Stoney

I bought it today because I was too intrigued by the review. I can't wait to read it.

Oh my, they have returned to their former glory! Now this is Megadeth, not that garbage we were used to in recent times and... ... ... no, come on, I was joking. Let's be serious, what's the point of an album like this? With all the stuff still out there to listen to, why expect anything from these guys? But why can't the world move on from '80s metal bands? Instead of forgetting them forever, there's always the expectation of a "return to the past," the "redemption." I will never understand it.

The ugly thing is that this record is 23 years old...

How I would really like to believe that Silvio B. is the architect of the intellectual decline of our country... I wish I could, because it would mean that the responsibility does not lie with those around me, and if that were the case, perhaps I would start to trust people again and even find them likable.

Chaos A.D., be careful with your reasoning. On one hand, there’s a criminal episode that stands alone, and on the other, there’s an episode of violence supported by ideologies that formalize the use of punitive methods as an integral part of their thinking. It makes no sense to say "a racist should be condemned whether they are from the PD or from the PDL": it is true that violence is abominable in all cases, and can hold the same legal relevance, but one is a single episode and the other is a structured thought that then becomes a conviction, a lifestyle, perhaps even the education of one’s children, and flourishes to become a hidden cultural layer disguised as common delinquency. These are two profoundly different things. Let’s make a distinction, because equating the two would mean going back 100 years and skipping over the judgment that history has passed on certain ideological manifestations.

Alright, I posted 102 without having read 101... anyway, yeah, let’s wrap up this whole gay thing because I’m tired of it too. Good night.

I also add that I believe that hatred toward a person (toward ONE person) is understandable in many cases. You can hate the boss who exploits you, you can hate someone who has done you a grave injustice; it is a human and instinctive feeling that simply exists. But you do not hate an entire category of people (gays in this case, but it could be Moroccans, Jews, whoever you like) because of a personal wrong suffered, not even if one day a gay person had beaten you to a pulp: you would hate him and not all gays. So it is not a reaction to an offended sentiment; it is something that fell from the sky, summary, gratuitous, decided at a table with no reason other than the self-referential nature of a decision that legitimizes itself. What do you think, is this reasoning too leftist and holier-than-thou?

But you know, if someone calls me gay, I don’t get offended, in fact, I couldn’t care less, at most I laugh about it. I know my sexuality well, and it is functional, at least right now, to building a relationship with someone I love and respect, as an integral part of a complex emotional exchange, period. That said, I know very well that extremism is two sides of the same coin, whether it’s those who go out to hunt down gay people in clubs to beat them or those who martyr themselves in a mishmash of "leftist" populism. However, there’s a lot of people (like me and many others here) who believe there’s no correlation between a person’s sexual orientation and who they are (good, bad, jerk, nice, happy, unhappy), and not because I’m a do-gooder or a communist, but due to simple, straightforward reasoning that transcends any political color. In other words, there’s no reason why everyone has it in for gay people; they’re simply the perfect category to serve as the focal point for the feelings of intolerance inherent in every man. Then, everyone tends to justify their hatred with the reasons they prefer, but these are arguments that have no empirical foundation whatsoever, just like all reasoning that tends to justify absurd generalizations about any category.

Ezekiel, if it’s true that you’ve had so many problems and have lived through such difficult times, if it really is a struggle for you to find a job because of certain past events, then you, more than anyone, should know what it means to be marginalized and treated like dirt by a society that often lumps everyone together and looks down on no one. Obviously, you haven’t learned enough from your experience, or maybe you’re convinced that there are two categories of marginalization, one that’s justified (that against gay people) and one that’s wrong (that against those who were born and raised in difficult contexts, and so on). This is what I’m indignant about, not your language or the statements you make. No offense meant, of course. Best regards.

To Ezekiel, funny enough, it always takes guts to do what you do; what others do is all easy and ends up making them all fools. You build your "real man's" image on what you already know how to do, even if it's nonsense. That's how everyone is good.