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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   24828 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 6, 2024

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Eh, I’ve heard it before. He hires the best people, right?

What’s the deal with Virginia? Last I heard, the fights over schooling worked out okay for Republicans. Same for trans issues in general. What else is salient in the state, such that the polling leans so blue? @WhiningCoil

Recreational use and sale of marijuana was legalized before Youngkin took office, but he refused categorically to take any steps to establish any mechanism for legal sale.

I, for one, am kind of salty about that; I had visited Denver in previous years, enjoyed my share of legally purchased edibles and was really looking forward to being able to get them at a local mall.

Virginia is dominated by Northern Virginia, which is a Washington DC suburb. For all intents and purposes, Virginia has been colonized by the federal government and votes with it's interest 99% of the time. Democrats have to be incredibly fucking retarded to squander their natural advantages, and they managed it back when Northam was elected. But for the most part, it doesn't matter.

Schools were probably the most salient issue that peeled off enough normies. And it was an uphill battle the entire time. The news lied, the schools lied, the politicians lied. And every time the truth eventually came out they just lied more. When they effectively lost the public relations battles, and the legal battles, they just dug their heels in and went "nuh uh". Nearly every school district is defying our Governors order with respect to trans students, knowing full well the school administrators will keep their jobs longer than our governor. It's tied up in courts, and even if the schools somehow lose, it's not their money they pay out. It's ours. But they are betting, probably correctly, that they can run out the clock until a Democrat takes over and drops the cases.

One county near me hit derangement levels I didn't think were possible, and voted in an even more pro-"pornography in schools" slate of board candidates. One took his oath of office on a literally stack of pornographic "childrens" books. Everyone clapped.

I've totally given up. Starting next year we are homeschooling our children. We were on the fence, taking our chances with private school. But after the most recent federal reinterpretation of Title IX, it's obvious no institution in any state is safe. Every single day we meet parents at parks doing the same thing. A not insignificant proportion of those parents are (or should I say were?) teachers themselves, and are choosing to protect their children from what they've seen the education system in our state become.

Do you think Virginia's non-consecutive-governor rule has an effect on their ability to make lasting change?

It certainly seems to. All we've gotten is a deep blue bureaucracy that holds the line, lies, sues, and is generally unproductive and passive aggressive when the executive is a Republican, and then double times it to push an agenda as soon as a Democrat gets back in. And frankly, it seems like the GOP has abandoned our state, there is almost no talent pipeline, and the old Clinton political machine has it's fingers in everything.

Fuck, I'm already getting mailers about local candidates. I live in a deep, deep red county, and all the mailers have been for Democrat candidates, and they all tout their experience in three letter agencies "fighting extremist" as credentials to keep "MAGA extremist" out of government. Of course all it takes to be a "MAGA extremist" to these people is think pornography shouldn't be in middle schools, or that schools shouldn't secretly transition children without their parents consent or knowledge.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro

Title IX doesn't apply to private institutions that don't receive federal funding.

Very few private educational institutions don't receive federal funding. Private means private-run, not exclusively-privately-funded, because we built a gigantic money pipeline for "our" "education system" back when people were still foolish enough to believe that resources could be shared.

Seems pretty simple to me. Don't want the feds in your school. Don't accept fed money!

Isn't it kind of crazy to accept taxpayer money and expect to make your own rules?

  • -12

The mistake was allowing there to be "federal money" in the first place. The mistake was cooperation in good faith.

But in any case, no, it isn't crazy to accept taxpayer money and "expect to make your own rules". The federal money had a purpose: to fund education of youth. It should be available to any ruleset that can accomplish that purpose. "education" should not have been redefined according to partisan Blue ends, and the rampant failure of Blue educational systems to actually achieve that end should be a dealbreaker. Instead, the money that was allocated to a purported common purpose has effectively been embezzled. The common purpose is not achieved, and instead the money ends up funding a large class of Blue activists and propagandists.

But by all means, continue your blind appeals to processes that have evidently failed.

It has failed? It the wealthiest and most successful society in the world that may usher in an age of untold prosperity for all eternity? What?

I think you and I might be living in fundamentally different worlds. Mine is going wild with possibility and right now I can travel anywhere in the world and have an amazing time. What does yours look like?

  • -10

It has failed?

Yes, the educational system has failed. It has never delivered the results it was built to deliver. Increasingly, it cannot deliver even the lesser results it used to provide. Its funds have massively increased without any measurable improvement in outcomes, but with a massive increase in partisan benefits for Blue Tribe, who have used them to secure nakedly partisan political advantages, and to abuse people like me without recourse.

What does yours look like?

It looks like a large and increasing portion of my tax dollars being delivered to people who hate me, and who openly break the law seeking to harm me. I see no reason why that should be an acceptable state of affairs. You can happy-clap as much as you like, the culture war is real and continues to accelerate, and it will come for you soon enough no matter how far and fast you run.

Given that I'm a taxpayer and it's my money... not really?

I knew someone was going to say that. It ain't you're money, you pay that to live here. Don't like it? There are other options.

  • -10

There were, until the issue was federalized. Now I have to flee the country to get away from it. That seems a bit extreme for a pluralistic society, doesn't it?

It does! Since this is still an awesome place to live. But if you really hate it you can leave.

As I have pointed out you have 7 degrees of freedom in my state and also can murder your unborn child, so move here if you are feeling oppressed by the USA. Other states offer other less free options.

  • -12

One of those options is to coordinate the withdrawal of consent from and the subsequent dissolution of the current system. It's a pretty good option, in my view, and apparently a lot of other Americans agree.

The standard Blue tactic is to isolate a situation and then drown it in "process". That doesn't seem to be working so hot any more. What else you got?

It is working great. I'll let you know when it stops.

Virginia is a blue state to begin with and it tends to swing away from the party in power, not towards it. They also have a weirdly timed election that would strongly benefit democrats if Trump wins in 2024 and IIRC Youngkin can't hold two consecutive terms.

Last I heard, the fights over schooling worked out okay for Republicans.

Nope. As soon as the trans stuff disappeared from the headlines, the voters promptly forgot and voted the same school board right back in.

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