@bi4smooth said in What is to become of our young generation?:

My ISP does so every few weeks if I leave my connection to the VPN server up too long. My solution is that I change my VPN server every weekend. I haven't been throttled (other than when I forget to swap servers) in almost 2 years now.

If you don't use a VPN (and you should... you REALLY should!), change the ports you're using in your torrent client. (This isn't necessary if you're using/changing VPN servers - your ISP won't have visibility to your port.)

Very OT for this thread, but do you ever lose credit for seeding after you change your VPN server and thus IP? I use a VPN all the time as well (would be terrified of my ISP seeing lots of torrent traffic!) but I've occasionally seeded something and then found the uploaded data seemingly wasn't 'seen' by the Rationator.

@flozen said in Florida to Enact "Don't Say Gay" Bill:

@2127493739 said in Florida to Enact "Don't Say Gay" Bill:

Yes, children really need much more than that.

The age of puberty has been edging downward for generations. My friend's son, 13, got a girl, 14, pregnant and she carried the child to term. A far from unique story these days. They have entire TV shows on trash channels where the teen parents are thismuch older than the example above.

Your narrative begins on-topic with gender identity, but soon swerves off into a lot of mentions about consent, and a nod toward safety. Is that safe sex?

And as we've traveled far from the focus on sexual orientation, when is detailed info on contraception? Once you left the original, narrow topic and begin adding more (but far from all) aspects of sexuality, you ended up in the weeds.

As a last note, on your age scale, I would say that everything from 13 up needs to be broadened and moved earlier by about 2 to 3 years. "A little more" of whatever by age 16 is hopelessly late in today's society -- they need to be fully educated before then.

Goodness I do feel old-fashioned hearing that! However, I'm not entirely persuaded that more sex education is the answer to the hyper-sexualised world you describe young people living in today. Perhaps as adults we might try to equip children with the moral character to ignore that part of the culture and focus on the things by which they will flourish. Hard as that is, it might well be worth it.

@NF16 I think you have a point, although it's worth pointing out that the partisanship goes both ways. The left sees early teaching about sexuality / gender as an opportunity to advance leftwing narratives just as much as the right sees restricting such teachings as politically advantageous.

But it was a genuine question: If we were designing an education system, what would we put in it about sexual orientation, if anything? My age-based proposal was just a starting point.

Maybe there's a way to bypass the partisanship on this issue by asking a simple question? What, and at what age, should we tell children about sexual orientation?

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the following:

6 and below: Nothing. They really have no need to know. We have no right to burden young children with this.

7 - 10: Maybe mention, briefly and without undue emphasis, that a couple who are romantically in love, could be two men or two women as much as it could be opposite sexes, and that that's perfectly fine.

11: Basic education about reproduction, plus mentioning that sex can be for mutual pleasure as well, and same-sex sex is perfectly fine too. Mention age of consent prominently and counsel that the information being taught is just for information at this point.

13 or 14: Somewhat more detailed information with emphasis on safety, consent, and taking one's time and not feeling pressured. Again mention age of consent prominently.

16: A little more of the above, again with a focus on safety, consent, mutual respect, and counseling that there is no need to be promiscuous and it's fine to explore slowly or not at all.

Do children really need much more than that?