Sex Ed, Friday

[likethegun]

Sam was definitely glad to be back in the classroom today, and he was trying not to look angry as everyone came in and took their seats. "I know we already talked about consent in general, but in light of the news recently, I just wanted to remind all of you that if anyone ever harasses you, there are people who will believe you," he said, pointing to himself. "There are some men out there who aren't scum, and I apologize for those who can't seem to keep themselves in their pants."

He let out a long sigh and shook his head. "Now, our actual topic for today is relationships, namely the debate between monogamy and polygamy. Monogamy is the idea that people should have one partner at a time - once you find a girlfriend or boyfriend, you only date that person until you break up, or take the relationship to the next level and get married. Polygamy refers to any relationship that involves more than two people. Historically, that usually means one man with a number of wives, but that's not what I'd like to talk about in a modern context. Modern polygamy is based on the idea that you can't expect one person to meet all your needs, or be into all the same things you're into, and being in love with one person doesn't mean all your desire for other people just shuts off. The key to a working polygamous relationship, of course, is communication and consent," Sam said. "Everyone has to be into the idea for it to work, and it really can work if everyone puts in some effort. Ultimately, there's pros and cons to both options, so I thought we could have a discussion about which option might be better."

Or they could just talk about how awful male celebrities were, Sam would let either conversation roll on.

Civics, Friday, November 10, 2017

[heroic_jawline]

"Right," Steve said, looking generally disappointed with humanity, "if you've been watching the news, you've probably felt the need for a good, long, hot shower, and to maybe hit things very hard."

"For a wide variety of reasons," Tony added. "But a lot of focus is being put on so-called fake news."

"Now, there's definitely something called propaganda," Steve said, "which is defined as information put out with a definite angle to promote a particular point of view. You see a lot of it on posters, for instance, in wartime. Loose lips sink ships, all that sort of thing. Playing up an enemy's viciousness, trying to dehumanize them--that's all straight out of the propaganda playbook, and could be categorized as fake news. What can't be considered fake is actual things that happened that you just don't like."

Steve was so, so frustrated.

"Which isn't to say healthy skepticism over media is a bad thing," Tony said. "But that is between the extremes of believing a news source without question and rejecting it outright because you don't like what they're saying. And it doesn't help that we've had entertainment muddying the waters of legitimate journalism for the past decade or two."

Steve nodded vehemently. "So today we're going to spend time on learning how to be a responsible consumer of news, which means you need to check sources and read from a variety of outlets, most of which should not have 'freedom' 'red' or 'trump is amazing' in their names."

"Or fair and balanced." Be nice, Tony.

Steve snorted. "You can read fair and balanced. You just can't back them up with Red State and Infowars because they're propaganda."

"So, let's get on the internet and check some sources," Tony said, clapping his hands together.