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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 4, 2026

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I view them as equal levels of bullshit. The fact that you think one is worse than the other is the point. You think the Red's way is the lesser of two evils.

You don't think one is worse than the other?

I understand you aren't a big fan of prayer in public schools, and probably not Christianity more generally. But if one is an atheist, then following along politely with the Our Father once per day is not a big ask, not in the way that 'the school can arbitrarily change my child's gender' is.

The difference is that underage gender transition will only affect a vanishingly small proportion of the underage population, while school prayer affects everyone. There's a difference between being pissed of about what other people's kids do and what your own kids are forced to do.

and what your own kids are forced to do

Ah, but [my kids] are forced to affirm a lie (as in, that a man magically becomes a woman because he donned fake breasts and cut his penis off), in exactly the same way, and for the same reasons, as it is for State religions. The school will punish them for blasphemy misgendering if they do not.

Naturally, for those who believe in that, especially for those who draw a salary from that belief, it's just Common Decency.

Naturally, for those who believe in that, especially for those who draw a salary from that belief, it's just Common Decency.

This is the biggest issue, both sides feel that they are just right and need to save others from poor behavior or bad decisions when its not asked for. The can't recognize that their beliefs are not the one-true reality.

There's a difference between being pissed of about what other people's kids do and what your own kids are forced to do.

At the risk of channeling WhiningCoil, that implies that the progressive version stops at other people's kids. Even ignoring for now the difficult question of how consenting a 13-year-old getting browbeaten by the educational system gets, there's no shortage of directly compelled pro-transgender speech that the state has been quite happy to mandate in schools, and an even broader set that the schools 'don't mandate' they just punish anyone that doesn't go with.

Much of the worry about the school gender crap is precisely worry about what your own kids are being groomed to do.

To be clear you are clearly biasing the framing towards your viewpoint.

To me you asked me:

  • Would you rather your kids be forced to give a little Sig Heil in the morning and have the school teach them why being gay, crippled, jewish, romani, black, not white and straight is evil and should be killed for the betterment of the community

Or

  • Would you rather your kids be forced to recite the communist manifesto and have the school teach them why being a dirty selfish capitalist is the root of all evil in the world, and if they don't share everything or report on people, including their parents, to the state then they are anti-revolutionary and thus evil.

long politely with the Our Father once per day

Yes a polite Sig Heil is not a big ask.

'the school can arbitrarily change my child's gender' is.

Have you tried not oppressively forcing your child to adhere to evil capitalist notions that people are not all inherently created equally?

Your conception of the prayer vs gender pronouns is hysterically biased. It's never just a polite "oh father" just like its never just a polite "please use they/them". Give an inch and everyone takes a mile.

In practice we kinda do know what religion in schools looks like(and it’s not the handmaid’s tale)Christian schools are a dime a dozen.

Private Christian Schools are a dime a dozen. You know the kind that selects for parents who want to send their children to a Christian school in the first place? If you don't like Christian practices, then you can easily remove your child from the private school. If you like the other benefits then you can weigh your distaste against them.

In practice we kinda do know what progressive schools look like, and its not 24/7 Groomers, pedos, and gender transitions. Just because you have a personal distaste for one over the other doesn't mean there isn't symmetry. In my eyes, you are standing in a glass house and trying to justify why you should be allowed to throw stones. Every argument you make against progressive schools can just be flipped and applied to Christian schools. In part because progressivism is just derived from Christianity and holds similar memetic characteristics, but also because its a totalizing belief system than for some reason requires you to force it on others who don't want it.