Elections

  • If you’re saying: “I am done!”, I’ve gotta ask: “What, are you 10 yrs old?”

    “I am done.” I’ve heard that so often lately, and from all corners, especially after the Missouri Primary election yesterday, where, IMHO, the worst candidate won. But what does this damned ‘I am done’ mean? Do those who mutter it, if they do so seriously, understand the highly unflattering things it says about themselves?

    Of course I get the emotional knock that seeing your, and even the two other decent candidates in a race, losing to who you – probably rightly – consider to be an unworthy candidate. It is frustrating.

    But leaving pure emotional impact aside, if the comment “I am done” reflects a serious judgment, I’ve got to ask, in all seriousness,

    “What, are you ten years old?”

    There are things worth fighting for, but don’t make a damn fool of yourself by pretending that you know for certain what the outcome – positive or negative – will be. We don’t know the outcome, we can’t know the outcome, and any sense that we are assured of an outcome, is vanity, naivete, massive self conceit and folly!

    If you are thoughtfully moaning that ‘America is done for!’, do you realize what that says about you?

    There is only one thing that made America possible, and which then actually made America, and that is caring about what is right and True, realizing that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but as an integrated whole, and that the truth can be known and is worth knowing, and worth adhering to it – not because it guarantees a beneficial reward, but because it is right and true and in and of itself is all the justification or reward necessary.

    If you are whining about America being lost, and tearfully asking

    ‘How do we come back from this?!’

    , the answer – if you are actually interested in it – is a simple one:

    When we again become a people who strive to be a nation of moral, self governing individuals, capable of living lives worth living in society with others, under the Rule of Law – not to achieve order, but to seek Justice (and wise enough to know that order will follow from that, secondarily)

    , then, and only then, will we be a nation of Americans again.

    The secret sauce in that, is no one needs to wait for the nation to be restored to being America again, in order to experience that profound and exceptional satisfaction of being Americans themselves – and indeed if you only seek it for that (an assurance of ‘success!’), you’ve probably already barred yourself from it – you do it, live it and teach it, in whatever way that you are capable of, what it means to be an American, as best you can, to whoever you can, because it is right and a reward in and of itself.

    If you want to feel sorry for how tough you have it, and how bad things are, tell it to people like Sam Adams, who struggled, often alone, for nearly 30 years before his fellow countrymen became Americans and made their Declaration of Independence… and then fought through years of revolutionary civil war, a failed constitution, and then, finally, after much disagreement, established the Constitution of the United States of America.

    He had something to whine about. You? Not so much.

    If you can’t realize this in moments of contemplation, then rest assured that you’ve lost nothing – as you never had any part of that great value to begin with, and so can feel no real sense of loss for what you never had or were a part of.

    Move along.

    I don’t know if our, my, America will ‘win’ out again in the popular sense, but I do know this, if we do, eventually it will be lost again – that’s the reality of human life. But here’s a more important reality: Success isn’t the justification for attempting to succeed, and if you think it is, you are a fool. Failure, loss, eventually, is far more likely and assured, but again: guaranteed results are not the point… realizing and striving for the best, as best you are able, is.

    As the line goes from George Washington’s favorite play, Cato, goes:

    “’Tis not in mortals to command success,
    But we’ll do more, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.”

    If you think that guarantees are possible or what you should be striving for… you”ve already failed. It’s hard to pin down where this notion came upon us, that succeeding as Americans is rooted on what others think and do (though I’d readily point to at least the last 150 years of ‘educational reform’) but know this, what you embody and teach to your kids, friends and co-workers, is what has the only chance of making America great again. It IS up to you – that’s what the meaning of IS is – don’t puss out and pass the buck by whining about how unlikely it is that America can be restored. Shut the hell up already, you don’t have a Crystal Ball, and it wouldn’t matter if you did.

    All that is, or ever will be, in your power to bring about, is what you do, inspire or teach others to do, and that, in and of itself, is admirable and sufficient. If you think you are capable of ‘changing’ the nation by any other means, you’re not only a fool, but a danger to what you supposedly revere.

  • If you’re saying: “I am done!”, I’ve gotta ask: “What, are you 10 yrs old?”

    “I am done.” I’ve heard that so often lately, and from all corners, especially after the Missouri Primary election yesterday, where, IMHO, the worst candidate won. But what does this damned ‘I am done’ mean? Do those who mutter it, understand the highly unflattering things it says about themselves?

    Of course I get the emotional knock that seeing your, and even the two other decent candidates in a race, losing to who you – probably rightly – consider to be an unworthy candidate. It is frustrating.

    But leaving pure emotional impact aside, if the comment “I am done” reflects a serious judgment, I’ve got to ask, in all seriousness,

    “What, are you ten years old?”

    There are things worth fighting for, but don’t make a damn fool of yourself by pretending that you know for certain what the outcome – positive or negative – will be. We don’t know the outcome, we can’t know the outcome, and any sense that we are assured of an outcome, is vanity, naivete, massive self conceit and folly!

    If you are thoughtfully moaning that ‘America is done for!‘, do you realize what that says about you?

    There is only one thing that made America possible, and which then actually made America, and that is caring about what is right and True, realizing that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but as an integrated whole, and that the truth can be known and is worth knowing, and worth adhering to it – not because it guarantees a beneficial reward, but because it is right and true, and in and of itself that is all the justification or reward necessary.

    If you are whining about America being lost, and tearfully asking

    ‘How do we come back from this?!’

    , the answer – if you are actually interested in it – is a simple one:

    When we again become a people who strive to be a nation of moral, self governing individuals, capable of living lives worth living in society with others, under the Rule of Law – not to achieve order, but to seek Justice (and wise enough to know that order will follow from that, secondarily)

    , then, and only then, will we be a nation of Americans again.

    The secret sauce in that, is no one needs to wait for the nation to be restored to being America again, in order to experience that profound and exceptional satisfaction of being Americans themselves, now – and indeed if you only seek it for that (an assurance of ‘success!’), you’ve probably already barred yourself from it – you do it, live it and teach it, in whatever way that you are capable of, what it means to be an American, as best you can, to whoever you can, because it is right and a reward in and of itself.

    If you want to feel sorry for how tough you have it, and how bad things are, tell it to people like Sam Adams, who struggled, often alone, for nearly 30 years before his fellow countrymen became Americans and made their Declaration of Independence… and then fought through years of revolutionary civil war, a failed constitution, and then, finally, after much disagreement, they established and ratified the Constitution of the United States of America (which, btw, Sam wasn’t all that hot for, at first).

    He had something to whine about. You? Not so much.

    If you can’t realize this in moments of contemplation, then rest assured that you’ve lost nothing – as you never had any part of that great value to begin with, and so can feel no real sense of loss for what you never had or were a part of.

    Move along.

    I don’t know if our, my, America will ‘win’ out again in the popular sense, but I do know this, if we do, eventually it will be lost again – that’s the reality of human life and the nature of being human. But here’s a more important reality: Success isn’t the justification for attempting to succeed, and if you think it is, you are a fool. Failure, loss, eventually, is far more likely and assured, but again: guaranteed results are not the point… realizing and striving for the best, as best you are able, is.

    As the line goes from George Washington’s favorite play, Cato, goes:

    “’Tis not in mortals to command success,
    But we’ll do more, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.”

    If you think that guarantees are possible or what you should be striving for… you’ve already failed. It’s hard to pin down where this notion came upon us, that succeeding as Americans is rooted in what others think and do (though I’d readily point to at least the last 150 years of ‘educational reform’) but know this, what you embody and teach to your kids, friends and co-workers, is what has the only chance of making America great again. It is up to you – that’s what the meaning of IS is – don’t puss out and pass the buck by whining about how unlikely it is that America can be restored. Shut the hell up already, you don’t have a Crystal Ball, and it wouldn’t matter if you did.

    All that is, or ever will be, in your power to bring about, is what you do, inspire or teach others to do, and that, in and of itself, is admirable and sufficient. If you think you are capable of ‘changing’ the nation by any other means, you’re not only a fool, but a danger to what you supposedly revere.

    Or, in a word: “PFFFFTTTTTTTT!!!

  • Identifying the Transgender Bathroom Issue: Flushing the West down the toilet

    With all the media overload that’s been put on the ‘Transgender bathroom’ issue, it might be worthwhile to look at it from a somewhat different perspective, one that goes in somewhere just below the froth of the spin-cycle. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of the typical articles floating around that are worth reading – mainly because most of them seem to think that the transgender issue, is about the transgendered, and if there’s one thing that this latest drive towards ‘toleration’ is not about, it’s those afflicted with transgenderism.

    Now wait, you say, these Transgender edicts and laws and demonstrations… they’re all about the well intentioned concerns and efforts to make life easier for those unfortunate few afflicted with gender dysphoria… aren’t they? Oh Hell no. You don’t comfort the sick by inflaming their illness, nor do you afflict the healthy by forcing them to accommodate the delusions of the mentally unhealthy. What’s worse, you don’t impose restrictive behaviors upon all, which flatter one set of the mentally unhealthy, while enabling a more dangerously mentally ill set, the hetero sexual predator, with legal red carpet access to their prey in the most secluded and vulnerable condition – while at the same time preventing those who would defend them, from even identifying or acting upon the obvious threat. As you might be aware, identifying the obvious in that way, is… frowned upon. Why do you suppose that is?

    There is one post on the issue though, by Heather MacDonald , that I can recommend, because rather than being too distracted by the transgender issues and laws themselves, she turns to some of the more fundamental issues involved. She identifies, lays fault and blame upon, the willingness of people to simply chuckle at the ‘laughable’ statements that have been flowing steadily out of Academia, for decades and decades. Because as she notes,

    “One take-away from the transgender-bathroom wars is that the public ignores arcane academic theory at its peril. For two decades, a growing constellation of gender-studies, queer-studies, and women’s-studies departments have been beavering away at propositions that would strike many people outside academia as surprising — such as that biological sex and “gender” are mere ideological constructs imposed by a Eurocentric, heteronormative power structure. Even though skeptical journalists have regularly dived into the murky swamp of academic theory and returned bearing nuggets of impenetrable jargon and even stranger ideas, the public and most politicians have shrugged off such academic abominations, if they have taken note at all. (Senator Marco Rubio’s deplorable jab at “philosophy majors” during his presidential run demonstrated how clueless your typical politician is about the real problems in academia.)”

    She’s absolutely right, in that ‘…the public ignores arcane academic theory at its peril‘, but is simply noting that going to get that same public to look at these ‘arcane’ theories with any deeper interest? Sure, she notes how disastrous public policies have eventually followed from those who’ve been indoctrinated with these theories, yyyearsss down the line – as today’s issues stemmed from those theories two decades ago – but is that enough? I mean, seriously, can you imagine anything more worthy of being thought of as irrelevant by and to the public at large, than silly, unrealistic, academic theories about ‘heteronormative power structures‘, and ‘patriarchal hegemony’s‘? Why should they care about them? Yes, we should care, but unless people understand how to get the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of it, no one who’s ignored them in the past, is going to take note of them in the future.

    Isn’t there something about those inane theories that should have stood out then, now and tomorrow, to alert people that they should be noted, refuted, denounced and derided as the clear and present dangers that they are to everyone from the most casual observer, to the parents of, and the students themselves, that are being subjected to them?

    I believe that the answer to that is yes, there is a ‘Tell’ that any observer can easily identify and call them out on.

    And the secret Identity Is…
    There was, and still are, real, real time consequences, to the pernicious ideas of arcane wacademic theories, but it requires looking past the appearances and spin of things, it requires your not being distracted by those features that are meant to catch your attention and distract you from their real target, and thankfully in this latest issue, they’ve put that secret target right up front and center in their boilerplate – even though that secret is also their Achilles’ heel.

    To see it, ask yourself this one question:

    • What do you mean by ‘identify’?

    At first it would seem puzzling that there is such confusion over these issues, as the words ‘Identify’, or plain old ‘Identity’ have some fairly cut & dry definitions. For instance: Identity:

    i·den·ti·ty – ˌīˈden(t)ədē/ – noun – 1. the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

    , and Identify:

    i·den·ti·fy – īˈden(t)əˌfī/ – verb – 1. establish or indicate who or what (someone or something) is.
    synonyms: recognize, single out, pick out, spot, point out, pinpoint, put one’s finger on, put a name to, name, know…”

    Or IOW, to be able to identify something is to be able to distinguish one thing from another, and so become able to think more clearly about it – it is in fact one of the fundamental features of thinking itself. Now ask yourself, is that what you suppose these professors, activists and politicians are intent on doing, or avoiding doing? Is carefully Identifying what’s what, what they are after? Do they themselves seem more able to identify the fundamentals of what they are yammering about – what men and women are – or do they seem astonishingly confused by the question? Look at this video, and forget about the transgender distraction for the moment, and just focus on the spectacle of the students unwillingness to identify the obvious fact that a white man identifying as a Chinese woman is and should be immediately ridiculous, but it isn’t until the 5’9″ man identifies as being 6’5″, that finally causes some of these students to hesitate – what kind of ‘education’ are they receiving? What sort of education is it, whose ideas demand that you deny what you can clearly identify as being true?

    The fact that they can’t clearly identify or explain the positions they want you to comply with, has got to have you questioning their commitment to identifying what is real and true – doesn’t it? Don’t they seem more interested in passionately playing let’s pretend that our positions – not reasons, but assertions – make us better than you are? It takes very little to rephrase their own statements, to identify what they intentionally evade, and to show them to be self refuting.

    IOW, their “Tell” is that their reams of posturing verbiage is not meant to better reveal what is true, but to obscure the identity of what it is that they are claiming to support, they ‘darken council with words without understanding’. Their ‘Tell’ is that their self important language of ‘let’s pretend’ and ‘lets admire ourselves for our pretense!’, consistently obscures your ability to be able to identify what it IS that they are talking about, making wise action unknowable, and unwise results probable.

    Their “Tell” is to avoid identifying what they claim to be speaking about, their “Tell” is to make contradictory statements and demand that you let them get away with them, their “Tell” is to demand that, like Orwell’s ‘1984’, that we not only nod, but embrace the idea that 2+2=5, which is not simply inane, it is dangerous. And those agitating for norms and laws based upon these “Tells” are uninterested in identifying that obvious fact.

    The one thing that they do seem to be interested in doing, is identifying just how much more, at this moment in time, that they can get away with, how much more they can remove from your ability to identify, and so to think clearly about, and to understand and stand up for in the world around you. No, this sudden cultural push is not about men or women ‘identifying’ as women or men, neither is it about being kind or tolerant towards the mentally ill, or ‘fighting back!’ against those who’d bully the dysphoric few, those serve as pretexts for, not the purposes of, the transgender agitators. The agitators are not being agitated up in order to help those few men or women who identify as being the opposite sex, but to take advantage of our best and brightest who have been ‘educated‘ to the point of being unable to even identify what a man or a woman is.

    And why? How well can a people who are unable or unwilling to identify what a Man or a Woman is, be counted upon to identify what an Individual Right is, or be counted upon to recognize when one is being wronged? Might that not present certain political opportunities for those whose passionate ambition is to use the power of the state to change how we all live (and even use the bathroom), for the greater good? Might that not present opportunities for those who long to live our lives for us… for us?

    That, not transgenderism, is the identity of the serious issue facing us, in this and most other popular issues and causes. In much the same way that a ‘Memorial Day Sale!‘ has far less to do with Memorial Day, than with increasing a stores’ sales; the Transgender Laws, edicts and popular press, have less to do with ‘the plight of the Transgendered’, than with transforming and multiplying our laws into ever more versatile tools for imposing power upon the public at large, as justified on the basis of inflamed passions, rather than upon identifiable reasons – because that’s where the Power lies.

    If you are unable to identify the essentials of an issue, then you become prey to any convenient pretexts serving not so hidden agendas. Just as identifying undocumented workers’ or ‘Dreamers’, was not about identifying those who are in the country illegally, just as ObamaCare wasn’t about Health care, but about govt gaining massive political power in every aspect of our lives; just as free contraception wasn’t about contraception, but a means to distract us from infringing upon individual rights of choice and property; and just as gun laws and registration aren’t about reducing gun violence, but as distractions from the aim of eventually eliminating even the expectation of self defense; it is because the ability to identify such fundamental distinctions, are vital to understanding and standing up for your individual rights, that they are being undermined and evaded, and it is why saying what is, and is not true, is frowned upon by those who benefit from that distinction remaining unclear.

    The vast majority of the issues trumpeted in our headlines, are but useful pretexts for channeling the passionate grievances of a popular few – or many – so as to enable legislators, bureaucrats, media and educators, to exercise ever more power over the public at large; and how better to revel in that power, than to tell an entire people that the normal expectations and behaviors which they have long held, are no longer to be respected? That what they feel is Right, is Wrong. That their personal opinions and habits are to be forced to give way, not because a clearer understanding and delineation of Right and Wrong has been reached, but to make way for a mostly undefined and indefinable claim of some, against all?

    And again, why? How many things are more infuriating, than feeling that you can’t speak up, and must accept what is ‘politically correct’ at work, in a restaurant, at an event, family dinner or when trying to relax?

    Contrary to popular belief, and as any bully can tell you, tyranny doesn’t really need laws to tyrannize you, it only needs to be feared by you.

    In a time such as ours, where ‘Political Correctness’ can result in the ruination of lives, careers and associations, then legally ‘toothless’ pronouncements such as Obama’s bathroom edict do not need to be enforced everywhere, or even anywhere, at all – it only needs to be asserted, and clamored after by mobs who are visibly ready to shout down or even violently attack, those who gainsay it. Not everywhere, only somewhere, publicly, in order for its threat to be felt everywhere. And so it is that corporations feel pressure to make statements and policies about it, people are afraid to speak out about it, or to be condemned about their own observations and beliefs about it, even though ‘it’ has no legal leg to stand on. This is the ultimate in spinning executive action ‘under color of authority’, knowing it will be bolstered by the fear of a threat from unseen forces, it is an abuse of Power all its own, that will cloud your ability to identify, to distinguish, to think, inducing anger on all sides of the issue (AKA Community Organizing).

    The stupefying power of power
    And once again, why? A useful quote to keep in mind, is one from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

    ““Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. … The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other….”

    What Bonhoeffer (in 1920’s-1930’s Germany) was observing, and what people like Saul Alinsky are adept at exploiting [see inset], is the stupefying power that power has, when exerted over people. It’s not so much that the people are stupid, but that intelligent people find themselves unable to identify or act upon what the actual issue is, and so their actions become indistinguishable from someone acting stupidly. As Power is imposed upon their lives in ways that they are powerless to prevent… unless a person very consciously attends to it, identifies the nature of what is happening to them, then there is going to be slippage between their thought, and that which is thought about, and that slippage expresses itself as both cracks and pressure release valves. People become stupefied as that place where idea and reality should have been firmly connected in their minds, has instead been forced aside, and now anything, usually in the form of meaningless catchwords and popular sentiments, will pass easily through their thoughts and possibly into poorly thought out actions, and more likely than not, leaving a persistent anger in its wake.

    Because more power is ever the desire of the powerful, and because heated passions are the time tested means to swaying popular opinion, that is what is repeatedly used to turn We The People to their latest purposes. Whatever momentary mask such causes might wear, from gay marriage, to Christians baking wedding cakes, Seals, Whales, AIDS, Global Warming, Acid Rain, Global Cooling, DDT, etc., it is their emotional appeal and the agitation which they induce, and together with the lack of clear identification which they make difficult, at best, which serves as a means to better gain and impose power upon society ‘for the greater good‘, and for the benefit of those seeking or maintaining power over them.

    Given all of that, the issue of the day, which just happens to be Transgenderism today, becomes more clearly identifiable as but a means to an end, and it’s the tomorrows of their ends, that we should all be deeply troubled by. Worse, the true identity of the problems facing us, is that every time we let a ridiculous statement go by unchallenged and unchecked, to posture about as if it is a true and meaningful thought, we give those empty words the power of an actual point, and that point will be turned against us – that is its point. To fail to identify these issues as such, is what started us down the path to where we are today – is this where you wanted to be? What will be the tomorrows that follow from this today?

    The real trouble with the Transgender issue, is what you and I fear to clearly identify it as, either by inducing an unwillingness in you to identify that which is as being what it actually is, or through requiring you to not say or act on what you know to be true. Such unchecked power is a clear and present danger in all of its forms – not only legislatively, but intellectually, socially and culturally – as it forcibly separates your thoughts from your actions, which effectively flushes the West down the toilet. Who needs an army to invade us, when we’ll so willingly eliminate ourselves?

    IOW, while you’re busy bickering about Hillary/Bernie and Trump, what made their candidacies possible is slipping past you, unidentified, and growing ever more powerful over every aspect of your life.

    Is that the America you want to identify as?

  • Identifying the Transgender Bathroom Issue: Flushing the West down the toilet

    With all the media overload that’s been put on the ‘Transgender bathroom’ issue, it might be worthwhile to look at it from a somewhat different perspective, one that goes in somewhere just below the froth of the spin-cycle. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of the typical articles floating around that are worth reading – mainly because most of them seem to think that the transgender issue, is about the transgendered, and if there’s one thing that this latest drive towards ‘toleration’ is not about, it’s those afflicted with transgenderism.

    Now wait, you say, these Transgender edicts and laws and demonstrations… they’re all about the well intentioned concerns and efforts to make life easier for those unfortunate few afflicted with gender dysphoria… aren’t they? Oh Hell no. You don’t comfort the sick by inflaming their illness, nor do you afflict the healthy by forcing them to accommodate the delusions of the mentally unhealthy. What’s worse, you don’t impose restrictive behaviors upon all, which flatter one set of the mentally unhealthy, while enabling a more dangerously mentally ill set, the hetero sexual predator, with legal red carpet access to their prey in the most secluded and vulnerable condition – while at the same time preventing those who would defend them, from even identifying or acting upon the obvious threat. As you might be aware, identifying the obvious in that way, is… frowned upon. Why do you suppose that is?

    There is one post on the issue though, by Heather MacDonald , that I can recommend, because rather than being too distracted by the transgender issues and laws themselves, she turns to some of the more fundamental issues involved. She identifies, lays fault and blame upon, the willingness of people to simply chuckle at the ‘laughable’ statements that have been flowing steadily out of Academia, for decades and decades. Because as she notes,

    “One take-away from the transgender-bathroom wars is that the public ignores arcane academic theory at its peril. For two decades, a growing constellation of gender-studies, queer-studies, and women’s-studies departments have been beavering away at propositions that would strike many people outside academia as surprising — such as that biological sex and “gender” are mere ideological constructs imposed by a Eurocentric, heteronormative power structure. Even though skeptical journalists have regularly dived into the murky swamp of academic theory and returned bearing nuggets of impenetrable jargon and even stranger ideas, the public and most politicians have shrugged off such academic abominations, if they have taken note at all. (Senator Marco Rubio’s deplorable jab at “philosophy majors” during his presidential run demonstrated how clueless your typical politician is about the real problems in academia.)”

    She’s absolutely right, in that ‘…the public ignores arcane academic theory at its peril‘, but is simply noting that going to get that same public to look at these ‘arcane’ theories with any deeper interest? Sure, she notes how disastrous public policies have eventually followed from those who’ve been indoctrinated with these theories, yyyearsss down the line – as today’s issues stemmed from those theories two decades ago – but is that enough? I mean, seriously, can you imagine anything more worthy of being thought of as irrelevant by and to the public at large, than silly, unrealistic, academic theories about ‘heteronormative power structures‘, and ‘patriarchal hegemony’s‘? Why should they care about them? Yes, we should care, but unless people understand how to get the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of it, no one who’s ignored them in the past, is going to take note of them in the future.

    Isn’t there something about those inane theories that should have stood out then, now and tomorrow, to alert people that they should be noted, refuted, denounced and derided as the clear and present dangers that they are to everyone from the most casual observer, to the parents of, and the students themselves, that are being subjected to them?

    I believe that the answer to that is yes, there is a ‘Tell’ that any observer can easily identify and call them out on.

    And the secret Identity Is…
    There was, and still are, real, real time consequences, to the pernicious ideas of arcane wacademic theories, but it requires looking past the appearances and spin of things, it requires your not being distracted by those features that are meant to catch your attention and distract you from their real target, and thankfully in this latest issue, they’ve put that secret target right up front and center in their boilerplate – even though that secret is also their Achilles’ heel.

    To see it, ask yourself this one question:

    • What do you mean by ‘identify’?

    At first it would seem puzzling that there is such confusion over these issues, as the words ‘Identify’, or plain old ‘Identity’ have some fairly cut & dry definitions. For instance: Identity:

    i·den·ti·ty – ˌīˈden(t)ədē/ – noun – 1. the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

    , and Identify:

    i·den·ti·fy – īˈden(t)əˌfī/ – verb – 1. establish or indicate who or what (someone or something) is.
    synonyms: recognize, single out, pick out, spot, point out, pinpoint, put one’s finger on, put a name to, name, know…”

    Or IOW, to be able to identify something is to be able to distinguish one thing from another, and so become able to think more clearly about it – it is in fact one of the fundamental features of thinking itself. Now ask yourself, is that what you suppose these professors, activists and politicians are intent on doing, or avoiding doing? Is carefully Identifying what’s what, what they are after? Do they themselves seem more able to identify the fundamentals of what they are yammering about – what men and women are – or do they seem astonishingly confused by the question? Look at this video, and forget about the transgender distraction for the moment, and just focus on the spectacle of the students unwillingness to identify the obvious fact that a white man identifying as a Chinese woman is and should be immediately ridiculous, but it isn’t until the 5’9″ man identifies as being 6’5″, that finally causes some of these students to hesitate – what kind of ‘education’ are they receiving? What sort of education is it, whose ideas demand that you deny what you can clearly identify as being true?

    The fact that they can’t clearly identify or explain the positions they want you to comply with, has got to have you questioning their commitment to identifying what is real and true – doesn’t it? Don’t they seem more interested in passionately playing let’s pretend that our positions – not reasons, but assertions – make us better than you are? It takes very little to rephrase their own statements, to identify what they intentionally evade, and to show them to be self refuting.

    IOW, their “Tell” is that their reams of posturing verbiage is not meant to better reveal what is true, but to obscure the identity of what it is that they are claiming to support, they ‘darken council with words without understanding’. Their ‘Tell’ is that their self important language of ‘let’s pretend’ and ‘lets admire ourselves for our pretense!’, consistently obscures your ability to be able to identify what it IS that they are talking about, making wise action unknowable, and unwise results probable.

    Their “Tell” is to avoid identifying what they claim to be speaking about, their “Tell” is to make contradictory statements and demand that you let them get away with them, their “Tell” is to demand that, like Orwell’s ‘1984’, that we not only nod, but embrace the idea that 2+2=5, which is not simply inane, it is dangerous. And those agitating for norms and laws based upon these “Tells” are uninterested in identifying that obvious fact.

    The one thing that they do seem to be interested in doing, is identifying just how much more, at this moment in time, that they can get away with, how much more they can remove from your ability to identify, and so to think clearly about, and to understand and stand up for in the world around you. No, this sudden cultural push is not about men or women ‘identifying’ as women or men, neither is it about being kind or tolerant towards the mentally ill, or ‘fighting back!’ against those who’d bully the dysphoric few, those serve as pretexts for, not the purposes of, the transgender agitators. The agitators are not being agitated up in order to help those few men or women who identify as being the opposite sex, but to take advantage of our best and brightest who have been ‘educated‘ to the point of being unable to even identify what a man or a woman is.

    And why? How well can a people who are unable or unwilling to identify what a Man or a Woman is, be counted upon to identify what an Individual Right is, or be counted upon to recognize when one is being wronged? Might that not present certain political opportunities for those whose passionate ambition is to use the power of the state to change how we all live (and even use the bathroom), for the greater good? Might that not present opportunities for those who long to live our lives for us… for us?

    That, not transgenderism, is the identity of the serious issue facing us, in this and most other popular issues and causes. In much the same way that a ‘Memorial Day Sale!‘ has far less to do with Memorial Day, than with increasing a stores’ sales; the Transgender Laws, edicts and popular press, have less to do with ‘the plight of the Transgendered’, than with transforming and multiplying our laws into ever more versatile tools for imposing power upon the public at large, as justified on the basis of inflamed passions, rather than upon identifiable reasons – because that’s where the Power lies.

    If you are unable to identify the essentials of an issue, then you become prey to any convenient pretexts serving not so hidden agendas. Just as identifying undocumented workers’ or ‘Dreamers’, was not about identifying those who are in the country illegally, just as ObamaCare wasn’t about Health care, but about govt gaining massive political power in every aspect of our lives; just as free contraception wasn’t about contraception, but a means to distract us from infringing upon individual rights of choice and property; and just as gun laws and registration aren’t about reducing gun violence, but as distractions from the aim of eventually eliminating even the expectation of self defense; it is because the ability to identify such fundamental distinctions, are vital to understanding and standing up for your individual rights, that they are being undermined and evaded, and it is why saying what is, and is not true, is frowned upon by those who benefit from that distinction remaining unclear.

    The vast majority of the issues trumpeted in our headlines, are but useful pretexts for channeling the passionate grievances of a popular few – or many – so as to enable legislators, bureaucrats, media and educators, to exercise ever more power over the public at large; and how better to revel in that power, than to tell an entire people that the normal expectations and behaviors which they have long held, are no longer to be respected? That what they feel is Right, is Wrong. That their personal opinions and habits are to be forced to give way, not because a clearer understanding and delineation of Right and Wrong has been reached, but to make way for a mostly undefined and indefinable claim of some, against all?

    And again, why? How many things are more infuriating, than feeling that you can’t speak up, and must accept what is ‘politically correct’ at work, in a restaurant, at an event, family dinner or when trying to relax?

    Contrary to popular belief, and as any bully can tell you, tyranny doesn’t really need laws to tyrannize you, it only needs to be feared by you.

    In a time such as ours, where ‘Political Correctness’ can result in the ruination of lives, careers and associations, then legally ‘toothless’ pronouncements such as Obama’s bathroom edict do not need to be enforced everywhere, or even anywhere, at all – it only needs to be asserted, and clamored after by mobs who are visibly ready to shout down or even violently attack, those who gainsay it. Not everywhere, only somewhere, publicly, in order for its threat to be felt everywhere. And so it is that corporations feel pressure to make statements and policies about it, people are afraid to speak out about it, or to be condemned about their own observations and beliefs about it, even though ‘it’ has no legal leg to stand on. This is the ultimate in spinning executive action ‘under color of authority’, knowing it will be bolstered by the fear of a threat from unseen forces, it is an abuse of Power all its own, that will cloud your ability to identify, to distinguish, to think, inducing anger on all sides of the issue (AKA Community Organizing).

    The stupefying power of power
    And once again, why? A useful quote to keep in mind, is one from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

    ““Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. … The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other….”

    What Bonhoeffer (in 1920’s-1930’s Germany) was observing, and what people like Saul Alinsky are adept at exploiting [see inset], is the stupefying power that power has, when exerted over people. It’s not so much that the people are stupid, but that intelligent people find themselves unable to identify or act upon what the actual issue is, and so their actions become indistinguishable from someone acting stupidly. As Power is imposed upon their lives in ways that they are powerless to prevent… unless a person very consciously attends to it, identifies the nature of what is happening to them, then there is going to be slippage between their thought, and that which is thought about, and that slippage expresses itself as both cracks and pressure release valves. People become stupefied as that place where idea and reality should have been firmly connected in their minds, has instead been forced aside, and now anything, usually in the form of meaningless catchwords and popular sentiments, will pass easily through their thoughts and possibly into poorly thought out actions, and more likely than not, leaving a persistent anger in its wake.

    Because more power is ever the desire of the powerful, and because heated passions are the time tested means to swaying popular opinion, that is what is repeatedly used to turn We The People to their latest purposes. Whatever momentary mask such causes might wear, from gay marriage, to Christians baking wedding cakes, Seals, Whales, AIDS, Global Warming, Acid Rain, Global Cooling, DDT, etc., it is their emotional appeal and the agitation which they induce, and together with the lack of clear identification which they make difficult, at best, which serves as a means to better gain and impose power upon society ‘for the greater good‘, and for the benefit of those seeking or maintaining power over them.

    Given all of that, the issue of the day, which just happens to be Transgenderism today, becomes more clearly identifiable as but a means to an end, and it’s the tomorrows of their ends, that we should all be deeply troubled by. Worse, the true identity of the problems facing us, is that every time we let a ridiculous statement go by unchallenged and unchecked, to posture about as if it is a true and meaningful thought, we give those empty words the power of an actual point, and that point will be turned against us – that is its point. To fail to identify these issues as such, is what started us down the path to where we are today – is this where you wanted to be? What will be the tomorrows that follow from this today?

    The real trouble with the Transgender issue, is what you and I fear to clearly identify it as, either by inducing an unwillingness in you to identify that which is as being what it actually is, or through requiring you to not say or act on what you know to be true. Such unchecked power is a clear and present danger in all of its forms – not only legislatively, but intellectually, socially and culturally – as it forcibly separates your thoughts from your actions, which effectively flushes the West down the toilet. Who needs an army to invade us, when we’ll so willingly eliminate ourselves?

    IOW, while you’re busy bickering about Hillary/Bernie and Trump, what made their candidacies possible is slipping past you, unidentified, and growing ever more powerful over every aspect of your life.

    Is that the America you want to identify as?

  • Voter Id

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