The All Things Political Topic - Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one

[Amentep]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Its a pity people on the far right in the US want to take legitimate concerns with CRT ,or similar topics like project 1619, and turn that into discrimination against LGBT 

That's not what Alan said.

He's saying what they're doing with racial topics and CRT, they're doing to LGBTQ+ topics by linking LGBTQ+ to pedophilia, thus making anything related to LGBTQ+ a part of a strategy to 'groom' kids, and thus when they legislate against the LGBTQ+ community, they're doing it under the guise of protecting children from the 'grooming' of 'pedophiles'.

[Guard Dog]

The juxtaposition of homosexuality & pedophilia is one of the worst things to have been done to the LBGT folks. Children CAN be "groomed"  by pedophiles because they don't know it's happening and can't fight back against it. I don't think it possible to "groom" someone to be gay. The reason being is by the time a kid has reached their teenage years and is actually able to be sexual they have developed to a point of knowing what they like and don't like. Don't get me wrong, teenagers are in no way emotionally mature enough to cope with adult life decisions and consequences. But they do have enough agency to decide who they are attracted to and likely enough savvy to avoid perverts assuming they had not been victimized earlier. 

The damage pedophiles and other abusers do to children is horrifying and often life long. I'm against the death penalty but I'd almost make an exception in that case. I'd even make them dig their own hole and stand in front of it. But treating homosexuality and child sex abuse as the same thing is a gross injustice.  Doing so for the purely cynical reason of scaring people to vote a certain way is equally so.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Guard Dog

[BruceVC]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/

I highly recommend everyone reads this link, it criticizes both Republicans and Democrats but its more about the insidious influence of SM

I agree with some of it and I can see the damage SM has done but I dont agree with all of it because SM is just a tool. The article makes 3 suggestions that are interesting

@Guard Dog @rjshae @Gorth @Amentep @Hurlshot @Gfted1 @alanschu you guys will find it particularly interesting 

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, Guard Dog said:

The juxtaposition of homosexuality & pedophilia is one of the worst things to have been done to the LBGT folks. Children CAN be "groomed"  by pedophiles because they don't know it's happening and can't fight back against it. I don't think it possible to "groom" someone to be gay. The reason being is by the time a kid has reached their teenage years and is actually able to be sexual they have developed to a point of knowing what they like and don't like. Don't get me wrong, teenagers are in no way emotionally mature enough to cope with adult life decisions and consequences. But they do have enough agency to decide who they are attracted to and likely enough savvy to avoid perverts assuming they had not been victimized earlier. 

The damage pedophiles and other abusers do to children is horrifying and often life long. I'm against the death penalty but I'd almost make an exception in that case. I'd even make them dig their own hole and stand in front of it. But treating homosexuality and child sex abuse as the same thing is a gross injustice.  Doing so for the purely cynical reason of scaring people to vote a certain way is equally so.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

Right now the conservatives are coming for the LGBT community...

[Malcador]

24 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Right now the conservatives are coming for the LGBT community...

Well, think they'll stop before the Jews.  Maybe.  Muslims though.... 

[HoonDing]

"First they came for the socialists"

I thought the socialists came for us

[rjshae]

I'm not sure I quite understand the significance of this so-called "don't say gay" bill. Is it mostly symbolic? I mean 8 year old kids probably won't understand the issue anyway.

[Malcador]

45 minutes ago, rjshae said:

I'm not sure I quite understand the significance of this so-called "don't say gay" bill. Is it mostly symbolic? I mean 8 year old kids probably won't understand the issue anyway.

Get people scared of the SJWs to see DeSantis as their champion, I guess?

[ShadySands]

2 hours ago, rjshae said:

I'm not sure I quite understand the significance of this so-called "don't say gay" bill. Is it mostly symbolic? I mean 8 year old kids probably won't understand the issue anyway.

So when I was a wee lad way back in the dark ages of the mid to late 80s and early 90s I grew up with a kid that was very, very obviously different and often had a really hard time because of it.  Just because they were too young to be sexual at the time didn't mean that they and all the rest of the kids didn't pick up on the fact that they were different. I don't know anything about this bill but I do know that they got a lot of support at school from teachers, aides, and counselors and if they had not gotten this their life may have turned out more tragic than it already did, at least last time I heard about them, was probably a decade or more by now, they transitioned and were mostly disowned by their family and a fell into drugs and prostitution.

[rjshae]

7 hours ago, Malcador said:

Get people scared of the SJWs to see DeSantis as their champion, I guess?

Yes it seems to be something along those lines. The Trumpies like to accuse the left leaning (and even moderates like me) of virtue signalling, so perhaps this is a counterpoint? A type of value signalling by the right.

[rjshae]

5 hours ago, ShadySands said:

So when I was a wee lad way back in the dark ages of the mid to late 80s and early 90s I grew up with a kid that was very, very obviously different and often had a really hard time because of it.  Just because they were too young to be sexual at the time didn't mean that they and all the rest of the kids didn't pick up on the fact that they were different. I don't know anything about this bill but I do know that they got a lot of support at school from teachers, aides, and counselors and if they had not gotten this their life may have turned out more tragic than it already did, at least last time I heard about them, was probably a decade or more by now, they transitioned and were mostly disowned by their family and a fell into drugs and prostitution.

Yes there's no doubt that some kids can be bullies and they mistreat people who are slightly different. Does instruction by teachers make any difference in that regard? I think there will always be bullies of one sort or another, and they will still often focus on isolated outsiders.

[BruceVC]

3 minutes ago, rjshae said:

Yes there's no doubt that some kids can be bullies and they mistreat people who are slightly different. Does instruction by teachers make any difference in that regard? I think there will always be bullies of one sort or another, and they will still often focus on isolated outsiders.

It  makes it worse when respected adults , like teachers, condone and or ignore bigotry like homophobia 

Almost all bigotry is inculcated in people through their upbringing. So yes kids would normally be homophobic due to how they raised but teachers can play a huge part in changing this view or making it worse  

[Gfted1]

Florida releases 4 examples from math textbooks it rejected for public schools - CNN

[Malcador]

Department spokesperson Cassie Palelis did not identify the books

Why so coy.

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Florida releases 4 examples from math textbooks it rejected for public schools - CNN

Huh, the example looks more like a late high school/college problem, but I am not keyed into math curriculum.

[rjshae]

2 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Florida releases 4 examples from math textbooks it rejected for public schools - CNN

Yes I expected that the issues would be associated with story problems, because math by itself is essentially neutral on cultural matters. Calling math 'racist' is misleading.

[Gorth]

5 hours ago, rjshae said:

Yes I expected that the issues would be associated with story problems, because math by itself is essentially neutral on cultural matters. Calling math 'racist' is misleading.

It’s Florida… those math books probably contained commie blasphemy. Statements like x=y implying equality or similar socialist propaganda 

[BruceVC]

9 hours ago, rjshae said:

Yes I expected that the issues would be associated with story problems, because math by itself is essentially neutral on cultural matters. Calling math 'racist' is misleading.

This ridiculous suggestion that " math is racist "  has been raised in SA by some activists but in SA they say " math must be decolonized " 

If you listen to the logic behind this from these SA activists you will quickly realize they dont really know what subjects like math or accounting are about or how they get applied in RL so it just gets ignored 

But it still gets raised 

[Gromnir]

What to know about the latest student loan forgiveness waiver

is gonna be a bit painful for those who defaulted somewhere along the ways,

"Consumer advocates are disappointed in this exception because of the 4.4 million people who have been in repayment on their loans for more than 20 years, roughly half are in default. Advocates argue that these people need the most help and have experienced the most harm from a broken repayment system."

am recognizing is political difficult to get support for a plan which subsidizes perceived deadbeats. heck, we got people on these boards getting all frothy 'cause o' school lunch programs, so imagine the pushback on student loans being forgiven if the the borrower defaulted at some point. that said, it would appear the folks most in need is gonna be the ones unable to avail themselves o' loan forgiveness.

HA! Good Fun!

ps am gonna admit we took a long time to repay our loans (didn't need undergrad or grad, but for law school we took max dollar amount possible) but the reason we stretched out repayment is 'cause, curious enough, all those student loan accounts helped our credit rating. we purposeful avoided consolidation, so instead o' having to manage a bunch o' credit cards we didn't want or need, we had a bunch o' different student loan accounts, which perhaps ironic bolstered our credit rating. 'course when we payed off our loans, we went from low 800s to 750ish almost overnight. didn't take us the 25 years to repay needed to avail self o' post grad/professional loan forgiveness, but am suspecting a few o' our contemporaries is still paying. 

 

[BruceVC]

https://unsharednews.com/awkward-moment-as-bbc-world-news-struggle-to-find-south-africa-on-map-video

A BBC media anchor thought the DRC was SA....I am amazed peoople get confused by where SA is on a map. Its at the bottom of Africa, you can miss it 

I feel sorry for her for making such a mistake but I would say its more the producers fault 

 

[BruceVC]

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/cnn-plus-to-shut-down-after-just-one-month/

CNN+ has only lasted 1 month, I thought it would do better

But from what I saw it was too SJWish for me. Besides I already pay and watch International CNN so I didnt think I would benefit from this 

[Gorth]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

https://unsharednews.com/awkward-moment-as-bbc-world-news-struggle-to-find-south-africa-on-map-video

A BBC media anchor thought the DRC was SA....I am amazed peoople get confused by where SA is on a map. Its at the bottom of Africa, you can miss it 

I feel sorry for her for making such a mistake but I would say its more the producers fault 

 

To be fair, it wasn't the anchor who thought that (I watched the video), but whatever producer was responsible for what gets shown on the screen in the background behind her. True, the location is sort of in the name

 

[majestic]

No, that's just because they forgot to adjust for the spinning ball Earth lie. I'm sure the placement makes sense on a flat Earth!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

No, that's just because they forgot to adjust for the spinning ball Earth lie. I'm sure the placement makes sense on a flat Earth!

Real talk, it can be fun to joke about people believing in dumb stuff, but I think repeating untruths ends up normalizing them. Given the way the world has really gone off the rails believing dumb **** like Disney being a communist plot, we need to be more careful when posting to prevent some of the more gullible forum members from unironically believing such nonsense. Which is why I need to come out against the flat earth lie, science shows that we actually live on a giant ball of ice and that the earth is actually just one of many ponds in this big ol ball of ice.

[Gromnir]

april 23, 2020. only two years?

HA! Good Fun!