Excellent piece. I would hasten to add another very effective strategy in this war to take back our classrooms - Woke-proof your kids! My kids have developed a keen radar for woke nonsense, not that it's hard to detect.
When a transgender activist (a man posing as a woman athlete) was invited to speak my kids' high school, my daughter told her teacher that she was not allowed to attend - and referred the teacher to me if he had questions. And to my surprise and delight, the teacher (an assistant boys football coach) sent me an e-mail explaining, "Mr. Campbell, trust me, I completely understand." He added that he would ensure that my daughter (and as it turned out, other kids, who also objected) had productive time to study and catch up on assignments during the assembly.
The angry rejection of woke radicalism in classrooms is widespread. It includes parents, teachers, non-white minorities and yes, our own kids. My youngest daughter has a strong conservative political (and Christian) worldview and she has strong support among her school friends. They find a certain belonging within their group.
It's also important to remember that this is NOT a "white people vs the world" scenario. One boy in my daughter's little conservative friend clique is from an Indian family - They're Hindu. He tells my daughter that his parents are extremely traditional and have no use for bizarre and dogmatic claims about gender identity and sexual morality. And my own wife, who is Latina, is livid over the word, "Latinx." She has already informed me that if, (her words) "some chicken-lipped, woke white chick says 'Latinx' to me, you better get some bail money together because I am going to beat her unrecognizable."
The left is big on making you an "anti-racist" ally. Well, we have more natural allies than they do. And we need to fully engage our own children and the families of their friends in this fight. Woke-proof your kids.
As an Indian immigrant of color, I find myself agreeing with conservative values (big fan of Rick Tyler). But the GoP seems full of people who believe anyone non-white or non-Christian cannot be a conservative.
I don't want to be a Democrat but the party I want (the GOP) is convinced that I can never be an ally.
Merely pointing out that the importance of a big tent philosophy.
It seems that you are more convinced of something than the GOP is. There are plenty of non-blacks in the party and their number is rising. If it's not for you, then just say so. But don't project a reality that is not there.
I have been involved in GOP politics for twenty years, and have never once encountered the mindset you describe. So I don’t even know what to say about your post.
This comment buys into the myth presented by big media and leftists that GOP is full of racists, etc. You need to get out more and talk to real Republicans instead of believing the lies you're being told. I don't care what color you are or what religion (if any) that you are -- do you hold conservative values?
I am Indian too and while I agree with you about the spineless cucked republicans not paying too much attention to us, I do think Trump brought a surprising change in that. The politicians suck.
Ajay, as a white (I'm Jewish so who knows what box they put me in?) conservative activist, I will say that I (we?) don't believe that anyone of color cannot be conservative. We are always thrilled when that is the case. But I will admit to a fear of assuming the odds are in our favor. That is a hard challenge to push through. Especially when you live in a very blue area and the leftists are viscous.
Ajay, how would you feel if Chinese and Pakistanis were allowed to flow into India to such a large degree that it changed the demographics of your country? I guarantee you or at least most people in India wouldn't like it either. It has nothing to do with white or non white, it has to do with people trying to flood the country with others for political advantage.
Lots of Desis are conservative & many have joined GOP, Particularly in the last 4-5 years.
Parents don't want their kids being forced to change Genders, we don't want all this crime & violent criminals in our neighborhoods, Riots, looting & burning businesses, schools closed, Trans-sexual agenda in schools, etc.
Lets not forget that Democrats are actively destroying our kids by removing honors classes, because "advanced classes make Black kids unable to succeed" which is nonsense. Democrats also instituting Race-based admissions for Universities & Careers to Exclude Asian kids, which Asian parents are furious about.
Thanks Sally Sue. I'd love to hear from former Dems though - from the horse's mouths so to speak. I HOPE Dems are regaining their sanity, but I need to hear more testimony directly from a former Dem. They should be like rats fleeing a sinking ship but THEY VOTED FOR IT making ALL of us suffer. So I'm not too sympathetic to them but I am glad for their awakening nonetheless!
They are right to be suspicious of any other worldview besides Protestant Chrustianity. It is because:
1) True American conservatism is based a lot on the Protestant worldview - mainly a outcome of confessional Congregationalist teaching. The Great Awakening paved the way for the Declaration. The Hindu worldview will always degenerate into an oligarchy or authoritarian government. Look at India right now. Indians hate guns in the hands of common people, want the government to do everything for them, look down on physical labour. Hindus should own these flaws in their thinking before criticising others of being unaccepting
2) Hinduism in many ways laid the foundation for the 60s sexual revolution setting us on this slippery slope. The worldview encourages relativism.. There's a reason the yoga loving white suburban mom is part of the liberal stereotype.
Hinduism wasn't the foundation of the sexual revolution. Western leftists/hippies hijacked Eastern religions because they thought they validated their degeneracies as opposed to "stolid" Christianity and Judaism. A real Hindu or Buddhist who takes religion seriously laughs off your average white suburbanite virtue signaler.
Yes to real Hindus laughing . But that is because what they see is Westerners peddling yoga to other Westerners using gimmicks. You're not going far enough. 60s were the end of a century old corruption through importing of pagan philosophies through the colonies into England and then the US. The chief of this was Hinduism.
The Hindu worldview eventually will degenerate into an authoritarian rule/ oligarchy scenario. So don't be surprised if they superficially agree with GOP but talk like the Left. The reason they right now are aligned to the GOP is due to its perceived anti-Muslim views. That's all.
"some chicken-lipped, woke white chick says 'Latinx' to me, you better get some bail money together because I am going to beat her unrecognizable." OMGoodness, bail $$, I laughed out loud, I flippin LOVE your wife. I have 5 sons and am shocked (and grateful) that my youngest has a similar friend group as your daughter, of young, respectful, Christians who do a good job just saying "nope, homey don't play that".
The "white ally" is also those who have a guilty racist conscience. Their arrogance and belief in their own intellectual and moral superiority leads them to accuse every pale person of having the same racist conscience. It doesn't occur to them the rest of us are in the modern era, leaving them behind while they were festering their age-old prejudices.
"There are two class problems with the wokeists. Elite leftist minorities know little of the poor and middle-class rural whites whom they demonize—but in reality, do not patronize minorities and are more likely to ignore race entirely. And wealthy woke whites know little and care less about poor and lower-middle-class minorities whom they seem assiduously to avoid—and then virtue-signal their recompensatory guilt.”"
Or just a guilty conscience period. Life sucks, we all screw up, "there is none righteous, no not one" but they INSIST they can become pure, blameless! Ha! Also, they refuse to see what harm they have done. The large cities/inner cities are most all run by Dems (and have been for decades and decades) and LOOK AT THE STATE THEY ARE IN! AND LOOK AT HOW TERRIBLE IT'S BEEN FOR MINORITIES!!! They lie and say it's Republicans fault!! Recently it was Leo Terrel or the guy running for gov now in CA (I love them both) who said "I remember the race riots in the late 60's and 70's, they were RIOTING AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT FAT-CAT DEMS WHO WHERE RUNNING THE INNER CITIES!" Since the early '60s when LBJ did the "New, new deal", the USA tax payer has paid about 22 TRILLION DOLLARS on all of our social programs (HUD rental asst., SS, food stamps, utility pay help, Medicaid, etc.) AND YET POVERTY HAS ONLY GONE DONE BY 1 PERCENT OR SO. I'd say there's some mismanagement, abuse and fraud that's gone on over the decades! 22 TRILLION DOLLARS!!
There is a fine line between "woke-proofing" a child, and teaching them to hate what you hate, fear what you fear, and refuse to learn that which you, their parent, do not understand.
Saw you on Tucker several times about the trans madness and can’t thank you and Rufo enough for all you do!
I’m a single parent of 9 and 16 year old daughters who’s trapped deep behind enemy lines in blue-blooded elitist Nor-Cal replete with phony ‘woke’ charlatan neighbors of all stripes, spewing their verbal fuckery on the daily!
Fear not though, there ARE many of us clear-thinking, yet heretofore silent red-pilled patriots lurking amongst these virtue signaling frauds!
There’s power in numbers and as long as we band together to emphatically say “NO!” at a grass roots level in the schools we can excise this coming cancer before it metastasizes any further!
We’ve got your back 100%, keep up the righteous fight!
I agree Philip, most all of the voters that are in the GOP camp are entirely embarrassed and angry at the spineless leadership. It really is the answer to the Trump phenomenon. I attempt to explain this often to those that don't understand how a reasonable GOP voter could be okay with Trump as President. The point is it is about Trump and then again it is more than that. He is the first leader of the GOP that actually brings a gun to a gunfight so to speak. Too many times we see examples like the "mother versus birthing people" debate handled so stupidly. Desperate for a fighter to save basic things like our civil liberties and blowing off the ridiculous wokeness of today.
Transgenderism, not transgenders is a very distinct threat to this nation for the simplest of reasons: When reality itself can simply be self-declared--I say I'm a woman and therefore I am--AND that assertion is backed by government coercion, then two plus two CAN equal five and be backed by the same coercion.
Transgenderism is a threat on two fronts: first, it seeks to erase womanhood itself. When people say things like 'birthing people' and 'chest feeding' with straight faces, that's next-level newspeak. Second, it is tremendously destabilizing to gay people or to those who do not conform to gender stereotypes. The vast majority of either group grows up to become either happily straight or gay. This movement would cheerfully subject them to medical experimentation, including surgical intervention.
If a person wanted to remove a limb or an eye that was working perfectly well, we would right suggest that person is mentally off balance. Yet, we are supposed to accept the same action when it regards genitalia as perfectly normal.
When the transgender is invading our women's prisons and they are given condoms to deal with it, and when they are in our restrooms and locker rooms, that's more than and "idea."
"It has no being. It is simply a collection of ideas and behaviors which have been peddled."
But those ideas do have being in the physical presence of the human who espouses the idea. Nazism was just an idea but it's physical manifestation was quite deadly.
Cogent argument. I always enjoy The Truth Fairy and Shrier’s willingness to take on the tough current cultural issues. And while I agree that conservatives many times shoot themselves in the foot when taking on the left I also think moderates are the cowards in this battle. They are perfectly content to sit on the sidelines and spectate the war between right and left and then they fall in behind the winner, whomever it may be, because they have no real convictions of their own. You are correct, the right needs to smarten up, but moderates need to grow a backbone.
Well done. Nobody likes the ignorant and bellicose conservative anymore then they like their intellectual equal on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum. However, the most frustrating conservatives have always been those you labeled “Aw shucks.” Those conservatives were coined RINOs as result of their constant attempts to play fair with an adversary that was not an honest broker. They are also the reason why Trump was elected. As crazy and in your face as he was, it was exactly the “go and fight for us, for Christ sake!!” feeling that had been bubbling under the surface since the incredibly flaccid presidential loses of Romney and McCain. Those two fools would take public beatings in debates and all but thank their opener for it. It was horrifying to watch. Trump arrives on scene and stands in between Ben Carson and Jen Bush. Conservatives are like, “Well, we’re screwed again…” Then Trump basically starts punching everyone in the face. EVERYONE. Up to that point conservatives were like those sponges that were dry an water thin, that had suddenly been duped in water. It was glorious. It was also fascinating. You just knew it couldn’t last, that Trump would be his own assassin. Sure enough… I think that we’re seeing a growth in the fact based and cogent conservative population. We’ve been here for some time, most of us grew up cutting our teeth on the climate change issue. But because COVID effected all of us, our ranks grew rather large as we battled everything that just didn’t sound right. We studied, looked up the facts, and argued from an informed position. I think you’re going to continue to see the growth of voters that have suddenly realized that the government, media and politicians are truly deceitful and have been feeding us a load of crap for a very long time. Of course it helps when the left attempts to jump the shark, which is a stunt they seem to love. As soon as we realize that there really isn’t going to be a political way that makes black lives better, or white lives less guilt free (or whatever it is that’s driving all these educated white peoples to the cliffs like lemmings), the sooner we vote in more pragmatic ways, instead of religiously sticking to a party for “the party’s” sake. And I’ll go as far as to say this very clearly - if you’re voting for a democrat, you’re f@cking up. That party is toxic right now. Conservatives may be dopey and aw shucks, but at this very moment in time they’re not trying to wreck the constitutional order. And if you think that your democrat won’t be a part of that, it would be wise for you to look up just how monolithic the House democrats have been. They vote together, tightly, on almost every topic. Much more so then Republicans. So no, your (fake) moderate dem candidate is going to vote to federalize elections, and applaud when dudes are offered positions on the female Olympic team.
Chris Ruffo is an important voice in American right now but so are you, Abigail. I wondered how I would respond in the event someone referred to me as a birthing person - now I know!
"Abortion is an important moral and political question—but not every other serious issue we face bears upon it or derives from it. And neither same-sex marriage nor Caitlyn Jenner poses any threat to children."
You decry conservatives being polite and naive, then you make this statement. Let's start with the latter statement here. What is a marriage and why do we have them? Marriage is the establishment of a stable, lifelong union between a man and a woman for the creation of children and raising of children by those creators.
Through the explosion of divorce, the promiscuity culture of the 1960s, and yes, gay marriage, this institution has been pretty much stabbed to death. Same-sex marriage was the final nail in the coffin for the institution of marriage. Children, suffering from enormous divorce rates among their parents and with many of them never having had their parents marry at all, end up neglected by parents who pay them little heed or mind and frequently regard them as anything from novelty items to inconveniences.
This then ties in to the abortion issue, which is the ultimate expression of contempt for children, literally snuffing out their lives for the sake of mommy's convenience. Children are not people, they are disposable objects, as easily discarded as plastic shrink wrap. If you can murder the most helpless and innocent and deprive them of the most basic right -- the right to life, required for all other rights to exist, while posturing with indignation, you can violate the rights of anybody for anything. That's what makes the abortion issue so fundamental.
As for Bruce Jenner, the dude's a nut. Him declaring that he's a woman no more makes him one than it makes me a hippo-house hybrid simply because I insist I'm one. It just makes him delusional. However, by mainstreaming this it enables predatory attitudes towards women and children, and we have no obligation to treat mental illness as a protected class. Boys can self-identify as girls to use their locker rooms and creep in on them. A week or so ago, there was an article about a man with a full beard who walked into a hot tub of a couple of naked women and a naked 6-year old girl, plopped himself down, and declared himself to be "the woman with a penis."
Don't be polite and naive. It's time to acknowledge the threat for what it is.
Every traditional marriage I've ever witnessed breaking apart had no gay couple in the vicinity egging them on. No-fault divorce and the promiscuity of the 60's were probably the biggest factors hurting commitment and marriage. While traditional marriage was breaking apart, gay couples were fighting for legal recognition of their commitment to each other. Whether or not it would have been more appropriate to recognize a civil union instead of "marriage," I'll leave others to debate. Abigail is correct to say not every issue we face derives or bears on abortion, but instead of talking about pregnancy and abortion, let's go back further and talk about the willy-nilly dumping of genetic material that is known to often lead to conception. There was an interesting study done by a graduate student and I read this back in the 80's. I don't remember the source, but what the student found in comparing birth records and marriage records in colonial America, most of the couples would have been pregnant prior to the marriage, even accounting for some early deliveries. In other words, once the male lay with a woman he married her. Today not so much, the sex partner is disposable, for the convenience of the male (and now the female). This is also contempt for children and contempt for commitment. The alarm bells should have gone off long ago. It's late to the party after the genetic material has already been left behind. Start with the male and there will be many fewer abortions. Cross-dressers (or trans) are not in and of themselves a threat, including Jenner. In fact (s)he's shut down the Left on males in female sports. As far as I know Jenner has never advocated for males, trans or otherwise, in female private spaces. In fact I don't know of any incident among my friends and relatives where a trans male or cross-dresser tried to invade female spaces, but I do know a few incidents where straight males tried to violate those spaces. That doesn't make most straight males a general threat, it's just the predatory ones to worry about, whether in dress or pants.
"contempt for commitment" - Excellent choice of words. Perhaps, even the point of this essay. The "Aw shucks" want not to show a committed opposition, get along go along. The bombast at least is noisy but doesn't want the commitment of debate, perhaps because they don't understand themselves or their opposition. Commitment requires some self standards that I can hope we strive towards.
Then how do I confront CRT racism when the LGBTQ+ political machinery arrives to beat me up and take my job? Even their flags are routinely flown together. They rally together. They jointly fund raise. Challenge one and ALL the "allies" counter-attack. Don't we have to begin with simple statements of what is true, such as addressing what it means to be a human being and then apply that to each of the utopias (race, unbounded sexuality, safety (from climate change, guns, COVID, etc.), freedom from religion) that Woke presents as a better alternative to reality?
It's pretty defeatist to say that conservatives have "lost the debates on abortion", polls I've seen have shown barely any movement at all on the issue post-Roe and it's not gaining in popularity, access, or legality anywhere. Maybe you could say that the status quo is a loss, but I wouldn't say that.
I sort of agree . . . I actually think that over time the pro-life position will prevail . . . in 1973, the development of the fetus inside of the womb was pretty much a mystery, but now as science advances, we pretty much know exactly what's going on in there, and it's increasingly clear that it's a unique individual person never seen before never to be seen again if aborted, maybe not from the exact "moment of conception", but very soon thereafter. That knowledge will continue to seep into the consciousness of the population eroding support for abortion over time. I think the crazies know that and that's why they're willing to take the hits behind standing up for late term (or post birth!) abortions.
Yes, I would call the abortion debate essentially a truce post-Roe, and that's very different than say, for example, post-Brown attitudes on race or post-Obergefell on same-sex marriage. But as such, it really depends on how you see the status quo, abortion is legal but restricted in most cases and socially still fairly taboo. But yes, the coalition to oppose the "Rainbow Borg" needs to include liberals, who are generally pro-choice and fine with gay marriage.
And leaves this unanswered question. What it will take to replace enough Republican senators and congressmen to have at least a fighting chance? and how long will it take?
Depends on what you're trying to replace them with. Hopefully you dont mean more Democrats. They should all be replaced by true Constitutionalist, Individualist, Libertarians.
Great article Abigail. You have overtaken Bari Weiss as my hero (along with Chris Rufo).
I am fed up with the David French's of this world and their "holier than thow" proselytizing about true Conservatism. They all think they are William F. Buckley reincarnate, but in truth they are narcissistic intellectual light weights.
The trans thing is an easy one too... because the entirety of the left preaches that biological sex and psychological gender are distinctly different things... and it drives me insane that nobody on the national stage says: "Great! Since women's sports were created specifically to keep biological women from having to compete against biological men, and you all agree that psychological gender is not the equivalent of biological sex, then it is obvious that psychological gender can't be used as a qualifier to play women's sports, since the designated qualified (again, the reason women's sports exist in the first place) is that you have to be a biological woman."
They would say the category for sports is simply "women's" and since trans women *are* women, then everything you said from the word "biological" ( a dog whistle to suggest trans women are not really women, and we already established as a fact that trans women *are* women) onwards is invalid and transphobic. I think if there was a simple logical retort that would make them come to their senses, it would have been found and used by now. This is a religious-like belief, and anyone challenging it is uttering blasphemies. You are never going to convince a Christian fundamentalists that Jesus Christ was just a human being, not the Son of God. The best that can be done is to portray it widely for what it is, a strange cult and then hope it goes the way of strange cults: most people don't join them because they're widely understood to be cults and for those that do, some are able to quit and join reality.
Why my pet peeve against using the adjective "biological" when using the words male or female. Saying "biological male" is like saying "writing journalists" or ""water-immersed swimmers." Redundant and implies there are non-biological kinds of males and females and meant to sow confusion and change the language. The next step in language transformation will be to find any use of the words male and female offensive.
I totally agree, and think that "natal" sex, "birth" sex, "natal" females are even worse in having the the reifying effect of implying that sex can be changed later in life in agreement with the sex-change ideology called "trans." Regrettably, Shrier does this "natal" adjective bit in her otherwise wonderful "Irreversible Damage" book. Makes my teeth itch.
I also have a pet peeve with the use of the word "transition." Nobody is transitioning to the other sex any more than males taking testosterone are "transitioning" into being more of a male, or females with breast implants "transition" into more of a female. It's quite a farce to describe cosmetic surgery and hormone treatment as a magical journey capable of changing one's sex.
A wonderful piece, especially on the critical importance of the use of language. a field on which the woke have run wild, downhill, open field, and untouched (or any other football metaphor you can think of) since kickoff. The comment posted below in support of the argument is a version of a story I had run on another website (hope you don't mind)....
From Self Help to Societal Harm: The Woke Co-Option of the Language of Personal Improvement and Therapy
John McWhorter, the distinguished linguist, has an ecclesiastical term for the members of the current woke/progressive/CRT movement: The Elect. He has chosen that term to emphasize the fact that the movement is not just like a religion, but actually is a religion (or at least a cult).*
All religions are alike in certain ways, especially in the need for a common terminology, a series of definitions and words that make it possible to function within said religion. Sometimes these terms are spun out of whole cloth, appearing sui generis either at the beginning or as time goes by. Sometimes these terms are taken from “the outside world” and may, or may not, retain a close relation to their original meaning.
With The Elect (capitalization intentional), much of the terminology is actually taken directly from the self-help and therapy movements. This usurpation gives the terms a feeling to the public of general familiarity, lending a certain comfort when encountering them. By taking what, in many cases, was non-confrontational “feel good” terminology and warping it for their own purposes, The Elect can, and so far sadly successfully, “Trojan Horse” their belief system into society as a whole.
To start, take for example the term “trigger.” Essentially this word originally arose from self-help groups as a kind of shorthand to remind people to avoid situations that could lead to a relapse into whatever problematic behavior they wish to stop. Triggers were past activities one closely associated with that behavior – don’t hang out at the local bar every day because that makes drinking easier, don’t argue politics with your idiot brother-in-law because that makes going to jail again for no matter how justifiable assault more possible, don’t go down the ice cream aisle at the supermarket because that literally puts weight gain back on the table, etc.
Those triggers varied wildly from behavior to behavior, from individual to individual. What did not vary, though, was the sense that it was incumbent upon the individual to take responsibility for avoiding those triggers, to stay out of harm’s way, as it were.
But, as currently defined, “trigger warnings,” while bearing a facile resemblance to the original meaning, have mutated from an individual responsibility to a societal one. What was once a personal self-improvement tool has become a way for individuals to demand that society refrains from exposing them to anything that could cause even mild discomfort, real or even self-induced, under any circumstances.
If the term still had its original meaning, just as walking into a bar can “trigger” an alcoholic’s relapse, apparently discussing slavery in a college classroom could somehow trigger a relapse into the practice of slavery on campus.
Other examples of this type of dishonest co-option abound:
• Safe Space – Once a term for an environment that allowed its members to express themselves honestly and openly (think group therapy) without fear of judgement is now held to be an environment in which only thoughts and actions that are pre-approved by the group (no matter how that group is delineated) are allowed. Again, seemingly similar but in fact radically different.
• Doing the Work – In self-help groups, it means a constant personal process of self-evaluation, of being careful of addictive or other problematic behaviors. Now, in the current context, it means permanently and eternally attempting to atone for the Original Sin of whiteness, or maleness, or straightness, or any perceived trait that is defined by The Elect as inappropriately advantageous and/or putatively powerful.
• Speaking Your Truth – In many therapeutic settings, speaking from a very personal perspective about how one perceives the world is a useful first step in better understanding oneself and, therefore, be better able to move forward. It is, however, specifically not immutable and to be taken, in the long run, as final and actual truth. In The Elect version, personal truth is just as valid and is to be given the same cloak of universality as actual, real-world truth and therefore cannot be questioned. This has the effect of moving society’s goalposts from “speaking truth to power” to “speaking your own truth to gain power.”
• Crosstalk – Depending on a particular group’s norms, crosstalk can range from asking someone to clarify a statement, to asking if that person knows the reason for his actions, to directly challenging another person’s version of events. This last is usually at least frowned upon if not banned from the environment. The Elect has lifted this premise entirely and foisted it onto society as a whole because it is convenient to use it to silence dissent, disagreement, or mere questions. Doing any one of these things is deemed counter-productive and, according to The Elect, reflects the dissenters’ tacit admission of continuing fault, or at least their purposeful denial of the problem (as they define it).
• Inclusivity – Self-help and therapy groups are inclusive of anyone wishing to get help with whatever problem they may be facing. However, such inclusivity can lead to insularness and an unwillingness to look at those with similar issues who have chosen not to join the group as others, people to be wary of. The Elect take this occasional negative off-shoot of selective inclusivity and extend it to its absurd but in a way logical conclusion – anyone who they think should join the group and has refused is, therefore, by definition less of a person.
• Ridding of Toxic Elements – Hearkening back somewhat to the discussion of triggers, in a therapeutic setting this means to not just avoid potential recovery pitfalls but to also actively seek out and eliminate certain things from your life. The Elect define toxic elements as anyone or anything or any idea that you either do not agree with or could possibly change your way of thinking. (If you remember the many, many articles advising people on how they should handle discussing any even vaguely political issue with their old, out-of-touch, angry, less than progressive parents at a holiday meal – and whether or not they should even attend - you get the drift).
• Lived-In Experience – Like “your truth,” the idea is that everyone’s statement of their own lived-in experience cannot be questioned. Not only is it “your truth,” it actually has the merit of being supported by “your experience,” or at least how you perceived them. The Elect have morphed the “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” aphorism into a way to silence any criticism while simultaneously denying the very existence of the human empathy that makes the coming together of discrete individuals to form a society possible.
By using the cudgel of familiarity, the slippery slope of “that rings a bell, so it can’t be that weird,” The Elect have bastardized these terms to advance their political and social agenda. This dishonest slither of co-option needs to be seen for what it is – a very narcissistic wolf in a very trusting sheep’s clothing.
*McWhorter's book, The Elect, is due out this fall, but he has been serializing the work on his “It Bears Mentioning” Substack site which can be found here. It's really worth checking out.
Author’s Note: None of the above is meant to denigrate using self-help groups and therapy when appropriate or their possible efficacy. And I’m sorry this trigger warning is at the end of the article.
Well said. I am a lifelong Republican and Conservative and I am tired of the unnecessary rudeness in my side's style of political argument. I've been the most conservative person in a room; I've been the most liberal person in a room. I was the Jewish lawyer at the Christian Coalition. I was an active member of a local social justice organization. I know that most people have positive intent; they want to make things better and be good to other people.
Conservatives, Liberals, and moderates agree on more issues than they disagree. The heat and invective comes mostly from the right and left fringes. If you look at the HIDDEN TRIBES report you see the Left Wing, the Right Wing, and the Exhausted Center. I disagree with that report because they lump "Traditional Conservatives" into the Right Wing. But otherwise it is an excellent study. I identify as a "Traditional Conservative" but when I take their political alignment test, I actually place pretty close to Bernie Sanders.
When I was at the Christian Coalition I helped the leadership form a coalition with Senator Clinton to try and deal with online porn (a thankless and probably hopeless problem). By working with people with whom you disagree, you begin to see them as people and respect them. We need more of that.
"Conservatives, Liberals, and moderates agree on more issues than they disagree. "
From my experience, this isn't the case whatsoever. And the reason I point this out is that it's important to understand. I would say that two professed conservatives have the possibility of disagreement on more issues than they agree. Here's the rub tho. There is overlap. Surprising overlap. For instance. A federalist conservative and a liberal are likely to agree more than they disagree on trade. However, a federalist conservative and a populist conservative are going to be as close to opposites on the overall sector of government.
But in the end, a conservative philosophically opposes the idea that the answer to problems is found in more government where both moderates and liberals tend to believe that government intervention is necessary on a host of issues. So even if they may agree on substance, they actually disagree on the way forward on implementation of said substance. This equates to real disagreement.
Now, we do need to work with anyone on any issues with which we agree, no matter how vehement the disagreements may be. Or nothing will ever be done.
"unnecessary rudeness"???? here ya'll all go again. Conservatives are obsessed with being "nice". Well, nice is going to get every single one of you tossed against the wall. Get it? Being "nice" is also the way white elites have always differentiated themselves against the white poor people they despised. The white poor, who had the nerve to demand wages for their work, were the reason the elite Southerners brought in slaves. How dare the indentured servants they brought in from England demand that they release them after their contract was over! This is what the elite whites have always done to poor whites. They dismiss them. Poor people tend to be forthright and will tell you what they really think of you, but you elitists don't even realize how self-righteous and arrogant the behavior is. Oh, it may have served you well in the past, it may have even helped many poor whites climb the ladder, hiding behind a veneer of "politeness", but that kind of self-serving haughtiness has done and will not do anything to save this civilization, if it even deserves saving. After all, white people are the most judgmental people on Earth. They use other people endlessly to do their bidding. Even today, why are most of the Democratic and Republican elite ruling class wanting open borders? because their women don't want to clean their own toilets. You all are users. Oh, not that other races and ethnic groups are not, but the white elite excel at it, they have made using other people a fine art. And what is worse, you all are proud of it, and still, in the midst of your civilization falling, you cling to your mis-guided beliefs. A pox on all of you. Was that too rude, deary?
from the commies' standpoint, the endless "politeness" of the elite ruling class is going to make tossing ya'll up against the wall or sending ya'll off to the gulags a lot more organized, after all, my guess is that you will still be tsk tsk taking to each other about the impoliteness of those people who dared to make a run-for-it and to not be rude to the commie guards as each as you are stripped naked and hand over your jewelry. And you of course will do so willingly because not to would be f*cking rude. You elites are useless. I swear you all are. You and your self-righteous attitudes are the reason this civilization is falling. And although I hate commies with a passion ya'll all are not so much better. Awwwww, was that too rude for you?
Excellent piece. I would hasten to add another very effective strategy in this war to take back our classrooms - Woke-proof your kids! My kids have developed a keen radar for woke nonsense, not that it's hard to detect.
When a transgender activist (a man posing as a woman athlete) was invited to speak my kids' high school, my daughter told her teacher that she was not allowed to attend - and referred the teacher to me if he had questions. And to my surprise and delight, the teacher (an assistant boys football coach) sent me an e-mail explaining, "Mr. Campbell, trust me, I completely understand." He added that he would ensure that my daughter (and as it turned out, other kids, who also objected) had productive time to study and catch up on assignments during the assembly.
The angry rejection of woke radicalism in classrooms is widespread. It includes parents, teachers, non-white minorities and yes, our own kids. My youngest daughter has a strong conservative political (and Christian) worldview and she has strong support among her school friends. They find a certain belonging within their group.
It's also important to remember that this is NOT a "white people vs the world" scenario. One boy in my daughter's little conservative friend clique is from an Indian family - They're Hindu. He tells my daughter that his parents are extremely traditional and have no use for bizarre and dogmatic claims about gender identity and sexual morality. And my own wife, who is Latina, is livid over the word, "Latinx." She has already informed me that if, (her words) "some chicken-lipped, woke white chick says 'Latinx' to me, you better get some bail money together because I am going to beat her unrecognizable."
The left is big on making you an "anti-racist" ally. Well, we have more natural allies than they do. And we need to fully engage our own children and the families of their friends in this fight. Woke-proof your kids.
As an Indian immigrant of color, I find myself agreeing with conservative values (big fan of Rick Tyler). But the GoP seems full of people who believe anyone non-white or non-Christian cannot be a conservative.
I don't want to be a Democrat but the party I want (the GOP) is convinced that I can never be an ally.
Merely pointing out that the importance of a big tent philosophy.
It seems that you are more convinced of something than the GOP is. There are plenty of non-blacks in the party and their number is rising. If it's not for you, then just say so. But don't project a reality that is not there.
I have been involved in GOP politics for twenty years, and have never once encountered the mindset you describe. So I don’t even know what to say about your post.
This comment buys into the myth presented by big media and leftists that GOP is full of racists, etc. You need to get out more and talk to real Republicans instead of believing the lies you're being told. I don't care what color you are or what religion (if any) that you are -- do you hold conservative values?
I am Indian too and while I agree with you about the spineless cucked republicans not paying too much attention to us, I do think Trump brought a surprising change in that. The politicians suck.
Ajay, as a white (I'm Jewish so who knows what box they put me in?) conservative activist, I will say that I (we?) don't believe that anyone of color cannot be conservative. We are always thrilled when that is the case. But I will admit to a fear of assuming the odds are in our favor. That is a hard challenge to push through. Especially when you live in a very blue area and the leftists are viscous.
Ajay, how would you feel if Chinese and Pakistanis were allowed to flow into India to such a large degree that it changed the demographics of your country? I guarantee you or at least most people in India wouldn't like it either. It has nothing to do with white or non white, it has to do with people trying to flood the country with others for political advantage.
Lots of Desis are conservative & many have joined GOP, Particularly in the last 4-5 years.
Parents don't want their kids being forced to change Genders, we don't want all this crime & violent criminals in our neighborhoods, Riots, looting & burning businesses, schools closed, Trans-sexual agenda in schools, etc.
Lets not forget that Democrats are actively destroying our kids by removing honors classes, because "advanced classes make Black kids unable to succeed" which is nonsense. Democrats also instituting Race-based admissions for Universities & Careers to Exclude Asian kids, which Asian parents are furious about.
Thanks Sally Sue. I'd love to hear from former Dems though - from the horse's mouths so to speak. I HOPE Dems are regaining their sanity, but I need to hear more testimony directly from a former Dem. They should be like rats fleeing a sinking ship but THEY VOTED FOR IT making ALL of us suffer. So I'm not too sympathetic to them but I am glad for their awakening nonetheless!
They are right to be suspicious of any other worldview besides Protestant Chrustianity. It is because:
1) True American conservatism is based a lot on the Protestant worldview - mainly a outcome of confessional Congregationalist teaching. The Great Awakening paved the way for the Declaration. The Hindu worldview will always degenerate into an oligarchy or authoritarian government. Look at India right now. Indians hate guns in the hands of common people, want the government to do everything for them, look down on physical labour. Hindus should own these flaws in their thinking before criticising others of being unaccepting
2) Hinduism in many ways laid the foundation for the 60s sexual revolution setting us on this slippery slope. The worldview encourages relativism.. There's a reason the yoga loving white suburban mom is part of the liberal stereotype.
Hinduism wasn't the foundation of the sexual revolution. Western leftists/hippies hijacked Eastern religions because they thought they validated their degeneracies as opposed to "stolid" Christianity and Judaism. A real Hindu or Buddhist who takes religion seriously laughs off your average white suburbanite virtue signaler.
Yes to real Hindus laughing . But that is because what they see is Westerners peddling yoga to other Westerners using gimmicks. You're not going far enough. 60s were the end of a century old corruption through importing of pagan philosophies through the colonies into England and then the US. The chief of this was Hinduism.
The Hindu worldview eventually will degenerate into an authoritarian rule/ oligarchy scenario. So don't be surprised if they superficially agree with GOP but talk like the Left. The reason they right now are aligned to the GOP is due to its perceived anti-Muslim views. That's all.
"some chicken-lipped, woke white chick says 'Latinx' to me, you better get some bail money together because I am going to beat her unrecognizable." OMGoodness, bail $$, I laughed out loud, I flippin LOVE your wife. I have 5 sons and am shocked (and grateful) that my youngest has a similar friend group as your daughter, of young, respectful, Christians who do a good job just saying "nope, homey don't play that".
A "white ally" is someone who wants other white people to pay reparations.
The "white ally" is also those who have a guilty racist conscience. Their arrogance and belief in their own intellectual and moral superiority leads them to accuse every pale person of having the same racist conscience. It doesn't occur to them the rest of us are in the modern era, leaving them behind while they were festering their age-old prejudices.
"There are two class problems with the wokeists. Elite leftist minorities know little of the poor and middle-class rural whites whom they demonize—but in reality, do not patronize minorities and are more likely to ignore race entirely. And wealthy woke whites know little and care less about poor and lower-middle-class minorities whom they seem assiduously to avoid—and then virtue-signal their recompensatory guilt.”"
- Victor Davis Hanson
https://amgreatness.com/2021/04/25/the-new-antiracism-is-the-old-racism/
Or just a guilty conscience period. Life sucks, we all screw up, "there is none righteous, no not one" but they INSIST they can become pure, blameless! Ha! Also, they refuse to see what harm they have done. The large cities/inner cities are most all run by Dems (and have been for decades and decades) and LOOK AT THE STATE THEY ARE IN! AND LOOK AT HOW TERRIBLE IT'S BEEN FOR MINORITIES!!! They lie and say it's Republicans fault!! Recently it was Leo Terrel or the guy running for gov now in CA (I love them both) who said "I remember the race riots in the late 60's and 70's, they were RIOTING AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT FAT-CAT DEMS WHO WHERE RUNNING THE INNER CITIES!" Since the early '60s when LBJ did the "New, new deal", the USA tax payer has paid about 22 TRILLION DOLLARS on all of our social programs (HUD rental asst., SS, food stamps, utility pay help, Medicaid, etc.) AND YET POVERTY HAS ONLY GONE DONE BY 1 PERCENT OR SO. I'd say there's some mismanagement, abuse and fraud that's gone on over the decades! 22 TRILLION DOLLARS!!
Don't forget Pell grants!
There is a fine line between "woke-proofing" a child, and teaching them to hate what you hate, fear what you fear, and refuse to learn that which you, their parent, do not understand.
YES, Abigail !!!!!
Saw you on Tucker several times about the trans madness and can’t thank you and Rufo enough for all you do!
I’m a single parent of 9 and 16 year old daughters who’s trapped deep behind enemy lines in blue-blooded elitist Nor-Cal replete with phony ‘woke’ charlatan neighbors of all stripes, spewing their verbal fuckery on the daily!
Fear not though, there ARE many of us clear-thinking, yet heretofore silent red-pilled patriots lurking amongst these virtue signaling frauds!
There’s power in numbers and as long as we band together to emphatically say “NO!” at a grass roots level in the schools we can excise this coming cancer before it metastasizes any further!
We’ve got your back 100%, keep up the righteous fight!
OH MY GOD YES!!! What a magnificent piece, and it needed to be said. The Republican Party is not worthy of its voters.
Thank you so much!
I agree Philip, most all of the voters that are in the GOP camp are entirely embarrassed and angry at the spineless leadership. It really is the answer to the Trump phenomenon. I attempt to explain this often to those that don't understand how a reasonable GOP voter could be okay with Trump as President. The point is it is about Trump and then again it is more than that. He is the first leader of the GOP that actually brings a gun to a gunfight so to speak. Too many times we see examples like the "mother versus birthing people" debate handled so stupidly. Desperate for a fighter to save basic things like our civil liberties and blowing off the ridiculous wokeness of today.
Transgenderism, not transgenders is a very distinct threat to this nation for the simplest of reasons: When reality itself can simply be self-declared--I say I'm a woman and therefore I am--AND that assertion is backed by government coercion, then two plus two CAN equal five and be backed by the same coercion.
That is the essence of totalitarianism.
Transgenderism is a threat on two fronts: first, it seeks to erase womanhood itself. When people say things like 'birthing people' and 'chest feeding' with straight faces, that's next-level newspeak. Second, it is tremendously destabilizing to gay people or to those who do not conform to gender stereotypes. The vast majority of either group grows up to become either happily straight or gay. This movement would cheerfully subject them to medical experimentation, including surgical intervention.
If a person wanted to remove a limb or an eye that was working perfectly well, we would right suggest that person is mentally off balance. Yet, we are supposed to accept the same action when it regards genitalia as perfectly normal.
When the transgender is invading our women's prisons and they are given condoms to deal with it, and when they are in our restrooms and locker rooms, that's more than and "idea."
"It has no being. It is simply a collection of ideas and behaviors which have been peddled."
But those ideas do have being in the physical presence of the human who espouses the idea. Nazism was just an idea but it's physical manifestation was quite deadly.
Cogent argument. I always enjoy The Truth Fairy and Shrier’s willingness to take on the tough current cultural issues. And while I agree that conservatives many times shoot themselves in the foot when taking on the left I also think moderates are the cowards in this battle. They are perfectly content to sit on the sidelines and spectate the war between right and left and then they fall in behind the winner, whomever it may be, because they have no real convictions of their own. You are correct, the right needs to smarten up, but moderates need to grow a backbone.
Well done. Nobody likes the ignorant and bellicose conservative anymore then they like their intellectual equal on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum. However, the most frustrating conservatives have always been those you labeled “Aw shucks.” Those conservatives were coined RINOs as result of their constant attempts to play fair with an adversary that was not an honest broker. They are also the reason why Trump was elected. As crazy and in your face as he was, it was exactly the “go and fight for us, for Christ sake!!” feeling that had been bubbling under the surface since the incredibly flaccid presidential loses of Romney and McCain. Those two fools would take public beatings in debates and all but thank their opener for it. It was horrifying to watch. Trump arrives on scene and stands in between Ben Carson and Jen Bush. Conservatives are like, “Well, we’re screwed again…” Then Trump basically starts punching everyone in the face. EVERYONE. Up to that point conservatives were like those sponges that were dry an water thin, that had suddenly been duped in water. It was glorious. It was also fascinating. You just knew it couldn’t last, that Trump would be his own assassin. Sure enough… I think that we’re seeing a growth in the fact based and cogent conservative population. We’ve been here for some time, most of us grew up cutting our teeth on the climate change issue. But because COVID effected all of us, our ranks grew rather large as we battled everything that just didn’t sound right. We studied, looked up the facts, and argued from an informed position. I think you’re going to continue to see the growth of voters that have suddenly realized that the government, media and politicians are truly deceitful and have been feeding us a load of crap for a very long time. Of course it helps when the left attempts to jump the shark, which is a stunt they seem to love. As soon as we realize that there really isn’t going to be a political way that makes black lives better, or white lives less guilt free (or whatever it is that’s driving all these educated white peoples to the cliffs like lemmings), the sooner we vote in more pragmatic ways, instead of religiously sticking to a party for “the party’s” sake. And I’ll go as far as to say this very clearly - if you’re voting for a democrat, you’re f@cking up. That party is toxic right now. Conservatives may be dopey and aw shucks, but at this very moment in time they’re not trying to wreck the constitutional order. And if you think that your democrat won’t be a part of that, it would be wise for you to look up just how monolithic the House democrats have been. They vote together, tightly, on almost every topic. Much more so then Republicans. So no, your (fake) moderate dem candidate is going to vote to federalize elections, and applaud when dudes are offered positions on the female Olympic team.
I got thru it okay, despite it's length. Good points. The Bushes were fleckless RINOS too in many ways.
I'd read your comment if it was divided up into smaller paragraphs. Unreadable the way it is
Ya. And there’s more than a few auto correct mistakes too. Oh well.
Enjoy you last 18 months.
🤔
Chris Ruffo is an important voice in American right now but so are you, Abigail. I wondered how I would respond in the event someone referred to me as a birthing person - now I know!
Lol. Birthing person. The left has gone f…n crazy. Believe the science on Covid by not two sexes God creates. Insanity
"Abortion is an important moral and political question—but not every other serious issue we face bears upon it or derives from it. And neither same-sex marriage nor Caitlyn Jenner poses any threat to children."
You decry conservatives being polite and naive, then you make this statement. Let's start with the latter statement here. What is a marriage and why do we have them? Marriage is the establishment of a stable, lifelong union between a man and a woman for the creation of children and raising of children by those creators.
Through the explosion of divorce, the promiscuity culture of the 1960s, and yes, gay marriage, this institution has been pretty much stabbed to death. Same-sex marriage was the final nail in the coffin for the institution of marriage. Children, suffering from enormous divorce rates among their parents and with many of them never having had their parents marry at all, end up neglected by parents who pay them little heed or mind and frequently regard them as anything from novelty items to inconveniences.
This then ties in to the abortion issue, which is the ultimate expression of contempt for children, literally snuffing out their lives for the sake of mommy's convenience. Children are not people, they are disposable objects, as easily discarded as plastic shrink wrap. If you can murder the most helpless and innocent and deprive them of the most basic right -- the right to life, required for all other rights to exist, while posturing with indignation, you can violate the rights of anybody for anything. That's what makes the abortion issue so fundamental.
As for Bruce Jenner, the dude's a nut. Him declaring that he's a woman no more makes him one than it makes me a hippo-house hybrid simply because I insist I'm one. It just makes him delusional. However, by mainstreaming this it enables predatory attitudes towards women and children, and we have no obligation to treat mental illness as a protected class. Boys can self-identify as girls to use their locker rooms and creep in on them. A week or so ago, there was an article about a man with a full beard who walked into a hot tub of a couple of naked women and a naked 6-year old girl, plopped himself down, and declared himself to be "the woman with a penis."
Don't be polite and naive. It's time to acknowledge the threat for what it is.
Every traditional marriage I've ever witnessed breaking apart had no gay couple in the vicinity egging them on. No-fault divorce and the promiscuity of the 60's were probably the biggest factors hurting commitment and marriage. While traditional marriage was breaking apart, gay couples were fighting for legal recognition of their commitment to each other. Whether or not it would have been more appropriate to recognize a civil union instead of "marriage," I'll leave others to debate. Abigail is correct to say not every issue we face derives or bears on abortion, but instead of talking about pregnancy and abortion, let's go back further and talk about the willy-nilly dumping of genetic material that is known to often lead to conception. There was an interesting study done by a graduate student and I read this back in the 80's. I don't remember the source, but what the student found in comparing birth records and marriage records in colonial America, most of the couples would have been pregnant prior to the marriage, even accounting for some early deliveries. In other words, once the male lay with a woman he married her. Today not so much, the sex partner is disposable, for the convenience of the male (and now the female). This is also contempt for children and contempt for commitment. The alarm bells should have gone off long ago. It's late to the party after the genetic material has already been left behind. Start with the male and there will be many fewer abortions. Cross-dressers (or trans) are not in and of themselves a threat, including Jenner. In fact (s)he's shut down the Left on males in female sports. As far as I know Jenner has never advocated for males, trans or otherwise, in female private spaces. In fact I don't know of any incident among my friends and relatives where a trans male or cross-dresser tried to invade female spaces, but I do know a few incidents where straight males tried to violate those spaces. That doesn't make most straight males a general threat, it's just the predatory ones to worry about, whether in dress or pants.
"contempt for commitment" - Excellent choice of words. Perhaps, even the point of this essay. The "Aw shucks" want not to show a committed opposition, get along go along. The bombast at least is noisy but doesn't want the commitment of debate, perhaps because they don't understand themselves or their opposition. Commitment requires some self standards that I can hope we strive towards.
Then how do I confront CRT racism when the LGBTQ+ political machinery arrives to beat me up and take my job? Even their flags are routinely flown together. They rally together. They jointly fund raise. Challenge one and ALL the "allies" counter-attack. Don't we have to begin with simple statements of what is true, such as addressing what it means to be a human being and then apply that to each of the utopias (race, unbounded sexuality, safety (from climate change, guns, COVID, etc.), freedom from religion) that Woke presents as a better alternative to reality?
It's pretty defeatist to say that conservatives have "lost the debates on abortion", polls I've seen have shown barely any movement at all on the issue post-Roe and it's not gaining in popularity, access, or legality anywhere. Maybe you could say that the status quo is a loss, but I wouldn't say that.
I sort of agree . . . I actually think that over time the pro-life position will prevail . . . in 1973, the development of the fetus inside of the womb was pretty much a mystery, but now as science advances, we pretty much know exactly what's going on in there, and it's increasingly clear that it's a unique individual person never seen before never to be seen again if aborted, maybe not from the exact "moment of conception", but very soon thereafter. That knowledge will continue to seep into the consciousness of the population eroding support for abortion over time. I think the crazies know that and that's why they're willing to take the hits behind standing up for late term (or post birth!) abortions.
Yes, I would call the abortion debate essentially a truce post-Roe, and that's very different than say, for example, post-Brown attitudes on race or post-Obergefell on same-sex marriage. But as such, it really depends on how you see the status quo, abortion is legal but restricted in most cases and socially still fairly taboo. But yes, the coalition to oppose the "Rainbow Borg" needs to include liberals, who are generally pro-choice and fine with gay marriage.
Very odd to see a conservative argue that specifically black lives matter qua their race.
“You don’t object on the basis of victimhood—because American women, for the most part, are no one’s victims. You object on the basis of dignity.”
Thank you Ms Shrier for a wonderful article, and especially for these two closing sentences. Profound. Powerful.
Powerful words and excellent advice for all in this fight.
This pretty much summarizes my sentiments.
And leaves this unanswered question. What it will take to replace enough Republican senators and congressmen to have at least a fighting chance? and how long will it take?
Depends on what you're trying to replace them with. Hopefully you dont mean more Democrats. They should all be replaced by true Constitutionalist, Individualist, Libertarians.
exactly
Great article Abigail. You have overtaken Bari Weiss as my hero (along with Chris Rufo).
I am fed up with the David French's of this world and their "holier than thow" proselytizing about true Conservatism. They all think they are William F. Buckley reincarnate, but in truth they are narcissistic intellectual light weights.
David French is indeed the worst. That awful NYT piece against laws banning CRT was embarrassingly puerile.
The trans thing is an easy one too... because the entirety of the left preaches that biological sex and psychological gender are distinctly different things... and it drives me insane that nobody on the national stage says: "Great! Since women's sports were created specifically to keep biological women from having to compete against biological men, and you all agree that psychological gender is not the equivalent of biological sex, then it is obvious that psychological gender can't be used as a qualifier to play women's sports, since the designated qualified (again, the reason women's sports exist in the first place) is that you have to be a biological woman."
They would say the category for sports is simply "women's" and since trans women *are* women, then everything you said from the word "biological" ( a dog whistle to suggest trans women are not really women, and we already established as a fact that trans women *are* women) onwards is invalid and transphobic. I think if there was a simple logical retort that would make them come to their senses, it would have been found and used by now. This is a religious-like belief, and anyone challenging it is uttering blasphemies. You are never going to convince a Christian fundamentalists that Jesus Christ was just a human being, not the Son of God. The best that can be done is to portray it widely for what it is, a strange cult and then hope it goes the way of strange cults: most people don't join them because they're widely understood to be cults and for those that do, some are able to quit and join reality.
Why my pet peeve against using the adjective "biological" when using the words male or female. Saying "biological male" is like saying "writing journalists" or ""water-immersed swimmers." Redundant and implies there are non-biological kinds of males and females and meant to sow confusion and change the language. The next step in language transformation will be to find any use of the words male and female offensive.
Agreed. Perhaps Chromosomal Male/Female would take the air out of the "Trans" sails. It's all about the science, you know.
I totally agree, and think that "natal" sex, "birth" sex, "natal" females are even worse in having the the reifying effect of implying that sex can be changed later in life in agreement with the sex-change ideology called "trans." Regrettably, Shrier does this "natal" adjective bit in her otherwise wonderful "Irreversible Damage" book. Makes my teeth itch.
I also have a pet peeve with the use of the word "transition." Nobody is transitioning to the other sex any more than males taking testosterone are "transitioning" into being more of a male, or females with breast implants "transition" into more of a female. It's quite a farce to describe cosmetic surgery and hormone treatment as a magical journey capable of changing one's sex.
Agree about avoiding the use of "trans" words, but with one exception. The word "transvestite" is quite accurate. Any man can wear a dress.
Yes, Irreversible Damage is an excellent book, in spite of the "natal" adjective.
Unfortunately, that doesn't work anymore. https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/why-so-many-progressives-are-arguing.
Well put!
A wonderful piece, especially on the critical importance of the use of language. a field on which the woke have run wild, downhill, open field, and untouched (or any other football metaphor you can think of) since kickoff. The comment posted below in support of the argument is a version of a story I had run on another website (hope you don't mind)....
From Self Help to Societal Harm: The Woke Co-Option of the Language of Personal Improvement and Therapy
John McWhorter, the distinguished linguist, has an ecclesiastical term for the members of the current woke/progressive/CRT movement: The Elect. He has chosen that term to emphasize the fact that the movement is not just like a religion, but actually is a religion (or at least a cult).*
All religions are alike in certain ways, especially in the need for a common terminology, a series of definitions and words that make it possible to function within said religion. Sometimes these terms are spun out of whole cloth, appearing sui generis either at the beginning or as time goes by. Sometimes these terms are taken from “the outside world” and may, or may not, retain a close relation to their original meaning.
With The Elect (capitalization intentional), much of the terminology is actually taken directly from the self-help and therapy movements. This usurpation gives the terms a feeling to the public of general familiarity, lending a certain comfort when encountering them. By taking what, in many cases, was non-confrontational “feel good” terminology and warping it for their own purposes, The Elect can, and so far sadly successfully, “Trojan Horse” their belief system into society as a whole.
To start, take for example the term “trigger.” Essentially this word originally arose from self-help groups as a kind of shorthand to remind people to avoid situations that could lead to a relapse into whatever problematic behavior they wish to stop. Triggers were past activities one closely associated with that behavior – don’t hang out at the local bar every day because that makes drinking easier, don’t argue politics with your idiot brother-in-law because that makes going to jail again for no matter how justifiable assault more possible, don’t go down the ice cream aisle at the supermarket because that literally puts weight gain back on the table, etc.
Those triggers varied wildly from behavior to behavior, from individual to individual. What did not vary, though, was the sense that it was incumbent upon the individual to take responsibility for avoiding those triggers, to stay out of harm’s way, as it were.
But, as currently defined, “trigger warnings,” while bearing a facile resemblance to the original meaning, have mutated from an individual responsibility to a societal one. What was once a personal self-improvement tool has become a way for individuals to demand that society refrains from exposing them to anything that could cause even mild discomfort, real or even self-induced, under any circumstances.
If the term still had its original meaning, just as walking into a bar can “trigger” an alcoholic’s relapse, apparently discussing slavery in a college classroom could somehow trigger a relapse into the practice of slavery on campus.
Other examples of this type of dishonest co-option abound:
• Safe Space – Once a term for an environment that allowed its members to express themselves honestly and openly (think group therapy) without fear of judgement is now held to be an environment in which only thoughts and actions that are pre-approved by the group (no matter how that group is delineated) are allowed. Again, seemingly similar but in fact radically different.
• Doing the Work – In self-help groups, it means a constant personal process of self-evaluation, of being careful of addictive or other problematic behaviors. Now, in the current context, it means permanently and eternally attempting to atone for the Original Sin of whiteness, or maleness, or straightness, or any perceived trait that is defined by The Elect as inappropriately advantageous and/or putatively powerful.
• Speaking Your Truth – In many therapeutic settings, speaking from a very personal perspective about how one perceives the world is a useful first step in better understanding oneself and, therefore, be better able to move forward. It is, however, specifically not immutable and to be taken, in the long run, as final and actual truth. In The Elect version, personal truth is just as valid and is to be given the same cloak of universality as actual, real-world truth and therefore cannot be questioned. This has the effect of moving society’s goalposts from “speaking truth to power” to “speaking your own truth to gain power.”
• Crosstalk – Depending on a particular group’s norms, crosstalk can range from asking someone to clarify a statement, to asking if that person knows the reason for his actions, to directly challenging another person’s version of events. This last is usually at least frowned upon if not banned from the environment. The Elect has lifted this premise entirely and foisted it onto society as a whole because it is convenient to use it to silence dissent, disagreement, or mere questions. Doing any one of these things is deemed counter-productive and, according to The Elect, reflects the dissenters’ tacit admission of continuing fault, or at least their purposeful denial of the problem (as they define it).
• Inclusivity – Self-help and therapy groups are inclusive of anyone wishing to get help with whatever problem they may be facing. However, such inclusivity can lead to insularness and an unwillingness to look at those with similar issues who have chosen not to join the group as others, people to be wary of. The Elect take this occasional negative off-shoot of selective inclusivity and extend it to its absurd but in a way logical conclusion – anyone who they think should join the group and has refused is, therefore, by definition less of a person.
• Ridding of Toxic Elements – Hearkening back somewhat to the discussion of triggers, in a therapeutic setting this means to not just avoid potential recovery pitfalls but to also actively seek out and eliminate certain things from your life. The Elect define toxic elements as anyone or anything or any idea that you either do not agree with or could possibly change your way of thinking. (If you remember the many, many articles advising people on how they should handle discussing any even vaguely political issue with their old, out-of-touch, angry, less than progressive parents at a holiday meal – and whether or not they should even attend - you get the drift).
• Lived-In Experience – Like “your truth,” the idea is that everyone’s statement of their own lived-in experience cannot be questioned. Not only is it “your truth,” it actually has the merit of being supported by “your experience,” or at least how you perceived them. The Elect have morphed the “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” aphorism into a way to silence any criticism while simultaneously denying the very existence of the human empathy that makes the coming together of discrete individuals to form a society possible.
By using the cudgel of familiarity, the slippery slope of “that rings a bell, so it can’t be that weird,” The Elect have bastardized these terms to advance their political and social agenda. This dishonest slither of co-option needs to be seen for what it is – a very narcissistic wolf in a very trusting sheep’s clothing.
*McWhorter's book, The Elect, is due out this fall, but he has been serializing the work on his “It Bears Mentioning” Substack site which can be found here. It's really worth checking out.
Author’s Note: None of the above is meant to denigrate using self-help groups and therapy when appropriate or their possible efficacy. And I’m sorry this trigger warning is at the end of the article.
Well said. I am a lifelong Republican and Conservative and I am tired of the unnecessary rudeness in my side's style of political argument. I've been the most conservative person in a room; I've been the most liberal person in a room. I was the Jewish lawyer at the Christian Coalition. I was an active member of a local social justice organization. I know that most people have positive intent; they want to make things better and be good to other people.
Conservatives, Liberals, and moderates agree on more issues than they disagree. The heat and invective comes mostly from the right and left fringes. If you look at the HIDDEN TRIBES report you see the Left Wing, the Right Wing, and the Exhausted Center. I disagree with that report because they lump "Traditional Conservatives" into the Right Wing. But otherwise it is an excellent study. I identify as a "Traditional Conservative" but when I take their political alignment test, I actually place pretty close to Bernie Sanders.
When I was at the Christian Coalition I helped the leadership form a coalition with Senator Clinton to try and deal with online porn (a thankless and probably hopeless problem). By working with people with whom you disagree, you begin to see them as people and respect them. We need more of that.
"Conservatives, Liberals, and moderates agree on more issues than they disagree. "
From my experience, this isn't the case whatsoever. And the reason I point this out is that it's important to understand. I would say that two professed conservatives have the possibility of disagreement on more issues than they agree. Here's the rub tho. There is overlap. Surprising overlap. For instance. A federalist conservative and a liberal are likely to agree more than they disagree on trade. However, a federalist conservative and a populist conservative are going to be as close to opposites on the overall sector of government.
But in the end, a conservative philosophically opposes the idea that the answer to problems is found in more government where both moderates and liberals tend to believe that government intervention is necessary on a host of issues. So even if they may agree on substance, they actually disagree on the way forward on implementation of said substance. This equates to real disagreement.
Now, we do need to work with anyone on any issues with which we agree, no matter how vehement the disagreements may be. Or nothing will ever be done.
"unnecessary rudeness"???? here ya'll all go again. Conservatives are obsessed with being "nice". Well, nice is going to get every single one of you tossed against the wall. Get it? Being "nice" is also the way white elites have always differentiated themselves against the white poor people they despised. The white poor, who had the nerve to demand wages for their work, were the reason the elite Southerners brought in slaves. How dare the indentured servants they brought in from England demand that they release them after their contract was over! This is what the elite whites have always done to poor whites. They dismiss them. Poor people tend to be forthright and will tell you what they really think of you, but you elitists don't even realize how self-righteous and arrogant the behavior is. Oh, it may have served you well in the past, it may have even helped many poor whites climb the ladder, hiding behind a veneer of "politeness", but that kind of self-serving haughtiness has done and will not do anything to save this civilization, if it even deserves saving. After all, white people are the most judgmental people on Earth. They use other people endlessly to do their bidding. Even today, why are most of the Democratic and Republican elite ruling class wanting open borders? because their women don't want to clean their own toilets. You all are users. Oh, not that other races and ethnic groups are not, but the white elite excel at it, they have made using other people a fine art. And what is worse, you all are proud of it, and still, in the midst of your civilization falling, you cling to your mis-guided beliefs. A pox on all of you. Was that too rude, deary?
from the commies' standpoint, the endless "politeness" of the elite ruling class is going to make tossing ya'll up against the wall or sending ya'll off to the gulags a lot more organized, after all, my guess is that you will still be tsk tsk taking to each other about the impoliteness of those people who dared to make a run-for-it and to not be rude to the commie guards as each as you are stripped naked and hand over your jewelry. And you of course will do so willingly because not to would be f*cking rude. You elites are useless. I swear you all are. You and your self-righteous attitudes are the reason this civilization is falling. And although I hate commies with a passion ya'll all are not so much better. Awwwww, was that too rude for you?
oops "but you elitists don't even realize how self-righteous and arrogant YOUR OWN behavior is"