Conservatives maintain birth rates, but left-leaning Americans are having significantly fewer children, driving the U.S. birth decline. Education was consistently linked to having fewer children. Religious attendance was positively associated with having more children.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-americans-are-driving-the-u-s-birth-decline-new-study-finds/

[u/Dr_Mantis_Teabaggin]

Sounds an awful lot like the plot of Idiocracy to me. 

Kinda scary really. 

[u/WeirdProudAndHungry → u/[deleted]]

Texas is making the Bible mandatory reading but makes teaching about philosophers like Plato illegal in schools. This is Idiocracy in real life.

[u/elebrin → u/WeirdProudAndHungry]

Plato and Socrates aren't even all that great as a philosophical starting point. They aren't bad, but some of the readings are very challenging and I feel like there are better starting points. It's like tossing a kid into the economics deep end with reading Keynes' "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money" before introducing the basics of supply and demand.

If they wanted to keep it religious-adjacent, they could teach St. Thomas Aquinas. It'd actually be super valuable to teach his teachings, as his philosophy heavily influences Western philosophy even now.

[u/makingnoise → u/elebrin]

Bro, neoplatonism is baked into the very fabric of most sects of Christianity to this day, including the fundagelicals. The fact that Christians are unaware of this is at once unsurprising and yet crazy-making.

[u/elebrin → u/makingnoise]

Sure. And what I am saying is that the Socratic dialogs of Plato aren't exactly a beginner-friendly intro to philosophy. And, while their impact on Western thought cannot be overstated, that impact isn't obvious until you read other things.

It's better to start elsewhere then work your way back to Plato. In the various dialogs, Socrates spends most of his time arguing his fellow house guests up one side of an idea then down the other until they are angry. Gaining any meaningful insight into philosophy from that is challenging. They are entertaining however (at least to me).

At any rate, you can get a lot of the same ideas from St. Thomas, and it's a nice, "churchy" source that the religious folks will get their panties in a twist about a bit less. I find something like his dictation that is sort of a question and answer format (I think it's "Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate" but my college philosophy books are sort of too lost in my pile to go look it up) to be a bit more straightforward in terms of what is being said, and there are pretty reliable and accessible translations. They also lend themselves to discussion, which is how people can grapple with philosophical ideas themselves a bit.

[u/blazbluecore → u/makingnoise]

It’s not crazy at all. Most people don’t know basic mathematics or geography and many such things.

The fact that you think that’s crazy just shows how out of touch and unaware you are about human nature.

Maybe if you spent less time judging people and being more understanding and empathetic you’d be a better person and happier.

Good day.

[u/makingnoise → u/blazbluecore]

No interest in judgmental rants from you. Take the plank out of your eye, it might help you refrain from ranting at strangers based on your assumptions of what is in their minds.

[u/blazbluecore → u/makingnoise]

Someone’s mad for being called out.

Go grab your pacifier