A sign of things to come

[Pythos]

Yesterday I got some disturbing news.

In Russia they are currently pushing legislation to out law the emo lifestyle.

For those of you who don't know emo is a branch of goth, but more extreme. Very depressed, black clothes wearing kids that have many piercings. The reason for the laws is because the emo lifestyle promote depression and suicide.

Not sure about others here but this frankly gives me the willies.

Firstly let me state, I find emo kids to be really sad and pathedic. I dislike the idea of piercing and tattoos (in other words, permanent damage to your body). But being from the goth back ground, I have seen how the two groups are piled together. The problem though is both groups hurt no one. I recall how the news media kept linking those two punks at columbine to the Goth life style, and how Goths everywhere were ridiculed and called the next Columbine shooters, and other such crap. You will notice the latest shootings have not been from gothic kids, but in fact the "normal" kids, or gang bangers. No such slurs were placed on these groups.

The argument that it promotes depression and suicide can be used for most lifestyles, not the least of which is being born in Russia.

This is a prime example of dealing with the symptom instead of the disease. Most of these kids are just whiners, but some, especially the ones in bands have some very profound messages, and ideas. A lot usually dealing with social injustices, and class separation (which has become very pronounced in Russia in the past two decades, effectively capitalism ran rampant and a few got really really rich, while others who chose not to break laws and live honest lives fall behind).

With the current regime in my country I can see this being a very probable threat, There are many here ( in the united state's that is) that would prefer giving up freedom of others for security, something which the founding fathers detested the idea of. "those who are willing to give up rights for security, deserve neither" or something like that.

What concerns me about this is the fact it is a large majority going after a minority, WHO HURT NO ONE. How about out lawing the gang bangers (or Russian equivalent), or the Death metal groups?

We (and yes I use we as all inclusive for members of this group, and others who value freedoms) should keep an eye on this, and watch for any such nonsense occurring in your country.

This is indeed disconcerting.

Why?

How about they outlaw cross dressing by males? (and yes I know some of you do not think of yourselves as cross dresser, but guess what. To Joe Sixpack, and his beaten wife, if you are male, and you wear a skirt, you are a cross dresser.)

[Departed Member]

How about they outlaw cross dressing by males? (and yes I know some of you do not think of yourselves as cross dresser, but guess what. To Joe Sixpack, and his xxxxxx wife, if you are male, and you wear a skirt, you are a cross dresser.)

Already is illegal (& has been for years) in Italy (and, I'm led to believe, in several other Catholic-based countries in Europe).

[SkirtDude]

Deleted.

[Peter v]

They better hurry up and arrest all priests then.

Right on. Doesn't the pope himself wear a dress? Of course it is called something else.

It is indeed something to watch out for, the 40-45 war is not so long ago, and we know what happened then. I am sure that if "we ( men wearing skirts and any other free choice of clothes, ) show others that we are men of sound mind and healthy ways, that is one step to preventing anybody thinking we are second rate citizens. It is who we are, and not what we wear. Just another reason not to discriminate each other in our own ranks. As seems to have been happening.

[Sasquatch]

What's new about depression and suicide in Russia? Certainly nothing to warrant wholesale arrests based on one's appearance.

sasq

[SportSkirt]

The 40 - 45 war? is that the one that started in 1939?

Actually the whole concept of restricting the rights of one group for the benefit of the masses seriously bothers me. In the UK, we are constantly having our liberties eroded "For our own good".
We have had councils using anti-terrorism laws to monitor people's usage of waste re-cycling (I kid you not). People here seem to put up with so much interference in their lives.

We have a 4x4 which is only used at the weekends and holidays for
1. carrying the whold family and camping gear
2. towing a horse trailer
3. collecting horse feed (getting 200 Kilos of feed in the back of a family car is not practical.

However, because of a number of self-centred **** who drive Volvo, BMW, Mercedes SUV/4x4s in our towns, all the "green" people have convinced the country that 4x4=bad. As a result, everyone with a genuine use for the vehicles is punished because of a different group of vehicle users. Our government banned ALL handguns after a single shooting so our olympic team train abroad. Heaven knows how they will manage in 2012. Will they arrest all Olympic gun team members on entry into the UK?

It is only a matter of time before someone decides that our right to dress they way we want to is responsible for some completely unrelated act and sweeping new legislation is rushed through parliament. There are more and more people who get offended on someone else's behalf. Someone is bound to decide that group X could be offended and so group Y (us) are prevented from self-expression/clothing comfort just in case it offends someone else.

I shall shut up now as this is beginning to sound more and more like a rant. Don't get me started about.......

[Charlie]

Someone is bound to decide that group X could be offended and so group Y (us) are prevented from self-expression/clothing comfort just in case it offends someone else.

I find people like that (the Someones) to be deeply offensive and we should all be protected against them.

Charlie

[Peter v]

Well, I don't know about Russia, but I know that it is the lack of enforcing rules and regulations that already exist, that is causing legislative parlement to make new laws. Which of course will only inhibit the honest people and do nothing to deter others.

Withregards to monitoring recycling, I would like to see interest shown from the authoritys in how the public thus EVERYONE goes about consuming and disposing, as we are allowed to consume. But we are bound by law and moral grounds to produce as little waste material as possible. And what we do have, to recycle as much as possible.

It is of no use to have recyclable products if they are just dumped. Recycling is not "for the sake of the authoritys", "so let's get them pissed off," no it is for the persons themself, and all others. The mind boggles at how much waste we produce, and have to dump and burn etc. That is not without a cost, to nature and ourselves. Unfortunately many people just don't give a damn about anything except themselves and even not that. To prevent those people from causing unneccessary damage to nature and ultimately all of mankind, they need to be stimulated to pull the cart just as any decent person does. That is why I would like to see more controling / monitoring of waste disposal. Not only to get culprits, but to let people see that there are people, people in authority who care. Thus stimulating those who can be reached to be good citizens as is expected of us. But not monitoring of my life.

Big brother is all around, mostly because we let so many others go unchallenged at what they do wrong. But of course every decent individual with any moral knows all that.

I am also glad that authority is doing something about pollution in the towns, but I am not sure that the actions taken are correct. It is unfortunate that the trend with money burning people is to drive big gas guzzlers just for the show. Safer? Drive a tank. All those issues need miles of discussion to be overseen correctly so forgive me if I have left something out.

What it all comes down to is us. Begin with yourself, be an example for others, and hope that others will see in us the "good" people who we are. Joining with those who have given up being decent, having lost hope only makes matters worse.

As with skirt wearing, I hope people will look at us, not only what we wear, and see that we too are just normal men, but freely dresed.

[Ray]

Someone is bound to decide that group X could be offended and so group Y (us) are prevented from self-expression/clothing comfort just in case it offends someone else.

I find people like that (the Someones) to be deeply offensive and we should all be protected against them.

Charlie

Love the graemlin!

[Departed Member]

Well, I don't know about Russia, but I know that it is the lack of enforcing rules and regulations that already exist, that is causing legislative parlement to make new laws. Which of course will only inhibit the honest people and do nothing to deter others.

100% in agreement with you, Peter! That's (apparently?) the aim of the UK Government, too!

[Since1982]

Well, it's not like that in the United States. Here, we have ONE end for anyone that does anything that makes the "powers that be" uneasy. AND we have a job title that there are more of than any other job title in this country.

Job title: Law enforcement worker. The title encompasses millions of workers, from forensic workers to prison guards or cops, lawyers assistants, etc etc etc.

ONE end: prison or/and death. Whether it comes from officials or other prisoners, death is death. There is an absolute plague of prisoners killing prisoners for race reasons in the United States prisons. They are separated BY the guards by race. Unbelievable...

OUR job as citizens of the United States is to "fly under the radar" in everything we do.
99% of American policemen under the age of 30 came to the Police directly from some war. Either the first Iraq war, Afghanistan or the second Iraq war.