I am by no means minimizing the horrors of lynching, just pointing out that both slavery and lynching were actively opposed by large segments of society...not encouraged and celebrated as a Good Thing, as is pediatric genital mutilation.
By the way: few captured runaway slaves would be lynched. They were valuable property and usually were hunted down for a reward.
Naw. Some days this is as good as I get, I swear :-)
To this point, though, pediatric mutilation is not universally celebrated. It's actively opposed by large segments of society, not just by conservatives, but by liberals like myself. Given the evidence I've seen so far, I would ban surgical reassignments and puberty blockers for anyone under 18. Adults can decide for themselves to go under the knife; children aren't mature enough to understand the finality of those decisions.
I see only a small---though noisy---segment of society celebrating reassignment surgery and puberty blockers as a Good Thing. Fortunately.
I do understand that captured runaways would mostly not be lynched, though a few were by racist mobs. Mostly they'd be whipped and starved half to death after return by slave catchers. But you do understand my point--lynched black people are dead and cannot be changed back from that particular "reassignment," so I'd argue that chattel slavery and lynching are indeed worse horrors than gender reassignment surgery.
Though we have an easy way out of that terrible comparison--block reassignment surgery and drugs for anyone under 18.
I do hear your points, Shane, and mostly agree, though I'm inclined to push the age of consent for "gender reassignment surgery" (not the term I would use) to age 25. Scientists seem to think that is only about then that the brain is fully developed and thus capable of making an "adult"decision on such a momentous question, i.e., "what gender am I?"
Again, not minimizing the horrors of lynching, and your point re: the fact that it results in death does carry a lot of weight. But as I noted in another comment, to me, there are multiople levels of evil in the world, and to me the one marked "crimes against chidlren" is the worst. At least the suffering of the poor lynched slave ended quickly. The gender mutilated child may be facing decades of pain and suffering. We shall see how this plays out in time, I suppose.
Sorry for the "you're better than that" jibe. It's an old Obama favorite line that has long bugged me. But it's snide, and I'm going to stop using it.
No worries on "you're better than that." I was a too clever by half with my reply to you, for which I apologize, and I appreciate your graciousness here.
We agree completely that crimes against children are among the most repellent. Kids cannot consent to anything and they can't generally fight back against bigger and stronger targets. Adults who target children should slide themselves into vats of boiling sewage and spare us their pathologies. Crimes against the defenseless--whether slaves or children--are the mark of cowards and should be fought by normal people at every turn.
P.S. I only pick age 18 because that's the legal age of adulthood in America. Agreed that age 25 might be more ideal for most consents, but it will never happen. I'd settle for a ban on such surgeries and potions until legal adulthood.
The runaway slave dangling from the lynching tree would question your assertion of which evil is greater. But he can't because he's, well, dead.
We should’ve picked our own damn cotton
We surely should have, yes. Or offered the job to everyone, including black people, for pay, just like any other "career" back then.
But that would cost plantation owners money . . .
I am by no means minimizing the horrors of lynching, just pointing out that both slavery and lynching were actively opposed by large segments of society...not encouraged and celebrated as a Good Thing, as is pediatric genital mutilation.
By the way: few captured runaway slaves would be lynched. They were valuable property and usually were hunted down for a reward.
C'mon Shane, you're better then that!
Your history is skewed.
"Your history is skewed."
Steve, if you really understood the practice of history, you would know that it is always "skewed," in one way or another.
"C'mon Shane, you're better then that!"
Naw. Some days this is as good as I get, I swear :-)
To this point, though, pediatric mutilation is not universally celebrated. It's actively opposed by large segments of society, not just by conservatives, but by liberals like myself. Given the evidence I've seen so far, I would ban surgical reassignments and puberty blockers for anyone under 18. Adults can decide for themselves to go under the knife; children aren't mature enough to understand the finality of those decisions.
I see only a small---though noisy---segment of society celebrating reassignment surgery and puberty blockers as a Good Thing. Fortunately.
I do understand that captured runaways would mostly not be lynched, though a few were by racist mobs. Mostly they'd be whipped and starved half to death after return by slave catchers. But you do understand my point--lynched black people are dead and cannot be changed back from that particular "reassignment," so I'd argue that chattel slavery and lynching are indeed worse horrors than gender reassignment surgery.
Though we have an easy way out of that terrible comparison--block reassignment surgery and drugs for anyone under 18.
I do hear your points, Shane, and mostly agree, though I'm inclined to push the age of consent for "gender reassignment surgery" (not the term I would use) to age 25. Scientists seem to think that is only about then that the brain is fully developed and thus capable of making an "adult"decision on such a momentous question, i.e., "what gender am I?"
Again, not minimizing the horrors of lynching, and your point re: the fact that it results in death does carry a lot of weight. But as I noted in another comment, to me, there are multiople levels of evil in the world, and to me the one marked "crimes against chidlren" is the worst. At least the suffering of the poor lynched slave ended quickly. The gender mutilated child may be facing decades of pain and suffering. We shall see how this plays out in time, I suppose.
Sorry for the "you're better than that" jibe. It's an old Obama favorite line that has long bugged me. But it's snide, and I'm going to stop using it.
No worries on "you're better than that." I was a too clever by half with my reply to you, for which I apologize, and I appreciate your graciousness here.
We agree completely that crimes against children are among the most repellent. Kids cannot consent to anything and they can't generally fight back against bigger and stronger targets. Adults who target children should slide themselves into vats of boiling sewage and spare us their pathologies. Crimes against the defenseless--whether slaves or children--are the mark of cowards and should be fought by normal people at every turn.
Have a good weekend, Pacificus!
P.S. I only pick age 18 because that's the legal age of adulthood in America. Agreed that age 25 might be more ideal for most consents, but it will never happen. I'd settle for a ban on such surgeries and potions until legal adulthood.