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I’d bet against that first one. World history is required for most (all?) majors, while continental philosophy is not. Hitler was a shitty excuse for an intellectual, but he sure drew an audience.
As for modern legislation, are you sure you’ve got the right bill? The “don’t say gay one” made some rather sweeping statements about things which I would not classify as “talking about sex.”
Edit: including things other than sex. Mea culpa.
I don't think American college professors ever bring up Hitler's ideas about family and fertility as possible inspirations while addressing contemporary issues like the drop in birth rates. I'm pretty confident that at least some college professors quote the various continental philosophers as support for one or the other of their arguments.
Right there in #3 clearly has the "sexual" keyword.
Taking a random article quoting opponents of the bills:
Title: 'Don't Say Gay' bill would limit discussion of sexuality
Now, what are LGBT kids?
Perhaps we need to dig further to understand what exactly that means for kids.
Wikipedia asserts:
Now the first quote from a regular dictionary does not have the word girl in it. I was able to peruse the 3rd quote and it does not cover the 'girl' portion. Now we have to rely on some book published by a Bonnie Zimmerman, on which Wikipedia relies to assert that girls can be lesbians just like women.
Interestingly there is still some debate in the talk page on this subject:
...
This is all very confused but from what I can gather, the word 'attraction' seems to play a major role in all of this, as I assume they are not expecting these so-called LGBT kids to be engaging in homosexual, genital-engaging practices to prove their membership?
Now, why have a specific term for a child that is supposedly 'attracted to the same gender' (or sex depending on who's talking)? Children can be obsessed with things such as robots, dinosaurs, cars, princesses, unicorns, mermaids... Should we automatically sign them up to for example for the unicorn lovers, the 'cloppers community'? Should we let adults come up to these specifically designated children and allow them to explain how cloppers identify themselves, which codes they use to communicate, how cloppers manage to pleasure themselves with the object of their desire...? Or does this seem absurd, weird, perhaps disgusting to an unenlightened audience?
I imagine it would take serious amounts of propaganda for such an audience to see it as completely natural for the adults they placed in charge of looking after their children to be okay with this ordeal.
How many of these kids just 'kinda liked unicorns' because one of their friends has a cool hat with unicorns on them?
How many of these kids won't even dare bring their cool unicorn hat to school anymore, because they're afraid of getting cornered by the middle-aged woman with problem glasses and froth at the mouth who just can't wait to tell them how 'cloppers' express love?
I think you’ve constructed a rather vicious strawman.
The Florida bill bans lots of things, including talking about sex. Assuming that opponents are only “outraged” because they’re frustrated pedophiles is…uncharitable.
If I follow your argument, you meander through some sneering at Wikipedia on your way to claim that this “specific term” shouldn’t be applied to kids. Why? Because they could be obsessed with monster trucks or unicorns?
Your caricatures are unrealistic. There is a motte to LGBT advocacy; I would like to see you attack that rather than fishing for disgust reactions.
No, I'm showing that opponents are specifically outraged because their ability to talk about sexuality with schoolchildren is curtailed.
Yes, or they could love guns and playing war. Does that mean teachers should take them aside without notifying the parents and sign them up for General's Buttnaked child soldier army?
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"The motte" is a position that's true, but trivial in it's implications. The reason no one engages with them is that it says nothing interesting, and because half the time they're only there as a place to retreat to when your more interesting claims are under attack. You might have meant a "steelman". But is there a steelman to "LGBT advocacy"? The term is so vague it can include anything from promoting tolerance to abolishing cisheteronormative patriarchy or sexual liberation of everyone including children. Which one should he focus on? The first one? Why? We've left tolerance behind long ago, and whatever it is people are fighting for now definitely is not tolerance.
It's a bit weird for you to complain about strawmen, and then say something like this in the same post. The claim, the way I understand it, is that it doesn't make sense to apply a term defining sexuality to a pre-sexual child.
The problem here is that even if you think something valuable can be taught by teachers explaining sex to children, the fact that a significant portion of parents supports these laws means they no longer trust the teachers. Anyone effectively saying "you shouldn't be allowed to not trust us" rather than trying to win back trust is going to be suspect.
Maybe you’re right. It was late and not my best work.
I chose “motte” because I do believe opponents are playing a motte/bailey game. The uncontroversial claim is that the bill is a CW salvo against gay people. That’s enough reason for most bill-opponents to be upset, but I wouldn’t call it a steelman, because it’s not actually a defense, merely a justification.
There is definitely a bailey where bill-opponents want to do specific things blocked by the bill. Especially counseling and advocacy. These are controversial, and bill-supporters are right to home in on them, even as bill-opponents retreat to the motte.
But the last chunk of the OP goes much further! In the analogy, “froth at the mouth” advocates are cornering children for sexually explicit conversations. This is obviously terrible. It’s more extreme than Drag Queen Story Hour or whatever else the OP could actually find. It assumes the conclusion, and makes up a gross example when reality doesn’t provide.
Notice that the analogy starts from the premise that same-sex attraction is like obsession with monster trucks or unicorns. Is this something a bill-opponent would recognize as their own position?
If that’s not a strawman, I don’t know what is.
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