Black Friday Violence

[Burt Gummer]

Black Friday idiots in our spend and consume Ponzi economy .....


This year, Black Friday violence included robberies, gunfire and shootings, but the most shocking incidents actually happened inside the big retail stores.

For example, as merchandise was being unveiled on Black Friday night at a Wal-Mart in the Los Angeles area, one woman actualy pulled out pepper spray and sprayed it at other customers that were gathered around her.

Did she do this because she felt threatened?

No, according to the Los Angeles Times, authorities say that the woman was just seeking a "competitive" edge.

It is being reported that at least 20 people were affected by the pepper spray.

The pepper spray incident just added to the wild and frenzied atmosphere inside that Wal-Mart last night.

The following is how the Los Angeles Times described the scene....

Employees attempted to hold back the scrum of shoppers and pick up merchandise even as customers trampled the video games and DVDs strewn on the floor.

"It was absolutely crazy," he said.

Another customer said screams erupted after about 100 people waiting in line to snag Xbox gaming consoles and Wii video games got into a shoving match.

Alejandra Seminario, 24, said she was waiting in line to grab some toys at the store around 9:55 p.m. when people the next aisle over started shouting and ripping at the plastic wrap encasing gaming consoles, which was supposed to be opened at 10 p.m.

"People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray," the Sylmar resident said.

http://youtu.be/DigiWS1YhxI

Black Friday Violence Worse Than Ever As American Consumers Fight Over Deals Like Crazed Animals

Watch this twittering twit carry on for 11 minutes about her purchases - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRF0hnbd5jo&feature=related

What are people like this going to do when there is nothing left but ghost malls?

Read More

 

[tlfreek]

the article was great.

Each year Black Friday violence just seems to get worse and worse. What does it say about American consumers when they are willing to fight like crazed animals just to save a few bucks on cheap plastic crap made in China?

 

[Tangent123123]

If $20 off the price of a Wii is important enough to you that you have to do bodily harm to the person next to you. I'm thinking you probably should be using the money for something else. Perhaps therapy?

 

[Asp]

If $20 off the price of a Wii is important enough to you that you have to do bodily harm to the person next to you. I'm thinking you probably should be using the money for something else. Perhaps therapy?

Beer, drugs, ammo and prostitutes would probably end up being cheaper than therapy.

 

[billt]

It has proven that we have become a nation of consumers that pi$$ away virtually everything we earn on depreciating junk. Most everything purchased on "Black Friday" will be obsolete, in the can, or on a garage sale table in 5 years or less. Toys, games, every electronic trinket known to man, name it. And to add insult to injury most of it will be purchased on credit. Yes, it helps the economy to some extent, but imagine if that cash was retained by the folks and wisely invested. Imagine in 20 years what they would have besides a receipt from a Goodwill pickup?

This nation is addicted to crap. If it's a "good deal" they'll not only buy it, they'll stand in line overnight to do it. It is nothing more than disorganized insanity. Much like Lottery Tickets, the people who can afford the least, buy the most. I remember a few years back my printer took a dump on Thanksgiving. Not having ever shopped on a "Black Friday" I ignored my wife's advice and headed to the now bankrupt Circuit City to pick up a new one. I got there at 9:00 AM. Big mistake! The place was a total zoo. You couldn't even find the checkout lanes. If they had a fire, it would have made the Coconut Grove look like a weenie roast.

To me personally there is nothing I could possibly want bad enough to go through such a stupid ordeal to buy. I would rather let the herd stampede until after the holidays, then look for whatever I'm in the market to get. Usually things are a far better deal after the masses are spent out, and the stores are all but empty from January until spring. After Christmas there are enough "white sales" to outfit every Klan member with a new uniform.

 

[BANE]

That is totally screwed up. People are animals. That's why I cary protection. My family always comes First. You always need to CYA.

 

[rufus]

It has proven that we have become a nation of consumers that pi$$ away virtually everything we earn on depreciating junk. Most everything purchased on "Black Friday" will be obsolete, in the can, or on a garage sale table in 5 years or less. Toys, games, every electronic trinket known to man, name it. And to add insult to injury most of it will be purchased on credit. Yes, it helps the economy to some extent, but imagine if that cash was retained by the folks and wisely invested. Imagine in 20 years what they would have besides a receipt from a Goodwill pickup?

This nation is addicted to crap. If it's a "good deal" they'll not only buy it, they'll stand in line overnight to do it. It is nothing more than disorganized insanity. Much like Lottery Tickets, the people who can afford the least, buy the most. I remember a few years back my printer took a dump on Thanksgiving. Not having ever shopped on a "Black Friday" I ignored my wife's advice and headed to the now bankrupt Circuit City to pick up a new one. I got there at 9:00 AM. Big mistake! The place was a total zoo. You couldn't even find the checkout lanes. If they had a fire, it would have made the Coconut Grove look like a weenie roast.

To me personally there is nothing I could possibly want bad enough to go through such a stupid ordeal to buy. I would rather let the herd stampede until after the holidays, then look for whatever I'm in the market to get. Usually things are a far better deal after the masses are spent out, and the stores are all but empty from January until spring. After Christmas there are enough "white sales" to outfit every Klan member with a new uniform.

Sad but true. Mad Max style ain't so far fetched anymore.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Time and time again it has been proven that material gain does not make a person happier when they are unhappy (that is the key).

Jay Leno said it best, and I am not a fan - "Money can't make an unhappy person happy, but it can make a happy person much happier."

Americans are up for a rude awakening, mass suicides when this ponzi money printing economy comes to an abrupt conclusion in the next 2-3 years. Not looking forward to it at all.

The days of prosperity based on debt is coming to an end.

 

[vmkeith]

The last Black Friday sale I did was during the '99 shopping frenzy. I was still in the Marine Corps back then, stationed in Yuma, Az, and the sales were just too good to pass up...especially on an enlisted man's pay. After waiting 3hrs in line a Walmart, we finally got in. Some guy was carry around a bicycle and was rushing by everyone to get to another section of the store and smacked my infant daughter's head with the tire...she was only 6 months old at the time. I was so pissed off, left the kids with the wife, and chase down that jackass. Needless to say, he was left on the ground bleeding and I was escorted from the store. Luckily I was able to get both the kids and the wife was able to finish the shopping. I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with Black Friday anymore...unless I can find the sales online.

 

[Burt Gummer]

This video is the best I've seen at explaining why people are the way that they are - it is all deliberate and calculated programming - The Century Of The Self-Full Length Documentary - YouTube

IMO vmkeith I think you showed restraint.

 

[billt]

This video is the best I've seen at explaining why people are the way that they are - it is all deliberate and calculated programming.

It's all based on laziness and stupidity. No one is "Programming" anyone. An idiot responds to foolish behaviour easier than a individual does with brains, who thinks and applies common sense to their lives and lifestyles. This whole "programming" reasoning is just another excuse for people to act irresponsible and foolish, and get away with it. And in the process make it someone else's fault as to why they do it in the first place.

It's no different than these people like Rosie O'Donnell who think 9/11 was an "inside job" because "fire can't melt steel", or how the Bilderberg Group is secretly controlling everything, when in reality they are simply a rich family who likes to invite important people to parties. In these peoples minds there always has to be an agenda behind everything, when it is nothing more than idiots doing what comes natural for them.

 

[loucfir]

Stupid people do stupid things !

 

[mat33]

Before we get too excited here, what evidence has been provided to show that there was more hype and violence than ever? There's no comparison made to the hype and violence of previous years. I haven't heard of anybody dying this year, so seems like an improvement over 2008.

 

[Bigfoot]

Don't blame the object for the action. Selfish people act selfishly because they enjoy it. The object just provides the opportunity.

Figure out women yet? Men lie to get what they want, women lie because they enjoy lying. What they are maneuvering to get isn't really the goal, the lying is. This isn't always true of course, many self-described men love lying too.

 

[Burt Gummer]

"No one is programming anyone". Anyone who took the time to watch that Century of Self video would know otherwise, but not making excuses for greedy idiots. I just give them a wide berth and see them as the animals they are; dangerous, selfish, and self-consumed.

That is why when the real economic collapse is upon us, they are toast. The latest video game or LED TV won't put calories in their stomach or protect their family. These people will spend their last dime on a PS3 game but won't care about having more than three days worth of food at home.

Dumbed-down Americans worship their true god: Materialism. Self-worth determined by digits. It is all about 'getting theirs' at all costs. It doesn't help that everyone is constantly bombarded by music and media with that message. Anything that threatens their cut of the pie and swag is rejected and 'anything' is usually the uncomfortable truth and hard facts about the mess we are all headed toward is disregarded. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NU3IJNzqJg

I've been starving/broke. Like bum living in my car broke, and pretty wealthly, then down/up my whole life. Somehow I have never been materialistic per se. My car was vandalized the other night and I didn't even give it much thought, just enough to call the insurance company. I have always been a happy person, broke or driving a Porsche/Mercedes.

 

[BrentN]

Yep, the new American dream: cash and credit for electronics and trinkets (wants), EBT and taxpayer assistance for food and energy (needs).

 

[coastal steelheader]

It's all based on laziness and stupidity. No one is "Programming" anyone. An idiot responds to foolish behaviour easier than a individual does with brains, who thinks and applies common sense to their lives and lifestyles. This whole "programming" reasoning is just another excuse for people to act irresponsible and foolish, and get away with it. And in the process make it someone else's fault as to why they do it in the first place.

It's no different than these people like Rosie O'Donnell who think 9/11 was an "inside job" because "fire can't melt steel", or how the Bilderberg Group is secretly controlling everything, when in reality they are simply a rich family who likes to invite important people to parties. In these peoples minds there always has to be an agenda behind everything, when it is nothing more than idiots doing what comes natural for them.

I respectfully disagree. Both the US Government and every major corporation use these techniques to manipulate us all (yes all of us being me and you) into buying either products or philosophies that are unneeded or bankrupt. It has nothing to do with any secret society, or shadowy government agency. It is done to control the masses and most of the techniques they use were perfected long before the US was born. Check out Tacitus The Annuals of Imperial Rome and you'll find that much of the same techniques they used then are still used today by our own Government.

 

[coastal steelheader]

"No one is programming anyone". Anyone who took the time to watch that Century of Self video would know otherwise, but not making excuses for greedy idiots. I just give them a wide berth and see them as the animals they are; dangerous, selfish, and self-consumed.

That is why when the real economic collapse is upon us, they are toast. The latest video game or LED TV won't put calories in their stomach or protect their family. These people will spend their last dime on a PS3 game but won't care about having more than three days worth of food at home.

Dumbed-down Americans worship their true god: Materialism. Self-worth determined by digits. It is all about 'getting theirs' at all costs. It doesn't help that everyone is constantly bombarded by music and media with that message. Anything that threatens their cut of the pie and swag is rejected and 'anything' is usually the uncomfortable truth and hard facts about the mess we are all headed toward is disregarded. Why It Can't Be Stopped (Economic Collapse) Spread the word - YouTube

I've been starving/broke. Like bum living in my car broke, and pretty wealthly, then down/up my whole life. Somehow I have never been materialistic per se. My car was vandalized the other night and I didn't even give it much thought, just enough to call the insurance company. I have always been a happy person, broke or driving a Porsche/Mercedes.

Well said
I do think that the movie giving credit to Freud is a little much though. IMO he simply refined and or validated philosophical ideas by approaching them from sexual/social dynamic.

 

[coastal steelheader]

Before we get too excited here, what evidence has been provided to show that there was more hype and violence than ever? There's no comparison made to the hype and violence of previous years. I haven't heard of anybody dying this year, so seems like an improvement over 2008.

I would argue that we perceived less hype this year, only because we are in a constant state of hype so we don't notice it.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Edward Bernays, the 'father of public relations', has done more for corporations and government (basically one in the same here in the USA since Corps run our government) in programming the sheep more than anyone else in modern times. The barbarian-like acts of these shoppers are taught and programmed behaviors. Again, not defending them.

His techniques were used to sell wars and conflicts, cigarettes, cars, you name it. He did more damage to the USA since the late 50s than any foreign nation. He was one of the key players in getting Americans to lower their moral guard and allow torture or just about any abuse by our government. An evil genious, he could make the masses believe a dog turd was a birthday cake.

A master of word manipulations via the media; what we have seen on almost a cartoonish level in the last couple decades. People don't want to accept that they are lied to constantly and are always being manipulated, but unfortunately that is the case. The average person defends the people that manipulate them with great venom. That is what being a sheep/slave is all about ... believing you are free while you are not.

The decline of American's values spiral downward as we get closer and closer to economic collapse. The twittering twits are far too busy typing about the mocha they just got at Starbucks to worry about the rug about to be jerked out from beneath them.

It is no mistake as you watch the boob tube and just about every commercial portrays a man/husband as a bumbling idiot and the woman as rational, level-headed and informed. Empowering female shoppers.

Introducing Edward Bernays - YouTube (under 3 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-TYCXnAaZU&feature=related (manipulated women into smoking by challenging men with their own 'peni$es' - with their 'torches of freedom!') (under 5 min)