So, in a gross violation of free speech, Russia bans "gay propaganda", and apparently 86% conservatives on Sodahead think this is a great thing. What do you think about that?

Not surprised. Ugh. I’ve been reading about gay rights in Russia for years. You know, @ragingloli, in the great state of Alabama, high school sex education teachers are required to lie to students and tell them that being gay is illegal.

Butt sex is so appealing that you have to banish all sources of temptation. This is the closest I can get to rationalizing what the world-view must be behind such policies (but of course there is nothing rational about it).

My impression of Russia, knowing very little about the country admittedly, is the society is fairly macho. Funny, because of stereotypes in my head I don’t expect it, I expect it from Latin America and the Arab world, not Europe, but from what I have seen, the dynamic among Russians is making the men king and the woman submissive. Not that I think everyone in the culture is like that, just a generalization. With that usual comes some homophobia in my experience. I am curious to know what percentage of the country is very relgious. A Russian friend of mine is religious and quite superstitious. Interesting considering the country was communist and suppossedly the citizenry was expected to be atheists not very long ago. I don’t know what’s worse, the Russians voting in such a thing, or so many Americans applauding it.

@bookish1 Are you sure Alabama is still doing that? It was illegal until about 10 years ago, so possibly it is old information you have. Although, I don’t for a second doubt it is possible some teachers are still teaching it. It was deemed illegal by the US Supreme Court, which AL might not give a damn about. The law might still be on their books even though federal law trumps their law.

Russia accepted psychological illness as a reason why a person might not be able to attend the work force like, six years ago. I’m not surprised. Hell I don’t know if it’s true, but being a Goth over there is nearly illegal.

The place is what it is. Sucks that it’s like that, but for some reason I find places like Sodahead approving of this even more disgusting. A lot of the comments on there that I’m seeing are pure garbage. Pretty fucking funny seeing people from a free country praising this kinda thing. If they like it so much, why don’t they just fucking move over there then.

I always thought Russia was a fascinating place with a unique culture, but unfortunately its government and social evolution sure does suck. :(

The entire Russian army are gay anyway so you’d imagine they knew better.

Countries that have many problems tend to blame all their problems on some kind of scapegoat; Uganda and Russia are examples of countries where all the problems are blamed on gays. In Romania, they blame gypsies. In medieval Europe, they blamed Jews. In many modern European countries, they blame Muslims or other immigrants; we do the same in America. It’s just humans being humans.

Not to provide the “unhelpful cynical” answer, but that’s honestly how I feel about it :) And yes, I am probably more disturbed at the comments on that site, although not terribly surprised.

Ridonculous.

Glasnost

I’m trying to understand the definition of “gay propaganda” – that sounds like an incredibly wishy-washy term that could be tacked on to anything that the speaker decided to put it on.

After all Sesame Street has gay characters. Is that considered propaganda?

@DominicX is absolutely right about finding scapegoats. In the USA everything wrong is still all Bush’s fault, unless you’re a Republican, in which case it’s all Obama’s doing.

There’s no real telling whether those who approve of Russia doing this are in favor because they think that it’s absolutely a good idea, or because once again the Russians are making a huge mistake, and the SodaHead approvers are simply following Napoleon’s advice to “Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

@CWOTUS I get that, and I really don’t know what the fuck Sodahead even really is, anyway. Lol. But I’m betting most of the users come from a free country, so I find it sad that people who praise their government and country for its freedom would approve a country that’s being a tyrannical asshole with its decisions, when they’re supposed to be against this kind of stuff, at least ideally.

or because once again the Russians are making a huge mistake, and the SodaHead approvers are simply following Napoleon’s advice to “Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

Yeah, somehow I doubt it, unless everyone on that site is some kind of governmental official.

If anyone can stand to hear another point of view, then please refer to the actual SodaHead article, which twice states that the only ban on speech occurring here is the ability to pass out LGBT information to minors. Personally, I would hope that issues of sexuality were handled within the family, with unencumbered parental influence, until the minor becomes adult. I see no information in that article stating that LGBT info is banned for adults.

The ban also outlaws Gay Pride Parades. On one hand, that is very unfortunate. I don’t believe that should be banned. But consider something here. The photo library posted on SodaHead is missing information as to where or when the parade(s) took place. It leads us to believe that these are photos from a recent Russian Gay Pride Parade. That is the immediate perception. But without credits, who knows when or where these photos were taken. The article, combined with these undocumented photos, could easily be swaying the SodaHead vote.

But here’s the biggest reason why this is important. The photos shown don’t have anything whatsoever to do with Gay Pride. These particular photos should better be tagged as a Sexual Exhibitionist Parade. One photo shows a man with half ass showing. Another displays three Sailors in open ass jock straps. What on earth does that have to do with being Gay?

That’s no more a Gay thing than if female Strippers held a “public” parade with body parts hanging out… But called it a Women’s Rights Parade.

I think the community (wherever these photos are from), would be better informed about Gay Pride, were the Parad-ians dressed more similar to the community they wished to endear. I highly doubt there would be much rejection of the Pride Parades, if the pride was centered more around what the Gay community has actually contributed to society. Consider the potential perception change if these young men were dressed fashionably. It would also be a great opportunity to tout the Gay arts community.

But I’m sorry folks. I wouldn’t want these ass shakers rolling through my neighborhood any more than I’d want a female stripper parade. The propensity for sexual exhibitionism may be hurting the LGBT cause more than they know.

Not surprised that Russia is anti-gay. Even less surprised that Sodahead is the same.

It’s a poll….on the Internet…..the same Internet responsible for YouTube comments.

Russia is pretty fucked up. Isn’t this the place where it’s common when a woman applies for a job they ask her to submit bathing suit pictures? Read that once.

@JLeslie My impression of Russia, knowing very little about the country admittedly, is the society is fairly macho. Funny, because of stereotypes in my head I don’t expect it, I expect it from Latin America and the Arab world, not Europe

Russia is in Asia, isn’t it?

When is propaganda ever considered a good thing?

@FutureMemory It’s mostly in Asia but it’s primarily a Slavic country, not Arabic.

@FutureMemory Somewhere around ⅔ is in Asia I think, maybe a little more. The rest is in Europe. Unless you work on the contental map of Eurasia being one continent, then the whole country is in Eurasia. All the Russians I know in America are from the European end. Also, I saw a documentary on making Everybody Loves Raymond (I think it was that show?) in Russia and the macho stuff was very apparent. But, I am not saying the whole population is like that. It was not just that men have to be portrayed as strong, but also the women need to be all dressed up and packaged, and every so ften a sex pot should appear on the show. Think Spanish Soap Opera. LOL.

What a scandal. The Russian mindset seems stuck in the dark ages. We should boycott Russian gas like we should boycott Saudi Arabian oil.

I wouldn’t take any sodahead poll as universal truth to determine how the majority of people feel on a certain issue on that site. I was a member of sodahead for close to two years, so I know how that site rolls. One thing you need to understand about sodahead is that it has many more active members than a site like this.

As a result of the latter circumstance it’s not uncommon for a question pertaining to a certain topic to be asked by several different users. There were only little over 250 votes overall on that thread, which by sodahead standards is not alarge number. There’s also a blocking function on that site, and many liberals get blocked by conservatives so they can’t only respond to a thread, but they can’t vote in polls either set up by conservatives or moderates (99% of the ‘moderates’ on there are closet conservatives).

Conservatives also have their own private groups on there, and will frequently gather the masses to swarm vote in their favor. I know the latter scenerio occurs too because I was able to access two of these private conservative groups on there (I’m not saying how). Conservatives and nonconservatives are somewhat even in numbers on there, though there are a few more conservatives than not. Also, the neocons tend to be much louder and aggressive on there. Well now you know why I left.

Well back on topic. The law in Russia is supposed to be against exposing minors to homosexual propaganda. However, the law is bogus in my opinion, and the fact that this law was passed by an increasingly fascist turning government with declining population problems makes me suspicious. The law is so vague that when you look at its details almost any homosexual could be charged with a crime. Frighteningly, around three quarters of the Russian people supported these oppressive laws it appears despite protests from homosexuals and liberals.

Russia has a dark history concerning many of its people supporting totalitarianism over the years. Putin and his fascist agenda is as powerful as it is because the majority of Russians choose to be idiots (I’m half Russian myself by the way). Russia (namely the old USSR) lost a great deal of men in wars, and now their population is suffering a massive decline. What’s Russia to do now with too little men to fight its wars and enforce this country’s fascist agenda? Maybe all fascism loving countries should lower their populations to the point of extinction.

^I’ve looked around Sodahead a lot, mostly because of the claims that it’s the anti-Fluther. I still have yet to post, but what I did see was a post where over ¼ of the votes were in favor of criminalizing homosexuality. I still don’t think I’ll be posting any time soon… ;)

@DominicX Outside of little kiddie drama it’s actually a rather boring site, if you’re looking for serious discussion that is. Picture media and copy and paste posts are the typical sodahead conservative responses to a decent rebuttal. Politics aren’t really my thing too so perhaps I’d found the aspect of political topics being front and center on there boring as well.

You’re not missing nothing, and if you’re weak conservatives will attempt to bait you so you get banned. I became a target myself on there, but I deactivated my own account. Most of sodahead’s polls are like fuax news, they’re phony and highly censored by conservatives.