this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
242 points (96.2% liked)

politics

24323 readers
2923 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 212 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Comprehensive sex ed teaches students how to say no. It teaches them what to look out for if some creep is trying to groom them.

Conservatives prefer their victims to be naive.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 years ago

It also teaches kids that there is such a thing as an unforgivable action, IE that it is not just their right to, but bordering on their duty to set and enforce boundaries that they have the right to cut people out of their lives for breaching.

There is nothing conservatives fear more in this world than the idea of something that can permanently earn them the judgement and condemnation of others. To be judged by the content of their character, and that alone.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago

And that it isn't the fault of the one in a position of power when they rape, but the naive one.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago

And not just for sexual assault, sexual shame is openly praticed as a mind control mechanism

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

You got that right.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 years ago (4 children)

You should be 18 or older to attend any religious event. Our youth have been indoctrinated long enough.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There are areligious people who are nevertheless puritanical.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Sure, but they're just victims of cultural spillover from religion. It's all rooted in religion.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

I respectfully disagree. It's rooted in patriarchy, which utilizes religion as a method of systemic reinforcement. There are plenty of religions that aren't sexually repressive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

I suspect this as well. Most people alive today were born into a highly religious culture. 85% of America was Christian in 200 and it was even higher the farther back you go

[–] [email protected] 63 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have an acquaintance who, if anyone ever talks about the subject of sex Ed around, he will insist that they will just teach the kids about blood play and it will spread STDs.

So that's the level of logic we may be dealing with here.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have a reaallly stupid niece-in-law who prefers to keep her daughter from hanging out with her little cousin (my grand-daughter) because my daughter taught her own daughter that it's called a vagina and not a tee-tee or what-ever-the-fuck the niece-in-law insists on calling it. She literally does not want her daughter exposed to the word 'vagina'. I think the world of my nephew, but his wife can kick rocks...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 years ago

When my child was young a doctor told me that if a child is sexually abused and doesn't use the proper words to describe their genitals the chance of conviction drops drastically.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

I understand why books that tell kids about sex are causing conservative parents to freak out, because conservative parents hold a bizarre belief that everyone has to just pretend sex isn’t happening all around the world all the time. For some reason, this totally normal part of life must never, ever be discussed openly, and kids especially must for some reason believe in storks until a certain age.

I think conservative parents are only afraid of teaching kids about sex because they’re afraid of sex.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I also have a suspension they don't want the kids able to identify the inappropriate sexual abuse they are committing on the kids, startling how often these uptight cunts end up being pedos.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I think they fear sex because it involves a certain cutting lose and abandonment of yourself. When you're accustomed to a simple and rigid structure based on simple rules, this freedom can be experienced as a pretty deep and fundamentally frightening discomfort.

When your whole life is spent feeling so tight and wound up because you're basically walking a clearly black-and-white tightrope, this freedom probably feels straight up Satanic to some of them.

Remember, religious folks do not hold rationality as the highest measure of something, and you probably wouldn't either if you hadn't been trained in the skill. It has its uses, but there's much more important measures in their world. Life is not supposed to make complete sense to them, ever. This is why God works so often in "mysterious ways" and remains a father figure to be heeded and honored, moreso than a subject to be considered or pondered fairly.

edit: Just occured to me, but it's akin to an ex-con who gets out of prison but has to deal with being institutionalized, where they became accustomed to that simple, rigid life and don't remember how to live in the regular world. Now, they were once free men. How much harder would it have been had they been born into that simple, rigid institution?

They're all Shawshank Redemptioned. Like Brooks. Like Morgan Freeman was probably gonna be, if not for his friend.

Veterans experience something like this as well, when they try to retire from the army and come home from war. They often struggle to adapt back into our extreme levels of freedom and nonchalance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This analysis is pretty thorough compared to what I'm used to, and throws a lot of hypotheses out there... but I would hypothesize this way, too. Unless you have sources you'd like to share? Don't mean to be intimidating or argumentative--I think what you're saying is true, but I'm still curious of the (sociological? psychological?) science behind it.

As an aside, I feel so bad for some people (like childhood victims of sexual abuse).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Valid questions. No, I'm no professional, nor have I studied in this field. This is personal opinion based on my own anecdotal experiences.

I suspect there probably is a more rigorous exploration of this idea somewhere, we can't be the first people to notice the commonalities. But I am not qualified to process or judge the studies, and I do know that social science work is particularly challenging due to the difficulties of cramming people into laboratories and performing conclusive experimentation upon them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Idk, where I’m from, sex ed is minimal and abstinence only, parents can still pull kids out of it and the bulk of parents that do had their first child before age sixteen.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Yes. And want to seem surprised.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 years ago

A lot of good answers here. One component I haven't seen here is that a lot of parents have this naive notion that their kids are complete Innocents and they'll stay that way if no one tells them about things like sex. It's moronic because they've forgotten that when they were kids they got urges and experimented whether someone explained things to them or not. They want their kids ignorant to keep them from growing up.

It's even more moronic these days when anyone with internet access can get to all manner of stuff. I personally wanted our kids to get sex education before they got curious and started searching for things that they weren't ready to see or understand.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Sex, especially gay sex, is icky. But all sex is actually icky. Unless you're doing it to procreate. Then you make it happen as fast as possible and pray for forgiveness both before and afterward.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You also turn off the lights and shut the curtains, lest you see something!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Missionary position only too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I didn't think it was necessary.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Banned for homophobia.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Because then they will have the tools to report abuse.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Bingo! This is why Republicans hate all education, because it makes harder for them to be manipulated.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago

So imagine a society dominated by men.

This society knows that sex is what leads to children. What it doesn't know is how to verify if a child belongs to a particular man.

As this society is patriarchal in nature, it's very important to the leaders/men that their lineage is protected. So they need a way to ensure that children's bloodline can be properly guaranteed. The only way to control that is to make sure that women are bound to a specific man, and that sex with any other man is forbidden/disgusting. This is why bastard children and unwed mothers have historically been treated with such disdain. But men were often given a pass. The women were screwing up lineage tracking.

Tracking is less an issue these days, but the social conditioning is still there. We've forgotten why we prioritized it in the first place (right or wrong). Now it's the way many people think because it's been the way we've behaved for so long, much of society is geared around it being a basic truth.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

Well, that article gave me two books to help teach my children! Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

For the general public it is because of social conditioning through various means such as society and religion. In truth the powers that be such as social and religious leaders push this concept of "sex is bad" as a means of control. It's all about control. The easiest way to brainwash a bunch of people into doing your bidding is to keep them isolated and frustrated.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

These institutions are pure evil and must be dismantled

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Because they don't want their teens to be forced to give birth.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

I think it's the other way around, they want their teens to be forced to give birth...

As one senator(?) put it: it's a beautiful thing when a 12 year old is married and gets pregnant.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›