wampus

I know about ancient greece, and as I've said I don't care personally what people do / who they love. Don't assume just because I consider homosexual behaviour to be abnormal, that I'm somehow opposed to it / think it inherently "wrong" or anything. I also don't have a personal issue with it in movies, particularly more adult themed movies -- though I do think it's massively over-represented at this point, as almost every movie/show I see has heavy lgbtq+ themes wedged in haphazardly, often to the detriment of the plot.

Younger generations claiming to be lgbtq+, or being on the gender spectrum, doesn't really impact my view, I admit. First, it's still a minority, which makes it abnormal. Grouping all abnormal types together also inflates the perspective of how common it is for any one subset. Young people are also more inclined to be affected by perceptions of benefits / "going along with what's approved in media". Even the stats on that site generally support this, noting that the breakdown between men/women is hugely lopsided amongst Gen Z, and with the bulk of the change seemingly being women identifying as bisexual. That fits quite a bit with how its presented in media -- so I'd still question whether it's kids being 'genuine' in their experiences/feelings, or if it's media pushing certain messages and kids reacting to those messages. Media can clearly influence peoples world views / perspectives, at times in ways that aren't authentic -- we're all keen to recognise as such when we talk about the negative impact of fox news -- so it'd seem strange to pretend like it can't have a similar reality-distorting effect in this area, given the level of over-representation of lgbtq+ themes. Particularly bi-sexual women, as media likes to treat women as sex objects desired by "everyone", and wedge in some lesbian sex scenes to boot. Almost every series/movie has lgbtq+ stuff in it these days, which is one reason Snoop is uncomfortable taking kids to movies -- it's gotten pretty rare to see a same-race healthy relationship straight couple in media.

To approach it from a slightly different angle: it's like trying to find non-emo edgelord male characters in anime (which, in its space, feeds the indoctrination of alpha male sorts) -- or the negative male stereo-types pushed by people like Tate. If we accept/recognise that certain media representations can "make" young people more extreme in that sort of space, then I don't think it's at all unreasonable to say that media can "make" young people more gender fluid on the flip side. Part of being young, is lacking critical objectivity.

Also, in terms of the polling and benefits, hell, I personally identify as "other" on all government polls, because "other" gets preferential treatment/hiring options, while "male" gets rejection letters. That isn't an authentic response, but it's a necessary response to get past certain hiring criteria -- I've literally had rejection letters stating "you're not part of an equity group" in the past, when I answered male (in Canada, literally the reason the federal government rejected my application). Workplaces have no business blocking people from employment due to their preference, even when it comes to us CIS folks.

As for seeing things in public -- a kid could see a horrific car accident by chance, corpses everywhere. That doesn't mean it's appropriate to show a 6 year old graphic death scenes. Or to use a less extreme example, and a fairly common one, they could walk in on their parents fucking -- it still wouldn't be appropriate for a movie for kids to have a bunch of sex scenes. Content involving adult stuff should have an adult rating, even if "some" kids may encounter those things earlier in life by happenstance.

Me personally? I wouldn't care either way. I've seen a woman on the street fingering the ass of a muslim dude before, and just sorta walked by. But I don't have kids. I imagine if I had kids, I'd be opposed to public ass-blasting.

A parent that I work with has had awkward conversations with his kids, after they came to Canada and saw guys kissing / making out in public. I can appreciate that such PDAs can prompt similar 'awkward' conversations, but also that they're much less 'common' than encountering them as part of a big budget movie -- and encountering them in public is often an easier way for parents to broach the subject. Kids noticing that stuff is unavoidable as they mature, but having it forced to the front by media / schools is questionable, and I can appreciate the parents' concerns on that front.

Poor word choice perhaps, wasn't intending it to be taken as 'hard core' graphic sex bdsm, but more hardcore bdsm as in a couple clearly into that lifestyle - like a dad that wears a collar or whatnot. The latter would still be inappropriate as it would prompt questions difficult to answer for parents, and topics that are reasonably beyond a kids maturity level. It'd be fine in a pg-13, but not in a G.

I can't help but laugh at the note about small start ups lead by 19-20 YOs succeeding with millions of dollars by 'partnering well' and so on.

The success or failure of these AI companies seems almost entirely driven by the amount of Venture Capital thrown at them. A company like Perplexity, with practically zero product, having been formed less than 5 years ago, but being able to put up $35 billion in an offer to buy google chrome... I can't help but suspect that a big part of it is google handing perplexity a pile of money via "Venture Capitalist" screens, to help offload Chrome to mitigate their regulatory monopoly problems. But whatever the details, them having that pile of money is sure as shit not a matter of having a good product / partnering with other industries well.

Hamas has often been the roadblock for getting a two state setup sorted. I mean, the chant "From the River to the Sea" is about the Jordan river, and includes all of Israel -- it's legit a call for the extermination of all Israeli Jews. Hamas has pretty clearly not been in favour of a two state solution, ever. Like, the Oslo accords fell apart due to failures from both the Israeli govt and the Palestinian Authority -- it's hard to blame just Israel, when Hamas was busy assassinating people involved in the peace talks.

Doesn't excuse what Israel's doing to civilians currently though, nor how they've generally treated the Palestinian population for decades.

Another note worth highlighting, is that the 'world response' is largely one that eyes the USA with caution. The US govt prioritizes Israel's interests even over their own citizens, with Trump commenting on FEMA aid being denied for any state that's off-message on the ongoing conflict. Trump even jacked up tariffs on Canada just because the PM said he might recognise Palestine (if a bunch of impossible conditions were met). The US president isn't exactly subtle when he tweets shit like this. Imagine what the USA would do if other countries tried to take actual military action (blockades, or deploying UN peacekeepers or whatnot) to stop Israel from committing genocide -- cause that's what it realistically would've taken to stop them.

Hell, Israel has nukes. That's more than most other countries. There's this fun conspiracy theory I've heard that Israel managed to get some smaller nukes into America at some point, and basically has a 'quiet understanding' with the USA that if Israel goes down, they'll detonate nukes in key points in America. It'd help explain America's capitulation to Israel, though I think it's a bit far fetched -- the more likely reason is prolly more mundane, like campaign money/financing and regular corruption.