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JD Vance, no fan of gender-neutral bathrooms, was photographed in his high school yearbook next to three girls posing in front of urinals in a bathroom during his senior year.

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[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 168 points 1 month ago (14 children)

I'm no fan of Vance, but I'm really struggling to see why this photo matters.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 191 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He supports criminalising people of the 'wrong' gender using the wrong bathroom.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 70 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

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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[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 78 points 1 month ago (3 children)

His hypocrisy between what he’s done and what he says.

[–] Thatuserguy@lemmy.world 75 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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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[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

So it's fine for teenage girls to go into the boys bathroom because "teens will be teens" but it isn't ok for trans boys to go to boys bathrooms because... why, exactly?

Like how are you not seeing the blatant hypocrisy between this action and the rhetoric he spews?

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So it's fine for teenage girls to go into the boys bathroom because "teens will be teens" but it isn't ok for trans boys to go to boys bathrooms because... why, exactly?

You’re making a lot of assumptions here; correlation does not mean causation. You don’t know of the circumstances behind the photo. You only know that there are girls in a men’s bathroom and Vance happens to be in the photo.

I never said in any way shape or form that it wasn’t okay for transgender people to use their respective bathrooms. I sure as Hell have never defended Vance’s stances. But if you want to go putting words in my mouth because it fits your narrative, you go right ahead. But know this if you do: that makes you no better than them.

Like how are you not seeing the blatant hypocrisy between this action and the rhetoric he spews?

Honestly, if you want to rip on Vance for the things he’s done, it’s probably wise to choose more relevant situations to criticize him for; not some picture from high school that he was a part of simply because the student body president (not him) wanted to make a joke about the patriarchy of the time.

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[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 22 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] Moops@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah this is a reach. He's a big enough turd we really don't need to stretch this much.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Back to the couch people!

[–] Spot@startrek.website 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm thinking, if you got to have fun, minding your own business... not hurting anyone; No matter how much you may have grown or changed and no longer like or approve of doing those activities, you don't get to be part of a brigade that strips the rights from people who DO choose to and again, aren't hurting anyone. You don't get to incite violence against people who are Minding Their Own Fucking Business without the bare minimum of getting exposed for being a fucking hypocritical piece of shit.

[–] Thatuserguy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Again, he's a piece of shit and deserves to be called out for it. But like, this is the equivalent of putting out a hit piece about how he didn't share his juice box in elementary school, showing that he's always been against social welfare programs. Like, what?

Even if that is true, I'm not the same person with the same views as I was in high school, and I imagine most aren't. You're not a hypocrite for that; you just grew up. Unfortunately he grew up in the wrong direction, but I think holding people to things they did and believed in a completely different stage of their life is wrong.

Judge people for who they are here and now. There are FAR more consequential and important things that energy is better spent attacking him on than a joke picture in a yearbook from 22 years ago.

[–] Spot@startrek.website 4 points 1 month ago

Sure, but he's unwilling to let others grow and make their own choices in their time. Just because you don't do something anymore is no reason to ban everyone else from doing it now, let alone criminalize it. He got to be curious and explore who he is, he should be letting others do the same. Exposing this stuff helps show what he is taking away from others even though it was OK when he did it.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"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.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] DMBFFF@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago

It shows he's changed: he's no longer cool, man.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He's pushing for laws that make what you see in that pic a crime.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is a picture in a High School yearbook.

It's not a picture of trans people exercising their rights to use a bathroom that fits their gender.

It's ridiculous to make those things equivalent and say it demonstrates some hypocrisy makes the author look foolish and desperate.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 13 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It’s ridiculous to make those things equivalent

Yet the laws proposed by Republicans do just that.

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[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] meowMix2525@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I totally agree with you about right wing hypocrisy and bigotry, I just don't think this will serve as a good example of it. Being transphobic wouldn't preclude him, or anyone that could be swayed to vote for him, from thinking that gender bending (mocking trans people) comedy is funny... not all performances are endorsements. Things like minstrel shows and blackface were also considered funny at a point in time and it's not because anyone involved thought blacks were people or deserving of equal rights.

[–] OccamsRazer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

They know all of this, but the only thing that matters is making the opposition look bad. The narrative is the only thing that matters, and reality or context are mere inconveniences. It's a politics thing. Annoying if you want the truth, but unfortunately effective in a popularity contest like the US elections.

[–] GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I mean sure. But if anyone sees their pleas as anything other than a smoke screen, I don't think we are in the same game. I have no way of taking them as anything other than just gaslighting.

[–] ValorieAF@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

If anything it's just a bit.. weird....

[–] slickgoat@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Thank the gods they didn't have the internet in my younger days. Still, fuck that guy.

[–] astronaut_sloth@mander.xyz 9 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Because he's purportedly a man of family values and that includes strict gender lines.

[–] exanime@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (6 children)

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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[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not everything has to "matter".

[–] OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Also, Lemmy is not the target audience that these revelations are meant for.

[–] JiveTurkey@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I came here to say this. I'm not a fan but who fucking cares about this shit? It just seems petty and desperate.

[–] comrade19@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Careful i said something similar about the 'yep' comment from 2020 and i got some aggressive replies on here. (Apparently im an enlightened centralist or something haha) I agree with you though theres so much worse out there on this weird fella

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm a fan of the semi-newish tactic of making the RNC look like hypocritical weirdos. It's effective and there's plenty of material to work with. These kind of reaches look desperate and that's really not the position the DNC is fighting from nor needs to.

[–] exanime@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I’m a fan of the semi-newish tactic of making the RNC look like hypocritical weirdos

"Making them look"?.... I think you misspelled "exposing them for being"

[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago

It's like Trump and the Koi fish feeding nonsense. Or Obama and Tan Suits. Just weird shit to fixate on

[–] fan0m@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

It’s just plain weird