I dont think you can understand the education issues here without appreciating how big a goal it is on the right to privatize the system. A lot of the controversy is real, albeit driven by idiots. But a big part is purposefully created to sew distrust of the publicly funded system. There is likely a critical mass for the number of kids no longer in the state system, instead in some combination of private school, charter school, or homeschooled, that starts making dropping state funding of schools (and relieving people of tax burden) politically viable to pursue. It seems like a lot of the shit is geared towards pushing us towards that tipping point.
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This is just unreal. Trump has gone extra-judicial…like the law isn’t exposed to touch him
My ex’s son was getting home schooled (in Dallas) because she had to travel for her business and he travelled with her. The thing he solely lacked was an ability to interact with kids his own age.
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About fucking time too.
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Community involvement also on the decline. I think there is some cause for concern there. A nation of individuals, with no sense for community or caring about others, is problematic on any number of levels. I’m mindful of Thatcher’s quip that there’s no such thing as society. It does not lead to a good place.
PS - patriotism has been hijacked by a lot of lunatics. For many, so has religion. Those traits are definitely unhelpful, and I say that as a religious person.
Having children? I think that’s a good thing. Not some sort of weirdo situation, where you have to have half a dozen and there’s no birth control, but intentional people, who, in the context of love, want to bring a child into the world? Good luck to them. I still see that as a beautiful thing.
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39% say religion is important and not all of those will be Christians. It makes you wonder why so much of US politics is dominated by fundamentalist Christianity.
As far as having children is concerned, of course it can be a wonderful thing, but previously it was seen as a duty, and now it’s being seen as a choice. I’d rather people became parents out of choice, rather than because it’s what’s expected of them.
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funding from libertarian nut jobs and the likes of the Koches. Unfortunately a civil war is probably going to be needed to remedy teh situation
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They are the most reliable voting bloc in the country. Trump realised that early , and by way of payback , these extremists also dominate the SC now.
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It seems the most important thing now is to own a gun and kill each other, seems fitting!
As sad as this story is, we see it so often it no longer causes the rage and anger it should. I can’t see this ever changing in America as the mentality is that the right to own a gun is more important than the right for children to be safe.
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Aye. Religiosity in the US looks like its declining based on simple population numbers, but it doesn’t reflect intensity of position. Of that 39% who still view religion as important to them, about 70% are fundamentalist (mostly evangelical protestant, but some catholic Opus Dei types), about 25% of the country. That means there are 25% of the country, who will vote almost entirely on which platform advances their view of the role of their religion in society, and in a country where 65% is a high turn-out election, that puts you very close to the finish line before you’ve even started if they support you.
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Just want to add that somewhere along the way, being an American Christian and being a patriot - of the vile sort we have seen in recent times, somehow overlapped and became conflated. An immoral man like Trump, who is definitely not a Christian, has adeptly exploited this.
My theory is that large chunks of America see themselves as Gods chosen, almost like Israel in the Old Testament. It’s why there is such a pro Israel stance in the same segment of the population here, even though modern day Israel is closer to apartheid South Africa. It’s weird.
The latest shooting is tragic. Again. On a personal note I certainly think it is a bad idea to arm the population with military style weapons and inadequate checks and so on. That just seems like it would readily be disastrous for the prospect of life, which we routinely see in these shootings. But the nationalist Christian loony segment can’t join that up, and would not see gun control as a pro life step.
The agenda being set is that to be a good American you need to be a good Christian, and to be a good Christian, you need to be a good patriot, and to be a good patriot, to need to have a penchant for guns, etc.
Whole thing is messed up.
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Aye, I think poll results like this often reflect an acknowledgment of the cooption of the terms/ideas being polled as they do people’s attitudes to the ideas themselves. People in that poll saying patriotism is not important to them are not saying they dont care about their country, but are more likely rejecting what passes as patriotism in public discourse.
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This mass shooting is an odd one (but similar) on many levels…
- a woman
- someone who (possibly) identifies as a male
- it is a private Christian school
- a mass shooting (the availability of guns)
- a former student
This seems to lay at a crossroads between many “culture war” issues. There are many avenues as to the fall out and the “understandings” from this but it feels some how different (and somehow the same) to all others before this.
Not that we expect anything productive or coherent to come from the American right after these events, but the talking points being advanced this time are particularly disconnected.
It’s not the guns, it’s the crazies…but we’re going to fight like hell against anything in the realm of red flag laws and anything that limit who can get a gun.
It’s not the guns, it’s these particular group of people (trans)…but we’re going to continue pushing for laws that make their lives worse, and withhold medical care for them in a way that we know creates severe psychological distress.
It seems the default is that it is the crazies and everything will be fine if we stop the inflow of guns from Mexico…
The guns dont even flow in from Mexico. They flow out and working to prevent that is one of the biggest things we could do to help with the cartel violence.
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