Moxie629 said:
It's you who rejects the accepted term of "homophobia."
I rejected it because it is a misuse. There are many "accepted" things in the world which are simply wrong. The fact that it is "accepted" does not merely make me a difficult malcontent on this issue. Often times, the contrarians are right!
I am going by the proper use of the term. I took ancient Greek and one of the first suffixes we learned was -phobia, which meant "fear" or usually "irrational fear". So, properly speaking, the term "homophobia" means "fear, probably irrational fear, of homosexuals". The next question is, in what sense?
In a colloquial personal sense, I don't have any fear of homosexuals. In a political sense, I despise the gay advocacy movement. It is me who is going by the strict meanings here.
The term "homophobia" in common parlance is used to demean and de-legitimize any sort of opposition to gay rights or gay marriage. It is a psychologically totalitarian weapon, meant to intimidate and de-humanize. It ascribes irrationality and unpleasant attitudes to people who disagree with a certain moral or political position. Because of this, it is a misused word.
Moxie629 said:
I suspect you have a rigorous definition of "marriage."
Just as I have a rigorous definition of "homophobia".
Moxie629 said:
As to what I bolded above, to quote you, I'm not sure where or how you were educated, but my late-20th C. education in the Liberal Arts and Classics was quite fine.
There are still some good courses in Classics scattered throughout major universities, but they are optional and they are marginalized. In the past, Classics was an active tradition handed down from authority to carry on a civilization. Students were forced to learn Latin and Greek, whether they wanted to or not. To be considered well-educated, you could not merely have a degree in one of 500 majors. You had to be acquainted with the ancient world's languages, literature, history, and philosophy.
This Classical tradition has been one of the key lifebloods of Western achievement. It is no coincidence at all that Newton, Shakespeare, Einstein, Galileo, Jefferson, Darwin, and many others learned Latin and were classically educated.
Starting after World War II, leftist educators in the West targeted Classics, branding it as fuel for Western ethnocentrism, racism, and imperialism. Gradually over time, high school students were no longer forced to learn Latin, let alone Greek. And now we have gotten to the point where at major universities, there may be just one or two small Attic Greek courses taken by a total of 15 to 20 people (many amateurs) out of up to 40,000.
Jefferson would be appalled.
You should read Alfred Jay Nock's great work "The Theory of Education in the United States". It will spell a lot of this out to you. It is readily available online.
Moxie629 said:
I would say it's the extreme right, these days that's trying to limit the perimeters of solid foundational education. Creationism? And Texas being the last word on what text books put forward, because they have the power of the purse?
The leftist educators in America (starting with the likes of John Dewey) dumbed down education in America and destroyed standards. The vast majority of what goes on at universities is a complete waste of time and money. Professors curve scores constantly, there is no emphasis on grammar whatsoever, people are just funneled through in diploma mills.
In times past, nuns would smack kids for not doing their homework. Nowadays, collective failure is rewarded. If 400 people in a mega-class get an average of 55% on a final exam, it is all curved up so that everyone can pass the course.
To focus on the frankly minor issue of evolution being taught in the state of Texas as some kind of huge educational concern is silly, in light of the immense educational disaster created by anti-Christian leftists in America. I am a Catholic and I also believe in evolution. It took me all of 5 minutes to understand the concept of evolution and I was never troubled by it. Nor was Charles Darwin, a theist himself. On the other hand, billions and billions of dollars are poured into our public education system in the U.S. with precious little return.
If we had a classically educated elite class, no one would have been so obtuse as to call for "spreading democracy" in the Middle East, as both Republicans and Democrats did in the early 2000s. Merely suggesting such a thing in classically educated circles would draw puzzled looks and amused smiles. And somehow you are more concerned with an utterly trivial debate over evolution in Texas, as opposed to the rotten educational standards at Harvard and Yale which result in the U.S. government killing thousands of innocent people in careless wars?
Please. Get your priorities straight.
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