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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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I (obviously) agree that it is, de facto, functionally, just grasping around for weapons, but I do think 80%+ of people who say 'groomer' genuinely believe that drag queens and teachers something children something sex. The belief is incoherent enough that rendering it into direct causal statements that aren't obviously false is basically impossible. But, if you're just a normal 100iq person who follows libsoftiktok or watches right-wing media ... what incentive do you have to explicitly lie or propagandize, mostly to your fellow normal right-wing media consumers, about grooming? They're just making what they see as actual factual they're genuinely upset about.

Compare to the satanic panic from OP, or the 'covid is killing our babies' people, etc

Fuck it, I'll draw the line that you don't seem to be willing to because frankly I'm with the normies on this one

This is not "teachers something children something sex". This is why are you taking elementary school kids to drag shows and talking to them about how to give a good blow-job if you aren't trying to sexualize them? Why are you urging them not to tell their parents if you didn't know that you might be doing something their parents would object to?

The abject failure to even acknowledge these very simple and obvious questions is how you can tell the "stop saying groomer" crowd are either idiots or "in the tank" with the LGBTQ+ types.

Let us speak plainly "Gender affirming care" (IE is things like puberty blockers, top and bottom surgery, etc...) is a euphemism for mutilating kids. Mutilating kids is bad. Those who do it, who enable it, or who simply run interference for those that do are bad people.

This is why are you taking elementary school kids to drag shows and talking to them about how to give a good blow-job if you aren't trying to sexualize them

Yeah, this is my point. Teachers are not taking elementary school kids to drag shows, probably 1 in 300 progressive parents are. I'm not sure who specifically is talking to elementary school students about how to give a good blowjob - but I'd posit the rate of teachers doing that in a slightly-officially-sanctioned manner to random internet strangers doing that surreptitiously is at least one to ten thousand. But nothing like that is happening in even the 98th percentile of weirdness american public school, nor for the 98th percentile of weirdness trans child's experience in school. A combination of carelessness and intentional propaganda on right-wing media is smashing together dozens of different, rare incidents, folding the correct disgust at trans and queer perversion in with an incorrect claim of intentional predation by teachers to make it fit into the values of the average conservative parent. "Mutilating kids", "child drag shows", "elementary school blowjobs" do not co-occur in 99% of these situations, and the fact that those who say groomer claim they do, when they do not, is why the groomer accusation is stupid and distracting. And when you believe that, you can't figure out why kids are transitioning, and you try to stop it by homeschooling your kids or banning gay teachers, which does not work (a ton of trans people were homeschooled or had un-accepting authority figures).

They are though that's the thing, Prohibiting it is why DeSantis has been described by CNN the Washington Post and David French as "a Fascist" trampling upon American freedoms. Then there was that hilarious self-goal where having insisted that they weren't showing explicit material to minors, parents posting pics of the hand-outs got slapped down for posting explicit content.

The problem with the "Groomer" claim is not that it is stupid and distracting, it's that it has struck a corde with the normies.

They are though

I mean, if you have evidence of widespread "teachers taking classrooms of children to drag shows", "elementary school students being taught how to give good blowjobs", or even general efforts to make children queer or trans in schools that aren't that extreme but are still stronger than I say happen above, I'd just be wrong! And, if such exists, I'd want to see it. But "desantis is a fascist, says david french" is not that.

I don't feel like I should have to present evidence that it "was widespread", as the outsized reaction to it's prohibition has demonstrated that it was at least in the possibility space. Likewise, a problem doesn't need to be widespread to be worth trying to minimize or solve.

I also notice that you continue to dance around the questions pointed out above.

Stop beating your wife!

What the fuck? I'm not beating my wife. Why would you say that???

Only a wife-beater would be THIS upset about being found out.

or

Republicans are racist, sexist, homophobic bigots.

So much for the tolerant left. Anyone with slightly different beliefs is LITERALLY a nazi to you. Awful.

You react like that to mild, anti-racist criticism? What do we call an anti-anti-racist? You really are a nazi.

Evidence is generally useful in demonstrating the truth of claims!

What truth?

What Claims?

I would like to think that "don't show sexually explicit material to grade-schoolers" and especially "don't do it without talking to the parents first" would be a fairly uncontroversial stance but apparently that is not the timeline we live in.

This is not a "when did you stop beating your wife?" type scenario, this is one side saying "it is now illegal to beat your wife" and the other side replying with "how dare you impinge on my rights".

I also notice that you continue to dance around the questions pointed out above.

this is a bizzare conversation.

I also notice that you continue to dance around the questions pointed out above.

i do not think a single person should 'transition'. i've said this many times.

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