In light of recent open letters from academia and the arts criticising the UK's Supreme Court ruling on sex-based rights, it's possibly worth remembering that nobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sex, or that binary sex isn't a material fact. These letters do nothing but remind us of what we know only too well: that pretending to believe these things has become an elitist badge of virtue.
I often wonder whether the signatories of such letters have to quieten their consciences before publicly boosting a movement intent on removing women's and girls' rights, which bullies gay people who admit openly they don't want opposite sex partners, and campaigns for the continued sterilisation of vulnerable and troubled kids. Do they feel any qualms at all while chanting the foundational lie of their religion: Trans Women are Women, Trans Men are Men?
I have no idea. All I know for sure is that it's a complete waste of time telling a gender activist that their favourite slogan is self-contradictory nonsense, because the lie is the whole point. They're not repeating it because it's true - they know full well it's not true - but because they believe they can make it true, sort of, if they force everyone else to agree. The foundational lie functions as both catechism and crucifix: the set form of words that obviates the tedious necessity of coming up with your own explanation of why you're one of the Godly, and an exorcist's weapon which will defeat demonic facts and reason, and promote the advance of righteous pseudoscience and sophistry.
Some argue that signatories of these sorts of letters are motivated by fear: fear for their careers, of course, but also fear of their co-religionists, who include angry, narcissistic men who threaten and sometimes enact violence on non-believers; back-stabbing colleagues ever ready to report wrongthink; the online shamers and doxxers and rape threateners, and, of course, the influential zealots in the upper echelons of liberal professions (though we can quibble whether they're actually liberal at all, given the draconian authoritarianism that seems to have engulfed so many). Gender ideology could give medieval Catholicism a run for its money when it comes to punishing heretics, so isn't it common sense to keep your head down and recite your Hail Mulvaneys?
But before we start feeling too sorry for any cowed and fearful TWAWites who're TERFy on the sly, let's not forget what a high proportion of them have willingly snatched up pitchforks and torches to join the inquisitional purges. Call me lacking in proper womanly sympathy, but I find the harm they've enabled and in some cases directly championed or funded - the hounding and shaming of vulnerable women, the forced loss of livelihoods, the unregulated medical experiment on minors - tends to dry up my tears at source.
History is littered with the debris of irrational and harmful belief systems that once seemed unassailable. As Orwell said, 'Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.' Gender ideology may have embedded itself deeply into our institutions, where it's been imposed, top-down, on the supposedly unenlightened, but it is not invulnerable.
Court losses are starting to stack up. The condescension, overreach, entitlement and aggression of gender activists is eroding public support daily. Women are fighting back and winning significant victories. Sporting bodies have miraculously awoken from their slumber and remembered that males tend to be larger, stronger and faster than females. Parts of the medical establishment are questioning cutting healthy breasts off teenaged girls is really the best way to fix their mental health problems.
One seemingly harmless little white lie - Trans Women are Women, Trans Men are Men - uttered in most cases without any real thought at all, and a few short years later, people who think of themselves as supremely virtuous are typing 'yes, rapists' pronouns are absolutely the hill I'll die on,' rubbing shoulders with those who call for women to be hanged and decapitated for wanting all-female rape crisis centres, and furiously denying clear and mounting evidence of the greatest medical scandal in a century.
I wonder if they ever ask themselves how they got here, and I wonder whether any of them will ever feel shame.
Trump himself is placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of Newscum. He said FIVE YEARS AGO he gave the governor the opportunity to refill the reservoirs and have โall the water he could possibly ever needโ and he refused it! This is the governors fault.
Fireโs canโt be fought without water and blaming the chief for this is an emotional reaction because of disagreement with DEI policy. No one here is arguing that DEI is a good thing. Two things can be true at once. We can all agree DEI is a bad idea AND Failure to control the fires is not necessarily the Chiefs fault.
@charliekirk11 So, if thereโs no water.. how is it the firemanโs fault??
And who cares if theyโre lesbians?? The chief sits a desk. Better there than in a flaming stairwell.
I agree with a lot of the DEI arguments, but this just screams of misogyny.
Contact is happening now. We have been telling our story for nearly 2 decades to prepare the world for what is coming. We have plainly told the department of defense that they are powerless to stop these beings from coming in to our world and awakening the people #orb#diorbag
Yes DEI is a bad policy. I agree. But people hate DEI so much that they are automatically throwing all the blame for this catastrophe on the fire chief before knowing all the facts. They see a lesbian in charge and thatโs all they need to come to a decision as to who to blame. Never mind thereโs no water, a cut budget, wicked winds, a mayor on vacation, a governor who refused to refill the reservoirs, a fireman months ago on Joe Rogan podcast warning everyone that sooner or later this exact thing was going to happen and no one in the state leadership did anything about it. IMHO this appears to be a statewide failure of epic proportions on many levels and blaming one woman for it seems like exceedingly unfair.
@AGutiGarcia @wafwhiJ7@charliekirk11 Yup, we just looked that up. This adds to my point. People hate DEI so badly they throw all their hate and vitriol at a situation before they even know the facts.
In my case, yeah youโre wrong. I do care about racism against white people. I care when people blame straight white men for everything wrong in society. And I care when people have knee jerk reactions to situations where we donโt have all the facts. This looks like one of those cases IMHO. People donโt like DEI policy (myself included) but that doesnโt automatically mean the fire chief is to blame.
I disagree with DEI policy as well. I donโt think its good they got the job because theyโre lesbians. My point was, I think it was a knee jerk reaction to blame them for the fires non-containment just because theyโre lesbians.
They donโt have any water, and they got their budget to remove brush cut.
Some people have said it is in fact the chiefs job to secure the water. If this is the case, then id be on board with blaming the chief.
Iโve also heard people say it was the governors fault, and his responsibility to make sure the reservoirs are filled. If this is the case, I fell like the firemen (Iโm including ALL the fire people here, men, women, whatever) were kneecapped and prevented from doing their jobs because of crappy state management.
@TheRealPDQ@charliekirk11 Thatโs a good point. Yeah you would think the fire dept. would have this knowledge available to them. Omg.. can you imagine if they knew and just โฆ didnโt say anything? ๐ณ Please Lord donโt let this be the case.
I feel like thereโs two issues in this thread going on at once.
1. Is DEI a bad policy?
2. Is it the Firemanโs fault they werenโt able to contain these fires?
The two are being conflated IMHO. While I totally agree DEI is a bad policy that sets us up for catastrophic failure, I donโt know, in this case, that it made a difference. If the firemen didnโt have water, nor the budget to contain the brush, can we blame them for the fire getting out of control?
Some have suggested its the Fire Chiefs fault for not demanding the water, or not knowing there wasnโt any water.
Some have said its the head of the Dept. of Waters fault
Some have said it was the governors decision to not refill the reservoirs and to cut the brush removal budget.
Personally id like to know how every single CA gov official dropped the ball on this. And I donโt think its fair to have a knee jerk reaction and blame the chief because we disagree with the DEI policy.
Iโd like to know the answer to this as well. I had heard it was a political decision (the governors fault) for not refilling the reservoirs and for cutting the budgets to remove brush. Im sure weโll be hearing about it in the months ahead. Plenty of blame on this one to go around.
Two things can be true at once. They can be DEI hires (which I totally get people are sick of, myself included) and it can also not be their fault. maybe it is, maybe it isnโt. I was lead to believe that the shortage of water and budget cuts for brush removal was a political decision, outside the realm of responsibility for the firemen. So you could have Superman as the fire chief right now and it wouldnโt have mattered. Thatโs all Iโm saying. Was it a catastrophic failure? Definitely. Would having the best fire chief in the world have made a difference in this case? If he had no water to fight fires and no budget to clear brush, I donโt see how it would have made a difference.