The 'Only in America' thread

[Bucks5]

I was going to post this in the 'What made me go WTF' thread but I think these crazy Americans need their own thread.

This is to open the batting, apologies to any of our young readers in advance....


'Loss of innocence and emotional damage': Mother threatened with a LAWSUIT by other parents after her first grade son told his classmates that Santa wasn't real

* A US mother's little boy revealed to his friends that Santa didn't exist
* A group of mothers sent a threatening lawsuit to the woman about it
* The accusatory letter demanded the little boy stay away from the kids
* It also demanded the woman pay for an all-inclusive 'Santa Experience'
* A child care expert says this reaction caused more damage than the boy
* She says parents need to learn how to deal with this in a 'healthy' way


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -real.html

[David]

Alternatively, an "only in the Daily Mail" thread.

Frankly, I find it crazy that parents would lie to their children about stuff like this. We shouldn't be dissuaded from telling them stories, of course, but I don't see how it's healthy to blur fact and fiction.

[Pies4shaw]

Anyone want to try to plead this out formally as a claim in tort to see just how inconceivable it is that such a claim could be properly brought (even in America)?

[watt price tully]

Anyone want to try to plead this out formally as a claim in tort to see just how inconceivable it is that such a claim could be properly brought (even in America)?

My Mum used to make a fantastic torte for birthdays. Mind you, the health effects might be considered a wrongdoing.

[Wokko]

A girl in Grade 1 told my daughter and her class mates that Santa wasn't real, and the kids just laughed it off. Like "yeah right", then who brings all the presents because mum and dad sure can't afford all that.

I'd say firing up and getting all threatening might just make the kids think there's some truth in the accusation after all.

[luvdids]

What a pack of lunatics... Thought this story was disturbing enough, but of course it would happen in America, then I read the last line.... wtf??

Twenty-seven people were killed in homicides involving a firearm on Christmas Day.

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/12/3 ... l-shooting

I give up, we should all give up, Barack should give up, these idiots are never going to get it.

[HAL]

in homicides involving a firearm on Christmas Day was killed?

[Bucks5]

A picture is worth a thousand words....

[stui magpie]

I found something i thought was funny, thought of starting an Only in America thread, but a quick search found, there already was one. So one bumped Zombie.

This happened in America, but to be honest i wouldn't be surprised if it could happen here too.

Nice little article about polls and how tribal bias influences people's votes.

n the survey, 3,624 people were asked: "Should schools in America teach Arabic Numerals as part of their curriculum?" to which 2,020 people (56 percent) said "no", and just 29 percent actually said "yes".

Ehhhhhh, Arabic numerals are 1,2,3,4,5,6,etc Whoops.

But wait, there's more.

However, this bias wasn't unique to people prejudiced against the word "Arabic". The survey also posed the question "Should schools in America teach the creation theory of Catholic priest Georges Lemaître as part of their science curriculum?" to which 53 percent of respondents said "no".

Lamaitre was the guy who basically came up with the Big Bang Theory (no not the TV show)

To prove that neither side of politics has a mortgage on stupid, it seems 73% of Democrat voters think schools shouldn't be teaching kids about the Big Bang Theory.

But here's the icing on the cake.

Rather than just answering "don't know", it appears to be pretty common to answer along prejudiced lines. In December 2015, Public Policy Polling released results of a poll that showed 41 percent of Trump supporters (and 19 percent of Democrats) supported bombing Agrabah, a fictional city from the Disney cartoon Aladdin, Snopes reports.

Push that 19% up to 23% for all those young left wing Bernie Sanders supporters What did Aladin ever do to them:P

https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog ... in-school/

https://www.snopes.com/news/2015/12/18/ ... ican-poll/

I may have to adopt this thread.

[David]

[stui magpie]

dunno about gullible, I think the term "tribal bias" works well.

the interesting bit for me is so many people were willing to follow that rather than check out what they were voting on, they just followed the trigger words down the rabbit hole

[Bucks5]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-03/ ... h/11667252

Imagine if they introduced this into the AFL

[David]

[stui magpie]

Another Zombie bump,

Apparently Ted Cruz thinks Big bird (Yes the Sesame St one) is a Government plant.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-amer ... 596un.html

The Sesame Street staple announced that he had gotten his COVID-19 vaccine, just days after the US health authorities approved the Pfizer shot for children ages 5-11.

Suitably enough, Big Bird announced this on Twitter. Fair enough you'd think? maybe not

It was seemingly a joyous enough celebration for the childhood icon, who is perpetually 6 years old. But conservative politicians and pundits weren’t so pleased.

“Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!” tweeted senator Cruz, apparently unaware that Big Bird is not actually on the White House payroll.

[David]