gentlefalcon said:My family wouldn't be too thrilled if my wife turned out to be an atheist or followed some other religion. 😁 I honestly find those hypocritical girls—the ones who claim they are "saving themselves" for someone special when nobody has even approached them by age thirty—to be totally fake. My mom wouldn't necessarily dictate who I marry in the sense of saying, "You must pick this specific person," but she definitely has a very specific "type." For her, physical beauty or education isn't the priority; it's all about being devout and smart. ☕ For me, the criteria are different: I want someone attractive, intelligent, educated, and capable of running a household.
I don't see these girls at the local church, but I see them everywhere during parish fundraisers. And whenever I see one, my mom immediately jumps in with, "See how polite and well-behaved she is!" To which I usually respond that she’s probably just some lonely loser who goes to church because she has absolutely no social life. Besides, kids hanging around priests seem incredibly dull; some of them are even considering entering the priesthood, which adds this weird, stifling layer of youth to the environment.
Let's be real: my mother tries to manipulate me constantly. That is a fact. It’s subtle, too. It sounds like: "You can make your own decisions, obviously; nobody is forcing you. It's just that if someone like you were part of our family, things would be different. We are traditional people, after all."
It’s that cult-like recruitment style: "Why don't you try reading just one passage from the Bible a day? Go to religious ed at the parish, join the choir... you'll see, they travel so much and have so much fun together." 🤣
And what kind of "fun" are we talking about? Five hours spent with three priests, two seminarians, and ten altar servers who are constantly giggling, all while sipping rosehip tea and eating store-bought cookies. ☕
Back when they used to host youth retreats and young people would visit from other countries, my mom suggested I host a few kids overnight and show them around town. They told everyone in the parish that if anyone had the space or the means, they should take them in. I told her straight up: "Fine, you host all ten of them, you take them out for ice cream, I couldn't care less." She hit me with, "Well, I'm working, and you have all this free time." I told her: "I want to use my free time how I please. I’d much rather lounge around the house than play tour guide to some kids from Poland or the Czech Republic."
It’s honestly ridiculous, these manipulative phases. And it definitely damages the relationship. The fanatics look at you like you're the enemy because you're "defiling" the upbringing they provided, which mostly consisted of "you can't do this" and "you can't do that." 😂 I started tuning out that kind of conditioning back in my early school days. In the world of fanatics, the rule is that a child must be obedient and humble because the elders always know better. 🙂 When you dare to disagree, they pull the "Honor thy father and mother" card from the Bible. You can never bring actual logic to the table or have even 30% of your arguments accepted, let alone talk about equality. Luckily, I don't have grandparents around to turn me into their personal hobby for psychological games.🙂
Mom and Dad were watching the Pope’s Angelus broadcast from the Vatican, and my mom turns to me and says, "Look at how many young people are there—it's like the Vatican is right in our own backyard." Most of them seemed to be young folks from developing nations, like Ecuador, Paraguay, or the Philippines 🙂 It’s a completely different worldview. Then, the moment I jokingly suggested changing the name of the "Urbi et Orbi" blessing to "Ubi et orobi," everyone immediately lost their minds 🙂
Earlier this year, they were busy spreading this whole story about some guy who wasn't religious enough, so the devil supposedly appeared to him and started smashing everything in sight 🙂
Man, you are a total legend... Honestly, I haven't laughed this hard in ages. :-)
What does being broke have to do with weeds? Are weeds some kind of dietary staple for the poor folks that this corrupt government is trying to bleed dry? Honestly, if I had my way, along with those extra 200 $0.00, I’d throw in some corporal punishment too, just for the hell of it—screw people destroying the environment. Besides, this whole "picking flowers" thing in nature is such a hillbilly habit to me. You look, you smell, you enjoy, and you move on. What do you actually have that’s growing out there anyway?
Yeah, honestly—it would be great if everyone just buried the hatchet, hit the reset button, and actually tried to level up the quality of this sub-forum together.
Maybe we should look into doing the following:
1. Start cracking down on trolling and provocation—specifically focusing less on the trolls and more on the people actively stirring the pot. 2. Maybe the mods shouldn't jump down our necks every single time someone goes slightly off-topic. 3. Some of us who get annoyed by certain things probably shouldn't even bother reacting. We should just let the mods decide if there’s an actual issue or not. Honestly, ignoring them might be the best way to handle any kind of provocation, because if you don't feed the beast, it dies out. :-) 4. We should probably allow threads that aren't strictly about emigration issues to exist, giving the diaspora some space to talk about stuff from their own perspective.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts. I've been hanging around this forum since late 2002, mostly sticking to these circles (the diaspora), and I've met several truly great people here—well, known them by name, at least, even if we haven't met in person yet. Because of that, it would suck if the diaspora section ended up looking like Honduras.
Steven Ruiz said:@ Nicole Morales3, you claim that being nitpicked over every little detail really gets under your skin, yet somehow you have this incredibly selective memory regarding how things actually went down... It makes it look like Milos was the only one posting trash while Dead Cold was the only one who got penalized. Honestly, I couldn't care less about whether someone is a Mexican or an American. Both sides were talking nonsense, and both sides ended up getting hit with a seven-day ban. End of.
It’s not just about Milos being the only one talking crap; it's about the fact that these kinds of blowups are never worth it. They aren't fun for the people involved, and they sure as hell aren't fun for anyone reading them. For the record, I also don't care about someone's background until they start using it to provoke people. Am I really the only one who thinks this is an issue? It irritates me just as much when Mexicans or Americans act like they have zero self-respect, and then expect everyone else to show it too.
I just want to weigh in on that whole "nitpicking" comment, mostly because this kind of stuff always gets under my skin. It absolutely drives me crazy when someone starts spewing endless, pro-Mexican nonsense and nobody is allowed to say a damn word about it. We’ve seen statements floating around claiming that Americans killed in conflicts deserved what they got—just mindless, disgusting garbage that goes unpunished. Fine, I get it, freedom of speech. But then things cross a line into being straight-up revolting. Take Milos, for example. He never bothered me, nor did I care that he’s a Mexican (if I recall correctly), because 99.99% of the time he treats other users here with respect and doesn't go looking for trouble. There’s a razor-thin line between expressing an opinion and just being a provocateur. Personally, I find it hard to tell them apart sometimes, but when someone is clearly spitting venom and trying to start something, I’m going to react. I don't give a damn if I get a warning card or not. At the end of the day, who is saying it matters just as much as what is being said. Most of the time, people in the diaspora don't give a single crap about Mexico or Mexicans—it's just not on their radar. But suddenly, everyone becomes an expert when the provocations and filth start flying. That’s when we all start "counting blood cells." Actually, let's not even call it that. I have zero interest in visiting Mexican forums, let alone any actual gathering places of theirs. And honestly, I don't get why someone who truly hates Americans or the US would even show up on the American Diaspora sub-forum expecting us all to be perfectly tolerant of their hate. If the policy is that we should tolerate provocations above all else, then fine: next time a nasty scene breaks out, just permanently ban the person who actually reacts to the provocation. Then we’ll finally have some peace.
So, basically, the whole argument about "nitpicking" doesn't hold water.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with sharing info about moving to interesting countries. But when you have a thread titled "Emigration and Life in Canada" that already has 3,647 posts, and then some guy shows up at the very end just to drop: "I want to move to Canada, what do I need to do?" without even putting in a shred of effort—not even skimming the thread or checking actual resources online—what can you even say? Honestly, shouldn't those kinds of posts be auto-deleted? Maybe we need to update the rules to state that asking questions that have been answered a million times over is unwelcome and subject to deletion. If that doesn't fix it, I'm out of ideas.
By the way, the diaspora subforum used to be a place for great topics and good discussions, even if things weren't always polite. Every single thread that wasn't strictly about immigration or leaving the US was either deleted, moved, or shut down. That’s ultimately what killed that subforum. Personally, I think the diaspora should be able to talk about other stuff too, not just give advice to people looking to leave the US, because we all have opinions on plenty of things. I don't really care to go into heavy political debates over there; I'm more interested in hearing from people who have actually lived all over the world and might have a different perspective than someone who hasn't. Maybe we should just allow new threads to be opened and see if there's interest, just like how it used to be...
Then again, maybe I completely misunderstood the whole point of the diaspora section, and I'm just talking for nothing...
And now Adeles is heading straight to Des Moines for some debate on a topic that’s supposedly off-limits to the public. Seriously? If anyone happens to have her email—I mean, she's basically running half the government, right?—post it here. Let's all flood her inbox with demands for actual transparency regarding this whole mess. If we're really talking about the kids of some big-shot local elites in Des Moines, then this is even more of a disgrace, and they owe us a hell of a lot more answers than they're giving.
Which elementary school are we even talking about here? This is honestly disgusting. We need to track down the principal's email address right now and start breathing down their neck, because otherwise, people just sweep this kind of garbage under the rug and pretend it never happened. Why is the school's name being kept a secret?
Look, this isn't some issue unique to America—it’s just that people have this typical, stubborn refusal to call things what they actually are. Even the comments on that group the bullies started are just as aggressive, which is obviously not how you solve anything. For an entire year, everyone just looked the other way while this kid was being targeted, and now suddenly everyone’s acting like a moral crusader, screaming for blood and demanding extreme punishments. Where is the contact info for the school counselor, the principal, or the local police department in Des Moines? It’s simple: once the people who actually have the power to do something feel the heat from public pressure, maybe then they'll finally start doing their damn jobs.
So, what actually went down? I took a look at that group of haters on Facebook, but honestly, it looks like everyone just bailed, leaving nothing but a bunch of bitter people behind.
Quick update: I just checked out the video on YouTube—are we really talking about some kid who’s crying like a coward while getting jumped by a group? The footage is so grainy... it's honestly pretty messed up.
Look, I don't know all the specifics, but if you're planning on working under the table and getting paid in cash, then yeah, you don't need a bank account. But if you're actually trying to open an account abroad, don't you think you'll need some kind of legal status and ID just to get through the door? Like, do Americans think they can just roll up to a bank in Austin and open an account without any paperwork?
slydrifter39 said:Man, I haven't been around here in 6 years, but I saw this headline and thought: I really gotta know if this thread was actually started by some guy living in Canada. 😍
You probably have some specific reason for posting this, so come on, enlighten us.
Betty Wright64 said:@ Nicole Morales3, consider yourself lucky you didn't get slapped with a ban for breaking the sub-forum rules. It was made clear a long time ago: if you want to talk about moderation, don't drag it into a PDF thread like this—take it to the PZK. Despite being warned, you just ignore it and keep opening threads just to be difficult. As for TT, she hasn't earned a single strike with anything she's posted. When she actually deserves one, she'll get it. Just because some "Great Americans" DON'T LIKE her rants on the Belgrade thread, or they hate her theories regarding American linguistic history, doesn't give me any reason to hand out a ban.
That's all from me.
Look, I honestly thought we could handle this like adults—all I wanted was some clarity and an objective take. You really shouldn't have dragged this elsewhere. And seriously, chill out with the "Great Americans" stuff. That term isn't even an insult except in your head and within the world of TT. Besides, what TT writes isn't "theory," it's just straight-up trolling.
I’ve been hanging around this Forum for years now, and honestly, out of all the mods running things here, Steven Ruiz is hands down the absolute worst.
First off, splitting everything into two separate threads—one for global news and one for news in America—is just plain stupid. We have a dedicated lounge for people who just want to chat, so trying to mash different topics together is a massive fail.
For example, a thread about Tiger Woods and a thread about the victims in Haiti have zero business being related, yet according to Steven Ruiz, they should basically be one big mess.
The Tiger Woods thread actually had some decent engagement going, until this "genius" showed up and started a war, claiming it didn't belong on the Diaspora section, effectively killing the whole discussion.
I don't get it. Is the Diaspora supposed to cater to every single person who's too lazy to check actual immigration websites for the countries they want to move to? Are we just here to hold their hands?
I’m not even going to get into the political nonsense here because everyone can see exactly what's happening.
Look, I think it’s high time Steven Ruiz moves on to moderating some other sub-forum. Just please, don't let him hand the reins over to his buddy Ashley Rogers4. Like Ashley Rogers4 says, birds of a feather flock together.
I wouldn't call it trolling. Honestly, I think the guy just finally realized how much of a moron she was being. Even if this whole thing turns out to be some made-up bullshit, we could still have a decent debate about why he'd even bother doing it in the first place.
I’m not even going to bother diving into this guy's psychological profile. Honestly? I'll just leave it at this: the whole situation is just incredibly, deeply sad.
Man, I wish Jeffrey Torres was my banker. I’d just roll up to the branch with a check that has three zeros on it, and he’d somehow flip it into one with seven.