The language we use reflects but also shapes the way we think.
In the 1980s "young adult" was just another term for "teenager"
today everyone says, and believes that young adulthood starts AFTER you stop being a teenager.
In the minds of the American public teens stopped being young adults and started being old children.
It is much easier to justify the infantilization of, or putting legal restrictions on 16 year old children than on 16 year old adults.
Word matter.
#SPR860
I had another typical YouTube experience.
Clicked on a title containing an interesting topic. The title ends with "Here's Why" (which is of course a lie. YouTubers don't know. They don't tell you why, and if they did, they'd be wrong.)
I see an attractive extrovert who loves the sound of her own voice. She's not very bright. She reads a few lies from some magazine articles.
She repeats some long ago debunked garbage about testosterone.
She repeats some of the trite old observations like "I find it so interesting that when the woman is older, she's a cougar and that's like cool, but if the man is older then he's seen as creepy" Wow. Fucking Einstein here.
The comments surprised me tho'
Under a vid about young people not having sex, everyone, tons of people were writing their age, sexual history, and why they are or are not having sex.
To me this is totally bizarre. Why the fuck would anyone care? and WTF would motivate you to post that on the internet?
I guess some part of my brain is missing. The part that makes you want to type out your sex life for the world to see in the YouTube comment section.
Peeps screaming about "normalizing pedophilia" are only trying to defend their right to openly and vocally hate pedos.
There is zero concern for children there.
(Dr Cantor says it a bit more diplomatically)
#SPR860
eww, ick, yuck, creepy, gross, disgusting
are the emotional reactions of a 5 year old who hates broccoli
they are not cogent arguments for or against anything.
#SPR860
the definition of child is prepubescent human
just like a puppy is a prepubescent dog
and a kitten is a prepubescent cat
this is not difficult
#SPR860
"Sex involves risk of pregnancy" is a good argument for thorough sex education and free contraception.
It it not an argument for Abstinence Only Enforced By Cops and the Mass Incarceration System.
#SPR860
Some video game players showed addictive behavior. So the general public, as always, thinks A causes B. Therefore video games are addictive, right? Wrong. Scientists know that correlation is not causation.
They looked into it, and found the players who were addicted to the games were also addicted to other stuff. They had addictive personalities. The games were a symptom, not a cause.
Why bring this up? The Utah research you cited, showing that virgins tend to stay married more does not show causation. In fact it's exactly like the video game players. A minority have a propensity to X which manifests in multiple ways.
That is to say, the personality traits that lead one to stay a virgin also lead one to refuse to divorce. Those who prefer blind obedience. Virginity is not causing good marriages. Fear of being disobedient makes these people do whatever their church says.
because there is no causal link, there is nothing to be gained by encouraging others to stay virgins. they won't. and if you try to force them, they'll be super unhappy they don't have the "I love blind obedience" trait.
#SPR860
The Neo-Puritans are trying to impose their sex-phobic bullshit on our society.
Stop them.
#SPR860
Teenagers consent to sex all over the world every single day.
Sometimes the law recognizes their legal right to do so, sometimes not, but the law doesn't create reality, nor does it stop them from consenting.
. #SPR860
For Nostr to get anywhere it has to divorce BitCoin
Americans repeated the phrase "sex and violence" so many times that they started to believe on a subconscious level that sex *is* violence.
It's a pretty sick way of looking at the world. But it explains a lot.
#SPR860
Americans repeated the phrase "sex and violence" so many times that they started to believe on a subconscious level that sex *is* violence.
It's a pretty sick way of looking at the world. But it explains a lot.
#SPR860
Dating DiCaprio or Fighting the Taliban
Journalists wildly exaggerate how much neurology knows about brains.
but assuming that a good prefrontal cortex is helpful for good decision making,
a soldier occupying a country w/ a hostile population where he doesn't speak the language, has a desperate need for one.
If the "prefrontal cortex" myth is true, how on earth did we send 18 year olds to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam?
There is no job in the world that requires more rational thinking than making life or death decisions effecting civilians, all your buddies, and yourself.
but no world government has ever said that in combat they'll only have men over 25 years of age.
Never.
Not once in thousands of years of this obvious problem, has anyone noticed the problem, written about it, or tried to fix it.
(hint: it's bullshit)
but when it comes to sex,
women under 25 who decide to date a rich, famous, good-looking movie star
are immediately diagnosed with the young stupid prefrontal cortex syndrome.
Having romantic relationships
is so much harder than living in a war zone
and being sent into combat every day and trying not to kill civilians, or get killed, or let your comrades get killed...
Gotta have full brain development before you kiss a hot guy. I mean OMG.
#SPR860
Teen pregnancy correlates with poverty. Having a significantly older boyfriend does too. It's actually logical and reasonable. We need to eliminate poverty.
This is from the excellent Hines & Finkelhor meta study.
#SPR860
I remember that after my father turned 50 he stopped watching Miss America with us. He said he's old and is now only attracted to old women. That's why he and all his friends watch Miss Middle-Aged America after that. The contestants are all 50+
He also gave his entire porn collection to my brother saying "These women with their hot young bodies just don't do it for me anymore, Ralph. I'm old. I can only get a woody by looking at wrinkled old hags"
#SPR860
Putting people in prison for age-gap sex is brand new in world history.
It has never been done before.
Is it really necessary? Doesn't it cause far more harm than good?
The burden of proof is on those promoting incarceration here.
Not the other way round.
#SPR860
American society blames young adults (aka teenagers) for everything.
#SPR860
For centuries bigots been using "their brains are defective" to justify horrendous treatment of women, Africans, etc
They always use pseudo-science to back up their obnoxious claims
Today they use *exactly the same* shit arguments to demean and degrade young adults (aka teens)
#SPR860
Bizarre Puritan ideology has broken the brains of otherwise normal podcasters.
https://kraut.zone/w/55NYNVjMWJGHszQmzQQihT
#SPR860
The revival of Puritanism is making everyone yap about the horrid thought crimes that were committed against them.
"I was 12 when a guy thought I was cute and made eyes at me."
Utterly boring, typical behavior is reframed as sexual abuse. Usually facilitated by some extremely vague but negative sounding word like "sexualized"
#SPR860