6 ms·

Sometimes I wonder what are the fundamental differences between these states and Iran or Afghanistan except that their imaginary friend is slightly different.

boxed 2y ago
The slight difference is the difference between throwing gays off of tall buildings and complaining about them getting married.
- DoingIsLearning 2y ago
  If rule of law and due process are arbitrarily ignored then the only real difference is time. Given enough time all can degenerate.
  - boxed 2y ago
    > If rule of law and due process are arbitrarily ignored then the only real difference is time. Due process isn't a part of any religion afaik. And "rule of law" in Christianity and Islam is "suffer not a witch to live" and stuff like that. Not good. > Given enough time all can degenerate. "Degenerate" is a strange word in this context. Islam started as an imperialist death cult. Any movement towards liberalism and sanity is not something I'd call "degenerate". Christianity is hard to pin down where it started because it started small and without power. As soon as it got real power it turned evil real fast.
    - cannonpr 2y ago
      I don’t mean to say Islam is perfect, very little is, but it does have a lot of due process and it hardly started as a death cult… I’d spend some time researching due process in shariah and try to remember that in many ways Islam was highly innovative for its era in combining a legal code with its religion in a very integral manner. Now later Islam in particular othoman Islam was indeed somewhat warped and coupled with an expansionist empire, kinda like Christianity, and is another game altogether.
    - defrost 2y ago
      Due process is selective in the US. Current deportations sans due process aside, have a look at recent history in Mississippi: ‘Lynchings in Mississippi never stopped’ (2021) - https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/08/modern-day-mississippi-lynchings/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/08/modern-day-...
    - adrian_b 2y ago
      Despite how bad a few modern Islamist societies may be, it is very wrong to write sentences like "Islam started as an imperialist death cult", like they would be true and universally applicable. While after conversion to Islam the Arabs had a few centuries of great territorial expansion, when they have conquered not only their neighbors in Asia, but also the North of Africa and a part of the Iberian Peninsula, this was the standard behavior at that time for any population that was strong enough to be able to do this. It does not make the Arabs more "imperialist" than any other of their contemporaneous nations, e.g. when compared with Charlemagne. Moreover, for many centuries, until relatively recently, most conflicts in Islamic countries, such as the Turkish Empire, were more likely to be settled by judges according to the law and without making discrimination based on religion, nationality or wealth, than in the contemporaneous European countries, where the enforcement of the laws was frequently arbitrary and biased. The Europeans who have lived in countries occupied by Islamic Turks or Arabs have survived many centuries without losing their religion or traditions, in contrast with what happened with those that have been occupied by European empires, like the Russian Empire (or its Soviet descendant) or by the Austrian Empire (or its Austria-Hungary successor), where complete denationalization has frequently happened, due to intense discrimination. Anti-scientific interpretations of the Islamic religion rules have prevailed only many centuries after its appearance. Only then claims like "there is no need to read any books but the Holy Book, as it contains all truth that has to be known by humans" began to have supporters and enforcers. Moreover, taking into consideration the recent history, the US citizens are the last who should be mocking this kind of ideas, because many of them appear to think in the same way.
      - boxed 2y ago
        > Despite how bad a few modern Islamist societies may be, it is very wrong to write sentences like "Islam started as an imperialist death cult", like they would be true and universally applicable. I said "started" didn't I? I think the historical record is very clear. I meant during the time of the founder.
        defrost 2y ago
        The greatest conquest during the time of the founder ... In December 629, after eight years of intermittent fighting with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The conquest went largely uncontested, and Muhammad seized the city with minimal casualties. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_Mecca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_Mecca hardly sounds like the work of an "an imperialist death cult"
- Terr_ 2y ago
  I don't think you're aware of America's own shameful history of criminalizing homosexuality, how recently that was still happening, and how some of the people currently wielding Federal power want to go back to it.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  There are absolutely people on the US right who want to re-ban homosexuality; one of the bloody _supreme court justices_ has already signalled a willingness to re-examine Lawrence v Texas. Mississippi is one of the 14 states where homosexuality was only legalised by Lawrence v Texas in 2003.
  - boxed 2y ago
    Making it illegal is very different from throwing people off tall buildings.
- trhway 2y ago
  >The slight difference is the difference between throwing gays off of tall buildings and complaining about them getting married. no necessarily gays. Different societies may treat as non-humans different groups of people. US has just threw several hundreds of people into a black hole of prison in El Salvador. Considering the prison conditions even in US and how even US was openly waterboarding people multiple times (180 times for one guy), one can imagine what may be happening to the people in that prison in El Salvador (read on the El Salvador death squads, and the current regime there basically continues the same behavior). A fall from a tall building may be a mercy in that context. And i guess we'd never know how many of those guys will come out, if ever, of there alive.
  - tvc015 2y ago
    Perhaps safer there than being put into American prisons. American prisons are run by the inmates. Inmate rape, gang related violence and murder are normalized and tolerated by the states and corporations that operate the prison system. Salvadoran prisons seem tightly controlled and well staffed. Perhaps they have economies of scale though?
    - defrost 2y ago
      What to know about CECOT, El Salvador's mega-prison for [alleged] gang members CECOT prisoners do not receive visits and are never allowed outdoors. The prison does not offer workshops or educational programs to prepare them to return to society after their sentences. The prison's dining halls, break rooms, gym and board games are for guards. [ the human rights organization ] Cristosal reported last year that at least 261 people had died in El Salvador's prisons during the gang crackdown. The group and others have cited cases of abuse, torture and lack of medical attention. .. the government has shown CECOT prisoners in boxer shorts marching into common areas and made to sit nearly atop each other. Cells lack enough bunks for everyone. ~ https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-prison-cecot https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-p...
    - trhway 2y ago
      i can only conclude that you're either from US, Canada or Western Europe and somehow don't know, even in this age of global information, what a prison outside of the Western world is. And if you add that in case like El Salvador they intentionally make it "tough". There is a reason another "tough" guy - Duterte - has recently been delivered to ICC for the crimes against humanity. Because that is what "tough" means in those places.
- firen777 2y ago
  I appreciate your effort to reign in some reality here to show how privileged Americans are, but the word of the day is "trajectory" and it's aiming right at bottom right now.
- DonHopkins 2y ago
  Driving them to a remote rural area to rob, pistol-whip, torture, tie to a split-rail fence, and leaving them to die, so brutally that their face was covered in blood except for where the tears washed it away, happened in America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard And the people who would do that kind of thing again are absolutely THRILLED and EMPOWERED about the current administration's policies towards gay and trans people. And it's happening much more often now thanks to Trump's Stochastic Terrorism, aimed at his lunatic cult of MAGA followers who are every bit as fanatical and delusional and vengeful and armed to the teeth as any religious imperialist death cult. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism Beaten With Belts, Sticks: Transgender Man Tortured For Weeks Before Murder: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/beaten-with-belts-sticks-transgender-man-tortured-for-weeks-before-murder-7722066 https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/beaten-with-belts-sticks-tra... >Nordquist, originally from Minnesota, travelled to New York in September to meet his online girlfriend and was staying at Patty's Lodge motel in Canandaigua. >New York authorities have charged five individuals for the brutal torture and killing of a 24-year-old transgender man, whose body was dumped in an empty field after going through weeks of abuse. >Sam Nordquist was subjected to relentless physical and psychological torture, according to court documents. He was punched, kicked, beaten with sticks, dog toys, ropes, canes, belts, and even assaulted with a table leg and a broomstick for weeks before succumbing to his injuries. >Nordquist, originally from Minnesota, travelled to New York in September to meet his online girlfriend and was staying at Patty's Lodge motel in Canandaigua, about 30 minutes from Rochester. His family raised concerns after losing contact with him. >Police launched a missing persons investigation on February 9, and on Thursday, they uncovered a "deeply disturbing pattern of abuse" at the motel, according to New York State Police Captain Kelly Swift. >"In my 20-year law enforcement career, this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated," Ms Swift said at a press conference.
  - thatroof 2y ago
    The real story of Matthew Shepard is more complex than the false story that has been popularized: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/26/the-truth-behind-americas-most-famous-gay-hate-murder-matthew-shepard https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/26/the-truth-behi... Shepard was a meth dealer and he was in a sexual relationship with the man who killed him.
subsection1h 2y ago
Shitting on less developed areas of the world is one of Hacker News's favorite guilty pleasures. Let me try to assist. Maternal mortality rate in Iran in 2020: 22/100,000 live births [1] Maternal mortality rate in Mississippi in 2018-2022: 39.1/100,000 live births [2] Infant mortality rate in Iran in 2022: 10.35/1,000 live births [3] Infant mortality rate in Mississippi in 2022: 9.11/1,000 live births [4] [1] https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240068759 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240068759 [2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/data.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/data.htm [3] https://www.who.int/data/gho/indicator-metadata-registry/imr-details/1 https://www.who.int/data/gho/indicator-metadata-registry/imr... [4] https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-infant-health/infant-mortality/ https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-infant-health/infant-mortality/
- potato3732842 2y ago
  Nitpick: You need to account for abortion access when comparing infant mortality across jurisdictions.
  - Tepix 2y ago
    No, you don't.
    - potato3732842 2y ago
      In jurisdictions with better access to abortion people choose to abort the kind of "doesn't stand a chance" pregnancies that people in jurisdictions who can't access abortion wind up giving birth to only for them to die shortly thereafter.
      - fakedang 2y ago
        Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't both jurisdictions equally averse to abortion? Sure, you'd find a few exceptions here and there but both countries have banned abortion? Both places have banned abortion where the mother's life may be in danger. Iran additionally allows abortions in cases where the fetus suffers from a major medical condition (genetic defects like Down's Syndrome don't count) which doesn't let the future child live a viable life.
AndyMcConachie 2y ago
I always find it sad when racist Americans can only imagine their own country's decline by comparing it to those countries they persecute.
- DaSHacka 2y ago
  Is it really so "racist" when many of these countries truly have fundamental issues with regards to human rights? GP never said "Iranians" or "Afghans", the issues are specific to the countries themselves.
  - guappa 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - JCattheATM 2y ago
      > While USA upholds all of the human rights? Only you are claiming that.
      - guappa 2y ago
        I'm not claiming anything. The point of question marks is to ask questions.
        JCattheATM 2y ago
        Your question carries an implied claim. Otherwise, why are you asking it?
        guappa 2y ago
        To get an answer. Why are you replying if you have no intention of answering?
        DonHopkins 2y ago
guappa 2y ago
They're in NATO so they're good guys™. Also in Iran there's more female engineers than men. It's quite unlike Taliban ruled Afghanistan.
- potato3732842 2y ago
  Iran is the gifted kid that should've left the hood but didn't of the middle east.
- throw_m239339 2y ago
  > Also in Iran there's more female engineers than men. It's quite unlike Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Also in Iran if you happened to be male & gay and get caught you have the choice between the death penalty and getting a forced "sex re-assignement" surgery.
  - LtWorf 2y ago
    So, not unlike every single protestant country 30 years ago.
    - throw_m239339 2y ago
      > So, not unlike every single protestant country 30 years ago. This is a straight out lie and you know it. 30 years ago was 1995. But nice try rooting for a bloody dictatorship like Iran, led by people stuck in a 7th century mindset, allegedly the paragon of "progress" according to some here...
      - LtWorf 2y ago
        Sorry, USA! USA! USA! Also a dictatorship, also violating human rights. But for some reason acceptable.
      - LtWorf 2y ago
        Gay sex in saunas in Sweden is allowed since 2004. That's 20 years ago.
bko 2y ago
The charitable interpretation is that this isn't real science. If you have gender studies papers like the fake "Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity in Urban Dog Parks in Portland, Oregon" that showed dog parks were "rape-condoning spaces" where canine interactions reflected human rape culture and systemic oppression. They get through the system even though they are obviously satire. And yes, it was peer reviewed and even recognized as a significant contribution to feminist geography during the journal's anniversary celebration before the hoax was revealed There were always things we considered science that are no longer considered science or harmful (blood letting, lobotomy, race science, etc) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair
- tgv 2y ago
  While I also consider most of sociology and its ilk to be unscientific, and the rest to be only tenuously scientific, we all know that the real reason behind this order is not so charitable. Those in power don't care about science, they simply dislike what's written in those papers.
  - bko 2y ago
    It can be both. If they believe there is some harmful effect on this particular pseudo science about grievance politics that's driving social contagion and self harm, then they believe it should be removed, at least from places like libraries. You'll see the same thing with race science. I reject it not because I'm well versed on how it's not rigorous enough, although it may be, but I think it's on its face because incredibly harmful.
  - watwut 2y ago
    I would add that when you actually started to read and listen to what actual sociologists say and do ... it was nothing like what random math graduate mussing on HN thinks it is. The popular approach here of cherry picking two small studies and running wild with them was not all that much a thing. Instead there was way more care about making conclusions, a lot of nuance and conditional statements (this study says so under those conditions and another one opposes sort of thing). But, what certain people here actually hate the most are results that are fairly consistent and were reproduced to death.
TacticalCoder 2y ago
[dead]
ASalazarMX 2y ago
Considering Islam, Christianity, and Catholicism are brothers of the book, not much difference really. Fantasy has too much influence in their politics.

boxed 2y ago

The slight difference is the difference between throwing gays off of tall buildings and complaining about them getting married.

DoingIsLearning 2y ago
If rule of law and due process are arbitrarily ignored then the only real difference is time. Given enough time all can degenerate.
- boxed 2y ago
  > If rule of law and due process are arbitrarily ignored then the only real difference is time. Due process isn't a part of any religion afaik. And "rule of law" in Christianity and Islam is "suffer not a witch to live" and stuff like that. Not good. > Given enough time all can degenerate. "Degenerate" is a strange word in this context. Islam started as an imperialist death cult. Any movement towards liberalism and sanity is not something I'd call "degenerate". Christianity is hard to pin down where it started because it started small and without power. As soon as it got real power it turned evil real fast.
  - cannonpr 2y ago
    I don’t mean to say Islam is perfect, very little is, but it does have a lot of due process and it hardly started as a death cult… I’d spend some time researching due process in shariah and try to remember that in many ways Islam was highly innovative for its era in combining a legal code with its religion in a very integral manner. Now later Islam in particular othoman Islam was indeed somewhat warped and coupled with an expansionist empire, kinda like Christianity, and is another game altogether.
  - defrost 2y ago
    Due process is selective in the US. Current deportations sans due process aside, have a look at recent history in Mississippi: ‘Lynchings in Mississippi never stopped’ (2021) - https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/08/modern-day-mississippi-lynchings/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/08/modern-day-...
  - adrian_b 2y ago
    Despite how bad a few modern Islamist societies may be, it is very wrong to write sentences like "Islam started as an imperialist death cult", like they would be true and universally applicable. While after conversion to Islam the Arabs had a few centuries of great territorial expansion, when they have conquered not only their neighbors in Asia, but also the North of Africa and a part of the Iberian Peninsula, this was the standard behavior at that time for any population that was strong enough to be able to do this. It does not make the Arabs more "imperialist" than any other of their contemporaneous nations, e.g. when compared with Charlemagne. Moreover, for many centuries, until relatively recently, most conflicts in Islamic countries, such as the Turkish Empire, were more likely to be settled by judges according to the law and without making discrimination based on religion, nationality or wealth, than in the contemporaneous European countries, where the enforcement of the laws was frequently arbitrary and biased. The Europeans who have lived in countries occupied by Islamic Turks or Arabs have survived many centuries without losing their religion or traditions, in contrast with what happened with those that have been occupied by European empires, like the Russian Empire (or its Soviet descendant) or by the Austrian Empire (or its Austria-Hungary successor), where complete denationalization has frequently happened, due to intense discrimination. Anti-scientific interpretations of the Islamic religion rules have prevailed only many centuries after its appearance. Only then claims like "there is no need to read any books but the Holy Book, as it contains all truth that has to be known by humans" began to have supporters and enforcers. Moreover, taking into consideration the recent history, the US citizens are the last who should be mocking this kind of ideas, because many of them appear to think in the same way.
    - boxed 2y ago
      > Despite how bad a few modern Islamist societies may be, it is very wrong to write sentences like "Islam started as an imperialist death cult", like they would be true and universally applicable. I said "started" didn't I? I think the historical record is very clear. I meant during the time of the founder.
      - defrost 2y ago
        The greatest conquest during the time of the founder ... In December 629, after eight years of intermittent fighting with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The conquest went largely uncontested, and Muhammad seized the city with minimal casualties. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_Mecca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_Mecca hardly sounds like the work of an "an imperialist death cult"
Terr_ 2y ago
I don't think you're aware of America's own shameful history of criminalizing homosexuality, how recently that was still happening, and how some of the people currently wielding Federal power want to go back to it.
rsynnott 2y ago
There are absolutely people on the US right who want to re-ban homosexuality; one of the bloody _supreme court justices_ has already signalled a willingness to re-examine Lawrence v Texas. Mississippi is one of the 14 states where homosexuality was only legalised by Lawrence v Texas in 2003.
- boxed 2y ago
  Making it illegal is very different from throwing people off tall buildings.
trhway 2y ago
>The slight difference is the difference between throwing gays off of tall buildings and complaining about them getting married. no necessarily gays. Different societies may treat as non-humans different groups of people. US has just threw several hundreds of people into a black hole of prison in El Salvador. Considering the prison conditions even in US and how even US was openly waterboarding people multiple times (180 times for one guy), one can imagine what may be happening to the people in that prison in El Salvador (read on the El Salvador death squads, and the current regime there basically continues the same behavior). A fall from a tall building may be a mercy in that context. And i guess we'd never know how many of those guys will come out, if ever, of there alive.
- tvc015 2y ago
  Perhaps safer there than being put into American prisons. American prisons are run by the inmates. Inmate rape, gang related violence and murder are normalized and tolerated by the states and corporations that operate the prison system. Salvadoran prisons seem tightly controlled and well staffed. Perhaps they have economies of scale though?
  - defrost 2y ago
    What to know about CECOT, El Salvador's mega-prison for [alleged] gang members CECOT prisoners do not receive visits and are never allowed outdoors. The prison does not offer workshops or educational programs to prepare them to return to society after their sentences. The prison's dining halls, break rooms, gym and board games are for guards. [ the human rights organization ] Cristosal reported last year that at least 261 people had died in El Salvador's prisons during the gang crackdown. The group and others have cited cases of abuse, torture and lack of medical attention. .. the government has shown CECOT prisoners in boxer shorts marching into common areas and made to sit nearly atop each other. Cells lack enough bunks for everyone. ~ https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-prison-cecot https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-p...
  - trhway 2y ago
    i can only conclude that you're either from US, Canada or Western Europe and somehow don't know, even in this age of global information, what a prison outside of the Western world is. And if you add that in case like El Salvador they intentionally make it "tough". There is a reason another "tough" guy - Duterte - has recently been delivered to ICC for the crimes against humanity. Because that is what "tough" means in those places.
firen777 2y ago
I appreciate your effort to reign in some reality here to show how privileged Americans are, but the word of the day is "trajectory" and it's aiming right at bottom right now.
DonHopkins 2y ago
Driving them to a remote rural area to rob, pistol-whip, torture, tie to a split-rail fence, and leaving them to die, so brutally that their face was covered in blood except for where the tears washed it away, happened in America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard And the people who would do that kind of thing again are absolutely THRILLED and EMPOWERED about the current administration's policies towards gay and trans people. And it's happening much more often now thanks to Trump's Stochastic Terrorism, aimed at his lunatic cult of MAGA followers who are every bit as fanatical and delusional and vengeful and armed to the teeth as any religious imperialist death cult. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism Beaten With Belts, Sticks: Transgender Man Tortured For Weeks Before Murder: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/beaten-with-belts-sticks-transgender-man-tortured-for-weeks-before-murder-7722066 https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/beaten-with-belts-sticks-tra... >Nordquist, originally from Minnesota, travelled to New York in September to meet his online girlfriend and was staying at Patty's Lodge motel in Canandaigua. >New York authorities have charged five individuals for the brutal torture and killing of a 24-year-old transgender man, whose body was dumped in an empty field after going through weeks of abuse. >Sam Nordquist was subjected to relentless physical and psychological torture, according to court documents. He was punched, kicked, beaten with sticks, dog toys, ropes, canes, belts, and even assaulted with a table leg and a broomstick for weeks before succumbing to his injuries. >Nordquist, originally from Minnesota, travelled to New York in September to meet his online girlfriend and was staying at Patty's Lodge motel in Canandaigua, about 30 minutes from Rochester. His family raised concerns after losing contact with him. >Police launched a missing persons investigation on February 9, and on Thursday, they uncovered a "deeply disturbing pattern of abuse" at the motel, according to New York State Police Captain Kelly Swift. >"In my 20-year law enforcement career, this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated," Ms Swift said at a press conference.
- thatroof 2y ago
  The real story of Matthew Shepard is more complex than the false story that has been popularized: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/26/the-truth-behind-americas-most-famous-gay-hate-murder-matthew-shepard https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/26/the-truth-behi... Shepard was a meth dealer and he was in a sexual relationship with the man who killed him.

subsection1h 2y ago

Shitting on less developed areas of the world is one of Hacker News's favorite guilty pleasures. Let me try to assist. Maternal mortality rate in Iran in 2020: 22/100,000 live births [1] Maternal mortality rate in Mississippi in 2018-2022: 39.1/100,000 live births [2] Infant mortality rate in Iran in 2022: 10.35/1,000 live births [3] Infant mortality rate in Mississippi in 2022: 9.11/1,000 live births [4] [1] https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240068759 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240068759 [2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/data.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/data.htm [3] https://www.who.int/data/gho/indicator-metadata-registry/imr-details/1 https://www.who.int/data/gho/indicator-metadata-registry/imr... [4] https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-infant-health/infant-mortality/ https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-infant-health/infant-mortality/

potato3732842 2y ago
Nitpick: You need to account for abortion access when comparing infant mortality across jurisdictions.
- Tepix 2y ago
  No, you don't.
  - potato3732842 2y ago
    In jurisdictions with better access to abortion people choose to abort the kind of "doesn't stand a chance" pregnancies that people in jurisdictions who can't access abortion wind up giving birth to only for them to die shortly thereafter.
    - fakedang 2y ago
      Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't both jurisdictions equally averse to abortion? Sure, you'd find a few exceptions here and there but both countries have banned abortion? Both places have banned abortion where the mother's life may be in danger. Iran additionally allows abortions in cases where the fetus suffers from a major medical condition (genetic defects like Down's Syndrome don't count) which doesn't let the future child live a viable life.

AndyMcConachie 2y ago

I always find it sad when racist Americans can only imagine their own country's decline by comparing it to those countries they persecute.

DaSHacka 2y ago
Is it really so "racist" when many of these countries truly have fundamental issues with regards to human rights? GP never said "Iranians" or "Afghans", the issues are specific to the countries themselves.
- guappa 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - JCattheATM 2y ago
    > While USA upholds all of the human rights? Only you are claiming that.
    - guappa 2y ago
      I'm not claiming anything. The point of question marks is to ask questions.
      - JCattheATM 2y ago
        Your question carries an implied claim. Otherwise, why are you asking it?
        guappa 2y ago
        To get an answer. Why are you replying if you have no intention of answering?
        DonHopkins 2y ago

guappa 2y ago

They're in NATO so they're good guys™. Also in Iran there's more female engineers than men. It's quite unlike Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

potato3732842 2y ago
Iran is the gifted kid that should've left the hood but didn't of the middle east.
throw_m239339 2y ago
> Also in Iran there's more female engineers than men. It's quite unlike Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Also in Iran if you happened to be male & gay and get caught you have the choice between the death penalty and getting a forced "sex re-assignement" surgery.
- LtWorf 2y ago
  So, not unlike every single protestant country 30 years ago.
  - throw_m239339 2y ago
    > So, not unlike every single protestant country 30 years ago. This is a straight out lie and you know it. 30 years ago was 1995. But nice try rooting for a bloody dictatorship like Iran, led by people stuck in a 7th century mindset, allegedly the paragon of "progress" according to some here...
    - LtWorf 2y ago
      Sorry, USA! USA! USA! Also a dictatorship, also violating human rights. But for some reason acceptable.
    - LtWorf 2y ago
      Gay sex in saunas in Sweden is allowed since 2004. That's 20 years ago.

bko 2y ago

The charitable interpretation is that this isn't real science. If you have gender studies papers like the fake "Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity in Urban Dog Parks in Portland, Oregon" that showed dog parks were "rape-condoning spaces" where canine interactions reflected human rape culture and systemic oppression. They get through the system even though they are obviously satire. And yes, it was peer reviewed and even recognized as a significant contribution to feminist geography during the journal's anniversary celebration before the hoax was revealed There were always things we considered science that are no longer considered science or harmful (blood letting, lobotomy, race science, etc) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair

tgv 2y ago
While I also consider most of sociology and its ilk to be unscientific, and the rest to be only tenuously scientific, we all know that the real reason behind this order is not so charitable. Those in power don't care about science, they simply dislike what's written in those papers.
- bko 2y ago
  It can be both. If they believe there is some harmful effect on this particular pseudo science about grievance politics that's driving social contagion and self harm, then they believe it should be removed, at least from places like libraries. You'll see the same thing with race science. I reject it not because I'm well versed on how it's not rigorous enough, although it may be, but I think it's on its face because incredibly harmful.
- watwut 2y ago
  I would add that when you actually started to read and listen to what actual sociologists say and do ... it was nothing like what random math graduate mussing on HN thinks it is. The popular approach here of cherry picking two small studies and running wild with them was not all that much a thing. Instead there was way more care about making conclusions, a lot of nuance and conditional statements (this study says so under those conditions and another one opposes sort of thing). But, what certain people here actually hate the most are results that are fairly consistent and were reproduced to death.

TacticalCoder 2y ago

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ASalazarMX 2y ago

Considering Islam, Christianity, and Catholicism are brothers of the book, not much difference really. Fantasy has too much influence in their politics.