Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

@Zincy
I’ve actually been looking for it in expectation of the request; the foremost source on the matter which I’m aware of is from a Norwegian study group which arrived at its conclusions a few years ago. Norway is quite progressive on the subject, currently allowing children to determine their own gender, but I am having trouble finding ANY Norwegian studies right now - “child gender study toys norway”, for example, results in page after page of commentary videos and articles on the subject of the law itself. Next to no discussion of the academia behind it.

In contrast to that, then, I’ll cite some opposing research, and the first which comes up is - a boy and a girl being made to fill a vase with either blue or pink balls, and the boy gets more sweets as a reward. That’s, um, being cited by The Independent as a “social experiment” proving pay inequality. That said, it’s not even an academic study, but a political campaign by Norwegian trade union Finansforbundet. Mm.

Another article talks about Sweden running “gender neutral” kindergartens which “produce more successful children”. According to QZ, these tests showed that the kids from the gender-neutral school were as likely as other children to group people by gender. What differed was that these kids were “less likely” - not “unlikely” or “rarely likely” - to adopt common social norms when not encouraged to do so. This suggests that social reinforcement exists, but also that it is not the defining factor or even necessarily a driving factor. All in all, I would consider these results promising for gender neutrality in schools. The study itself is here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022096517302692

Paywalled for now but when I’m at work I can access it, I think JECP is on the list.

@Background Human
Also no insurrection. It requires a presumption of motive for which there is not even evidence in regards to those people who’ve cut plea deals - or are you seriously arguing that a person who brought firearms to DC went to the Capitol WITHOUT those firearms in order to overthrow the government?

If we were to apply your “rhetoric and actions” argument, then you would also have to agree that no one “but a dirty liar” thinks the anti-Trump/anti-police riots which resulted in numerous dead and the burning down of government buildings was not insurrection by the same token - and that in fact it didn’t even require burning down ANY buildings, but that insurrection took place as soon as the rioters clashed with police while storming barricades in efforts to get at said buildings.

@Calbeck
You’ve been at this for over 4 hours now, debating 4 people simultaneosly while remaining polite despite repeated attacks on your character.

You should probably take a break.

@Calbeck
No wait I got it, this is you:

Calbeck, you do know that you are the kind of individual that crooked politicians count on to vote for them and defend their actions right?

I’d use that “other term” but it might be a bit too much.

@Calbeck
It seems that you don’t know how to post an image.

@CaptainXtra
This comic is a joke, right?

@Background Pony #CE21
It’s mocking the people who smell their own farts by mocking those who want to improve the world they live in.

@Background Pony #CE21
It’s very old, but iirc it’s a parody of more serious commentary / political cartoons that mocked hippies or protestors etc. for using phones to communicate with like-minded people or driving cars to get to protest sites. ie. “How are you so silly to protest capitalism when it’s only because of pure unfettered capitalism that you have the iPhone 10 you’re using to protest?”

@Calbeck
I think even their sugerdaddy Trump realize that actually using guns would make him look bad if their raid didn’t work and told them to keep the guns in the van.

Telling kids that other sexualities exist besides straight isn’t “grooming” them. It’s telling a fact of life to them.

@Hali the Emoji girl
Republicans in denial need to tell themselves that to justify their hatred.

@Background Pony #15B5
This is actually a long-standing form of recreation for me.

I teethed on arguing against “Mayan Astronaut” conspiracy nuts back in the ’80s, went on from there to argue against “Moon Landing Deniers”, all the way through to the “9/11 Truther” movement.

They all have one thing in common: starting from a conclusion and then backfilling anything they can to support that preferred conclusion, while dismissing any source or argument to the contrary. Usually, this would devolve into one of two things: either rabid insults meant to dismiss argument out of hand, or employing the “isn’t it obvious” gambit in order to continuously hopscotch over holes in their theories.

When people build allegations on top of assertions on top of presumptions, and they top it off with “isn’t it obvious”, it’s a huge red flag. When they start calling me everything from a Jew to a Nazi to a Commie to a CIA/FBI/ATF/etc operative, it’s usually because they don’t want to debate anymore BUT still want to be seen as being in control of the conversation. Or they’ve just flipped their final cheese.

And I find that this sort of thing happens in political discussions almost as often as it happens in arguments over grainy NASA photos from the ’70s “proving” that humanity once existed on Mars.

@The Smiling Pony
So is it intentionally a strawman?

@Background Pony #CE21
Yep.

@Hali the Emoji girl
Except that’s not what’s being taught or being complained of.

Teaching sexual lifestyles to six-year-olds is being complained of, and is what is being taught.

Which is grooming, and not education.

@Hali the Emoji girl
Also, labeling gay people as pedos is the oldest trick in the book. It’s even something they do in old anti-gay PSAs.

Yes.

@Meanlucario
ok, I’ve seen it posted unironically like Xtra did above and it always confuses me. It looks like an obvious strawman comic, yet people post it as if it supports their point.

@Calbeck
Like showing vacation photos of a woman and her wife? Also, the few exceptions don’t justify an extreme norm that does more harm than good.

@Background Pony #CE21
Because we live in a world were those people exist.

It’s exploitable but the intent, more recognizable with the full strip, is to mock reliance on “gotcha” style responses.