-unhealthy eating; -numbing oneself with drugs and alcohol; -self mutilation; -rejection of the womb and childbearing; -emasculation of men;
This is nonsense.
"Lefties" don't glorify eating one way or the other, any more than "righties" do. It's not a partisan thing. You have health nuts on both sides, as well as gluttons.
Lefties do not believe in "numbing oneself" with drugs/alcohol. They believe that we should start treating addiction like a disease and not a crime to wage war on. The recognize the disaster that the "war on drugs" has been and the vast damage it's caused to our inner cities, and want to reform our criminal code so that people committing victim-less crimes aren't treated like mass-murderers.
Lefties don't believe in "self-mutilation," but they do believe in the right to decide what to do with one's own body. Most lefties don't have multiple piercings and multiple tattoos. Most "righties" see nothing wrong with earrings or tattoos. Why is that not a "belief in self-mutilation?" Are you trying to take the example of a minority and apply that to the majority?
Most lefties want children. Most lefties also recognize that abortion is a necessity, and again, believe in bodily autonomy (and recognize the scientific facts about when a fetus is actually viable and can feel pain - "righties" reject science when it conflicts with their world-view.) Since the right refuses to consider the societal benefits (economic and in terms of crime) of widely promoting and funding comprehensive sex-ed and birth control, abortions will continue to happen. (The right's dismissal of those things proves that the right doesn't actually care about babies so much as policing sexuality. They HATE sex outside of marriage, and want to enact Puritan morality on everyone.) You don't like abortion? Support the things proven to actually work at lessening it: education and birth-control, and not abortion bans.
Lefties don't want the "emasculation of men." They want to show that "grunting beer-swilling muscle freaks watching NASCAR" is not the only way to be a "man" or masculine. Manhood is not a one-size fits all behavior model (that is only a couple hundred years old at most, for crying out loud.) I don't play sports, I don't really watch them on TV that much, I like musical theater, I display my emotions and cry when its appropriate. Guess what: I am every bit as much a man as some muscle builder or football player: but I stand for what I believe in, I support my family, and I work to make my world a better place. I'll have words with anyone who says that makes me "emasculated." I know who I am, and I'll not allow right-wing Victorian-era pigeon-holers to tell me what is, or is not, "a man."
"Multiculturalism is not and has not been the norm. The default has always been ethnocentricity. "
Babies and very young children can and do recognize differences in skin tone. But babies and very young children do not separate themselves accordingly. The separation of groups is something that has to be taught. Yes, there are certain tribalistic urges that come from our background as apes (which have more to do with group size than anything else, and we just decided to use physical characteristics as an identifier) but "we did it as apes" is no excuse if a behavior is harmful. Ethnocentricity is no more "default" than multiculturalism. We can decide which one we want by weighing the benefits and costs of each. I would argue that multiculturalism is, over time, the best road towards building a good society.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-02-10 02:40 pm (UTC)-unhealthy eating;
-numbing oneself with drugs and alcohol;
-self mutilation;
-rejection of the womb and childbearing;
-emasculation of men;
This is nonsense.
"Lefties" don't glorify eating one way or the other, any more than "righties" do. It's not a partisan thing. You have health nuts on both sides, as well as gluttons.
Lefties do not believe in "numbing oneself" with drugs/alcohol. They believe that we should start treating addiction like a disease and not a crime to wage war on. The recognize the disaster that the "war on drugs" has been and the vast damage it's caused to our inner cities, and want to reform our criminal code so that people committing victim-less crimes aren't treated like mass-murderers.
Lefties don't believe in "self-mutilation," but they do believe in the right to decide what to do with one's own body. Most lefties don't have multiple piercings and multiple tattoos. Most "righties" see nothing wrong with earrings or tattoos. Why is that not a "belief in self-mutilation?" Are you trying to take the example of a minority and apply that to the majority?
Most lefties want children. Most lefties also recognize that abortion is a necessity, and again, believe in bodily autonomy (and recognize the scientific facts about when a fetus is actually viable and can feel pain - "righties" reject science when it conflicts with their world-view.) Since the right refuses to consider the societal benefits (economic and in terms of crime) of widely promoting and funding comprehensive sex-ed and birth control, abortions will continue to happen. (The right's dismissal of those things proves that the right doesn't actually care about babies so much as policing sexuality. They HATE sex outside of marriage, and want to enact Puritan morality on everyone.) You don't like abortion? Support the things proven to actually work at lessening it: education and birth-control, and not abortion bans.
Lefties don't want the "emasculation of men." They want to show that "grunting beer-swilling muscle freaks watching NASCAR" is not the only way to be a "man" or masculine. Manhood is not a one-size fits all behavior model (that is only a couple hundred years old at most, for crying out loud.) I don't play sports, I don't really watch them on TV that much, I like musical theater, I display my emotions and cry when its appropriate. Guess what: I am every bit as much a man as some muscle builder or football player: but I stand for what I believe in, I support my family, and I work to make my world a better place. I'll have words with anyone who says that makes me "emasculated." I know who I am, and I'll not allow right-wing Victorian-era pigeon-holers to tell me what is, or is not, "a man."
"Multiculturalism is not and has not been the norm. The default has always been ethnocentricity. "
Babies and very young children can and do recognize differences in skin tone. But babies and very young children do not separate themselves accordingly. The separation of groups is something that has to be taught. Yes, there are certain tribalistic urges that come from our background as apes (which have more to do with group size than anything else, and we just decided to use physical characteristics as an identifier) but "we did it as apes" is no excuse if a behavior is harmful. Ethnocentricity is no more "default" than multiculturalism. We can decide which one we want by weighing the benefits and costs of each. I would argue that multiculturalism is, over time, the best road towards building a good society.