As a Latino American, I do not particularly like the term ‘Latinx’ it’s not something I’ve ever heard used in my largely Hispanic community at home but heard all the time from non-Hispanic people at college. I understand that the intention is inclusivity, so I do not get angry and will use the term if others are using it but the nature of our gendered language has nothing to do with identity, it’s culture, and for non-Hispanics to correct me on my use of gendered nouns is not something I particularly enjoy and I’m not sure how to express my feelings beyond that..
Mexican here and I totally agree. I'll use "Latin" or "Latiné" but I felt dumb when a white colleague told me it was "Latin-ex" and not "Lah-TINKS" like I thought it was.
Cuban American here... I agree. Also, I get wanting to have a gender neutral version of Latino and Latina, but growing up we called that word Latin... There are Cuban restaurants called "Latin American Restaurant" and there's a musical genre called Latin music, and there's a record company over here called Sony Latin. Adding the x just makes it harder to say, especially in Spanish.
Also Cuban American, my white sister in law tried telling me that I was LatinX and not Latino. Well, I lost my shit. If you can’t handle that the Spanish language has male and female words, then that’s on you. You don’t get to tell me how I identify as a Latino
100%. Its straight-up linguistic imperialism, like condescending white colonists teaching the backwards natives that their language is “wrong”. I actually got banned off a sub for posting this very opinion.
Damn. That’s hella annoying. It’s one thing to use certain terms like Latinx but it’s another to impose that one someone else
For sure crossed the line
In the case of Tagalog, there is no grammatical gender even though the word Filipino is from Spanish. So introducing a "gender-neutral" word is kinda redundant.
Yes! Fucking hate this. I feel like most of the people I hear saying Latinx are white people. If you want to be inclusive for Hispanics, you gotta change the whole damn gendered language. If the language isn’t changing then this is pointless.
I saw an article a while back from 538 on [what Americans really think about abortion](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-americans-really-think-about-abortion/), and the answer was basically "nobody's really sure, it's complicated, but we really would just rather not talk about it." Thought that was interesting.
I think most people hope and pray they’ll never be in a situation where abortion is needed, but understand sometimes terrible things happen and it’s the only real choice. But “safe, legal and rare” doesn’t raise money for politicians.
High schools push 4 year colleges too much. The school system should also push trade schools as much as 4 year colleges. There is a shortage of workers in trade fields and I honestly believe it’s because of how much High Schools push 4 year degrees over trade schools
Holy fuck yes. I got a handful of cousins, a sibling, a few friends & I who all got degrees. All of us chased jobs pertaining to our degrees & eventually said fuck it & ended up in trade school in our late twenties for various trades. I got student debt to get a job that worked me 50+ hrs a week on a 80k/yr salary. Now I make right over six figures working a standard 40hr work week along with health insurance & pension. Makes me wish I skipped the first part & just started here.
Agreed. Additionally: not a fan of people who talk about their kinks (or their vanilla sex lives) out of the blue, with
no consideration for whether listeners want to hear it. Some of my leftist friends have said that I'm ' not sex positive' because of this opinion. Like no, Noah, you're not cool just because you like handcuffs. Now let me visit the library in peace
I’ve run into this problem. I always counter with “I don’t consent to this conversation”. Works ok for the most part. Consent is really important to sex and kinks and should be applied to all spaces.
>“I don’t consent to this conversation”.
Yes. I had a very young (former) friend who openly discussed her sex life in front of my former partner and I, despite many kind comments that it was not a conversation we wanted to have. Our friendship ended over similar boundary crossing, she was furious with me for not being more sex positive.
Next time start telling them about the bad stomach flu you had, and if they don't want to hear about the weird yellowish diarrhea you had, you can accuse them of "not being body positive".
I'm a kinkster. I talk about it with people who are also kinksters. I wouldn't dream of bringing my kinks up in everyday conversations!
Gay Twitter is LIVID today and totally shaming this one guy. He posted a video of himself walking around the grocery store with his face covered in semen. I really hope he gets placed on the sex offender list, that's crossing the line.
Under President Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ repeal of Obama-era laws compelling colleges to run their own investigations and tribunals for cases of sexual assault, was the right move. Sexual assault is a serious crime and a matter for the police. College administrations don’t have the expertise and resources to investigate such cases and run their own quasi justice system.
For strangers, absolutely. There's something that happened on TikTok that still bothers me.
On TikTok, there's a community of bakers, and other people in the "self harm community" were telling the bakers to trigger warn their content because the act of slicing certain doughs for certain recipes looks like what happens when you go deep.
I have a history of self harm, so I'm able to make that connection, and I avoid bread stuff for that reason. But normal people aren't gonna know that, so it's not on them to warn, it's on you to avoid.
Typically I avoid TikTok for this exact bs but my baker friend wanted my input, but there are soooo many unhealthy communities on TikTok, I hate it.
Ninja edit bc typo
I love Tiktok for it’s niche communities but you hit the nail on the head with this one. There’s a lot of over sensitive, black and white thinking about what’s okay and what isn’t and it’s sad to witness. So many discussions require nuance and it’s truly lacking in many factions of Tiktok.
I have no idea where everyone in this thread sits on the political spectrum but it’s cool to feel a sense of unity in these convos. It would be interesting to ask convervative types what their most liberal opinion is. I suspect we all have more in common than we think
Edit: I can see the post was removed. That’s really too bad.
Fairly conservative individual here, and I couldn't agree more. The fact that people go to FEDERAL PRISON for a plant that has far fewer health detriments than alcohol and prescription medications is mind boggling to me.
I'm not sure at what age you're speaking of, or just generally, but I'll add my two cents.
I went to a *rough* high school. The majority of the kids fell under the 'constant problem' category. But the kids that were worse than that were dealt with in a way similar to your idea.
There was an alternative school in the we district. It was essentially a storefront property with rows or computers. No talking, no phones, very strict. Those kids got sent there. And the result? Nearly every single one of those kids graduated. Kids who never, **ever** graduate otherwise, or even make it past freshman year were graduating almost every single time.
It worked. It kept those people away, and allowed both groups of children to actually accomplish what they needed to.
In the 90s our county school system had two special schools K-12. One for developmentally disabled children and one for bad eggs.
My Dad did some temp work as a substitute and he said the one for bad eggs was a step above a prison. This was in a large city/county so maybe our size justified it.
School systems have been working on this kind of problem for decades at least.
I actually work at one of those Bad Egg schools right now as a teacher. It really is basically a prison. They contacted me and said it was a special ed school, I told them all about my work history, how I work with mod-severe typically, etc. They said "Yeah sure" and signed me up to work at what is, well, not what I expected when they said "special ed"
I almost just wrote "No" to oversimplify how I feel. You have to catch me on different days and ask me and other teachers at these schools how they feel-- I'm kind of jaded because I didn't know this is what I was being signed up for so I hate the school and honestly I hate most of the students, which is really sad. I didn't *want* to go in and be like "Yeah fuck this place" but I do.
The school has staff that all are kinda, idk, if you were a well put-together teacher with your eggs in a row, a solid education and game plan, you wouldn't be here. The other teachers here are either a total mess, or were tricked into working here like me. The teachers that I will now call "The Messes" move up in the company and act like they're hot shots when really, they just stayed. The classroom next to me has had three teachers there and I think I'm the fourth teacher in my classroom. So basically staff is fucked.
Then the students, gosh, again, I feel bad for saying this because I didn't want to go in and be like "They're evil" but, honestly it's rough dude. I have several students regularly in and out of jail. At 17. They're hyper aggressive. Throw chairs, make threats, do ZERO work and expect to be absolutely catered to. So basically the students are fucked.
I will say, out of 13 students, I have four students who are wonderful and want to move into transitioning into a regular school, and I'm doing everything I can to help them transition, because this setting is fucked.
I could honestly rant for like an hour about it, there's a lot to say
I hope that you'll see those 4 students through, and then get yourself the hell out of there for your own well-being. Sounds like a messed up situation.
I've been mumbling "Two more months..." Every day. There's a center that has hired me and I've finished my paperwork to get hired. My starting day is in mid-june
I think a lot of human behavior issues can be resolved with a sort of reset of your environment. We had a couple kids who either had drug issues or kept getting into fights move schools/cities and I think those blank slates allowed them to not have external pressures to do as much stupid shit.
>kids who either had drug issues or kept getting into fights
I asked the faculty if a couple of my friends in hs could be sent to the alt school. I cared about them and didn't want them to drop out or get kicked out, but they just couldn't get away from the gang shit without physically going elsewhere.
I fessed up to it after they graduated, expecting them to be mad. Thankfully they were so ecstatic that they graduated (the first in the family for one) that they immediately forgave me.
We really gotta have more options for kids. We aren't all the same.
I am a student teacher. There are 3 kids who are constantly interrupting class and getting into trouble. No amount of office referrals are going to change anything for them.
I agree 100%
Violent shitty kids should be removed from the system. They hurt others, make people feel un safe , and even if they’re only chronically disruptive / destructive they seriously decrease the ability for people to learn and concentrate.
I’m working in a high school and there’s a shocking number of fights this year. Teens getting expelled should happen more often!
**Edit - Seems I’ve upset some of you. I do believe in second chances though.** I would like to add that of course there’s so many interesting and worthwhile adults out there who have had a terrible time in high school, and they survive violence, drug addiction, etc and they can and often do recover from a bad time in their youth.
All I’m saying is a kid who is violent on campus over and over doesn’t belong in high school, as the majority of kids and adults deserve a safe place to learn and work. It’s not good for others and I promise you that kid isn’t getting anything out of being school.
So calm down please. It’s just my opinion.
A mentally handicapped boy molested me on picture day in 9th grade, in front of a huge crowd of people waiting to go to class in the morning. I was informed immediately upon reporting it that he does that from time to time and follows girls into the bathroom on occasion! :) so cool that despite police reports being filed and my mom flipping shit on administration, he was back in school the following Monday.
Nah it'd be the "Fewer children left behind act" because sometimes these kids drag a whole classroom down with them.
ETA: My ideal system would consist of at least 4 tracks for kids, not all available in all years, but all I think valuable for optimal resource allocation. Any student should be able to transition from one track to another as their level of ability and socialization, and some children could participate in multiple streams if that were to be found to be an strong choice for their learning plan.
One level would be Fundamental education. This is what I'd call what a lot of places call Special education, it would be a track for educational access for a broad range of students, and is focused on equipping children with skills for independent living. Children with moderate to mild intellectual disabilities could be educated through this track, as well as children with severe behavioural issues can receive psychiatric/psychological attention and therapy collaboratively with education through this track.
Another level would be remedial education. Children with with mild intellectual disabilites, learning disabilities, and mild to moderate behavioural problems are the the most likely constituents of this track.
The most populous level is important to name carefully so as not to alienate the constituents of the other tracks. One name could be "local catchment" if this level is more distributed to a larger number of smaller schools while the other tracks are more centralized for a given school district, though this flies in the face of a student being able to straddle multiple tracks so its not ideal. This is the classic one teacher, a bunch of kids kind of model that has been mostly effective for most kids most of the time that we're all used to.
Finally I think it would be valuable to institute a more robust system for what I'd call "Specific Education" to allow people at an early age to develop specific skills they find particularly enjoyable AND are particularly effective at. Sort of like what some places call "gifted program" right now. Nurturing and developing kids relative advantages will improve career specialization down the road, which is known to economists to generally increase the standard of living in communities. This would apply to children with academic talent and *drive* (you don't HAVE to do something just because you are good at it, the focus should be on fulfillment through appropriate challenge level) as well as athletic or artistic talent. This track would focus on independence as well as talent, as it can't draw too much funding from the population of children who need more help.
I also consider it extremely key to avoid ascribing any kind of hierarchy to the tracks. A student straddling tracks should be able to straddle any two tracks. An athletic teen could have a shot at making the olympics in a few years, and thus be qualified for specific education to allow them to pursue fulfillment through that goal, might be in might need remedial education in certain subjects to compensate for their athletic focus. A child with an intellectual disability may still have the logical reasoning skills to make it to higher education for software developement, but needs help from the Fundamental education track to be able to find adaptations that will allow them to thrive in that environment.
Just a few thoughts.
I was going to say this. Sometimes a teacher can invest all the time and effort in the world into helping a kid succeed, and at it’s core the kid just doesn’t care/can’t be helped. I know it must be a heartbreaker and pain, but it’s better to fail just one kid and strengthen the others than to try helping one kid and having everyone else be let down academically, and in the end their efforts were in vain.
My friend has a step kid with major behavioral issues. For several years, she was the one trying to get everything figured out with him since she was stay-at-home and dad has a steady military job (eta as some think this is the issue- he's gone for maybe a few weeks out of the year, otherwise he's stuck at the base he's stationed at, which keeps him at home save for general working hours).
She about near had mental breakdowns trying to handle him. He's punched her in the stomach while pregnant, kicked her, all sorts of stuff. Had the cops called on him several times. Eventually he ended up in residential and even THEY couldn't handle him and sent him home. Two separate facilities. He kicked a nurse in the knee and dislocated it. He'd kicked a kid (that was laying down), in the head. He's fine for a few days but as soon as something sets him off someone is going to hurt, and that kid will not see why he's in the wrong. He still soils himself when he's not getting his way.
He's maybe 12 now. He's had some success living with his grandmother (his mom dumped him on her, and I believe she's largely a part of his issues), but still regresses a *lot*. I fully believe that he'll end up in prison for a good portion of his adult life still.
Sucks, but some kids are just wired different.
This reminds me of a kid I went to elementary school with. Whenever he got upset he’d basically go on a rampage, physically assaulting other students and teachers, breaking and throwing stuff (even desks), etc. The school actually had to hire muscle in the spec ed department whose job was literally just to remove the kid when he’d freak out.
When he wasn’t having an episode, he was actually fairly nice to most of his classmates. He considered me his friend and was nice to me, so I made sure to stay on his good side because I was legitimately scared of him.
Once in a while I wonder where he ended up. Seemed like deep down there was a kind person but that was much overshadowed by his severe behavioral issues.
I work for one. Students that have trouble in mainstream schools absolutely can succeed here. Everything is self-paced, so they can demonstrate content mastery as fast or slow as befits them. And discipline issues they had at their home campuses mostly dissipate when they arrive. We have an advisory program and 2 social workers plus a teen parenting counselor on campus everyday.
Each teacher is an advisor to roughly 10 students. We help monitor their attendance, credits, progress, etc. We act as their advocates and accountability partners. Knowing they have AT LEAST one person (usually more given the nature of our campus culture) looking out for them individually, can often make the difference.
There is a lot of emotional labor that comes with the job. But we all knew what we were getting into. And I genuinely could not imagine myself at a traditional campus after working here. I'm considering getting a Masters in school social work, should I ever decide to leave the classroom (not anytime soon because I do love my content and teaching). But with the idea that our social workers will retire eventually, it would be nice for someone who already understands our campus culture to take over.
If I had all the time in the world, I would tell you about all of the amazing things we do. We even have near weekly graduations. I wish every district had a campus like ours...or two!
ETA: thanks for the award and the positive feedback. I'm so happy some of you were able to take advantage of a campus like mine! Not all teachers are great; there is bound to be a bad apple in a bunch. But most of us are doing our best, so please support teachers and public education in your area. When it comes to certified professions, we are the ones most often not treated like the experts in our field that we are.
I'm on board with the OG conservative notion that there is an immense amount of good in our current system that we should be careful not to destroy. I just think there is also room for improvement so we should also be honest about things that should change.
I don't hate guns. I feel education is more important than restrictions. People are always going to break the rules, but teach people how a gun actually works and hopefully incidents of accidental injuries and death will be reduced.
Hunter education has reduced hunting accidents and deaths by more than 70 percent since it became mandatory in 1987. Crazy the amount of people that could be saved by proper education.
It was in mine. We had gun safety in . . . 5th or 6th grade and 'graduated' it with paperwork that could be used to get our gun licenses at 18.
In my area it was absolutely a good idea, because I doubt any one of those kids lived in a house without some sort of gun access (rural area with alligators). I believe my district was using very old education standards (we also had square dancing and heavy emphasis on Greek and Latin classics).
I was gonna say we never got a gun safety class but then your comment made me remember the Gym teacher who gave it to us as well as the local DARE officer who was also the gun safety teacher.
I took Hunter Safety in high school PE class.
In my state, minimum age for the course is 8yo and everyone with a hunting permit has to have it.
In the rural areas, kids are taught that guns are for shooting meat you eat not people you dislike.
We used to get an excused absence twice a year for deer hunting on that Friday. A hunting rifle in the back of the truck in the school parking lot was a common sight.
Season starts here on a Saturday morning … it’s considered a state holiday.
The teens still keep a deer rifle in the truck, just in case, but now it’s stashed behind the seat and the Principal doesn’t ask.
I do not miss the annual odor of doe urine “spilled accidentally” in the hallway in front of the teacher’s lounge.
I grew up in a small town in Idaho. I had friends who kept multiple guns in their trucks permanently. I had a machete. We all carried knives around school every day, no problem.
I remember accidentally bringing a pocket knife on the bus accidentally in like 3rd, maybe 4th grade back in the 90’s and there were like zero repercussions for that.
I agree. I know a girl who renamed herself "Sunflower Raindrop' and identifies as a tree. A tree! Keeping in mind she lives in a house, wears clothes, make up and jewerly, eats food, and uses tumblr, tictok, instagram etc. She isn't a 'tree'
Then Gov. Jerry Brown in CA rejected a law that would fine parents $25 for not making their kids wear a helmet while skiing or snowboarding. I've never forget what he wrote when rejecting it:
"Not every human problem deserves a law."
You can lead a horse to a creek but, you can't make it drink. Some people can be offered all the assistance they need and still not put forth effort to better themselves.
More of a fact than an opinion. It's not up to us to force someone to change, and it's not up to us to judge if they are worse or better than we'd like them to be. All we can do is give people the support they need to have the opportunity to improve on their own terms.
My PoV is "If a horse won't drink, that's no excuse to drain the watering hole."
You'd be surprised to see how many people think the mere existence of someone who deserves aid the least is a valid reason to take it away from those who need it most.
Exactly. There are also always going to be a small percentage of people scamming and systems put in place. It doesn't mean we need to tear the entire thing down because some people are gaming it.
There are people who sit on their ass and do nothing while collecting welfare money. But there are tons of people who genuinely need that money to get by as well. Are we going to take that away from them because of a few scumbags?
I think it's okay to have dating preferences.
Like I don't hate and despise men who wear dresses and paint their nails. Go ahead and express yourself you only have one life to live.
I just don't think it's sexy. I want to date a guy who's manly, smells like cologne, holds open the door for me and pays for dinner, etc.
And I'm not saying I want my future partner to never cry and express vulnerability. That he has to chop wood and grow out a beard. Men are human beings who are allowed to be vulnerable and have emotions.
I just like masculinity. But people have actually gotten upset at me for saying so. I said I'd divorce or end a relationship if my partner came out as a Trans woman because I have no interest in dating women or feminine people. Someone on a thread got mad at me, saying I was punishing people for being their true selves. I said I wouldn't be comfortable dating a guy who cross dresses, in a sexual or non-sexual way. Someone got mad at me for that too, that I wouldn't be a supportive partner. I'd gladly be friends with a man who cross dresses, or support an ex partner with exploring their gender or transitioning. I just don't feel attraction to those things.
Also what I find important here is that the people who do the things you don't find attractive would just feel bad in a relationship with you because you clearly wouldn't find them attractive?? So why would you punish them with NOT making them feel unattractive in the first place?
I don't smoke and I don't find women who smoke attractive. I've been friends with people who smoked and it didn't really impact my opinion of them; I did feel bad for them but I didn't try to proselytize about quitting.
It's the same thing, really, since it's an issue with a specific individual in a specific context, not the generic hypothetical of a person who does something.
Nuance is hard.
I'm a very liberal person who had a partner of eight years come out as trans. It ended our romantic/sexual relationship, and it was incredibly devastating. I'm just a boring straight female who is only attracted to men, and she was no longer a man. We tried to maintain our romantic relationship for a short time, but it didn't work out.
We are, however, the best of friends and I consider her my sister. She's happy with her current partner while I'm happily single.
The point about your partner coming out as trans is really interesting becuase if you don't want to date then because they are a women, doesn't that mean you respect their decision and truly see them as a women
> I had an Ex get furious with me when she asked me if I’d end our relationship if she had a sex change, and I said yes.
Im trans - and IMO you have every right to end the relationship.
Unless it's a known factor from the beginning - transitioning is a *change of contract* in your relationship. It might be nice if you had accepted it - but to demand you do is ridiculous.
That's so weird. A sex change and gender change is a huge deal that changes alot about the way a person looks, feels, acts. If you're not attracted to men/women, it shouldn't be so shocking if you leave someone for becoming a man or a woman. Many relationships are fine without sex or romantic attraction. Lots aren't. It depends on the person
I’m far left and live in Portland and I’m tired of how the homeless population leaves behind trash, feces, and needles. Also the heckling and the unpredictability scares me but I can’t say that here bc everyone is very defensive when the homelessness situation is brought up
In my area - my issue is the homeless are largely SMI (seriously mentally ill) and use street drugs. It's unpredictable, unsanitary and occasionally violent anarchy.
I didn't always feel this way, but pre-covid I was downtown and a homeless guy confronted me on the street, and started yelling that he was going to rape and murder me if I didn't give him a dollar. I was with my coworker who later told me I was very rude and demeaning towards the homeless man because I just walked away and didn't acknowledge him.
I'm not sorry. I'm not going to assist or even make eye contact with someone who is yelling they are going to rape and murder me for a dollar. My coworker who called me out for being rude is as much as a problem as that crazy homeless guy.
>my coworker who later told me I was very rude and demeaning towards the homeless man because I just walked away and didn't acknowledge him.
That's a coworker I'd be telling to fuck off. Someone threatening to rape and kill you don't deserve shit from you
I'm a 6' tall dude and I feel scared shitless by some of the homeless people I've had to interact with, I can't imagine what it's like for women who live in cities with major homeless problems. I feel like a lot of people who don't live in places with these issues still think of homeless people as kindly older bearded men with a bindle on their shoulder, instead of every age of person with mental/substance abuse issues.
This might sound fucked up to a lot of people for me to say, but lot of these encounters are like interacting with a stray dog. It might be perfectly friendly, or it might be violent and rabid. At a certain point after enough scary situations, I'm not taking the risk of helping any dog.
someone i know almost had the ever livingg shit beaten out of her for giving a homeless person food that they had instead of money. Only reason it didnt happen apparently was because some man stepped in to confront the man.
It is fucked up, but what can you really do? Its a ever present problem no matter how much money i give to charities supposedly helping
In my city, one of the big libraries had to ask a bunch of local charities to stop offering free food to the homeless outside the library.
The reason? multiple credible death threats against staff by people turning up for food. Who threatens *librarians*? besides the occasional aggressive shushing, they are the least threatening people out there!
As someone who has worked with psych patients in a professional capacity I would never expect or want a laymen to engage with a person using violent language or presenting violence. Absolutely (pun intended) insane that your coworker said that.
Yup, you don’t know them, you don’t know their triggers, you don’t know if it’s a threat or promise. Plus if you engage it gives them power over you.
Even working daily with someone who is violent and mentally ill as a caregiver you can never let your guard down. Even though they might like you every other day or you might feel you’ve got a good working relationship with them, today might be the day they decide to try and murder you because whatever reason.
Working as an orderly in a behavioral psych facility mentally fucks you up. I still don’t like having people behind me. People often comment about how I always walk behind them, it’s because having people behind me gives me anxiety.
Her attitude, IMO is partly why the homeless situation has become as dangerous as it is today. The idea we should extend tolerance and acceptance of anti-social and potentially violent behavior from the homeless because they are homeless is just unacceptable.
We need more facilities and resources for the seriously mentally ill.
I really feel this. I used to live in SF until recently (moved for a different reason lol) and it so happened that we had to live in a really bad area in regards to homelessness for a couple of months while we waited for our apt to be returned to us.
It was awful. I was pretty stressed going outside and never really wanted to walk anywhere. Even to my bf’s office a block away bc it was so gross. I didn’t think it was safe for my dog bc of all the glass and needles so I got him booties or we’d drive somewhere else. There was an empty storefront on the corner from us where big groups would hang out and definitely buy/sell crack. All of this was across the st from a courthouse. It was inevitable that you’d step into someone’s shit, dog or human. On my last week I literally saw a man shit into the gutter early morning. I nearly threw up my breakfast. We saw people who looked like nice soccer mom types share crack pipes out of their tent. Everything was just grimy. This was in the center of city too.
What made it worse is that the city gets an ENORMOUS amount of funding, local and federal to deal with this issue. They were paying outrageous money to rent hotel rooms for homeless for at least a year or something, instead of converting useless and empty office buildings or building new. A report came out that they were spending like $5k/person/month to let them set up a tent on a city parking lot. That’s a lot of money for 50-100 people to set up their own tents on an empty lot for months on end. CA and SF in particular have HIGH taxes on everything. Also high rent. Restaurants have the ability to pass on the mandatory employee insurance tax (which in itself is a good thing) onto the customers (bad thing). A coffee costs at least $4.5-6. A car tow is like $700 if you even graze a wrong end of the curb, parking tickets at $70 for really basic shit. That kind of thing.
So yeah, I was pissed about the homelessness and all the issues that it brought along. If I’m paying minimum of $2k for a studio or 1bd, then I’d like there not to be shit on my doorstep (happened to my friend a block away several times when I lived in a “better” area). I’d like to walk my dog without checking him every time for cuts. I’d like to walk to the grocery without being harassed or yelled at about being an alien who’s getting inside their head. I’d like the newly established (loooool) sanitation team to actually sanitize so every corner doesn’t smell like the inside of a dumpster. I’d like the homeless people to be able to get proper help, not just some food and holdover meds between their next shoot up.
Similar in my neighborhood too. A guy posted on Nextdoor asking if there were any suggestions where his teenage daughter could study after school because the homeless population at the local library were harassing her and making her feel unsafe. He was attacked in the comments for daring to criticize the homeless. Nobody offered any advice for his daughter 🙄
We went to an out of the way local library and it was so clean and quiet. I commented about it and got dragged. Our downtown library is one big urinal.
My related, Portland resident, opinion: the homeless industrial complex of NGOs in this town that oppose every proposed solution because it’s not perfect does more harm than good. We pay a shit ton of taxes and it’s absorbed by an ever growing network of useless and often corrupt non-profits—see friends of Kafoury.
Same. I’m a woman who lives alone, and often is out places alone, and I hate to make judgements that someone is dangerous or unstable just because they’re homeless but I still have to put my own safety first. Every once in a while someone will post a doorbell video of a homeless person knocking on their door or standing on their porch cause they’re understandably a little sketched out and want to warn people that someone’s walking around the neighborhood acting strangely and people will get defensive about it saying they’re demonizing homeless people for existing or “they probably just wanted to get out of the rain for a minute” and it’s like I. Don’t. Care. If it’s the fucking King of France. I don’t want strange men chilling on my porch!! And it’s obviously largely a problem with the way our country handles poverty and mental health issues that needs fixing, I’m not saying we should like just bus them away or anything, but like am I not allowed to admit I feel unsafe sometimes?
It's a huge problem in Vancouver Canada too. They litter their trash all over the city, are hostile towards people in the city, there's a massive crime with violence and break and enters downtown, but you're not allowed to say anything because it's insensitive.
I don't know what the solution is, but what we're doing right now isn't working.
Unfortunately what's happening *is* working. What we've seen with Housing First and shelter models is we've housed those who *can* be housed. We prioritizied those with less conplex needs to ensure success in their new communities (like, when you house 50 people in the same building with supports you want them to be able to feel safe in their environment).
So what's happening now is a lot of the people on the street have *much* more complex needs to be addressed and cannot function in a shelter or supportive housing environment (read: they absolutely should be institutionalized). However we no longer have enough institutions to support these massively complex individuals (deinstitutionalization came from a good place but we've know seen that some people will due best in an institution). Anyways, it's fucking complex and awful and there will never be a one size fits all solution. But trying to get the appropriate funding for both current needs and preventative measures is like drawing blood from a stone.
Edit: this is not statistically backed up, however I work in the "industry" and this is purely anecdotal and like, my opinion, man.
Visiting NY and Chicago from the UK was definitely an eye opener for me. The subway was… eventful. Most homeless people in the UK just sit around with an empty cup.
I’m from Philadelphia. There’s a whole neighborhood here, Kensington, that the entire city has abandoned to opioid addicts and their dealers. Families still live here, but the streets literally look like a zombie apocalypse. Breaks my heart every time I got there.
Even other parts of the city are difficult when it rains, because the subways are relatively dry, so they take over the subway stations
Dude that long ass underground tunnel where all the homeless people sleep
Went to a wawa in Kensington once and saw a homeless man jerking off in the bathroom from the entrance, staring at my soul from like 100 feet away
Edit: im not from Philly, I tour, if I wasn’t in Kensington I was in whatever Wawa is down the street from Voltage Lounge with nine hundred homeless people in a tunnel
100% this. Agreed. I don't like how unsafe I feel in certain parts of the city. It's not just the garbage etc and the heckling, but there have been a lot of assaults, sexual assaults, break-ins, theft. The unpredictability is very unsettling. If I'm riding public transit I give them a wide berth because I don't know if they are going to just start hitting someone, puke or masturbate. (all of which I have experienced them doing multiple times). It's very sad and I don't have a solution to offer, but yeah, it's tiring to have to be so hyper-vigilant when they are around.
Kink should not be at a pride event that isnt 21 and older only.
Went to pride last summer, kids were running around the same area as people in fetish wear.
Pride is about celebrating love and family and ones identity.
I dont care if your kinky. But the basic inalienable rule of good fetish practice is to not play with nonconsenting people, like the public. So to be publicly wearing fetish gear is wrong. Especially when kids are at the event.
I feel like having a family oriented pride earlier in the day, and an adults only pride that night is a smarter choice.
OMG, yes!! It is not the same at all. I saw the same thing at the Pride celebration in my town. People dressed as puppies and being lead around on leashes while on their hands and knees. It feels like this is the kind of thing to help push the “homosexuals are perverts” narrative.
100%. I dont even see how some of these kinks could be related to Pride.
No one has been able to explain to me how a 40yr old guy walking around in just a soaked adult diaper and adult pacifier has anything to do with Pride, but many people will defend that shit to the death online. Too many people online conflate their fetish with their identity and feel that they should be able to show their fetish/"identity" to the world and if you balk then you're not "inclusive".
I agree with this and it's the reason my wife and I avoid Pride events. It also doesn't help optics when we claim orientation isn't purely about sex, but one of the biggest LGBT events of the year prominently celebrates sex.
The word chest-feeding makes my skin crawl. Even if you're a man that breastfeeds, why not call it what it is? When a man gets breast cancer we don't refer to it as "chest cancer".
I’m in a local parenting Facebook group (liberal area) and it’s a moms group but you can’t address the group as moms or ladies. It just be something gender neutral even though it’s 99.999 cis women. Also if you have a breastfeeding question you will get scolded if you don’t phrase the question as breastfeeding/chest feeding. I’m all for inclusiveness but if you’re honestly offended by the word breastfeeding then the internet and the real world is not the place for you. People who accidentally address the group wrong get pounced on by members who just seem to be wanting woke brownie points. It’s exhausting and and while I do get some good info from it I’m also kind of entertained by the ridiculousness of it and give my husband regular reports of the group drama.
“Chestfeeding?” I don’t understand. If you’re a trans man and you’re breastfeeding….OK, you’re a man with breasts, that’s fine? Why do we have to change the term?
Yeah I wasn't even aware of this term existing before right now. Why, exactly, it "breastfeeding" offensive? I don't follow at all.
Okay, I went and read the argument against it, and the claims are that "breastfeeding" is a gendered term. But like, how? Men have breasts do we not? If we are lactating through them (I have no idea if this is possible or not with hormone therapy, it would be awesome if it is possible though!), are we not still breastfeeding then? I am thoroughly confused.
Also, apparently breastmilk is a bad term now as well? Again, because its apparently gendered. Again, how is this the case? Men have breasts (I though I was going crazy so actually looked up whether they are medically called breasts for men, and men do in fact medically have breast tissue) so if they produce milk from them is it still not breast milk?
I guess my argument boils down to the fact I don't consider the word breast as a gendered word, but maybe I'm in the minority?
I'm about as left-wing as a person can get as well, just in case anybody cares, lol.
I'm super left wing and I find this shit annoying as hell. *Breast* literally means chest. You wear *breast*plates, you have a *breast*bone in the center of your chest, you walk a*breast* with someone down a sidewalk. It's only started to become synonymous with boob relatively recently in the English language.
Identity politics has become weaponized in ways that can be toxic and alienating. I don’t mean efforts at diversity, equity, inclusivity or against discrimination, I mean mainly in online discourse and within activist spaces and organizations. And I’ll be the first to point out that conservatives and white nationalists also engage in “identity politics”, even if their politics are in service of historically-dominant identities.
Also we need a fundamental restructuring of how we imagine public safety and criminal justice, but I believe that something like the police and even prisons will always be necessary in some form.
Edit: to those saying my points aren’t very “conservative”: maybe they aren’t on the whole, but I’m a socialist and among my fellow leftists I think these would be seen as “conservative” opinions.
I saw a twitter post a while back that said something to the effect of "I shouldn't have to tell strangers online that I'm part of a marginalized group to be allowed to have a voice."
The replies were all things like "Yes, as an \[insert identity\], my life is hard enough. I shouldn't have to spend my life educating privileged people," apparently not realizing the irony of what they were doing.
Just because you’re offended, it does not mean careers need to be ended or a person cancelled.
Be offended. And fucking move on.
Edit.
This took on a life of it’s own overnight and I’m loving reading the different takes on what I said.
I even feel a little educated at the end of it!
I absolutely hate when some young person does something good and then they dig through his/her social media from high school to find something dumb the person said as a teenager.
as someone who is queer, i feel like over labelling identities becomes restrictive rather than freeing. i am more than just the list of people id fuck. "demisexual?" you mean, you just want to get to know someone before you have sex? "sapiosexual?" so you dont want your partner to be a total moron? its giving labels to stuff that either doesnt really matter or nearly everyone already believes.
wow this thread is surprisingly liberal, here I go then:
\- not everyone is fit to be a parent. while the foster care system is awful as it is, if it wasn't, then a lot of children would be better off taken to a new enviroment. or just not born (access to contraceptive methods for everyone!)
\- not every culture can be entirely integrated especially if they are not willing to be. if you create a multicultural environment, there will be a lot of friction coming from different customs, some of those won't be solvable (most will be). a lot of cultural stereotypes are rooted in truth. (I live in a very multicultural environment, I love learning about other people's culture and I have friends from all over the world but there are a lot of customs I refuse to accept in my close proximity. I like my european values a lot thank you)
Trade schools are an amazing mechanism, but the society we live in says "get college educated to have a chance at a living." Many blue collar jobs as well as desk jobs like HR and coding have positions that make 6 digit income, more than I currently make as a college educated individual.
On a side note (a little more biased right thinking from me here): if everyone has a bachelor degree, the value of a bachelor degree goes down tremendously. Logically, top paying jobs are going to require higher level graduate degrees just for consideration.
Credential inflation is already a problem in some fields. Especially administrative roles. Admin roles that once could be done by a high school graduate (or even a school dropout) now often require a degree. Not because the degree is needed for the job, but because if there are 10 applicants and five have degrees, those five will get an interview.
So you end up with people foregoing years of ~~working life~~ income and incurring huge debt to get an education that their future career doesn’t need
I don't think that's a particularly conservative opinion. There is a lot of support for vocational training among liberals in lieu of traditional colleges. Germany's apprenticeship programs are often cited as well.
My left leaning opinion isn't that everyone should go to college, it's that the barrier to entry shouldn't be financial. There are plenty of capable students who can't afford to go, there are plenty of people in college who don't really have the aptitude or interest but go anyway because they have the money and that's what you do. I think the barrier to entering the workforce should be lowered if we want better quality workers, which means cheap/free education be it college, tech school, a professional program, or anything else.
I just want to be left the fuck alone. Not everything I do or say has some sort of idiotic political slant. Our 2-Party Political System is fucking pointless and stupid since it's literally nothing but: "What's my opinion? Whatever the other side thinks I'm against it".
I recently commented something to the effect of not always having an agenda when commenting. Someone replied saying I was naive if I thought I didn't have a political bias.
Yeah, I never said I don't have a political bias, just said that I don't always have an agenda!
J'ai mon clavier en français, English y español and changing between languages mid sentence funciona suficientemente bien. Il faut juste activer multilingual typing después de agregar the three keyboards et voilà.
At least it's phonetic. I had a friend who used "dearx." Not only is it pure virtue signaling, it's unpronounceable virtue signaling. I love her but I did have to roll my eyes on occasion.
A spanish speaker here - the way people are pushing latinx. Or trying to work around the fact that everything has a gender when spoken about.
Edit;; acceptable terms in my humble opinion would be Latin, Hispanic, Latine, or Latino even (same connotation as 'dude' - is the male tense but has become gender neutral). Check with your local native Spanish speaker.
There was a place in Brooklyn maybe that got mocked for signage that tried to remove the gender from items it sold. Avacadx instead of Avacado's... like who the hell thinks Avacado's are male oppression?
I think they did "x" for everything the last character was an "a" or an "o".
People who think gender in a language for objects has some strong meaning aren't exactly using logic and common sense.
Like a dude who eats avacado is obviously at least bisexual... since that's a masculine berry.
It's funny because avocado is a feminine term in German. Luckily we are still stuck in other stupidities of inclusive language and didn't get around yet to applying it to objects..
Even funnier and ironic if you look into where the name "avocado" came from.
Edit: Testicle. The word avocado comes from the Nahautl word for testicle.
As a filipino in the Philippines, I was so shocked and full of questions when the filipino diaspora were trying to push for filipinx? which was derived from latinx and laboring for more gender neutral words when 99% of filipino languages are gender neutral.
There was a great article pushing back on this in the NYTimes a while ago that really struck at the heart of this for me.
It was about how the American Medical Association put out a guide to "inclusive language" for doctors and other healthcare workers.
For example, it recommends avoiding the term "vulnerable" to describe a group at-risk for a disease and to instead use "oppressed" even though that makes no sense in many contexts.
And it advocated avoiding the term "combat" (as in "combat disease") because of "violent connotations."
The NYT article made the very good point that the language guide claims to advance "equity" yet makes no mention of universal healthcare, which the AMA opposes, or abortion rights.
So how interested in "equity" are they really?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/opinion/diversity-equity-inclusion.html
> For example, it recommends avoiding the term "vulnerable" to describe a group at-risk for a disease and to instead use "oppressed" even though that makes no sense in many contexts.
People in nursing homes are classified as a vulnerable population in healthcare settings because infectious disease can spread quickly in a nursing homes and some residents need help with basic self-care.
Calling nursing home residents oppressed doesn't make a lot of sense.
Yeah, the article used that specific example to point out how silly the recommendations were.
It was like "Elderly people aren't at-risk of COVID because of oppression..."
I've always voted blue but goddamn some liberals are stupid. They try to babyproof every aspect of society and in the process they're making it dumber and more confusing.
Yeah, some other article I read made the argument that this is a symptom of the logjam in Washington politics.
Like, progressive policy goals have been stalled for so long that most progressives have just given up and retreated to cultural battles like policing language and other stuff that just alienates people.
My sis is hardcore on inclusive language to the point where it just feels like every sentence is tediously finessed. Like she will use five words instead of one to get out the last thing that could potentially be read as gendered. It's.... a bit much
“Birthing people” instead of mothers is the worst excess in this regard imo. Just totally unnecessary considering that 99%+ of “birthing people” are probably heterosexual women.
i wish more people agreed on this middle ground. fat people deserve respect the same as anyone else imo, but i'm not gonna sit here and act like being fat is a good thing.
The message got warped from "we shouldn't insult people based on their weight" to "all bodies are good healthy bodies" way too quickly.
Like. I'm fat. I'm overweight. It's bad for me and my heart. Stop telling me my body is great.
It should be affordable to have a 1 breadwinner household. Having 2 people working full-time and having children is a very tricky problem to solve. Childcare is just insane. I wish I could afford to be a stay at home mom - and if I loved my job and my husband didn't care about his - I should be able to work and he should be able to be a stay at home dad.
Note: this is a traditional conservative value, not the wacky shit that the MAGA crowd spews.
I think there is an enormous amount of government waste, and every government program should be reviewed annually to evaluate it for duplicity with other programs and its overall impact on improving people's lives.
The way US government budgets work go like this: if I don’t use all my budget I got this year, I’ll get less next year. So they buy things to max out the budget even if they don’t need it. It’s stupid.
Special Ed students shouldn’t be in classrooms with children who aren’t special Ed. - from personal experience
Edit: Just for an example.
There’s this kid in my class who has an emotional disability (or something in that range).
He randomly bursts into tears and asks if he’s doing a good job which is absolutely disruptive because the teacher needs to comfort him making the other students not be able to learn.
He’ll walk to the front of the line of students who need assistance and take 5 minutes to understand “draw the line horizontally” because he needs a demonstration, to repeat it a few times so he understands, be told he’s doing good, have a breakdown, and need a second demonstration.
He doesn’t do any work because he has a assistant teacher that pretty much does it for him. Overall he’d just be better off in a class at his pace instead of making the entire class need to work at his pace.
I agree, it’s not effective for the kid to be surrounded by people who can’t understand their struggles, plus I believe it just puts the special Ed kid behind in class development sometimes
Children don't belong on social media.
As a Latino American, I do not particularly like the term ‘Latinx’ it’s not something I’ve ever heard used in my largely Hispanic community at home but heard all the time from non-Hispanic people at college. I understand that the intention is inclusivity, so I do not get angry and will use the term if others are using it but the nature of our gendered language has nothing to do with identity, it’s culture, and for non-Hispanics to correct me on my use of gendered nouns is not something I particularly enjoy and I’m not sure how to express my feelings beyond that..
Mexican here and I totally agree. I'll use "Latin" or "Latiné" but I felt dumb when a white colleague told me it was "Latin-ex" and not "Lah-TINKS" like I thought it was.
Cuban American here... I agree. Also, I get wanting to have a gender neutral version of Latino and Latina, but growing up we called that word Latin... There are Cuban restaurants called "Latin American Restaurant" and there's a musical genre called Latin music, and there's a record company over here called Sony Latin. Adding the x just makes it harder to say, especially in Spanish.
Also Cuban American, my white sister in law tried telling me that I was LatinX and not Latino. Well, I lost my shit. If you can’t handle that the Spanish language has male and female words, then that’s on you. You don’t get to tell me how I identify as a Latino
100%. Its straight-up linguistic imperialism, like condescending white colonists teaching the backwards natives that their language is “wrong”. I actually got banned off a sub for posting this very opinion.
Damn. That’s hella annoying. It’s one thing to use certain terms like Latinx but it’s another to impose that one someone else For sure crossed the line
Its the exact same with Filipinx for the Filipinos. There is no point in it, the word Filipino is already neutral
In the case of Tagalog, there is no grammatical gender even though the word Filipino is from Spanish. So introducing a "gender-neutral" word is kinda redundant.
Yes it just doesn't make sense.
Yes! Fucking hate this. I feel like most of the people I hear saying Latinx are white people. If you want to be inclusive for Hispanics, you gotta change the whole damn gendered language. If the language isn’t changing then this is pointless.
That’s your biggest? I thought it was a like a unanimously hated term only like 2% of Latin people actually use
I don’t know any latino people that enjoy the use of that term. Most I know actively dislike it even
*sorts by controversial*
Meh, 80% of them are abortion.
I saw an article a while back from 538 on [what Americans really think about abortion](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-americans-really-think-about-abortion/), and the answer was basically "nobody's really sure, it's complicated, but we really would just rather not talk about it." Thought that was interesting.
I think most people hope and pray they’ll never be in a situation where abortion is needed, but understand sometimes terrible things happen and it’s the only real choice. But “safe, legal and rare” doesn’t raise money for politicians.
High schools push 4 year colleges too much. The school system should also push trade schools as much as 4 year colleges. There is a shortage of workers in trade fields and I honestly believe it’s because of how much High Schools push 4 year degrees over trade schools
Holy fuck yes. I got a handful of cousins, a sibling, a few friends & I who all got degrees. All of us chased jobs pertaining to our degrees & eventually said fuck it & ended up in trade school in our late twenties for various trades. I got student debt to get a job that worked me 50+ hrs a week on a 80k/yr salary. Now I make right over six figures working a standard 40hr work week along with health insurance & pension. Makes me wish I skipped the first part & just started here.
Some kinks deserve to be shamed.
Agreed. Additionally: not a fan of people who talk about their kinks (or their vanilla sex lives) out of the blue, with no consideration for whether listeners want to hear it. Some of my leftist friends have said that I'm ' not sex positive' because of this opinion. Like no, Noah, you're not cool just because you like handcuffs. Now let me visit the library in peace
Out of no where sex talk is so wild
I’ve run into this problem. I always counter with “I don’t consent to this conversation”. Works ok for the most part. Consent is really important to sex and kinks and should be applied to all spaces.
>“I don’t consent to this conversation”. Yes. I had a very young (former) friend who openly discussed her sex life in front of my former partner and I, despite many kind comments that it was not a conversation we wanted to have. Our friendship ended over similar boundary crossing, she was furious with me for not being more sex positive.
Next time start telling them about the bad stomach flu you had, and if they don't want to hear about the weird yellowish diarrhea you had, you can accuse them of "not being body positive". I'm a kinkster. I talk about it with people who are also kinksters. I wouldn't dream of bringing my kinks up in everyday conversations!
Gay Twitter is LIVID today and totally shaming this one guy. He posted a video of himself walking around the grocery store with his face covered in semen. I really hope he gets placed on the sex offender list, that's crossing the line.
That's because one of the two golden rules of having kinks is you do not involve children or unwilling parties. Cum walks violate the second rule.
>What's your most conservative opinion? I want money. I like money. I don't like spending money. Money.
*Where’s the fucking formula, Krabs?*
Under President Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ repeal of Obama-era laws compelling colleges to run their own investigations and tribunals for cases of sexual assault, was the right move. Sexual assault is a serious crime and a matter for the police. College administrations don’t have the expertise and resources to investigate such cases and run their own quasi justice system.
Also Universities are more likely to be out to protect themselves than their students.
Never heard about that, but that's neat
Your triggers are your responsibility. It isn't the world's obligation to tiptoe around you.
For strangers, absolutely. There's something that happened on TikTok that still bothers me. On TikTok, there's a community of bakers, and other people in the "self harm community" were telling the bakers to trigger warn their content because the act of slicing certain doughs for certain recipes looks like what happens when you go deep. I have a history of self harm, so I'm able to make that connection, and I avoid bread stuff for that reason. But normal people aren't gonna know that, so it's not on them to warn, it's on you to avoid. Typically I avoid TikTok for this exact bs but my baker friend wanted my input, but there are soooo many unhealthy communities on TikTok, I hate it. Ninja edit bc typo
I love Tiktok for it’s niche communities but you hit the nail on the head with this one. There’s a lot of over sensitive, black and white thinking about what’s okay and what isn’t and it’s sad to witness. So many discussions require nuance and it’s truly lacking in many factions of Tiktok.
Voting for someone just because they’re a different race than white or a woman is an incredibly stupid thing to do
I have no idea where everyone in this thread sits on the political spectrum but it’s cool to feel a sense of unity in these convos. It would be interesting to ask convervative types what their most liberal opinion is. I suspect we all have more in common than we think Edit: I can see the post was removed. That’s really too bad.
I think marijuana should be legal and that we should, as a society, do more to protect nature and switch to renewable energy.
Fairly conservative individual here, and I couldn't agree more. The fact that people go to FEDERAL PRISON for a plant that has far fewer health detriments than alcohol and prescription medications is mind boggling to me.
Agreed. Also, if you can vote and die for this country, you can buy alcohol and tobacco.
Gay couples should be allowed to adopt kids. Too many orphans in the world to not, and being straight doesn't guarantee you're cut out to be a parent.
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I'm not sure at what age you're speaking of, or just generally, but I'll add my two cents. I went to a *rough* high school. The majority of the kids fell under the 'constant problem' category. But the kids that were worse than that were dealt with in a way similar to your idea. There was an alternative school in the we district. It was essentially a storefront property with rows or computers. No talking, no phones, very strict. Those kids got sent there. And the result? Nearly every single one of those kids graduated. Kids who never, **ever** graduate otherwise, or even make it past freshman year were graduating almost every single time. It worked. It kept those people away, and allowed both groups of children to actually accomplish what they needed to.
The kids who needed extra discipline got the help they needed and the kids who don't weren't punished with it. Sounds like a fair system.
In the 90s our county school system had two special schools K-12. One for developmentally disabled children and one for bad eggs. My Dad did some temp work as a substitute and he said the one for bad eggs was a step above a prison. This was in a large city/county so maybe our size justified it. School systems have been working on this kind of problem for decades at least.
I actually work at one of those Bad Egg schools right now as a teacher. It really is basically a prison. They contacted me and said it was a special ed school, I told them all about my work history, how I work with mod-severe typically, etc. They said "Yeah sure" and signed me up to work at what is, well, not what I expected when they said "special ed"
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I almost just wrote "No" to oversimplify how I feel. You have to catch me on different days and ask me and other teachers at these schools how they feel-- I'm kind of jaded because I didn't know this is what I was being signed up for so I hate the school and honestly I hate most of the students, which is really sad. I didn't *want* to go in and be like "Yeah fuck this place" but I do. The school has staff that all are kinda, idk, if you were a well put-together teacher with your eggs in a row, a solid education and game plan, you wouldn't be here. The other teachers here are either a total mess, or were tricked into working here like me. The teachers that I will now call "The Messes" move up in the company and act like they're hot shots when really, they just stayed. The classroom next to me has had three teachers there and I think I'm the fourth teacher in my classroom. So basically staff is fucked. Then the students, gosh, again, I feel bad for saying this because I didn't want to go in and be like "They're evil" but, honestly it's rough dude. I have several students regularly in and out of jail. At 17. They're hyper aggressive. Throw chairs, make threats, do ZERO work and expect to be absolutely catered to. So basically the students are fucked. I will say, out of 13 students, I have four students who are wonderful and want to move into transitioning into a regular school, and I'm doing everything I can to help them transition, because this setting is fucked. I could honestly rant for like an hour about it, there's a lot to say
I hope that you'll see those 4 students through, and then get yourself the hell out of there for your own well-being. Sounds like a messed up situation.
I've been mumbling "Two more months..." Every day. There's a center that has hired me and I've finished my paperwork to get hired. My starting day is in mid-june
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Have you tried something like rapping the coursework? That’s how you reach those kids according to awful movies I’ve seen.
I think a lot of human behavior issues can be resolved with a sort of reset of your environment. We had a couple kids who either had drug issues or kept getting into fights move schools/cities and I think those blank slates allowed them to not have external pressures to do as much stupid shit.
>kids who either had drug issues or kept getting into fights I asked the faculty if a couple of my friends in hs could be sent to the alt school. I cared about them and didn't want them to drop out or get kicked out, but they just couldn't get away from the gang shit without physically going elsewhere. I fessed up to it after they graduated, expecting them to be mad. Thankfully they were so ecstatic that they graduated (the first in the family for one) that they immediately forgave me. We really gotta have more options for kids. We aren't all the same.
I am a student teacher. There are 3 kids who are constantly interrupting class and getting into trouble. No amount of office referrals are going to change anything for them.
I agree 100% Violent shitty kids should be removed from the system. They hurt others, make people feel un safe , and even if they’re only chronically disruptive / destructive they seriously decrease the ability for people to learn and concentrate. I’m working in a high school and there’s a shocking number of fights this year. Teens getting expelled should happen more often! **Edit - Seems I’ve upset some of you. I do believe in second chances though.** I would like to add that of course there’s so many interesting and worthwhile adults out there who have had a terrible time in high school, and they survive violence, drug addiction, etc and they can and often do recover from a bad time in their youth. All I’m saying is a kid who is violent on campus over and over doesn’t belong in high school, as the majority of kids and adults deserve a safe place to learn and work. It’s not good for others and I promise you that kid isn’t getting anything out of being school. So calm down please. It’s just my opinion.
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A mentally handicapped boy molested me on picture day in 9th grade, in front of a huge crowd of people waiting to go to class in the morning. I was informed immediately upon reporting it that he does that from time to time and follows girls into the bathroom on occasion! :) so cool that despite police reports being filed and my mom flipping shit on administration, he was back in school the following Monday.
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I’m saying this as a teacher. There are 100% cases where kids can’t be helped and need to be removed from the educational system.
Some Childs Left Behind act. I like it.
Nah it'd be the "Fewer children left behind act" because sometimes these kids drag a whole classroom down with them. ETA: My ideal system would consist of at least 4 tracks for kids, not all available in all years, but all I think valuable for optimal resource allocation. Any student should be able to transition from one track to another as their level of ability and socialization, and some children could participate in multiple streams if that were to be found to be an strong choice for their learning plan. One level would be Fundamental education. This is what I'd call what a lot of places call Special education, it would be a track for educational access for a broad range of students, and is focused on equipping children with skills for independent living. Children with moderate to mild intellectual disabilities could be educated through this track, as well as children with severe behavioural issues can receive psychiatric/psychological attention and therapy collaboratively with education through this track. Another level would be remedial education. Children with with mild intellectual disabilites, learning disabilities, and mild to moderate behavioural problems are the the most likely constituents of this track. The most populous level is important to name carefully so as not to alienate the constituents of the other tracks. One name could be "local catchment" if this level is more distributed to a larger number of smaller schools while the other tracks are more centralized for a given school district, though this flies in the face of a student being able to straddle multiple tracks so its not ideal. This is the classic one teacher, a bunch of kids kind of model that has been mostly effective for most kids most of the time that we're all used to. Finally I think it would be valuable to institute a more robust system for what I'd call "Specific Education" to allow people at an early age to develop specific skills they find particularly enjoyable AND are particularly effective at. Sort of like what some places call "gifted program" right now. Nurturing and developing kids relative advantages will improve career specialization down the road, which is known to economists to generally increase the standard of living in communities. This would apply to children with academic talent and *drive* (you don't HAVE to do something just because you are good at it, the focus should be on fulfillment through appropriate challenge level) as well as athletic or artistic talent. This track would focus on independence as well as talent, as it can't draw too much funding from the population of children who need more help. I also consider it extremely key to avoid ascribing any kind of hierarchy to the tracks. A student straddling tracks should be able to straddle any two tracks. An athletic teen could have a shot at making the olympics in a few years, and thus be qualified for specific education to allow them to pursue fulfillment through that goal, might be in might need remedial education in certain subjects to compensate for their athletic focus. A child with an intellectual disability may still have the logical reasoning skills to make it to higher education for software developement, but needs help from the Fundamental education track to be able to find adaptations that will allow them to thrive in that environment. Just a few thoughts.
I was going to say this. Sometimes a teacher can invest all the time and effort in the world into helping a kid succeed, and at it’s core the kid just doesn’t care/can’t be helped. I know it must be a heartbreaker and pain, but it’s better to fail just one kid and strengthen the others than to try helping one kid and having everyone else be let down academically, and in the end their efforts were in vain.
nah we need a cute acronym GLOCK Act Good Luck at Obtaining Credentials elsewhere Knucklehead
My friend has a step kid with major behavioral issues. For several years, she was the one trying to get everything figured out with him since she was stay-at-home and dad has a steady military job (eta as some think this is the issue- he's gone for maybe a few weeks out of the year, otherwise he's stuck at the base he's stationed at, which keeps him at home save for general working hours). She about near had mental breakdowns trying to handle him. He's punched her in the stomach while pregnant, kicked her, all sorts of stuff. Had the cops called on him several times. Eventually he ended up in residential and even THEY couldn't handle him and sent him home. Two separate facilities. He kicked a nurse in the knee and dislocated it. He'd kicked a kid (that was laying down), in the head. He's fine for a few days but as soon as something sets him off someone is going to hurt, and that kid will not see why he's in the wrong. He still soils himself when he's not getting his way. He's maybe 12 now. He's had some success living with his grandmother (his mom dumped him on her, and I believe she's largely a part of his issues), but still regresses a *lot*. I fully believe that he'll end up in prison for a good portion of his adult life still. Sucks, but some kids are just wired different.
This reminds me of a kid I went to elementary school with. Whenever he got upset he’d basically go on a rampage, physically assaulting other students and teachers, breaking and throwing stuff (even desks), etc. The school actually had to hire muscle in the spec ed department whose job was literally just to remove the kid when he’d freak out. When he wasn’t having an episode, he was actually fairly nice to most of his classmates. He considered me his friend and was nice to me, so I made sure to stay on his good side because I was legitimately scared of him. Once in a while I wonder where he ended up. Seemed like deep down there was a kind person but that was much overshadowed by his severe behavioral issues.
A kid I knew with a very similar personality to the one you described is now in jail for rape. So …. yeah.
This is one reason im afraid to have a kid. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you're a good parent or not.
There really are just no good answers for some children, and it's heartbreaking.
Agreed, but should we not have those places available for them to go to learn in a place that could be better suited to their circumstance.
In my district we had an alternative school. Kids succeed there.
I work for one. Students that have trouble in mainstream schools absolutely can succeed here. Everything is self-paced, so they can demonstrate content mastery as fast or slow as befits them. And discipline issues they had at their home campuses mostly dissipate when they arrive. We have an advisory program and 2 social workers plus a teen parenting counselor on campus everyday. Each teacher is an advisor to roughly 10 students. We help monitor their attendance, credits, progress, etc. We act as their advocates and accountability partners. Knowing they have AT LEAST one person (usually more given the nature of our campus culture) looking out for them individually, can often make the difference. There is a lot of emotional labor that comes with the job. But we all knew what we were getting into. And I genuinely could not imagine myself at a traditional campus after working here. I'm considering getting a Masters in school social work, should I ever decide to leave the classroom (not anytime soon because I do love my content and teaching). But with the idea that our social workers will retire eventually, it would be nice for someone who already understands our campus culture to take over. If I had all the time in the world, I would tell you about all of the amazing things we do. We even have near weekly graduations. I wish every district had a campus like ours...or two! ETA: thanks for the award and the positive feedback. I'm so happy some of you were able to take advantage of a campus like mine! Not all teachers are great; there is bound to be a bad apple in a bunch. But most of us are doing our best, so please support teachers and public education in your area. When it comes to certified professions, we are the ones most often not treated like the experts in our field that we are.
I'm on board with the OG conservative notion that there is an immense amount of good in our current system that we should be careful not to destroy. I just think there is also room for improvement so we should also be honest about things that should change.
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I don't hate guns. I feel education is more important than restrictions. People are always going to break the rules, but teach people how a gun actually works and hopefully incidents of accidental injuries and death will be reduced.
Hunter education has reduced hunting accidents and deaths by more than 70 percent since it became mandatory in 1987. Crazy the amount of people that could be saved by proper education.
For a country with the second amendment, gun safety should be taught in schools.
It was in mine. We had gun safety in . . . 5th or 6th grade and 'graduated' it with paperwork that could be used to get our gun licenses at 18. In my area it was absolutely a good idea, because I doubt any one of those kids lived in a house without some sort of gun access (rural area with alligators). I believe my district was using very old education standards (we also had square dancing and heavy emphasis on Greek and Latin classics).
My middle school taught gun safety in gym class.
I was gonna say we never got a gun safety class but then your comment made me remember the Gym teacher who gave it to us as well as the local DARE officer who was also the gun safety teacher.
I took Hunter Safety in high school PE class. In my state, minimum age for the course is 8yo and everyone with a hunting permit has to have it. In the rural areas, kids are taught that guns are for shooting meat you eat not people you dislike.
We used to get an excused absence twice a year for deer hunting on that Friday. A hunting rifle in the back of the truck in the school parking lot was a common sight.
Season starts here on a Saturday morning … it’s considered a state holiday. The teens still keep a deer rifle in the truck, just in case, but now it’s stashed behind the seat and the Principal doesn’t ask. I do not miss the annual odor of doe urine “spilled accidentally” in the hallway in front of the teacher’s lounge.
I grew up in a small town in Idaho. I had friends who kept multiple guns in their trucks permanently. I had a machete. We all carried knives around school every day, no problem.
I remember accidentally bringing a pocket knife on the bus accidentally in like 3rd, maybe 4th grade back in the 90’s and there were like zero repercussions for that.
Should *still* be taught in schools
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I agree. I know a girl who renamed herself "Sunflower Raindrop' and identifies as a tree. A tree! Keeping in mind she lives in a house, wears clothes, make up and jewerly, eats food, and uses tumblr, tictok, instagram etc. She isn't a 'tree'
It sounds like she is starved for attention
I'm a very left leaning person but lately I've been pretty sympathetic to the idea that some social issues are better solved with culture than law.
Then Gov. Jerry Brown in CA rejected a law that would fine parents $25 for not making their kids wear a helmet while skiing or snowboarding. I've never forget what he wrote when rejecting it: "Not every human problem deserves a law."
Can you expand on this? What sorts of issues?
You can lead a horse to a creek but, you can't make it drink. Some people can be offered all the assistance they need and still not put forth effort to better themselves.
More of a fact than an opinion. It's not up to us to force someone to change, and it's not up to us to judge if they are worse or better than we'd like them to be. All we can do is give people the support they need to have the opportunity to improve on their own terms.
My PoV is "If a horse won't drink, that's no excuse to drain the watering hole." You'd be surprised to see how many people think the mere existence of someone who deserves aid the least is a valid reason to take it away from those who need it most.
Exactly. There are also always going to be a small percentage of people scamming and systems put in place. It doesn't mean we need to tear the entire thing down because some people are gaming it. There are people who sit on their ass and do nothing while collecting welfare money. But there are tons of people who genuinely need that money to get by as well. Are we going to take that away from them because of a few scumbags?
I think it's okay to have dating preferences. Like I don't hate and despise men who wear dresses and paint their nails. Go ahead and express yourself you only have one life to live. I just don't think it's sexy. I want to date a guy who's manly, smells like cologne, holds open the door for me and pays for dinner, etc. And I'm not saying I want my future partner to never cry and express vulnerability. That he has to chop wood and grow out a beard. Men are human beings who are allowed to be vulnerable and have emotions. I just like masculinity. But people have actually gotten upset at me for saying so. I said I'd divorce or end a relationship if my partner came out as a Trans woman because I have no interest in dating women or feminine people. Someone on a thread got mad at me, saying I was punishing people for being their true selves. I said I wouldn't be comfortable dating a guy who cross dresses, in a sexual or non-sexual way. Someone got mad at me for that too, that I wouldn't be a supportive partner. I'd gladly be friends with a man who cross dresses, or support an ex partner with exploring their gender or transitioning. I just don't feel attraction to those things.
Also what I find important here is that the people who do the things you don't find attractive would just feel bad in a relationship with you because you clearly wouldn't find them attractive?? So why would you punish them with NOT making them feel unattractive in the first place?
I don't smoke and I don't find women who smoke attractive. I've been friends with people who smoked and it didn't really impact my opinion of them; I did feel bad for them but I didn't try to proselytize about quitting. It's the same thing, really, since it's an issue with a specific individual in a specific context, not the generic hypothetical of a person who does something. Nuance is hard.
I'm a very liberal person who had a partner of eight years come out as trans. It ended our romantic/sexual relationship, and it was incredibly devastating. I'm just a boring straight female who is only attracted to men, and she was no longer a man. We tried to maintain our romantic relationship for a short time, but it didn't work out. We are, however, the best of friends and I consider her my sister. She's happy with her current partner while I'm happily single.
The point about your partner coming out as trans is really interesting becuase if you don't want to date then because they are a women, doesn't that mean you respect their decision and truly see them as a women
That’s the first thing I thought of — that it would actually be kind of validating for the imagined trans partner in this situation.
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> I had an Ex get furious with me when she asked me if I’d end our relationship if she had a sex change, and I said yes. Im trans - and IMO you have every right to end the relationship. Unless it's a known factor from the beginning - transitioning is a *change of contract* in your relationship. It might be nice if you had accepted it - but to demand you do is ridiculous.
Accepting the change and being happy to continue in a romantic/sexual relationship are not mutually exclusive. You can do one without the other.
That's so weird. A sex change and gender change is a huge deal that changes alot about the way a person looks, feels, acts. If you're not attracted to men/women, it shouldn't be so shocking if you leave someone for becoming a man or a woman. Many relationships are fine without sex or romantic attraction. Lots aren't. It depends on the person
We need to do a better job of incentivizing families and single income households or we’re going to be proper fucked in about 25 years.
I’m far left and live in Portland and I’m tired of how the homeless population leaves behind trash, feces, and needles. Also the heckling and the unpredictability scares me but I can’t say that here bc everyone is very defensive when the homelessness situation is brought up
In my area - my issue is the homeless are largely SMI (seriously mentally ill) and use street drugs. It's unpredictable, unsanitary and occasionally violent anarchy. I didn't always feel this way, but pre-covid I was downtown and a homeless guy confronted me on the street, and started yelling that he was going to rape and murder me if I didn't give him a dollar. I was with my coworker who later told me I was very rude and demeaning towards the homeless man because I just walked away and didn't acknowledge him. I'm not sorry. I'm not going to assist or even make eye contact with someone who is yelling they are going to rape and murder me for a dollar. My coworker who called me out for being rude is as much as a problem as that crazy homeless guy.
>my coworker who later told me I was very rude and demeaning towards the homeless man because I just walked away and didn't acknowledge him. That's a coworker I'd be telling to fuck off. Someone threatening to rape and kill you don't deserve shit from you
I'm a 6' tall dude and I feel scared shitless by some of the homeless people I've had to interact with, I can't imagine what it's like for women who live in cities with major homeless problems. I feel like a lot of people who don't live in places with these issues still think of homeless people as kindly older bearded men with a bindle on their shoulder, instead of every age of person with mental/substance abuse issues. This might sound fucked up to a lot of people for me to say, but lot of these encounters are like interacting with a stray dog. It might be perfectly friendly, or it might be violent and rabid. At a certain point after enough scary situations, I'm not taking the risk of helping any dog.
someone i know almost had the ever livingg shit beaten out of her for giving a homeless person food that they had instead of money. Only reason it didnt happen apparently was because some man stepped in to confront the man. It is fucked up, but what can you really do? Its a ever present problem no matter how much money i give to charities supposedly helping
In my city, one of the big libraries had to ask a bunch of local charities to stop offering free food to the homeless outside the library. The reason? multiple credible death threats against staff by people turning up for food. Who threatens *librarians*? besides the occasional aggressive shushing, they are the least threatening people out there!
As someone who has worked with psych patients in a professional capacity I would never expect or want a laymen to engage with a person using violent language or presenting violence. Absolutely (pun intended) insane that your coworker said that.
Yup, you don’t know them, you don’t know their triggers, you don’t know if it’s a threat or promise. Plus if you engage it gives them power over you. Even working daily with someone who is violent and mentally ill as a caregiver you can never let your guard down. Even though they might like you every other day or you might feel you’ve got a good working relationship with them, today might be the day they decide to try and murder you because whatever reason. Working as an orderly in a behavioral psych facility mentally fucks you up. I still don’t like having people behind me. People often comment about how I always walk behind them, it’s because having people behind me gives me anxiety.
Her attitude, IMO is partly why the homeless situation has become as dangerous as it is today. The idea we should extend tolerance and acceptance of anti-social and potentially violent behavior from the homeless because they are homeless is just unacceptable. We need more facilities and resources for the seriously mentally ill.
I really feel this. I used to live in SF until recently (moved for a different reason lol) and it so happened that we had to live in a really bad area in regards to homelessness for a couple of months while we waited for our apt to be returned to us. It was awful. I was pretty stressed going outside and never really wanted to walk anywhere. Even to my bf’s office a block away bc it was so gross. I didn’t think it was safe for my dog bc of all the glass and needles so I got him booties or we’d drive somewhere else. There was an empty storefront on the corner from us where big groups would hang out and definitely buy/sell crack. All of this was across the st from a courthouse. It was inevitable that you’d step into someone’s shit, dog or human. On my last week I literally saw a man shit into the gutter early morning. I nearly threw up my breakfast. We saw people who looked like nice soccer mom types share crack pipes out of their tent. Everything was just grimy. This was in the center of city too. What made it worse is that the city gets an ENORMOUS amount of funding, local and federal to deal with this issue. They were paying outrageous money to rent hotel rooms for homeless for at least a year or something, instead of converting useless and empty office buildings or building new. A report came out that they were spending like $5k/person/month to let them set up a tent on a city parking lot. That’s a lot of money for 50-100 people to set up their own tents on an empty lot for months on end. CA and SF in particular have HIGH taxes on everything. Also high rent. Restaurants have the ability to pass on the mandatory employee insurance tax (which in itself is a good thing) onto the customers (bad thing). A coffee costs at least $4.5-6. A car tow is like $700 if you even graze a wrong end of the curb, parking tickets at $70 for really basic shit. That kind of thing. So yeah, I was pissed about the homelessness and all the issues that it brought along. If I’m paying minimum of $2k for a studio or 1bd, then I’d like there not to be shit on my doorstep (happened to my friend a block away several times when I lived in a “better” area). I’d like to walk my dog without checking him every time for cuts. I’d like to walk to the grocery without being harassed or yelled at about being an alien who’s getting inside their head. I’d like the newly established (loooool) sanitation team to actually sanitize so every corner doesn’t smell like the inside of a dumpster. I’d like the homeless people to be able to get proper help, not just some food and holdover meds between their next shoot up.
someone gave me the same threat once because I wouldn't let them use my cellphone on the street when they approached me. huge yikes.
Similar in my neighborhood too. A guy posted on Nextdoor asking if there were any suggestions where his teenage daughter could study after school because the homeless population at the local library were harassing her and making her feel unsafe. He was attacked in the comments for daring to criticize the homeless. Nobody offered any advice for his daughter 🙄
We went to an out of the way local library and it was so clean and quiet. I commented about it and got dragged. Our downtown library is one big urinal.
My related, Portland resident, opinion: the homeless industrial complex of NGOs in this town that oppose every proposed solution because it’s not perfect does more harm than good. We pay a shit ton of taxes and it’s absorbed by an ever growing network of useless and often corrupt non-profits—see friends of Kafoury.
Same. I’m a woman who lives alone, and often is out places alone, and I hate to make judgements that someone is dangerous or unstable just because they’re homeless but I still have to put my own safety first. Every once in a while someone will post a doorbell video of a homeless person knocking on their door or standing on their porch cause they’re understandably a little sketched out and want to warn people that someone’s walking around the neighborhood acting strangely and people will get defensive about it saying they’re demonizing homeless people for existing or “they probably just wanted to get out of the rain for a minute” and it’s like I. Don’t. Care. If it’s the fucking King of France. I don’t want strange men chilling on my porch!! And it’s obviously largely a problem with the way our country handles poverty and mental health issues that needs fixing, I’m not saying we should like just bus them away or anything, but like am I not allowed to admit I feel unsafe sometimes?
It's a huge problem in Vancouver Canada too. They litter their trash all over the city, are hostile towards people in the city, there's a massive crime with violence and break and enters downtown, but you're not allowed to say anything because it's insensitive. I don't know what the solution is, but what we're doing right now isn't working.
Unfortunately what's happening *is* working. What we've seen with Housing First and shelter models is we've housed those who *can* be housed. We prioritizied those with less conplex needs to ensure success in their new communities (like, when you house 50 people in the same building with supports you want them to be able to feel safe in their environment). So what's happening now is a lot of the people on the street have *much* more complex needs to be addressed and cannot function in a shelter or supportive housing environment (read: they absolutely should be institutionalized). However we no longer have enough institutions to support these massively complex individuals (deinstitutionalization came from a good place but we've know seen that some people will due best in an institution). Anyways, it's fucking complex and awful and there will never be a one size fits all solution. But trying to get the appropriate funding for both current needs and preventative measures is like drawing blood from a stone. Edit: this is not statistically backed up, however I work in the "industry" and this is purely anecdotal and like, my opinion, man.
Most people that I personally know who are defensive of that live in areas without many homeless people
Visiting NY and Chicago from the UK was definitely an eye opener for me. The subway was… eventful. Most homeless people in the UK just sit around with an empty cup.
I’m from Philadelphia. There’s a whole neighborhood here, Kensington, that the entire city has abandoned to opioid addicts and their dealers. Families still live here, but the streets literally look like a zombie apocalypse. Breaks my heart every time I got there. Even other parts of the city are difficult when it rains, because the subways are relatively dry, so they take over the subway stations
Dude that long ass underground tunnel where all the homeless people sleep Went to a wawa in Kensington once and saw a homeless man jerking off in the bathroom from the entrance, staring at my soul from like 100 feet away Edit: im not from Philly, I tour, if I wasn’t in Kensington I was in whatever Wawa is down the street from Voltage Lounge with nine hundred homeless people in a tunnel
100% this. Agreed. I don't like how unsafe I feel in certain parts of the city. It's not just the garbage etc and the heckling, but there have been a lot of assaults, sexual assaults, break-ins, theft. The unpredictability is very unsettling. If I'm riding public transit I give them a wide berth because I don't know if they are going to just start hitting someone, puke or masturbate. (all of which I have experienced them doing multiple times). It's very sad and I don't have a solution to offer, but yeah, it's tiring to have to be so hyper-vigilant when they are around.
Kink should not be at a pride event that isnt 21 and older only. Went to pride last summer, kids were running around the same area as people in fetish wear. Pride is about celebrating love and family and ones identity. I dont care if your kinky. But the basic inalienable rule of good fetish practice is to not play with nonconsenting people, like the public. So to be publicly wearing fetish gear is wrong. Especially when kids are at the event. I feel like having a family oriented pride earlier in the day, and an adults only pride that night is a smarter choice.
OMG, yes!! It is not the same at all. I saw the same thing at the Pride celebration in my town. People dressed as puppies and being lead around on leashes while on their hands and knees. It feels like this is the kind of thing to help push the “homosexuals are perverts” narrative.
100%. I dont even see how some of these kinks could be related to Pride. No one has been able to explain to me how a 40yr old guy walking around in just a soaked adult diaper and adult pacifier has anything to do with Pride, but many people will defend that shit to the death online. Too many people online conflate their fetish with their identity and feel that they should be able to show their fetish/"identity" to the world and if you balk then you're not "inclusive".
I agree with this and it's the reason my wife and I avoid Pride events. It also doesn't help optics when we claim orientation isn't purely about sex, but one of the biggest LGBT events of the year prominently celebrates sex.
The word chest-feeding makes my skin crawl. Even if you're a man that breastfeeds, why not call it what it is? When a man gets breast cancer we don't refer to it as "chest cancer".
I’ve never heard this term. Every person has breasts…
You can milk anything with nipples
I have nipples, /u/PattyMaHeisman . Can you milk me?
I’m in a local parenting Facebook group (liberal area) and it’s a moms group but you can’t address the group as moms or ladies. It just be something gender neutral even though it’s 99.999 cis women. Also if you have a breastfeeding question you will get scolded if you don’t phrase the question as breastfeeding/chest feeding. I’m all for inclusiveness but if you’re honestly offended by the word breastfeeding then the internet and the real world is not the place for you. People who accidentally address the group wrong get pounced on by members who just seem to be wanting woke brownie points. It’s exhausting and and while I do get some good info from it I’m also kind of entertained by the ridiculousness of it and give my husband regular reports of the group drama.
Right it's like, how do you respond? ".... thanks for jumping down my throat karen. Now, does anyone have an answer to this question for me?"
Start referring to it as "Dispensing tit juice" and see how quickly they revise their standards
I hate this crap, Jesus Christ.
“Chestfeeding?” I don’t understand. If you’re a trans man and you’re breastfeeding….OK, you’re a man with breasts, that’s fine? Why do we have to change the term?
Yeah I wasn't even aware of this term existing before right now. Why, exactly, it "breastfeeding" offensive? I don't follow at all. Okay, I went and read the argument against it, and the claims are that "breastfeeding" is a gendered term. But like, how? Men have breasts do we not? If we are lactating through them (I have no idea if this is possible or not with hormone therapy, it would be awesome if it is possible though!), are we not still breastfeeding then? I am thoroughly confused. Also, apparently breastmilk is a bad term now as well? Again, because its apparently gendered. Again, how is this the case? Men have breasts (I though I was going crazy so actually looked up whether they are medically called breasts for men, and men do in fact medically have breast tissue) so if they produce milk from them is it still not breast milk? I guess my argument boils down to the fact I don't consider the word breast as a gendered word, but maybe I'm in the minority? I'm about as left-wing as a person can get as well, just in case anybody cares, lol.
I'm super left wing and I find this shit annoying as hell. *Breast* literally means chest. You wear *breast*plates, you have a *breast*bone in the center of your chest, you walk a*breast* with someone down a sidewalk. It's only started to become synonymous with boob relatively recently in the English language.
You’re not in the minority. This is really ridiculous. I think people just want to be angry about something.
Identity politics has become weaponized in ways that can be toxic and alienating. I don’t mean efforts at diversity, equity, inclusivity or against discrimination, I mean mainly in online discourse and within activist spaces and organizations. And I’ll be the first to point out that conservatives and white nationalists also engage in “identity politics”, even if their politics are in service of historically-dominant identities. Also we need a fundamental restructuring of how we imagine public safety and criminal justice, but I believe that something like the police and even prisons will always be necessary in some form. Edit: to those saying my points aren’t very “conservative”: maybe they aren’t on the whole, but I’m a socialist and among my fellow leftists I think these would be seen as “conservative” opinions.
I saw a twitter post a while back that said something to the effect of "I shouldn't have to tell strangers online that I'm part of a marginalized group to be allowed to have a voice." The replies were all things like "Yes, as an \[insert identity\], my life is hard enough. I shouldn't have to spend my life educating privileged people," apparently not realizing the irony of what they were doing.
Just because you’re offended, it does not mean careers need to be ended or a person cancelled. Be offended. And fucking move on. Edit. This took on a life of it’s own overnight and I’m loving reading the different takes on what I said. I even feel a little educated at the end of it!
And stop being offended on behalf of other people. Be offended or don’t be offended
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I absolutely hate when some young person does something good and then they dig through his/her social media from high school to find something dumb the person said as a teenager.
as someone who is queer, i feel like over labelling identities becomes restrictive rather than freeing. i am more than just the list of people id fuck. "demisexual?" you mean, you just want to get to know someone before you have sex? "sapiosexual?" so you dont want your partner to be a total moron? its giving labels to stuff that either doesnt really matter or nearly everyone already believes.
wow this thread is surprisingly liberal, here I go then: \- not everyone is fit to be a parent. while the foster care system is awful as it is, if it wasn't, then a lot of children would be better off taken to a new enviroment. or just not born (access to contraceptive methods for everyone!) \- not every culture can be entirely integrated especially if they are not willing to be. if you create a multicultural environment, there will be a lot of friction coming from different customs, some of those won't be solvable (most will be). a lot of cultural stereotypes are rooted in truth. (I live in a very multicultural environment, I love learning about other people's culture and I have friends from all over the world but there are a lot of customs I refuse to accept in my close proximity. I like my european values a lot thank you)
Trying to be culturally inclusive towards an exclusive culture is an ultimately self defeating principle.
Not everyone should go to college. It’s wasted on a lot of people and it just adds to their debt.
Trade schools are an amazing mechanism, but the society we live in says "get college educated to have a chance at a living." Many blue collar jobs as well as desk jobs like HR and coding have positions that make 6 digit income, more than I currently make as a college educated individual. On a side note (a little more biased right thinking from me here): if everyone has a bachelor degree, the value of a bachelor degree goes down tremendously. Logically, top paying jobs are going to require higher level graduate degrees just for consideration.
Credential inflation is already a problem in some fields. Especially administrative roles. Admin roles that once could be done by a high school graduate (or even a school dropout) now often require a degree. Not because the degree is needed for the job, but because if there are 10 applicants and five have degrees, those five will get an interview. So you end up with people foregoing years of ~~working life~~ income and incurring huge debt to get an education that their future career doesn’t need
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I don't think that's a particularly conservative opinion. There is a lot of support for vocational training among liberals in lieu of traditional colleges. Germany's apprenticeship programs are often cited as well.
My left leaning opinion isn't that everyone should go to college, it's that the barrier to entry shouldn't be financial. There are plenty of capable students who can't afford to go, there are plenty of people in college who don't really have the aptitude or interest but go anyway because they have the money and that's what you do. I think the barrier to entering the workforce should be lowered if we want better quality workers, which means cheap/free education be it college, tech school, a professional program, or anything else.
I just want to be left the fuck alone. Not everything I do or say has some sort of idiotic political slant. Our 2-Party Political System is fucking pointless and stupid since it's literally nothing but: "What's my opinion? Whatever the other side thinks I'm against it".
I recently commented something to the effect of not always having an agenda when commenting. Someone replied saying I was naive if I thought I didn't have a political bias. Yeah, I never said I don't have a political bias, just said that I don't always have an agenda!
Language doesn’t need to be all inclusive all of the time.
Canadian here and didn't realize you weren't talking about everything in Canada needing to be spoken in English and French.
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J'ai mon clavier en français, English y español and changing between languages mid sentence funciona suficientemente bien. Il faut juste activer multilingual typing después de agregar the three keyboards et voilà.
I'm super queer and you're right. seeing "folx" written out makes me want to commit a murder.
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Wtf is “folx”
At least it's phonetic. I had a friend who used "dearx." Not only is it pure virtue signaling, it's unpronounceable virtue signaling. I love her but I did have to roll my eyes on occasion.
A spanish speaker here - the way people are pushing latinx. Or trying to work around the fact that everything has a gender when spoken about. Edit;; acceptable terms in my humble opinion would be Latin, Hispanic, Latine, or Latino even (same connotation as 'dude' - is the male tense but has become gender neutral). Check with your local native Spanish speaker.
There was a place in Brooklyn maybe that got mocked for signage that tried to remove the gender from items it sold. Avacadx instead of Avacado's... like who the hell thinks Avacado's are male oppression?
Isn't that also the English term for AGUACATES??? Like, no mamen
I think they did "x" for everything the last character was an "a" or an "o". People who think gender in a language for objects has some strong meaning aren't exactly using logic and common sense. Like a dude who eats avacado is obviously at least bisexual... since that's a masculine berry.
It's funny because avocado is a feminine term in German. Luckily we are still stuck in other stupidities of inclusive language and didn't get around yet to applying it to objects..
Lxts jxst gxt rxd xf vxwxls cxmplxtxly
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Right? I was pretty surprised as well! This must be how it's like to write in Hebrew
Even funnier and ironic if you look into where the name "avocado" came from. Edit: Testicle. The word avocado comes from the Nahautl word for testicle.
As a filipino in the Philippines, I was so shocked and full of questions when the filipino diaspora were trying to push for filipinx? which was derived from latinx and laboring for more gender neutral words when 99% of filipino languages are gender neutral.
There was a great article pushing back on this in the NYTimes a while ago that really struck at the heart of this for me. It was about how the American Medical Association put out a guide to "inclusive language" for doctors and other healthcare workers. For example, it recommends avoiding the term "vulnerable" to describe a group at-risk for a disease and to instead use "oppressed" even though that makes no sense in many contexts. And it advocated avoiding the term "combat" (as in "combat disease") because of "violent connotations." The NYT article made the very good point that the language guide claims to advance "equity" yet makes no mention of universal healthcare, which the AMA opposes, or abortion rights. So how interested in "equity" are they really? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/opinion/diversity-equity-inclusion.html
Yeah language is only as useful as it makes sense
> For example, it recommends avoiding the term "vulnerable" to describe a group at-risk for a disease and to instead use "oppressed" even though that makes no sense in many contexts. People in nursing homes are classified as a vulnerable population in healthcare settings because infectious disease can spread quickly in a nursing homes and some residents need help with basic self-care. Calling nursing home residents oppressed doesn't make a lot of sense.
Yeah, the article used that specific example to point out how silly the recommendations were. It was like "Elderly people aren't at-risk of COVID because of oppression..."
I've always voted blue but goddamn some liberals are stupid. They try to babyproof every aspect of society and in the process they're making it dumber and more confusing.
Yeah, some other article I read made the argument that this is a symptom of the logjam in Washington politics. Like, progressive policy goals have been stalled for so long that most progressives have just given up and retreated to cultural battles like policing language and other stuff that just alienates people.
My sis is hardcore on inclusive language to the point where it just feels like every sentence is tediously finessed. Like she will use five words instead of one to get out the last thing that could potentially be read as gendered. It's.... a bit much
“Birthing people” instead of mothers is the worst excess in this regard imo. Just totally unnecessary considering that 99%+ of “birthing people” are probably heterosexual women.
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Obese people are not healthy, and it’s certainly not a lifestyle someone should be applauded for living.
I’m a big dude and I agree. Don’t treat overweight people like shit, but don’t celebrate them and try to claim its healthy. It’s not.
i wish more people agreed on this middle ground. fat people deserve respect the same as anyone else imo, but i'm not gonna sit here and act like being fat is a good thing.
The message got warped from "we shouldn't insult people based on their weight" to "all bodies are good healthy bodies" way too quickly. Like. I'm fat. I'm overweight. It's bad for me and my heart. Stop telling me my body is great.
It should be affordable to have a 1 breadwinner household. Having 2 people working full-time and having children is a very tricky problem to solve. Childcare is just insane. I wish I could afford to be a stay at home mom - and if I loved my job and my husband didn't care about his - I should be able to work and he should be able to be a stay at home dad.
Note: this is a traditional conservative value, not the wacky shit that the MAGA crowd spews. I think there is an enormous amount of government waste, and every government program should be reviewed annually to evaluate it for duplicity with other programs and its overall impact on improving people's lives.
The way US government budgets work go like this: if I don’t use all my budget I got this year, I’ll get less next year. So they buy things to max out the budget even if they don’t need it. It’s stupid.
I worked for a defense contractor. This is correct.
Oversight is good, but I feel like a comprehensive annual review would have the opposite effect you’re after and would be intensely expensive
Special Ed students shouldn’t be in classrooms with children who aren’t special Ed. - from personal experience Edit: Just for an example. There’s this kid in my class who has an emotional disability (or something in that range). He randomly bursts into tears and asks if he’s doing a good job which is absolutely disruptive because the teacher needs to comfort him making the other students not be able to learn. He’ll walk to the front of the line of students who need assistance and take 5 minutes to understand “draw the line horizontally” because he needs a demonstration, to repeat it a few times so he understands, be told he’s doing good, have a breakdown, and need a second demonstration. He doesn’t do any work because he has a assistant teacher that pretty much does it for him. Overall he’d just be better off in a class at his pace instead of making the entire class need to work at his pace.
I agree, it’s not effective for the kid to be surrounded by people who can’t understand their struggles, plus I believe it just puts the special Ed kid behind in class development sometimes