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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   17419 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 24, 2025

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AIUI, actual Boy Scouts (grades 6-12) are less coddled, even now. They're more independent, they plan their activities themselves and can choose to focus on actual adventures and range time and such. But I don't know for sure, because my own son begged me to stop with the pussified social studies bullshit before then (there were other, personal reasons involved as well, but when I bring scouts up now, a few years later, all he remembers is the boring bullshit and the too-rare hikes). And it's a moot point, because the Boy Scout Troop that his Cub Scout Pack fed into collapsed, because there was no new kids joining.

That was pretty much what happened to me. I remember going to cub scout meetings and mostly just being bored, doing a lot of cheesy arts and crafts project. All the den leaders were women. I looked forward to doing the cool outdoorsy stuff that I saw my older brother doing in the boy scouts, but then it collapsed before I was old enough to join because the Boy Scouts still insisted on having a male scout leader for that, and none of the men in my area wanted to do the job.

I will also say... Looking back, yeah, I can see how being an Eagle might have benefited my life in a lot of ways (like looking good on college applications). But as an 11 yr old kid I had absolutely no concept of any of that, I just wanted to have fun with my friends. So it's not surprising to me that a lot of the kids grinding Eagle Scout are just getting pushed by their parents to munchkin the merit badges.

edit- Probably a big factor in why no men wanted to do it, is that it was an after school program. That meant they had to be available from 3-5 PM on weekdays, and most of the men were busy working at that time. Also they probably wouldn't allow some random unemployed dude to do it, and it's not a paid position so... I don't know how they expected it to work.

It's not just "not paid", it costs money to register as a volunteer every year.

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