All the examples mentioned of left censorship control - books, curriculum, social media are terrifying primarily because they are the manifestation of the weaponization of our institutions. Every American institution has been corrupted from Justice to law enforcement, education and now even the military. Even when we elect right leaning leaders this does not change. It is the greatest argument for more limited government. The pendulum will not swing back. We need a constitutional convention. We need to dismantle the power of government bureaucracy.
Thank you so much for writing this, and thank Bari for publishing it. I've been increasingly frustrated by people I generally agree with coming down harder on the right for the pushback than the far left for its insanity. I think Ben Shapiro is spot on with this: the reason the far left is winning despite nobody agreeing with them is because there is a consequence for challenging them, and no consequence for not doing so. The solution is as simple as creating consequences for challenging them. Is there a risk of that going too far and devolving into authoritarianism? Sure, but the current risk of the same from the far left is quite high. Higher by far in my estimation.
What do you do about a President whose daughter’s diary describes showering with him as a kid, and whose son’s laptop has video of him strung out on drugs with hookers? Imagine if these had been Eric or Ivanka Trump. But it’s all hushed up by the FBI.
Biden was accused of rape…crickets. Inappropriately touching girls…yawn. These need to be called out too. He’s the President, for goodness sake, and he’s a pervert.
One lasg thing - drag was never about trans - they were usually gay men - it was raunchy , creative , artistic and fun to watch- 5 years ago you would NEVER take a kid to a drag show ! Wish the drag queens would stand up and say - nope not performing in front of children ! I’ve seen 1 do it - just 1
This is a fantastic article! The problem is that, presently, the inmates are running the asylum. The question is, how many inmates are there? Specifically, is it just a small percentage who have grabbed the spotlight and narrative, or is woke philosophy more pervasive throughout society? I fear that it has become the latter. I have a friend who is a very famous designer in New York. She told me that if she attended a dinner party in NY and mentioned that she voted for Trump, she literally would be banned from all other dinner parties in NY going forward. This would not be Amazon banning a book. This would be her “friends” taking such action.
I believe that the problem lies with the colleges and universities that have drummed this nonsensical pablum into the minds of intelligent, but impressionable, students. It then has become ingrained into the psyche of educated and vocal elitists. I watched a YouTube video recently where the inquirer asked Harvard students if a man could have a baby. Every student asked said “yes.” He then went to Harlem and asked each person on the street the same question. Everyone laughed and answered with a defiant “no” - and noted how ridiculous the question was.
But it is the Harvard grad who eventually becomes the executive at Amazon and directs that his staff block Shrier’s well-written, thoughtful book from being sold - not the guy on the street in Harlem who issues such directives.
My solution is to refuse to be silenced. For example, if I attend a dinner party and hear people pontificate that conservatives who question whether there was election fraud in 2020 should be punished, I immediately bring up Abrams - who continues to refuse to concede that she lost her Governorship race in Georgia, or Hillary who repeatedly has said that Trump’s election was illegitimate.
In short, I believe that we need to be aggressive in combatting woke nonsense and that the only way to do so is to aggressively support free speech. It is precisely because we have sat back so docilely that we now find ourselves in the untenable situation where even the ACLU supports book banning.
When you speak up, you discover that there are many others out there agreeing with you, but were too timid to speak up themselves. In short, we can no longer afford to be in the “silent” majority because it hasn’t worked and if we don’t, the silent majority will no longer be the majority. I shudder to think what would be next.
I have been saying the same thing - these woke idiots have infiltrated most companies etc. I cannot stand what has happened in this country-they know they can get away with anything they do - when the dumbest president ever is talking about trans / classrooms etc,,, it’s a mess -love Abigail -she never backed down !
I'm more optimistic about the pendulum. Aside from simple resonance, there's a big change in the mainspring now that central banks have turned off the free money.
Woke crap is pushed and enforced by shareholders and venture capitalists through the ESG rules.
The Share Value era is ending now. A tremendous number of frivolous tech startups, and the entire nonsensical blockchain enterprise, are collapsing fast. Without the free money sustaining dead-loss projects, businesses will have to depend more on real customers, and will have to LISTEN to real customers.
We're already seeing an incipient change in media, as CNN considers the bizarre proposal of mentioning a fact once in a while.
Dan Bongino and Tim Pool speak of the emerging "parallel economy" -- a system of services and products for those cut out of the mainstream. This economy is growing quickly:
GiveSendGo rather than GoFundMe.
SubscribeStar rather than Patreon.
Minds, Truth Social, Gettr, Gab, Parler rather than Twitter and Facebook
Substack rather than traditional news and commentary media
Brave Search rather than Google/Bing
Telegram rather than Whatsapp
Crypto currency rather than Chase/BoA/Visa/Paypal/Stripe
Proton rather than Gmail
Rumble rather than Youtube
Florida rather than Californewyork
Home schooling, pods, and private/charter/religious schools rather than public school
Daily Wire, Judicial Watch, Project Veritas, OANN, RSBN rather than most of the press
There are still a few gaps; there's no real alternative to Amazon/Etsy/Ebay, other than to go to individual sellers websites or to physical retail outlets. The payment processors still have a monopoly. If you are politically blacklisted from flying, there's no other option than to drive (or buy your own plane and take flying lessons).
But gradually, over time, alternatives will indeed emerge and we will have two or three countries occupying the same territory. In fact we may have physical separation eventually. This is not a bad thing; who would want to live with lunatics next door who would not hesitate to kill you to achieve their ideological goals?
You can make a difference by not accepting this lunacy.
Upon hearing the my insurer, State Farm, had supported and made contributions to an organization promoting gender "fluidity" - whatever that's supposed to mean - directed at children. I immediately contacted my State Farm agent and was informed that State Farm had already retracted this incredibly bad idea (State Farm statement printed below). Who knows what idiots in their HR department had dreamed up this idea, but it was clear that policy holders rebelled and some wiser heads reversed course. We shouldn't just supinely swallow this garbage, especially when we're spending our hard earned dollars that these companies want.
State Farm statement (with the obligatory bow to "diversity"):
"State Farm’s support of a philanthropic program, GenderCool, has been the subject of news and customer inquiries. This program that included books about gender identity was intended to promote inclusivity.
We support organizations that provide resources for parents to have conversations about gender and identity with their children at home. We do not support required curriculum in schools on this topic.
As a result, we have made the decision we will no longer be affiliated with the organization. We will continue to explore how we can support our associates, as well as organizations that align with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, including the LGBTQ+ community.
We recognize and value the diversity of all people and support a culture of respect and inclusion in the communities in which we live and work, as well as our workplace."
In other words, faced with the wrath of policyholders, they beat a quick retreat from this madness. Let's stop conflating respect for those of our citizens who are gay and the fringe who are not only mentally ill but are child abusers, as well.
I am an old school centrist with left leanings, but one who is horrified both by the cancellation of conservative ideas and the weaponizing of government by DeSantis. I miss the old ACLU that protected everyone’s free speech, even the Nazis in Skokie.
I simply don’t understand why the right continues to stand for this crap. Look at the example of Fox News.
I never understood how, in a break even nation, every single news/opinion outlet of scale allowed their management and owners to not only ignore half of their audience, but to actually antagonize and alienate them. The corporate media is typically owned and controlled (if shareholders exercise their power) by institutions that serve the broad base of America of both sides of the spectrum - mutual funds, 491(k)s, etc. Why conservatives don’t organize to bang on or replace their fiduciaries overseeing their funds and pensions to put a stop it under pain of replacement is beyond me.
Why executives leave so much money on the table by refusing being the camera’s eye as their professions were designed to be and allow their outlets to be propaganda outlets is behind me. How is it that their shareholders don’t rise up in anger? Fox has ratings and revenues higher than the total of CNN and MSNBC combined. Recently, CNN’s new owner is making subtle statement about getting back to the real news. Discovery, not known as a news outlet and more concentrated on eyeballs may be the start of something, although I wouldn’t get my hopes up as the media is typically run by people on the coasts who consider themselves “elite”.
But Murdoch set the template. He made billions understanding the unserved market. Now you see Musk talking of buying Twitter and restoring balance, much to the anger, distress and opposition of the left. It’s not enough for them to have ample channels to disseminate their message. They actively seek to deny anyone else with opposing views their own channels.
But there are plenty of conservative billionaires to match the lefties. Thiel, Koch, Walton, DeVos - let them put together a consortium to provide outlets that permit diversity. Create their own version of stripe with enough customers they like Fox, they provide competition. Create an online bookstore. Start their own PayPal and Venmo.
Why do Wes it here and take this?
Fascists who succeed are only emboldened. We need to stop them.
I think in are life times the revulsion we feel about the use of lobotomies will be widely felt about the elective surgeries drugs and hormones being pumped into kids. The only question is how much damage will be done before it’s over.
Well, she almost made it. Shrier delivers a much-needed reminder of the crucial need to fight fire with fire, about how compromise will not work with people who only want to destroy you, etc. Then, in the penultimate paragraph, she folds--and admits that there are areas where she will not oppose the Alt-Left agenda.
I'm not going to debate DeSantis' action, just say that drawing a line in the sand is literally INVITING your opponent to step over it. When they do, and YOU DO NOTHING, they have you, every time. They know the point at which you will surrender. They will keep coming, and coming, and coming, until they own and control everything--and you have nothing, perhaps not even your life or your children.
This is great…..I think it’s a discussion we absolutely have to engage in seriously. I think your comparison to jihadists is spot on. Here’s how I see it: good guys on the right are fighting fair, which means within the bounds of the Constitution-that’s what conservatives are “conserving.” The illiberal far left do not fight fair-they go outside the bounds of the Constitution. Similarly, jihadists used civilians (women & children) as human shields while U.S. and coalition troops shielded civilians in battle. The question becomes, “how can we win the fight by playing by the rules?” Because, in my opinion, when we go outside the rules to win, all we have done is forfeited the fight. We are simply a different shade of wrong.
As usual, Abigail Shrier writes the clearest depiction of the current gender dysphoria situation in our country and the governing rules set by only one permitted ideology. I wish there was a mass movement that could collect the feelings of those who think differently to organize against corporations and institutions that insist on forcing everyone to bend the knee to their narrative.
Be fearless. Speak up. You will find others agreeing with you but they were too afraid to go first.
Ben Shapiro has been unequivocal in calling the trans movement mental illness that should not be indulged. I agree. There, I said it.
All the examples mentioned of left censorship control - books, curriculum, social media are terrifying primarily because they are the manifestation of the weaponization of our institutions. Every American institution has been corrupted from Justice to law enforcement, education and now even the military. Even when we elect right leaning leaders this does not change. It is the greatest argument for more limited government. The pendulum will not swing back. We need a constitutional convention. We need to dismantle the power of government bureaucracy.
Thank you so much for writing this, and thank Bari for publishing it. I've been increasingly frustrated by people I generally agree with coming down harder on the right for the pushback than the far left for its insanity. I think Ben Shapiro is spot on with this: the reason the far left is winning despite nobody agreeing with them is because there is a consequence for challenging them, and no consequence for not doing so. The solution is as simple as creating consequences for challenging them. Is there a risk of that going too far and devolving into authoritarianism? Sure, but the current risk of the same from the far left is quite high. Higher by far in my estimation.
What do you do about a President whose daughter’s diary describes showering with him as a kid, and whose son’s laptop has video of him strung out on drugs with hookers? Imagine if these had been Eric or Ivanka Trump. But it’s all hushed up by the FBI.
Biden was accused of rape…crickets. Inappropriately touching girls…yawn. These need to be called out too. He’s the President, for goodness sake, and he’s a pervert.
One lasg thing - drag was never about trans - they were usually gay men - it was raunchy , creative , artistic and fun to watch- 5 years ago you would NEVER take a kid to a drag show ! Wish the drag queens would stand up and say - nope not performing in front of children ! I’ve seen 1 do it - just 1
This is a fantastic article! The problem is that, presently, the inmates are running the asylum. The question is, how many inmates are there? Specifically, is it just a small percentage who have grabbed the spotlight and narrative, or is woke philosophy more pervasive throughout society? I fear that it has become the latter. I have a friend who is a very famous designer in New York. She told me that if she attended a dinner party in NY and mentioned that she voted for Trump, she literally would be banned from all other dinner parties in NY going forward. This would not be Amazon banning a book. This would be her “friends” taking such action.
I believe that the problem lies with the colleges and universities that have drummed this nonsensical pablum into the minds of intelligent, but impressionable, students. It then has become ingrained into the psyche of educated and vocal elitists. I watched a YouTube video recently where the inquirer asked Harvard students if a man could have a baby. Every student asked said “yes.” He then went to Harlem and asked each person on the street the same question. Everyone laughed and answered with a defiant “no” - and noted how ridiculous the question was.
But it is the Harvard grad who eventually becomes the executive at Amazon and directs that his staff block Shrier’s well-written, thoughtful book from being sold - not the guy on the street in Harlem who issues such directives.
My solution is to refuse to be silenced. For example, if I attend a dinner party and hear people pontificate that conservatives who question whether there was election fraud in 2020 should be punished, I immediately bring up Abrams - who continues to refuse to concede that she lost her Governorship race in Georgia, or Hillary who repeatedly has said that Trump’s election was illegitimate.
In short, I believe that we need to be aggressive in combatting woke nonsense and that the only way to do so is to aggressively support free speech. It is precisely because we have sat back so docilely that we now find ourselves in the untenable situation where even the ACLU supports book banning.
When you speak up, you discover that there are many others out there agreeing with you, but were too timid to speak up themselves. In short, we can no longer afford to be in the “silent” majority because it hasn’t worked and if we don’t, the silent majority will no longer be the majority. I shudder to think what would be next.
I have been saying the same thing - these woke idiots have infiltrated most companies etc. I cannot stand what has happened in this country-they know they can get away with anything they do - when the dumbest president ever is talking about trans / classrooms etc,,, it’s a mess -love Abigail -she never backed down !
I'm more optimistic about the pendulum. Aside from simple resonance, there's a big change in the mainspring now that central banks have turned off the free money.
Woke crap is pushed and enforced by shareholders and venture capitalists through the ESG rules.
The Share Value era is ending now. A tremendous number of frivolous tech startups, and the entire nonsensical blockchain enterprise, are collapsing fast. Without the free money sustaining dead-loss projects, businesses will have to depend more on real customers, and will have to LISTEN to real customers.
We're already seeing an incipient change in media, as CNN considers the bizarre proposal of mentioning a fact once in a while.
Dan Bongino and Tim Pool speak of the emerging "parallel economy" -- a system of services and products for those cut out of the mainstream. This economy is growing quickly:
GiveSendGo rather than GoFundMe.
SubscribeStar rather than Patreon.
Minds, Truth Social, Gettr, Gab, Parler rather than Twitter and Facebook
Substack rather than traditional news and commentary media
Brave Search rather than Google/Bing
Telegram rather than Whatsapp
Crypto currency rather than Chase/BoA/Visa/Paypal/Stripe
Proton rather than Gmail
Rumble rather than Youtube
Florida rather than Californewyork
Home schooling, pods, and private/charter/religious schools rather than public school
Daily Wire, Judicial Watch, Project Veritas, OANN, RSBN rather than most of the press
There are still a few gaps; there's no real alternative to Amazon/Etsy/Ebay, other than to go to individual sellers websites or to physical retail outlets. The payment processors still have a monopoly. If you are politically blacklisted from flying, there's no other option than to drive (or buy your own plane and take flying lessons).
But gradually, over time, alternatives will indeed emerge and we will have two or three countries occupying the same territory. In fact we may have physical separation eventually. This is not a bad thing; who would want to live with lunatics next door who would not hesitate to kill you to achieve their ideological goals?
You can make a difference by not accepting this lunacy.
Upon hearing the my insurer, State Farm, had supported and made contributions to an organization promoting gender "fluidity" - whatever that's supposed to mean - directed at children. I immediately contacted my State Farm agent and was informed that State Farm had already retracted this incredibly bad idea (State Farm statement printed below). Who knows what idiots in their HR department had dreamed up this idea, but it was clear that policy holders rebelled and some wiser heads reversed course. We shouldn't just supinely swallow this garbage, especially when we're spending our hard earned dollars that these companies want.
State Farm statement (with the obligatory bow to "diversity"):
"State Farm’s support of a philanthropic program, GenderCool, has been the subject of news and customer inquiries. This program that included books about gender identity was intended to promote inclusivity.
We support organizations that provide resources for parents to have conversations about gender and identity with their children at home. We do not support required curriculum in schools on this topic.
As a result, we have made the decision we will no longer be affiliated with the organization. We will continue to explore how we can support our associates, as well as organizations that align with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, including the LGBTQ+ community.
We recognize and value the diversity of all people and support a culture of respect and inclusion in the communities in which we live and work, as well as our workplace."
In other words, faced with the wrath of policyholders, they beat a quick retreat from this madness. Let's stop conflating respect for those of our citizens who are gay and the fringe who are not only mentally ill but are child abusers, as well.
I am an old school centrist with left leanings, but one who is horrified both by the cancellation of conservative ideas and the weaponizing of government by DeSantis. I miss the old ACLU that protected everyone’s free speech, even the Nazis in Skokie.
I simply don’t understand why the right continues to stand for this crap. Look at the example of Fox News.
I never understood how, in a break even nation, every single news/opinion outlet of scale allowed their management and owners to not only ignore half of their audience, but to actually antagonize and alienate them. The corporate media is typically owned and controlled (if shareholders exercise their power) by institutions that serve the broad base of America of both sides of the spectrum - mutual funds, 491(k)s, etc. Why conservatives don’t organize to bang on or replace their fiduciaries overseeing their funds and pensions to put a stop it under pain of replacement is beyond me.
Why executives leave so much money on the table by refusing being the camera’s eye as their professions were designed to be and allow their outlets to be propaganda outlets is behind me. How is it that their shareholders don’t rise up in anger? Fox has ratings and revenues higher than the total of CNN and MSNBC combined. Recently, CNN’s new owner is making subtle statement about getting back to the real news. Discovery, not known as a news outlet and more concentrated on eyeballs may be the start of something, although I wouldn’t get my hopes up as the media is typically run by people on the coasts who consider themselves “elite”.
But Murdoch set the template. He made billions understanding the unserved market. Now you see Musk talking of buying Twitter and restoring balance, much to the anger, distress and opposition of the left. It’s not enough for them to have ample channels to disseminate their message. They actively seek to deny anyone else with opposing views their own channels.
But there are plenty of conservative billionaires to match the lefties. Thiel, Koch, Walton, DeVos - let them put together a consortium to provide outlets that permit diversity. Create their own version of stripe with enough customers they like Fox, they provide competition. Create an online bookstore. Start their own PayPal and Venmo.
Why do Wes it here and take this?
Fascists who succeed are only emboldened. We need to stop them.
I think in are life times the revulsion we feel about the use of lobotomies will be widely felt about the elective surgeries drugs and hormones being pumped into kids. The only question is how much damage will be done before it’s over.
Well, she almost made it. Shrier delivers a much-needed reminder of the crucial need to fight fire with fire, about how compromise will not work with people who only want to destroy you, etc. Then, in the penultimate paragraph, she folds--and admits that there are areas where she will not oppose the Alt-Left agenda.
I'm not going to debate DeSantis' action, just say that drawing a line in the sand is literally INVITING your opponent to step over it. When they do, and YOU DO NOTHING, they have you, every time. They know the point at which you will surrender. They will keep coming, and coming, and coming, until they own and control everything--and you have nothing, perhaps not even your life or your children.
This is great…..I think it’s a discussion we absolutely have to engage in seriously. I think your comparison to jihadists is spot on. Here’s how I see it: good guys on the right are fighting fair, which means within the bounds of the Constitution-that’s what conservatives are “conserving.” The illiberal far left do not fight fair-they go outside the bounds of the Constitution. Similarly, jihadists used civilians (women & children) as human shields while U.S. and coalition troops shielded civilians in battle. The question becomes, “how can we win the fight by playing by the rules?” Because, in my opinion, when we go outside the rules to win, all we have done is forfeited the fight. We are simply a different shade of wrong.
As usual, Abigail Shrier writes the clearest depiction of the current gender dysphoria situation in our country and the governing rules set by only one permitted ideology. I wish there was a mass movement that could collect the feelings of those who think differently to organize against corporations and institutions that insist on forcing everyone to bend the knee to their narrative.