Society's ChildS


2 + 2 = 4

"Mugged by reality": How sex education promotes immorality

couple hugging
One of the oddest aspects of the sexual revolution is its tendency to present the problem as the solution. For instance, during the 1980s, the least acceptable response to the AIDS crisis was the promotion of abstinence. Promiscuity was held to be normative, opponents of it were decried as idiotic and prudish, and any acceptable solution had to be built on these foundational truths.

Thirty years on, the failed pattern continues. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that researchers are calling for sex education to reflect the increasing range of sexual activity in which young people are engaged. The change in sexual habits is presented not as a problem, but as a reality to be accommodated. This makes perfect sense, given the divorce of sexual activity from any kind of moral framework or personal narrative. As sex is essentially amoral (except when consent is absent-and then it is only the violation of consent, not the sex, that is immoral), so the education that surrounds it is amoral, too.

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Red Flag

U.S. military deaths in war zones are up for first time in six years

US troops Afghanistan
© Getty ImagesThe U.S. now has roughly 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.
More U.S. troops have died in war zones this year than in 2016 - the first time in six years that the number of service members killed overseas has increased over the previous year - and some blame President Donald Trump's decision to increase American military presence in multiple theaters.

In total, 31 service members have died in action overseas so far this year, up from 26 in all of 2016, according to government data. This does not include the 17 sailors who died in sea accidents this year, Military Times reports.

Comment: One wonders if they're still keeping track of soldier suicides:


Laptop

Algorithmic cartoons turning young brains to mush on YouTube

Algorithmic cartoons signal fresh horrors for human culture.

Superheroes BURIED ALIVE
© YouTubeFrom “Superheroes BURIED ALIVE Outdoor Playground Finger Family Song NurseryRhyme Education Learning Video”
As the eminent philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre recently said in a lecture given at the University of Notre Dame, "The mind is mindless without the imagination." And even though his subject was the grammar of morality, his pithy line prompts us to picture a "mindless mind" completely devoid of imagination. Something the exact opposite of ourselves: an anti-mind as alien in its amorality as it is dizzying in its irrationality. A sort of embodied void. And if with our human brains, constructed as they are to find rhythms and project patterns onto the random, and with our human souls, attuned to resonate with transcendent order, we're unable to envision what an imagination-less non-mind would truly be, we can simply turn to YouTube.

Stories about the horrors of YouTube's algorithm-generated childrens videos are beginning to make the rounds, and they're just as frightening as everyone contends. On his blog earlier this month, TAC's Rod Dreher described these videos as "science fiction nightmare come true." Writer and artist James Bridle wrote about them in a long introductory piece on Medium saying, "Someone or something or some combination of people and things is using YouTube to systematically frighten, traumatise, and abuse children, automatically and at scale, and it forces me to question my own beliefs about the internet, at every level."

USA

US military again bans alcohol after fatal Okinawa drink-drive crash (Update)

Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa
© ReutersMarine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa
All members of the US military based in Okinawa have been restricted to their base and residences and banned from drinking alcohol, the US 7th Fleet has announced. It comes after a drunk marine reportedly caused a fatal crash over the weekend.

"The new restrictions follow an accident Sunday morning in Naha. . . . Alcohol may have been a factor," the US 7th Fleet said. "When our service members fail to live up to the high standards we set for them, it damages the bonds between bases and local communities and makes it harder for us to accomplish our mission," it continued, adding that the new rules are "effective immediately."

The announcement comes after Pfc. Nicholas James McLean, 21, was found with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit after his 2-ton military truck collided with a small truck in Naha, the main city of Okinawa, at around 5:25am on Sunday.

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(Update Nov 22): Vehicles and apartment buildings affiliated with the US military have been vandalized in Okinawa following the car crash:
The cars had the blue-colored English letter 'Y' painted on them by unidentified perpetrators, the paper said. The marking may be explained by the fact that 'Y' is usually added to the license plates of vehicles owned by those who are covered by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which provides a legal framework to the vast US military presence in Japan.
'Y' and 'two-leaf clover' symbol painted on vehicles. Police say they are unsure of meaning https://t.co/a142i65mMN - Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) November 21, 2017
Footage from Japanese broadcaster NHK also showed an apartment block hosting US military personnel in Okinawa vandalized in a similar manner. The building had a 'Y' and an image of a two-leaf clover painted on it, the police said, adding that they were unaware of the meaning of the latter symbol. The police told Stars and Stripes that they were investigating the incident, but declined to comment if US personnel had been targeted.



Bizarro Earth

Intersectional politics continue: Do not refer to female pupils as 'girls' or 'ladies' because it 'reminds them of their gender', headteachers told

school girls
© Ian West/PATeachers should instead use gender-neutral terms such as 'pupils', 'students' or 'people', the Girls’ School Association’s annual conference was told
Teachers should not refer to pupils as "girls" or "ladies" because it means they are "constantly reminded of their gender", the Government's former mental health tsar has said.

Natasha Devon told headteachers of the country's leading girls' schools that they should be using gender-neutral language when they address their students, and added that the same applied for boys.

Speaking at the Girls' School Association's annual conference in Manchester, she said that she would "never walk into a room in an-all girls' school and say girls or ladies" because it was "patronising".

She added: "I don't think it is useful to be constantly reminded of your gender all the time and all the stereotypes that go with it." Ms Devon said that rather than addressing children as "boys" or "girls", teachers should use gender-neutral terms such as "pupils", "students" or "people".

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People

Global Decay: 26-nation survey reveals a very nervous world

US flag world burning
© New Eastern Outlook
The planet is nervous these days, according to a massive new survey titled "What Worries the World," conducted among 21,044 citizens in 26 nations by IPSOS Public Affairs. In a majority of these nations - 19 of them, including the U.S. and its European allies - people say their own country is "on the wrong track." Only seven of the nations had a positive assessment.

"China, India and Saudi Arabia remain as the top three countries most positive about their nation's direction of travel. 92 percent in China think their country is going in the right direction, along with 74 percent in India and 72 percent in Saudi Arabia," the poll analysis said. "At the other end of the spectrum - South Africa is the most anxious. Only 8 percent think their country is going in the right direction, followed by 15 percent in Italy and 16 percent in Brazil."

Among Americans, 59 percent say the U.S. is on the wrong track, with strikingly similar negative findings from respondents in Australia, Poland, Sweden, Israel, Japan and Germany. Things are even more dire in Spain, where three-quarters say things are out of kilter, along with Mexico (73 percent), Britain (72 percent) and France (71 percent).

Heart - Black

Young Afghan refugees 'thank' Germans for their hospitality by destroying free housing

Afghan immigrants destroy free housing
© Wochenblatt (Pr)
Four young Afghans were unhappy with their free housing in the German village of Falkenfels.

The guests from Afghanistan decided to destroy their accommodation with chains and wood laths. They fled when the police arrived and during their attempt they destroyed the windshield of a police car as well.

Inhabitants of the village said they didn't feel safe anymore and a crisis summit was organised to find a solution for the civil unrest.

Megaphone

Syrian war has orphaned a million children - UN

Syrian orphan
As many as a million children have been orphaned by the war in Syria which is in its sixth year.

The UN has warned against the dangers facing children without parents such as lack of education, trafficking and being indoctrinated by armed groups.

Many children are living in orphanages being run by local charities both inside Syria and abroad.

Comment: Keep in mind that all this is thanks in part to Al Jazeera, who championed the terrorists as 'opposition fighters'. Al Jazeera was once admired for challenging the predictable narratives of mainstream corporate media. From Al Jazeera's stunning fall from grace: How a news outlet got ponerized and turned into a tool of Qatar's regional ambitions:
However, in the last few years, the basis for the network's supposedly unbiased reputation has melted away.

Beginning in 2008 and culminating in 2011-2012, Al Jazeera began seeing mass resignations, with many of its journalists citing loss of editorial control and subservience to Qatari political interests as their main reason for leaving.

But many Western readers continue to remain unaware of the dramatic shift that took place at the network less than five years ago, still trusting the network to deliver unbiased reporting, despite documented and often drastic instances of bias and factual inaccuracy. As Narwani noted, "Western AJ viewers may not have noticed this shift in bias, but it was glaringly obvious to those watching events unfold from inside the region."

Nowhere has this bias been more evident than in Al Jazeera's coverage of the six-year-long conflict in Syria, a conflict in which the Qatari government has a definite stake. Not surprisingly, Al Jazeera has worked to normalize extremist elements in the Syrian opposition, particularly regarding those groups that have been confirmed to have received funding from Qatar - groups that include the terror group Daesh. Al Jazeera's reputation has allowed these instances of bias to largely go undetected by Western viewers, a trend exacerbated by the viral success of Al Jazeera's newest addition: the online news and video service AJ+.
Notice the number of times in the above report it's cited that it was pro-Syrian government forces that were responsible for the tragedies covered. One needs to be wary when viewing anything from this network. See also:


Network

Kim Dotcom to build alternative internet 'By the people, for the people

Kim Dotcom
© Kim Dotcom / Reuters
Kim Dotcom, wanted in the US for alleged widespread illegal file sharing, has vowed to build an alternative internet to combat privacy and freedom problems online.

The knowledge that government agencies have used the internet to spy on citizens, along with high-profile hacking scandals, has brought online privacy to the forefront of people's minds.

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2 + 2 = 4

The creep of critical theory at Wilfrid Laurier

Wilfrid Laurier University

The social justice movement is known for routinely staging demonstrations, shouting down (and shutting down) speakers, and issuing demands. More significantly, however, its ideas and terminology have become part of the fabric of university culture. As psychologist Jonathan Haidt said in an interview earlier this year:
This is all so new. There's been, I believe, a kind of a moral revolution, a new moral culture emerging on campus but it really is only in the last two years. If any of your viewers graduated from college in 2013, they probably haven't seen it. ... [I]t's organized around victims of oppression, it's a vertical metaphor of privileged and oppressor people, and victims. This idea that everything is power.

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