I'm no fan of Vance, but I'm really struggling to see why this photo matters.
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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He supports criminalising people of the 'wrong' gender using the wrong bathroom.
That really isn't what's happening in the photo, as I've said in more detail elsewhere in the thread, and pretending that's what's being depicted makes the attack look foolish and desperate.
I see girls in a boys' bathroom for a joke picture? Is that not what it is? That's what he's advocating to criminalise.
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His hypocrisy between what he’s done and what he says.
I dunno man, downvote me or whatever, but this really feels like it's reaching? This is literally just him fucking around as a kid in high school. Who cares?
He's a piece of shit no doubt, but hate him for the stupid shit he's saying and doing now and recently. Not for some random photo of him from over 20 years ago.
For what it’s worth, I have to agree with you. I guess people forget that kids do stupid shit in high school, and this photo isn’t really that stupid. Now if this was a photo of Vance organizing a right-wing group in high school, that might be noteworthy.
Under his proposed law, these girls would be guilty of a crime and would be sex offenders for using a bathroom that doesn't match their birth sex. The fact that it's in a school makes it "worse".
You might say that's unreasonable, but the unreasonable thing is the law, not the kids.
I don't know what these psychopaths have to do before people like this (not you if that wasn't clear) listen to what they're saying. It's unbelievable. Vance openly supports legislation that would literally make these girls criminals, period.
They're telling us who they are, and exactly what they will do. Please listen.
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I went from super conservative evangelical, even harder right than my parents in many ways, in high school, very nearly got pulled into even further right stuff in young adulthood, and now am basically the opposite of all of that. Had facebook been a thing when I was that age, who knows what nonsense I would have been spouting or doing.
I despise Vance and all the he and his ilk stand for, but I agree this just doesn't feel right to me.
Yeah this is a reach. He's a big enough turd we really don't need to stretch this much.
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"So one day you're posing with girls in the boys bathroom and 22 years later you're against it. WHICH IS IT VANCE???"
I guess it's just another Phone-it-in-Friday.
Edit: Shit I'm tired. Forgot what damn day it was.
This really isn't that, though. These women aren't using a men's room, they're posing for a photo. They certainly aren't trans men using a men's room, as is their damn right should they wanna.
It's high schoolers being silly.
Vance is a deplorable man with deplorable ideologies but this doesn't demonstrate any hypocrisy.
This kind of "gotcha" is uncritical, unserious, and looks desperate.
It shows he's changed: he's no longer cool, man.
Wow man, just waking up from a coma?
Anyway, the last decade or so, Republicans have been extremely critical of transgender people, insisting that mixing sexes in the bathroom is criminally negligent, and deserves criminal charges or "self-defense".
J.D. Vance is a Republican politician who is currently running for Vice President. His running mate is fiercely anti-LGBT, as are most of his closest peers in Washington. He has been photographed in drag, and with women in the men's bathroom.
This illustrates hypocrisy, and a lack of claimed values.
If you would like to learn more about right-wing bigotry and hypocrisy, I suggest removing your head from your ass and opening your eyes.
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If anything it's just a bit.. weird....
Thank the gods they didn't have the internet in my younger days. Still, fuck that guy.
I tend to agree and give a ton of leeway to stupid, offensive stuff from years past that people have evolved from. We all said and did stupid stuff that we regret. However, this isn't offensive, and that's to highlight that Vance either A. regressed in his values from being normal to being weirdly pro-hyper-traditional gender roles or B. has no true beliefs and is just saying what he says because he thinks it wins him votes.
So JD Vance has proven to be one of the most hypocritical people in politics, which is a lot to say, like saying he is the one of the people with most guns in Texas or something like that.
This pic, and others like it, are basically checking ALL boxes on the stuff he seemed to be OK with before but now denounces because he is a weird hypocrite.
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Are we a week away from a picture of him in blackface?
I just about guarantee such a picture exists somewhere.
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I went to a summer camp in the 80s and 90s and we had this big event where the camp was separated into groups and each given a country. There were a ton of events, but some of the events were writing a song about the country and then another where you would act out some spirit event for the country. Always points for being dressed up with "traditional" clothing from the country.
It was a wretched hive of cultural appropriation and stereotypes. The song I remember the most is about how everyone was starving in Ethiopia. I saw some pictures of us all dressed and man oh man, if I were running for office those would be incredibly embarrassing.
Know what I know now, I realize how wrong the whole thing was and doesn't represent me at all 30 years later. In fact I even stand against these things now.
One could easily look at these and claim im some massive hypocrite. But the reality is that I was a dumb teen having fun and now I've grown up.
On some level, I feel bad for people who think we should hold shit that happened as a teenager against us...like were you not out having fun being an impetous dumbass? Is these nothing you did as a teenager that you wouldn't do now or think is wrong?
I basically agree with you, but the subtext is a little different.
I don't think this photo is damning in any way. It looks like some kids having fun in a pretty typical way. It's pretty normal for kids to "joke," and play around with gender. But this dude had some fun as a teen and now he's trying his damnedest to ensure no one ever gets to express themselves in a way that is incongruous with their agab. It's worth pointing out that that's shitty for some specific reasons.
He's a piece of shit because his policies are terrible. Whether or not his current actions are congruent with his actions as a teen, which is true for most all of us, are two separate things.
I don't believe he's genuine, but if he is, like I am with my current beliefs, stupidity as kid shouldn't be held as some evidence against who he is now.
Don't get me wrong, when I first saw this my reaction was "he's the gift that keeps on giving" but after some introspection, the more I think about it, the less I like it.
See that's just it I don't think this picture shows that he was stupid as a kid I think it shows that he's unwilling to grant the freedom of self-expression and self-discovery that he went through to kids today.
It's not his participation in this picture that is damning in any way, It's who he is now that damns him.
The kid in this picture was doing normal kid shit, I can't even figure out why someone might be offended by it but I know a Republican WOULD immediately reach for their pearlsif they saw this picture thinking it was taken recently. They would call it wokeness, and attribute it to the deep state.
That's a good point. It's just kinda funny because my reaction to it is basically "wow. maybe he actually used to be a real human."
I think probably this just illustrates that he's not genuine. That said I like your reflection that past behaviour should not be used as evidence against who a person is currently. That's probably a good baseline, even if the past evidence could actually be viewed in a positive light.
Anyways. Thanks for the thoughtful exchange.
I agree with the teen stuff. At some point, we expect that people quit the dumb, attention seeking behavior. If they don't learn, it becomes weird. It also is why the weird meme sticks so hard. It is MAGA signature brand.
TLDR: Kleenex became synonymous for tissues. MAGA is weird in the same way.
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~~“Kamala Harris created inflation that’s crushing American families, caused a historic crisis at our southern border, and allowed deadly fentanyl to flood into communities across our country,~~ (complete bullshit) and this is what the media is worried about,” a spokesperson for Vance told The Daily Beast in a statement when asked about the photo.
“A goofy high school yearbook from over 20 years ago? Get a life,” the spokesperson concluded (I actually 100% agree with this.)
This is just fucking stupid. There are half a billion more important things to discuss, we don't need this kind of stupidity in the national conversation.
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JD Vance puts his cast iron in the dishwasher pass it on
These were his early years, where he was only experimenting with dry humping ottomans.
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Why did this matter? At all?
For normal people? It doesn't matter in the slightest.
For MAGA? Who knows. Probably something something trans ruining society
I am very glad this community seems to feel the same. I was on a reddit post earlier and everyone was acting like this is some sort of damning evidence...it looks like a high school yearbook photo that doesn't matter at all. I thought I was taking crazy pills.
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Weird photo.
I mean I don't care about the bathroom stuff, he's just weird.
who cares about this? I mean if it's something he's still into yeah but teenagers will take lots of photos that are not to be taken seriously
The three other girls in the picture were the president, treasurer, and secretary, according to the outlet.
Are they trying to bait him??!! 😂
He's so classy, no wonder Yale wanted him.
I’m convinced at this point that these so called elite institutions are fertile grounds for most of the rich sociopaths that are root cause of majority of current problems
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This is high school stuff. Humorous for the yearbook, not a big deal even with his current position on trans people. I'm far more concerned about him being supportive of book writers on fascist movements. As Obama has said in the past, stay focused. We don't need to make things more than they are when there's bad stuff readily available to attack.
Seeing this picture of JD Vance made it all make sense.
The suits, the apparent eyeliner, the sudden radical changes of viewpoint, the book, the sucking up to fascists as long as they will keep paying his bills and tell him he’s acceptable. All of it. It just kind of all clicked into focus.
No hate for people who were big and awkward in high school. It’s all good, and you don’t have to grow up into the modern monstrosity that is Vance just because this is where you started. He’s actually clearly smarter than a lot of the people in that orbit. He should know better; that’s one of the things that made it all weird and hard to understand. I’m just saying that seeing where he started makes it make sense all the little incongruities about where he ended up, as of now.
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