Careful with the compliments there, my ego might be a bit unmanageable if it inflates too far!

On a slightly more serious note, I'm glad I could contribute to the overpopulation of Slashdot, and I'm glad someone could finally accuse me of thoughtfulness!

People are trying, but they're more complex problems than that. We can't just wave the Magic Wand of Online Whining and have all our problems be fixed. That takes large-scale cooperation, the likes of which nobody is going to gather support for by complaining on Slashdot. Why don't you go do something about them? And when you figure out what to do, tell us so we can help too.

Because I didn't say never to do anything about these problems. If you have the means to do something about it, by all means put your money where your mouth is. But if all you're going to do is bitch on Slashdot, please, for the sanity of all of your audience, shut the hell up.

And you're not "educating the ignorant", you're bitching. Nobody is learning anything from you except that you're a miserable fuck.

I did not claim that he was wrong - in fact, every word he said was correct - but you are dead wrong. You don't need to be deluded to be happy, and "pessimist" and "cynic" are not substitutes for "realist".

There are many very dark aspects to the human condition. Many people suffer every day, and many of them will spend the entire rest of their lives suffering. People who deserve power will never hold it, and many of the power-hungry have much more power than they deserve.

My sadness about these things will do nothing to improve them, so why should I be sad? I'm not deluded, but I'm usually a rather happy person. The human condition is complicated and twisted, and has many good sides as well as bad sides. You're daft if you think you're doing something for humanity or yourself by focusing on the bad sides. You really can just accept them without dwelling on them.

And stop this "realist" elitism. You talk like you're better than the hordes of "deluded" people. Like you've achieved enlightenment and are now miles ahead of the rest of humanity in terms of intelligence. I used to think like that and it was not good for anyone. Trust me, we all see the problems in the world just like you do.

I know you're being sarcastic, but that still sounds pretty douchey.

And this is why I like Jewish people. You say sensible things. My predominantly Christian family would never say anything like that. Rights? Their rights - the devil worshipers, atheists and Darwinists? Fuck them!

If, at this age, they are too stupid and thick to figure out that "copy from an encyclopedia" is not actually writing an original essay, despite whatever they learned in elementary school, they deserve whatever comes of their plagiarism. What kind of moron seriously thinks that it's actually okay to copy from other sources without giving credit, and then take credit for it yourself?? I think they'd be upset if someone did it to their original writing.

The problem lies in people being assholes and not considering the "Golden Rule".