• Obi@sopuli.xyz
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      34 minutes ago

      I think it’s just used as a striking visual example of these things we all learned in school which we have used 0 times in real life.

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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      20 minutes ago

      I struggled like hell with a lot of geometry. Algebra, trig, etc. was no problem at all for me. I suspect it has something to do with me not being a visual learner/thinker (and I have aphantasia), but I don’t know.

  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    In my experience it’s also a fear of their child learning that sex can be just for pleasure as well as something more utilitarian and ‘responsible’ like making babies. My experience is predominantly with religious people though. Other bigots may vary.

    Religious people (esp conservative Christians) have worked themselves into a mental knot where they’re trying to deny their own instincts and curiosity. Be that the porn they feel guilty over or whether they’re actually sexually compatible with their partner they married quite quickly some 30 years ago. So sex can’t primarily be for pleasure (because this denial helps them protect themselves from their own shame). It’s has to be part of god’s purpose, it has to be part of physically making the next generation.

    Gay couples upend this delusion. To put compatibility and attraction and relationship above the ‘duty’ of having a pregnancy? Gay couples show that’s perfectly fine. And sex is fun and beautiful.

    When your go-to is to scare your curious kids about sex (the sex you as a joyless 30-40 something can’t have), then “getting someone pregnant” is the ever useful bogeyman. But gay couples are immune to this.

    I think it’s why conservative religious people end up hating with such vitriol. They hate gayness. Probably are disgusted on some learned level. But also hate it because they want it. They want sexual freedom. Sexual curiosity. Joy without duty. Their mind and body are screaming at them “Why not?” But the religious mind refuses to acknowledge the emperor has no clothes (ha). If they do their whole world (and marriage and social standing) comes crashing down.

    So perish the thought their kids discover safe consensual sex is fun. That undoes everything.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      This is a really great insight but I think there’s even more depth here. Highly religious Christians can be in a very happy and loving relationship (having a lot of sex and producing a large family) and still have these views about gay and lesbian couples.

      I think what it ultimately comes down to is that religion is the foundation of their life. All of their friends and family are religious. They all participate by going to regular Sunday services at church and also attending church-run social events too. Their whole life is wrapped up in religion and all of their shared beliefs are a packaged deal (picking and choosing is not acceptable).

      So when their religion tells them an alternative lifestyle is wrong (and we’re not just talking gay couples here, but also having sex outside of marriage) they have to accept that belief even if they feel differently. Why? Because challenging that belief means rejecting all of their friends and family, their church community, and walking off into the unknown, completely alone. For many people this is impossible! And even people who do manage it have a very difficult road ahead of them, and many don’t make it. I recall a local window and door maker who took his own life years after having walked away from his church and community.

      I, personally, grew up in a religious Catholic family. We went to church every Sunday and afterwards to my grandparents’ house for brunch (they lived right beside the church). We all loved my grandmother dearly; she put so much effort into creating this beautiful spread on her big dining room table. We celebrated many Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter dinners together as well!

      Everything began to change when my grandparents left and moved to a retirement home. Since then they passed away and we as a family see each other less and less. I personally am no longer religious and I know the same is true for many of my cousins. I consider myself lucky that this process happened to all of us at once. But I still miss the closeness and celebrations we shared as a family back then. I wouldn’t wish this profound loss on anyone.

      • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Yes this is all true too. I’ve seen it all first hand, including the power (and wholesomeness) of deep family bonds built around church. Even more so when it’s a whole community where you feel like you become family. I think religious groups are one of the few social structures that actually recreate the homogeneous “clans” that our evolved bodies and minds crave, because for so much history they meant safety and flourishing.

        Going against the group is a kind of ‘suicide’. Not just socially but as a learned instinct of a very real consequence - just like you said. Going against your clan almost certainly means being isolated and cut off and on a deep level we’re terrified of that.

    • Clent@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Definitely. Teaching children to feel disgust for things that don’t affect you or them is really hard. Somehow racists have this down to an art. Maybe it’s all the literature.

      Hating The Gays is mostly backed by The Bible which is a such a horrible piece of literature, that getting even a basic grasp on its concepts requires weekly discussions lead by someone who devotes their life to its study and even some of them haven’t read the whole thing.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        My parents taught me that if I didn’t want to see something that someone was doing I need to look elsewhere. It ain’t my business.

        They’re both religious, but they have talked shit about the bigotry in their church for as long as I can remember. They never understood why I abandoned religion. However, Mom did eventually tell me “As long as you’re a good person I’m not going to press you on it. At least you didn’t turn out to be a jackass like <name of their assistant pastor who I grew up in church with>.”

        I wish more people viewed their religion like that instead of viewing it like that jackass.

      • Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I have long been of the opinion that after the printing press came into vogue the Bible was intentionally made illegible.

        It’s written so fucking poorly it has to be intentional, you literally couldn’t fuck it up that badly on accident.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          It’s not that it was written poorly, so much as it was written in and for a Bronze Age culture that no longer exists.

          The modern audience isn’t reading it with the cultural context in which was written, and without that context it’s as you say, awful.

          A lot of the imagery is just allegory- especially in the prophetic bits. The vast majority of human history was written in a time where saying “[that asshole ruler] is an asshole” wouldn’t get you killed, or saying “[that jackass of a priest] is batshit crazy!” Would get you tortured and then killed.

          So they use allegory and symbolism to say it, and any one who was meant to be the audience would understand that. The book of revelation, for example, was in part about Nero (the antichrist,) (it should be noted revelation was probably written by John of Patmos, on the island of Patmos. Which is famous for always having… how shall we say it… “interesting” mushrooms?)

    • invalid_name@lemm.ee
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah they’re not the best teachers.

      Edit: also, are evil and literally want to kill me, but thats a personal nitpick.

    • leisesprecher@feddit.org
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      3 hours ago

      Absolutely. If you tell kids that these two dudes hold hands because they love each other, their natural response is something like “ok”, and that’s it.

      Unless they’re in the why phase, but honestly I’d be just as uncomfortable explaining them why leaves are shaped like they are.

  • umbraroze@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    When I was a kid I saw Birdo in the Super Mario Bros 2 manual and the bit about how she thinks she’s a girl.

    And I was like “Oh, interesting”.

    When I was a kid, I had no idea how many mysteries would this universe hold. A new one? Guess I learned something new that day.

  • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    To be fair, geometry is way easier than understanding your weird human emotions, like this “love” you speak of.

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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    3 hours ago

    Most people saying stuff like that probably dont even know what geometry is so this argument kinda breaks down /s

  • socsa@piefed.social
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    2 hours ago

    Yeah when I was in high school I honestly didn’t understand how to shove anything down my throat.

  • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Everyone be worked up at the wrong organized religion. The Cult of Pythagoras is the real sleeper threat.