Kara Dansky cannot recognize the far right for what it is. In my opinion, with her tacit endorsement of FOX news and the Federalist Society, she's become part of the problem.
I've been attacked for 'talking to right wingers' because I studied them for a research project IN COLLEGE. Their bar for 'has problematic ties to the right' is incredibly low.
if Kara Dansky was any good at persuasion, the ACLU would be a champion for women's rights, and Dansky would still be their legal voice.
Instad, Chase Strangio speaks for Civil Liberties in America. There's a reason why "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" is an old saying. It's true.
It's all well and good to look at Kara Dansky from your own perspective. And I think you know, in general, I respect your thoughts on these subjects.
That said; the problem with your giving Dansky credit for her motivation for appearing on FOX is the FOX audience and their capacity to wield political power against the interests of women.
Dansky is being used to turn Democratic women into Republican voters. It's a good strategy, it is a workable strategy and, if you are an unmarried American woman, or Black, or lesbian, or still in the midst of your reproductive years, and/or you make less than $200,000 a year and/or own fewer than two income producing properties, it is a strategy that puts your life in jeopardy.
The fact that Dansky doesn't understand the strategy of the right in inviting her to appear on FOX news or speak at Federalist panel presentations does not mean that strategy is not in place.
The war is for reality but facets of reality can be turned to destructive goals. Republican strategists are smart. For some reason it's fashionable to pretend they're not but they are.
Witness Parker Posie in England. She was and is right about everything she says. The Conservatives amplified her voice in an effort to consolidate their grip on political power in the UK. It worked. It's still working. Ask anyone in the UK how they feel about their life under a Conservative government, don't take my word for it. People are suffering. But the trans lobby won't back down and neither will Kellie Jean. So women are voting for their legal survival over all else.
Here, that means a loss of all reproductive rights, for starters, it means a loss of the right to vote, it means we will have a Dictator Trump with absolute power before you know it.
Arming bad people with the knowledge of what's important to good people is a bad thing to do. I can't put it any simpler than that.
Also, do you know how to make a paragraph break? I'm not being snarky. I won't read giant blocks of text like this, I used to mark my students down by a full grade for this, I pause to consider what you're saying and I can't do that if it's all one giant, breathless paragraph.
Actually, I think you can just use return on this platform.
Yes, you can. On a phone, maybe you could break it down into separate comments, paragraph by paragraph. It only takes one tap to do that.
You cannot make alliances with people who are not willing to ally with you.
Having worked in a Public Affairs office where several of our clients were right wing politicians, I can tell you, for a fact, that Republicans are not willing to be allies. For them it is an all-or-nothing game and they are happy to use the Democratic ideal of cooperation against Democrats.
You have no allies in the Republican party. Maybe individual members think they can be allied and cooperative with Democrats but the people who make the decisions, the structure of the party, the aim of the party is to destroy Democratic principles. Viktor Orbhan is the ideal Republican. That is what they're going for.
They see nothing wrong with that. You are welcome to have Republican friends and be cooperative in your day to day life. For a long time, I lived that way. But it's not really an option when it comes to any aspect of public life.
They are using every tool they can reach to achieve their goal. If you can't or won't understand that, I can't talk about it with you because you have this core belief that cannot be challenged and that's your achilles heel. Republicans are going to use it against you, just like they use Kara Dansky.
And yes, I did do some stuff that I should probably be ashamed of in helping those people get elected or stay in power. It was Canada, it was not such a big deal, but I maybe should have had a conscience.
The thing is, for people like me, it's fun. It is really fun to take the wrong side of an argument and see how many people you can get to support you on it.
I used to say; "I don't care what you think you believe, tell me what your goal is, and I can get you there. I will keep your bum in that chair. (in Parliament) I can find the angle to sell it."
Csse in point, public housing program: to the liberals it was the right thing to do, easy sell. I wanted some Conservatives to buy in, so I found the financial aspects of it that would bring in donors and increase their voting base. Found a way for them to be discreet about supporting it. Win win. The program got through.
I am about results. I don't care about your motivation but I will absolutely use your motivation to get me where I want to be.
it's part of Christian identity to claim victimhood and persecution and claim bravery for standing publicly to say they're christians and i for one as a kid from a midwestern town where 'what church do you go to?' didn't mean 'are you jewish Christian Muslim or whatever?' but 'which christian sect do you adhere to.' there was, though, a tiny beleaguered jewish community, and if anyone it's they who would have been persecuted. christians run everything in this country. they're hypocrites. differently than fifty years ago--stores no longer close early on good friday--but the fundamentalists now want to drown us in septic miscarriage blood.
I’m from California, but your observations about the sects are spot on. As bad as ancient Roman monotheism (Christianity) is, the Protestants are truly weird. They took scriptures from an existing religion and re-invented it, claiming that their version is more accurate. This is group narcissism, and much blood has been shed over it. The mechanical, materialistic priesthood called “Science” was born out of the as-called Enlightenment, and has truly become catholic (as in “universal”), since it is accepted by all nations worldwide. My birth mother was tolerable as a Roman Catholic, but when she started dabbling in Protestantism, she took us children (I was five) to the People’s Temple (Jim Jones) before she settled on a Pentecostal church. She was all right when there was clear authority (Catholic), but went completely off her rocker during the Satanic Panic in the ’80’s (Pentecostal). Protestants just invent their “God” and religious practices as they go along. I used to give short shrift to religious practices and just kind of sneered at those who participate in them, but have more recently come to respect the religious rites that Catholics and others such as Buddhists practice, as they are traditions and serve social and emotional needs in people. Hopefully, it will soon be understood by more of the population that materialism is also a belief system, and that much of what is presently called “Science” is really just a house of cards that functions politically, and anything but objective. I’m an admirer of heterodox scientists and theory, which the orthodoxy prefers to derogatorily refer to as “pseudoscience.” A careful examination of this situation and the institutions involved by a reasonably intelligent person will reveal plenty of evidence for questioning just how much actual “Science” has been going on in recent decades, particularly here in the USA, with the financialization and corporatization that has occurred in society during the same time frame. If the trans cult isn’t enough evidence for you to question how crap like this gets passed off as “Science,” that is! Anyway, the Christian persecution claim is common to all of the evangelical Protestant sects I have direct knowledge of, I think it is a DARVO tactic, and it basically comes from their group narcissism expressed as, “we know better about this ‘God’ than the original believers.” Remember, Protestants were supposedly rejecting the corruption of Rome. 🤣 Seeing the fact that they are no less corrupt, I think their mechanical, materialistic priesthood called “Science” deserves quite a bit more scrutiny.
100 percent, I don't believe in transubstantiation of the wafer into flesh with magic words nor transubstantiation of the flesh through magic words, both beliefs are allowed because America
Well said. I agree. I'd like to add that the U.S. is perilously close to the edge of a cliff with regard to the blending of church and state. Our governmental proceedings are often opened with a prayer. The concept of God has been crowbarred into statements of national belief that are all but impossible to avoid; (the pledge of allegiance) Churches are not expected to pay taxes, refrain from political persuasion or even be accountable for their financial dealings.
The rules and practices regarding the separation of church and state have been bent so badly in this country that they can hardly be said to be part of the American collective psyche at all.
As an immigrant from a secular society I was shocked to discover the widespread social practice of regular church attendance in what I assumed was a contemporary, civil society. It has been suggested to me on more than one occasion that I consider attending a local congregational church in order to cement my good standing in my community. The people who have said this to me know perfectly well that I am not Christian and would find most of the service misguided at best and offensive at its peak.
So I am feeling like the chances of curbing the tendency to blend the trans religion into the acceptable practice of the Democratic party in much the same way as the Evangelicals have mixed seamlessly into Republican activism are pretty slim. We're already there. The Democrats want a pack of religious zealots loyal to the cause that can be relied upon to bully people and vote blue no matter who, to match the red hoardes that carry the dead guy on a stick into bloody battle (literally) at the slightest provocation.
The rest of the world doesn't march to the beat of military Jesus's army band, the rest of the world has some sense of religion as personal and mystical. Too many Americans don't seem to understand any of this. I can't explain why but I find it alarming.
Rational Americans are trapped between two parties that both espouse religious extremism. Where do we go? Our Constitution does not support any of this regressive junk. Most people know it, most people want a secular country and yet we seem to be going in reverse, straight down the hole to pseudo-science and religious extremism. Voting between the two sometimes feels like simply choosing which flavor of whackadoodle you want on your plate.
I make my choice in the polling booth based on other issues for as long as I can, I am voting Democrat because there is a better chance that we can pull ourselves out of that death spiral than there is that we will ever put General Jesus, the hateful master of all that's "holy" to rest. Finland and England have come to their senses. The rest of the world can follow.
Jesus adulation is unique to the US. It has the capacity to do to us what fervent followers of Allah did to Afghanistan. I will do all I can to keep us out of that pit.
That is admirable. I have a serious heart condition and have already cut every toxic person out of my life. That leaves me with my husband, my stepmother, a bunch of friends scattered around the world, some cousins, and that's about it. We've moved to a rural area. I used to participate in community things but since the trans juggernaut began, it has not been worth it.
I'm happy, sometimes I feel a bit guilty about that. But I'm doing what I can. We have a friend from Italy visiting right now. They seem to be headed down the road to full-on trans acolyte status so I expect it will be the last time we volunteer to see her. I can only steer the conversation away from De Santis and the "mess in Florida" so many times before she will be on to me. When she figures out the fact that while I may think DeSantis is an oaf and a racist, I am fine with his views on transgenderism she will feel hurt and take it as her cue to start trying to change my views. I really don't care what De Santis is doing in Florida, When she realizes that, I'll probably start easing her out of my life.
So that is my way of saying, I do still have real life social interactions but my blood pressure cannot handle interactions with idiots, especially malicious ones. I've made my peace with choosing my life over traditional social relationships, so I'm even less patient when I encounter that stuff online and at least for the present, I am limiting my interactions on the topic to as many reasonable conversations as I can find online.
My blood pressure does not allow me to suffer fools gladly.
I feel like we are in the twilight zone, not sometimes, all the time. I love to swim but I stopped going to the Y because there was a man who liked to harass me in the pool, nothing "serious" just ogling and whooping. He was intellectually disabled. Well, after the new laws were passed in our state, the Y decided he could change in the women's locker room because it was more convenient for his care giver and because transwomen were allowed in there anyway.
So he started following me around the locker room as he did in the pool. I quit swimming. My solution, to drop out of places or cut off people who press against my rights in this regard is not always a painless solution but it is always better for my mental health and my blood pressure than it would be to stick around and duke it out.,
I understand what you say completely. I am too old (69) and cannot stand people treating me as though I am sub-par intellectually (I am definitely not). My best relationships are with four-leggeds whom I feel much closer to than human beings.
I like wild birds, skunks, bunnies and possums. We do our best to help wildlife. We make sure they have a clean accessible water source, we plant their food plants and make sure there are safe places for them to sleep around the garden but otherwise, we're pretty hands-off.
That's actually in line with my belief system, it's visible to others but it doesn't look like a spiritual practice which is fine with me. The main spiritual practice held in common by most traditional indigenous communities can be summed up in one sentence: "humans are not special." I've had two cat companions that I loved more than 95% of the humans I've ever encountered but they may be my last.
The Democrats' only line is we're better than that other party whom we closely resemble. I find that pretty damn pathetic, but when one reads about American politics post-WWII everything that has happened makes total sense.
Europeans knew their history of the Church as an authoritarian political and oppressive financial force. Americans forgot. de Tocqueville noted American churchiness, I believe.
Outside of America, we've all seen the movies with the quaint little churches in them, places where weddings and funerals take place and we all expect that while there may be more of them than there are in Canada or the UK (the two countries where I have lived experience) they are essentially historical buildings used for classical music concerts, weddings, funerals and the occasional ceremonial function. We know there are some elderly people and maybe some South American immigrants who go and sit in the church to pray or listen to the Priest hold forth on his weekly dose of nonsense but most people don't take that too seriously.
To move here and discover that people actually do attend Church at least once a week, and sometimes more, is surprising. Worse, they seem to assume the rest of us have some interest in this activity, or that we should show respect by attending their gatherings in these places and by not challenging their mythology.
I try to be quiet about it, go about my life and ignore it but I can't help but notice how it seems to seep into people's rational lives, influencing their behavior and making it difficult to talk sense about - well, about anything.
When you take into account the absolute obscenity that was the Residential School system, and the adoption practices, sixties scoop, and so on, in Canada, it is hard for me to believe anyone could see any Church linked to colonization as anything but a toxic, genocidal institution. I mean, they're still finding bodies, FFS.
Those of us who came out of that system, as children of those who suffered first hand, or even as grand children, still carry deep scars that make it difficult to carry on with the routines of daily life.
When I moved here, my native friends told me I would find indigenous Americans to be much more assimilated than First Nations Canadians are. I did not believe that either, but it does seem to be true. It is difficult to find any traditional community in my area anyway. Since I don't see us moving to Colorado or Utah in my lifetime and since those nations are foreign to the traditional practices of my father's people, I've internalized that aspect of my life and I admit, I expect people who are devout about and other belief systems that may diverge from Constitutional beliefs, to keep those beliefs to themselves. They are personal. They are intimate. American churchiness seems very brazen, it's offensively loud. It is a scourge on an otherwise vital society. The longer I live here the more offensive I find that aspect of American life.
My strategy so far has been to ignore it and hope it goes away. Statistically, it is on the decline. I hope I don't have to reassess.
I knew an Episcopal priest who emigrated to New Zealand from the U.S. because he didn't want to live in a theocracy. He moved to a country which still taught state religion in the schools! And look how they've glommed on to the Church of Transgender!
That’s what gets me about Matt Walsh. He’s probably indoctrinating his 6 kids into his Catholic religion every day, making then scared of a God and Hell and trusting them with a church that has a terrible reputation with children and babies and gay people. Yet otherwise he seems mostly basic and sensible, which is more proof indoctrinating children works.
As a practicing Catholic ,I really don't recognise most of your analysis of my church. We are not fundamental ,fanatical Christians ,at least not in Britain, and ,unfortunately ,when a minority of priests abused children the church was very naive and handled it badly. There are paedophiles in every walk of life and every profession and no one knew how to tackle it ,so most just pushed it under a rug. Children aren't taught to " fear" God ,either and the church isn't responsible for this modern anti human agenda ,which includes abortion ,euthanasia and transgenderism.
And if I’d criticised members of transgenderism and some other religions, I’d be getting death threats and insults, instead of a considered response, so there is that. 🙂 I do think that children should live without religion until we’re old enough to decide for ourselves though, not have our parents and communities indoctrinating us with their religious beliefs.
I wish I could agree with you, Susan, but Roman Catholicism varies widely. The Church knew exactly what it was doing concerning child abuse (better than sex with a woman!) and was not in the least naive. I've been reading about Cardinal Spellman and his penchant for dressing up in women's clothing and engaging in sex parties at Roy Cohn's suite at the Plaza in NYC (the clergy called him Mary, one priest told Lenny Bruce Spellman looked like Shirley Temple, and Bruce was arrested for saying that in public). Additionally, for a price, Spellman could "fix" any crime one engaged in, including murder.
An Irish Catholic penpal I knew in St Louis sent me a CURRENT-DAY catechism and it was extremely abusive, telling children the blame for Jesus' crucifixion was theirs. Now I know plenty of Catholic churches do not engage in that sort of abuse, but how many do? Another Irish Catholic I knew from St Louis told me how much she preferred the Presbyterian nursery her mother sent her to after attending the Catholic one.
Replacing "Gender Queer" with "Jesus Saves" and placing it on a pedestal in public school libraries and replacing Rainbow Flags with Crucifixion Crosses and pictures of Mary and Jesus on walls in classrooms may peak some of the "just be nice" crowd. Trans ideology should be treated like the religion it is. Well said.
I agree as well, what is the legislative alternative? Age? Parental control? Physician consequences for interference? It seems to me to be activist intervention. We all want the best for our children.
Kara Dansky cannot recognize the far right for what it is. In my opinion, with her tacit endorsement of FOX news and the Federalist Society, she's become part of the problem.
I've been attacked for 'talking to right wingers' because I studied them for a research project IN COLLEGE. Their bar for 'has problematic ties to the right' is incredibly low.
if Kara Dansky was any good at persuasion, the ACLU would be a champion for women's rights, and Dansky would still be their legal voice.
Instad, Chase Strangio speaks for Civil Liberties in America. There's a reason why "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" is an old saying. It's true.
It's all well and good to look at Kara Dansky from your own perspective. And I think you know, in general, I respect your thoughts on these subjects.
That said; the problem with your giving Dansky credit for her motivation for appearing on FOX is the FOX audience and their capacity to wield political power against the interests of women.
Dansky is being used to turn Democratic women into Republican voters. It's a good strategy, it is a workable strategy and, if you are an unmarried American woman, or Black, or lesbian, or still in the midst of your reproductive years, and/or you make less than $200,000 a year and/or own fewer than two income producing properties, it is a strategy that puts your life in jeopardy.
The fact that Dansky doesn't understand the strategy of the right in inviting her to appear on FOX news or speak at Federalist panel presentations does not mean that strategy is not in place.
The war is for reality but facets of reality can be turned to destructive goals. Republican strategists are smart. For some reason it's fashionable to pretend they're not but they are.
Witness Parker Posie in England. She was and is right about everything she says. The Conservatives amplified her voice in an effort to consolidate their grip on political power in the UK. It worked. It's still working. Ask anyone in the UK how they feel about their life under a Conservative government, don't take my word for it. People are suffering. But the trans lobby won't back down and neither will Kellie Jean. So women are voting for their legal survival over all else.
Here, that means a loss of all reproductive rights, for starters, it means a loss of the right to vote, it means we will have a Dictator Trump with absolute power before you know it.
Arming bad people with the knowledge of what's important to good people is a bad thing to do. I can't put it any simpler than that.
Also, do you know how to make a paragraph break? I'm not being snarky. I won't read giant blocks of text like this, I used to mark my students down by a full grade for this, I pause to consider what you're saying and I can't do that if it's all one giant, breathless paragraph.
Actually, I think you can just use return on this platform.
Yes, you can. On a phone, maybe you could break it down into separate comments, paragraph by paragraph. It only takes one tap to do that.
You cannot make alliances with people who are not willing to ally with you.
Having worked in a Public Affairs office where several of our clients were right wing politicians, I can tell you, for a fact, that Republicans are not willing to be allies. For them it is an all-or-nothing game and they are happy to use the Democratic ideal of cooperation against Democrats.
You have no allies in the Republican party. Maybe individual members think they can be allied and cooperative with Democrats but the people who make the decisions, the structure of the party, the aim of the party is to destroy Democratic principles. Viktor Orbhan is the ideal Republican. That is what they're going for.
They see nothing wrong with that. You are welcome to have Republican friends and be cooperative in your day to day life. For a long time, I lived that way. But it's not really an option when it comes to any aspect of public life.
They are using every tool they can reach to achieve their goal. If you can't or won't understand that, I can't talk about it with you because you have this core belief that cannot be challenged and that's your achilles heel. Republicans are going to use it against you, just like they use Kara Dansky.
And yes, I did do some stuff that I should probably be ashamed of in helping those people get elected or stay in power. It was Canada, it was not such a big deal, but I maybe should have had a conscience.
The thing is, for people like me, it's fun. It is really fun to take the wrong side of an argument and see how many people you can get to support you on it.
I used to say; "I don't care what you think you believe, tell me what your goal is, and I can get you there. I will keep your bum in that chair. (in Parliament) I can find the angle to sell it."
Csse in point, public housing program: to the liberals it was the right thing to do, easy sell. I wanted some Conservatives to buy in, so I found the financial aspects of it that would bring in donors and increase their voting base. Found a way for them to be discreet about supporting it. Win win. The program got through.
I am about results. I don't care about your motivation but I will absolutely use your motivation to get me where I want to be.
THAT is how a Republican strategist thinks.
it's part of Christian identity to claim victimhood and persecution and claim bravery for standing publicly to say they're christians and i for one as a kid from a midwestern town where 'what church do you go to?' didn't mean 'are you jewish Christian Muslim or whatever?' but 'which christian sect do you adhere to.' there was, though, a tiny beleaguered jewish community, and if anyone it's they who would have been persecuted. christians run everything in this country. they're hypocrites. differently than fifty years ago--stores no longer close early on good friday--but the fundamentalists now want to drown us in septic miscarriage blood.
I’m from California, but your observations about the sects are spot on. As bad as ancient Roman monotheism (Christianity) is, the Protestants are truly weird. They took scriptures from an existing religion and re-invented it, claiming that their version is more accurate. This is group narcissism, and much blood has been shed over it. The mechanical, materialistic priesthood called “Science” was born out of the as-called Enlightenment, and has truly become catholic (as in “universal”), since it is accepted by all nations worldwide. My birth mother was tolerable as a Roman Catholic, but when she started dabbling in Protestantism, she took us children (I was five) to the People’s Temple (Jim Jones) before she settled on a Pentecostal church. She was all right when there was clear authority (Catholic), but went completely off her rocker during the Satanic Panic in the ’80’s (Pentecostal). Protestants just invent their “God” and religious practices as they go along. I used to give short shrift to religious practices and just kind of sneered at those who participate in them, but have more recently come to respect the religious rites that Catholics and others such as Buddhists practice, as they are traditions and serve social and emotional needs in people. Hopefully, it will soon be understood by more of the population that materialism is also a belief system, and that much of what is presently called “Science” is really just a house of cards that functions politically, and anything but objective. I’m an admirer of heterodox scientists and theory, which the orthodoxy prefers to derogatorily refer to as “pseudoscience.” A careful examination of this situation and the institutions involved by a reasonably intelligent person will reveal plenty of evidence for questioning just how much actual “Science” has been going on in recent decades, particularly here in the USA, with the financialization and corporatization that has occurred in society during the same time frame. If the trans cult isn’t enough evidence for you to question how crap like this gets passed off as “Science,” that is! Anyway, the Christian persecution claim is common to all of the evangelical Protestant sects I have direct knowledge of, I think it is a DARVO tactic, and it basically comes from their group narcissism expressed as, “we know better about this ‘God’ than the original believers.” Remember, Protestants were supposedly rejecting the corruption of Rome. 🤣 Seeing the fact that they are no less corrupt, I think their mechanical, materialistic priesthood called “Science” deserves quite a bit more scrutiny.
100 percent, I don't believe in transubstantiation of the wafer into flesh with magic words nor transubstantiation of the flesh through magic words, both beliefs are allowed because America
Excellent comparison. It's all transubstantiation.
Well said. I agree. I'd like to add that the U.S. is perilously close to the edge of a cliff with regard to the blending of church and state. Our governmental proceedings are often opened with a prayer. The concept of God has been crowbarred into statements of national belief that are all but impossible to avoid; (the pledge of allegiance) Churches are not expected to pay taxes, refrain from political persuasion or even be accountable for their financial dealings.
The rules and practices regarding the separation of church and state have been bent so badly in this country that they can hardly be said to be part of the American collective psyche at all.
As an immigrant from a secular society I was shocked to discover the widespread social practice of regular church attendance in what I assumed was a contemporary, civil society. It has been suggested to me on more than one occasion that I consider attending a local congregational church in order to cement my good standing in my community. The people who have said this to me know perfectly well that I am not Christian and would find most of the service misguided at best and offensive at its peak.
So I am feeling like the chances of curbing the tendency to blend the trans religion into the acceptable practice of the Democratic party in much the same way as the Evangelicals have mixed seamlessly into Republican activism are pretty slim. We're already there. The Democrats want a pack of religious zealots loyal to the cause that can be relied upon to bully people and vote blue no matter who, to match the red hoardes that carry the dead guy on a stick into bloody battle (literally) at the slightest provocation.
The rest of the world doesn't march to the beat of military Jesus's army band, the rest of the world has some sense of religion as personal and mystical. Too many Americans don't seem to understand any of this. I can't explain why but I find it alarming.
couldn't agree more.
Rational Americans are trapped between two parties that both espouse religious extremism. Where do we go? Our Constitution does not support any of this regressive junk. Most people know it, most people want a secular country and yet we seem to be going in reverse, straight down the hole to pseudo-science and religious extremism. Voting between the two sometimes feels like simply choosing which flavor of whackadoodle you want on your plate.
I make my choice in the polling booth based on other issues for as long as I can, I am voting Democrat because there is a better chance that we can pull ourselves out of that death spiral than there is that we will ever put General Jesus, the hateful master of all that's "holy" to rest. Finland and England have come to their senses. The rest of the world can follow.
Jesus adulation is unique to the US. It has the capacity to do to us what fervent followers of Allah did to Afghanistan. I will do all I can to keep us out of that pit.
That is admirable. I have a serious heart condition and have already cut every toxic person out of my life. That leaves me with my husband, my stepmother, a bunch of friends scattered around the world, some cousins, and that's about it. We've moved to a rural area. I used to participate in community things but since the trans juggernaut began, it has not been worth it.
I'm happy, sometimes I feel a bit guilty about that. But I'm doing what I can. We have a friend from Italy visiting right now. They seem to be headed down the road to full-on trans acolyte status so I expect it will be the last time we volunteer to see her. I can only steer the conversation away from De Santis and the "mess in Florida" so many times before she will be on to me. When she figures out the fact that while I may think DeSantis is an oaf and a racist, I am fine with his views on transgenderism she will feel hurt and take it as her cue to start trying to change my views. I really don't care what De Santis is doing in Florida, When she realizes that, I'll probably start easing her out of my life.
So that is my way of saying, I do still have real life social interactions but my blood pressure cannot handle interactions with idiots, especially malicious ones. I've made my peace with choosing my life over traditional social relationships, so I'm even less patient when I encounter that stuff online and at least for the present, I am limiting my interactions on the topic to as many reasonable conversations as I can find online.
My blood pressure does not allow me to suffer fools gladly.
I feel like we are in the twilight zone, not sometimes, all the time. I love to swim but I stopped going to the Y because there was a man who liked to harass me in the pool, nothing "serious" just ogling and whooping. He was intellectually disabled. Well, after the new laws were passed in our state, the Y decided he could change in the women's locker room because it was more convenient for his care giver and because transwomen were allowed in there anyway.
So he started following me around the locker room as he did in the pool. I quit swimming. My solution, to drop out of places or cut off people who press against my rights in this regard is not always a painless solution but it is always better for my mental health and my blood pressure than it would be to stick around and duke it out.,
I understand what you say completely. I am too old (69) and cannot stand people treating me as though I am sub-par intellectually (I am definitely not). My best relationships are with four-leggeds whom I feel much closer to than human beings.
I like wild birds, skunks, bunnies and possums. We do our best to help wildlife. We make sure they have a clean accessible water source, we plant their food plants and make sure there are safe places for them to sleep around the garden but otherwise, we're pretty hands-off.
That's actually in line with my belief system, it's visible to others but it doesn't look like a spiritual practice which is fine with me. The main spiritual practice held in common by most traditional indigenous communities can be summed up in one sentence: "humans are not special." I've had two cat companions that I loved more than 95% of the humans I've ever encountered but they may be my last.
The Democrats' only line is we're better than that other party whom we closely resemble. I find that pretty damn pathetic, but when one reads about American politics post-WWII everything that has happened makes total sense.
she should BE IN law school.
********** this ************* Exulansic would make a crack attorney. She is already doing it.
From what I hear from Devin Buckley it's a bit hard to get references when you're a known terf.
Europeans knew their history of the Church as an authoritarian political and oppressive financial force. Americans forgot. de Tocqueville noted American churchiness, I believe.
Outside of America, we've all seen the movies with the quaint little churches in them, places where weddings and funerals take place and we all expect that while there may be more of them than there are in Canada or the UK (the two countries where I have lived experience) they are essentially historical buildings used for classical music concerts, weddings, funerals and the occasional ceremonial function. We know there are some elderly people and maybe some South American immigrants who go and sit in the church to pray or listen to the Priest hold forth on his weekly dose of nonsense but most people don't take that too seriously.
To move here and discover that people actually do attend Church at least once a week, and sometimes more, is surprising. Worse, they seem to assume the rest of us have some interest in this activity, or that we should show respect by attending their gatherings in these places and by not challenging their mythology.
I try to be quiet about it, go about my life and ignore it but I can't help but notice how it seems to seep into people's rational lives, influencing their behavior and making it difficult to talk sense about - well, about anything.
When you take into account the absolute obscenity that was the Residential School system, and the adoption practices, sixties scoop, and so on, in Canada, it is hard for me to believe anyone could see any Church linked to colonization as anything but a toxic, genocidal institution. I mean, they're still finding bodies, FFS.
Those of us who came out of that system, as children of those who suffered first hand, or even as grand children, still carry deep scars that make it difficult to carry on with the routines of daily life.
When I moved here, my native friends told me I would find indigenous Americans to be much more assimilated than First Nations Canadians are. I did not believe that either, but it does seem to be true. It is difficult to find any traditional community in my area anyway. Since I don't see us moving to Colorado or Utah in my lifetime and since those nations are foreign to the traditional practices of my father's people, I've internalized that aspect of my life and I admit, I expect people who are devout about and other belief systems that may diverge from Constitutional beliefs, to keep those beliefs to themselves. They are personal. They are intimate. American churchiness seems very brazen, it's offensively loud. It is a scourge on an otherwise vital society. The longer I live here the more offensive I find that aspect of American life.
My strategy so far has been to ignore it and hope it goes away. Statistically, it is on the decline. I hope I don't have to reassess.
I knew an Episcopal priest who emigrated to New Zealand from the U.S. because he didn't want to live in a theocracy. He moved to a country which still taught state religion in the schools! And look how they've glommed on to the Church of Transgender!
That’s what gets me about Matt Walsh. He’s probably indoctrinating his 6 kids into his Catholic religion every day, making then scared of a God and Hell and trusting them with a church that has a terrible reputation with children and babies and gay people. Yet otherwise he seems mostly basic and sensible, which is more proof indoctrinating children works.
As a practicing Catholic ,I really don't recognise most of your analysis of my church. We are not fundamental ,fanatical Christians ,at least not in Britain, and ,unfortunately ,when a minority of priests abused children the church was very naive and handled it badly. There are paedophiles in every walk of life and every profession and no one knew how to tackle it ,so most just pushed it under a rug. Children aren't taught to " fear" God ,either and the church isn't responsible for this modern anti human agenda ,which includes abortion ,euthanasia and transgenderism.
And if I’d criticised members of transgenderism and some other religions, I’d be getting death threats and insults, instead of a considered response, so there is that. 🙂 I do think that children should live without religion until we’re old enough to decide for ourselves though, not have our parents and communities indoctrinating us with their religious beliefs.
I don't believe my analysis mentioned pedophile priests.
My comment was in response to a comment by someone else. Sorry for the confusion
the Catholic Church may be a bit different in the US. I can't speak to the details. but the US is very religious and that extends to many sects.
I wish I could agree with you, Susan, but Roman Catholicism varies widely. The Church knew exactly what it was doing concerning child abuse (better than sex with a woman!) and was not in the least naive. I've been reading about Cardinal Spellman and his penchant for dressing up in women's clothing and engaging in sex parties at Roy Cohn's suite at the Plaza in NYC (the clergy called him Mary, one priest told Lenny Bruce Spellman looked like Shirley Temple, and Bruce was arrested for saying that in public). Additionally, for a price, Spellman could "fix" any crime one engaged in, including murder.
An Irish Catholic penpal I knew in St Louis sent me a CURRENT-DAY catechism and it was extremely abusive, telling children the blame for Jesus' crucifixion was theirs. Now I know plenty of Catholic churches do not engage in that sort of abuse, but how many do? Another Irish Catholic I knew from St Louis told me how much she preferred the Presbyterian nursery her mother sent her to after attending the Catholic one.
Replacing "Gender Queer" with "Jesus Saves" and placing it on a pedestal in public school libraries and replacing Rainbow Flags with Crucifixion Crosses and pictures of Mary and Jesus on walls in classrooms may peak some of the "just be nice" crowd. Trans ideology should be treated like the religion it is. Well said.
This is a powerful, succinct and persuasive essay. Thank you.
This is a well-reasoned post! Brava! There’s gender identity ideology, and then there’s the institutionalization of it.
brilliant.
Pragmatism combined with tolerance is what has made western democratic systems the places everybody wants to live.
May I cross-post this? You haven't provided the necessary button.
I agree as well, what is the legislative alternative? Age? Parental control? Physician consequences for interference? It seems to me to be activist intervention. We all want the best for our children.
I have lost most of my family members over this subject and the friends I had. Now alone saying to myself, "What happened?"
Thank you, Exulansic.