Comments by "MarcosElMalo2" (@MarcosElMalo2) on "Weird JD Vance Wants Even Weirder Policies | Tim Take" video.

Before I try to address your question, I want to distance myself from the sexist comments in this thread. Comments that use words like “misandrist” to describe people’s struggle to win their political, economic, and social equality. Second, I identify as a conservative of the old school, i.e., Burkean conservatism if you read political philosophers. I don’t see liberals and progressives as the enemy. Rather I see them as partners in a social dialogue as we muddle through life. I guess I’m confused about what sort of an uproar you want or expect. The related issues of abortion and birth control do directly affect men, but particularly with abortion the issue’s strongest impact is on the liberty of women and their right to make decisions regarding their own health and their own bodies. The real issue is not about men’s access to sex, but it’s about the rights and freedoms of approximately half of our population. How am I doing so far? You can see how I, as a conservative, think it’s wrong to limit the freedom of people based on their biological sex. As a conservative, I full support the right of a woman to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy or to let it run its course, resulting in bringing a child into the world (and all the challenge and responsibility that entails). The government should have zero role in making this decision. So here is where I get confused. I fully support the “right to choose”, and I will vote accordingly, even if that means voting for a Dem. There was once a time when the right was protected by Roe v Wade, and I could vote for an anti-abortion conservative despite their stance because I liked their other policies. I could be fairly confident that the conservative politician was merely trying to pass a social conservative litmus test. Politics, right? But I digress. So here is my dilema: how can I be a supportive and “correct” ally for women’s rights in the way you propose if I make the issue about me? I’ve tried your way, and I’ve gotten shut down for centering the issue on myself instead of centering the issue around women and letting women lead the charge. I’ve been told that the public discourse doesn’t need to hear anymore men’s voices, and that it’s finally women’s turn to speak for themselves. I’ve been told that it’s my turn to listen. And all of that is fair. It doesn’t mean I must be entirely silent, because I can still speak one-on-one with other men and try to be a voice for equality and personal freedom. Men do have a stake in the abortion debate, but it’s complicated. We do make a contribution to pregnancy, after all, even if it’s only some body fluid and genetic material. Permit me to use some personal anecdotes. I was in a serious relationship of two years when my girlfriend got pregnant. She told me she was pregnant, and then, without telling me, without any discussion, she had an abortion within the week. She was perfectly within her rights to do this, but it still hurt me because I wanted to make a family with her. She had led me believe she wanted the same. As it turns out, what was a serious relationship for me was not as serious for her. I think that the pregnancy caused her to reevaluate our relationship and decide I was not the man with whom she wanted to make a family. It hurt that she didn’t involve me in her decision making, that she just went and did it without telling me. Within six months she ended the relationship, so I suppose it was all for the best, but I was still devastated (I recognize my devastation was both the abortion and being dumped. It’s hard to separate the two events emotionally). The point is, we (men) are conflicted over the woman’s right to choose. A woman’s right to choose is absolute. And it sucks for the male partner to have no say, whether the man wants to have a child with the woman or wants to not have a child with her. Whether there is emotional involvement or not, whether the man is eager, willing, or uninterested in shouldering his share of responsibility for a child, the decision is out of our hands. And that makes us ambivalent on an emotional level. I’m not saying the ambivalence is right. I’m just saying it exists, whether it is logical or not. This ambivalence might explain why more men aren’t as vocal or as passionate about the abortion issue. We might full support a women’s right to choose despite our misgivings, but those misgivings still exist. I hope this clears up the confusion. I am a conservative because I believe in conservative values of personal freedom and the rights of the individual. I am sure many liberals also believe in these things, but the difference is a matter of emphasis. Civilization is always a balance between the individual’s rights and group rights. When the two are in conflict, I tend to favor the individual. Goddamn it, I wrote another essay in a YouTube comments thread! I’ve got to stop doing this. Probably no one will read it. But I felt the OP asked a serious question that needed a serious answer.
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@oulibemusic1257 I didn’t share the other anecdote, which is a shameful story. It happened when I was younger than I was in the first anecdote. This was back when I was in my early twenties and a macho shit. I had a girlfriend that loved me more than I loved her. The short version is that she got pregnant, wanted to have a baby with me, and I used all the manipulative tricks of the emotional bully to convince her to abort. I nagged her to get an abortion. I feel ashamed for how I treated her, but I think I’m glad that she had the abortion. Neither one of us would have been good parents. But I think the worst thing is that I didn’t want her to have agency. I wanted her to not make the decision, but to follow my decision. I was hard on her because I didn’t want to take any chances. I don’t know if we can draw any generalizations from my experience. But I think it demonstrates a pitfall of trying to center questions of reproductive rights around men, even a little bit. Yes, we are involved. But we have our own agendas and those agendas don’t always line up with women’s rights.
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@ninatrabona4629 That is a bizarre idea, but I give you points for creativity. What is exactly the basis for your idea of taxing pornography? Is this a sin tax, that allows for certain behaviors but penalizes it financially? Or is the rationale that there are hidden externalities that must be paid? How would pornography be taxed? By the pixel? Or by the wank? I find the idea of a wank tax immensely entertaining. Even saying it makes me laugh. “Wank Tax”. 😂
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@kimoandrews5802 Incel is something that the people who identify as incels call themselves. It’s a ridiculous term that exaggerates their “plight” of not getting laid. It gives them a delicious sense of victimization. Masturbation is sex (hopefully with someone you love), so unless they are abstaining from masturbation, they are not celibate. If they are abstaining from masturbation, it is voluntary, unless they have had all their appendages torn from their bodies or gotten their penises caught in farm machinery. So an incel is not involuntary celibacy. It’s one of the dumbest self-identity names one could apply to oneself. And if you are called an incel while not identifying as one, you’re not merely being called sexless or unlovable. You’re being called a dummy.
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@emjayay Are we going to get sidetracked into book reviews? The point is that the book was intended to be educational. However, I highly doubt that it would keep that classification under a maga theocracy. These a-holes are quite clear that they are anti-knowledge because knowledge is an obstacle to their political power. Especially sexual knowledge, whether from an imperfect book written over a half century ago or a current anatomy textbook. Our ignorance is their power. OK, the book review: in retrospect, the book might seem quaint or even harmfully regressive, but it was at the forefront of the trend of open discussions about sexuality. While some of the information is incorrect and the tone might be regressive by today’s standards, it was a breakthrough in our current openness about sexuality. You must consider its context before ripping it to shreds as not up to our contemporary standards.
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@petem.3719 I think Vance is worried that he is soiled underwear. He’s giving us a peek at his rock bottom self esteem that compels him to go out there every night and humiliate himself in public.
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Get your hands out of my dirty mind!
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lol, I remember those books. They weren’t kept on any of the child-accessible shelves in our home. I read them anyway by the time I was ten. 😂 Healthy open discussions about sexuality were still a newish thing in our culture. Around the same age, my workaholic dad was too busy to sit down and give me the “facts of life” talk, so my mother awkwardly attempted it. I think it was embarrassing for her. Finally, after struggling with her words, she just handed me “All You Wanted to Know about Sex”. I don’t blame my parents for my predilection for pornography, but I think those books and many subsequent ones (popular historical fiction like written by the likes of John Jakes, for example) were my gateway to porn, which became one of my favorite solitary “hobbies”. 😉
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@maryrollins1737 Has Europe always had such open attitudes about sex? You should be less judgemental.
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