This honestly is the more surprising element. While the U.S. has a history of some GLBT representation in politics, it's almost unheard of for a candidate to not express a belief in some variation of God.
---------- Post added 2012-11-24 at 12:59 PM ----------
What is there to "understand" about it? It's the state of having the capacity to find either men or women sexually attractive. Some bisexuals have a strong preference over one gender or another, but some don't. I had a roommate back in my university days, for example, who seemed like a 50/50 bisexual to me. He dated men and women almost equally, and it seemed like a complete roll of the dice as far as who would catch his eye when we'd go out to the bar.
Speaking as a gay man myself, I'd agree with Gheld's general comment. In the early stages of coming out, many gay men go through a phase where they identified as bisexual. It's an easier pill to swallow for one's self, originally.
Eventually the facade fades with time, but this unfortunately causes many gay men to immediately assume that any bisexual man is just a closeted gay man. And as far as the straight community goes, straight women tend not to be that drawn to bisexual men for the same reason. It's almost seen as a hit on the guy's masculinity, and they often can't shake the paranoia that he might be gay.
Bisexual women, on the other hand, don't really seem to struggle that much. A woman can claim she's bisexual without it affecting her femininity, and straight guys tend not to get paranoid over whether the woman might really be a lesbian.
No, be because RNG is RNG. It's entirely possible for all the red and none of the blue to be highly meritorious. Further, merit is not limited to RNG. Sure, some level of quality may be randomly determined to be higher in some case than others, but from that point onward, merit is earned.
There is no functional correlation between merit and population diversity. And as I already pointed out, leadership is elected on the basis of ideological lines, not objective merit, only subjective ideological alignments. And there is simply no guarantee that ideology is evenly distributed among the population segments.
Human progress isn't measured by industry. It's measured by the value you place on a life.
Just, be kind.
Except the odds are stupidly high against that. There are thousands of elected officials and they're overwhelmingly white men.It's entirely possible for all the red and none of the blue to be highly meritorious.
And if we assume that skin color or gender don't determine merit then there has to be something in effect causing the discrepancy we see.Sure, some level of quality may be randomly determined to be higher in some case than others, but from that point onward, merit is earned.
I'm honestly a little confused how you're not getting this. If skin color has no bearing on ideological merit yet we still select almost nothing but white men (an incredibly privileged class) how is it not blindly clear we're still laboring under systemic bias?There is no functional correlation between merit and population diversity. And as I already pointed out, leadership is elected on the basis of ideological lines, not objective merit, only subjective ideological alignments. And there is simply no guarantee that ideology is evenly distributed among the population segments.
---------- Post added 2012-11-24 at 08:53 PM ----------
Actually yes. That's a great example of systemic sexism. Women are routinely turned away from and discouraged from the kinds of games and likes that would send them towards engineering.
And why do you think that is? Is it because all the boys were given legos and told they had to build things while the girls were given dolls and told their roll in society was the take care of people?Bullshit. As an engineer myself I can tell you it's because none of them went to school for it.
Because that's a large part of it.
That's pretty cool. Hopefully, this does indicate true progress.
You do of course realize that you can be attracted to the same gender while still finding the thought of sexual interaction with that gender repulsive? When people say "Everyone is to some degree bisexual" They aren't saying "everyone has the tendency to engage in gay sex!"
Normally a politician dodging a question makes my skin crawl but the way she dodged the "god" question was beautiful. Kudos to her!!
Okay, first you were talking about in a hypothetical society, and now you're talking about the real world. Since the real world society isn't a perfectly numerically-balanced system, there's no way to expect numerically-balanced results.
There are thousands of white people and in particular white males in political position mostly for the reason that the system has traditionally established them as the group of people who should rule. They got power, money, connections, more money, influence, and so on. In many places they are still running on that. That aside, the USA is still overwhelmingly white. So, if the USA is overwhelmingly white, and white males overwhelmingly have the money, power and influence, I think it's pretty obvious WHY there are so many white males in power.
Historical social privilege. Gee golly batman, you mean the real world doesn't function like a hypothetical? I never would have guessed....And if we assume that skin color or gender don't determine merit then there has to be something in effect causing the discrepancy we see.
I never argued we weren't. I argued that even in a "perfect" setting where racial diversity was maximized, there is no guarantee that the politicians will reflect that racial diversity. Because racial diversity has NOTHING to do with what qualifies a candidate. Nor does merit, either inherent or earned. A lot of meritorious people will NEVER become politicians because they simply don't want to. And as I continue to attempt to impress upon you, ideology is not stratified by race. White people vote for black candidates, black people vote for white candidates. Women vote for men, men vote for women.I'm honestly a little confused how you're not getting this. If skin color has no bearing on ideological merit yet we still select almost nothing but white men (an incredibly privileged class) how is it not blindly clear we're still laboring under systemic bias?
Human progress isn't measured by industry. It's measured by the value you place on a life.
Just, be kind.