Unfortunately, this seems to be the historical pattern of revolutionaries: Demand free speech until you have gained enough power to control the speech of others. Once you have that power, use it ruthlessly to silence all speech of which you do not approve.
As I consider this article, I can't help suspecting that the LGBT+ movement may have been being *used* all along. Ordinary homosexual people may have simply wanted the freedom to live their own lives. But they were being used as cover by nefarious people who cared very little about the freedom of gay people to lead normal lives, but a great deal about the ability of openly flamboyant homosexuality to destroy societal norms.
The Woke Marxist effort to destroy Western civilization so they can build their utopia on its ashes appears to have played their LGBT+ allies.
If you met a woman who looked like she weighed 80 lbs but she insisted she was fat and needed to keep dieting, would you agree with her that she is fat and by all means keep starving herself? She has a body dysphoria, a mental problem, and needs help because she is hurting herself.
I see trans people the same way. But we don’t urge them to get help because we have been bullied into “affirming” them or risk being called transphobic. But they are hurting themselves, with the help of the medical community. Hormones, mutilating surgery, and therapists who agree with little children who think they are the opposite sex. Will we someday look on this the same way we look at lobotomies and shock therapy?
Homosexuality has existed for centuries, just look at ancient Greek art. But the explosion in people identifying as trans is fake. It’s a cry for something else— a need to be special, noticed, taken seriously, even solidarity with friends. It’s an attempt to fix something in a person’s life, but it’s not the solution. We used to roll our eyes at kids who went “Goth”. All that was reversible. Trans isn’t. I think the movement needs serious discrediting.
Very interesting piece, and not something I would have read elsewhere. I subscribe to Common Sense for this very reason.
One element that caught my attention was the phrase, "I identify as ...," used by people quoted by the author. It seems to me that this concept makes every "identity" essentially meaningless, just a role that goes on with no reality involved.
I identify as Queer right now, because I'm wearing my son's t-shirt, but later, when I put on a dress and go to Weight Watchers, I'll identify as a rather overweight old lady. It's all loo-loo.
Several years ago I introduced over dinner two of my oldest friends—both powerful, wealthy gay men. One had reached the top of one of the world’s largest financial institutions, the other ran a huge, extremely influential corporation. They reminisced about how rapidly the barriers they faced at the beginning of their careers had fallen. One of my friends famously came out at a time when he could have lost his job, become a pariah, and possibly even been imprisoned. The other friend never publicly came out but made no secret of his decades old relationship with a man. Both have daughters, natural or adopted, both are officially married to their husbands, both are covered in worldly honours and approval. What started out as a threatening secret disability in the 80s became an object of praise and career advancement.
They both talked about how startling, unexpected and almost disorienting this change of fortunes was for them. They were grateful—but also bewildered.
They may not know Rich Tafel but they probably do, and I don’t know if they like him but they are similar to him. But our world belongs to Urvashi Vaid and her radical shock troops. My friends might as well be Trump Republicans (which they are far from being) as far as the extreme Trans activists and their supporters are concerned.
We have gotten to the stage where the revolution is eating its own. Ironically, the whole gay “coming out” narrative is based upon a notion of essence and authenticity which is rejected by the Trans movement, which is about endless evolution, imagination and the will to become. My friends took courage from their determination to be “who they really were”—they are now on the cusp of becoming enemies of those who insist that we are whatever we identify as.
Similarly, the women’s movement has been severed from its connection to an embodied ontology and finds itself conceptually helpless on one hand to oppose male swimmers declaring themselves women and taking all the swimming prizes, and on the other hand paralyzed and unable to mount an effective campaign to oppose the reversal of Roe versus Wade because it is no longer possible to march under the banner of “Women’s Rights” in any meaningful way.
Our society is in the grip of out-of-control mimetic contagion, a very dangerous stage. The grave consequences were described by the late philosopher René Girard and are discussed with admirable clarity in a lecture posted this week by David Perell and Jonathan Bi. For those interested in only dipping their toe into the water until convinced of the relevance of Girard’s thought, listen to the last 20 minutes of this lecture about the new meaning of truth, love, innovation and violence.
O, I miss archness. How on earth the freest generation raised the most Puritanical, whiny, intolerant generation is one for the history books right there. The other day I read a post on FB by a guy whose daughter is now a 'they' -- 'they' was SAD that comedians seem to "hate" people like "them" -- I so badly wanted to ARCHLY comment: TELL HER TO GROW A PAIR.
Celia M below really stated what I was thinking... "Demand free speech until you have gained enough power to control the speech of others. Once you have that power, use it ruthlessly to silence all speech of which you do not approve."
This veteran's mind immediately diverts to over 90 American citizens(some veterans) who are held in solitary confinement for 23 hrs/day without due process(or sanitation) for 16 months now... for simply walking into their Capitol and taking pictures during their electoral process. But I digress...
For the normal homosexual people out there - yes, I consider you normal as it has been around since time began - please be aware that you are being used as a tool to obtain power and adjust accordingly.
This is so obvious to anyone with any sense of history. The American cultural and legal tradition is precisely what has enabled all these different people w diverse preferences and backgrounds to
Live together . For thousands of years homosexuality was thought to be a sin or a mental illness; slavery was accepted. Hearts and minds changed, why? Cause the people had freedom as enshrined in the bill of rights
The gender-identity radicals are helping to sink the Democratic Party especially among liberal suburban voters. Parents don't want their 5 & 6 year-old children to be taught transgender sex education at such a young age. This school curriculum issue, along with CRT indoctrination, are killing the Democratic Party among moderate and Independent voters. Advice to radical Democratic woke activists: pay attention to Virginia and Florida parents/voters. Finally, dismiss their viewpoints as racist at your own political peril.
As a gay man, I'm going to be civil and friendly to my neighbors whose views are similar to mine, and ESPECIALLY to those who don't like gay people (as long as they're not violent towards me or destructive of my property, which I won't tolerate) because I hope that, over time, they'll see me and my partner as just neighbors going about our lives and not having any "agenda" other than to live in peace. They'll hopefully see we're helpful, civic minded, have no desire to "convert" their kids, and will help them in times of need despite our different views. I'll answer their questions rather than snubbing them, even the ridiculous ones I've been asked like "which one of you is the wife."
I was (I think) able to change at least one person's mind. A woman I know at work said "I don't care what you do but you should stay in the closet." My reply was: "Which is more harmful--two guys living together of their own free will or a guy pretending to be straight, marrying a woman and then her life is miserable because he's always got a big secret." Same woman said "why do you flaunt it" when she saw my partner's photo on my desk. My reply: "Do you keep your husband's photo on your desk to flaunt it, or because seeing him during the day makes you happy at work?" If I had just written her off as a homophobe, that's what she'd still be. While we're certainly not friends, we do get along now.
It really disturbs me how so many people attack those who are generally supportive just because their views don't align 100%. There are much better battles to fight.
Going back to the column from last week about raising sheep:
Parenting has become, for some reason I cannot understand other than selfishness, centered on protecting children from harm instead of teaching them how to navigate harm: hopefully avoiding it but if not handling it. It's almost as if parents have been trained that their worth is in being the bubble around the child instead of the teacher of the child.
For the last 20 years, maybe longer, so many children grew up with a near complete absence of "feeling bad" because parents shielded them (and because we have lived, in the US, in an era of unknown peace and prosperity). Now, as adults, when their parents can no longer protect them, when they "feel bad" they assume the problem is outside of themselves and the only way to "feel good" is to squash whatever makes them "feel bad". Like a very young child, they only thing they know how to do is throw a temper tantrum.
Adults should be able to live their lives as they prefer, as long as they don’t infringe on other citizens rights. I am allowed to believe and say what I think of those behaviors. They are trying to bully my beliefs out of existence.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the historical pattern of revolutionaries: Demand free speech until you have gained enough power to control the speech of others. Once you have that power, use it ruthlessly to silence all speech of which you do not approve.
As I consider this article, I can't help suspecting that the LGBT+ movement may have been being *used* all along. Ordinary homosexual people may have simply wanted the freedom to live their own lives. But they were being used as cover by nefarious people who cared very little about the freedom of gay people to lead normal lives, but a great deal about the ability of openly flamboyant homosexuality to destroy societal norms.
The Woke Marxist effort to destroy Western civilization so they can build their utopia on its ashes appears to have played their LGBT+ allies.
If you met a woman who looked like she weighed 80 lbs but she insisted she was fat and needed to keep dieting, would you agree with her that she is fat and by all means keep starving herself? She has a body dysphoria, a mental problem, and needs help because she is hurting herself.
I see trans people the same way. But we don’t urge them to get help because we have been bullied into “affirming” them or risk being called transphobic. But they are hurting themselves, with the help of the medical community. Hormones, mutilating surgery, and therapists who agree with little children who think they are the opposite sex. Will we someday look on this the same way we look at lobotomies and shock therapy?
Homosexuality has existed for centuries, just look at ancient Greek art. But the explosion in people identifying as trans is fake. It’s a cry for something else— a need to be special, noticed, taken seriously, even solidarity with friends. It’s an attempt to fix something in a person’s life, but it’s not the solution. We used to roll our eyes at kids who went “Goth”. All that was reversible. Trans isn’t. I think the movement needs serious discrediting.
I don't care about with whom you sleep. Or how your worship. Or the color of your skin.
But if you oppose freedom of speech, you are my enemy. Implacably so.
And I will treat you accordingly.
Very interesting piece, and not something I would have read elsewhere. I subscribe to Common Sense for this very reason.
One element that caught my attention was the phrase, "I identify as ...," used by people quoted by the author. It seems to me that this concept makes every "identity" essentially meaningless, just a role that goes on with no reality involved.
I identify as Queer right now, because I'm wearing my son's t-shirt, but later, when I put on a dress and go to Weight Watchers, I'll identify as a rather overweight old lady. It's all loo-loo.
And the shouting down continues in the UK -- last night TRA attempted to shout down the UK Education Minister because Nadhim Zahawi is on record as saying that women should be defined as Adult Human Female and believes in biology. The activists accused him of inciting hatred. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10869129/Trans-activists-hound-Nadhim-Zahawi-university-campus-chanting-Tory-scum.html
Several years ago I introduced over dinner two of my oldest friends—both powerful, wealthy gay men. One had reached the top of one of the world’s largest financial institutions, the other ran a huge, extremely influential corporation. They reminisced about how rapidly the barriers they faced at the beginning of their careers had fallen. One of my friends famously came out at a time when he could have lost his job, become a pariah, and possibly even been imprisoned. The other friend never publicly came out but made no secret of his decades old relationship with a man. Both have daughters, natural or adopted, both are officially married to their husbands, both are covered in worldly honours and approval. What started out as a threatening secret disability in the 80s became an object of praise and career advancement.
They both talked about how startling, unexpected and almost disorienting this change of fortunes was for them. They were grateful—but also bewildered.
They may not know Rich Tafel but they probably do, and I don’t know if they like him but they are similar to him. But our world belongs to Urvashi Vaid and her radical shock troops. My friends might as well be Trump Republicans (which they are far from being) as far as the extreme Trans activists and their supporters are concerned.
We have gotten to the stage where the revolution is eating its own. Ironically, the whole gay “coming out” narrative is based upon a notion of essence and authenticity which is rejected by the Trans movement, which is about endless evolution, imagination and the will to become. My friends took courage from their determination to be “who they really were”—they are now on the cusp of becoming enemies of those who insist that we are whatever we identify as.
Similarly, the women’s movement has been severed from its connection to an embodied ontology and finds itself conceptually helpless on one hand to oppose male swimmers declaring themselves women and taking all the swimming prizes, and on the other hand paralyzed and unable to mount an effective campaign to oppose the reversal of Roe versus Wade because it is no longer possible to march under the banner of “Women’s Rights” in any meaningful way.
Our society is in the grip of out-of-control mimetic contagion, a very dangerous stage. The grave consequences were described by the late philosopher René Girard and are discussed with admirable clarity in a lecture posted this week by David Perell and Jonathan Bi. For those interested in only dipping their toe into the water until convinced of the relevance of Girard’s thought, listen to the last 20 minutes of this lecture about the new meaning of truth, love, innovation and violence.
My guess is you’ll want to listen to the whole lecture: https://youtu.be/5Qu6vBebwwg
Free speech is THE defining issue of our times and the ultimate litmus test.
O, I miss archness. How on earth the freest generation raised the most Puritanical, whiny, intolerant generation is one for the history books right there. The other day I read a post on FB by a guy whose daughter is now a 'they' -- 'they' was SAD that comedians seem to "hate" people like "them" -- I so badly wanted to ARCHLY comment: TELL HER TO GROW A PAIR.
Great read! The cancel culture needs to get cancelled.
Celia M below really stated what I was thinking... "Demand free speech until you have gained enough power to control the speech of others. Once you have that power, use it ruthlessly to silence all speech of which you do not approve."
This veteran's mind immediately diverts to over 90 American citizens(some veterans) who are held in solitary confinement for 23 hrs/day without due process(or sanitation) for 16 months now... for simply walking into their Capitol and taking pictures during their electoral process. But I digress...
For the normal homosexual people out there - yes, I consider you normal as it has been around since time began - please be aware that you are being used as a tool to obtain power and adjust accordingly.
This is so obvious to anyone with any sense of history. The American cultural and legal tradition is precisely what has enabled all these different people w diverse preferences and backgrounds to
Live together . For thousands of years homosexuality was thought to be a sin or a mental illness; slavery was accepted. Hearts and minds changed, why? Cause the people had freedom as enshrined in the bill of rights
The gender-identity radicals are helping to sink the Democratic Party especially among liberal suburban voters. Parents don't want their 5 & 6 year-old children to be taught transgender sex education at such a young age. This school curriculum issue, along with CRT indoctrination, are killing the Democratic Party among moderate and Independent voters. Advice to radical Democratic woke activists: pay attention to Virginia and Florida parents/voters. Finally, dismiss their viewpoints as racist at your own political peril.
Great article! I wasn't aware of Reagan's role in stopping Prop 6. I am glad he stuck to his libertarian principles.
As a gay man, I'm going to be civil and friendly to my neighbors whose views are similar to mine, and ESPECIALLY to those who don't like gay people (as long as they're not violent towards me or destructive of my property, which I won't tolerate) because I hope that, over time, they'll see me and my partner as just neighbors going about our lives and not having any "agenda" other than to live in peace. They'll hopefully see we're helpful, civic minded, have no desire to "convert" their kids, and will help them in times of need despite our different views. I'll answer their questions rather than snubbing them, even the ridiculous ones I've been asked like "which one of you is the wife."
I was (I think) able to change at least one person's mind. A woman I know at work said "I don't care what you do but you should stay in the closet." My reply was: "Which is more harmful--two guys living together of their own free will or a guy pretending to be straight, marrying a woman and then her life is miserable because he's always got a big secret." Same woman said "why do you flaunt it" when she saw my partner's photo on my desk. My reply: "Do you keep your husband's photo on your desk to flaunt it, or because seeing him during the day makes you happy at work?" If I had just written her off as a homophobe, that's what she'd still be. While we're certainly not friends, we do get along now.
It really disturbs me how so many people attack those who are generally supportive just because their views don't align 100%. There are much better battles to fight.
Going back to the column from last week about raising sheep:
Parenting has become, for some reason I cannot understand other than selfishness, centered on protecting children from harm instead of teaching them how to navigate harm: hopefully avoiding it but if not handling it. It's almost as if parents have been trained that their worth is in being the bubble around the child instead of the teacher of the child.
For the last 20 years, maybe longer, so many children grew up with a near complete absence of "feeling bad" because parents shielded them (and because we have lived, in the US, in an era of unknown peace and prosperity). Now, as adults, when their parents can no longer protect them, when they "feel bad" they assume the problem is outside of themselves and the only way to "feel good" is to squash whatever makes them "feel bad". Like a very young child, they only thing they know how to do is throw a temper tantrum.
Adults should be able to live their lives as they prefer, as long as they don’t infringe on other citizens rights. I am allowed to believe and say what I think of those behaviors. They are trying to bully my beliefs out of existence.