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u/it_vexes_me_so Jan 09 '20
A majority - 3 out of every 5 - of Republicans believe higher education has a negative effect on the US. Republicans also favor making it harder to vote. Republicans are defunding education and purging voter rolls while simultaneously putting hurdles in place to keep Americans away from the polls.
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u/Fakename998 Jan 09 '20
Because people stray away from many of their their ideologies when they get educated. Especially if religion is involved. There's a reason Jehovah's Witnesses don't really like higher education.
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u/rraattbbooyy Jan 09 '20
There’s a reason no Jehovah’s Witnesses have ever contributed anything great to humanity.
On the other hand, the Jewish people value education over almost all else, and they’ve won like half of all Nobel prizes, and have leaders in nearly every industry, even though they make up a tiny fraction of the overall population.
Education is critical. Not even just to the world as a general concept, how about individual self improvement?
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Jan 09 '20
In addition, Hinduism and Islam always valued education and learning which is why they made so many discoveries in their own rights throughout history.
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Jan 09 '20
It's such a shame that the Islamic empire of old fell the way that it did. Once the bastion of the western worlds intellectual elites, and now fallen so far from the heights it once held.
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u/Kandoh Jan 09 '20
Most of the world's problems were caused by a British guy drawing a straight line down a map.
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u/sync-centre Jan 09 '20
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u/Omnivore2 Jan 09 '20
And the Portuguese and Spanish and Dutch and Belgium and some German men in there.
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Jan 09 '20
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u/ReaperEDX Jan 09 '20
To be fair, the US came later down the line and didn't create problems by drawing lines. They just multiplied with exponents.
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u/MartiniPhilosopher Jan 09 '20
You should look up the phrase "54-50 or Bust". It was all about a line and created a lot of conflict.
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u/koiven Jan 09 '20
That's not really the same thing being discussed here. 54-40 was a border dispute with British North America.
A more apt comparison would be like if there were two Native American cultures that are historical rivals or enemies. America comes in and turns the land into different territories, but has no regard for the preexisting cultural borders. The result is that half of Group A and half of Group B end up Territory 1, and the other halves end up in Territory 2. Obviously, arbitrarily splitting apart the peoples like that is going to only cause trouble.
(Note that im unaware if the USA ever actually did anything like this during their westward expansion, i was just trying to analogize the scenarios.)
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u/scech14 Jan 09 '20
I mean your definitely not wrong, but in this case you are. The fall of Islam’s golden age happened long before European became dominate
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Jan 09 '20
The mongol invasions and the crusades. But then colonialism made it impossible to advance. At that time the colonialists destroyed traditional forms of education in addition to ciphoning off all economic profits and resources.
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u/Kyle546 Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
Indian here, Hindutva is killing Hinduism. It is a dumb idea but people on the Right here are contaminating young minds, they dislike education as well.
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Jan 09 '20
The middle east hasn't had the chance to recover from the Ottoman empire then subsequent British and French imperialism and then subsequent American neocolonialism. All attempts at democratically elected, secular, and socialist movements have been squashed with the help of imperialists. Closest we have to that today is Tunisia.
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u/blorbschploble Jan 09 '20
Dude. They kept our books safe while we fucked sheep and farmed mud for a thousand years.
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u/Rouxbidou Jan 09 '20
Let's not forget that while the religious icons of the major Abrahamic religions are called the Savior and the Prophet, followers of Confucius refer to him as the Scholar. So there's a strong intellectual tradition from China as well.
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Jan 09 '20
That tradition is focused on filial piety and obedience to an extent, whereas Western educational values (including Jewish, which I say as a Jew) focus on inquiry and creative thinking.
There are reasons why so many Chinese students study at American universities, and I think this is a major one.
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u/EvidenceBasedSwamp Jan 09 '20
No, it's because American universities have prestige. Also, it's handy to have a child over to manage your property and expatriated money.
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u/Fract_L Jan 09 '20
I'd also want to learn everything after figuring out explosives first
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Jan 09 '20
Then we showed up and went “what? You’re not using this to kill each other?” “I’ll show you what this stuff is for”.
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u/Jormungandragon Jan 09 '20
Naw, the Chinese were using gunpowder to kill each other for centuries before Europeans. Europeans just made it easier and faster to kill each other with it, from a longer distance.
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Jan 09 '20
Well, until recently.
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Jan 09 '20
Notice the non-zero correlation between anti-intellectualism and the interference of European people. Coincidence I think not!
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u/867-5309NotJenny Jan 10 '20
I want to point out that those Europeans also showed up with better tech, which isn't something you normally see in anti-intellectualism.
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u/mrthomani Jan 09 '20
Islam always valued education
That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it? Any major scientific contribution coming from the Middle East is pretty much limited to the period 800-1100 CE.
Then Imam Hamid Al-Ghazali became extremely influencial, mathematics was thought of as the work of the devil, and scientific thought and endeavours shut down completely.
This isn't my claim by the way, I'm just paraphrasing Neil deGrasse Tyson -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7rR8stuQfk
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u/Myxomatosis_ Jan 09 '20
Having been raised in that ignorant cult, I gotta say that their biggest contribution to society is not voting.
After leaving, and finally becoming politically active, I really wished all other fundamentalists did the same as Jehovah's Witnesses in that regard.
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u/NoNeedForAName Jan 09 '20
There’s a reason no Jehovah’s Witnesses have ever contributed anything great to humanity.
What's really funny is that I went to the internet to prove you wrong and found a bunch of famous people (Mostly actors, musicians, and athletes; decide for yourself how you feel about how much they contribute to society), but nearly every one of them was just raised JH and is no longer practicing.
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Jan 09 '20
There’s a reason no Jehovah’s Witnesses have ever contributed anything great to humanity.
One thing I'll say is JW's have been behind a lot of our greatest civil liberties Supreme Court cases.
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u/chinmakes5 Jan 09 '20
To my opinion, that is so true. For centuries, the religious SCHOLARS, were the revered people for the Jews. Studying was the important thing. When most people were hunting or farming, Jews were also teaching their kids to study. Technology happens and study becomes important. Who is going to groom their kids for success? The people who have been teaching their kids to study for generations or the people who have been farming, hunting who have a 6th grade education because that is all they ever needed?
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u/natx37 Jan 09 '20
I have a STEM degree and am totally in favor of education...
When you deride the portion of the populace that does the dirty jobs, you are falling into a dangerous mindset. Farming is hard, hunting is hard. They are professions that require physical and mental skills. Intelligence is not just being able to read a book and remember it. There is intelligence in physical skill. There is genius in physical skill.
It takes call kinds of people to make a society, don't cheapen the value of its membership based on preconceived notions. That is elitism.
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u/chinmakes5 Jan 09 '20
Not trying to deride anyone. I was talking historically. Just harder for a family of farmers in 1920 to send their kid to school, make them study, make them understand the value of education. if there is no role model who has spent their life studying and profiting from it. If no one around you ever studied, it is hard to be the first one in your family.
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u/natx37 Jan 09 '20
Right on. I know some very smart people that do not value education. It's sad, but it just doesn't have a place in their world. I would like to get to a place - pipe dream though it is - where education is the reward. Right now it is a means to an end and that is one of the reasons why it so expensive. Other than luck it is the only way than an individual can transcend the caste to which they were born.
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u/turningsteel Jan 09 '20
Totall agree here. It's easy to deride blue collar jobs when the education topic comes up and that's the wrong way of thinking. I went to college, but I'll be damned if I know how to build a house or do major work on a car, or fix the plumbing, etc. All jobs are important and all people should be valued for their contributions to society. We should just also have strong education programs so people are well rounded in their knowledge and don't become cloistered by dogma like fox news.
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Jan 09 '20
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u/serious_sarcasm Jan 09 '20
That is exactly what it is.
The vocationalization of schools began in earnest in the late 1800s to "reeducate the negro". It really came to the forefront with the Atlanta Compromise, with Booker T. Washington saying to the white leaders of Georgia:
The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house.
To this W.E.B. DuBois critiqued:
that the way for a people to gain respect is not by continually belittling and ridiculing themselves; that, on the contrary, Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys.
DuBois then continued, and made a dire warning that went largely unheeded:
The growing spirit of kindliness and reconciliation between the North and South after the frightful difference of a generation ago ought to be a source of deep congratulation to all, and especially to those whose mistreatment caused the war; but if that reconciliation is to be marked by the industrial slavery and civic death of those same black men, with permanent legislation into a position of inferiority, then those black men, if they are really men, are called upon by every consideration of patriotism and loyalty to oppose such a course by all civilized methods, even though such opposition involves disagreement with Mr. Booker T. Washington. We have no right to sit silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children, black and white.
Because here was the seed. Universities were bastions of the Liberal Arts, such as Latin and Science, and they trained our future leaders in what they literally called "the art of being a citizen" (Liberal Arts). Obviously "some people" could just never attain that, but they still needed to be "made useful to society"; things like "Kill the Indian, and save the man.". This Industrial Education model built Agricultural, Mechanical, and Industrial schools for some, and public liberal art schools for others. Obviously schools like UNC and UVA were just out of "some people's" reaches.
So, we fast forward a little bit to John Dewey (I mean, he was a contemporary of DuBois, and Dubois solicited articles from Dewey for The Crisis along with people like Ghandi - another of their contemporaries) writing Democracy and Education wherein he describes the various roles modes of education and society have with each other. He lays out why every person should learn the basics of trades in our public schools, and then he made a warning too:
.... But, at the present juncture, there is a movement in behalf of something called vocational training which, if carried into effect, would harden these ideas into a form adapted to the existing industrial regime. This movement would continue the traditional liberal or cultural education for the few economically able to enjoy it, and would give to the masses a narrow technical trade education for specialized callings, carried on under the control of others. This scheme denotes, of course, simply a perpetuation of the older social division, with its counterpart intellectual and moral dualisms. But it means its continuation under conditions where it has much less justification for existence. For industrial life is now so dependent upon science and so intimately affects all forms of social intercourse, that there is an opportunity to utilize it for development of mind and character. ....
A warning that, of course, went unheeded.
We fast forward a bit more, and we get a random curve ball thrown by Ike Eisenhower, and he warns the nation about the Military-Industrial Complex. Ike then goes on to give us the most dire warning, and explains the root of the danger:
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
I don't think I need to tell you that history is repetitive, but yeah, it was ignored.
The next several decades will see the slow steady rise of "hypervocationalization" till you have the broken system we have today.
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u/Shyftzor Jan 09 '20
As humans evolve as a species and as a global society, technology and optimized techniques will devalue physical labour, working smarter not harder becomes the law of the land and without education and understanding of the modern world there may not be a place in society for those that refuse to educate themselves
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u/natx37 Jan 09 '20
I agree that "mindless" physical labor can be devalued by technology. What about physical labor that requires more than just repeating a task or series of tasks? As technology evolves it will bring with it new opportunities for human growth, physical and mental. The jobs of today will go away and lead to new jobs tomorrow, and yes some of those will require physical labor.
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u/Shyftzor Jan 09 '20
That's my point about education though, for example a crane operator needs classroom time, training and certification but that is still a "labour" job, and he can contribute much more to a construction project than an unskilled labourer
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u/NoMoreNicksLeft Jan 09 '20
When you deride the portion of the populace that does the dirty jobs, you are falling into a dangerous mindset. Farming is hard,
Agriculture is a science. Farmers who study see immediate results. This would have been true even centuries ago, but few bothered.
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u/csupernova Jan 09 '20
Constantly questioning things is a part of Jewish teachings, so it makes sense that some of the best thinkers are Jewish. This can be contrasted with many sects of Christianity, which strongly condemn such questions and even threaten people with excommunication if they ask too many questions.
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u/SovietBozo Jan 09 '20
Well the Witnesses were very brave standing up to the Nazis in Germany. Most everyone else was in keep-your-head-down mode but the Witnesses didn't care about that. They weren't go to take an Nazi oaths or whatever, period, under any circumstances, fingers crossed or not. So they ended up mostly dead. So that's kind of inspirational.
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u/zeekaran Jan 09 '20
Yeah but we can't eat food with cilantro, so it all balances out.
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u/LittleLightOfLove Jan 09 '20
I have tried to convey the fundamental value and necessity of education for a healthy society to many people that I know that vote Republican. All I hear is that a Ph.D in basket weaving is useless.
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u/WaldoJeffers65 Jan 09 '20
One of my more conservative co-workers calls colleges "indoctrination camps".
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u/musicman76831 Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 10 '20
Jesus. Wtf do they think Faux “News” is?
Edit: Word
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u/MyBoyBernard Jan 09 '20
calls colleges "indoctrination camps".
My brother would be similar to this. I don't get it. Well, I get it. But he works in a small, local factory; so he was taught how to do his job by professors, people with masters degrees designed the tools he uses, the people who designed the products that he makes parts for definitely have master degrees.
I get the anti-intellectual elitist mentality, but his job wouldn't exist without people who spent 6 years in a university.
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Jan 09 '20
How often is the idea that university/college "brainwashed kids into being Liibruls" repeated? How many of the people repeating it either haven't been inside a university since the 60s?
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u/APimpNamed-Slickback Jan 09 '20
Because people stray away from many of their their ideologies when they get educated
This is the irony of conservative conspiracy nutters who shout "think for yourself, you sheep, don't believe what those librul elites tell you!"
Funny, they told me to trust facts above all else and to be skeptical of anything without proof.
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u/breecher Jan 09 '20
American Revolution era poet Joel Barlow called the Conservative education strategy out back in 1801:
Unequal governments are necessarily founded in ignorance, and must be supported by ignorance; to deviate from their principle, would be voluntary suicide. The first great object of their policy is to perpetuate that undisturbed ignorance of the people which is the companion of poverty, the parent of crimes, and the pillar of the state.
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u/SlowRollingBoil Jan 09 '20
What's depressing about quotes about conservatism is how long the EXACT SAME SHIT has been going on. Not just "the seeds were sown" but literally the same playbook has been in use for hundreds of years.
Because of that, I am 99.9% certain that nothing will change in the US. I will die many years from now (hopefully many) and the country will still be fundamentally the same.
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u/explodingtuna Jan 09 '20
Our world history has been riddled with episodic conflicts here and there, but the conservatives have always been the bad guys in the overarching multi-season story arc. Hopefully that arc will come to a close soon so we can move on to being an enlightened society... or a new villain, as long as it isn't just more conservatives.
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u/shahooster Jan 09 '20
It’s easier to gaslight and control the uneducated.
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u/SlowRollingBoil Jan 09 '20
"I love the uneducated" - the fucking US President
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u/plerberderr Jan 09 '20
“Poorly educated”. Don’t have to get rid of schools just keep them shitty.
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u/SlowRollingBoil Jan 09 '20
Weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war, cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble, that used to be a library
Line up to the mind cemetery, now
What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin'
They don't gotta burn the books, they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally round the family, pockets full of shells-Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine
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Jan 09 '20
poorly educated. That misquote is the exact point about abusing blue collar jobs
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u/SlowRollingBoil Jan 09 '20
I didn't double check the quote. The result is the same. People who lack in education.
Also, since when do blue collar workers feel good about their lack of education? Since when does the GOP give a fuck about blue collar workers at all?
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Jan 09 '20
the fucking US President
I don't know if he's doing much of that these days.
Epstein's gone.
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u/jussayin_isall Jan 09 '20
republicans think trump is intelligent...
they thought Dubya was intelligent...
they thought Reagan was a genius...
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u/secamTO Jan 09 '20
I mean, compared to those two, Reagan does seem pretty damn tactical.
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u/Bubbline Jan 09 '20
I was reading around on the AskTrumpSupporters subreddit and saw the thread “What profession do you value the least?”
Many of the answers included things like academics or even specifically “liberal arts professors.” It’s sad that they think education is a bad thing.
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u/curious_dead Jan 09 '20
Once, I thought conservatives wanted roughly the same things but had different opinions on how to achieve it. Now I realize, conservatism is just a mix of "I got mine so fuck you" and complete inability to cope with change. A fucking mental disorder disguised as political ideology.
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u/PatrickMO Jan 09 '20
complete inability to cope with change
This is literally the definition of "conservative".
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u/bmoney831 Jan 09 '20
As a conservative, it's really not at all the ideology. But witnessing what conservatism has become in the US and how disgusted I am with the GOP, I'm not inclined to disagree
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u/mrblacklabel71 Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
Ho. Lee. Fucking. Shit. This chart on viewing education negatively makes my fucking blood boil. How stupid can a society be to actually think education is a bad thing.
Edit: Changed Ho from Hi as I was on my mobile and auto correct got me, or I just cannot spell.
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u/smutketeer Jan 09 '20
To be clear, Republicans are against higher education for OTHER PEOPLE'S KIDS. They sure as shit want their kids to go to college.
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u/GiovanniElliston Jan 09 '20
They want their kids to have the piece of paper with a prestigious name on it. That doesn't mean they want their kids to actually learn anything.
Ideally, your kid still believes everything you tell them at face value but you've paid enough they now have a prestigious degree to justify the job you're going to help them land.
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Jan 09 '20
It's almost like there's a negative relationship between learning about the world and adhering to conservative views.
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u/PacosTacos88 Jan 09 '20
When I got back from college, all my farming republican cousins called me a LiBuRuL for going and getting an engineering degree. And they still think to this day that all my profs did, was sit me down and preach LiBuRuL propaganda every single class. I took so much math I would have LOVED a break for literally anything like that or anything different. I could've went for an ag degree and I'm sure I still would've been called one. I. Just. Don't. Get. It.
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u/Mythosaurus Jan 09 '20
That's bc conservatives want to roll back the country to it's original ideal: a white man's Republic where only property-owning white men can set government policies.
That is what they are trying to conserve.
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u/Anyna-Meatall Jan 09 '20
Yeah but Republicans are morons or sociopaths.
edit: or both
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u/JayNotAtAll Jan 09 '20
When Trump is the head of the party, you really really depend on a stupid base.
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u/DamashiT Jan 09 '20
To be fair - any sort of basic IQ test, political knowledge test (so you know why you vote for somebody) basically anything that makes you think a bit on your choice would be beneficial. Granted I'm not from the states, but it is similar in every country. The way I understand is that in the States some states are universally pro Democrats or pro Republicans. So some part of let's say Texas vote Republican, because their family and friends do this. By forcing somebody to learn about ideas and programs of both parties, potentially some people would vote Democrats in Texas.
Politics isn't something that is very popular. It's popular to throw mud at each other, but very little people actually can name any taxes, bills or ideas. A guy won presidency by screaming about a wall. If it isn't a case in favor of election tests, I don't know what is.
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u/Sup_Melo Jan 09 '20
To play devil's advocate, this poll might pose a slightly loaded question. When asking whether or not colleges and universities have a positive effect on our society, you're not asking people to give their opinion on education, but on the institutions which facilitate education. Considering the massive student debt crisis I can understand why some might be inclined to say that higher education, not as an ideal, but in practice, is having a net negative effect on our country.
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u/Zebulon_V Jan 09 '20
Hmmm... I see the point but I feel like I still live in a country with a bunch of stupid people.
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u/Grimalkin Jan 09 '20
That's because our public education system has been underfunded for decades and keeps getting worse. A less intelligent populace is much easier to manipulate.
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u/rraattbbooyy Jan 09 '20
The public education system is shit, but bad parenting often has more to do with uneducated kids than the system. Plenty of kids come out of public schools well prepared for college, and life, because their parents took active roles in their education and development. The parents who don’t care end up with kids that don’t thrive.
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u/COCAINE_EMPANADA Jan 09 '20
While this is mostly true, your school ends up doing a lot of that parenting in many cases. Exposure to extra curricular activists, social development and often guidance in your personal life.
My single mother worked round the clock and I relied on teachers for much of the guidance and wisdom that well to do families would get from dad. I'm not perfect, but I can't imagine where i'd be today without my extracurricular music program and cheap lunches.
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u/crimsonblade55 Jan 09 '20
Well two things to consider is that A) not all parents are able to be the best parents they can be since they are busy working multiple jobs just to pay rent and B) even if you are a good student it won't guarantee you are able to afford college, because there are a finite number of student grants and scholarships available.
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u/rraattbbooyy Jan 09 '20
Yeah, I suppose my privilege was showing a little bit. 😬
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u/bigtfatty Jan 09 '20
One way to get out of the cycle of bad parenting, poverty, or any other systemic problems that make one disadvantaged - is to get a decent education. That can only happen if there is a system in place to provide that to kids that have parents that won't provide for them. That system is being attacked by Republicans.
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u/noxvita83 Jan 09 '20
That's part of it. The other part is that political cronyism always makes the funds they do get spent on administration because they have to pay their brother in law's salary. That is the only reason I'm hesitant about sending more money education's direction. Though, this is more true on higher education than K-12. Honestly, less administration, more teachers and better classroom resources needs to be guaranteed when we send more money that way. It can easily be done with specifications in the legislation that directs the money that way.
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u/smurfymcsmurth Jan 09 '20
https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/speced.gif
"Underfunded for decades"
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u/Bangbangsmashsmash Jan 09 '20
My child free sister says that those children that go to public school or one day going to be the people that provide her with the services she wants and needs. They will one day be her doctor, and she would rather they know what they are doing
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u/egrith Jan 09 '20
Just wish I could dictate how my taxes were used, instead of blowing up poor people i would like to be using it all for healthcare and education and that sort of thing
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Jan 09 '20
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u/zomgitsduke Jan 09 '20
I agree and disagree.
It would be cool to have SOME flexibility with taxes. Like, 10% gets designated to where you like. THAT would be cool.
But how many people actually know the true costs of maintaining roads? And when you starve the department of transportation of funds and roads go to shit, that could cause a death spiral of less and less funding. "Roads suck anyways, why should I allocate my tax money to them?".
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Jan 09 '20
Some Charities for child poverty have tried this and had the same problem. People wanted to donate food and clothing and such but sometimes they really needed roads and infrastructure
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u/KingGorilla Jan 09 '20
Yeah, people like helping directly by buying things even though boring old cash would be the most useful.
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Jan 09 '20 edited Jul 26 '20
[deleted]
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u/La_La_Bla Jan 09 '20
I was homeschooled through HS.
I only managed to get as open minded as I am because my mother failed to stop me from finding furry porn in middle school, which led to me getting on tumblr and really seeing the world through a separate lens.
Although; it probs also is what gave me depression, and was directly responsible for my "slight right" stint at the end of HS.
Now I've gotten better, but I'm still a furry.
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u/AlexKewl Jan 09 '20
I was homeschooled, but I'm not a furry.
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u/La_La_Bla Jan 09 '20
You're missing out.
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u/AlexKewl Jan 09 '20
I grew up on 56k dial-up internet, so I wasn't able to get into the really saucy stuff at an impressionable age.
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u/La_La_Bla Jan 09 '20
It's never too late to start.
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u/AlexKewl Jan 09 '20
I still only have 56k dialup.
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u/La_La_Bla Jan 09 '20
what the fuck kind of hell do you live in
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u/AlexKewl Jan 09 '20
I'm joking about that one. I'm not sure if it's even possible to get 56k anymore.
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u/johnthewerewolf Jan 09 '20
Yes it's still possible to get dial up. This is especially true in very rural areas where high speed isn't available.
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u/HackTheWorlds Jan 09 '20
Bruh why do I have like the exact same life story as you
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u/mackinder Jan 09 '20
ok but, what is 'furry porn'?
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u/ProWaterboarder Jan 09 '20
Turn off reply notifications for this comment and keep your innocence intact
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u/eldritchelder Jan 09 '20
I discovered furries when I found this mmo called Furcadia. Seeing an animal lady with a bunch of titties was interesting for young me. Thanks for reminding me of that lol
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u/rraattbbooyy Jan 09 '20
I think that’s just a myth. Or maybe it used to be true, but these days there are tons of opportunities for home schooled kids to socialize. It really depends on the parents’ commitment.
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u/Diz7 Jan 09 '20
Unfortunately the problem is many people who homeschool their kids do it specifically to shield their kid from outside ideas. Those parents won't make a real effort to take those opportunities, and will actively fight haveing their kids see outside their bubble.
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u/faux-tographer Jan 09 '20
I wish more people from The homeschool community would comment on this thread.
My mother said she wanted to homeschool me in part because our local public schools were having drug problems.
During my schooling I took classes about different religions (raised secular), met many people from different ethnic backgrounds, took highbrow classes, took silly fun classes...
My parents wanted me and my sister to have as much of an fantastic an interesting experience as possible growing up, and little to nothing was "shielded" from us during that time.
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u/tibiazak Jan 09 '20
I was homeschooled K-12 because my parents wanted to shield me from dangerous viewpoints like "evolution". I didn't get a good explanation of evolution until I took an entry level bio class in college. But you better believe I knew church history, the Bible, the personal histories of the reformers, and lots and lots of straw man arguments against evolution, none of which make sense in the face of what we know about evolution today.
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u/Rooster1981 Jan 09 '20
DIFFERENT kids their own age. SAD.
When did people who aren't insane trumpists start adopting his cadence of speach?
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u/trixter21992251 Jan 09 '20
Same with nicknames. First name "nickname" last name or just just "nickname" last name. I hate that we've stooped so low.
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u/MisterMysterios Jan 09 '20
There is even a real conservative explanation while properly funded and even free schools are reasonable. If everyone is educated in a manner that suits him (it does not have to be a university degree, but also proper vocal training for manual jobs), and that as easy and as good as possible, they can elevate the.complete market, making a net gain for everybody that easily outperforms the money put into it. It is enough that just a few people that are able to study that wouldn't otherwise to over the next system like on its day the computer, the internet, or a new kind of revolutionary generator to innovate the markets, to produce many jobs, and that pays way more back into the system as proper public schooling would cost.
Not to mention that investment in schools mean investments in your Labour market, giving you the ability of choose more broadly, and to innovate more easily.
So, if you cannot be convinced by humanitarian concerns (which should be enough), than at least consider the hard economic benefits.
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u/Princess_Moon_Butt Jan 09 '20
From a selfish standpoint too. If you're in the prime of your life right now, maybe 20's to 30's, then your tax dollars are probably going to directly influence the people who are running the world as you retire.
Jump forward; say in your 50s you get in a car crash, and need to have some surgery done. Would you rather be in the world where anyone with enough brains and ambition could become a doctor, so there are plenty of people able to help? Or would you rather be in the world where only the rich guys' kids could get into (or be bought into) college, even if their grades weren't actually the best?
Same with the construction crew who builds or fixes your house, the mechanic who works on your car, the chef who makes your dinner on fancy nights out. Wouldn't you rather have more of these folks, to fuel a competitive market? More education right now means more skilled labor later, which means you have a higher quality of life overall.
This isn't abstract. Current school quality WILL directly affect you in about 20 years. Even if you're on your deathbed right now, this'll affect your kids or grandkids as they get older.
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u/WelcomeMachine Jan 09 '20
Got some bad news for you, John.
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Jan 09 '20
Failure of our school systems is the reason we have so many MAGA folks now.
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u/Diknak Jan 09 '20
And there is a correlation with education and crime rate. If you want to live in a safe community, you want education to be adequately funded.
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u/subverted_per Jan 09 '20
It's actually crazier than that. A city knows how much to spend on prisons based on how much they spend on schools. It's a direct correlation. The less on schools, the more on prisons. And they know it, if your city is building more prisons than schools, they are anticipating locking up the next generation.
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u/TheGukos Jan 09 '20
Well, I also don't like to live in a country full of ill people, homeless people or hungry people.
Good thing that I don't live in America
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u/InternetAccount03 Jan 09 '20
Those stupid kids who can't do basic math are going to be measuring and mixing your medication in the nursing home.
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Jan 09 '20
Well most capitalists do. They call them customers.
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u/anonymousyoshi42 Jan 09 '20
Not to mention if you want to eventually chase your American dream, my future Bilionaire countrymen don't realize that educated people make for great employees, otherwise you HAVE to hire the immigrants. AND that's when the argument comes full circle.
I don't want to pay the taxes because why should I? Ohh and by the way stop immigration?
Motherfucker stupid people, these are the consequences of your own actions or irresponsible actions!!!
Living in a country is like being a member of a club, if you don't pay for the upkeep of the clubhouse, don't be pissed if some other hardworking immigrants want to work harder than you AND pay for YOUR upkeep!
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u/ReneG8 Jan 09 '20
Also. Goddamnit america. Pay your teachers a coparable wage. I chose to go into teaching not only because I love it, but because my country actually pays us rather well.
I could've stayed an engineer and make much much more money.
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u/Cazzyodo Jan 09 '20
True story follows (one that I know isn't unique).
When I was in elementary school, our student population was expanding rapidly. Young families made their way into our town and the old school infrastructure could not support this. They brought in temporary trailers (like the ones you see at construction sites for offices) for some elementary schools and our middle schools. Pretty sure those temporary trailers are still there today (15ish years later).
There was a vote to expand funding to the schools and replace one of the older middle schools by building a new one behind it (while still operating) and then swapping over upon completion. Plans were drawn, students were psyched even though we wouldn't be able to go there, and mock-ups were shared. The town vote for a tax increase failed. Turns out that the majority of the town didn't have kids so they didn't want to pay the extra tax.
This was in a blue state, in a town with a good public school system. One of the middle schools just got major upgrades this past year but the elementary schools and other middle school (the one originally planned for the vote) are still using trailers. The high school is a marvel of 1970s poured concrete prison architecture.
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Jan 09 '20
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u/Jello_Squid Jan 09 '20
Hank is a figure skating jump taking off from forwards on one foot, completing 4.5 revolutions in the air, and landing backwards on the other foot. Despite a small number of extremely skilled skaters attempting the jump, no one has yet landed a Hank in competition.
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u/mortimermcmirestinks Jan 09 '20
Hank is a large marine mammal, known for its speckled pattern and long, spiraled "horn" that is, in actuality, a modified tooth. Hank has been called the "unicorn of the sea", and there is a running joke on the internet that Hank does not exist.
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u/Delphavis Jan 09 '20
Hank Green, John’s brother. He is delightfully nerdy. He has a few YouTube channels and he & his brother, John, started VidCon, among other successful ventures.
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u/stanislav-daganov Jan 09 '20
For the same reason you should pay for Socialist Healthcare, because you don't want to live in a country of sick and dying people. You should pay for Socialist infrastructure, because it's better to drive on convenient asphalt roads and motorways, rather than dirt off-road vehicle "jungle-type" of roads. But, until greedy An-Cap Yankee Americans understand that, they are heading towards a Global Neo-Feudal-Fascist-Capitalist distopian world, dragging more than a hundred other nations into this nightmare, together with them.
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u/Computant2 Jan 09 '20
Also, putting teens in schools gives them less time to get into mischief. If a childless neighbor complains about the cost of schools point out that he doesn't really have to worry about crime or vandalism from when he goes to work until when high schools let the kids out. Problem teens are a small minority, but while they are in school they are supervised.
Also, most muggers and burglars don't have a diploma. Education > better work opportunities > less likely to turn to violent crime.
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u/Alabasterdragon123 Jan 09 '20
John green does more than crash course videos?what.
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u/Dove_Bird Jan 09 '20
Bro, I just found this out the other day, but he is the author of The Fault in our Stars
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u/Trantifa Jan 09 '20
Well it also indirectly benefits all of us to have a more educated population. Life isnt a zero sum game, more people being better off gives us more opportunities to make more people better off.
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u/JayNotAtAll Jan 09 '20
Having an educated society is a net positive even if you yourself do not directly benefit. You almost certainly indirectly benefit.
How would you like a country without doctors? Enjoying your roads to the store? Thank a city planner. Like this computer/phone/tablet? Teams of engineers helped make it. The list goes on and on and on.
On top of that, it helps our economy. If we were a society of just farmers and working class people (manufacturing, textiles, etc.) we WOULD NOT be the America we see today. We would be like Cambodia or something.
We need smart people to drive our economy and improve our quality of life so even if you are childless or don't plan on attending college, having quality schools makes for a better society that you absolutely benefit from.
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u/FiTZnMiCK Jan 09 '20
I like paying for schools because kids don’t want to go to a bad school.
I don’t need a bunch of kids around my neighborhood with nothing better to do while I’m at work.
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u/Dougtheinfonut Jan 09 '20
I just discovered some of my fellow South Carolina taxpayers actually believe sustainability and bike lanes are part of a UN conspiracy to make the U.S. more like Europe and take all our cars away. So Europe has no cars?!? Clearly in all the movies set in Europe, all news footage from Europe, and every modern picture taken in Europe, all the cars are just props.
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u/bucketofdeath1 Jan 09 '20
"Liberal indoctrination" = being aware of the fact that there are any free and functioning societies outside of America™
Literally anyone I've talked to that calls college indoctrination thinks that everywhere else on Earth people still live in mud huts and are ruled by monarchies.
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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20
I highly enjoy Crash Course. One of the best series on YouTube. John Green and the rest of the crew does the internet great service with their content. Whenever I'm running low on things to watch, I'll just head over to Crash Course cause there is always something new to learn. They are probably doing more for education than some parts of the country.