> Middle eastern and south Asian countries that shame people for pre-marital sex largely managed to avoid the AIDS epidemic

this is absurd, there are plenty of countries who have high levels of shame where aids is still running rampant. and to even imply that we (the us) didn’t have high levels of pre-marital sex in “the good old days when we could shame people” is naive to an extreme.

> let’s not forget that we live in a country that became a world power under a social structure that was much more rigid and repressive than the one we have today.

if you’re suggesting that i should intentionally live under rigid repression to “be a world power” i say nah, thanks tho. i’d rather we were a middling country where people are free and not living under some authoritarian religious kooks or whatever power would be repressing me “for my own good” because they have deluded themselves that they “know better than we do” what will make us happy.