Before the 1960s, it was really hard to get divorced in America.
Typically, the only way to do it was to convince a judge that your spouse had committed some form of wrongdoing, like adultery, abandonment, or “cruelty” (that is, abuse). This could be difficult: “Even if you could prove you had been hit, that didn’t necessarily mean it rose to the level of cruelty that justified a divorce,” said Marcia Zug, a family law professor at the University of South Carolina.
Then came a revolution: In 1969, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan of California (who was himself divorced) signed the nation’s first no-fault divorce law, allowing people to end their marriages without proving they’d been wronged. The move was a recognition that “people were going to get out of marriages,” Zug said, and gave them a way to do that without resorting to subterfuge. Similar laws soon swept the country, and rates of domestic violence and spousal murder began to drop as people — especially women — gained more freedom to leave dangerous situations.
Today, however, a counter-revolution is brewing: Conservative commentators and lawmakers are calling for an end to no-fault divorce, arguing that it has harmed men and even destroyed the fabric of society. Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers, for example, introduced a bill in January to ban his state’s version of no-fault divorce. The Texas Republican Party added a call to end the practice to its 2022 platform (the plank is preserved in the 2024 version). Federal lawmakers like Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, have spoken out in favor of tightening divorce laws.
Murica - the land of free or something.
Free to be killed, enslaved and then raped
With speed things progress over there, Saudi Arabia will soon become a better place for women.
The freedom to own women and their bodies.
The land of the thief Home of the slave
One of the few times Reagan did something good
The solution seems simple. Don’t marry and don’t have kids. Eventually America dies off and the rest of the world closes the book on the experiment that failed.
The solution seems simple. Don’t marry and don’t have kids.
Am I allowed to be amused that a bunch of guys looking at the state of family courts deciding the same thing were mocked as a bunch of evil misogynistic incels, and have been for years? Apparently “don’t participate in the system you are worried is going to fuck you over” is not an acceptable choice.
The solution seems simple: drive these ass backwards politicians out of office and don’t allow them to have any power over your lives because they are not interested in your health or well-being.
No. The batshit crazys are having lots and lots of kids. They want sane people to leave, to die off.
At this point, I’m happy to end my bloodline. People are insufferable enough already, i don’t want my kids growing up with the product of even more ridiculous nutjobs
You could think about emigrating. We’d love to brain drain the US… more.
They are just going to make contraception behind locked doors/ only available to married partners, if at all available.
They’ll just pivot to forced/arranged marriage then.
The cons have been butthurt about the 60s for as long as I can remember.
They want to Make America Great Again: When men were men and women were chattel.
It’s the sirens song of lead
Maybe instead of getting rid of divorce, just make divorce fair for both parties?
That’s what no-fault divorce is. All assets are split 50/50 with no emphasis or prejudice given to who caused the divorce with infidelity, violence, etc.
Not only is it fair, its way, way easier than establishing blame and then some kind of punitive split of assets that will be fought over and appealed even more than the current system of “equal, equal.”
The fair has already been solved. It’s what we have now.
So, if you are married for a day (after, lets say a drunken wedding in Vegas), the person you are married to gets 50% of your assets and you get 50% of theirs? I think a fairer way is either keep all assets separate or have some sort of automatic pre-nup for all marriages.
The law can’t protect dumbasses from themselves, unfortunately.
No, generally that marriage would be annulled. Its far too short for any mingling of assets, so none would be split.
Generally any individual assets prior to a marriage stay individual. If you own a house outright and marry, your spouse doesnt immediatly get half of it. If you buy a house after you marry, then yes the house is split as its an asset that both parties put value into. It’s like an automatic pre-nup for marriages that already exists.
Despite the ridiculous scenario you imagined above, judges and lawyers aren’t actually idiots. You dont have to make up hypotheticals to figure out how asset sharing in marriage or divorce works. The law is pretty clear, and there are millions of examples of both you can easily research instead of deciding there is something to be outraged about.
That guy is just repeating what he heard on the radio or from some drunk guy at a bar. He’s not putting any thoughts into it.
Besides what you mentioned, there are pre-nups, post-nups, trusts, and other complicated ways that rich families use to protect their assets from gold-diggers. Marriage is a legal contract and it can be modified with other legal contracts.
In a lot of cases, “trust fund kids” don’t even own their house or car. It’s all held in a trust so no one, not even them, can have it. If they divorce there’s nothing to split but some cash and whatever furniture or toys they own.
In practice, I believe the pre or post-nup gives some consideration (money) to the spouse who isn’t rich so they won’t sue. But it’s not 50/50 because the trust fund kid legally doesn’t own much.
Yeah, Im not even sure if he knows what hes arguing about.
All of these “problems” these conservatives are whinging about are already understood and settled with our current system. The default works well for the vast majority, and when it doesnt, you can change it. Easy.
No. When you make a lot of money because you can focus on work because your partner os handling all the work at home, the partner should not be financially destroyed after divorce. Your “idea” would lead to completely dependent partners who can never get divorces of their spouses
I don’t even understand why people get married when all the data shows that marriages fail
That is really not true.
One of my favorite videos ever uploaded to YouTube, should be mandatory viewing in high school https://youtu.be/o5z8-9Op2nM?si=D-JVKYYmhqUXjtLA
No point in living either, everyone dies eventually so what’s the point right?
That’s essentially your take.
What does marriage do?
I have a gf of 10 years, we are happy now, why would we get married?
I’m honestly curious the reasoning
You doubled down on a fallacy of hasty generalization. No one would react positively to that.
What do you mean? Divorce is at a 50 year low, and the average couple getting married today has more like a 75 percent chance of staying married. Your odds are especially good if it’s your first marriage.
The famous 50% figure doesn’t take into account that getting a divorce is correlated with getting another one, and the emerging generations are much more selective in who they marry.
I encourage you to listen to this when you have a free hour https://youtu.be/o5z8-9Op2nM?si=D-JVKYYmhqUXjtLA
This is what you really NEED to know about abolishing no fault divorce:
And that will cause huge problems, especially for anyone experiencing abuse. “Any barrier to divorce is a really big challenge for survivors,” said Marium Durrani, vice president of policy at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. “What it really ends up doing is prolonging their forced entanglement with an abusive partner.”
If they abolish no fault divorce it WILL cost lives
That is the bottom fucking line. There is no argument against divorce that exists that can prevent that. Wait no there is, oh golly they will make exceptions for abuse. That sure fucking sounds familiar. Hmm like maybe it was the concession ‘pro-life’ would make for abortion.
And look how that turned out.
Before roe v wade was overturned they were all about protecting the abused somewhat with caveats. Kinda like they are talking about divorce here innit?
If they abolish no fault divorce it WILL cost lives
“Probably, but those are lives of women, not people.”
-Conservatives who support this shit
Stop you’re making me cry. It’s so “funny cuz it’s sad” it went past the point of being funny.
you’re not wrong.
I never said it was funny.
it WILL cost lives
Republicans only seem to be pro life until the child is born.
Democrats need to stop using these terms. Republicans are pro human-capital. They want numerous, dumb, poor workers to control and they want to own women.
“Pro human capital” is a good term, thank you for introducing me to it. I’d say numerous, dumb, poor workers who are desperate to serve for scraps because of austerity.
Interestingly, I’d assume that between home surveillance systems and cell phones, proving domestic violence shouldn’t be too tough nowadays.
I don’t think this is a safe assumption. The victim may not have free access to hardware. The police/etc may not believe them. They may be afraid of being murdered if they try to record something. Just off the top of my head.
You can read “why does he do that?” by Lundy Bancroft for fascinating and depressing information about abuse. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/224552.Why_Does_He_Do_That_Inside_the_Minds_of_Angry_and_Controlling_Men
The police/etc may not believe them.
There’s something about 44% of cops…
Just like how “there will be exceptions for unviable pregnancies” no amount of direct video evidence of abuse will be enough to justify for the courts to justify a divorce. If they had people’s well being and best interests in mind this wouldn’t even be proposed.
That would be utterly shameful of the justice system.
Much like the current situation with abortions in certain states.
…yes?
Are you new here?
I am.
I’ll be advising all of my daughters to never marry if that is the case.
Advise sons too. If marriage is going to be weaponised then it should be denormalised.
Advising my nephew will have to suffice, I feel bad enough bringing those I already have to this place. I will make sure to just advise young people in general.
I hope them publicly advocating for this backfires spectacularly.
“First they game for gay marriage, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t gay. Then they came for the abortions, and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t need an abortion. Then they came for divorce, and…fuck, that might be a real a pain in the ass. Maybe I won’t vote for these asshats.”
— some people, hopefully…
“First the came for abortions, and we made a lot of noise but got ignored. Then they came for Divorce and… fuck, maybe we should do more than just make noise.”
Torches! Torches and Pitchforks! Get your Pitchforks at the Pitchfork Emporium!
For every two Pitchforks sold you get a free torch! And not those silly tikki-torches either!
Getting married in 2024 is kibda dumb anyway?
They can’t prohibit it for other faiths though. Jews, Muslims, and so on can still divorce… right?
Marriage in the eyes of a state is a legal contract. I don’t think faith is a barrier or consideration in this context.
So they are forcing their own interpretation of Christianity on everyone? I guess that the US doesn’t have separate courts for other religions… So no one’s allowed divorce even if allowed in their religion? this can’t be legal.
To think that the caliphate at least allowed Jews and Christians to have their own religious courts.
They are changing the laws so it can be legal, its what the submission is about.
Those from the USA that grab the attention are not sane, but I assume there are sane people there. What are their take and outlook on this? What’s their outlook on the future, and are there developments in their outlook on the USA?
As a woman in the United States I feel like I’m constantly fighting against the political future (if not the practical reality of) the handmaid’s tale.
Show or book, whatever medium floats your boat it is powerful and real and speaks so much of similar lived experiences… it should be consumed, digested, and change you after. That is my favorite type of media.
But also it is a sort of coping mechanism cuz I 100% can see the show or book happening. And while this seems off topic yeah it all starts with religion dictating law based on their morals which gee… I sure see the church. But never Christ.
So familiar.
Oops realized I didn’t answer your question and I noticed lemmy doesn’t have great track record of showing edits.
So yeah I was curious cuz as an American I still don’t get it. Ca Gov Regan passed no fault divorce and we are arguing about it fucking 50 years later because maybe someone haves to give away too much money/property? I fucking hate it.
crazy how if you outlaw getting a divorce then marital status remains the same (until someone ends up mysteriously dead in a river)
i cant believe we have to deal with this i am so tired
Then marriage becomes a jail. How can she escape if he is an asshole? Unfaithful? Violent? But that’s maybe the point?
definitely is the point
This will reverse all the good done by those laws. Domestic violence, spousal abuse and murder, and suicide will all raise significantly. This is a terrible call that nobody who truly supports freedom could get behind. It makes me want to procure large amounts of glass bottles and cloth for no particular purpose at all.
“Freedom for me, not for thee”?
I suppose I could call myself sane and I’m from the US. My outlook is pretty grim honestly. We have far-right “christians” trying to turn the US into a theocracy and install a dictator. It’s real Hand Maid’s Tail shit and it’s scary as fuck.
I don’t think we have crossed the point of no return yet but we are damn fucking close. I also don’t know that there is going to be a way out of this without violence.
One thing I CAN say for sure, if Trump wins in November we have crossed that line and the US is going to be fucked for a long time.
Also semi-sane US citizen. Same feelings. Would not be surprised if there is a major civil incident within the next 20 years.
Lower class is fucked without anything to lose.
Middle class is getting milked dry to keep infinite growth alive.
Wealthy R class keeps making these rules for thee not for me proposals in order to seize control.
Wealthy D class, other than a handful of progressives, are just as corrupt with better marketing. Complacency over Israel’s actions put some light on it at least.
These dinosaurs who are running these crimes against humanity won’t retire from office.
R has been stupidly effective at wrapping up hate in “christian love.” I can’t even understand how people buy into this crap. Wealth and power is all they want. These social issues to keep people infighting is so blatant and obvious.
I can absolutely see growing unrest if this continues. It was a bit close for comfort during the peak of BLM, but I can absolutely understand why it happened.
Good summary, I got about the same impression. Looking in from the outside it seems so obvious that there is a lot of corruption, consolidation of power, consolidation of wealth, but I guess it’s difficult to do anything about.
It’s scary as F to look at that madman getting closer to getting that kind of power again.I shiver to think what he’ll accomplish when he’s prepared.
They conservatives do love any and all kinds of oppression and slavery!
The thought The Handmaid’s Tale was a “How-to” guide.
At long last we have created the Torment Nexus from the classic sci fi novel “Don’t Create the Torment Nexus”.
Good way to keep those marriage rates low. Can’t get divorced if one doesn’t bother getting married in the first place.
Ah, but then there’s common-law marriages that they will institute.
It’ll be a common law marriage when it comes to sharing debt and calculating income for denying SNAP, single when it comes to hospital visitation rights and bereavement.
They already calculate household income for any individual assistance.
Then don’t ever get rid of your own place, so you can prove you’ve only been dating, not living together.
Oh yeah man, just have two homes in this economy. Great idea.
Likely they will counteract by making even more things illegal, e.g. premartial sex.
The ethos of these people is largely about enforcing the dominion of men over women.* This divorce stance is about disempowering women. Abortion is about disempowering women. The move they are about to make against contraception, about removing agency from women. Age of consent, ditto. Given the opportunity, they would absolutely remove women’s right to vote, own property, maintain credit, and on and on. This is the culture that’s dominating the Republican Party and they face very little meaningful opposition right now.
- To be fair, they are also guided by a profound desire to enforce the racial dominion of what they perceive as white.
