So, Bill Nye, the Engineer pretending to be a climatologist - today said, "the world is on fucking fire." 

But here is the thing - my daughter brought it up to me, and acted like Bill Nye has been a central part of her understanding of science. 

Which troubled me - because we don't listen to that hack in MY house. We don't watch his show. We don't entertain his biased narratives. 

But it turns out, that she has been being fed a steady stream of his indoctrination in the public school system. 

That is problematic as fuck. The guy is a partisan, biased, agent of propaganda - and evidently for the last 12 years they've been feeding a steady stream of his shit right into my kid's head and telling her it was legitimate science. Without ANY counterpoint. 

This isn't a public school system anymore - it is a re-education camp designed to create little Leftist drones without any critical thinking skills. 

I thought everyone knew that, which is why if I should ever be so lucky as to procreate, there's no way in hell I'm sending them to a public school.  I'll homeschool them myself.

Yup, homeschool. My daughter had to explain which ordinal numbers are not natural numbers today. She's doing great. My 10-year-old son is learning VBA now to be able to auto-generate character record sheets for D&D. There's nothing like custom education, and time with my kids is so damned fulfilling I can't even describe it.

I didn't have the commitment to homeschool - but I could have made the economic stretch to private-school where I could have reviewed the curriculum better. 

I should have. 

*guilt*. 

Thu May 16 2019 08:14:49 MST from ParanoidDelusions

I didn't have the commitment to homeschool - but I could have made the economic stretch to private-school where I could have reviewed the curriculum better. 

I should have. 

*guilt*. 

 

 

I think you doubt your parenting skills too much to homeschool. Glad your kid is bright; got good genes. Plus you'll eventually admit you're doing a good job even without comparing yourself to others. I'd say generational improvement is once again assured!

My wife is holding out hope that there are signs of critical thinking and that she is, at base, a person of conservative values. So, who knows... 

But the education system actively using actors posing as scientists to indoctrinate me still pisses me off. 

Thu May 16 2019 13:32:55 MST from ParanoidDelusions

My wife is holding out hope that there are signs of critical thinking and that she is, at base, a person of conservative values. So, who knows... 

But the education system actively using actors posing as scientists to indoctrinate me still pisses me off. 

Yes, I've seen you post about the indoctrination. Your wife is conservative? 

Moreso than me. Sometimes we end up in fights because of my more libertarian nature. 

Good problem to have honestly, much better than mine where every female I'm related to seems to be going off the deep end of lefty bullshit except my mom who is a religious libertarian

Oh, all my female relatives on my side of the family are totally Left wing fanatics. 

Gotta get those persecution points!!!

My oldest sister has undergone ritual castration by publicly declaring herself genderfluid.

This girl has hips no man could ever, ever possess. She has no testosterone. None. She has the most stereotypically feminine personality, as measured in the Big Five Personality Traits, that a person could ever have. Basically all she's done is renounce her blatant femininity because she sure is hell isn't anything like a man. So what's it mean to be genderfluid? Not feeling like a female? When you have a period and plenty of estrogen? No, you definitely feel like a woman. Sorry, but that's biology. You just want to get more attention by demanding everyone read your pin: They/Them/Their. Act accordingly or you "hate" me, which is just a word for blasphemy. And who must be appeased? A god, namely me. Worship me or I'll take away your livelihood.

She shaved her head because she was tired of being thought of as a pretty person. Now that it's 1/8" she loves compliments about her appearance as much as ever.

There's nothing there. It's a play for social capital from the tribe that gives it most freely. Get what you want, I guess. It's a free country.

I'm not happy that she won't reproduce. But I am happy that she won't be raising children in her weird Cult of Artificial Self. And I'm in a pretty weird cult myself, but we're famous for being nice. I guess we're like Quakers that way.

/rant

Yeah, I don't get that movement where attractive girls stop shaving everything but their head and go from 115 pounds to 180 pounds so that they can be victims. 

It is, to me - this generation's punk rock. A lot of it is youth just looking for something to shock or outrage their parent's generation. What is that going to be in a generation that grew up with piercings and tattoos? I mean... my generation is the first generation where punk really made that kind of body modification and body defilement go mainstream - and then later generations took it to extremes - so what was left for this generation? They're actually prudes about almost everything - in sex, drugs and rock-n-roll they're really square - really conservative. 

But in identity politics, especially with a focus on LGBT+ non-cisgendered, non-binary social activism around sexuality that rejects the foundations of western thought on freedom and liberty - they've found a push button to identify with that irritates the fuck out of their elders. 

What I mean by this is... a lot of these little fuckers are going to outgrow this at some point. 

I wonder if the pendulum will ever swing back in the other directions.  I'd like to see us return to 1950's social values (except without the actual institutionalized racism that mostly disappeared after the 1960's).  And by that I mean real civics and civic institutions, family values, value of community, bona fide patriotism, etc.

It probably will, once the socialists turn our culture into an actual autocratic dictatorship. Our great grandchildren will have to fight to earn back what our children willingly gave away. 

It seems inevitable. 

So ... straight-up Tytler Cycle?  If so, we're already overdue for the collapse of the republic.

As far as republics go, ours has gone much longer than most last - so you're probably right. 

Which is a frightening thought. 

For those not familiar with the Tytler Cycle, it's based on this writing from Scottish history professor Alexander Tytler, in 1787:

If you frame our own republic in these terms, which were written in the same era during which it was formed, it's not difficult to point out that we're currently in the apathy-dependence stage.  It may be possible that the very stable genius currently sitting in the oval office may only be able to delay the inevitable.

Wed May 29 2019 08:00:13 MST from IGnatius T Foobar

For those not familiar with the Tytler Cycle, it's based on this writing from Scottish history professor Alexander Tytler, in 1787:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back into bondage"

If you frame our own republic in these terms, which were written in the same era during which it was formed, it's not difficult to point out that we're currently in the apathy-dependence stage.  It may be possible that the very stable genius currently sitting in the oval office may only be able to delay the inevitable.

I didn't know this was the name for this theory, but I am very familiar with the theory. 

The thing is, from founding to today, we're *really* beating the snot out of the average life expectancy of Democracies - and even more so of Republics. I believe the average lifespan of most Republics in human history has been about 50 years - but don't quote me on that... It has been a while since my history major, and I was never really good with details. ;) 

But the glass-half-empty way to look at that is that we're WAY overdue for the Republic to falter and the Democracy to fail. 

And the glass is broken on the ground way is that it may have failed a long time ago, and we just have been in denial. 

A lot of really smart historians will argue that the American experiment failed with the consolidation of Federal powers following the end of the Civil War. This is an unpopular theory because it is easy to go, "Yeah, but what about ending slavery? You think the Civil War was BAD for America?" 

Yes... I think the Civil War was *bad* for America, for a number of reasons - not least of which is that slavery wasn't really the only thing, or arguably the most important thing, that was being fought over. 

I'm not sure I would have liked to see the South *win*, either. I think the war was *bad* for the United States and that we're still suffering the repercussions of it today, including lingering issues with race relations. A more organic and natural resolution to the problem of slavery might have avoided the racial strife we see in the US today. 

Sat May 25 2019 22:42:21 MST from Wangiss

I'm not happy that she won't reproduce. But I am happy that she won't be raising children in her weird Cult of Artificial Self. And I'm in a pretty weird cult myself, but we're famous for being nice. I guess we're like Quakers that way.

I'm thrilled she won't reproduce.  I have the least respect for her of any person I know.  I can't think of anyone less qualified to raise a child, and that includes junkies I know.  I'm pretty happy the other girls are also not having kids.

Totally agree about the civil war.  It was terrible for many many reasons, and states not being allowed to leave the union is a horrible idea.