Why is it that no one today can take responsibility for their actions?

What evidence have you that this is actually a trend, and not just a hobbyhorse of your own?

Pratically anything I hear related to the above subjects out of the mouth of anyone who labels themselves a liberal?

Yeah, them fuckin Liberals and their mollycoddling ways.

Yes, it is their job, but the media is raising a lot of children.
I only read one of the questions…

@pdworkin good job of trying to make me sound like a right wing nut while contributing nothing to the discussion. Yay for ignorance!

@hookecho just to clarify…
right-wing nut?
right wingnut?
right wing nut?

@pdworkin today is just not your day huh? lol

The type of argument you make in your OP is a rhetorical fallacy called begging the question . It cannot be responded to as if it were genuine argument, because it fails to reach that lofty height.

If you care to take a clear point of view, and engage on the subject without recourse to petitio principii I will be pleased to take you seriously. Failing that, it is easier to make fun of you.

Taking responsibility for your actions is often a painful endeavor. It’s understandable that we would (at the very least subconsciously) attempt to avoid it.

Because you’re a bitch!

I didn’t say that.

Nobody?

That’s a bit much.

There are reasons for our behavior, for our circumstance, and our world. That said, any able individual does have an obligation to themselves to at some point man up and get their shit worked out. Not everyone does it at the same pace, at the same age, for the same reasons or really ever.

Some people never receive that lesson, that they are who they choose to be. Some prefer rather to be a victim of their circumstance. And some, are just fooling themselves into thinking they’re one or the other.

Just because you’ve noticed with your all seeing eyes some popular news stories does not mean it’s a trend.

What it really comes down to is everyone is different. Live your life. Don’t judge others for their failings because it annoys you to hear about them. That’s childish.

You don’t like it? Do something.

Volunteer, become a big brother or big sister, foster a child. Teach them yourself if you know how things should go so well.

Until then, try to avoid asking questions many before you have wondered or asked out loud for more eloquently than you have. It’s not very original. Doing something might be original, I don’t know. Why don’t you try it and get back to us?

@hookecho

You do a pretty good job of making yourself look like a right wing nut on your own.

Because it’s human nature to want to blame something or someone else for your problems. Of course, neither “side” is to blame necessarily. Problems are usually caused by a combination of things, some of which may not have been the person’s own fault. Other times it really is in the person primarily and they don’t want to take responsibility because it’s a difficult thing to do. I do think more people should be taking responsibility for their actions, but if there’s a problem in society, then that should be dealt with as well.

I also agree with @NaturalMineralWater in that avoiding it can be subconscious.

As for its status as a real trend, I don’t really know, but I’m sure it isn’t uncommon.

@pdworkin Jesus Christ, is it smug enough over there for you? Don’t bother to discuss in my topic then!

@Ivan Im right wing because I believe people should take responsibility for thier actions? Whatever makes you happy champ.

I see, so your answer is the answer of no answer. Instead of stepping up to the plate and starting a real discussion, you call me smug, and dance away without presenting a real argument for your position.

go go go pdworkin. dumb rhetorical convo/question

@asmonet typical response that I see here on fluther. It’s ok to discuss anything that comes from a liberal position, but nothing from a different perspective. I guess we should just stick to topics about white privlege and gentically modified foods.

there has just got to be a way we can blame this thread on Obama

MOAR CRAFTERS

That may be how you operate. I always look at myself first, responsibility tends to always fall on yourself/myself.

:-)

You do all know that this is the kind of fighting our government propagates and delights in, right?

As long as you are all blindly calling each other names (coined by our government) and arguing over nonexistent differences (get over yourselves, you’re all the same) our elected officials are getting by with business as usual and laughing all the way to the bank.

Grow up and lose the playground labels.

@pdworkin half the shit on this site is someones opinion or rehetorical questions, as long as their liberal-oriented, they seem to go over fine.

Holden makes a great point

@Blondesjon GA. Tell that to the Politics section on Yahoo Answers. That place makes me want to vomit with rage.

@PretentiousArtist ?
If you really think that no on practices personal responsibility anymore then you’ve really just been looking in the wrong places.

How ‘bout this Yankees game?

Perception is affected by attitude.

There are many many people who take responsibility for their actions.
The news however loves sensationalism and with the advent of 24 hour news stations, we are all inundated with information. Whenever anything screwed up happens in any corner of the country, you can bet there will be 3 news teams there to cover it. So while these things are seen on TV a lot it is not necessarily indicative of everyone.

@hookecho: Excuse me? I gave you an answer. Many, in fact.

I challenged you to change the world you’re so unhappy with. It’s not my fault if you’re not up to it.

@DominicX . . .Exactly. You become so worked up and angry over somebody else’s opinion (stated dickily or not) that you are blinded to the real problem. You only feel that need to prove this motherfucker wrong!

It’s no different than a couple of gang bangers killing each other over the colors they are wearing instead of going after the system that made both of them poor and enemies to begin with.

Every action and decision someone makes depends on one’s current situation, genetics and nurture, the latter which includes how the parents raised you, and it includes the society one grew up it, which of course inlcudes the media as well. It is not a binary reality where you are either fully responsible or not responsible at all. It is a fluid continuum. Realising that is the first step towards a healthier society.

what @DominicX said seems to sum it up pretty well. I cant change the topic now, but I should have worded it as “why can’t SOME people take responsibility for their actions” I was speaking in absolutes, I admit that.

Also I’d just like to say that I do not label myself as liberal or conservative. To all the self-labeled liberals who labeled me as right wing or conservative for starting this topic, you have effectively proven yourself to be as ignorant and close minded as the most staunch conservative.

[Mod Says:] Flame down folks. Off topic remarks and personal comments will be removed.

I don’t know, every day I get more and more skeptical about how much people actually have agency vs how much a sense of agency is just our imagination playing tricks on us.

@hookecho: You know, just because you frequent a website with many liberally minded people does not mean the other half and all the people in between the two are not represented. We tend to accept all viewpoints based on their merits.

Your choosing to see a bias has nothing to do with whether or not there is one.

And neither of your little examples makes much sense. You’re only making yourself look like a silly little person. Frothing at the mouth because no one understands you when in reality – no one agrees with you.

What was that about taking responsibility for your own actions?
Time for you to try that, yes?

Thsi is getting ridiculous. Stop insulting each other. Both of you. You’re ruining a perfectly good discussion.

Well, it’s perfectly possible for me to choose, right now, to leave my life behind. If I really wanted to, I could sell all my worldly possessions, break contact with my friends and family, and walk off into the sunset. But of course I won’t do that, because that network defines me even as it constrains. Similarly, a heroin addict can choose to quit at any time – but he doesn’t because as much as his life constrains him, it also defines him.

On a different note, I think one flaw in your reasoning is that you assume people in the past were morally superior to those in the present. If history tells us anything, it’s that people have always been bastards to each other, and that people have always tried to figure out why this is the case ;-)

Its good to take responsibility for one’s action. I believe in it. I believe in people suffering consquences for their actions. It is sad when i see finanical investors, politicans , and CEOS get away with undermining the economny and having the poor to suffer more provety. It is sad when i see criminals do not get the sentence they deserve.

I think people have more responsibitlies than ever these days, its so hard to make a living, and there are so many tasks we have to do in order to keep up with the global economy. Only those with privileges can get away with not taking responsibilites. Those who do hard drugs already suffer the consquences of a drug addiction and if they are not smarten up, the reality will catch up with them.

It’s too bad i can’t say the same for all the people who have gotten away with doing bad things and ruining people’s lives, jobs and family.

On further thoughts, I also think peopel should take responsbility for their lack of empathy, comnpassion, rudeness, ignonrance and prejudices.

I’m confused about how you think this is a liberal tendency. Can you explain this?

Dude! Where were you the day they passed the law saying no one had to take responsibility? You are so yesterday! You should, like, read the news or something. Or at least listen to the radio. You saw all that shit about balloon boy, right? It was around there somewhere. Larry King announced it.

Anyway, it’s now illegal to take responsibility, and where do you come off implying that anyone should take responsibility for themselves?

ANyway, you’ll be happy to know that government is now responsible for bringing up children (did you notice all those public day care centers?), providing health care and keeping everyone healthy (did you notice the universal health insurance coverage paid for by the government?), and accepting responsibility for all the mental problems anyone has (didn’t you notice how all the prisons have been let out, or how mentally ill people have been picked up off the streets and given jobs?)

I mean, pay attention, dude! The world has passed you by. Government has taken over everything while you weren’t looking. Why, haven’t they taken your property away, yet? Private property has been outlawed. For that matter, so has profit. That’s why all the businesses have closed down, and the stock market is such a lonely place.

Nope. No one is allowed to make their own mistakes any more. I can’t believe you didn’t notice. Finally society has taken responsibility for the alcoholics, crack addicts, child abusers, thiefs and murderers. And not a moment too soon, says I!

I mean—all that whining and bitching can stop now that we know whose fault it is. Can you believe how it was when people were trying to pin blame on anyone but themselves? Not a problem any more. All we have to do now is sit around and scratch our asses and burp.

So, yeah. You must have missed it. That’s why no one is taking responsibility any more. There was an interoffice memo all about it. I mean, what universe do you live in? There’s just no talking to some people. They just don’t understand the world we live in. All I got to say is maybe you should, like, pay attention, instead of seeing the world through your prejudices on accounta you haven’t been paying attention.

Whatever the reason may be, it’s not my fault.

@daloon

Well…I don’t know about that…

I know what you mean, I often hear people making excuses for their dumbass actions (and I have probably done exactly the same myself on more than one occasion in my life time) and it irritates me. I know there are exceptions. Some people really are fucked in the head due to a previous traumatic experience and this may cause them to act in ways that maybe they wouldn’t had they not have had that experience. However, the excuse that I hear too often is “it’s because he/she comes froma broken home”. Hang on, myself and many of my friends come from “broken” homes but we can still think for ourselves and realise the difference between right and wrong. I never once used my parents divorce for my wrong doings.

I agree with others that human nature makes us ALL want to shift the blame for certain actions. We all need to man up a little bit as far as this is concerned!

@ubersiren my mistake, I forgot that on fluther we are only allowed to make generalizations about conservatives, southerners, and white people.

@hookecho That’s exactly right.

ಠ_ృ

the kid was probably addicted to the xbox and the parents decided to take matters in their own hands. he then went and had a fatal hissy fit. DAMN XBOX! i’m addicted as well. i’m sitting here watching my husband play and IT’S MY TURN!!!! shoot…i live in a ghetto and we have no trees to climb. * cry * so sad….