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.
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.
I’ve always said that you can’t just take one piece of a person’s life out of context to judge them. You have to look at the complete picture. You from 30 years ago doesn’t represent who you are today. BUT…it can inform a complete picture.
Remember the news articles about teenaged Mitt Romney holding a classmate down and forcibly cutting the kid’s hair? By itself, it just said Romney was a jerk as a kid. If Romney turned into an upstanding person over the years, it would be unfair to judge him based on what he did as a teenager. But we have the family dog incident and the numerous Bain articles to add to his teenaged antics, and we can build a complete picture of him, a picture that shows year after year, he was a jerk that liked to lord it over ‘inferiors’. We harped on that, all the way to his 47% comment, to illustrate that he thinks people who aren’t multi-millionaire hedge-fund conservatives should shut up and take the boot to the face. We convinced enough people in 2012 that despite Obama’s handling of 2009 through 2012, Obama should get a second chance rather than let “Better Than Thou” Romney get into office.
JD Vance (and his boss) fit in the same boat. We’re NOT just hammering him based on the fact that he did stupid stuff as a kid. We’re pointing the hypocrisy of getting all up in other people’s business while having some really weird shit going on in his business. And his history of telling other people what to do extends all the way to the present day.
In short, Vance hasn’t changed, so his teenage antics are fair game.
