the bastards' last stand

We identify as things we generally are not, thus Rachel Dolezal, men who identify as women, women who identify as men, and people of both sexes identifying as non-binary. No amount of empathy, compassion, or wishing will change that. I could identify as a classical guitarist and even be recognized as such. However, how I might choose to identify wouldn't change the fact that I don't play classical guitar. Some seem to believe that regardless of that fact, my identity, if genuinely held, should be validated by others. Refusing to see people as they want to see themselves, regardless of reality, is portrayed as a form of bigotry. They believe we must accept people as they say they are. It is clear that the people saying this have not even begun to reckon with the consequences to the individual who expects external validation for an identity he cannot validate for himself. They can barely acknowledge the consequence to society as a whole when strangers are forced to accept a false

After 50 years, the ruling for Roe v Wade establishing abortion as a right has been overturned by the Supreme Court. The implications of this ruling are worth exploring, but not my intent here. I was initially somewhat surprised that it was overturned, and that feeling immediately started to wane. Increasingly it feels like an inevitable outcome of this moment. The current ruling may be as much about the 50 years of conservatives fighting to overturn Roe as it is the larger social context in which it happened. Across social media I have seen a number of memes that start, "If men were the ones who got pregnant..." or "If every time men had sex they faced death..." All of these memes are clear on who doesn't need abortion and thus assumed to be attacking the right. None of the memes clearly state who abortions are for and who needs the right. This seems significant.  W. Burlette Carter, Professor Emerita of Law at George Washington University has suggested that th

 Consider these mostly factual statements that were uncontroversial just a few years ago: Puberty is an important, if difficult, developmental stage for human development. There are two sexes. Men cannot change their sex. Only women can get pregnant. Men have a penis. Women have a vagina. Males don't belong in spaces and programs set aside for women. That these statements are now contested might lead one to believe that there has been something observed in a subset of humans which means these statements don't apply to them. This explains why they are so poorly contested, precisely because nothing has changed. Like all multi-cell species, humans still come in two sexes. The assertions of gender ideology are so absurd-- some women have a penis-- that it seems impossible for rational people to adopt them. Yet, they do. In part, it is imposed top down by brute force with threat to employment and parental rights . It also employs a powerful tool which does the cognitive work that al

But we have to be honest-- and it seems to me, when you turn science into ideology and politics into science, then you're not talking from an honest place...and I think that's muddying the waters regarding what side you're on, and rarely leads to anything good. Mads Mikkelsen Dear Friends The ways in which we interact on social media erodes our trust in others. Relationships are decimated through that erosion. I write this open letter to express hope in the possibility that together we can offer a better model for discussing contentious topics and to issue a challenge towards that end.  I don't know if you've noticed but I have not been doing my usual posting on the topics of the day I consider important. I was suspended for a month from Facebook for saying something true (and no, I didn't "misgender" anyone). I've thought about that a lot and its implications for the ways in which people disagree with each other. From my experience it's a lot

"I have an idea. I really want it to work. Let's use children to experiment on them and go from there to see what happens." --Dr. Quentin VanMeter Dr. Quentin VanMeter is a pediatric endocrinologist. The quote above came from a 2018 talk he gave in Sydney, Australia on the history of "trans" medicine. Although he was talking about the experimental nature of "trans" medicine, the statement could apply to anything from education reform to the public health response to COVID. It was initially somewhat surprising how little the COVID advice for children matched the evidence. It eventually became a reminder that this is how it always is for our children. It's seldom about the evidence rather than the goals of the usually public/private initiative we use our children to support.  I have written previously about the way that adolescent "trans medicine" contradicts the evidence and have noticed parallels to the COVID response for some time. Mo

In December I conducted a poll on Twitter: Most people selected gender affirmation. The best answer would be both.  Much of the writing that I do is focused on the moral idealism or "wokeness" used to cultivate division over perceived identity issues. My focus on gender identity propaganda has much to do with the way that it is being used to redefine humans and reorder society. It has proven a powerful tool in convincing people to accept meaningless absurdities as reality, whether as belief or repeated to avoid social or financial sanction. Put simply, the propaganda was never about a group of marginalized vulnerable people, but using a group invented for the purpose of growing acceptance in the population for more immediate state control. If the state can convince people to accept obvious lies without resistance, what can't it do? In retrospect it is obvious that the global public health "response" to COVID serves much the same purpose. It very much parallels g