William Quincy Belle

Considering how much transgender pops up in the headlines, one would think the entire world is transitioning. But consider this: I'm 72 years old as of this writing, and I've never met a transgender person in my life. Not once. What gives? Things trend on social media, and we may mistakenly think it's more common than it actually is. Our view of the issue is distorted. Old saying:


Full disclosure: I am a white, native-born, Christian, heterosexual male. I grew up in the 1950s and the 1960s in an upper middle class white neighborhood. My life was pretty much as pristine as the society depicted in the 1950s black and white TV comedy series Leave It To Beaver. I mention this because I can't help feeling the American Right is nostalgic for the good ol' days: no gays, no blacks, no immigrants, no transgender, and Mom stayed home in the kitchen. What an eye-opener when I got out into the world and discovered all sorts of things I never knew existed.

But rather than panic, I've tried to understand. Other people are living lives I know nothing about, and I don't classify them as better or worse just different. It's important for me to understand, to see beyond my own limited experience. Let's delve into my research. FYI: Most of my stats will be American numbers.

For the United States (source):

• 0.5% of the population is transgender, about 1.6 million: 1.3 million adults, 300,000 youth. Based on a U.S. population of 339 million, that works out to 1 in 200 is transgender.
• Of the 1.3 million adults who identify as transgender, 38.5% (515,200) are transgender women, 35.9% (480,000) are transgender men, and 25.6% (341,800) reported they are gender nonconforming (as of yet, undecided).

For Canada (source):

• 0.33% of the population, about 100,815 adults (age 15 and older) are transgender (59,460) or non-binary (41,355)
• Among transgender people, 53% were women and 47% were men.

Note: I'm not an expert. I'm learning as I go along, and I'm doing my best to understand a topic with which I'm not acquainted.

• Transgender = the person does not see themselves as their gender at birth and want to transition to their preferred sex.
• Non-binary = the person does not see themselves as male or female. I say undecided as my research suggests these people may settle on a specific gender at some point.

In my 2022 research Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, J. K. Rowling, and the Third Gender, I uncovered the following, referencing Wikipedia and Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (2007) by Richard Warms, Richard L. Warms, R. Jon McGee:

• Transgender has existed for thousands of years and been readily accepted by other cultures.
• Transgender is relatively new to western culture.

When I saw relatively new to western culture, I immediately thought of what people seem to do when confronted by something new. First, they don't believe it's true. Second, they mock it.

I'm a male. I was born a male; I was raised as a male; I've lived my life as a male; and I will die a male. I've never had any doubt about being a male. I'm saying this to emphasize I have no personal experience with gender dysphoria. Thank God, I have enough problems. But I've seen enough to conclude this phenomenon is real, not some made-up bullsh*t, as detractors would have us believe. I may not suffer from it, but some people do experience it. I can't dismiss it as fake or crazy; it's real. Note: In my research article, I describe all the instances I've indirectly run into transgender in my life which made me understand it is very much a real thing.

So, why the panic? If I read the headlines or browse postings on social media, you would think transgender is all over the place. Somewhere, I saw it reported some people were mistakenly estimating transgender at 21% of the population, not 0.5%. Wow! No wonder they're freaking out! But let me add that mixed up with these numbers are people like Elon Musk who has ostracized his own son now daughter because she was made transgender by the "woke mind virus". I'm sorry, woke mind virus? Transgender has existed for thousands of years, but Elon, like much of western culture, hears about it for the first time and thinks this is something new. Gays, lesbians, transgender, etc. are not converted, perverted, or talked into becoming what they are. Although, it would seem there is a significant portion of the population who may think so. I note that the American Psychiatric Association in their publication The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders listed homosexuality as a mental disorder up to 1973.

The media reports over and over again about transgender women. I'd say some of the public are going absolutely nuts. Note the above statistics. 480,000 transgender women (men transitioned to women) equals to 0.14% of the entire population (339 million). That's one in 706 people.

You will note that the above stats include women transitioning to men. A transgender man is a woman or was a woman. As a man, should I be worried about a transgender man (woman) in the washroom with me? As a man, should I be worried about a transgender man (woman) competing against me in sports? I'm sure you're chuckling about that which leads me to ask: Are we worried about the right things?

J. K. Rowling and statistics
In my research article, I ran across a four-thousand-word essay by the author of Harry Potter where she states there are only two genders, male and female, and expresses her worry about transgender women (men) in the women's washroom, fearing unwanted sexual aggression. Are we worried about the right things? It was obvious to me she knew nothing about history, knew nothing about the phenomenon, but still adamantly stuck to an opinion which, according to my research, was not based on fact. No man is going to go to the trouble of supposedly switching genders for the express purpose of molesting women in the women's washroom. While anything is possible, the probability of such a thing has to be just this side of zero. In other words, the point of her essay is absurd, based on some unfounded, deep-seated fear. She even admits in her essay that all this is triggered by some personal event in her life. I couldn't help thinking Harvey Weinstein would explain that any man can walk into a women's washroom at any time to molest someone. No need to change genders.

Approximately 687,000 men are convicted sex offenders and around 210,000 of those are convicted rapists, and around 52,000 of the 172,000 female sex offenders are convicted rapists. According to the US Census Bureau, US population is 159 million males and 165 million females. So that's 0.4% of men who are convicted sex offenders and 0.1% who are convicted rapists.

If I go by 0.14% of the population is a transgender woman (formerly a man), that means out of 687,000 convicted sex offenders, 961 are possibly transgender women. J. K. Rowling is freaking out the 961 but has nothing to say about the other 686,038. Are we worried about the right things?

Biology
"There are two genders." - President Donald Trump

During the pandemic, everybody became an epidemiologist. Now, everybody has become a biologist. I repeat: My research shows transgender has existed for thousands of years and been readily accepted in other cultures. Nobody knows history. And nobody knows stats. The chances of your average person ever seeing a transgender person in real life is slim.

But let's talk biology. Answer me this: Why is a gay person sexually attracted to their own sex? Detractors of transgender say there are only male and female. Fine. Let me remind those people that we all born with the same basic sex organs but at around the sixth week of gestation, our development branches, and we form into either female or male. In other words, I could argue we all have a bit of both male and female.

But I repeat: Why are gays gay? Why are bisexuals bi? Is there something in us which exists separately from our obvious physical beings? There's white, and there's black. And in between, there are any number of shades of gray. But can I say with certainty what's gong on? As I said, I'm heterosexual. But I've seen enough to realize that not everyone is heterosexual. In other words, other people have experienced something I have not, but that doesn't mean I dismiss their experience as invalid. I don't suffer from claustrophobia. Do I dismiss people who are scared of riding in elevators?

Statistically speaking, the vast majority of people are heterosexual. But if we are complacent and rely strictly on our own personal experience, we can't see, we can't imagine anything else. And yet, other things do exist. It would be a mistake to judge the entire world based on what we can only see in our own backyard.

Ally McBeal
This was a comedy-drama which ran from 1997 to 2002. It had an unusual feature: a unisex washroom. There were scenes when both men and women would be there at the same time: a man standing at a urinal talking with a woman in a toilet stall. It seemed different but normal. It was no big deal.

And yet, law makers have been busy codifying restrictions to ensure biological gender determines who goes where. Apparently, to some people, this is a big deal. There's a humorous observation about entertainment events pointing out how the line-up at the men's washroom is shorter than the line-up at the women's washroom. I still remember intermission at a theatre production and having to use a toilet stall because there were too many guys lined up at the urinals. As I'm standing there, I look down and see in the next stall two pairs of women's high heels. As I'm washing my hands, two women come out of the stall and exit the men's washroom, giggling. They obviously circumvented the long line at the women's washroom by breaking with social norms. Did the Earth open up and swallow them whole into the gates of Hell? I point out Ally McBeal. Who cares? Dear Washington: I don't care if a transgender man (formerly a woman) comes into the men's washroom with me. In fact, I don't care if a woman comes into the washroom with me. We all have to take a piss. We're all adults. Let's break with tradition and stop freaking out. The Earth is not going to stop rotating.

Amy Hamm: Transgender is a threat to women.
I had never heard of this woman until I ran across an opinion piece in the National Post.

Amy Hamm: Donald Trump's defence of women's rights is glorious by Amy Hamm, National Post, Jan 22/2025
This has been steadily more evident for years, but the moment President Donald Trump placed pen to page on his Jan. 20 executive order, written by his deputy assistant, May Mailman, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” it became undeniable. In western nations, if you care about women, you must look to your right. The left betrayed us all — and it’s an audacious lie to pretend otherwise.

Ms. Hamm's article is a strange rant against transgender. The idea doesn't just make her feel uncomfortable; she seems to be threatened by it. She's under attack. But why? As I read her other articles, I discovered Ms. Hamm has a website caWsbar, Canadian Women Sex-based Rights. This, too, is a strange rant against transgender. I can't help thinking that for Ms. Hamm, transgender, for whatever reason, seems to represent an existential threat to her sexuality. How curious.

When Black Lifes Matter appeared on the scene, it wasn't too long until we saw White Lifes Matter. This is a good example of a phenomenon I've seen over and over again. Some marginalized group protests for their rights and the immediate reaction of other people is What about my rights? There is no attempt to understand, just this self-absorption in their own situation. Somebody else asking for their rights is not trying to take away your rights.

I don't suffer from gender dysphoria. But if a woman steps forward proclaiming she's a man, my first thought isn't that my masculinity is under attack. If a man tells me he's a woman, good luck with that, not that there was a chance we were going to be intimate.

Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light
If you're unfamiliar with this story, you can browse Wikipedia Bud Light boycott. I'd say this issue just about sums up everything about transgender in American society. The whole thing, in my opinion, got completely out of hand. If people had merely ignored the ad campaign, it all would have quickly disappeared. Instead, the detractors managed to elevate it to a height it did not deserve.

I don't drink Bud Light. I don't look at advertisements in general, beer commercials at all. I don't care. This has nothing to do with me. It is of no concern in the grand scheme of things. Then I read the headlines. Holy cr*p! It's WWIII! Double tee eff! I both laughed and cringed at all the videos of people using various weaponry to shoot up cases of Bud Light. "Stop shoving your leftist ideology down my throat!" I'm always amused at how The Right seems to lack self-awareness. They don't want anybody to shove their ideas down their throat all the while shoving their ideas down everybody's throat.

Recently, I saw a commercial for Ben & Jerry's ice cream espousing their left-wings views. Maybe the company felt good saying out loud what they thought were good ideas, but I looked at the reaction from right-wing sources and it wasn't good. Is running a commercial enterprise and doing political advertisements a good idea? Is that the right time and place to discuss politics? I think they made a mistake. They're going to hurt their business, and they are not in any way going to convince anybody of the correctness of their views. They're merely going to look like a crazy.

I've never met a transgender person in my life.
I wanted to add this side note. I said I've never met one, but the truth is I don't know. Why would being transgender ever come up in a conversation? Neighbors, people at work, the incidental people who are part of day-to-day life. The private information of our lives like our sexuality never comes up. Despite all we read in the news, I'm sure your average transgender person doesn't run around bragging about their transition to everybody they meet. Heck, I don't brag about being heterosexual. It's not important for one important reason: I never have sex with 99.999999% of the people I meet. Who cares? Heck, I don't tell 99.999999% of the people whether I like sushi or not. The topic never comes up because we never have a meal together.

What do I really think?
As I said, I'm male and have never thought otherwise. But let me recount a story from my research article.

In 2017, on a social media platform, I run into a person identified by a female avatar, Alice. We chat, the usual small talk. But then, things turn serious, and Alice decides to tell me her story. Alice is actually Frank, a 55-year-old man transitioning to a woman. Frank was born male. He grew up male. He went to school, graduated, and found himself a career as a male. He got married and had two children. At the age of fifty, he decides to come out. His wife is accepting but she said she couldn't live as a lesbian, so they get a divorce, remaining good friends and still co-parenting. Frank sends me a real-life photo of himself. I see a man, wearing makeup and a wig in a dress. He looks nothing like a woman; he looks like a man in drag.

Our conversation came to an end, and we went our separate ways never to see one another again. However, I've thought about this story on many occasions. What trials and tribulations was Frank going to face? What ridicule? Obviously, this was important to him, or he wouldn't risk it all, but I still found it incredible that he gets through fifty years of his life as a man but now feels it is of the utmost importance he finds the real him in a woman.

What to make of Frank? Is he dangerous, and should he be locked up? Is he crazy, and should he be put in an institution under psychiatric care? I repeat I've seen so many stories like Frank's I've come to realize there's something going on. I don't know what exactly, but I know it's real.

Real World Example
A friend of mine, JM, is a nurse. She works mainly in the O.R. (Operating Room) assisting doctors in surgery. I was telling her about this article and asked if she had any experiences with transgender. She recounted one time where a man had gone through surgery, and she had the job of getting him comfortable afterward for recovery. In the process of adjusting the sheets, his gown rode up and she saw this man had female genitalia. She mentioned this to the doctor, and he just shrugged. He was aware that the man in question was actually a woman living as a man. JM and I discussed the statistics I had uncovered: there are about the same number of women transitioning to men as men transitioning to women. And more than likely, transgender people live a quiet life, their transition never becoming public knowledge.

Final Word
Methinks they doeth protest too much.

Transgender has turned into a hot topic and consequently appears frequently in the media. However, to me, the statistics indicate people are overreacting. While this may be an important issue, its prevalence or lack thereof is not equal to the amount of column space it gets in the news.

But the hate this topic generates! People like me who have no personal experience with transgender have turned into some sort of frothing at the mouth lunatic rallying against all that is LGBTQ. It's like this represents some existential threat to their very existence. This is a personal afront to all that they hold dear. I've written on social media: Dear LGBTQ: Everybody back in the closet!

Over and over again, I run into people voicing an opinion about a topic they know nothing about. Dunning-Kruger at its finest. Rather than taking the time to understand, it's immediate condemnation. They have no workable solution; they want the topic and the people involved to disappear. They don't want to see it, hear about it, or ever have to talk about it. Their reaction is visceral and grossly out of proportion to the phenomenon. Hate! Hate! Hate!

It saddens me. I've heard it said that while humanity has the advancements of splitting the atom, walking on the moon, connecting the world with the Internet, and the marvel that is AI, we have not advanced one iota in our spirituality. We are self-centered, arrogant, and belligerent. We are a tribal animal with a disdain for anyone not part of our group. We profess love but so often hate. We say we seek science but too often remain intransigent in our beliefs. Just because I'm not transgender, that doesn't mean transgender doesn't deserve their place in the sun. We're all in this together.


References

Wikipedia: Demographics of sexual orientation
Obtaining precise numbers on the demographics of sexual orientation is difficult for a variety of reasons, including the nature of the research questions. Most of the studies on sexual orientation rely on self-reported data, which may pose challenges to researchers because of the subject matter's sensitivity.

my blog: Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, J. K. Rowling, and the Third Gender - July 13/2022
It is apparent that not one of the above people have heard of The Third Gender, a concept which has existed for thousands of years and has been accepted in other cultures, but which is, according to Wikipedia (referencing Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (2007) by Richard Warms, Richard L. Warms, R. Jon McGee), still somewhat new to mainstream western culture and conceptual thought. I return to our initial reaction: We don't believe it exists and ridicule the idea.

Wikipedia: Transgender
A transgender (often shortened to trans) person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Wikipedia: Dylan Mulvaney
Dylan Mulvaney (born December 29, 1996) is an American social media personality known for detailing her gender transition in daily videos published on TikTok since early 2022. Before coming out as a transgender woman and launching her internet career, Mulvaney performed as a stage actor in Old Globe Theatre, Off-Broadway, and Broadway productions. She gained a higher profile on social media platforms after her interview with U.S. president Joe Biden at the White House, during which they spoke about transgender rights. After Bud Light sent a beer can to Mulvaney for an Instagram promotion in 2023, American conservatives led a boycott of the brand.

2025-02-08

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Same sh*t, different day. There really isn't much point in discussing this topic as I've said it all before. One of the reasons I stopped writing here was because I began to realize I could take an article from several years ago, copy and paste it into a new article, change a few dates, and have a new posting. In other words, we are all dealing with the same issues; it seems like nothing has changed. However, I did think I ran across two points worth noting.

Anti-abortion
C is a long-standing friend. We normally don't talk about politics, but it has come up a few times and I've learned he's Republican, and I'm suspicious he's MAGA.

In a discussion about abortion, he said this: He and his wife had a beautiful daughter. His daughter had beautiful grandchildren. In light of the beauty these births brought into his life, he could never be pro-choice.

That sums it up quite nicely. People see the world through the lens of their own experiences and can't imagine anything else. C can't picture any circumstances where an abortion would be justified. Time and time again, I've seen pro-life advertisements with the picture of a smiling baby, usually a white baby by the way, as if every gestation is destined to wind up in a similar fashion. Since Roe vs. Wade was overturned, as of this writing, 17 states have banned or severely restricted abortion access. There have been numerous headlines of women dying because they were denied a life-saving abortion. And it appears those same states have banned or impeded any investigation into deaths attributable to their abortion laws.

So much for freedom. Pro-choice says have an abortion or don't have an abortion, it's your choice. Pro-life says we make the law, and nobody gets an abortion. Is it murder? I can't think of anybody other than a mother who loves a child, cares for it, and protects it with her own life. And yet, millions of women all over the world have abortions and do NOT feel they are committing murder. My body, my choice. Hello, Christian Taliban! I'm right and everybody else is wrong.

The Economy
In mid-2024 on Facebook, I got into a back and forth with a MAGA. He said the most important thing for him was the economy. I'm not sure why he thought t**** was gong to solve all our problems. However, he added that for him, abortion was an unimportant secondary issue. Economy first, nothing else matters.

How curious for a man to say abortion is not important. - Did I manage to write enough sarcasm into that statement? - Once again, people are only concerned with what's important to them, and they will ignore anything else, even voting against it because they're not affected by it.

I've seen a number of reports and interviews where MAGA women have said the economy was their most important concern, and they, too, would vote Republican essentially voting against their own sex. How curious.

A Personal Note
In 1937, abortion was illegal. My grandmother got pregnant for a third time and decided to have a backroom abortion. It was botched. She died. My mother lost her mother at the age of eight. My grandfather lost his wife. I lost the opportunity to ever meet my grandmother. I'm sure if she had had proper medical care, things would have gone well and she would have lived.

I posted this story here on my blog and somebody commented that my grandmother was a murderer and deserved to die. People can be cruel.

Final Word
I could go on but why bother. Nothing I say is going to have any effect one way or another. People are going to do what they're gong to do. Who cares who dies? Who cares about freedom? I'm right, and everybody else is wrong.

I started this blog in 2010 as my soapbox to spout off about what I think. We are quite literally talking about the same things. Nothing has changed.



References

my blog various artticle on abortion

my blog Pro-lifers are morally superior to the rest of us.
1,200 words, 6-minute read

Full disclosure: I'm a libtard, a badge I wear with great pride. To borrow from the 1960s hippies, I'm a peace, love, and understanding type of guy. And if you haven't guessed, I'm pro-choice but let me add a seeming contradiction: I, too, am anti-abortion. This is elective surgery and represents an unwanted pregnancy. If all babies arrived at the right time, if all pregnancies were wanted, nobody would have an abortion.

2025-01-10

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I lost. We lost. Bigly. If you're a trumper, you can chuckle, gloat, and even yell Nah! Nah! Nah! Nah! Nah!, all while giving me the finger. F*ck my feelings.

As a libtard, one of those woke goodie two-shoes, I am forced to admit that at long last, you have finally owned me. Do what you will; you've got the keys to the car, and you can do anything you want. Well, let me be a bit more precise: you can do anything he wants, he referring to one Donald J. t****. It's his show. Not your show exactly, but you did vote for him, so I guess indirectly it's your show.

The people have spoken. I must accept their decision. To say anything else would make me look like a sore loser.

But I think this is a mistake. The people have spoken but they have made a mistake. As I've said elsewhere, the average voter is uninformed, knowing little or nothing about politics, their country, and how the world works. Their vote is based on gut instinct, not a thorough understanding of the issues. They vote according to the last sound bite, the last slogan, or the last meme which confirms their bias about the world. And as such, they vote against their own best interests, perpetuating the problems they love to complain about.

I must compliment the Republicans for being unified, organized, and relentless. Through sheer repetition, they have used their message to reshape reality to the point where a significant portion of the population think black is white, up is down, etc. The world has been so obfuscated, people no longer know what's going on, what's truly going on.

Freedom of Speech
My complaint isn't what some people say, it's that other people listen. There seems to be no critical thinking skills left anymore. People blindly repeat or repost whatever they hear out of some uncontrollable compulsion to be first with new information, all without assessing the veracity of what they're repeating.

At a family gathering, I hear a relative say that they had heard teachers are putting kitten litter boxes in classrooms so that students who identify as cats can take a leak. Think about that for a moment. Without doing any research, just by mulling over the possibility that any teacher, any educated, qualified, intelligent human being would agree to do such a socially unacceptable, absurd, and outright stupid thing in public. When I first heard this story, I dismissed it as the hyperbolic right-wing inflammatory rhetoric designed to enrage people into believing liberals have gone too far. I'm liberal and just because I'm liberal, I am no longer a reasonable human being but some sort of crazy person trying to undermine our society. I'm sorry. I may be liberal but I'm not f*cking insane!

Think about this. The enemy is no longer the Russians, the Chinese, or ISIS. It's your fellow Americans, your colleagues at work, your neighbors, or even members of your own family. Those woke, commie socialists want to destroy American and bring about the downfall of the Republic. Really? The other side of the aisle is evil personified, the anti-Christ.

Healthcare: The Concept of a Plan
While t****'s answer to having a plan was laughable, it does represent the Republican goal in the debate: the return to the way things were. Get rid of Obamacare and return to full-on capitalism: pre-existing conditions rejected, everyone has to pay, no freebies. Their plan is no plan; healthcare is a free market.

In the leadup to Obamcare in 2010, I read several analyses which determined up to fifty thousand people die each year due to a lack of health insurance. Because they couldn't afford preventative care, they waited until the situation was critical and consequently, fatal. If Republicans have their way, death will be the price to pay for profit. I don't believe those voting Republican understand what they voted for.

Tax Cuts
In 2017, t**** managed a $1.7 trillion tax cut, most of which, according to financial experts, went to the top 1%. He's promised to deliver another cut.

I pay approximately 30% in tax. At the start of the t**** presidency, corporation were paying 27%. The tax cut lowered their rate to 21%. The new promised tax cut would further lower the rate to 15%.

I pay 30%. Now, Republicans will explain trickle down, however, I can find no financial expert who agrees trickle down works. It's a myth. It would seem the only ones believing in trickle down are those benefiting from the tax cuts. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

2 + 2 = 4
I can't help feeling there's a "truth" in air quotes. It's not liberal; it's not conservative. It's not Republican or Democrat. If do the math, you arrive at the answer of four. That answer has nothing to do with political ideology. If you say the answer is five, I have to conclude you haven't done the math or you don't understand math.

My example of two plus two is simple, making easy for anybody to see my point. However, other issues are not so cut and dry. As I said above, I see a lack of critical thinking skills. Instead of recognizing one's ignorance, people go with what they know or what they've heard with no fact checking and jump to conclusions, usually erroneous conclusions. Old saying: If you can't properly assess an issue, how can you properly address it?

Project 2025
If you voted for t****, you didn't read this. Holy cow! You are not going to end up with what you think you'll get.

My New Reality
One day, I find myself in a China shop with a bull. At that particular moment, it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s right or wrong for the bull to be there; the fact is, it is there. It seems academic to ask how or why the bull ended up in the shop as I’m faced with the more important question of how to deal with the bull. It is a massive animal with great power. Like it or not, right here, right now, might is right. A bull is temperamental and can be capricious. I don’t want to get gored or trampled and will do my best to not get its attention. At some point, I will contemplate what I can do to not end up in such a predicament, but until then, I’m going to try to stay out of the line of fire. Maybe if I had a red cape, I could distract the animal and lead it out of the shop. Whatever the case, people are going to be hurt and that very well could include me.

I don't believe MAGA knows what it's doing. They're angry. And t**** and his minions like Fox News have manipulated them and got their anger focused on the Left. In fact, their angry has blinded them to the damage already wrought by t**** and the damage he's planning on doing.

Editorial Cartoon by Pat Bagley (used without permission)

Final Word
I'm wasting my breath. My words fall on deaf ears. MAGA is gloating over their win without understanding the consequences of that win. And as I said in the meme above, by the time they figure out their mistake, it will be too late.

In the fall, I saw memes on social media saying that people voted for t**** because they were worried about the price of eggs. Already, t**** has said he can't lower the price of groceries. How soon before the voters have buyer's remorse?

Just today, I read an article talking about how the Democrats failed to capture the hearts and mind of the electorate, that they were not on message, that they were condescending to the deplorables, or whatever. How exactly do you campaign with a public who prides itself on being ignorant? How do you compete with Fox News and other right-wing sources who relentlessly repeat alternative facts to people who can't be bothered to fact check anything, oblivious to being manipulated?

I've wondered if smoking could be held up as a metaphor for politics. The science is overwhelming in proving tobacco to be detrimental to one's health and yet tens of millions continue to light up as cognitive dissonance sees them reject anything contradictory to their addiction. My own family smokes; some of them like chimneys. All I can do is try to stay away from their second-hand smoke. I can't stop them; I can't change their behaviour; but I must keep the peace by accepting their behaviour. Likewise, Republicans vote against their own best interests. All I can do is try to protect myself. People have to learn the hard way. I can only make sure that when they go down, they don't take me with them. Unfortunately, the idea of we all being in the same boat makes that just about impossible.



References

my blog: MAGA, Anger, and Critical Thinking - Dec 25/2023
If one thing has struck me over these past years, it's that MAGA is angry. Although, the word angry seems insufficient: livid, furious, raging, foaming at the mouth, I could go on but I'm trying to express that this anger is right off the charts. And because this anger is so out of control, I believe MAGA can no longer think straight. It's not about finding "the truth" in air quotes, it's about winning any and all arguments. I'm right, and everybody else is wrong. Evidence? Schmevidence! I don't have to prove anything because I'm right, and you're just a stupid sheeple!

my blog: Freedom of Speech, Jordan Peterson, and I believe therefore it's true. - Oct 20/2023
Never have so many knowing so little said so much.

Covid: What if the U.S. was like Canada? - Feb 3/2022
Comparing the death rate of Canada with the U.S. and its individual states as of February 3, 2022. I believe t**** and Ron DeSantis should be held criminally negligent for their handling of the Covid pandemic.




2025-01-05

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

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Published Mar 27/2024 by James Talarico
YouTube: James Talarico Delivers Sermon Against Christian Nationalism (18:46)
On October 22nd, 2023, James Talarico spoke at his home church about the dangers of Christian Nationalism.


References

Wikipedia: James Talarico
James Dell Talarico (born May 17, 1989) is an American politician and former teacher. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2018 to represent District 52, which includes the cities of Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, and Georgetown in Williamson County. Following the 2020 redistricting cycle, Talarico announced his run for a seat in District 50 in 2022, which he won. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Wikipedia: Christian nationalism
Christian nationalism is a form of religious nationalism that is affiliated with Christianity. It primarily focuses on the internal politics of society, such as legislating civil and criminal laws that reflect its adherents' view of Christianity and the role of religion in political and social life.

Bible Study Tools: Is Christian Nationalism Biblical?
Nationalists believe that they have the God-given right to usurp any governmental power, even to the point of violence, if that power does not align with biblical principles. But scripture refutes this stance.

2024-08-31

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This morning, several articles talked about Justice Alito giving a commencement address at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, a Catholic institution in which he warned of the danger to the freedom of religion. Support for freedom of speech is declining dangerously. -Justice Alito When you venture out into the world, you may well find yourself in a job or a community or a social setting when you will be pressured to endorse ideas you don’t believe or to abandon core beliefs. It will be up to you to stand firm. -Justice Alito

But the New York Times journalist Adam Liptak added this telling point:


I had a curious take on this message as exemplified by a meme:


Over and over again, I see these debates framed by freedom. I can't help feeling this so-called freedom is the freedom to interpret religion according to one's own prejudices including homophobia. In researching just what the Bible does say about certain issues, it becomes clear that if you start from a premise, whatever that premise may be, pro-gay, anti-gay, pro-abortion, anti-abortion, etc., you are going to find supporting passages. The Bible seems to be filled with anything and everything, a smorgasbord of ideas sometimes contradictory.

Aside: I don't look at the Bible as the word of God per se. It is the word of man talking about God. The Bible consists of the writings of men (and women?) trying to communicate what (they think) God said or meant. And therein lies the rub.


The topic of this particular Biblical passage was amusingly covered by the fictional President Barlett. (The West Wing- Bible Lesson, YouTube 3:42) What's important is that the Bible does clearly state working on the Sabbath is forbidden and yet, today, we are all okay with it. You can cover the Sunday shift at your local fast food restaurant and not be put to death. Obviously, our interpretation of the Bible changes with time.

Alito complains about the religious being treated as bigots. Is he fighting for the freedom to be a bigot? Should the freedom to cancel another group not be cancelled? Are these so-called religious grounds nothing more than someone's misinterpretation of Biblical teachings passed onto them by family, friends, and the culture they live in?

I ran across a website, QChristian.Org, which delves into the question of Christianity and LGBTQ. They give an interesting quote:


I've heard it said that Christians evangelicals are the Christian Taliban: they're right and everybody else is wrong. On the one hand, God is so far beyond us, He is unknowable. And yet, these people claim to know God and to know precisely what He wants. Do I have to point out the contradiction?

Final Word
Hate, hate, hate! Jesus said to love one another, but there is certainly a lot of hate. I remain flabbergasted by what is done in the name of the Lord.

My faith is equal to your facts. I have the right to religious freedom and the right to believe what I want. I'm sure Justice Alito thinks he's focusing on a loss of freedom in the United States without realizing that the freedom he seeks is the freedom to take away the freedom of others. Republicans, conservatives, and Christian Evangelicals are not content to believe what they believe. Like the Taliban, they want to force their beliefs on everybody else. As I said, they're right, and the rest of us are wrong. And they don't see the contradiction of not putting the Sunday McDonald's shift to death because on Sunday, they all want their Happy Meals.


References

Wikipedia: Samuel Alito
Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. OMRI (b 1950) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated to the high court by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has served on it since January 31, 2006. ... He has called himself a "practical originalist" and has been described as one of the Court's "most conservative justices".

What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality? - Human Rights Campaign
At the heart of the claim that the Bible is clear "that homosexuality is forbidden by God" is poor biblical scholarship and a cultural bias read into the Bible.

Is being gay a sin? - Forefront Church
When one thinks of church LGBTQIA inclusion they immediately go to the clobber passages. There are seven passages in the Bible that are commonly read as prohibiting same sex intercourse. These are the passages that are used to justify exclusion of the LGBTQIA community from the kingdom of God. When studied in context they can also be used as justification for same sex relationships and full inclusion in the kingdom of God.

Amy-Jill Levine: How to read the Bible’s “clobber passages” on homosexuality - Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic resource
People arguing against churches being fully inclusive cite what are typically called the “clobber passages”: Genesis 19:1-38; Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:25-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:9-10 and Jude 6-7. A few also cite Genesis 1-2.

Crash-course in Bible history: How the Bible came to be - Baptist News Global
You probably never thought to ask, or never thought you were allowed to ask: How did the Bible come to be? Of course, there must have been humans remembering the stories and writing them down, and at some point in time, someone had to place them all together in an orderly fashion. How did that happen?

2024-05-12

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If one thing has struck me over these past years, it's that MAGA is angry. Although, the word angry seems insufficient: livid, furious, raging, foaming at the mouth, I could go on but I'm trying to express that this anger is right off the charts. And because this anger is so out of control, I believe MAGA can no longer think straight. It's not about finding "the truth" in air quotes, it's about winning any and all arguments. I'm right, and everybody else is wrong. Evidence? Schmevidence! I don't have to prove anything because I'm right, and you're just a stupid sheeple!

I'm suspicious that MAGA knows they're wrong but they've got so much invested in this, to back out now would be not just embarrassing but humiliating. The thought of losing is out of the question. And in saying that, I want to point out that any 3rd party players like Fox News, various conservative, alt-right, and conspiracy theorist commentators, plus foreign entities like the Russian government are having a field day manipulating MAGA and their anger. Yes, that's right, I said manipulating. MAGA is being made a fool of but they are oblivious to it.

Zelensky and the Yachts
A week ago, M, a social media friend who seems to be a full-blown MAGA supporter, tweets that President Zelensky of Ukraine had stolen over a billion dollars in aid money and had recently purchased two yachts. My first impression is that this story couldn't be true but I Google it, curious to see what pops up. Out of all the hits, I only see two legitimate sources, Newsweek (Nov 30/2023) and France 24 (YouTube, Dec 5/2023, 4:43), debunking this rumor. Now, I'm thinking this has to be Russian propaganda. The supposed documentation for the sale has been falsified. The yachts in question have not been sold but are still for sale.

I present my findings to my friend M and she responds, "The very fact mainstream media has investigated this tells me there's something to the story." Well, yes, there is something to it. It's Russian propaganda. And sure enough, not three days later, another article from a reputable source, the BBC, describes how this social media blitz was orchestrated by the Russian government to cast doubt in the minds of the American public about support for Ukraine. And sure enough, some Republican politicians took the bait and began objecting to continuation of aid for the war effort. (How pro-Russian 'yacht' propaganda influenced US debate over Ukraine aid, BBC, Dec 20/2023)


Why did my friend tweet such a story? Why was her first inclination to believe it was one hundred percent verifiably true? M also calls Zelensky a Nazi. Where does that come from? Putin and the Russian government. But why would she believe it? First off, Zelensky is Jewish. Plus he lost his great-grandparents to the Nazis. Calling him a Nazi is illogical which is politely saying, this is just plain crazy.

M is an example of how Putin is winning the propaganda war. But this is an example of what seems to be a far bigger problem in America and perhaps all countries.

Critical Thinking
I use the definition of Eoghan Ryan from Scribber: Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment, while remaining aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and applying consistent standards when evaluating sources.

In my simple terms, it's about having a good bullsh*t detector. The more I know, the less I know. I'm not afraid to ask questions, and I'm not afraid to revise my opinion based on new evidence with a compelling argument. But I'm not going to blindly accept what anybody tells me without double checking what they're saying. Is there something wrong with proof?

My favourite example is Pizzagate. In 2016, there was a wild conspiracy theory floating around that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee were running a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizzeria in a Washington suburb. I just wrote that last sentence and I still shake my head. There is nothing, absolutely nothing in that statement which makes me think it is even remotely possible it could be true. It is pure, unadulterated bullsh*t. And yet, the Right went absolutely apesh*t over this story, even sending death threats to the pizzeria.

On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived at Comet Ping Pong and fired three shots from an AR-15 style rifle that struck the restaurant's walls, a desk, and a door. Welch later told police that he had planned to "self-investigate" the conspiracy theory. Welch saw himself as the potential hero of the story—a rescuer of children. He surrendered after officers surrounded the restaurant and was arrested without incident; no one was injured.

I'm sorry, but just how f*cking stupid do you have to be? What in Heaven's name is wrong with people? Where in your wildest dreams would you think any of this is true? Are these people completely incapable of distinguishing between reality and made-up, stupid, B.S. spouted by nutjobs, claiming to have inside dirt on the rich illuminati running the world? I will end with Marjorie Taylor Greene and her Jewish space lasers. (Forbes, Jan 30, 2021) While I'm sure many people question Ms. Greene's faculties or lack thereof, I do have to give her credit for the entertainment value of her utterances. John Cleese amusingly pointed out that you have to have a certain degree of smarts to understand you're dumb, and that truly stupid people have no idea they are, in fact, stupid. (YouTube, Apr 11/2014, 0:58)

Leading vs Pandering
I have contended in previous articles that the average voter knows very little about the issues, politics, and how their country and the world works. Their vote is not an informed vote but more of a gut instinct based on whatever the latest sound bite has influenced their opinion. Fox News uses this as their business model. They zero in on the fears and biases of their target audience to capture their attention and gain a loyal viewership.

Leading is finding out the electorate thinks two plus two equals five and implementing policies so everyone learns that (and benefits from) two plus two equals four. Pandering is finding out the electorate thinks two plus two equals five then repeating the incorrect statement in order to capture the interest of the people so they follow you. Hello, Fox News, t****, and the rest of the rightwing conspiracy theorists.

Where does this anger come from?
Life isn't fair. We are all not equal. The rich fly around in their private jets while the rest of us merely scrap by, trying to pay our rent and put food on the table. People have no idea how the world works, so they make sh*t up. Those illuminati bastards must be taking all the spoils for themselves and leaving the rest of us with the scraps.

I Googled "MAGA anger" and found a number of explanations.

Twitter: Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom, Dec 2/2023, Staff writer at The Atlantic
I know it's obvious that Trump changes positions on a dime and how it's mystifying that his cult doesn't care, but picking all this apart is a fool's errand. They stick with him because he channels their diffuse anger about their lives at other Americans. But it's worse now.

After 2016, Trump voters thought they'd really made their point, pushed back change in America, and gained respect by electing a POTUS. All that blew up in their faces: They found out they're not a majority, and worse, the disdain of their fellow citizens only intensified.

2020 and J6 compounded their sense of humiliation and grievance. The know Trump is making fools of them, but they will never admit it. And Biden winning was like a national slap in the face. So now they're with him no matter what. They don't care about policy or positions.

And this time, they'll support him as he does even more desperate and hideous things. He could call for open borders and free abortions and most of them wouldn't care. All they care about is that he's promising to go after people they hate even more now than in 2016.

Talking about how he and Biden "differ on Issues X/Y/Z" is pointless and a distraction. It's all part of the "normal political horse race" narrative that is blinding people to the danger ahead.

Why Conservative Parts of the U.S. Are So Angry, Yes! Magazine, Mar 21/2022
Republican America is poorer, more violent, and less healthy than Democratic America. But Republicans’ blame is misplaced.

There is a significant swath of White America who is poorer, less educated, and with fewer opportunities and the statistics show a remarkable correlation with the Republican Party. It has been ofttimes said that Republicans vote against their own best interests, and I return to the average voter has no idea what's going on. They don't make an informed vote, they vote on pure gut instinct. And politicians like t**** tap into that frustration to gain power. Unfortunately, while they vote in the hopes of making life better for themselves, they are actually shooting themselves in the foot because their savior doesn't care about saving them and, in fact, doesn't know how to save them.

Where does all this conspiracy theory bullsh*t come from?
From the beginning of time, if man didn't know the right answer, he made stuff up. Nature abhors a vacuum as they say, and the concept of a god fills in all the blanks.

Karen M. Douglas is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Kent in England. She studies the psychology of conspiracy theories. Her research examines why conspiracy theories appeal to so many people, and the consequences of conspiracy theories for individuals, groups, and society. In an interview and a research paper, she points out how people may gravitate toward conspiracies when they are anxious or feel powerless in an attempt to make sense of it all.

People with lower levels of education tend to be drawn to conspiracy theories. And we don't argue that's because people are not intelligent. It's simply that they haven't been allowed to have, or haven't been given access to the tools to allow them to differentiate between good sources and bad sources or credible sources and non-credible sources. So they're looking for that knowledge and certainty, but not necessarily looking in the right places.

I point out the above quote to refer back to the idea of a lack of critical thinking. This isn't simply a lack of intelligence but a lack of (intellectual) tools. If you've never been out of your own backyard, it may be impossible to conceive of what exists in the rest of the world.

While Prof. Douglas doesn't use the term confirmation bias, she certainly infers it in how people once fixated on an idea, seek out other sources of information which confirm that original idea, ignoring anything contradictory.

Using critical thinking on Alex Jones
Alex Jones chats with Tucker Carlson on X. The following link takes you to the 2:50 mark. Watch about 20 seconds.

Alex Jones & Tucker Carlson Team Up To Talk About Naked Joe Biden, The Young Turks, Dec 15/2023, 12:45

I mull over this claim: Joe Biden is wandering around the White House naked and has been doing so for years.

There are apparently 1,800 people working at the White House. Count that off: one thousand, eight hundred people. And during all this time, no one has ever revealed this to the press. Not one single person. I'm reminded of the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked. My research reveals that the Apollo Moon Landing employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities. (Wikipedia) Now think about this for a sec. In order to fake the moon landing, you have to get all of those people to keep their mouth shut. What are the chances of that happening? I return to Biden walking around naked. Eighteen hundred people all have to agree that mum's the word, and what are the chances of pulling that one off?

Without even delving into this any further, my bullsh*t detector has hit a Spinal Tap eleven out of ten. But let's add that I know that Alex Jones is prone to say outrageous, unproveable claims all for the express purpose of keeping the spotlight on him. In his divorce trial, his defense attorney explained that his client said crazy shit (my words) because his client was an entertainer. I thought that succinctly explained the whole Alex Jones phenomenon. He's not a journalist. He's not a seeker of the truth. He wants to capture our attention, and get and maintain a loyal following so he can cash in either through advertising or endorsements. And from what I understand, life has been pretty profitable for Alex.

I mention this because I first saw this clip of Alex with Tucker on a conspiracy theorist's YouTube channel. After playing the clip about Biden walking around naked, the YouTuber said, "I didn't know that." You didn't know that? Wait! What? You actually believe this horsesh*t? You trust the word of Alex Jones? Are you insane?

In researching the fake moon landing idea, one commentator wrote:

The moon landing was faked. But the director was such a perfectionist, he decided to film on location.

Final Word
Is this a comprehensive analysis? Heck, I suppose I could go on and on. But I think I can sum it all up in a few points:

• Voters are not informed. They vote with their gut.
• As a consequence, there is this dichotomy between reality and perceptions. People react to their perception of reality, not reality itself.
• People don't check their information sources. In fact, they begin to rely on one news source while excluding anything else, blindly accepting whatever they're told.
• People leave themselves vulnerable to manipulation by politicians and entities who stand to gain from their support.

One news source. I'm sure you may have figured out I'm talking about Fox News and those viewers would say that other news sources, like CNN, are just as guilty. Here's the problem. CNN says A. I look further and discover ABC, NBC, CBC in Canada, BBC in Britain, and France24 in France all say A. Fox News says B. Why is Fox the only one saying B? Is a Fox viewer asking me to believe that Fox is right while the rest of the world, yes, the rest of the world is wrong? What are the chances of that being correct, especially since it's now been proven in a court of law that Fox panders (lies) to its audience to make money?

I'm Canadian. My sister married an American, a great guy, a 25 year marriage. But she confessed her husband went down the Fox News rabbit hole and became a rabid t**** supporter. She told me she kept the peace in her household by never discussing politics. He once said to me that he had learned to keep his political views to himself because he kept getting negative responses from people. I'm sorry I wasn't around to talk him through this. I believe I could have convinced him otherwise. I'm amused that it never dawned on him to question his own political views if he was getting negative feedback. I return to the idea of I'm right and the rest of you sheeple are wrong.

Returning to my social media friend M. I wonder what her household is like. What does her husband have to put up with? I never talk with M about politics; there are other things in life more pleasant to talk about. I created a second Twitter account about a year and a half ago to tweet only about amusing things I had run across. M created her own Twitter account to follow me. We had some amusing interactions. But then I noticed she was replying to political tweets and her anger was palpable. At times, the craziness of some of her statements scared me. Was this the same woman? Was this the same fun personality? It was like Jekyll and Hyde, and the difference between the two was startling. And as I said, scary!

Anger clouds our judgment. Like intoxication, it can make us say or do stupid things, things which we may wind up regretting. There's a time to talk but there is also a time to shut up. Unfortunately, anger makes us forget that and we just can't resist getting in that final, decisive one-two punch which is supposed to win the argument but ends up making us new enemies and losing friends.

I like to say I'm a peace, love, and understanding type of guy. I am open to a clear, logical, and convincing argument supported by documented evidence. But don't come to me with your pizzagate, Jewish space lasers, or cockamamie yacht story. You know damn well you are blindly repeating sh*t you saw on social media and you have no proof that any of this crap is true. I plead with you; I beg you; please look further than the latest conspiracy theory YouTube video before making a pronouncement that you've figured everything out. You look foolish, and I'm embarrassed for you.


References

my blog: Politics: pandering not leading - Jan 14/2023

my blog: Cancel Culture, Supposedly - Oct 20/2021

2023-12-25

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As of late, I've seen a number of posts on Facebook and Twitter of Nazi rallies in the United States, usually captioned with something like, "This is America?"

I've heard it said that t**** has given permission to so many on the Far Right to come out of the closet and say what they knew was socially unacceptable: sexism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. This is my moment, and I'm going to speak my mind, to Hell with your weak social justice bullsh*t. "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" (nod to the character Howard Beale of the 1976 film Network)

Never have so many knowing so little said so much.

Unfortunately, people open their mouths and let fly with whatever crosses their mind, regardless of whether it's correct and makes sense. Stupid is as stupid says. I hear complaints about Cancel Culture but ofttimes when I investigate the complainer, I find they never should have said what they said. (see link in References below)

On Facebook, a friend posted a video of a Nazi rally in Florida. I commented with the following meme:


Facebook removed my comment, saying I was promoting a hate group, blocking some of my functions until January 17, 2024, and threatening further action if I again violated their Community Standards. I asked for a review. Shortly thereafter, I got a response that their ruling remained in effect, and my comment would not be allowed.

First off, I know this was not the doing of a human being. Facebook has crossed the three billion mark in the number of users, and there is no way they have the manpower to be supervising that many accounts. All of this is the result of automated routines scanning accounts for questionable material. Secondly, this is not the first time Facebook has taken exception to one of my postings. They may have image recognition and be able to detect a Nazi flag but do not have the interpretative ability to distinguish between the promotion of Nazism and the criticism of it.

A curious difference
Elon Musk has said that Twitter, now X, would be a bastion of free speech. He's gotten himself into trouble for opening the flood gates as an unsupervised Twitter has turned into a free-for-all to say whatever the heck you want. Right? Wrong? As I've said elsewhere, it's not so much what people say, it's that other people are listening, and I mean listening without any critical thinking. Freedom of speech means you can say that two plus two equals five but the problem is that a significant portion of the population never do the math, heck, they don't even know math, and blindly repeat five, oblivious to the right answer. Now, we end up in this strange situation where if something is repeated often enough, it becomes true. Well, not in the eyes of science as the old saying is: The truth doesn't give a f*ck about your opinion. But a significant portion of the population represents a political force, and that force could drive our bus right off the cliff, themselves included. The answer ain't five!

My point is that while Facebook censored my meme, I know that Twitter would not. Zuckerberg holds me accountable while Musk lets me speak my mind. Who's right? Which is the correct approach? Collectively, we are trying to hold social media responsible to supervise the content published on their platform because we can't control ourselves. I looked at some of the videos of Nazi rallies and noted people were parading wearing masks to hide their identity. Obviously, they know that what they're doing is not right. Or they're not yet ready to own it and be responsible for it, facing the consequences of their stance. Musk and Twitter or X have been bleeding advertisers who've decided they don't want to be seen in the same company as who they've decided are deplorable. Elon may allow Nazi flags but companies who risk being seen in their company have said no.

Final Word
Freedom of speech. But with freedom comes responsibility. Before opening your mouth, have you verified that what you're going to say is true, factual, and logical? It seems odd that we must require our social media to police us because we have no self-control.

Do I think censorship is going to work? If everybody was on the same page and agreed that two plus two equals four which, by the way, is true and factual, why would we need social media to supervise us? Unfortunately, I have no idea when we all will end up on the same page. It certainly is not going to happen in my lifetime.

So, here we are Zuckerberg or Musk, Facebook jail or X freedom. Who's right? If we measure success by ad revenue, Elon may want to reconsider, but I leave his $44 billion experiment to him. It seems that being "right" in the eyes of the world may not be all that easy.

References

my blog: Cancel Culutre, Supposedly - Oct 20, 2021
I hear people complaining about being so-called cancelled. Woe is me! Of course, Godwin's Law takes over and now, it's the "Gestapo of Political Correctness" subjugating the masses to make them conform to what those G.D. libtards feel is socially acceptable.

Fine. Then I go look at the complainant and see what's been suppressed. I find racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, along with lies, misinformation, distortion of the facts, conspiracy theories and outright stupidity, coupled with an attitude of anti-education, anti-science, anti-expertise, anti-government, and anti-authority goddamnit, nobody's gonna tell me what to do! Fifty years ago, a nut would stand on a soapbox at a street corner with a megaphone. The potential audience was limited. Today, that same person can get their message out to millions.

We’re back to a fundamental question: We all want freedom, but should anyone be free to falsely yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater?

2023-11-28

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