HOW TO SHUT DOWN SOMEONE WHO'S TRYING 
TO SHUT DOWN SERIOUS TALK ABOUT SEX ED

As you might have noticed, I've tentatively taken Real Art into the waters of facebook.  I mean, not in the format used here, of course; rather, I've been sort of adapting certain posts for a wider audience, one that includes lots of conservatives, moderates, and people who just don't give a fuck about politics one way or the other.  And most of these people I know/have known in real life.  So it doesn't pay to get terribly bombastic.  Indeed, I'm trying to aim these posts squarely at conservatives, trying to get them to respond in a constructive way.  And I've gotten some good results, which I've then turned around and re-posted here.  I might not be persuading anybody in a definitive way, but I'm getting people to consider my arguments, and that's much better, I think, than their not considering my arguments.

Of course, it's all a learning curve for me.

Sometimes, not often, but often enough, I'll get a comment that's a conversation killer, the kind of thing that attempts to put an end to the discussion.  And I got one of those for my sex ed post from yesterday:

Wayne At what age is it appropriate for your school teacher to explain anal sex to your children.

In keeping with my self-imposed no bombast rule, I clicked "like" on his comment and responded:

Ronald Middle school, right around puberty when anal sex becomes a possibility. And for some, a probability.

Then I went on my merry way surfing around fb.  But I kept thinking about it, and it occurred to me what this guy was doing.  I mean, I treated it as simply a normal question, deserving of a normal answer.  And, hell, maybe it was a normal question.  But I don't think so.  I think this was one of those conversation killers.  So I went back:

Ronald Adding: given that anal sex is one of the riskiest behaviors as far as safe sex is concerned, given its prevalence in internet pornography, and given that more Americans are now practicing it than ever before, it is vital that it be included in sex ed programs. Employing the term "anal sex," and stringing it together with the words "children" and "teacher" as some sort of argument is nothing short of Puritanical hysterics, extraordinarily unsuited for the era in which we live. Worse, attempting to shut down the conversation with bad evil ANAL SEX does a massive disservice to America's youth. Gotta keep your cool. It's a big bad world out there.

I tried to end on a more upbeat note, you know, so as to tone down the bombast.  But if I'm right about where this guy's coming from, and it's tough to say because he's a "friend" of a "friend" who I've never even heard of, then his cheap rhetorical theatrics needed to be addressed.  That is, I'm assuming this guy already has his own answer for the question he asked, and, instead of simply furthering the discussion, was trying to put it into his own territory, where "anal sex" "children" and "teacher" are emotionally meaningful enough when put together to make us stop considering the serious business of sex ed in the schools.  It's fear mongering and bad argumentation.  And I had to call bullshit on it.

As usual, maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe it was an honest question.  And maybe I haven't shut him down yet.  He might be back bright and early tomorrow morning to wave around some more anal sex.  We'll see.

But I'm sure as hell not afraid of this guy sticking a butthole in my face.

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