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That is the point. It’s supposed to be a dilemma. The conservative tends to favour an education similar to aella’s, but detests what she has become (“damaged”). The liberal otoh detests aella’s education (“abuse”), yet finds she ended up fine (”sexually liberated”) .
So the lesson is: do the opposite, like George (not you). Every instinct they have, was proven wrong.
As to my own opinion, I don't think she's damaged, because for one, she doesn't think she's damaged. She also seems to have a pleasant undamaged personality, not bitter, mean or aggressive.
And I don't think parenting matters much, so that's how I escape my own dilemma.
Nobody on either side of the aisle wants their daughter to grow up to be a whore, even an expensive one. The School of Hard Knocks needs no policy waivers to award Aella's parents an F for parenting.
That’s you though. You don’t have a consistent liberal position, you think a father’s main responsibility is to ensure his daughter’s eternal chastity.
Try to look past the whoring, and she seems perfectly nice. Top drawer, actually. If parents could mass produce aellas instead of the bush league kids they currently turn out, the world would be a richer, happier, more interesting place.
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But something is off-kilter where she admits her hygiene habits changed because someone said "I don't wash my hair" (and now we have Aella happily revealing that she has had more sexual encounters than showers in a given period). That's... extraordinarily vulnerable to suggestion, where I'm sure the person who said they didn't wash their hair never meant it to be taken as "and so you should stop getting washed at all".
Is that due to her weird abusive upbringing, or to some quirk of her psychology where she was an over-sensitive child who imagined catastrophic outcomes? I have no idea. But I don't think that can be parsed as "oh it's perfectly normal and fine".
It’s completely fine. I agree with the rationalist critique that people should be quicker to change their mind and habits, when they find a seemingly good idea, which is what she did. It’s absurd to accuse her of conformism (“vulnerable to suggestion”) .
She didn’t say that, and there’s nothing wrong with being valued for your tits, or your abs, or your yellow hair.
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Conservatives absolutely do not tend to favor educations similar to her, you are attacking a caricature. No conservative I know would beat their child twelve times in a row as they're crying in pain. That's very tail-end behavior for EXTREME religious conservatives, and religious in the weird Southern Baptist sense.
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My opinion is just my opinion and is not meant to represent the macro level worldview of the group you're labeling "conservative." I'm speaking from my own experience of the world, particularly over time, and my views have evolved since I was much younger and the world seemed an eternal spring.
I've read on this very forum the view that parenting doesn't matter much, possibly related to a widespread view that nature trumps nurture. I think parenting most definitely matters--I'm absolutely certain of it--and also because of my own experiences and from watching people grow up around me.
I wouldn't suggest a certain parenting style will produce particular results all the time, but that's different from saying it doesn't matter.
I am not a psychologist thank god, and am not charged with having any particular view of this woman's psychology, damaged or not. I would suggest that her lifestyle at 30 is probably not sustainable in any sort of happy fun time past, say, 40 or beyond. Thankfully it's none of my business.
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