Biden suggest twice Uncle was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea

[hollodero]

(04-25-2024, 06:44 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: It's intentionally inflammatory and disingenuous to label it as such, as it covers sex of any kind from being discussed.

Yes, it certainly is. I just don't know how much I can really blame them for that. They fight in a political arena that seems like an Alex Jones rant, where Democrats regularly are called out for being america-hating communists, wanting to forbid to say merry Christmas, trying to ban meat, grooming voters with an open border policy, are in favor of killing babies after birth, not knowing anymore what a man and a woman is, being literally crazy and mentally deranged and whatnot. Where do I point the finger, it apparently depends on initial sympathies or antipathies. That imho is the state of the discourse and I fear if you try to fight there with some reasonable, fact-bases objections you will lose support and elections in this extremely polarized attention economy. It's more of an explanation than a defense really, but at least there's a grain of truth behind it in this particular case, for I'd also say the law affects gay people more severely, since straight couples are the norm every child is aware of anyway.

(04-25-2024, 06:44 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: As for being traumatized, you need to know that sexual topics are a rather more sensitive subject in the US than in Europe (you probably already knew this, I would guess).  The vast majority of parents are not going to be even a little ok with a child's first grade teacher discussing sexual topics with their kid, straight or gay.

Oh I am aware, somehow the US is both the most prude and most lewd western country at the same time. Which makes me wonder whether the whole idea of keeping your child away from any topic touching sexuality isn't an outdated idea to begin with. I'd wager most children have heard plenty about it, even if their parents are uber-strict and successfully avoid their kids ever being on the internet or on Netlix et al, they still have buddies that tell them all about it. Considering this, I'd rather they get correct information than all the rumors they imho inevitably are confronted with anyways. But sure, as I said it's not the most terrible law ever written, I'm just always wary about any law tackling societal issues and wonder whether it was really so necessary in the first place. But I know too little about it, I do wonder though if it could now be considered illegal if a teacher said that some men love men and some women love women. Talking sexuality in that manner is not the same as talking sex really, and imho, it should not be punishable to say the sentence I just wrote in school.

(04-25-2024, 06:44 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: As for your last point, kids will tease each other about whatever they think bothers the person being teased.  My twelve-year-old nephew was telling me yesterday about the drama regarding this girl, who is bisexual, being mad at her current boyfriend (of two days) because he doesn't respect her choices.  And everyone began teasing the "boyfriend" about it.  I think you can cover this by having teachers enforce treating each other respectfully, regardless of the topic.  Meaning it can be addressed by teachers as well as any other subject can in this regard.

Well, I think teasing is different than bullying and children of gay parents are rather prone to the latter. Sure, kids tease each other all the time, but I still remember what happened to the alleged freaks with the gay parents and this was way beyond teasing. And I found it good that teachers tried to intervene and fear many might be afraid to do so for fear of being legally culpable over it.
The other takeaway seems to be that 12 year olds can already have partners and a defined sexuality, and I am generally in favor of an institution like school to somehow address this topic then.

(04-25-2024, 06:44 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I've enjoyed some of his stuff over the years, but, as I said, he was always much farther left leaning than I was.  He has the platform and the courage to call out the current bullshit, and good for him for opting to do so.  I stated in another thread that his now literally making the same points I have for years was rather personal validation of my position that I haven't changed much ideologically, but the people to my left have run away from me.  A point I know some here scoff at.

Yeah I have a similar feeling, I feel like a lonely leftist among my peers that develop some restrictive authoritarian streaks, banning this and that and whatnot. To me, being left always was about personal freedom; like a 40 hour workweek should be sufficient to make a modest living so people are free to live their life instead of being shackled to make ends meet, same goes for maternity leave and all the other leftist stuff. Being totalitarian in your opinion and wanting to silence or ban everything that is not aligned with it is not being left to me, but that's where the leftist zeitgeist apparently goes and there lies my sympathy with Maher.