Lumifer comments on Open thread, Sep. 28 - Oct. 4, 2015

Lumifer 29 Sep 2015 0:41 UTC
6 points

Inside the Amish little world it is very difficult to learn about other ways of living.

This is not true. Amish do not live in gated communities. They are in daily contact with normal (albeit rural) American life.

hipsters, emos, goths, surfer dudes, straight-edge punks, Harley-Davidson riders, tattooists, backpackers, metalheads, otakus and LARPers all hanging out with each other

That’s not true either. They don’t.

In any case, your claim was “More children of conservatives does not equal more conservative people”. There are a lot more Amish and Amish are definitely “conservative people”. Why are there more Amish?
- polymathwannabe 29 Sep 2015 0:58 UTC
  0 points
  Parent
  From Wikipedia:
  
  … average of seven children per family.
  
  Amish rules allow marrying only between members of the Amish Church.
  
  They typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education at grade eight, at age ¹³⁄₁₄.
  
  Almost no Amish go to high school and college.
  
  the educational authorities allow the Amish to educate their children in their own ways.
  
  Desertion from the Amish community is not a long-term trend, and was more of a problem in the early colonial years.
  
  Rumspringa notwithstanding, the Amish way of life has several built-in features that repel modern influences without needing physical fences to do so.
  - Lumifer 29 Sep 2015 1:30 UTC
    4 points
    Parent
    
    the Amish way of life has several built-in features that repel modern influences
    
    Well, of course. That’s how a culture survives without being melted down in a pot. In a certain sense, that’s what makes it “conservative”.