think maybe he smoked Grover's fur sheddings?

shifuimam · Apr 8, 2009, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Would you say that's an accurate characterization of what Mister Rogers told children?

No. I'm not really taking about Mister Rogers. I'm talking about the general attitude of specialness and entitlement that I think really is starting to screw up kids today.

I don't think that he had anything to do with it.

ort888 · Apr 8, 2009, 11:52 AM

Kids these days...

besson3c · Apr 8, 2009, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

No. I'm not really taking about Mister Rogers. I'm talking about the general attitude of specialness and entitlement that I think really is starting to screw up kids today.

I don't think that he had anything to do with it.

Like somebody here said, there's a difference between feeling special and expecting others to treat you specially. Do you really think that kids this age understand the political concepts behind welfare, and will cling to whatever misunderstandings they form throughout their adult years?

design219 · Apr 8, 2009, 12:22 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I don't think that he had anything to do with it.

Oh. Then you agree that FOX News is out of whack here?

sek929 · 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

No. I'm not really taking about Mister Rogers. I'm talking about the general attitude of specialness and entitlement that I think really is starting to screw up kids today.

You can blame the narcissistic yuppie parents for that. Also, young kids spend more time looking at their Nintendo DS then interacting with other humans, it's no wonder they grow up to be selfish and detached.

My kids aren't getting me to buy them any electronic addiction, they can do what I had to do, work hard and buy what you want yourself. They can get soccer balls, bikes, and boogie-boards to beat the band from me.