All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Vakanai]

Here's a moment from Markwayne Mullin, one of WBE's old friends!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republica...063946490.html

Mullin was ticked over a children’s book on racism called “Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race” and said it’s better to teach children the lyrics to “Jesus Loves Me” instead.

I'm a Christian, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I try to treat others as Jesus would, not as his current followers would have me do, and I still realize incredibly clearly that the proper response to this is "Isn't that up to their parents?" Not every family is Christian. I also realize that another response is "Parents can do both." Those families that are Christian can teach their children about Jesus and have important early conversations about race. I mean we try to teach young children things like the alphabet, their right and left hands and feet, how to tie their shoes, etc. Kids are smart enough to learn more than one thing in a day. And again, not every family is Christian - Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, atheist families shouldn't be told they'd be better off teaching their kids "Jesus Loves Me" instead of a bit about race. But again, in Christian families, they teach their kids about Jesus and everything else they feel their children should learn about.

So really, Mullin's problem seems to be he just doesn't want children taught anything about race. Gee, I wonder why?
Indeed, like many conservatives, he really doesn't want reality.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm a Christian, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I try to treat others as Jesus would, not as his current followers would have me do, and I still realize incredibly clearly that the proper response to this is "Isn't that up to their parents?" Not every family is Christian. I also realize that another response is "Parents can do both." Those families that are Christian can teach their children about Jesus and have important early conversations about race. I mean we try to teach young children things like the alphabet, their right and left hands and feet, how to tie their shoes, etc. Kids are smart enough to learn more than one thing in a day. And again, not every family is Christian - Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, atheist families shouldn't be told they'd be better off teaching their kids "Jesus Loves Me" instead of a bit about race. But again, in Christian families, they teach their kids about Jesus and everything else they feel their children should learn about.

So really, Mullin's problem seems to be he just doesn't want children taught anything about race. Gee, I wonder why?
Indeed, like many conservatives, he really doesn't want reality.

No, intolerant bible thumping right wingers like Mullin use Christianity as a crutch to justify their hate for minorities.

[Mister Mets]

Meanwhile, while we're all being accused of 'exagerating' the 'problems' with DeSantis so Mets can lull himself to sleep at night, here are things that are actually happened, propelled by republican bigotry.

https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/st...28285244080132

Adjusting hormone levels are vital in *any* homone medication. Restricting trans access to this is utterly unnecessary.

https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/st...52646193467393

Like Erin says in the link above, we here pointed out how these laws would be used to silence trans people, and now we see that starting to occur.

But we're all just exaggerating so some people can justify continuing to vote for the bigotry because conservative discomfort is more important than anything else and their feelings just need to be protected.

But this board has exxaggerated about DeSantis. Let's look at recent posts about a school moving a book from the elementary school section of its library/ media center to its middle school section.

In today's latest book banning update, Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb" was read at the Biden inauguration. BUT it sends indirect hate messages according to a parent in...you guessed it...FLORIDA.

It has now been banned for elementary school students. Article Link

These fucking people...

Florida indeed. And the really frustrating part of the business is that it only takes ONE parent whining about a book they don’t like (and might not have even read) to trigger a ban.

There needs to be a new nation-wide policy: If a conservative parent whines about a book...they double the amount of that book in the libraries. And if they continue to whine, a free copy is donated to every damn student.

These people are determined to pass down their fragility down to their offspring.

To this I asked...

Is moving a book from one section of a school library (it is a K-8 school) to another traditionally considered a ban?

I thought this response was fair. The evidence didn't support it.

If it prevents a group of people from reading said work? Yes. Yes it is.

As my sentence leading up to the article link clearly stated it was banned for elementary school students. And the article made it clear as well. So yes, it is a ban since elementary school students will not be allowed to read it should they so desire.

Aja suggested African American history is banned in Florida schools.

Those are effectively loaded questions as they had nothing to do with why the course is considered problematic.

There is no reason to teach Asian American history and ban African American history or LGBT history -- all are worthy of study.

White supremacists have a long record of "praising" Asian-Americans in order to criticize other minority groups while ignoring the numerous differences in history.

Which is even more effective when Repubicans are banning the teaching of said history -- especially AP courses and books that make them uncomfortable.

Speaking of which, your "just asking questions" approach is a bit hypocritical given your hostility to being asked queries that you find it uncomfortable to answer.

If you were open to actually examining and/or discussing white supremacy then you wouldn't be trying to avoid the obvious.

With that in mind, if this is going to be just another attempt at deflection then you can do your own research in the future.

I found a Snopes link which noted that the book was moved from one section of a library with no change in access.

Snopes investigated and determined that there's no ban for elementary school students.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/05/...da-school-ban/

So the articles suggesting otherwise were wrong.

That mostly ended the conversation. I didn't find any reflections about what this misunderstanding signifies.

[Tendrin]

Typical Mets.

[Gray Lensman]

I'm not sure if it's possible for us to exaggerate about DeFascist. The guy started out providing legal cover for torture.

[Panfoot]

Yeah see this is why I don't typically respond, as I said before I will not justify my existence to bigots. I also just want to say something i've probably said again, it was never about bathrooms/women's sports/etc...

And yes that new "exaggeration" does personally effect me, I already had an appointment next week with my MD to check levels as i'm still narrowing it down, but now if there too low...well to bad I lose? If there to high, guess i'm forced to detransition for my own safety???

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Ron DeSantis loses his temper with a reporter: 'Are you blind?'

Looks like Wretched Ron had himself a bad moment. What a shame. If DeFascist wants to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, he's gonna have to learn to deal with reporters who won't kiss his ass or lob softball questions (when they ask any at all) like they do down in Florida.

[Gray Lensman]

Yeah see this is why I don't typically respond, as I said before I will not justify my existence to bigots. I also just want to say something i've probably said again, it was never about bathrooms/women's sports/etc...

And yes that new "exaggeration" does personally effect me, I already had an appointment next week with my MD to check levels as i'm still narrowing it down, but now if there too low...well to bad I lose? If there to high, guess i'm forced to detransition for my own safety???

Personally, I think the word of the one living through it, especially when considering they are directly affected by the laws in question, carries far, far greater weight than that of someone who lives several jurisdictions away, and would be unaffected by said laws even if he actually did live there.

[Tendrin]

Personally, I think the word of the one living through it, especially when considering they are directly affected by the laws in question, carries far, far greater weight than that of someone who lives several jurisdictions away, and would be unaffected by said laws even if he actually did live there.

Okay, but conservatives find that 'icky'. That's definitely the more important part.

[Vakanai]

But this board has exxaggerated about DeSantis. Let's look at recent posts about a school moving a book from the elementary school section of its library/ media center to its middle school section.









To this I asked...


I thought this response was fair. The evidence didn't support it.




Aja suggested African American history is banned in Florida schools.



I found a Snopes link which noted that the book was moved from one section of a library with no change in access.

That mostly ended the conversation. I didn't find any reflections about what this misunderstanding signifies.

It depends on why the book was moved - if there's actual sexual content not suitable for those grades, then moving it to middle school library isn't quite a ban. However if the most "sexual" content in those books are the mere existence of lgbtq people, I'd personally call that a ban. And that one instance where we can quibble over whether this board has exaggerated or not pales compared to when we haven't, when we've posted links where books weren't simply moved up to middle school or high school but where banned, removed from school. And there's been numbers of examples of that. Of libraries getting rid of books that is no more sexual than books that have been allowed, except that the only difference is who loves who. There's also been teachers who have gotten in trouble for showing a PG movie where the only sexual thing about it is one teen happens to have a crush on another boy, or teachers who can no longer have pictures of their spouse on their desk because they're the same sex. There's no exaggerating that our teachers feel under threat and distress and are quitting in record numbers. There's no exaggerating that healthcare for trans individuals of all ages has become harder and more perilous, that getting their medications have become harder, sometimes impossible, or otherwise messed with like the frozen dosage thing. There's no exaggerating that trans people have been silenced now because of the no drag in public law, which is an evil and vile law in itself as there's nothing wrong with a man wearing women's clothes, but is worsened because trans people wearing the clothes of their gender identity is not the same as drag. There's no exaggerations in much of what has been said and pointed out - but those instances you continually choose to ignore because you don't know how to debate them, so you focus on the few instances of exaggeration because you think if you can win there it will somehow make everything else brought up be forgotten or fade away. But it isn't true. These laws and policies are harmful to lgbtq+ people. In some instances maybe that harm is exaggerated - but it still causes some harm, and many times that harm is not exaggerated. To support DeSantis is to support the harm he causes to lgbtq people.

TO VOTE FOR OR OTHERWISE SUPPORT DESANTIS IS TO SUPPORT THE HARM HE HAS CAUSED, IS CAUSING, AND WILL CAUSE TO LGBTQ+ PEOPLE, HARM THAT HAS BEEN PROVEN, HARM THAT HAS BEEN DEMONSTRABLY SHOWN NOT TO BE EXAGGERATED, AND HARM THAT WILL ONLY WORSEN AS HE CONTINUES TO PUSH FORWARD MORE POLICIES CLEARLY MADE TO TARGET LGBTQ+ PEOPLE.

You can chip away a little, tiny portion of that as "not that bad" in a few individual instances. But the overall effect, the bigger picture, and the intended goal of all these laws and policies, all add up together as very much that bad and worse. You are trying to pull out a few weeds to prove that the garden isn't overgrown - but the whole garden contains only weeds. You can not vote for DeSantis without supporting laws and policies intended only to make life harder for LGBTQ people, designed for the purpose of making LGBTQ people more miserable, all to win points from bigots who hate LGBTQ+ people. If you feel like support for laws that are only anti-LGBTQ in nature and made to hurt such people is moderate, and again a vote for DeSantis is to support such laws, is something moderates can in good conscience be for, then what if anything separates Republican moderates from the far right?

[Adam Allen]

Personally, I think the word of the one living through it, especially when considering they are directly affected by the laws in question, carries far, far greater weight than that of someone who lives several jurisdictions away, and would be unaffected by said laws even if he actually did live there.

So yeah, the increase in people identifying as LGBTQ+ isn't a "social contagion", and thinking that it might be is not being objective or rational, it's bigotry. You're literally saying queer people are a disease. No idea why that's supposed to be okay.

... because my lived experience can tell people without direct experience that Jamie Reed's story about Wash U is bullshit. Seriously. I know that's an old story -- but yah, close to home in lots of ways.

[Kirby101]

Ron DeSantis loses his temper with a reporter: 'Are you blind?'

Looks like Wretched Ron had himself a bad moment. What a shame. If DeFascist wants to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, he's gonna have to learn to deal with reporters who won't kiss his ass or lob softball questions (when they ask any at all) like they do down in Florida.

Being nasty to reporters is an advantage for GOP candidates. See Gov. Gianforte and his body slam of a reporter, the idiot GOP voters ate it up.

[JT221]

U.S. Congress agrees to new debt ceiling: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...lt-2023-06-01/

Or, for the more cynical among us...

Screenshot 2023-06-02 at 07.44.30.jpg

[CaptainEurope]

8 hours ago:



Now:

Payrolls rose 339,000 in May, much better than expected in resilient labor market

They keep underestimating Dark Brandon.

[JT221]

Payrolls rose 339,000 in May, much better than expected in resilient labor market

That is great news!