notjohnlocke

[notjohnlocke]

this is gonna be an extremely unpopular opinion so bare with me, but i don’t think children should be vaccinated unless they really absolutely want to be and if they grow up into adults who still don’t want to be vaccinated then so be it.

kids are too young to fully grasp what vaccination does to you, and i don’t mean that in a “they’ll make you autistic and die” way. i mean they don’t understand what they’re setting themselves up for in the future. (shots are pretty traumatic for children too, but that’s for another day.) if a child is too young to consent to sex or medical transition if they’re trans, they’re definitely too young to consent to a vax.

i haven’t had any contact with my family for quite some time now, so i have a hard time knowing my medical history, especially with my lack of health insurance and a move to a different country.

because of that, i live with the constant fear that i might have been vaccinated against rabies. my family was extremely poor and had spotty health insurance but its hard to say. but its fucking heartbreaking to know i might never be fully rabid because my parent might have vaccinated me as a child, when i was too young to know, too young to have a say in it.

how many other kids are there, just like me? how many adults have grown up miserable because they’ve been vaccinated against their genetic disposition for a certain disease? its practically eugenics and it makes me fuckin sick to my stomach. there are babies RIGHT NOW getting vaxxed bc “thats what’s healthy for them” and their parents have no idea how much grief they’re causing right now.

so yea, maybe stop vaxxing your kids??

[notjohnlocke]

hey so, as a man who works with other men, here’s a quick relationship tip: if he doesn’t much like cats, that might be just a personal preference. if he hates cats, if he tells you he hates cats as soon as he hears that you have a cat and love your cat, he’s an asshole. he’s telling on himself.  

every guy i’ve ever worked with that makes a point of telling me how much he hates cats as soon as i mention that i have a cat and love my cat, is always someone who is regularly cruel for fun and who laughs in the breakroom about the mean things they do for fun to their girlfriends and children. 

[notjohnlocke]

Roman Verse Satire

Roman verse satire is intentionally offensive, hateful, and targeted at a specific group of people. The satirist would perform his works in front of an audience, one that did not include the person or persons being slandered. In the works of Juvenal, one of the most famous, if not the most famous, Roman satirists he talks poorly about Egyptian people, expressing xenophobic and racist opinions. This kind of style of speech reminds me of modern day internet forums or stereotypical fraternities in movies and TV shows. Internet forums, like groups on Reddit, 4chan, Tumblr, etc, all generally share similarities creating an echo chamber for their sometimes racist beliefs. Since no one of the groups they make fun of or talk bad about are on their forums, it is similar to the satirist speaking to a group of people who don't necessarily fit into the categories being mocked and insulted by the satirist. There are significant differences though. Satire usually makes fun of high brow literature, like epics, by using the same rhyme scheme, and sometimes copying lines but making them dirty. Most of the slander and "comedy" done on these internet sites are grammatically incorrect, poorly written, and not entertaining to read. There is some stand-up comedy that could be compared to roman verse satire, however it is often much less crude and insulting than the works written by satirists like Juvenal. Nowadays there is a lot of censorship and hard work put into making things politically correct and not overly crude, which makes it hard to find anything as wild as roman verse poetry today. However, it is the most similar thing in the ancient world to modern day hateful and offensive speech, so it allows us to explore both compare and contrast the two aspects of our class : hate speech (a modern term) and ancient politics.

[notjohnlocke]

Hate Speech, Censorship, and College Campuses

In my Hate Speech and Politics in the Ancient World class, we have been talking about censorship and hate speech, specifically on college campuses, because it’s the most relevant to us as we are college students. After reading the essays and chapters that were assigned on this topic, I think it’s interesting to see how many alternative viewpoints they are on the matter. However, it is a really difficult topic to find a solid answer to. How to do censor hate speech without infringing on people’s first amendment rights? There are some groups, like the ACLU, who believe that you shouldn’t censor any hate speech because that would lead to censoring any voices that you don’t agree with, which destroys our freedom of speech. And there are those who believe that we should censor all hate speech, whether or not it is infringing on someone’s rights. There were many different viewpoints and arguments raised on this topic, and on the topic of how to deal with hate speech in general. One thing that I’ve been thinking about this week is safe spaces and censorship on college campus, especially towards more conservative views. Full disclosure, I’m not a conservative, and I did not grow up in a conservative household, however I did grow up in Tennessee, with relatives and friends from the rural south. I have relatives and I have friends who are conservatives and hold conservative views, and they sometimes frustrate me because they say things about systematic racism not existing (spoiler alert : it does), but for the most part, they aren't trying to hurt anybody. This vilification and almost fear of some conservative values, and liberal values if you’re conservative, is dangerous. A conservative speaker giving a lecture on campus should not be cause for alarm and protests, unless they are doing or saying something that’s not informative or helpful. There needs to be a wide range of viewpoints on college campuses, and limiting speech is not helpful in that. College is about learning about new things, and seeing perspectives that are different than ones own. By creating a bubble and isolating yourself, it is impossible to gain an accurate understanding of the American political climate, and American politics in general. Hate speech should not be tolerated on college campuses, and those who use racial slurs or other hateful speech should be punished or condoned publicly by the schools administration, however hate speech itself should not be banned unless it is actively inciting violence or causing physical harm.