Why are Americans so lonely?

wow! Great thoughts. Yes when I was stationed in Germany (and knew a few folks in Italy too) the pace of life is so much different. I love the US but in many way we are one big disappointment and a huge load of failed opportunity to do it right. Every day I see the way we live and say "this could be so much better. Everyone agrees it can be better. We know how to make it better. But we never will."

The Civil Rights Movement severely
weakened most public/social institutions. When public pools integrated, affluent whites added pools to their country clubs and middle class whites put in above ground pools. When schools integrated more private schools were founded than in our entire prior history. When housing and downtown shops were integrated, whites fled into their covenant suburbs and secured malls.

Then, once the Boomers who grew up in these private systems came to power and put in Reagan, they proceeded to slash funding and dismantle those public/social institutions they had no use for.

s

More than just whites. Ironically huge numbers of middle class African Americans pulled their kids out of local public schools and sent them to private schools after the public schools became lower quality and more dangerous. This deprived local public schools of much of the support from successful African American parents just when it was needed most.

You see an example of this in the movie "The Blind Side" at the beginning where "Big Tony" is moving his son out of the public schools in Memphis to the elite, private Christian school (Wingate in the movie, Briarcrest in real life) and of course the future NFL player Michael Oher comes along.

When it comes to public schools this was an effect of the Boomers defunding public education and came later than the CRM.

Now for housing there is some evidence that removing Red Lining did result in more homogenously poor black neighborhoods as affluent blacks moved out of urban areas into the suburbs where they were allowed.

We know how much @Ancalagon loves statistics, so let's have a look at the reality that Boomers didn't elect Reagan. The Greatest Generation did:

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/polls/us-elections/how-groups-voted/how-groups-voted-1980/

Well you can't expect people to enthusiastically want to fund a public education system their own kids and grandkids don't go to. My dad in his two decades on the school board found out how hard it was to drum up support for millage increases from land owners who didn't have any family in the schools anymore.

Good site garamet!! I added it to my favorites.

Nobody?

I was getting ready to post it, too. I kept waiting and waiting. Wordforge, I am disappoint. @Federal Farmer, I am approve.

Not everyone (not even all Boomers) are short sighted, self centered pieces of shit.

'Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.’

Ignorant people? No. But how do you suppose the doctors and nurses who treated you got the training they needed? The foundation was the public school system, which enabled them to get into medical/nursing schools, not some home-schooled Christian madrasa of your fantasy world.

I'd be interested in a follow up on the book. How has the internet and social media effected things? I can it see it going both ways. For some people it has increased real social connections, while for others it has caused them to retreat into online-only ones which are not nearly as healthy and fulfilling.

You realise that Coach Kitchens thinks that a Madrassa is likely a Lebanese wrap, let alone a curry, right?

From what I understand there is no Christian equivalent to a "madrasa".

Wow, just wow.

You fucking dumb shit.

What the hell do you think a faith school is??????

My point is my friend El Chup is that I have close familiarity with a number of what you would call conservative Christian schools and not one of them has anything remotely like the level of indoctrination and hateful teachings of a "madrasa".

Subjective nonsense. Any faith school practices indoctrination.

• Evolution is a "theory" that's no more valid than the "fact" that the Earth was created in six days
• The Earth is 6,000 years old
• The devil planted those dinosaur bones to confuse the Faithful
  
• Science is a threat to the teachings of Christ
• Christian morality needs to be legislated, preferably at the federal level
  
• Anyone who doesn't agree with this is damned (so saith TLS, anyway)

There's more, but that'll do for starters.

Can you list several Christian schools that teach that as their exclusive science curriculum?

If you're genuinely curious, I'm sure you can find the answer to your question yourself.

I have no interest in researching it because I did not make that claim in the first place You did.

Isn't standard debating practice for the one who makes a claim (except when claiming a negative) that they are obligated to provide evidence to support that claim.

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!

I'd tell him to ask Betsy DeVos, but I doubt he's even heard of her.

Here ya go, @Dayton3, something to do for the rest of your afternoon:

https://www.google.com/search?ei=wf.......0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.Wttmwcgiwaw

Tennessee and Louisiana are not unexpected, but I am somewhat surprised at the number in Florida and Ohio.

If Betsy DeVos had her way, it would be legislated at the federal level and therefore nationwide. In public schools, funded by taxpayer dollars. Someone needs to knock her off her horse before she gets to Damascus.

Do you have any actual evidence that Sec. of Education DeVos wants to force schools to teach creationism.?

And your links are not adequate.

They imply that in those schools creationism is taught as an alternative to regular established scientific thought. But that is not necessarily the case. The way the article words it, if at church schools, "creationism" is simply taught as part of religious orientation or history classes then the school is "teaching creationism" even if they adhere to standard guidelines for scientific teaching.

And "creationism" can show up in pretty routine history teaching when you're going over what each major religion believes involving the beginning of the world.

Force? No. Blackmail, yes.

You've read every single one of them? At least all of the ones on the first page? Remarkable.