I'm trying to understand.

Self-help and references orginally, but has also become a place for me to vent my political thoughts

[loredwy]

I cant believe this tweet is how I find out

[would-you-punt-them]

now all the things you guys have told me about american high schools are starting to make sense

[jeaninelatragedia]

holy shit.

[frustratedasatruar]

You're not really supposed to say it this way, because its considered crass, but here in the US children are culturally and legally considered essentially the property of their parents.

Note that its considered more crass to point this out than it is to treat children as property in the first place.

[thelawfulchaotic]

This is true. Kids' constitutional rights are also a mess; for a long time, they were relegated to the juvenile justice system which was able to do essentially anything it wanted to them in the guise of being a "kind and just parent." This culminated in the Supreme Court case In Re Gault.

In Re Gault was about a 15 year old kid who allegedly did a stupid crank phone call to a neighbor. (I don't think it was ever proven that it was actually him; he said it was his friend and he kicked his friend out after the phone call was made.) The sheriff took him into custody, his parents were not informed, and he was kept at the local jail. After that, the judge in the case decided that he needed to go to the state reform school until he was twenty-one (21) god damn years old.

Important to note that these reform schools were unregulated rarely inspected abuse factories. As with pretty much any time you hide away children and put adults in charge of them who can do anything they want, the children were often directly physically and sexually abused, used for forced labor, locked in solitary confinement, deprived of education, forced into religious conversion... What happened to these kids is very similar to the unceasing horror and violence done to Native Americans in residential schools, complete with unmarked graves, and just like with the indigenous peoples, authorities patted themselves on the back for taking care of the problem.

Gault, in this process, was not:

Told what specific crime he was charged with (the judge tried to backtrack and say it was a different one later)

Given an attorney

Given a transcript or the ability to make a transcript of the proceedings

Allowed to appeal the decision.

His parents brought it to the state Supreme Court anyway on a habeas corpus petition, which the Court referred back to the original judge to decide. When the original judge decided that he'd been right after all, they brought it back to the state Supreme Court, which said that all the problems seemed cleared up now.

The United States Supreme Court reversed 8-1 (THERE WAS A DISSENT!!!!) and gave kids, at that point, in the year of our lord 1967, the right to know what charges they had, the right to confront their accusers, and the right to have an attorney.

I joke-not-joke that the only right that kids have in the United States is the right to me. Because they do get an attorney when they get dragged into court! They get fuck-all else.

[asafo2020-deactivated20171024]

[tashabilities]

White people should be banned from adopting transracially.

[strangeasanjles-deactivated2019]

Kenya has approved an indefinite ban on adoption by foreigners. This needs to spread like wildfire…White people using Black and Brown children as disposable pretentious props has got to stop.

[teamrocketing]

some facts to go with this post:

the young girl who died is called Hana Williams, her adoptive parents were Christians who adopted seven children and raised them with extremely hard punishments based on a Christian child raising book.

Hana died after being denied food and being shut out in the yard as a punishment.

This isn’t just about “white people”, it’s about white Christian Americans. An important distinction to make in this case.

Also important: The Kenyan adoption ban was in response to human trafficking, and not connected to problems in transracial adoption cases.

[alexander]

last comment is important

[ravenamore]

The book in question is “To Train Up A Child” by Michael and Debbie Pearl, and it is one of the most revolting books on the face of the planet.

They straight up advocate beating kids - their suggestion is to use plumbing line because it doesn’t show bruises.

The whole beating things is to punish “defiance.” They literally recommend you beat your kid until you’ve broken them mentally. They don’t start with the plumbing line right away.

They start out with “blanket training” a baby. It goes like this - put crawling baby on blanket. When baby crawls off, pick up baby, smack them on the hand or butt. Put baby on blanket. Repeat, over and over again. Ignore the tears and crying - that’s supposed to be their “sin nature” making them defy you. Repeat until when you put baby on blanket, they stay on it. These parents use the blanket training thing to show off to people how well behaved their child is because they’re being raised right.

Picking up the baby when they’re crying is discouraged - they say baby has to learn they don’t get everything when they want it.

As you read above, food deprivation is used. They start that one with babies, too. Baby is on a strict feeding schedule. And when I mean strict, I mean, you are to flat ignore a crying hungry baby - they say the baby’s trying to manipulate you - until the scheduled feeding time comes up.

It is not unusual for babies on this type of feeding schedule to end up underweight - and I don’t know about this book, but I know a similar one tells the parents to straight up LIE to the doctors about how they’re feeding the baby, ostensibly because the doctors probably aren’t Real True Christians.

Baby in high chair starts playing with their food instead of eating? You have to teach them “meal time isn’t play time” - end the meal, and don’t feed them again until the allotted time. Older kids go without meals for defiance - they’ve lost the right to be with the family.

Several kids have ended up DEAD because of this book. The authors have never once taken responsibility for their part in those kids’ death. The parents weren’t “using their system right”, so it’s not their fault. They’ve also written marriage advice books - they are precisely as bad as you think. One of them endorses marital rape.

This child raising system, along with the “Babywise” system, is really popular among very strict evangelical Protestants. Some of their churches mandate classes in one or the other system before a kid can be baptized.

[beadyeyes]

[foxgirlmindcrank]

Never getting over Charlie Kirk getting shot in the throat right after he uses it to downplay gun violence. Gotta be a top 3 assassination. Up there with Shinzo getting doohickey'd.

[foxgirlmindcrank]

It's on some straight up Greek play shit. Man who uses his voice to justify violence and stir evil for years meets his end as that very violence tears out his throat. Poetic. Captured live from multiple angles. People stole his blood soaked merch to hock and his wife was giddy about sale numbers during his funeral.

[posereference]

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@posereference

[maaarine]

Why aren't we talking about the real reason male college enrollment is dropping? (Celeste Davis, Oct 6 2024)

"White flight is a term that describes how white people move out of neighborhoods when more people of color move in.

White flight is especially common when minority populations become the majority. That neighborhood then declines in value.

Male flight describes a similar phenomenon when large numbers of females enter a profession, group, hobby or industry—the men leave. That industry is then devalued.

Take veterinary school for example:

In 1969 almost all veterinary students were male at 89%.

By 1987, male enrollment was equal to female at 50%.

By 2009, male enrollment in veterinary schools had plummeted to 22.4%

A sociologist studying gender in veterinary schools, Dr. Anne Lincoln says that in an attempt to describe this drastic drop in male enrollment, many keep pointing to financial reasons like the debt-to-income ratio or the high cost of schooling.

But Lincoln’s research found that “men and women are equally affected by tuition and salaries.”

Her research shows that the reason fewer men are enrolling in veterinary school boils down to one factor: the number of women in the classroom.

For every 1% increase in the proportion of women in the student body, 1.7 fewer men applied.

One more woman applying was a greater deterrent than $1000 in extra tuition! (…)

Since males had dominated these professions for centuries, you would think they would leave slowly, hesitantly or maybe linger at 40%, 35%, 30%, but that’s not what happens.

Once the tipping point reaches majority female- the men flee. And boy do they flee!

It’s a slippery slope. When the number of women hits 60% the men who are there make a swift exit and other men stop joining.

Morty Schapiro, economist and former president of Northwestern University has noticed this trend when studying college enrollment numbers across universities:

“There’s a cliff you fall off once you become 60/40 female/male. It then becomes exponentially more difficult to recruit men.”

Now we’ve reached that 60% point of no return for colleges.

As we’ve seen with teachers, nurses and interior design, once an institution is majority female, the public perception of its value plummets.

Scanning through Reddit and Quora threads, many men seem to be in agreement - college is stupid and unnecessary.

A waste of time and money. You’re much better off going into the trades, a tech boot camp or becoming an entrepreneur. No need for college. (…)

When mostly men went to college? Prestigious. Aspirational. Important.

Now that mostly women go to college? Unnecessary. De-valued. A bad choice. (…)

School is now feminine. College is feminine. And rule #1 if you want to safely navigate this world as a man? Avoid the feminine.

But we don’t seem to want to talk about that."

[hranmere]

This is insane what is happening in Kansas.

They just—took away an entire population’s valid IDs. With a stroke of a pen. No grace period. No chance for anyone to get their IDs “fixed” in time, not that they should have had to in the first place. They even made it illegal for people to drive themselves to the DMV to get a new ID. That’s insane y’all. That is dystopian level madness. It is petty and cruel and literally dehumanizing.

They have also invalidated their birth certificates, thus jeopardizing their ability to prove citizenship and vote. It’s voter suppression on top of everything else.

They wanted to make an entire population into criminals with a stroke of a pen and that’s what they did.

And the rest of the country just… hasn’t noticed. No one cares. There’s no headlines. Nothing on the news. Because it’s Kansas. Because it’s trans people.

But if it can happen somewhere in this country, it can happen anywhere. And if it can happen to trans people, it can happen to you.

[hollowboobtheory]

you cannot convince me illegal immigration is a real problem and I'm sick of pretending it is. yk when you were a kid and you got mad at your sibling for crossing an imaginary line that you drew in the car? that's what you're doing right now except you're actually killing people over it

[hollowboobtheory]

I get how we need records of who's in the country for like census or tax purposes, yk boring logistical stuff. but you know what we could do with people who don't have the paperwork? send them to the courthouse to fill out their paperwork. boom problem solved and you didn't have to spend 80 thousand dollars detaining and deporting them

[hollowboobtheory]

they will tell you your papers are out of date and you say well how do I update them and then they say you can't and throw you into a cage

[saywhat-politics]

Texas Democratic Congressional Candidate CHANGES HIS NAME To Avoid Conservative Past

A Texas conservative CHANGED HIS NAME to run for Congress as a Democrat!

Posted on Jan 26, 2026

A few years ago, James “Jim” MacKay was a name that Texas teachers, librarians, and civil rights advocates learned to dread. Now, under a completely different name, he’s asking Democrats to send him to Congress.

r/texas

[lierdumoa]

A former Leander ISD trustee known for his role in high profile curriculum disputes has reentered the political arena under a new name as he

Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

[run-of-the-milf]

I highly recommend watching this testimony from Aliya Rahman, the disabled woman who was dragged out of her car and kidnapped by ICE on her way to a doctor appointment in Minneapolis a few weeks ago.

Truly my worst nightmare.

[liitohauki]

Transcript of Aliya Rahman's speech:

Thank you members, for taking the time to be here today, and thank you staff for making this happen.

My name is Aliya Rahman, and I am a resident of South Minneapolis. I am a Bangladeshi American born in Northern Wisconsin. And I’m a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury.

Not all autistic brains do this, but mine fixates on sounds, numbers, and patterns. And while what the world saw happen to me exactly three weeks ago today on video was a terrible violation it is still nothing compared to the horrific practices I saw inside the Whipple center.

So I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home, and I offer this data because these practices must end now.

On January 13th on the way to my 39th appointment at Hennepin County’s traumatic brain injury center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles and no signs indicating how to get around it. I had not wanted to pull in to a blocked, chaotic intersection, but verbally agreed to do so and rolled down my window after an agent yelled, “Move! I will break your f-ing window!”

His first instruction.

Agents on all sides of my vehicle yelled conflicting threats and instructions that I could not process while watching for pedestrians.

Then, the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face.

I yelled, “I’m disabled!” at the hands grabbing at me and an agent said, “Too late.”

I felt immersed in a pattern, and I thought of Jenoah Donald, an autistic black man killed by the police during a traffic stop in 2021.

I remembered mister Silverio Villegas González, who was killed by ICE in his vehicle last year.

An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt. Shooting pain went through my head, neck, and wrists when I hit the ground face first and people leaned on my back.

I felt the pattern, and I thought of mister George Floyd, who was killed four blocks away.

I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. I now cannot lift my arms normally.

I was never asked for ID.

Never told I was under arrest.

Never read my rights.

And never charged with a crime.

Approaching the Whipple center, I saw black and brown bodies shackled together, chained together, being marched by yelling agents outdoors. I continued to hear the word “bodies”, because that is how agents referred to us:

“We’re bringing in a body.”

“They’re bringing in bodies 7, 8 at a time, where do I put ‘em?”

“We can’t use that room, there’s already a body in there.”

You have no reason to believe you will make it out alive if you’re already being called a body.

Agents repeatedly had to stop and ask how to do tasks. I received no medical screening, phone call, or access to a lawyer. I was denied a communication navigator when my speech began to slur. Agents laughed as I tried to immobilize my own neck. I asked for my cane and was told no, pulled up by my arms and prodded forward in leg irons by agents laughing and saying, “Walk! You can do it, walk.”

Agents did not know if the facility had a wheelchair.

When I was finally placed in one to be taken to interrogation an agent taunted, “You were driving, right? So your legs do work.”

I pleaded for emergency medical care for over an hour after my vision had become blurry, my heart rate went through the roof, and the pain in my neck and head became unbearable.

It was denied.

When I became unable to speak my cellmate pleaded for me.

The last sounds I remember before I blacked out on the cell floor were my cellmate banging on the door, pleading for a medic, and a voice outside saying, “We don’t wanna step on ICE’s toes.”

When I opened my eyes at Hennepin County’s emergency room, I learned I was brought there to be treated for assault.

The impacts of DHS detention on my physical, mental and financial well-being and safety have been very severe, but I do not deserve more humane treatment than anyone else, US citizen or not. And I am here today with a strong spirit and a duty to the many people who haven’t had the privilege to tell their stories or see their loved ones come home. I am extremely distressed by the pattern that violence from law enforcement has been happening to black and indigenous communities for centuries, and to DHS survivors for over 20 years.

We call ourselves a civilized nation, but we lack rules and accountability around what a person claiming to be law enforcement is permitted to do to another human being.

I am not afraid, and I’m not afraid to keep working on this problem even after ICE is gone. Thank you for your time.

[robertreich]

Remember that Trump is a weak and failing president with his back against the wall. Keep up the pressure — on all fronts.

[tjwock]

HEY.

HEY YALL.

USAMERICAN DEMOCRATS SUCCESSFULLY REMOVED EVERY ANTITRANS RIDER FROM EVERY FUNDING BILL

Spread the fucking word because LORD knows democrats fucking suck at spreading it themselves and will fail once again to inform their base

But just in case you’re sitting there going “the Dems aren’t doing anything,” THEY ARE

IT IS JUST SLOW

AND MOSTLY INVISIBLE

BUT THEY ARE

[doberbutts]

[seymour-butz-stuff]

[soul-hammered]

[weabooweedwitch]

I love that the pandemic actually definitively proved a lot of those "hard" questions for us. Masking up reduced cases of the flu to almost nonexistent numbers and we had zero flu deaths for a time. The welfare and social service and unemployment programs helped keep people living paycheck to paycheck out of poverty, and those stimulus checks some folks keep complaining about actually massively benefitted the common man and the economy. Individual personal travel was so extremely restricted on a global scale that we basically have concrete proof that individual restraint in terms of driving cars or travelling means absolutely nothing by comparison because the mass pollution is coming from the fisheries and the corporations with private jets and container ships. Working from home actually has massive benefits for a company like productivity boosts and better mental health of employees while also saving gas

and we're just. Willingly going back to how everything was before. We were shown how to do things better and the people in charge said "that's nice but we just want to get everything 'back to normal' :)"

[roach-works]

we’re not willingly going back to how everything was before. we are being forced back into it by members of the ruling class who found out that making things better for almost everyone else made them feel bad.

[silly-jellyghoty]

Let's not forget about any of these things. Let's reblog and schedule this post to pop in in the future to remind us of what we may have forgotten a little.

[cwicseolfor]

Do not forget.

[robotlyra]

My primary takeaway from COVID was "The first thing people did when they had free time from work was they started demanding a better world. The next time this happens the executive ruling class will literally let everyone in the labor class die before they let them have 3 months free time ever again, because they cannot allow that better world to come to be."

[naughtynanzhu]

Alex was recording, which was well within his right, and was shielding other people from pepper spray. He was trying to help. You'll hear people blame him for having a gun, which he had a permit to carry and the only time it was out of the holster was when ICE took it before shooting him. You'll see people claim he shot at officers, but that is a blatant lie.

[elodieunderglass]

Links with evidence from multiple angles: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/s/V3pLxKfc6m

Reddit - The heart of the internet

[terrie01]

As someone living in Minnesota, if you think both sides are the same, and Trump is only doing openly what Obama did quietly, I will simply say I don't remember minority-owned businesses having to keep their doors locked during the day to stop ICE from coming in and taking everyone.

[jarmes]

The thing I hate most about the online left is that adamant refusal to believe in nuance or proportionality. If two things are bad, then they are equally bad. If things get worse, we’ll then that’s meaningless because it was always bad. And so often, this manifests in lecturing minorities about why they shouldn’t be afraid about the armed Gestapo kidnapping their loved ones because “um actually things were also bad in the past so you’re a fascist for being upset they got worse”

Nuance is not the enemy. People are allowed to be afraid

[prof-grace-aspen]

"Republicans don't have consistent morals"

Yes they do. It's just that their morals are rooted in "protect the people and things closest to me at all costs". Their values are extreme tribalism. They also believe those outside the group are constantly threatening the safety and prosperity of the in-group.

This is why so much of what they do seems contradictory and hypocritical. Yes, they want prosperity for those they consider "like them", but they are also willing to do things that harm themselves if it harms the "enemy" more. And, they blame the enemy for that harm, not themselves.

It's literally "this is why we can't have nice things". It's your fault.

A conservative may think, "welfare might be nice, and it's true all my neighbors depend on it, but those welfare queens are stealing it, so we can't have it. Public pools might be nice, and they provide a safe place for my children to play, but people I consider unclean might use them, so we can't have them."

This is how a conservative woman can justify an abortion for herself, but not for others, even though anti-abortion laws make it harder for her to get that abortion in the first place.

What needs to be done will morph and change, external influences will change what they think are important values for the inside group to have to some degree, but at the core it's always about protecting their own.

[im-not-shouting-im-projecting]

When I was in highschool, I had a conversation that truly made me understand how conservatives think on a fundamental level. I was discussing with a conservative family friend an essay I was writing that was arguing for the decriminalization of sex work and I spent a while laying out my various arguments and why this issue was important and at the end she said to me "okay, but I don't want my daughter to think that is an acceptable thing to do".

I (being a teenager) was confused by this because this issue is so much larger than just her daughter. So I tried again to explain how many people are harmed by sex work criminalization and how decriminalization would decrease sex trafficking and she repeated again, with a smile on her face: "I don't want my daughter to do that and decriminalization would signal that that is an acceptable thing for her to do".

I was struck with a moment of realization that the way I see the world is the exact opposite of this woman. She fundamentally saw the world as centered on her and her loved ones as individuals, and was completely unconcerned with how it would affect society on a larger level. To her, the material harm that was caused to thousands of people is completely inconsequential when compared to the imagined possibility of it signaling something to her family that she personally disagrees with. That is, at it's core the conservative mindset.