If you start thinking about the ways Candice Owens and Oprah are similar you will at first be mad at me for bringing this up (how dare) however there is more there than I think we might like.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@lienrag

I listen to what teens talk about. They see the wars we have started, they see the scandals and how they end. They are paying more attention than you might think.

Teen boy on the train two years ago talking about something that happened at a party. "Like a real G, like Donald m-f-in Trump."

Teens talking about the war on Iran in the lunch room "The US bombs whoever they want. No one can do anything about it."

(I hope the boy doesn't remember saying that it's so embaressing)

[ginevracat@toot.community]

@lienrag
Absolutely true. We tend to recreate our experiences of society, especially under stress. And we only know what we experience. That's part of the whole issue with generational trauma. That's why many school teachers revert to strict discipline and explicit instruction under pressure.

Daring to love each other, to risk the unknown in building a better society is scary. To have faith in human goodness while not being naive about societal realities is a tricky balance.

@futurebird

[phosphenes@mastodon.social]

@davep @futurebird

Relationships are personal, but news is public. So 'relationship news' may always be meaningless by definition, unless I know the people personally.

[bright_helpings@mspsocial.net]

@futurebird She propagated so much anti-fatness too, wrapped up in "well these are just her feelings about herself so they can't be bigoted."

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@petealexharris @catch56 @lienrag

Can we please agree that it is not possible for a teen to be a "prostitute" with an adult customer. Can we all just agree on that?

I don't care if she is 18 and 11 months of age, and looks like she's 28. I don't care if "she initiated everything"

Adult men need to be adults.

[epicdemiologist@wandering.shop]

@futurebird Not just their position in society, but their entire livelihood, including and especially the impact on their retirement income from doing full-time unpaid work, sometimes for decades.

[count_01@mastodon.social]

@futurebird It's basically a sexist divide: stories for men (business,sports scores political events) are news; stories for women (relationships, human triumph and tragedy, who's playing well on Broadway and who's playing behind the curtains) are features. Both sell ad inches, therefore you want them, but more men stop at the news stand on the way to the office job.

[lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net]

@futurebird

18 is age of majority in many countries.
Age of consent is between 14 and 16 in many countries too.
Shouldn't mean that teens are available for exploitation, but the world is a messy place.

@petealexharris @catch56

[epilonious@toot.lgbt]

@futurebird @lienrag

In patriarchy, there are four genders.

Man, woman, child, whore.

"That child isn't a child if that child is a whore" is pretty much the insta scapegoat so necessary for making sure whatever powerful person (usually a man) is either a hero or a victim that it's often encoded into law.

[cass_m@mstdn.ca]

@futurebird @lienrag

I'd say it's a reaction to austerity in government programs while the rich get overtly richer. There clearly is government money there, just not for tax payers. And that's been really obvious ink the last 15 years as people have taken hit after hit.

First there was 2009 - government had money to bail out banks but not forgive the forced debt. Then there was oil collapse (in Canada anyway) in 2015. Then the 2020 pandemic response with supply chain disruptions (ongoing illness, climate change). Now, in the US, the self inflicted tariff.

As soon as people think money is finite they vote in people who will bring in harsher austerity measures because conservatives supposedly manage money better and accept shitty conditions for themselves as long as someone else suffers. Even better if it's a black woman because how could you possibly be discriminatory …