GeneticBlueprint

1 minute ago, MarSolo said:

Okay seriously, to get it back on topic, didn’t China have a one child MAX policy for decades? Or am I mixing up my Asian countries?

Correct. The article actually highlights an interesting story regarding that.

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When Beijing said it would abolish its 35-year-old one-child policy in 2015, officials expected a baby boom. Instead, they got a baby bust.

 

New maternity wards were built only to close a few years later. Sales of baby-care products, including formula and diapers, have dropped. Businesses that focused on babies now target seniors.

 

New preschools built to make child-rearing more affordable struggle to fill classrooms and many have closed. In 2022, the number of preschools in China fell 2%, the first decline in 15 years.

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The shift means some women have gone from trying to dodge punishment for having too many children to being hounded to have more.

A decade ago, a woman surnamed Zhang was in a cat-and-mouse game with authorities after she decided to have a second child. She asked that her first name not be used.

 

While pregnant, she left her job to stay out of public view, fearful officials would pressure her to have an abortion, she said. After giving birth, in 2014, she stayed with relatives for a year. When she returned home, local family-planning officials fined her and her husband around $10,000. She said she was forced to have an intrauterine device implanted to prevent pregnancy. Authorities required her to have it checked every three months.

 

Months later, the Chinese government announced the one-child policy would be scrapped. For a while, authorities still demanded Zhang have her IUD checked.

She now gets text messages from officials encouraging her to have more children. She deletes them in anger. “I wish they would stop tossing us around,” she said, “and leave us ordinary people alone.”

12 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

Who are these mysterious 10% of Democrats that believe Trump is a person of faith? Be curious what their definition of person of faith is. Also, lol @ only 13% of Republicans believing Biden is a person of faith, when he very deeply is, compared to 64% for Trump, who obviously is not a person of faith. The poll is only of 1,000 registered voters so is pretty meaningless on a macro scale.

I think the real lol-worthy thing here is that more repubs believe Trump, whose "two" Corinthians pretending to read the bible ass, think he is a person of faith. While fewer believe that Mitt Romney, who wears his religion on his sleeve and from all appearances is pretty genuine about it, is not.

Today on "Republican voters are the biggest rubes"

Chinese women don't want to have kids -> That doesn't go far enough let's just kill the children.

So my wife and I binged this. Better than I thought it would be. Nobody in this show can act besides Grammar and his old friend whose character and actor name I can’t remember. Everybody else is universally terrible.

Curious to see how the countries that have the means to incentivize child-rearing will do so. Of course, most will do so when it’s too late. 

https://archive.ph/BRCeF
 

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Chinese women have had it. Their response to Beijing’s demands for more children? No. 
 

Fed up with government harassment and wary of the sacrifices of child-rearing, many young women are putting themselves ahead of what Beijing and their families want. Their refusal has set off a crisis for the Communist Party, which desperately needs more babies to rejuvenate China’s aging population.

 

With the number of babies in free fall—fewer than 10 million were born in 2022, compared with around 16 million in 2012—China is headed toward a demographic collapse. China’s population, now around 1.4 billion, is likely to drop to just around half a billion by 2100, according to some projections. Women are taking the blame. 

 

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3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

How far is "a little far"? Is that Utah far or California far?

A little far for just going to be there one evening when there’s plenty of stuff to do/see downtown. 

4 hours ago, TUFKAK said:

I'll be in Utah end of the month, SLC on the 29th, it's a quick flight to Oakland but not risking the weather around then. I booked the Hyatt Regency for the night so I assume what you referenced is near that?

Most of the stuff yeah. 9th and 9th is a little far from there but the rest of the stuff is blocks away. 
 

I’d offer to meetup but I’m actually heading to South America on that very day. Ha

1 minute ago, TUFKAK said:

But let’s be real, Slick Willy being a sex pest wouldn’t surprise any of us.

Indeed. That’s why I said not out of the realm of possibility. Haha

40 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

Reporting shows it’s unlikely the documents show any wrongdoing on Clinton’s part.

 

Jeffrey Epstein's list of associates—what we know as names to be revealed

WWW.NEWSWEEK.COM

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A huge trove of documents is soon to be released in the Jeffery Epstein case.

 

Also:

 

 

Yeah. Not out of the realm of possibility that he did something untoward but also it’d be hard to keep something like that covered up for as long as it was since he has a mandatory entourage that travels with him and was probably top 20 most famous faces on the planet at the time. 

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5 hours ago, TUFKAK said:

Just booked a flight to Salt Lake, guess I am breaking my no Red State rule, but sister is having a hard time so going.

I'll likely have a night in the city solo, any recommendations @GeneticBlueprint

When are you headed here?

Lots of good eateries in the 9th and 9th area (900 East and 900 South). If you’re in that area stop by the whale (all hail) on 1100 east and pay tribute so we can get some god damned snow this year. If you want to see the luxury mall that Jesus commanded be built, head to City Creek Center which also has lots of good places to eat and pubs in the surrounding area. And you’ll be in the city center. Eccles Theater or Capitol Theater are around there if you want to see a good show. Abravanel Hall is there too and that’s where the Utah symphony plays. I’ve seen a lot of orchestras in my lifetime and this is one people sleep on.

Clark Planetarium is cool and free if you want to do something educational in the city. It does charge to see the IMAX documentaries. Haven’t seen those in years but I go to the planetarium all the time because there’s tons to do and see there. And it’s right by the Delta Center which is where the Jazz play if you like the NBA and are in town on a night they play. There are also some concert halls in that area like Metro Music Hall or The Complex. There’s usually an act in one or both of those every night. 
 

Temple Square would also be an interesting bit of history to see, but I think it’s closed because they’re redoing the foundation or something like that. But if it’s open might as well swing through and look at the Mormon Mecca the polygamists built. Also, in the bigass conference building across the street to the north of Temple Square, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does a broadcast every Sunday morning that’s free to attend and I know that’s still open. They’ve been doing that for literally 100 years I think. Regardless of the religious nonsense it’s actually quite impressive to experience in person.

Sorry most of my recs are music oriented as that’s my thing. 

Sounds like you’ll just be here an evening otherwise I’d recommend going to do some bougie skiing in Park City and eating some overpriced but good food while you’re there. 
 

4 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

Drink hot beverages while staring at mormons.

Though its HQ is there, you’re not likely to run into many in SLC proper. 
 

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14 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Was it? It was pretty much mainstream republican stuff since forever, just covered up better I guess. But it’s pretty much all standard fare.

13 minutes ago, stepee said:

Any repression from some big anti sex movement or whatever would work itself out anyway as the type of contrarian pushing that would no longer be interested if it got too popular and the next generation would just push back against 

I don’t think Trumpism is standard conservatism though it compliments some areas social areas for sure. But I’m more referring to his cult of personality that absolutely started as a little niche thing and then dominated the entire party. And because of that a large group of women in this country don’t have access to abortion and other life saving procedures. I can envision some other nightmare scenario if some of these weirdos start organizing. 

Trumpism was niche online weirdo stuff until it wasn’t. 

1 hour ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

I don't think you have to be into hotwife culture or something to be a liberal. It's ok to be personally conservative but accepting and not judgemental of others. I basically live like a conservative white man, I am even trying to retire by ~55 and have plans for it financially.

I resonate with this and similar sentiments expressed in this thread. I’m pretty conservative personally in my way of being. Probably a byproduct of the religion I grew up in. Wouldn’t dream of imposing my lifestyle on others though.

4 hours ago, Reputator said:

 

So "sex negative" means different things to different people, I gather. Either anti-porn, anti-physical abuse, or anti-public sex.

Well the edgy online gen z weirdos equate many forms of healthy sexual activity with abuse and too much skin in a photo with porn etc etc in a way that previous generation’s online weirdos don’t. It’s something to side eye for the time being but it could become a problem. 

4 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

Another group I've always been concerned about ever since the Joseph Lieberman/Tipper Gore days are pseudo-neo liberals. I'm curious what other users' thoughts here are on this and how significant or big a group you guys think this is, or if this is just an online loud minority. I've always seen myself as a true progressive of the left ever since I can remember (I was a politics nerd even when I was in my young teens) - meaning someone fighting for what we all here know are things like LGBTQIA+ rights, womens' rights, minority rights, etc. Someone who hopes one day all sentient beings are equal and we even treat all non-sentient beings as best as we can. And more. Anyway, I bring this up because one type of person I feel like I frequently run into on the left that bothers me are people who say they are liberal, on the left, etc. and they seem like they are. They believe in things like equal rights and so forth.

 

But, these people are also conservative on issues like sex, art, alcohol and drugs, etc. Straight edge liberals. A lot of Gen Z seems to be this way, where you hear about low sex rates and how they find sex scenes in movies uncomfortable (lol) and think we're violating the characters' consent by watching them have sex (what? all art is some form of voyeurism to begin with). Many tend to be prudish, don't party hard, etc. Some of this is good, things in moderation, be healthy, etc. But I begin to worry when the morality police start coming out because true progressivism is about as much freedom allowed as is reasonably possible. I worry these kinds of "liberals" are the type that would keep sex work outlawed when it should be made legal and regulated, as one example. I remember the arguments that "video games are too violent" back in the day from the left and I was like: "so we're going to limit and constrain art now?" which is very conservative thinking to me. I even hear things now like: "all art has a responsibility to present the right ethics and morals" and I'm like . . . what now? Every movie has to be a message movie now? Fight Club would never be made in such a cultural atmosphere. Fortunately there is more art than ever so no one should be wanting but I'm not sure how I see this as a leftist position? This also seems like a slippery slope/pipeline to falling in with the right wing pretty quickly, which is why I'm bringing it up in this thread about another group that used to be left that also have quickly now fallen in with the right. My mind goes to demure soccer moms in the midwest who just want to control everything just from a feeling of moral superiority from the left rather than the right. Liberal but religious people are frequently like this. Hedonism really bothers this group of people I feel like.

 

Any validity to any of this or am I just running into the select few?

Here’s an X-cretion about what you’re talking about I read the other day. The thread is wild. Breaking the rule since it’s very relevant. 
 

https://x.com/pandershirts/status/1740117254652711134?s=46&t=IBAi9a_ZSuLPcOuNLyHstQ

4 minutes ago, Air_Delivery said:

It almost like the left doesn't stay static and progresses forward. 

So weird that the progress side of the spectrum isn't conservative in nature.

23 minutes ago, stepee said:

I don’t need to subject myself to watching that Bill Maher video to know that he is actually absolutely 100% right. He hasn’t changed at all and it is indeed the left that has changed over the last 50 years since when he probably formed his political identity. It just doesn’t mean what he thinks it means. 

I was going to say something very similar. He’s a leftist for people who were old leftists in the 90s. The left has absolutely changed in that time. Not as much as the right, of course. But Maher is correct. 

32 minutes ago, Biggie said:

I mean they bought the Denver Broncos. Idiots