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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023

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They even showed it in years past with a permission slip and just forgot to send out the slip this year. It's a paperwork mishap elevated to a firing offense because of the ongoing culture war over parental rights.

failing to get permission to show potentially sexual content to other people's children isn't merely a "paperwork mishap" and trying to downplay it to that characterization looks like agenda

potentially sexual content

What precisely do you mean by this term?

something which can be viewed as sexual content by a reasonable person

not interested in playing these games where you pretend you don't understand what that phrase means when the reality is you simply disagree a reasonable person would view showing penises on the statue of David to children is potentially sexual content

Why put it in terms of perception or the display to children? A penis is a sexual organ. Is there a context where you wouldn't regard a representation of a penis as sexual content?

A penis is a sexual organ. Is there a context where you wouldn't regard a representation of a penis as sexual content?

Equivocation fallacies are a dirty trick.

  • "Sexual content" = "Pornographic content"

  • "Sexual organ" = "Reproductive organ"

One can't make a fallacy without making an inference. I am trying to clarify a vague position - arguing for or against it is for later in the dialectic.

Why would a reasonable person think that Michaelaneglo's David is pornographic?

I'm just trying to say it's incompetence not malice, their policy was to send out a notice to parents, they had sent that out in the past when they showed the same images. They just didn't this year and the principal blames miscommunication. This wasn't a malicious conspiracy to sneak nudity into schools without parents permission, they had been showing this stuff and getting permission for a while they just messed up this year and didn't send out the notice.

You can say that's a really severe a form of incompetence and we can disagree about that, but it's not malice.

causing an accident and killing someone may not be malice, but the person is dead all the same

if this "paperwork mishap" was failing to send homework home, no one would care

you don't think there is even a reasonable argument for there to be harm (or even justifiable suspicion) in this scenario which sets the context for the strategy of downplaying anything you cannot look past through benefit of the doubt

Yes there are forms of incompetence that have severe consequences and which people need to be fired for. I don't think this is such a case, you may think it is, but it's still not a conspiracy to corrupt the youth.

What is the harm done to a 12 year old when they see Michelangelo's David? Are the 49/50 parents who said they're totally fine with their kids seeing this sculpture abusive parents authorizing the school to harm their child?