The type of information Snowden is leaking just makes this type of cooperation more difficult to achieve
Good. The truth shall set us free. Incidentally that article seems biased with a clear pro-NSA slant. I don't believe a word of that propaganda. It's not like the NSA haven't been caught in lies before. There isn't any conclusive evidence that an organization by the name of Al Qaida even exists except as an invention of Washington. Watch The Power of Nightmares, a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis. Used to be on youtube but it looks like the BBC must have taken it down. And even if by some miracle all of the information in that biased article were true it most certainly would not be worth living in a 1984 surveillance police state in order to catch the occassional suicide bomber. The NSA should be dismantled except during an active war and then its scope should be limited only to the country we are actually at war with.
You are delusional. You really think they will use fighter planes intercept a flight just to arrest this guy?
If a commercial flight passes through US air space fighter planes could "escort" the aircraft to the nearest airport and remove Snowden from the plane. Then send the aircraft on its way. If the pilot ignores the warnings from the USAF pilots shooting down the plane definitely couldn't be ruled out. Hell, they could do this even if the the flight doesn't enter international airspace. The US government clearly wants Snowden very, very badly. OTOH they could just wait until Snowden reaches his destination and then assassinate him. Unfortunately that is not unlikely. If they really want Snowden dead, disappeared, or in gitmo badly enough the sick bastards can probably accomplish it.
So you immediately believe the denials of the European countries without even the slightest shred of evidence to back them up, but you do not believe Morales' story even though there is at least some evidence to back it up and the story itself is far more plausible than the leader of a nation choosing voluntarily to humiliate himself and his country, making himself look weak and waiting at the Austrian airport for 14 hours. Clearly you are objective and unbiased.
Not exactly the same, but from someone who tried to gain asylum in Venezuela and ended up leaving including due to aspects of culture shock:
I skimmed the article. I didn't notice any specific complaints. Maybe he's just not suited for living in other cultures. Some people really should just stay home. Latin America is a wonderful place to live. Certainly no worse than living in the US. And Snowden already applied for asylum and it was granted. So that isn't an issue. I cannot speak to Venezuela specifically because I've never been there.
That aircraft was shot down in error, not deliberately
The US could also shoot down Snowden's aircraft "in error". People make mistakes. If people are willing to buy the Assange rape thing despite the timing I doubt the suspicious coincidence will bother them now. I think the US is capable of something like that, but taking a boat is impractical and a submarine simply isn't going to happen. So Snowden will have to take the risk of flying. He doesn't have a choice.
Once he has temporary travel documents he could just take a direct commercial flight to Havana, but I don't know if the airline would allow it. The normal flight path passes through US airspace. Would the airline be willing to alter the flight path due to just one passenger?
If the flight passes through US airspace I think there is a chance that USAF jet fighters could threaten to shoot the plane down if they don't land at the nearust US airport and allow Snowden to be taken in to custody. Before they grounded the Bolivian president's plane I would have thought this possibility unlikely, but not anymore.
Nicaragua and Bolivia have also offered him asylum. And probably some other South American nations from the UNASUR bloc may grant him asylum soon. I hadn't heard that Venezuela was having problems with basic necessities and that the violence was quite that bad. To be fair a lot of that violence may be limited to Caracas. Presumably Snowden is looking into all of that now.
If he hasn't already applied to Argentina and Uruguay he should. Both are nice places to live and the leaders were at the UNASUR meeting on Thursday in support of President Evo Morales.
Fair enough, but the advice still holds. Not every country has the same ashhole : nice person ratio. Try spending some time in a country with a better ratio.
So we have government agency working to prevent surprise attacks by enemy nations
Enemy nations? Since when? Looks to me like 99% of their work is to turn our own country into an Orwellian dystopia while also allowing our allies along for the ride. I'm guessing they consider actual enemies too boring. Besides monitoring them requires some foreign language ability. So much easier to spy on English speakers.
it's pretty dumb to try to get that information out of them when you have no need to know.
Funny. That's what I keep saying about the NSA spying on our close allies. Sorry. Former allies. The German people also had no need to know about the concentration camps, right.
In mostly any other society the hikkikomory would soon stop being one as he gets kicked out of the house.
Actually you have it backwards. Most societies don't put so much stress on kicking the kids out of the house at 18 and the family is way, way more important. They think we are the weird ones.
Only for those attractive enough and outgoing enough to get them. Probably most hikikomoris are neither. For everyone else just seeing a pretty girl is another form of negative reinforcement. It just tortures you by showing you what you can never ever have. It's like a homeless person who eats out of garbage cans looking into the window of an expensive restaurant. What's the point? Masochism?
There is nothing "out there" that I need to see or experience.
I agree 100%. And every time I do go out and something terrible happens to me it just reinforces this more and more. I think, "I should have just stayed home. If I had stayed home this wouldn't have happened."
Try applying for one of those shit jobs and then you will see. I also worked at shit jobs 20 years ago and was able to get them. Now I can apply at every supermarket, restaurant, and retail store in a 10-15 mile raduis willing to do anything, in addition to using every online resource and get nothing and none of them have any interest. So it does look to me as if things have gotten worse at least around here. Or maybe managers just prefer younger people. There are a lot more Brazilians and other Latin American immigrants around here than there used to be and many of them work as managers now, but I don't really know the reason. All I know is at least around here I cannot find a job, any job. Luckily I have another way to survive, but in the metropolitan area where I live finding a shit job is anything but easy. I'm guessing that pretty much every job gets way more applicants than they need. The population in my area has hugely increased in the past 20 years.
Interesting. Well many of the prettier ones do have very large eyes. I thought particularly so in Fukuoka. I think large eyes on a small face (a baby face) is considered beautiful across most cultures. The only exceptions I've seen are in parts of Southeast Asia (Laos and Cambodia) where large eyes are sometimes associated with ghosts. I've been told that Japanese men are kind of obsessed with large breasts. Even more than usual I mean. Presumably that's just a "the grass is always greener" kind of thing.
Try living in a communist or semi-communist country for a while and see what you think. I lived in Cuba for more than a year. Average wage: $12/month. A one-per-family ration card that buys you almost nothing. It's hard to be a hikikomori because computers are actually fucking illegal to own (although that has changed). Not that anyone could afford them anyway. Unemployment that is so high it is almost uncountable. Would you want to work at some boring, shitty job that pays less than 50 cents a day?
And if you are thinking that food and other goods are cheaper there you are wrong. Well some stuff at the vegetable markets are cheaper. Like a pineapple or watermelon might cost $1 instead of $4, but it isn't anywhere near to being cheap enough for a $12/month salary. Nearly anything else that you want will cost you more than it would in the US. Sound like a utopia to you? Sound like something that would make people want to go out into the world and face reality? The fact that there are basically no shy people in the entire country is another matter.
And just now in modern times the undesirable men are finally figuring it out. They can't win, mostly due to losing the genetic and familial lottery, so they are quitting the game. They refuse to waste their lives "finding a place" in a society that ultimately views them as interchangeable and disposable. They are doing things that make them happy and everyone else can go fuck themselves.
I have a suspicion that hikikomorism is an alternative to suicide. Suicide is also an avoidance mechanism. A hikikomori can simply avoid the vast majority of negative stimuli by never venturing out into the world. Thus neatly avoiding the necessity of ending their lives completely.
Or eventually you learn to have quick sex with the pretty ones and then kick them out of bed and talk to the intelligent but ugly ones. Assuming of course that you are good looking enough yourself to score with the pretty ones at all. Those of us who are less attractive have to be content with female friends and porn for a girlfriend.
Possibly because the field in filled with young men who view women as either 'hot' or utterly invisible.
Women also view men as either 'hot/cute' or utterly invisible. Welcome to the human race. And as someone who has lived in a number of different cultures let me assure you that this phenomenon is quite cross-cultural as well. Although I have noticed that American women are at least somewhat more obsessed with looks than in some of the other cultures where I've lived. I'd say the biggest difference is that women are more prone to lie about this. Men tend to be more open and honest about it.
I mostly agree with you. But spend some time in Colombia, Laos, Japan, and maybe Finland (not sure because I only visited briefly) before making up your mind about the whole species. The U.S. is particularly bad in terms of the asshole to nice people ratio.
It is almost impossible for me to make friends in the U.S., but in Colombia it is difficult for me not to make friends and the people are very nice and genuinely so. Lao people are nearly as friendly and kind but the language is tonal and very difficult to learn and almost no one speaks English. Japanese people aren't quite as nice as Colombian and Lao people, but I still find them very, very likeable. Ironically I think there is a lot less cause to be a hikikimori in Japan than in the U.S, where people really are comparitively intolerant and cruel. Japan is one of the few places where I think I would actively seek out people and want to spend time with them. In fact that would be the only point in my living there (whch I would love to do). One problem though is that they work so much. Often more than just 8 hours a day. So they tend not to have a lot of time to hang out with you. Colombia unfortunately has a similar problem. Lots of people working 10-14 hour days.
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The type of information Snowden is leaking just makes this type of cooperation more difficult to achieve
Good. The truth shall set us free. Incidentally that article seems biased with a clear pro-NSA slant. I don't believe a word of that propaganda. It's not like the NSA haven't been caught in lies before. There isn't any conclusive evidence that an organization by the name of Al Qaida even exists except as an invention of Washington. Watch The Power of Nightmares, a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis. Used to be on youtube but it looks like the BBC must have taken it down. And even if by some miracle all of the information in that biased article were true it most certainly would not be worth living in a 1984 surveillance police state in order to catch the occassional suicide bomber. The NSA should be dismantled except during an active war and then its scope should be limited only to the country we are actually at war with.
You are delusional. You really think they will use fighter planes intercept a flight just to arrest this guy?
If a commercial flight passes through US air space fighter planes could "escort" the aircraft to the nearest airport and remove Snowden from the plane. Then send the aircraft on its way. If the pilot ignores the warnings from the USAF pilots shooting down the plane definitely couldn't be ruled out. Hell, they could do this even if the the flight doesn't enter international airspace. The US government clearly wants Snowden very, very badly. OTOH they could just wait until Snowden reaches his destination and then assassinate him. Unfortunately that is not unlikely. If they really want Snowden dead, disappeared, or in gitmo badly enough the sick bastards can probably accomplish it.
So you immediately believe the denials of the European countries without even the slightest shred of evidence to back them up, but you do not believe Morales' story even though there is at least some evidence to back it up and the story itself is far more plausible than the leader of a nation choosing voluntarily to humiliate himself and his country, making himself look weak and waiting at the Austrian airport for 14 hours. Clearly you are objective and unbiased.
Not exactly the same, but from someone who tried to gain asylum in Venezuela and ended up leaving including due to aspects of culture shock:
I skimmed the article. I didn't notice any specific complaints. Maybe he's just not suited for living in other cultures. Some people really should just stay home. Latin America is a wonderful place to live. Certainly no worse than living in the US. And Snowden already applied for asylum and it was granted. So that isn't an issue. I cannot speak to Venezuela specifically because I've never been there.
That aircraft was shot down in error, not deliberately
The US could also shoot down Snowden's aircraft "in error". People make mistakes. If people are willing to buy the Assange rape thing despite the timing I doubt the suspicious coincidence will bother them now. I think the US is capable of something like that, but taking a boat is impractical and a submarine simply isn't going to happen. So Snowden will have to take the risk of flying. He doesn't have a choice.
Once he has temporary travel documents he could just take a direct commercial flight to Havana, but I don't know if the airline would allow it. The normal flight path passes through US airspace. Would the airline be willing to alter the flight path due to just one passenger?
If the flight passes through US airspace I think there is a chance that USAF jet fighters could threaten to shoot the plane down if they don't land at the nearust US airport and allow Snowden to be taken in to custody. Before they grounded the Bolivian president's plane I would have thought this possibility unlikely, but not anymore.
Nicaragua and Bolivia have also offered him asylum. And probably some other South American nations from the UNASUR bloc may grant him asylum soon. I hadn't heard that Venezuela was having problems with basic necessities and that the violence was quite that bad. To be fair a lot of that violence may be limited to Caracas. Presumably Snowden is looking into all of that now.
If he hasn't already applied to Argentina and Uruguay he should. Both are nice places to live and the leaders were at the UNASUR meeting on Thursday in support of President Evo Morales.
If America is so broken, why is English the international language today?
There is this country called England where the language Eng-lish came from. Perhaps you've heard of it?
If they are so cowardly please explain why the only footprints on the moon were put there by Americans?
That was the old America and it was only done to beat the Russians who started the whole space race thing.
Fair enough, but the advice still holds. Not every country has the same ashhole : nice person ratio. Try spending some time in a country with a better ratio.
You think the NSA employees don't believe in something bigger than themselves?
You mean like the CIA? They aren't protecting America. They are destroying America. They are traitors.
So we have government agency working to prevent surprise attacks by enemy nations
Enemy nations? Since when? Looks to me like 99% of their work is to turn our own country into an Orwellian dystopia while also allowing our allies along for the ride. I'm guessing they consider actual enemies too boring. Besides monitoring them requires some foreign language ability. So much easier to spy on English speakers.
it's pretty dumb to try to get that information out of them when you have no need to know.
Funny. That's what I keep saying about the NSA spying on our close allies. Sorry. Former allies. The German people also had no need to know about the concentration camps, right.
OTOH, the Third Amendment means that you don't have to be afraid whenever you're at home.
You mean because there will not be any soldiers living there with you? That could be kind of scary.
In mostly any other society the hikkikomory would soon stop being one as he gets kicked out of the house.
Actually you have it backwards. Most societies don't put so much stress on kicking the kids out of the house at 18 and the family is way, way more important. They think we are the weird ones.
but there are real live girls
Only for those attractive enough and outgoing enough to get them. Probably most hikikomoris are neither. For everyone else just seeing a pretty girl is another form of negative reinforcement. It just tortures you by showing you what you can never ever have. It's like a homeless person who eats out of garbage cans looking into the window of an expensive restaurant. What's the point? Masochism?
There is nothing "out there" that I need to see or experience.
I agree 100%. And every time I do go out and something terrible happens to me it just reinforces this more and more. I think, "I should have just stayed home. If I had stayed home this wouldn't have happened."
Try applying for one of those shit jobs and then you will see. I also worked at shit jobs 20 years ago and was able to get them. Now I can apply at every supermarket, restaurant, and retail store in a 10-15 mile raduis willing to do anything, in addition to using every online resource and get nothing and none of them have any interest. So it does look to me as if things have gotten worse at least around here. Or maybe managers just prefer younger people. There are a lot more Brazilians and other Latin American immigrants around here than there used to be and many of them work as managers now, but I don't really know the reason. All I know is at least around here I cannot find a job, any job. Luckily I have another way to survive, but in the metropolitan area where I live finding a shit job is anything but easy. I'm guessing that pretty much every job gets way more applicants than they need. The population in my area has hugely increased in the past 20 years.
Interesting. Well many of the prettier ones do have very large eyes. I thought particularly so in Fukuoka. I think large eyes on a small face (a baby face) is considered beautiful across most cultures. The only exceptions I've seen are in parts of Southeast Asia (Laos and Cambodia) where large eyes are sometimes associated with ghosts. I've been told that Japanese men are kind of obsessed with large breasts. Even more than usual I mean. Presumably that's just a "the grass is always greener" kind of thing.
Try living in a communist or semi-communist country for a while and see what you think. I lived in Cuba for more than a year. Average wage: $12/month. A one-per-family ration card that buys you almost nothing. It's hard to be a hikikomori because computers are actually fucking illegal to own (although that has changed). Not that anyone could afford them anyway. Unemployment that is so high it is almost uncountable. Would you want to work at some boring, shitty job that pays less than 50 cents a day?
And if you are thinking that food and other goods are cheaper there you are wrong. Well some stuff at the vegetable markets are cheaper. Like a pineapple or watermelon might cost $1 instead of $4, but it isn't anywhere near to being cheap enough for a $12/month salary. Nearly anything else that you want will cost you more than it would in the US. Sound like a utopia to you? Sound like something that would make people want to go out into the world and face reality? The fact that there are basically no shy people in the entire country is another matter.
And just now in modern times the undesirable men are finally figuring it out. They can't win, mostly due to losing the genetic and familial lottery, so they are quitting the game. They refuse to waste their lives "finding a place" in a society that ultimately views them as interchangeable and disposable. They are doing things that make them happy and everyone else can go fuck themselves.
Bingo!
What is the stereotypical manga chick? I've watched j-dramas, but I don't know anything about manga or anime.
I have a suspicion that hikikomorism is an alternative to suicide. Suicide is also an avoidance mechanism. A hikikomori can simply avoid the vast majority of negative stimuli by never venturing out into the world. Thus neatly avoiding the necessity of ending their lives completely.
Or eventually you learn to have quick sex with the pretty ones and then kick them out of bed and talk to the intelligent but ugly ones. Assuming of course that you are good looking enough yourself to score with the pretty ones at all. Those of us who are less attractive have to be content with female friends and porn for a girlfriend.
Possibly because the field in filled with young men who view women as either 'hot' or utterly invisible.
Women also view men as either 'hot/cute' or utterly invisible. Welcome to the human race. And as someone who has lived in a number of different cultures let me assure you that this phenomenon is quite cross-cultural as well. Although I have noticed that American women are at least somewhat more obsessed with looks than in some of the other cultures where I've lived. I'd say the biggest difference is that women are more prone to lie about this. Men tend to be more open and honest about it.
I mostly agree with you. But spend some time in Colombia, Laos, Japan, and maybe Finland (not sure because I only visited briefly) before making up your mind about the whole species. The U.S. is particularly bad in terms of the asshole to nice people ratio.
It is almost impossible for me to make friends in the U.S., but in Colombia it is difficult for me not to make friends and the people are very nice and genuinely so. Lao people are nearly as friendly and kind but the language is tonal and very difficult to learn and almost no one speaks English. Japanese people aren't quite as nice as Colombian and Lao people, but I still find them very, very likeable. Ironically I think there is a lot less cause to be a hikikimori in Japan than in the U.S, where people really are comparitively intolerant and cruel. Japan is one of the few places where I think I would actively seek out people and want to spend time with them. In fact that would be the only point in my living there (whch I would love to do). One problem though is that they work so much. Often more than just 8 hours a day. So they tend not to have a lot of time to hang out with you. Colombia unfortunately has a similar problem. Lots of people working 10-14 hour days.
I have found it to be remarkably difficult. I think whether you find it easy or difficult depends a lot on what you look like.