“What’s So Bad About Hate?”

Is peer pressure a cause of of these hate crimes?
Do a larger majority of these "crimes" begin with no affiliation to race, gender, or sexuality?

      In Andrew Sullivan's "What's So Bad About Hate"we read about  what hate crimes are, what they are based upon and what are the determinations of causing a "hate crime". One thing I wanted to focus on, is a point that Mr.Sullivan has stated and which I happen to agree with , is that  most hate crimes are committed by a group of people rather than a single person, and this is not to say that single individuals  do not commit  these crimes , they most certainly do .but they are less common than that group hate crimes.

     Do these people in  groups motivate each other to engage in these hate crimes? I wanted to talk about this because it's a very interesting cause of these crimes. I happen to agree with the author on this point. If we look at it physiological angle these crimes wouldn't be done by a single individual without the influence of friends or family. I believe that these hate crimes sole determination comes from peer pressure. Some individuals are irked on by friends to shout racial slurs or to physically abuse gay members or affiliates to gay rights and other people they find different from themselves. This is the core problem , this influence, these people wouldn't do these crimes by themselves ,because they have nothing to prove or anybody to impress. Peer pressure operates in a way where most people do anything to make themselves be the "cool one" in the group and it can go as far as kill a person.

    The problem is that a solution to this might be an impossible one. We would have to remove the influences of the crimes. Meaning that family and friends with these radical views would have to be forced away and that might proved to be difficult to moderate everyone with the potential of a hate crime. 

    

Lady Gaga and the Death of Sex

Questions
Is the generation today unable to register human feelings or body language due to the media?
Does our background affect what we like in areas such as in politics,music,movies and values?
Why does Lady Gaga being proclaimed as the killer of sex?


     Now I'm not a Lady Gaga fan but there is no doubt I've hear her music and the weird stuff she does in public, but I find it hard to  agree with the statements the author,Camille Paglia, has said about the fans of Lady Gaga. She explains that the fans of Gaga  like her because they can't comprehend facial expressions anymore which Gaga presents in her music and videos,that they disregard her so called "awkwardness' because that has they see reality.Does it really boil down to how you we're raised? Paglia states that these fans are from broken homes where   traditions and values have gone out the window and when they see Gaga they can some how relate her and her odd behavior. Many people know what the world is like and how reality plays a key role in there lives but to say that we have lost our ability to express or determine the the facial communicate of another because of our use of technology and how  the hierarchy of the family has failed is completely absurd. I'm pretty sure there are fans of Gaga that grasp the meaning of a facial expression and I doubt that's why they love Lady Gaga's music. I also believe that Gaga fans are aware that she does these  weird ostentatious things and they might not agree with this but i see no way of this affecting their love of her music.  
     I also found that Paglia seem to compare Lady Gaga to Madonna and other famous artist. I find that her comparison of these music artist should be passed off because as we can see over time the evolution of music has drastically change. The generation of today is in tuned to Lady Gaga's music,  it is what's popular in this decade, she would be lost as all other older artist have been in time.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Questions

1. In the younger generation, are we seeing this lost of the ability to concentrate, interpret and express due to Google being fast and easy to access?

2. what is the main reason why the internet has an affect on the human mind?

3.In what cases does Google harm us in a way of how we think rather than how outside influences affect us?

        Being that I've grown up with the internet and Google I find that information is assessed rather easily. I can find whatever I’m interested in at the current moment. As of today mostly the younger generation is in tuned to Google and how the internet operates. As I've read Nicholas Carr's article I found out he left out a key type of people that use Google, which are the young. If Google is really making us stupid are we seeing it within the young?

        I myself like to think I’m young  and frankly don't know what Mr. Carr is talking about. He states that his concentration impaired and he's unable to read a book or article without drifting off and that it is all due to him using Google. That really interests me because if been using the internet practically all my life and I have not suffered from any of these conditions, I am able to read books without and breaks in concentration and  I 'm able to read lengthy articles without losing  focus. He does makes some valid points about how people usually skim through instead of read it all, in which instance I say depend on two things, time and interest.

I'll skim through parts I find boring or that don't interest me or just scan through for an important passage in the sake of saving time, but by all means its not dud to losing myself in a daydream or no being able to  focus.  What Carr states could be true for some people such as people making a transition to Google from their paperback books but as for people that basically grew up with the world wide web I see no evidence of Google making them stupid.