The right's 'Project 2025' is at least partly in response to the earlier social justice project of infusing every level of society with woke ideology. Where's Project 2012?
Porn today is not just looking at “naked ladies.” Spend five minutes on porn hub, look at what is trending, and you’ll find plenty of things that most reasonable people would want to protect children from. It’s not an educational space.
I guarantee you the good Christians railing against porn today are quite familiar with what's on Pornhub. The naked ladies comment was sarcasm about them years ago. I know porn I'd a LOT worse than it was decades ago.
Quite possibly, which is why I believe the subject shouldn't be in schools at all. Anatomy and epidemiology are good academic subjects, but sexuality is inherently about values and the way you live your life. That education should be firmly out of the hands of the state.
They need to know the mechanics, and the basics, because many parents are from conservative cultures (domestic and foreign) who don’t want to talk to their kids about sex. Even many progressives find the topic difficult. It’s a very tough issue because the mechanics without discussions of relationships, birth control, non-heterosexual love, etc. aren’t very helpful, but I think they’re impossible to deal with in the classroom. But I think no sex ed is worse than insufficient sex ed.
Birth control goes into the same category as anatomy. There are several key points that can be blocked or interrupted in the conception process, and those can be described in an objective way as things that exist in the world, while remaining neutral on their use. We can do that with roller skates and nuclear weapons, we can do it with birth control. The current legal code can also be discussed in an objective way, regardless of whether people like the current laws.
The problem, as you note, is when government schools start lecturing minors on the "right" ways to do relationships. Depending on what is being taught, this can range from overreach to invasive to outright grooming. I strongly believe that schools should leave instruction in morality to the parents.
I agree that no sex ed is worse than insufficient sex ed. However, outright grooming is worse than no sex ed. I'm seeing a disturbing positive correlation between sexual abuse and certain kinds of sex ed. 12 year olds should not be told that sexual intercourse is a form of personal empowerment that proves maturity. Nor should teenagers be taught that they have the ethical right to incessantly ask anyone for anything, and it's "consent" when they finally give in. Regrettably, I have seen both.
"I agree that no sex ed is worse than insufficient sex ed. However, outright grooming is worse than no sex ed. I'm seeing a disturbing positive correlation between sexual abuse and certain kinds of sex ed. 12 year olds should not be told that sexual intercourse is a form of personal empowerment that proves maturity. Nor should teenagers be taught that they have the ethical right to incessantly ask anyone for anything, and it's "consent" when they finally give in. Regrettably, I have seen both."
This is deeply weird. I hadn't heard about telling kids that sex is a form of personal empowerment. And even worse, reversing the years-ago lessons on consent, which sounds like exactly something Dark Triad men would come up with. The Canadian education system has been obsessed with 'consent' for about fifteen years to the point of ridiculousness...in which the male is expected to check in constantly with the woman, even in the middle of sex, to make sure she's still okay with whatever's going on. No emphasis, ever, on the the woman and how she's accountable for making sure she's okay with whatever's going on and if she's not, to speak up. This is assuming every act of sex isn't necessarily a grey-sex pseudo-rape. Where are they teaching you can nag people for something until you get it? That's a new one for me.
One of your best blog pieces in recent memory. I really like that you dissected the history of how the woke came to be, as it's a somewhat undefined term for many. I will always believe that calling the Alt-Left and Alt-Right equally bad is a false equivalency. Yes, they're horrible, but It isn't the regressive Left that wants to create a plutocracy run by fundamentalist Christians with privatization of most of our public services with white supremacy and anti-abortion thrown into the mix - things that DIRECTLY harm the populace as a whole. But everything else in this piece was superlative and definitive. The fact that you're not writing in the Star but Heather Mallick is is a disgrace. Well done.
Thanks Sean. I don't think equating the two is a false equivalency, though. I think my so-called Project 2012 is just as toxic as 2025. I'm the enemy either way so I just don't care who wins. Hitler or Stalin. Take yer pick. I seriously don't think it matters because even if you're on the left, if you're not one of the uberleften you might a well wear a MAGA cap and listen to Alex Jones...
And isn't Heather downright centrist now that Shrill Paranoid has taken over the far left from her? Or is Shrill too busy protesting the existence of Israel to write?
I didn't say extreme, I said absurd. Poor world-building. Margaret Atwood's work is extreme, but not absurd. It's well-researched and everyone in the stories behaves in a plausible way.
In this ad, apparently this father and/or daughter entered every detail of their lives onto social media, navigation apps, and other locations easily mined for data. They didn't even bother to develop a plausible alibi for the trip. Then they're surprised when they're arrested? It's sloppy writing. The only way in which it's credible is if the daughter was deliberately leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for the police, which changes the story entirely.
Realistically speaking, black market abortions at 8 weeks will mostly be medication abortions and look a lot more like drug-smuggling operations. Probably move along the same channels too.
Perhaps it's a matter of taste. I prefer my dystopias deliberately exaggerated to the point of comic effect or genuinely credible. This is neither.
KW: Of course it hasn’t happened. YET! Vance does, in fact, believe that rape provides a legitimate pathway to fatherhood so it’s not too much of an extrapolation to think he might support this. He could be just a heartbeat away from the presidency.
True, but it's still a Republican wank dream. Just because it's not in the Project doesn't mean it couldn't come to pass. It's a bit extreme *right now*.
Go back to Cloward Piven.
Both the far left and far right are accelerationists.
Accelerationism! I was going to write about that awhile back and then I forgot about it.
Porn today is not just looking at “naked ladies.” Spend five minutes on porn hub, look at what is trending, and you’ll find plenty of things that most reasonable people would want to protect children from. It’s not an educational space.
I guarantee you the good Christians railing against porn today are quite familiar with what's on Pornhub. The naked ladies comment was sarcasm about them years ago. I know porn I'd a LOT worse than it was decades ago.
If you want to find documentation, there are several good spots to look. Here are two:
SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change. They're pretty straightforward about their legislative agenda.
Martine Rothblatt has published a manifesto which is on the second edition.
I don't doubt their sex ed will roll back all that's wrong with lefty sex ed, and replace it with someone equally as gawdawful.
Quite possibly, which is why I believe the subject shouldn't be in schools at all. Anatomy and epidemiology are good academic subjects, but sexuality is inherently about values and the way you live your life. That education should be firmly out of the hands of the state.
They need to know the mechanics, and the basics, because many parents are from conservative cultures (domestic and foreign) who don’t want to talk to their kids about sex. Even many progressives find the topic difficult. It’s a very tough issue because the mechanics without discussions of relationships, birth control, non-heterosexual love, etc. aren’t very helpful, but I think they’re impossible to deal with in the classroom. But I think no sex ed is worse than insufficient sex ed.
Birth control goes into the same category as anatomy. There are several key points that can be blocked or interrupted in the conception process, and those can be described in an objective way as things that exist in the world, while remaining neutral on their use. We can do that with roller skates and nuclear weapons, we can do it with birth control. The current legal code can also be discussed in an objective way, regardless of whether people like the current laws.
The problem, as you note, is when government schools start lecturing minors on the "right" ways to do relationships. Depending on what is being taught, this can range from overreach to invasive to outright grooming. I strongly believe that schools should leave instruction in morality to the parents.
I agree that no sex ed is worse than insufficient sex ed. However, outright grooming is worse than no sex ed. I'm seeing a disturbing positive correlation between sexual abuse and certain kinds of sex ed. 12 year olds should not be told that sexual intercourse is a form of personal empowerment that proves maturity. Nor should teenagers be taught that they have the ethical right to incessantly ask anyone for anything, and it's "consent" when they finally give in. Regrettably, I have seen both.
"I agree that no sex ed is worse than insufficient sex ed. However, outright grooming is worse than no sex ed. I'm seeing a disturbing positive correlation between sexual abuse and certain kinds of sex ed. 12 year olds should not be told that sexual intercourse is a form of personal empowerment that proves maturity. Nor should teenagers be taught that they have the ethical right to incessantly ask anyone for anything, and it's "consent" when they finally give in. Regrettably, I have seen both."
This is deeply weird. I hadn't heard about telling kids that sex is a form of personal empowerment. And even worse, reversing the years-ago lessons on consent, which sounds like exactly something Dark Triad men would come up with. The Canadian education system has been obsessed with 'consent' for about fifteen years to the point of ridiculousness...in which the male is expected to check in constantly with the woman, even in the middle of sex, to make sure she's still okay with whatever's going on. No emphasis, ever, on the the woman and how she's accountable for making sure she's okay with whatever's going on and if she's not, to speak up. This is assuming every act of sex isn't necessarily a grey-sex pseudo-rape. Where are they teaching you can nag people for something until you get it? That's a new one for me.
One of your best blog pieces in recent memory. I really like that you dissected the history of how the woke came to be, as it's a somewhat undefined term for many. I will always believe that calling the Alt-Left and Alt-Right equally bad is a false equivalency. Yes, they're horrible, but It isn't the regressive Left that wants to create a plutocracy run by fundamentalist Christians with privatization of most of our public services with white supremacy and anti-abortion thrown into the mix - things that DIRECTLY harm the populace as a whole. But everything else in this piece was superlative and definitive. The fact that you're not writing in the Star but Heather Mallick is is a disgrace. Well done.
Thanks Sean. I don't think equating the two is a false equivalency, though. I think my so-called Project 2012 is just as toxic as 2025. I'm the enemy either way so I just don't care who wins. Hitler or Stalin. Take yer pick. I seriously don't think it matters because even if you're on the left, if you're not one of the uberleften you might a well wear a MAGA cap and listen to Alex Jones...
And isn't Heather downright centrist now that Shrill Paranoid has taken over the far left from her? Or is Shrill too busy protesting the existence of Israel to write?
JD Vance’s America:
https://youtu.be/3FGIyxhGkvo?si=jaoTN8Zf8yD3PqRi
That has not occurred in any place where abortion is banned. it's a bit absurd.
I didn't say extreme, I said absurd. Poor world-building. Margaret Atwood's work is extreme, but not absurd. It's well-researched and everyone in the stories behaves in a plausible way.
In this ad, apparently this father and/or daughter entered every detail of their lives onto social media, navigation apps, and other locations easily mined for data. They didn't even bother to develop a plausible alibi for the trip. Then they're surprised when they're arrested? It's sloppy writing. The only way in which it's credible is if the daughter was deliberately leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for the police, which changes the story entirely.
Realistically speaking, black market abortions at 8 weeks will mostly be medication abortions and look a lot more like drug-smuggling operations. Probably move along the same channels too.
Perhaps it's a matter of taste. I prefer my dystopias deliberately exaggerated to the point of comic effect or genuinely credible. This is neither.
KW: Of course it hasn’t happened. YET! Vance does, in fact, believe that rape provides a legitimate pathway to fatherhood so it’s not too much of an extrapolation to think he might support this. He could be just a heartbeat away from the presidency.
True, but it's still a Republican wank dream. Just because it's not in the Project doesn't mean it couldn't come to pass. It's a bit extreme *right now*.