this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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[–] discocactus@lemmy.world 7 points 1 hour ago

The Pentagon funds the scouts? FFS...

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 7 points 1 hour ago

Imagine being so invested in the extracurriculars of other people's kids

[–] AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Ah yes, return to the roots of boys will be boys

“For more than a decade now, Scouting America’s leadership has made decisions that run counter to the values of this administration and this department of war, including an embrace of DEl and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances. This is unacceptable,” Mr Parnell wrote on social media.

What were they up to before that decade?

Scout's Honor

In February 2020, the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. By the end of that year more than 82,000 former Scouts had come forward with claims of sexual abuse that took place during their time as members of the organization — meaning, of course, when they were minors. Their claims span across decades and generations, all over the United States.

I know not everything they do relates back to protecting the wealthy global pedophelia network, but honestly this probably does.

There were even troops where boys from unstable homes were targeted and recruited by "scout leaders" with the promise of offering them better lives.

New Orleans Boy Scout Troop 137

The scoutmasters preyed upon children from unstable backgrounds and used them for child pornography and their own sexual pleasure, as well as pimping them out to pederasts in and outside of Louisiana.

By May 1977, nineteen men were charged with abuse in relation to Troop 137. According to then-district attorney of Orleans Parish, Harry Connick, the clients had abused other children in thirty-four different U.S. states, as well as in England. Contacts of the troop to pederasts abroad, as far as Saudi Arabia, were discovered, as were filing cabinets full of letters dating back to 1956 of men requesting access to boys.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

When there is Jesus, little kids get fondled. Fucking disgusting.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think the scouts in the US started as religious (or at least not strongly religious), but there was plenty of molestation going on even back then. Or maybe I'm not remembering everything correctly--it's been awhile since I listened to the Behind the Bastards episodes on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT2xoNCWd10

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk 7 points 2 hours ago

It was started by Baden Powell in the UK. He wrote a book called "scouting for boys". A lot of scoutmasters took that literally.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago

The MAGA asswipes would like to transform the Boy Scouts into their version of the Hitler Youth, Young Pioneers and other fucked-up youth groups for brainwashing purposes.

[–] Fourth@mander.xyz 3 points 2 hours ago

Telegraph is an absolute shitrag

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 29 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

I would like to point out that Kegsbreath was not a Scout.

Also, even if he was, how having girls in the Scouts affects him, personally, is a real mystery.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 6 points 1 hour ago

I was in scouts. People brought their sisters to meetings all the time. They joined in whatever we were doing and it was fine. I also went on a couple girl scout trips. I don't even remember how that happened but we had a fun time. Most of the girls I met as a kid and remained friends with through my teens I met through scouts. Good experiences all around.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 hours ago

He thinks boys should only meet girls in college by roofieing them.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 39 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Republicans will do literally anything to avoid actually governing.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago

They are really afraid of girls who know how to castrate.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 13 points 7 hours ago

This is the truth. It's stupid culture war shit all the way down with these guys. Harmful stuff that will do nothing but help a few angry incels jerk off to "owning the libs", but providing nothing of value to anyone in the country except for billionaires.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 16 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

Lol I know like a dozen eagle scouts and today 100% of them are gay or trans. Trying to keep the BSA conservative while every uncomfortable father is enrolling their pansy son is a game of entropy that the right cannot win.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 41 minutes ago

Yep lol, a decent chunk of the trans women I've slept with have been eagle scouts

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe they worry this is where the trans learn to shoot.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

At least Scouts teach firearm safety, which clearly ICE skipped in their rush to terrorize neighborhoods

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 45 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

This kind of policymaking brought to you by Tough Secure Manly Men, we swear

[–] Insekticus@aussie.zone 8 points 7 hours ago

Making America safe by getting rid of the real threat from within, once and for all ... girl scouts.

[–] ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 132 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The relationship between Scouting and the Pentagon is also codified in law, which states that the Pentagon must seek a waiver from Congress if the military intends to cut its support, and explain why giving that assistance “would be detrimental to the national security of the United States”.

I love how they tag this minor detail onto the very end where they have to publicly justify it to congress rather than just doing whatever autocratic whim they feel like.

[–] Ironfist79@lemmy.world 15 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

Why does the military have anything to do with scouts?

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 4 points 2 hours ago

Scouts does do a really good job of preparing kids for the military if they so choose. Many of the hard and soft skills it teaches are very military-esque. Or put another way, I was chatting with another parent who's oldest just joined the military at 18 and they said the training is just like scouts and credited scouts with preparing them well for the military

[–] Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 15 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

If you get eagle scout you get a small raise when you join the military, same as if you had an associates degree.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago

You recieve the same bonus for a few different things. I think the girl scouts gold award and sea scouts quartermaster award give the same enlistment rank bonus.

[–] Ageroth@reddthat.com 7 points 5 hours ago

It's not really teaching Boys to Scout, it's a program that is Scouting for Boys who are likely to do well in situations similar to the military, albeit a less modern one than exists today.

[–] AccoSpoot@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 7 hours ago

Dumbest dystopia ever.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

So fucking weird that they care so much.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 15 points 9 hours ago

Culture war BS to distract the MAGA base from the class war.

[–] Janx@piefed.social 4 points 6 hours ago

Their low-information voters care about this shit.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

I think anyone butthurt about having girls in Scouts has a very tiny penis. I don't have an explanation for the women obsessed with this kind of thing, though.

If you are not a kid in Scouts or you are not a parent involved in Scouts, this affects you how? The right is obsessed with all sorts of shit that does not affect them in the least. They'll take up this kind of cause, all while they cannot afford to get by in this economy. It's so fucking stupid.

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[–] Theprogressivist@lemmy.world 59 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

The real enemy to America all along...Girl Scouts and their cookies. /s

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

TBF some of these gravy seals could cut back on the cookies a bit.

[–] Lasherz12@lemmy.world 27 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

Scouts = boyscouts. Girls scouts is far worse and they're not associated.

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 22 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

GS are just cookie dealers that sometimes go camping. Between my two kids each being one or both programs the GS spend 70% of their meetings and time together talking about and planning cookie sales. The Scouts go on twice as many camping trips and only fund raise around Christmas. But one kid whom is in the more camp group is in the richer areas troop meanwhile the GS is in the lower income area so they tend to just try to make money.

My point in GS is for the kids you want to someday be in sales and the Scouts are for the kids who want to experience the outdoors.

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 points 1 hour ago

I was attending the informational sessions from both GirlScouts and Scouts while trying to make the call for our daughter and the tone shift was jarring, where GirlScouts it was all "we're going to sell cookies and learn important things you need to know as a girl" and became honestly kinda sexist and just tried to badmouth Scouts when I asked how it compares. Meanwhile Scouts it was just "look we're going to go hiking and camping and make a race car to race and have fun!" (and had the exact same answer when I asked how Scouts compares to GirlScouts)

So yeah we ultimately went with the more inclusive option that didn't recoil at the idea of her wanting her brother who she adores to join and didn't turn to badmouthing the alternative when asked how they compare. And guess what, she's having a blast and it feels weird that it was ever a gendered thing in the first place!

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

A big part of the problem with girl scouts, in my opinion, is that a lot of the time the troops are kind of temporary.

Usually group of girls and their parents (usually moms, who may or may not have any scouting experience of their own) start up a troop, more-or-less from scratch when the girls are brownie or daisy-aged, and then that's pretty much it, they don't really do any ongoing recruitment, it stays just those same girls until they all either quit or age out of the program and then the troop dissolves.

Meanwhile, the (boy scout) troop I came up through is going to be celebrating its 100 year anniversary in a year or two. They have a garage full of troop gear, money in the bank, and decades of institutional knowledge of how to be a scout and how to run a scout program. We had one or two kids whose or father and I think even grandfather had earned their eagle from the same troop, the current scoutmaster was in the troop a couple years before me and his kids are in it now, the one before him was already scoutmaster when I started before his kid was old enough to join and stayed on for a few years after his son aged out, and every year we got a new batch of kids joining, some years more than others sure, but there was always new blood coming in

So there's a lot more continuity and something like generational wealth going on with the BSA. Girl scouts generally need to hit the cookies and fundraising hard because they're often kind of starting from 0 (not that there isn't some valid criticism about how the cookie sales work and how the money is distributed and used, but I don't know enough about that to really go into it)

And as far as recruitment, boy scouts made it really easy to find a troop, there's a website you can go on and find all of the ones near you, so if your kid just suddenly wanted to join, or if you moved and needed to find a new one it was dead simple to look that up. At least at the time when I was in, girl scouts didn't really have anything similar, unless you were already in the know about when and where the existing troops met you were kind of SOL if you wanted to join one. I remember one of our leaders talking about some sort of community event they were trying to put together, they had some representatives from a couple other local organizations and other scout troops and such coming, and they wanted to see if any of the local girl scout troops would want to take part, but he just couldn't get in touch with any of them, couldn't find contact info, when he reached out to their local council they basically stonewalled him

And unfortunately just by the nature of it usually being the moms who are the involved parents with girl scouts as opposed to usually the dads, with boy scouts there's often a bit less outdoorsy knowledge to build on (some of my best hiking/camping/fishing buddies are women, but until I was the one who started inviting them out, a lot of them had never done much that kind of thing, and unfortunately that's not a terribly uncommon situation, whereas guys tend to be more likely to grow up doing that sort of thing with their dads)

All that said, I've known a decent amount of girl scouts, and while a lot of them got stuck with shitty programs, there were a handful that actually probably went harder than we did in boy scouts. The odds aren't exactly in your favor of ending up in one of those girl scout troops, but with the right parents, kids, and resources they actually can put on a really good outdoor program (and their campgrounds are usually really nice as well) they just don't have the systems in place to make sure that all of their troops are able to do that to the same extent boy scouts can.

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[–] MerrySkeptic@sh.itjust.works 36 points 10 hours ago (6 children)

Just going to comment here to avoid some misconceptions. Apologies for the long comment. Tl;Dr, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are not part of the same parent organization.

Scouting America is basically a rebrand for Boy Scouts of America. The rebrand happened when they began to admit girls into the program, like 8 years ago or do. Many people get confused thinking that Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts USA are partner organizations when they are not. They are two independent programs with different missions and values. For example, Boy Scouts has maintained Declaration of Religious Principle which requires to members to sign an agreement that states that they believe in some sort of higher power. They also include a Duty to God in their Scout Oath. Girl Scouts on the other hand is a secular organization that does not require a belief in any higher power but does encourage members to explore their own faith if they have one.

The decision for BSA to admit girls was a controversial one even within the organization, but their numbers have been flagging for a while and they felt that allowing girls in would help. There was also a more progressive wing within the organization that recognized how discriminatory this was and wanted to reform the organization. Joining Boy Scouts, with an organizational emphasis on nature, citizenship, and skill mastery, would be a different experience for girls than Girl Scouts, which allows troops to pick for themselves what they want to focus on to develop leadership and confidence and often doesn't include camping at all. Many girls joined Girl Scouts expecting it to have the same focus as Boy Scouts, would be disappointed, and then drop out. This could give the Boy Scout experience to girls.

In order to make this happen, it was agreed that girls would have separate troops from boys. They could share resources but each troop would have their own youth and adult leaders and would need to camp in separate sites. It is not like they are sharing tents or anything like that.

So that's why it is obvious to me that the Pentagon taking this stance is clearly regressive and just trying to be anti-woke and going after an easy target. The military is already coed, so why not give girls the same support and experiences that boys can have in Scouting? Its just another red flag that they want to prevent women from advancing in the military. They know that Scouting America is in a tough spot and thinks they can either get them to regress and tacitly endorse anti-wokeness or be made an example of.

There's another recent change in Scouting America that was also controversial and seen as woke that the article doesn't address. Following the George Floyd protests Scouting America came up with a new merit badge that would be required for any scout that wanted to reach the rank of Eagle: Citizenship in Society. This badge explicitly discusses racial injustice and teaches Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion principles. As you can imagine, this did not sit well with conservative members and many left in protest (though many had already left when girls and gays were allowed). There have been a few different new organizations attempting to recapture the old school Boy Scout mentality with a doubled down emphasis on gender exclusivity, religion, and pure meritocracy without any regard to positions of privilege. They are growing and I suspect one will try to replace Scouting America as the youth organization of choice for the military.

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Hey Democrats, here's how to spin it:

"THEYRE TRYING TO TAKE AWAY YOUR THIN MINTS."

It doesn't need to be accurate. Get on their level.

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[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 43 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

I guess they are arguing the Scouts arent educational or work. As both work and education have laws banning discrimination based on sex if they receive federal funding.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 45 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Fascists don't make a case. They just use force. In their view, argument and reason are for the weak, and the weak should not live.

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[–] U7826391786239@lemmy.zip 18 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

yea, because when boys hang around with and work with and collaborate with girls from a young age, then they might start to see girls and women as something other than property/servants/fuckholes/birthing cows that are inferior in every way. god fucking forbid our poor innocent angel boys are subject to such hideous equality

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