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Posts by Lyzko  

Joined: 12 Jul 2013 / Male ♂
Last Post: 19 Sep 2025
Threads: Total: 45 / In This Archive: 14
Posts: Total: 10146 / In This Archive: 4118
From: New York, USA
Speaks Polish?: tak
Interests: podrozy, rozrywki, sport

Displayed posts: 4132 / page 38 of 138
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Lyzko   
17 Oct 2018
Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

We all seem to be missing the point a little here.

The problem with political correctness is not, nor has it ever been, that the fundamental concept is dumb or such what. The problem is that political correctness has been flagrantly misused and the term misappropriated by misguidedly misogynists aka frustrated, ex-women's libbers under the guise of calling themselves "feminists", then

turning around and labeling all men "women haters", "male chauvinist pigs" ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

While it does appear to limit "free speech" to try to monitor what we should or should not laugh, joke about and so forth, attacking white Christian groups is not done because "others" disapprove of white Christians, W.A.S.P.s per se, but rather because for nearly two centuries, the latter contended that only they were the true inheritors of the US, that only the religion of the Puritans was valid, that Rev. Cotton Mather was the first, unsung hero of religious freedom, moreover, that Jews, Native-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans were somehow less "American, but worst of all, that W.A.S.P. America was somehow "beyond" humor and/or criticism of any kind. "Thomas Crapper, a Brit, introduced flush toilets to post-colonial America, and so geez what else do you want, for pity's sake!" seemed the rallying cry of conservative groups over the decades and I suppose we non-Anglo-Saxon Protestants are simply getting a wee bit sick and tired of it, that's all.

Back to the topic. Although I do confess to laughing until I honestly could be barely breathe to watch Charlie Callas going into one of his kooky, querky-jerky routines, I later realized that I was subconsciously laughing at EVERY physically challenged person, and so, came to see how cruel I was being, like most kids, without even realizing what I was doing.

But I'm no longer a child. Wish I could say the same for the bloke in the White House!
Lyzko   
16 Oct 2018
Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

Once more, what you all are saying does reflect an exaggerated effort at over protection.

However, I will never back down on my opinion that the reasons for political correctness are essentially sound, indeed, justified.

In the '60's, it used to be common coin for comedians at random to tease various ethnicities which stood out, such as the Chinese, and mimic

their accents, eye shape etc. Jerry Lewis and Charlie Callas used to break audiences up imitating, really mocking, infantile paralysis.

We've gained wisdom from those times and realize that such overt insensitivity really doesn't cut and that the old saying remains ever so true, namely,

"Don't ever judge another until you've walked at least ten miles in their moccasins."

Bullying is wrong where ever it occurs, and, for instance, making fun of an Orthodox Jew, by joking publically about their garb, accent, or an Asian, Hispanic etc. is wrong.
Lyzko   
16 Oct 2018
Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

Again, PC has gone over the top, no arguments there.

Nonetheless, one offense is everybody's problem and everybody's business since we all live together in the same society, artificial social distinctions notwithstanding!
Lyzko   
16 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

The answer, Maf, is that those already considered unassimilable ought never have been allowed into the country in the first place.
I AM in favor of through background checks for ANY AND ALL new arrivals in the country....EVERY country, my own included:-)
Lyzko   
16 Oct 2018
Life / Political correctness in Poland [210]

My feeling is that PC has indeed gone overboard. However, the motivations for political correctness are commendable in themselves!
Many of the "old ways" were pretty rotten for ordinary folks, too trapped within their social station to fight back.

Teachers for instance were once given carte blanche practically, not only to physically abuse those pupils deemed wayward, but to verbally tongue lash the most minor

infraction in the classroom, where even I towards the end of the '60's can remember to this day, certain teachers liberally using terms such as "Idiot!" and "Stupid!" to

describe slower boys, right to their face. Not very nurturing now, is it! Small wonder almost an entire generation following was all but totally turned off the school, along

with the entire idea of learning or "education".

Furthermore, before political correctness came aboard full throttle, office bosses were a holy terror, save for the most self-confident young women, or men, who were able to resist and leave, risking reprisals when looking for another job. Managers were free to date unmarried secretaries, and just before I arrived on the scene, apparently it wasn't uncommon in offices for women to have "Miss" or "Mrs" before their last name on their desks, leaving the door open to any lone wolf who happened to wander in and wanted to flirt with the female staff.

This then lead to Harvey Weinstein et al.

No, PC has been taken to often unnecessary extremes, I'll grant you. Yet nobody honestly would want to return to pre-'70's, when a male cock of the walk in any office, was allowed to refer to an attractive woman in the support staff as a "bimbo" and get away with it no less.

We've come a long way. Or have we?
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
Classifieds / Meeting Fellow "Language Scholars" Travelling to Poland [3]

I'm a bona fide Polonophile, Navigator1, have been for years!

When you get past the imposing-looking grammar arsenal, it's actually more precise than English
plus a hell of a lot more phonetically transparent:-)
tarsape@gmail.com
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

The problems for the umpteenth time are:

1) Migrants in Northern Europe

2) Islamophobia

3)Third World development

If you can't follow that, ask a 7-year old. They're probably a lot smarter than both of usLOL
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

I'm no more tired than you are, Rich, and I certainly don't have the answers to any of the above.

That's precisely my point....neither have you:-)

What then are YOUR "solutions", for instance?
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

- Migrants in Northern Europe, specifically Germany

- Economic growth in the Third World

- The spread of Islamophobia/Infiltration of Terror Cells from primarily Muslim countries

How's that for starters?
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

How to solve the migrant situation in Germany at present. That's one of many others. Hitler also thought of the world in a simplistic, almost Manichean fashion; good vs. evil, big, bad Jew vs. "superior", near perfect Aryan etc. If a people are sickly, get rid of them, if another are "different", subjugate, isolate, then, exterminate them. Conscience??! The stuff of weaklings and ne're do wells. Christian duty??! Hah, pagan boldness, bereft of thinking and cogitation's good enough for Germany! And finally, "democracy"??!! Don't make us laugh...

You're bating me again, Rich:-)
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / The most important information and facts about Poland [27]

There are several obvious reasons:

1) Her geopolitical location
2) Her history as a buffer between the West and the Soviet Union
3) The education level coupled with intense hard work of her citizens
4) Willingness of many Poles to relocate

Ck out the first line of their national anthem - "Jeszcze Polska nie zginela"
Says it all right there:-)
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

@Rich,

If you continue calling it as you see it, perhaps then you need eye glasses because your vision is highly out of focus.
Complex issues don't need quick fixes:-)
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Apparently though, the EU was never quite as popular as she once thought, hence the entire Brexit, not to mention the internal discontents in Germany, Poland, and other countries, I'm sure.

You're not wrong here, but I feel the issue is far more complicated than it seems.
Lyzko   
15 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Oughtn't though the very nature of the EU be re-visited before deciding that those who are critical of, among others, Chancellor Merkel, are necessarily out to "destroy" Europe?

I too, although an American, see definite chinks in the armor of "solidarity", moreover, that Merkel and others of her supporters might be taking European liberal sentiments just a little too much for granted:-)
Lyzko   
14 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

The problem though is that Trump is an advocate of "simple" solutions to age-old difficult problems which aren't going to be solved by "machine-gun" diplomacy!

Liberal and progressive programs have had questionable success for the rank-and-file middle-class American and European, fair enough. Yet, by throwing the crying baby out with the bathwater, no one's taken the time to discover why the baby was crying in the first place.

If the alternative is only a return to faschism, I think we ought to examine the failures of liberalism before we start beating the drums of totalitarianism.
Lyzko   
14 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

How right you are, Rich!

The more reason why until the tide of unbridled cross-territorial, not to mention cross-continental, migration is somehow halted by responsible governments, things will doubtless get unfortunately far worse long before they get better.

Merkel's a fine woman with a conscience rare these days, especially in post-Wall Europe, but her sentiments are largely misplaced and are heading
her country straight towards disaster. If heaven forbid, the far-right threaten the present balance, and Germany goes the way of Sweden, Denmark, in particular Orban's Hungary, G-d help us all, everyone.
Lyzko   
14 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Spike31,

One might argue that every since re-unification, even BEFORE run-away globalization, Germany had become overcrowded with former residents from the Old East
Zone, later millions of visitors and tourists streaming annually into the country and taxing an already overburdened infrastructure!

Filthy pissoirs? Scarcely surprising. Nearly eighteen years ago when last in Berlin, I too was struck by the grime and how different things were from when I lived in the Federal Republic as a young student in the '80's.

"Deutsche Ordnung"?? Even the Nazis couldn't have foreseen the overwhelming, truly incomprehensible changes to our entire planet with her mega population shifts and growth.

Orderliness typically works best in an easily managable aka maliable, society, something which Germany of the present AIN'T!!!
:-)
Lyzko   
13 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Delphy no mates.

It was the "fault" of the burgeoning Federal Republic and her awkward ministrations towards a pro-democracy, almost "American" style of governmental
leadership which was chiefly to blame.

Had there been no Second World War, obviously, the German government wouldn't have seen the need to try to forcibly integrate often non-integratables
into society.

This was the government's uncomfortable way of trying to make amends for the unamendable, to mend a fence which could never be mended.
While it does take two to tango, the fact remains that in the beginning of the 1960's this idea of community outreach for newly arrived foreign-born settlers didn't exist in Germany, then, a predominantly homogeneous, nominally Christian, country with little of England's, France's or America's experience of natually integrating, that is, "naturalizing" dark-skinned non-Europeans.

It's been tough ever since and for a difficult start, there surely are no easy answers!
Lyzko   
13 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

And who put them in that position??!

Not ALL Sinti-Roma are as you describe and yet if one of them commits a crime, it's as though they all did, and this is what is known as a double standard.

You really have to watch that rigidity in thinking, Rich, it'll warp your whole personality.
Lyzko   
13 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

You're merely reiterating age-old stereotypes and feeding the sorts of fallacies which contribute to the promulgation of further prejudice
and negative stereotyping of "others".
Lyzko   
12 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Dirk,

Take a gentle look ever so far back to the late sixties and particularly to American TV reportage concerning "violent crimes committed by black males throughout

our country.."

Well, there were the Watts riots, of course, can't forget about those. However, the particular bias back then of mostly white, mainstream media coverage of so-called "bad neighborhoods" across the entire United States, rarely if ever, reported similar to identical violent crimes committed by white males against other white males; instead, the focus or bias tended to stress the shootings etc. in already economically depressed areas, such as Watts in L.A., Chicago's South Side, New York's Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant, NEVER on what was going on in places such as Greenwich, Conn and so forth, as white-collar violence such as domestic abuse among the rich, was barely even mentioned in public, much less in the press:-)

In Northern Europe, I'd imagine the situation is much the same these days too.

Dark-skinned foreigners are always easy scapegoats, and this isn't a "sob story", it's a plain fact of life. If two people in Stockholm, for example, are caught attacking someone with a knife, and one of them is an inebriated Swede, while the other is a down-on-his luck male Somali teen, whom are the police likely to suspect of instigating the act? Needn't think hard to answer that one:-)
Lyzko   
12 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Tacitus, he's an American!

I always admired your educational system, especially in France as well, which continually impressed me as teaching students the bread-and-butter basics of logical,
cogent, above all, consistent, argument...in English, not to mention the student's mother tongue.

Europeans whom I've met over the years, are typically far more articulate and infinitely better informed about world affairs than the average American could ever hope to be, especially now when we have a so-called "president" (missed his calling long ago as an itinerant insult comic) who doesn't believe in science aka global climate change, moreover, who admits to having about between a fifth and sixth grade reading comprehension level.

If it smells at the bottom, it stinks at the top.
Lyzko   
12 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Dirk & Co.

Before you start quoting more stats from sometimes questionable sources which tend to feed what we already want to be believe is so (even if it isn't, like some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy), just keep in mind what Disraeli is alleged to have stated: "There are lies, there are damned lies, and there are statistics."

I'd be curious as to the news agency in Sweden which "confirms" what white Swedes, along with those already bigoted, all too often wish to believe. Undoubtedly, as with Fox News here in the States, CNN etc. there's a political agenda afoot which promotes selective news reporting, that is, reporting only crimes committed by foreigners

in urban Sweden to fan the flames of racisim, instead of reporting those crimes in RURAL Sweden, for instance, where doubtless crimes also take place, committed by Swedes, but often unreported to the media, e.g. wife beating, disorderly drunkenness and the like.
Lyzko   
11 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

Clearly there isn't, Rich!

Again, many people necessarily jump to fallacious conclusions, e.g. there was a knife fight in Berlin, therefore, foreigners MUST have been involved, etc.
This sort of thinking only fuels a racist agenda. Where does it end?
Lyzko   
11 Oct 2018
Off-Topic / Slavic languages - oldest European languages. [12]

I can only answer your question by saying that Polish was the first Slavic language I'd ever studied, prior to Russian in grad school.

Polish always reminded me somehow of birds chirping in chorus, full of upbeat exclamatory phrases and drama. Russian on the other hand
seems more like a long, viscous river, oozing ever so slowly until reaching the tributary:-)
Lyzko   
11 Oct 2018
News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

?? Sure we're on the same homepage, dude?
What has the province or "Land" of Brandenburg to do with anything racial?? Plenty of Turks, including "Turkish-Germans" along with others, live in the so-called Mark Brandenburg region. In fact, the reasons for considerable racial tensions in places such as Koenig-Wustenhausen outside Berlin proper had to do with the fact that

many dark-skinned recent immigrants lived in and around those areas.