Back when this recent extreme push for gun bans began I couldn't help but notice how similar the methods being used mirrored those of the anti-abortion crowds. The constant demands for "reasonableness", the trotting out of "murdered children", the constant declarations that the opposition is "standing in the blood of children", etc. All wrapped in a demand for complete and total ban, and to hell with any who might disagree or seek an equitable compromise that would retain at least some necessary medical procedures.
Then came the demonizing of a group whose original purpose is not what was being declared. The National tone was changed from women's healthcare and disease prevention to "OMG They do abortions with taxpayer money all the time, every time".
Now we see that with guns and the NRA. The goal of the left has become a complete ban, regardless of Rights or actual need, and to hell with anyone that sought compromise to allow Citizens their Right to bear arms. Then the demonization of the NRA and calls for the organization to be disbanded, how they "buy off politicians" and "OMG they murdered children all the time, every time". It's like the left found the playbook of the anti-abortion crowd and turned their tools against them.
Lately I can't help but see another similarity in methods. That of the anti-gunners using the playbook for the religious fundamentalists who want their religion pushed in schools. They seek to influence the minds of our youth, in what is essentially a captive environment, and assisted by those youth's own peers who will provide the 'punishment' when someone seeks to think for themselves.
"Oh, they can just not stand for the Pledge" or "they can just not recite the Pledge" or "they don't have to pray when everyone else does", all of which can cause ostracization of a student by their friends and fellow students, and which has been painfully shown to result in a student snapping and causing violence.
Now the Left, who successfully argued against religion in schools for decades, seems to have forgotten their cardinal rule: "no one viewpoint can be presented without contradicting viewpoints or it is an unConstitutional infringement on their freedom" and "if it can't be tested by science, then it doesn't belong in a classroom". While both of these arguments were used to remove religion, one of the two most divisive subjects in modern society, they can easily be used to keep politics out of our schools. Politics is arguably the second-most divisive belief system in society today.
In both instances, religion and politics, one side seeks an unfair advantage over the other, or others, by essentially brainwashing the "enemy's" children before they can mature and develop their own beliefs. This can be countered, at least in a small way, by parents taking an active role in the upbringing of their children. Countering those viewpoints that they feel are not correct, or at least providing an alternative belief and letting their children decide.
But, make no mistake, anyone who thinks peer pressure is not real, or that it has a minimal effect, has NEVER survived the emotional and cognitive conflicts that we call the School System.
Keep religion AND politics out of schools. Teach facts, and facts only! None of the biased 'spin' like you see the entertainment news channels spewing forth. Twisting facts to suit their agendas.
"Those who disagreed with their peers' speeches would be made to feel out of place."
"It really bothers me that having certain political views that are held by a large percentage of Americans makes her fearful how others will react if they knew she had been uncomfortable with Wednesday’s events."
"What would her friends think and what might they infer about her political views?"
These are all sure signs that brainwashing is taking place. These are the same kinds of arguments being used about the phrase "Under God" which was placed in the Pledge fairly recently in our history, and was placed there specifically to push one kind of religion over any other. Or, in this instance, over "the Godless heathens".
These schools should be severely reprimanded. Schools where students were forced to attend, through threats of lower grades, or even because of peer pressure, school administrators should be removed from their duties as they have become a danger to the free thinking of our children, and are interfering with their natural maturation process.
The RF's, and lots of other not so rigorously religious individuals take a rather dim view of murdering children in utero,
which is consistent with their belief that murdering people post partum is a bit abhorrent also.
So you're one of those who believe that America is a Christian Nation? It's not. While they were deists, our Fore Fathers absolutely did not want religion in our politics, and just as absolutely did not want politics in religion. The constant attempts to codify one religion's rules into our Laws is a significant part of the problem.which let to the inspired formulation of
And yet, it could just as easily be argued that the RFs are exactly the same. Their sole intent appears to be to absorb or destroy any person, organization, creed, or belief that is in opposition to their religion.whose sole intent is to destroy any person, organization, institution, creed, or belief in anything that opposes their quest for power
never confuse tactics with motives and intent.