The Long Tradition of Dividing People Into Good People and Bad People

Matt Taibbi, writing about Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States:

No matter how interesting a book he or she is able to write, any author who admits to looking out at the world and seeing only “victims and executioners” needs psychological help. Unfortunately, Zinn in this respect turned out to be a pioneer, presaging a generation of comic-book thinkers who understand things in binary terms, forever preoccupied with cramming people in neat categories of oppressors and oppressed.

Such mental habits are the fashion now and will definitely put you in a bind on Thanksgiving. How can I eat turkey and stuffing with a smile, when Columbus massacred the Arawaks? When the English forced the Wampanoags off their land and made many convert to Christianity? When Lincoln told Horace Greeley, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it”?

How? Maybe because you’re more than three years old, and don’t need fairy tales to be real in order to enjoy dinner with family and a football game?

Taibbi's article is "Thanksgiving is Awesome: In reply to the haters. Happy holiday, everyone."

On a more serious note, I read Zinn's book when I was a teenager and it was a much needed shock to my system, given that I had, to that point, been exposed to a steady stream of textbooks and teachers who argued American Exceptionalism. I agree with Taibbi that both of these approaches are simplistic.

Continue ReadingThe Long Tradition of Dividing People Into Good People and Bad People

Caitlin Flanagan and Greg Lukianoff Discuss Free Speech and Much More

This is one of the most engaging podcasts I've heard in quite a while. Conversation includes author Caitlin Flanagan and First Amendment Attorney Greg Lukianoff (From FIRE - The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). The topics are varied but repeatedly come back to free speech. Flanagan claims that far too many college students don't understand the importance or free speech and the First Amendment.

Continue ReadingCaitlin Flanagan and Greg Lukianoff Discuss Free Speech and Much More

The Political Left Needs to Start Judging More Wisely

I saw this Rogan interview with Krystal and Saagar. I've watched a lot of Joe Rogan for the past two years. He leans far left on most issues he discusses, but that's not good enough for most people and news media on the political left, who seek to purification, not nuanced discussion. Many of them have no idea what to do with people like Rogan, who hold heterodox opinions. They reject the idea of human complexity and they are increasibly thinking in cartoons. That is the subject of Krystal Ball's 7-minute commentary. It was spot on. I've seen this rejection of the "impure" on FB over and over. IMO, this is ruining the political left and sending many voters over to the political right, which is morally bankrupt.

My advice to people on the political left: Quit demonizing people who are not aligned with your views. Quit writing off everyone who voted differently than you. Engage openly and respectfully with your family, neighbors and friends who think differently than you. I'm an atheist, but Jesus had it right when he gave the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies." I give thanks today that we don't all think alike. And I give thanks for the wisdom of John Stuart Mill. And I give thanks for the courage and soaring inspirational thoughts of Martin Luther King: Hate cannot drive out hate and we should judge each other only by the content of our character. Let's start judging each other more wisely starting today.

Continue ReadingThe Political Left Needs to Start Judging More Wisely

WP Finally Allows Transgender Experts to Raise Concerns about Shoddy Transgender Diagnoses and Treatments

It looks like it is now safe to publicly say these critically important things at the WP, 18 months after Abigail Shrier sounded the alarm but was completely and intentionally ignored by WP/NYT/NPR. Here is an excerpt from a brand new article by Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Anderson: "The mental health establishment is failing trans kids Gender-exploratory therapy is a key step. Why aren’t therapists providing it?":

"The number of adolescents requesting medical care is skyrocketing: Now 1.8 percent of people under 18 identify as transgender, double the figure from five years earlier, according to the Trevor Project. A flood of referrals to mental health providers and gender medical clinics, combined with a political climate that sees the treatment of each individual patient as a litmus test of social tolerance, is spurring many providers into sloppy, dangerous care. Often from a place of genuine concern, they are hastily dispensing medicine or recommending medical doctors prescribe it — without following the strict guidelines that govern this treatment. . . .

When working in gender clinics, we’ve also both received letters from therapists who had “assessed” patients they were referring to us. An astonishing number of these were nothing but a paragraph that stated the youth identified as trans, had dysphoria and wanted hormones, so that course was recommended. There are nearly 200,000 members of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association. Add to that the clinical social workers, marriage counselors and family therapists. The overwhelming majority of those well-intentioned professionals receive limited or no training in the assessment of gender-diverse youth. (We receive requests frequently from people eager for more comprehensive, nuanced trainings, which we both deliver.) In simple terms, the demand for competent care has outstripped the supply of competent providers."

How many teenagers have been permanently damaged as a result of getting ideology instead of meaningful counseling? How many have been permanently disfigured or made sterile as a result of surgery and hormone treatment in those 18 months since Abigail Shrier tried to warn us but was shut down in a concerted effort by left-leaning media, social media platforms and even a prominent attorney for the ACLU?

Continue ReadingWP Finally Allows Transgender Experts to Raise Concerns about Shoddy Transgender Diagnoses and Treatments