I too -a lifelong Democrat - have tried to have a conversation with others and have been told either "I don't want to talk about it" or "You don't want to know what I really think" - to which I reply - "Yes! I really do want to know what you think!" And then I hear crickets.
Nobody wants to discuss or hear about penises. And their objections are frequently that they don't wish to discuss those, nor do we. They live in the fantasy that males turn into females, as if by magic. We know they don't and the penises prove it. Note, the female-to-male transitioners are the silent majority. The male-to-female variety is the noisy and demanding group. And they have the penises.
I've never had to see a penis to know a male when I see one. Even those men who choose to be castrated are still a danger to women and children. Sara Jane Baker can still hurt you and he likely would, just as many of these males want to do.
Republicans deny women abortions; democrats deny women exist. Which is worse for women? No GOP candidate at any of the debates, not even Mike Pence, said they would outlaw abortion in the 1st trimester. I am for 1st trimester abortions unquestioning. After that, question. Democrats are the ones who threw women under the bus regarding abortion. They had the votes in 2015 and 2017 to make 1st trimester abortions unquestioningly legal, and then late term abortion legal in cases of rape/incest or life of the mother. I remember when republicans were pro-choice until they were infiltrated by the religious right. I remember when democrats were pro-woman, until they were infiltrated by the trans cult.
I get it, but Dems have successfully used abortion as a political cudgel for 4 decades now. I don't believe their strategy will change in 2024. Some major things dems have changed course on are- the denalism of sex & reality, the inclusion of men in ALL women's spaces, the state sanctioned rape of female prisoners, the experimentation, sterilization and maiming of children, and of course the censorship & abuse of dissenting voices. It's a bs deal, and personally I don't accept it.
Truth does not mind being questioned, and a lie does not like being challenged.
I instantly thought of the trans ideology and the *no debate* stance they took way back when.
I can’t think of any other topic ever, especially something that so horrifically involves sterilizing people, especially children, and puts them at risk for all manner of other health issues for the rest of their lives, while simultaneously NOT doing them any real good unless you count helping them to completely reject who and what they truly are in favor of feeding a delusion.
I never know who is going to be offended by my stance on this, but the “explain to me why we can’t talk about it in a civil manner” question sorts out for me people who are no longer able to think critically (if they ever did) because they now belong to the people who run things and who intend to keep us divided so they can bleed us dry and control our every word and action.
I hate that it equates with so called progressives as being a right wing fascist, but we all know progressive ideology stand on a firm plateau of upholding freedom of speech and belief above all things.
Tim Urban wrote a great book titled What’s Our Problem which sheds a ton of light on how we got here. Goes back to the period around the 1950s and details our political history and when and where this two party, black and white, divisive brand of politics came in, and who pushed it (spoiler alert, it was Newt Gingrich) and told conservatives to attack relentlessly and push keywords to inflame people on both sides. It worked.
So here we are, it kinda seems like conservatives won the game as they were able to use the positions and stance of progressives against us to ultimately undermine women’s rights and gay rights by erasing sex as a class definition. Ironically, actual class issues are a thing of the past. Now it is DEI and trans as the big civil rights movement (utter BS) which also pushes black folks backward and infantilizes them with well heeled progressive whites acting like they are “saving” everyone by pushing a victim narrative to the point of absurdity.
It’s really hideous, all of it. Makes a sane person want to disengage entirely, leaving only the wound up crazies to scream at each other while the ruling class foxes rob the henhouse with full impunity.
It’s brilliant as far as strategies go. I wish *my side* was that good at strategy and achieving a goal.
Well as a Dem man I bring up the problem of pervasive anti-woman rhetoric frequently and with credibility in the Bay Area. I have a feeling, just a feeling, that the anti-woman and anti-Jewish rhetoric is coming from a similar figurative source. The women’s spaces violence is so sudden and complete. I think it is simply because women’s and jewish politics ceased to be spoken of for so long everyone though it was all peachy.
I'm a lifelong leftist. Not a Democratic Party supporter. An actual, class-based leftist. I'm also Jewish. So I want to challenge your claim about "anti-Jewish" rhetoric, because, until you provide some proof otherwise, virtually ALL the supposed "anti-Jewish rhetoric" is actually defense of the human rights of Palestinians, against the criminality, land theft, and murder committed by the Israeli state. The Israeli state that has been declared as "apartheid" by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many leading voices in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa - all well before October 7th. It's not "anti-Jewish rhetoric" to call for "Palestine to be Free." Nor is "From the River to the Sea" some anti-Jewish hate speech (just look at the Likud founding platform, which openly calls for Jewish rule "from the Sea to the River," which has been the actual situation since 1967.) Jews need to face the question: are Palestinians full human beings, with the same rights as Jews living in what was Palestine, or are they untermenschen? As the wonderful Caitlin Johnstone put it this past week: I want for you exactly what you want for the Palestinians. That can be a blessing, or it can be a curse. Look in the mirror.
I find it interesting that Sufeitzy mentioned Jews in SF and you responded by talking about Israel and Palestinians. If the anti-Jewish rhetoric is supposed to be about the defense of Human rights in Palestine, why are American Jews being harassed and threatened while going about their day? Can the harassers mind-read the person wearing a Star of David to know if he or she supports the state of Israel?
He mentioned anti-woman rhetoric in the Bay Area. No specifics about the supposed "anti-Jewish" rhetoric. Given how long-standing, nothing anti-Jewish about them, phrases such as "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free" have suddenly, in obviously choreographed fashion, been made verboten - in order to smear all of us protesting the US backed Israeli slaughter of Palestinians as Jew-hating bigots - I'd like to see some evidence of any widespread anti-Jewish hatred suddenly rearing its head, in the Bay Area or elsewhere. I'm dismayed by how many in the movement opposing the madness of gender-identity ideology (Graham Linehan and Meghan Murphy come to mind) have fallen for the unevidenced sexual atrocity propaganda claims put out by Israel, which is being done precisely to distract us all from the very real slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians, two-thirds of whom are women and children. If you're looking for beheaded women, you'll find them among the many Palestinian victims of Israel's US supplied artillery shells, and US supplied bombs dropped by Israel's US-supplied planes. Opposing gender-woo shouldn't mean you lose your critical faculties when it comes to Palestine.
A simple search will find antisemitic incidents in SF prior to October. I don’t maintain files to substantiate positions which are trivially easy to locate via indexes of local news.
The one that comes to mind in October was on TV and NYT.
I’m a believer in extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Conversely common claims should be understood in discussions without resorting to documentation.
Living in San Francisco requires earthquake awareness.
San Francisco public expenditures on homeless have no discernible effects.
San Francisco has quirky neighborhoods.
San Francisco has a violent, prostitution and crime-riddled past… going back to the late 19th century.
Folks I watched local TV in SF and Kara’s women’s based rights meeting was harassed, hotel staff assaulted; I watched Riley Gaines who spoke at Sf State U about females forced to complete with males in sports assaulted and trapped in a room til the police could get her out. Random crazy goes after Nancy Pelosi to kneecap her for pedophilia but instead attacks her husband with a hammer. These are the tip of the iceberg.
Simply asking for sex-based protection from predatory males causes them to be attacked by… predatory males.
When did people stop understanding that women need protection from men… who attack them?
I likened it to Jewish people being attacked for… being Jewish…
Recently an elderly Jewish man is attacked and killed by a UC Professor. (Tip of the iceberg in the US)
When did people stop understanding that the Jewish minority in the US need protection from… people who hate Jews?
In SF my niece was afraid for her elderly Japanese mother (whose childhood was in Manzanar) walking around because of a recent spate of elderly Asian Women being attacked for being... elderly Asian Women
Perhaps back to Kara’s original post on women being attacked for speaking up about needing protection?
I looked in a mirror and said I and all my friends need to speak about this.
Thank you, Kara. Well said. I worry that this year, as it is election year, the problem is only going to get worse. I spoke to someone recently at some length, expressing my strong concern that Democrats are losing the votes of many D women and families affected by this. While she was concerned, her ultimate response was that this was going to have to wait until after the election, as the most important thing right now to save our democracy is for Biden and the Ds to win. She was completely unable to see that the failure of Ds to change course on these issues could very well cause the Ds to lose.
some months back I was kicked off a prominent Dem. blog -- where I had blogged for years -- for challenging the Dem stance on "trans".
Kicked off unceremoniously & without possibility of appeal. I pointed out Dems will lose votes on this issue. They shut me down & refused to listen. ... as though that will gain them votes?
I was kicked off the "progressive" Daily Kos when I began engaging in trans discussion, and a number of the users privately messaged me they were afraid of the site’s moderators. That was the first time I’d engaged in trans in more than 15 years, (the last time was face-to-face with Lynn Conway, who is brilliant, and quite bonkers. What happens when a non-Biologist applies wishful thinking to the human body.)
I suddenly realized that these were not transexuals I knew from the 80's, these were delusional and profoundly disturbed men who had a shimmering, barely concealed violent contempt towards women.
I'm a large bodybuilt gay man who is profoundly intellectually arrogant, a sort of Sheldon Cooper with 21" biceps, lived all over the world from the Jungles of Borneo to the Red Light District of Amsterdam. The only thing that offends me anymore is profound assholism - "it takes one to know one" as I usually smirk. I know one day I'll meet one of these crazies and they will turn purple and explode, because I don't humor assholes but I'm so friendly and unflinchingly accurate, logical, and mocking, being difficult to debate, that they will end up pulling a gun on me.
The Dems have been groomed into aligning with Malignant Narcissistic assholes whose only political position is to validate their delusion with as many institutions as possible. As true narcissists, keep going until it all collapses around them taking the Dems with it, then declare martyrdom, abandon Democrats as weak and unreliable, and start over elsewhere.
I was knocked off daily Kos because I said that "in my experience, men who claimed they were nonbinary were garden variety heterosexual male poseurs."
This is my exact fear. You win presidential elections by persuading enough independents to vote on your side. I will vote Dem because I'm still very much on the left, despite this topic. But your mainline party adherents shouldn't be your focus - your focus should always be on the independents, those 20,000 potential voters who have swung elections, not your base. And, if I leaned independent, maybe having voted Obama one year, Bush years prior, had a child harmed by gender ideology, I might, in an emotional rage, pull the lever against Biden.
"We can't talk about this" because the advocates of gender ideology know that they can't defend the indefensible. Aside from name calling, they have no argument. Metaphysical claims of a gendered soul and pseudo-scientific "studies" and fake statistics can't stand up to the reality of the damaged bodies of detranstioners, or the disastrous encroachments of men into women's sports and prisons. So, better to just stick their fingers in their ears and scream "LA LA LA" until you walk away.
On a hopeful note, I'd like to share this excellent analysis by Michael Shellenberger given at the GenSpect conference last month in Denver. By the way, he gives a shout-out to Kara's book towards the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN0orsEwyAo
Political tribalism and out-sized group identity are perennially a hindrance to critical thought, but the problem is much greater today. Many people today are very afraid and therefore cling uncritically to their group identity and beliefs. If they admitted to any serious failings of their group, they may become even less psychologically secure and that is too scary a prospect (which of course they don't even acknowledge consciously). They abandon critical thought and adopt a mentality of extreme political tribalism (my group is always right, the other is always wrong) and a defensive egotistical moral superiority (so prevalent today on the Left). Left=good, inclusive, compassionate. Right=bad, bigoted, hateful.
Lack of any decent news coverage or analysis does not help. If the journalists did their job, this would not be happening.
Basically some people can't engage because if they did, their world view and ego-structure would fall apart.
The interesting question is: Why is this particular type of irrationality (seems so to me) more prevalent among liberals?
My observation is ignorance and embarrassment. Embarrassed the Democratic Party is throwing them under the bus. Most democrats follow MSM narrative, thus ignorant on any issue. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony are rolling over in their graves!
Another feature of the polarized representations in our MSM is that the Right is appropriating the language & experiences of LEFT as their own.
I listened to Megan Kelly's speech against the trans movement and I thought: she must be reading PITT. I think she must have read the PITT book and then took those stories for her own public platform.
So that's a HUGE loss to the Left & to Democrats. The very real struggles of liberal and progressive families with the medicalization of GD kids and youth is tearing us apart. No Democrat will listen to us. Instead we get Megyn Kelly. Ugh. I have never listened to her & then someone sent me the link to her show on that topic & I was like, wait, she's taken my very words.
I too -a lifelong Democrat - have tried to have a conversation with others and have been told either "I don't want to talk about it" or "You don't want to know what I really think" - to which I reply - "Yes! I really do want to know what you think!" And then I hear crickets.
Nobody wants to discuss or hear about penises. And their objections are frequently that they don't wish to discuss those, nor do we. They live in the fantasy that males turn into females, as if by magic. We know they don't and the penises prove it. Note, the female-to-male transitioners are the silent majority. The male-to-female variety is the noisy and demanding group. And they have the penises.
Which just goes to show that sex IS real
Amen. It's been mind-blowing to me how some people forgot that.
I've never had to see a penis to know a male when I see one. Even those men who choose to be castrated are still a danger to women and children. Sara Jane Baker can still hurt you and he likely would, just as many of these males want to do.
It's pretty disappointing to know so many dems who just assume throw women, children & free speech under the bus to avoid being called conservative.
But Republicans threw women and girls under the bus with the loss of abortion rights. It's not some easy choice. It's rock vs. hard spot.
Republicans deny women abortions; democrats deny women exist. Which is worse for women? No GOP candidate at any of the debates, not even Mike Pence, said they would outlaw abortion in the 1st trimester. I am for 1st trimester abortions unquestioning. After that, question. Democrats are the ones who threw women under the bus regarding abortion. They had the votes in 2015 and 2017 to make 1st trimester abortions unquestioningly legal, and then late term abortion legal in cases of rape/incest or life of the mother. I remember when republicans were pro-choice until they were infiltrated by the religious right. I remember when democrats were pro-woman, until they were infiltrated by the trans cult.
I get it, but Dems have successfully used abortion as a political cudgel for 4 decades now. I don't believe their strategy will change in 2024. Some major things dems have changed course on are- the denalism of sex & reality, the inclusion of men in ALL women's spaces, the state sanctioned rape of female prisoners, the experimentation, sterilization and maiming of children, and of course the censorship & abuse of dissenting voices. It's a bs deal, and personally I don't accept it.
I heard a great quote the other day:
Truth does not mind being questioned, and a lie does not like being challenged.
I instantly thought of the trans ideology and the *no debate* stance they took way back when.
I can’t think of any other topic ever, especially something that so horrifically involves sterilizing people, especially children, and puts them at risk for all manner of other health issues for the rest of their lives, while simultaneously NOT doing them any real good unless you count helping them to completely reject who and what they truly are in favor of feeding a delusion.
I never know who is going to be offended by my stance on this, but the “explain to me why we can’t talk about it in a civil manner” question sorts out for me people who are no longer able to think critically (if they ever did) because they now belong to the people who run things and who intend to keep us divided so they can bleed us dry and control our every word and action.
I hate that it equates with so called progressives as being a right wing fascist, but we all know progressive ideology stand on a firm plateau of upholding freedom of speech and belief above all things.
Tim Urban wrote a great book titled What’s Our Problem which sheds a ton of light on how we got here. Goes back to the period around the 1950s and details our political history and when and where this two party, black and white, divisive brand of politics came in, and who pushed it (spoiler alert, it was Newt Gingrich) and told conservatives to attack relentlessly and push keywords to inflame people on both sides. It worked.
So here we are, it kinda seems like conservatives won the game as they were able to use the positions and stance of progressives against us to ultimately undermine women’s rights and gay rights by erasing sex as a class definition. Ironically, actual class issues are a thing of the past. Now it is DEI and trans as the big civil rights movement (utter BS) which also pushes black folks backward and infantilizes them with well heeled progressive whites acting like they are “saving” everyone by pushing a victim narrative to the point of absurdity.
It’s really hideous, all of it. Makes a sane person want to disengage entirely, leaving only the wound up crazies to scream at each other while the ruling class foxes rob the henhouse with full impunity.
It’s brilliant as far as strategies go. I wish *my side* was that good at strategy and achieving a goal.
"Truth does not mind being questioned, and a lie does not like being challenged."
thx! that's spot-on. Wisdom to remember.
Well as a Dem man I bring up the problem of pervasive anti-woman rhetoric frequently and with credibility in the Bay Area. I have a feeling, just a feeling, that the anti-woman and anti-Jewish rhetoric is coming from a similar figurative source. The women’s spaces violence is so sudden and complete. I think it is simply because women’s and jewish politics ceased to be spoken of for so long everyone though it was all peachy.
I'm a lifelong leftist. Not a Democratic Party supporter. An actual, class-based leftist. I'm also Jewish. So I want to challenge your claim about "anti-Jewish" rhetoric, because, until you provide some proof otherwise, virtually ALL the supposed "anti-Jewish rhetoric" is actually defense of the human rights of Palestinians, against the criminality, land theft, and murder committed by the Israeli state. The Israeli state that has been declared as "apartheid" by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many leading voices in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa - all well before October 7th. It's not "anti-Jewish rhetoric" to call for "Palestine to be Free." Nor is "From the River to the Sea" some anti-Jewish hate speech (just look at the Likud founding platform, which openly calls for Jewish rule "from the Sea to the River," which has been the actual situation since 1967.) Jews need to face the question: are Palestinians full human beings, with the same rights as Jews living in what was Palestine, or are they untermenschen? As the wonderful Caitlin Johnstone put it this past week: I want for you exactly what you want for the Palestinians. That can be a blessing, or it can be a curse. Look in the mirror.
I find it interesting that Sufeitzy mentioned Jews in SF and you responded by talking about Israel and Palestinians. If the anti-Jewish rhetoric is supposed to be about the defense of Human rights in Palestine, why are American Jews being harassed and threatened while going about their day? Can the harassers mind-read the person wearing a Star of David to know if he or she supports the state of Israel?
He mentioned anti-woman rhetoric in the Bay Area. No specifics about the supposed "anti-Jewish" rhetoric. Given how long-standing, nothing anti-Jewish about them, phrases such as "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free" have suddenly, in obviously choreographed fashion, been made verboten - in order to smear all of us protesting the US backed Israeli slaughter of Palestinians as Jew-hating bigots - I'd like to see some evidence of any widespread anti-Jewish hatred suddenly rearing its head, in the Bay Area or elsewhere. I'm dismayed by how many in the movement opposing the madness of gender-identity ideology (Graham Linehan and Meghan Murphy come to mind) have fallen for the unevidenced sexual atrocity propaganda claims put out by Israel, which is being done precisely to distract us all from the very real slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians, two-thirds of whom are women and children. If you're looking for beheaded women, you'll find them among the many Palestinian victims of Israel's US supplied artillery shells, and US supplied bombs dropped by Israel's US-supplied planes. Opposing gender-woo shouldn't mean you lose your critical faculties when it comes to Palestine.
We can continue this discussion elsewhere, out of respect for the topic of Kara's post.
A simple search will find antisemitic incidents in SF prior to October. I don’t maintain files to substantiate positions which are trivially easy to locate via indexes of local news.
The one that comes to mind in October was on TV and NYT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/us/san-francisco-shop-owner-responds-to-hate-crime-with-message-of-love.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Restaurants are apparently a common target for threats and boycotts
https://www.ktvu.com/news/vandalism-and-fliers-calling-for-a-boycott-of-6-jewish-eateries-in-sf.amp
Children have been targets in Berkeley and Oakland
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/antisemitic-harassment-of-jewish-students-leads-to-federal-complaint-against-berkeley-unified/
I’m a believer in extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Conversely common claims should be understood in discussions without resorting to documentation.
Living in San Francisco requires earthquake awareness.
San Francisco public expenditures on homeless have no discernible effects.
San Francisco has quirky neighborhoods.
San Francisco has a violent, prostitution and crime-riddled past… going back to the late 19th century.
Folks I watched local TV in SF and Kara’s women’s based rights meeting was harassed, hotel staff assaulted; I watched Riley Gaines who spoke at Sf State U about females forced to complete with males in sports assaulted and trapped in a room til the police could get her out. Random crazy goes after Nancy Pelosi to kneecap her for pedophilia but instead attacks her husband with a hammer. These are the tip of the iceberg.
Simply asking for sex-based protection from predatory males causes them to be attacked by… predatory males.
When did people stop understanding that women need protection from men… who attack them?
I likened it to Jewish people being attacked for… being Jewish…
Recently an elderly Jewish man is attacked and killed by a UC Professor. (Tip of the iceberg in the US)
When did people stop understanding that the Jewish minority in the US need protection from… people who hate Jews?
In SF my niece was afraid for her elderly Japanese mother (whose childhood was in Manzanar) walking around because of a recent spate of elderly Asian Women being attacked for being... elderly Asian Women
Perhaps back to Kara’s original post on women being attacked for speaking up about needing protection?
I looked in a mirror and said I and all my friends need to speak about this.
Thank you, Kara. Well said. I worry that this year, as it is election year, the problem is only going to get worse. I spoke to someone recently at some length, expressing my strong concern that Democrats are losing the votes of many D women and families affected by this. While she was concerned, her ultimate response was that this was going to have to wait until after the election, as the most important thing right now to save our democracy is for Biden and the Ds to win. She was completely unable to see that the failure of Ds to change course on these issues could very well cause the Ds to lose.
some months back I was kicked off a prominent Dem. blog -- where I had blogged for years -- for challenging the Dem stance on "trans".
Kicked off unceremoniously & without possibility of appeal. I pointed out Dems will lose votes on this issue. They shut me down & refused to listen. ... as though that will gain them votes?
Stupid Dems.
I was kicked off the "progressive" Daily Kos when I began engaging in trans discussion, and a number of the users privately messaged me they were afraid of the site’s moderators. That was the first time I’d engaged in trans in more than 15 years, (the last time was face-to-face with Lynn Conway, who is brilliant, and quite bonkers. What happens when a non-Biologist applies wishful thinking to the human body.)
I suddenly realized that these were not transexuals I knew from the 80's, these were delusional and profoundly disturbed men who had a shimmering, barely concealed violent contempt towards women.
I'm a large bodybuilt gay man who is profoundly intellectually arrogant, a sort of Sheldon Cooper with 21" biceps, lived all over the world from the Jungles of Borneo to the Red Light District of Amsterdam. The only thing that offends me anymore is profound assholism - "it takes one to know one" as I usually smirk. I know one day I'll meet one of these crazies and they will turn purple and explode, because I don't humor assholes but I'm so friendly and unflinchingly accurate, logical, and mocking, being difficult to debate, that they will end up pulling a gun on me.
The Dems have been groomed into aligning with Malignant Narcissistic assholes whose only political position is to validate their delusion with as many institutions as possible. As true narcissists, keep going until it all collapses around them taking the Dems with it, then declare martyrdom, abandon Democrats as weak and unreliable, and start over elsewhere.
I was knocked off daily Kos because I said that "in my experience, men who claimed they were nonbinary were garden variety heterosexual male poseurs."
That is truly terrible, not to mention stupid. An excellent example of the problem we face.
This is my exact fear. You win presidential elections by persuading enough independents to vote on your side. I will vote Dem because I'm still very much on the left, despite this topic. But your mainline party adherents shouldn't be your focus - your focus should always be on the independents, those 20,000 potential voters who have swung elections, not your base. And, if I leaned independent, maybe having voted Obama one year, Bush years prior, had a child harmed by gender ideology, I might, in an emotional rage, pull the lever against Biden.
If you read the PITT blog, you'll see many many people who were "former" Democrats and who now hate the Democratic Party. All because of this topic.
Lots of people on PITT urge all the others to vote Republican. I push back on that, but it's difficult to make the case.
Yes, and I see the same happening in athletics.
"We can't talk about this" because the advocates of gender ideology know that they can't defend the indefensible. Aside from name calling, they have no argument. Metaphysical claims of a gendered soul and pseudo-scientific "studies" and fake statistics can't stand up to the reality of the damaged bodies of detranstioners, or the disastrous encroachments of men into women's sports and prisons. So, better to just stick their fingers in their ears and scream "LA LA LA" until you walk away.
On a hopeful note, I'd like to share this excellent analysis by Michael Shellenberger given at the GenSpect conference last month in Denver. By the way, he gives a shout-out to Kara's book towards the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN0orsEwyAo
Might help explain it:
Political tribalism and out-sized group identity are perennially a hindrance to critical thought, but the problem is much greater today. Many people today are very afraid and therefore cling uncritically to their group identity and beliefs. If they admitted to any serious failings of their group, they may become even less psychologically secure and that is too scary a prospect (which of course they don't even acknowledge consciously). They abandon critical thought and adopt a mentality of extreme political tribalism (my group is always right, the other is always wrong) and a defensive egotistical moral superiority (so prevalent today on the Left). Left=good, inclusive, compassionate. Right=bad, bigoted, hateful.
Lack of any decent news coverage or analysis does not help. If the journalists did their job, this would not be happening.
Basically some people can't engage because if they did, their world view and ego-structure would fall apart.
The interesting question is: Why is this particular type of irrationality (seems so to me) more prevalent among liberals?
My observation is ignorance and embarrassment. Embarrassed the Democratic Party is throwing them under the bus. Most democrats follow MSM narrative, thus ignorant on any issue. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony are rolling over in their graves!
Kara:
Another feature of the polarized representations in our MSM is that the Right is appropriating the language & experiences of LEFT as their own.
I listened to Megan Kelly's speech against the trans movement and I thought: she must be reading PITT. I think she must have read the PITT book and then took those stories for her own public platform.
So that's a HUGE loss to the Left & to Democrats. The very real struggles of liberal and progressive families with the medicalization of GD kids and youth is tearing us apart. No Democrat will listen to us. Instead we get Megyn Kelly. Ugh. I have never listened to her & then someone sent me the link to her show on that topic & I was like, wait, she's taken my very words.
This is the spot:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxB0LHvS4fg
Excellent. I’ve had the very same hostile shut-downs whenever trans issues come up.
It’s been very painful.
Thanks for all you do Kara.