A recent survey that found some Florida teens believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy has prompted lawmakers to push for an overhaul of sex education in the state.
The survey showed that Florida teens also believe that smoking marijuana will prevent a person from getting pregnant.
State lawmakers said the myths are spreading because of Florida's abstinence-only sex education, Local 6 reported.
It's worth repeating that there's a strain of conservatives-- call them "pro-STD conservatives" or "Christians for the Clap"-- who are not at all bothered by the evidence that abstinence-only sex ed engenders ignorance, proto-folksy magic rituals, and increased incidences of STDs, nor will they be sad when some of these kids inevitably contract something, because abstinence-only sex ed is not about saving kids from the STDs or pregnancy or AIDS: it's about using fear to keep kids from sinning.
Think about it: if these conservatives were really out for fewer STDs and teen pregnancies, then they’d be on board with comprehensive sex ed, seeing as pretty much every study shows that it’s effective at lowering the frequency of said conditions, while abstinence-only is not. They would similarly be on board with mandating HPV vaccinations, which would save countless lives of women who will otherwise die from cervical cancer.
They’re not on board, though, and appeals to the efficacy for both programs (comprehensive sex ed and HPV vaccinations) fall on deaf ears because that’s not really the objective of the Right's moralistic sociopaths. The objective is to make kids stop having sex, and safer sexual practices and medical breakthroughs are actually an impediment to that objective because it makes sex less dangerous. Furthermore, STDs separate the wheat from the chaff because those who contract STDs “deserve it” for engaging in wicked acts.
The difference between social liberals and social conservatives is that liberals see abstinence as a way to keep kids from contracting deadly diseases, and conservatives see deadly diseases as a way to keep kids abstinent.
5 comments:
Your argument is both logical and nuanced. Which is exactly why it will never resonate on a national level, unfortunately. Still, good work. I've never seen it so clearly articulated before.
I love this show, this clip is kind of on the same lines as the post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V82I7vgzfgE&feature=related
That was from the first episode, right?
I bought all the seasons in Iraq this last time but I'm not sure. I guess I'll have to watch them all over again and find out, shame :) Anyway, while we are in this vein how about this one? El Ranchero and I have had a conversation about this topic and I think it is covered beautifully here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zhNiGlogQ&feature=related
I'm pretty sure that (the first clip) Jeb Bartlett's grand entrance into the series. I like this clip, too, and I wish someone would do this in real life. And I wish we had a president that I could at least believe is capable of this kind of rhetorical demolition.
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