January 22, 2023

"It’s politically weird to be a very liberal Democrat and find yourself shoved in bed with, like, the governor of Texas. Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson?"

Said one parent, quoted in "When Students Change Gender Identity, and Parents Don’t Know/Educators are facing wrenching new tensions over whether they should tell parents when students socially transition at school" (NYT).
[D]ozens of parents whose children have socially transitioned at school told The Times they felt villainized by educators who seemed to think that they — not the parents — knew what was best for their children.... Although some didn’t want their children to transition at all, others said they were open to it, but felt schools forced the process to move too quickly, and that they couldn’t raise concerns without being cut out completely or having their home labeled “unsafe.”... 
One mother in California shared messages that her teenager’s teacher had sent through the school’s web portal encouraging the student to obtain medical care, housing and legal advice without the parents’ knowledge. A lawsuit filed against a school district in Wisconsin included a photo of a teacher’s flyer posted at school that stated: “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity, I’m your mom now.”

The top-rated comment over there — from someone called "It’s Wrong" — is:

I teach at a middle school in Bergen County, NJ. This year, the teachers in my school were specifically instructed not to tell parents if their kids start using a new name or ask to be referred to with non-sex-based pronouns or use the opposite-sex bathroom. After 15 years of never having a trans-identified kid in my classroom, I’ve had several just in the last couple of years. All were girls and all had serious mental health issues. 
I have a background in psychology. I can read and understand scientific literature. So my opinions on this issue are informed by data, not politics. I am certain that these girls’ mental health issues are the cause of their trans identities, not the effect. The number of trans-identifying kids has exploded. If trans people were simply coming out in greater numbers now because it’s now safer, we’d see kids of both sexes coming out, not mainly girls. And we’d see people of all ages coming out, not mainly teens and pre-teens. Social contagion of psychological symptoms among adolescent girls is a real phenomenon — DID and Tourette’s on TikTok today, bulimia and anorexia in the 80s and 90s, Beatlemania-style fainting in the 1960s, “hysterical” disorders of the early 20th century— all the way back to the supposed possession of the Salem witch trials.

We teachers are hiding important information about kids’ mental health from their parents. That’s wrong. Parents have a right to know. 

Second highest rated, from "Reasonable Person":

I’ve been a teacher for quite a while. Teaching has always been loosely aligned with liberal values, but I never felt like I was part of an explicit political organization until the last few years. The zeal with which school systems have pursued and advocated for left-wing identity politics no longer feels like being “supportive,” it feels like we’re being persuasive: join us, children, as we dismantle the evil systems (systemic racism! the patriarchy! the gender binary!) that your parents have wrought.

It’s frankly a little bit creepy and cultish at times, and it needs to stop.

113 comments:

Cappy said...

Does FERPA even exist? Seriously, does it?

Dave Begley said...

The Trans cult has lost the NYT. It’s toast.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

You're an icky evil Rethuglican if you ..... care about your children and the negative impact of the new Soviet Woke non-binary gender-obsessed sex-obsessed left.

Tom T. said...

One sees this phenomenon from both sides. Look at the commenters here on the right who oppose DeSantis for no other reason than that he has mainstream support. "I'm not going to support someone who McConnell supports," regardless of his actual policies.

Tina Trent said...

The only way to stop it now is the essential way: take over school boards, trustees -- and start charter graduate schools to create new types of traditional teachers.

narciso said...

Its a dangerous and irreversable thing thats a sign it shouldnt be done

MadTownGuy said...

"Second highest rated, from "Reasonable Person":

I’ve been a teacher for quite a while. Teaching has always been loosely aligned with liberal values, but I never felt like I was part of an explicit political organization until the last few years. The zeal with which school systems have pursued and advocated for left-wing identity politics no longer feels like being “supportive,” it feels like we’re being persuasive: join us, children, as we dismantle the evil systems (systemic racism! the patriarchy! the gender binary!) that your parents have wrought.

It’s frankly a little bit creepy and cultish at times, and it needs to stop.
"

Marxism all the way. Destruction of the nuclear family in favor of the collective. It needs to stop, but without reasonable people actually standing up against it, it won't.

hawkeyedjb said...

A great evil, sustained and supported by most of the institutions in our society. It truly is a mass psychosis, one that will have awful effects on children and adults. One of the worst results is the separation of the child from parents, and the substitution of the government's judgement for the family's. The state is not a parent, it is a cold and unloving replacement.

Limited blogger said...

Yes

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Social contagion of psychological symptoms among adolescent girls is a real phenomenon — DID and Tourette’s on TikTok today, bulimia and anorexia in the 80s and 90s, Beatlemania-style fainting in the 1960s, “hysterical” disorders of the early 20th century— all the way back to the supposed possession of the Salem witch trials."

Never forget, hysteria is not real. It is an anti-feminist concept, and therefore a myth. Women do not feed their spite on or emotionally prime each other's pumps for frivolous reasons. Women have fewer insecurities than men, when they're not being perfectly secure that is. The ancient Greek play "The Assemblywomen" is chauvinistic literature, and if women ruled the world their would be peace eternal.

Sensitivity counselors are being dispatched to set any records straight that need straightening.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Props to the Times for reporting some facts and belatedly furthering public knowledge of something that the vast majority of Progressive activists in Big Media have been covering up and denying the existence of. Perhaps it’s a brief break in the relentless gaslighting about the Teachers unions and their extremely radical agenda.

But other democrats like the newly fraudulently elected governor of AZ are busy empowering those same creepy teachers unions and taking away the hard-fought right to choose which school parents can send their children to. No more choice or vouchers for AZ kids. You stay with the pedophile mill and abusive freaks your District dominatrix assigns you to!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

That’s some weak tea Tom T. Try harder.

Enigma said...

I honestly think the psychology of the left closely parallels how the Nazis became Nazis between WW1 and WW2. That was a slow-roll, boiled-frog situation. It'd not have happened if the colonial era was coming to an end and competition was high across Europe, if the Germans didn't have rigid German ideals, and if they were not under enormous strain from paying debts after WW1. It was no accident that they combined nationalism and socialism to form a kind of all-encompassing swing-for-the-fences tyranny.

Updating this for the hard left in the USA and the global Woke -- they must follow green, they must follow "science," they must follow tolerance (to include intolerant Islam and literal child abuse groomers), they must preach Woke values at all times and censor non-Woke speech/thought, they are the establishment so they can't criticize anyone in power who lies, goes bad, or sucks at their job, and they must lay down and die for their ideals. Step by step today's left has painted themselves into a hypocritical, impossible, utopian, swing-for-the-fences ideology. The Woke are the true Neo-Nazis!

The Nazis ended up lashing out against the West, the East, their nonconformists, etc. Today's left seems more suicidal, and having one last party before they either commit slow suicide (no children; gender change) or rapid suicide (no fossil fuels even if it kills billions; start WW3 with nukes in Ukraine).

"But we saved the planet and stopped global warming." We heard that before regarding Vietnam: "We had to destroy the village to save it."

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

"It’s frankly a little bit creepy and cultish at times, and it needs to stop."

No, it needs to keep going, until all the crazies and mentally disturbed people out there self-identify.

If a person is born with boy parts, and for whatever reason is convinced that he's really a girl (or a fish or a tree), that is a delusion, a mental disorder. When these disordered people are identified, they can then get treatment that may help them overcome their disorder.

What needs to stop, right now, is treating this type of mental disorder with mutilating surgery. This is especially true for people less than 26 years old, when the brain completes development.

It may be that there is no effective treatment at present. That does not justify what is being done to them by self-interested members of the psychological and medical communities.

R C Belaire said...

When the lawsuits really kick in, it will be epic! Too bad the taxpayers will be on the hook for the payouts, not teachers or administrators.

tim maguire said...

If this opens a few eyes to the dangers of blind partisanship, then that’s something. But if this woman and those like her refuse to put their votes in play, then their awakening is irrelevant, their concerns will be ignored.

The part about social contagion and the connection to the Salem witch trials is interesting. All my daughter’s friends are some kind of non-binary. My daughter declared herself omnisexual, mostly because she was feeling left out. None of them are dating yet so it’s all theoretical. I don’t care too much; I see it as normal adolescent exploration—kids all rebel, but they all do it in standard, even conformist, ways. In the 60’s, they were hippies, later they were punks, then goth. Today, they’re trans. As with the kids before them, most will do it for a few years and then, when it stops being fun, they’ll set it aside and live normal lives. A very small number will continue into adulthood.

The danger comes from schools that want to deny these children stabilizing forces in their lives and doctors who want to build careers out of mutilating them. A particularly sick form of sex tourism. These people should be arrested.

Mike Sylwester said...

Some children were born with a gender disorder, but the number of such cases is miniscule.

Also, each such case develops gradually through the person's entire childhood. For the most part, the child, his family, his friends, and the school adapt.

The schools do not need to develop universal policies to deal urgently with such cases.

======

Such children will encounter some mockery, bullying and discrimination inevitably throughout their lives. Therefore, such children will have to develop personal resilience.

Maybe they will be able to take hormones. Sometime they might be able to do so already during puberty. That's reasonable when the gender disorder has been blatant and persistent since early childhood -- and when the parents consent.

=====

In most cases, though, the gender disorder is not congenital. Rather, the disorder is psychological and is aggravated by adolescent stresses and obsessions that will be resolved naturally.

Such cases should not be treated by hormones or surgery. Rather, they should be treated by counseling.

Dave Begley said...

Enigma. Great analysis!

RideSpaceMountain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RideSpaceMountain said...

This is the shit that keeps me up at night. Not joking. My two baby boys are only 3-4 years away from beginning their American educational journey and my wife and I are spending a lot of time thinking about what to do. All options are on the table at this point, with public education near the bottom of a long list...and we live in a fantastic school district.

Anyone remember that old line about fatherhood? The one about you're doing a good job if you can keep your sons out of jail and your daughter away from a pole? Well know it's more like keeping your sons from becoming your daughters, your daughters from becoming your sons, and keeping both of them off of onlyfans and facialabuse.com before they turn 16. Fatherhood was always about about juggling sharp objects, but modern fatherhood is like juggling chainsaws and motherfuckers you don't even know like teachers keep throwing fucking chainsaws at you.

It absolutely terrifies my wife and I...that wheedling knowledge that despite all your power and resources and willingness to move heaven and earth for your children to create a safe-haven away from the insanity of the outside world your best efforts might not be enough. That the insanity might win anyway if you decide to stay a part of that world and that only solution may be to leave it. But where do you go? The frontier is closed now?

It keeps me up at night.

rehajm said...

It’s frankly a little bit creepy and cultish at times, and it needs to stop.

Personally, I appreciate the epiphany and encourage more of the same from your coworkers. You don't even have to get in bed with me...

The Drill SGT said...

"Tina Trent said...
and start charter graduate schools to create new types of traditional teachers."

Eliminate the gateway of teaching credentials. Use a community based cert board that valued life experiences.

My best HS teacher was in honors English and he was a retired Marine LTC

Carol said...

These girls are trying to change their sex to escape violent porn-addled males. They know what's expected of them now and they don't want to play.

But becoming the enemy is not going to protect them.

That one of these short, anime-inspired fakemen would have the guts to enter the boys room at school is terrifying. They do not fool anyone and they do not have the strength to protect themselves.

Especially given the chaos at certain schools..

Original Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
holdfast said...

The authoress doesn’t need to watch Tucker Carlson, she should just read Abigail Shrier. Or maybe Matt Walsh if she’s feeling particularly rebellious.

Original Mike said...

If this opens a few eyes to the dangers of blind partisanship, then that’s something. But if this woman and those like her refuse to put their votes in play, then their awakening is irrelevant, their concerns will be ignored."

Yeah. This "very liberal Democrat" voted for this shit, and something tells me she'll never see her way clear to voting for an icky conservative. You made your bed, lady, now lie in it.

Mike Sylwester said...


I attended Luther parochial schools in a Nebraska town through my sophomore year of high school.

In my elementary school, I remember one boy, not in my own class, who was obviously effeminate. The school boys called him a "sissy" among ourselves, but I never saw anyone call him a "sissy" to his face in an insulting manner.

During my freshman and sophomore years of high school (about 30 students in each class), I did not think any boys were effeminate. In later years, I learned that one male classmate was homosexual, and I suspect (do not know for sure) that a second was homosexual.

(I do not know about any female classmates turning out to be homosexual.)

Although we were taught that the Bible indicated that homosexuality was sinful, I don't remember any sermons or significant discussions about that topic. In general, this topic had practically no application in the lives of the normal students.

======

After my high-school sophomore year, my family moved to Oregon, where I attended a public school that was much larger.

I remember one female classmate who was obviously a dyke lesbian. Otherwise, I do not remember any schoolmates who seemed to me to be homosexual. I'm sure there were many, but I did not perceive it.

Christopher B said...

"It’s politically weird to be a very liberal Democrat and find yourself shoved in bed with, like, the governor of Texas. Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson?"

Gee, maybe there's more ways to organize your life than around your politics?

Jupiter said...

"Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson?".

You could do worse, Lady. In fact, you are doing worse.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

@ Tom...
One sees this phenomenon from both sides. Look at the commenters here on the right who oppose DeSantis for no other reason than that he has mainstream support. "I'm not going to support someone who McConnell supports," regardless of his actual policies.

Ever old-man Trumpers play right into the left's hands. So easy.

Narr said...

"Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson?"

Maybe you should, honey. Him and others, and quit worrying about the wrong things.

One of my oldest friends became a school teacher and principal in one of the poorest counties in Tennessee, where his wife (also a teacher) was from.

We were visiting them in the mid-90s when our sons were ten or so, and our friends began talking about the poverty and backwardness of many of the students, and how many girls got pregnant.

They said that if a promising girl student came to them with a request to help her get an abortion unbeknownst to her parents, they would do that.

Leaving aside the morality of abortion per se, I was surprised at the ease and conviction
with which they spoke about it, and was reminded that a lot of teachers are assholes who should be watched carefully.

My friend got smart a few years later and got a DoD teaching job in Germany, where none of the old crowd ever visited them.

Michael K said...

taking away the hard-fought right to choose which school parents can send their children to. No more choice or vouchers for AZ kids. You stay with the pedophile mill and abusive freaks your District dominatrix assigns you to!

I know Hobbs would like to do this but the school choice law was passed and signed. The teachers' union tried to get a ballot initiative to reverse the law but it was ruled unconstitutional before the election.

Soros' creatures in AZ began with the sheriff that defeated Joe Arpaio. A lot will depend on 2024 and whether the AZ GOP gets over its TDS.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The make "socially transition" sound like you are deleting you Instagram in favor of TikTok.

Blastfax Kudos said...

Ridespacemountain said "The ancient Greek play "The Assemblywomen" is chauvinistic literature, and if women ruled the world their would be peace eternal."

Nice reference. I read that in college. This is far older than the current hysteria. Women have always been This way.

pacwest said...

Although anonymous concern isn't going to fix the problem I found it encouraging to see that it exists.

Rocketeer said...

“These girls are trying to change their sex to escape violent porn-addled males.”

It wasn’t the right that mainstreamed porn.

And it’s not the right encouraging and enabling this mental disorder and its associated body mutilation.

MikeR said...

"It’s politically weird to be a very liberal Democrat and find yourself shoved in bed with, like, the governor of Texas. Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson?"
Gosh, should I break with out-of-touch-with reality-lunatics who are messing with my kids' mental health - or should I keep fighting for whichever cause was so important to me last week?
Tough one.

Leland said...

It's politically weird to call yourself a liberal yet think a government employee, which is what a teacher is unless your child is in private school, knows best how you or any of your family members should live their lives. Do you feel liberty when your told what to do by your government?

Lurker21 said...

There's a continuum or spectrum that runs from a girl saying "I don't like girly things," or "I'm a tomboy" to "I feel like a boy" to "I wish I were a boy" to "I am a boy" to "I want to be a boy" to "I'm going to make myself a boy" and "I was a boy all along." The trans movement wants to collapse those various states of mind into the last and most radical one.

The development of technology and the social movement have outpaced language and psychology. It might help if we could still talk about souls, instead of assuming that feelings and thoughts have to be turned into physical realities. You aren't a boy in a girl's body, but your soul may have masculine aspects along with feminine ones. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Is changing your genitalia really a solution for that condition? Perhaps you would have a more authentic and productive life reconciling the two sides of your soul or psyche rather than looking to surgery for an answer.

Trans and nonbinary aren't exactly the same or even necessarily allied, anymore than trans and gay are, because trans means submitting to the binary male-female distinction, rather than getting away from it. But is trans really insanity or a mental disorder? Or is it an application of technology and consumer choice to things that used to be regarded as settled realities? We are bound to see a lot more unnatural transformations -- human-machine or human-animal hybrids -- as the technology advances.

gadfly said...

Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson? As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, even I won't listen to really weird Tucker and his lies.

If he gets anything right, such as two genders, his coin just happened to land heads up.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm trying to think how this new dynamic between kids, parents and teachers play out as the earlier enshittification of media platform post. Who's using a "heating tool"?

I can't help seeing cells interlinked everywhere.

Biden finding new batches of documents - Content Provider In-Chief.

boatbuilder said...

I didn't listen to Glenn Greenwald, because I thought he was an anti-American lefty.

Turns out he was saying lots of things that needed to be said.

I listen to him now (or read his stuff). Because he tells it honestly.

Yes, you should listen to Tucker Carlson, the guy who told you that this was what they are doing to your kids. Maybe you will learn something.

Why do you keep listening to the sources who lie to you?

boatbuilder said...

Gadfly: "Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson? As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, even I won't listen to really weird Tucker and his lies."


Ahahahahah! Really? C'mon.

Owen said...

Amen to many commenters, e.g. Mike Sylwester, RideSpaceMountain, Enigma. And especially tim maguire @ 10:48: “… The danger comes from schools that want to deny these children stabilizing forces in their lives and doctors who want to build careers out of mutilating them. A particularly sick form of sex tourism. These people should be arrested.”

Could not agree more. These people need to be arrested —and prosecuted, convicted, imprisoned, skinned of every last nickel they ever had, sent into exile and forced to wear a huge scarlet “P” for “pervert.” Branding or tattooing would be good.l, because its permanence would approach the irreversible status of the mutilation they endorse or perform.

If the foregoing ever does occur, they will be lucky. Because it may reduce, if only slightly, their chances of being butchered outright by furious parents or, no less likely, the kids whom they have beguiled and betrayed.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

gadfly - best to stick with CNN and MSNBC. Good boy.

Drago said...

The Hopeless gadfly: " As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative,......"

LOL x infinity = alot of LOL's

Joe Smith said...

'It’s frankly a little bit creepy and cultish at times, and it needs to stop.'

Been saying this since forever; it's a fucking cult.

Teachers should be prosecuted and school districts should be sued into bankruptcy...

Drago said...

@ Tom...
One sees this phenomenon from both sides. Look at the commenters here on the right who oppose DeSantis for no other reason than that he has mainstream support. "I'm not going to support someone who McConnell supports," regardless of his actual policies.

HBTPFH: "Ever old-man Trumpers play right into the left's hands. So easy."

Every Ever-McConnell makes these hilariously false assertions.

DeSantis' problem is that he is being 95% supported by those who adamantly OPPOSED every Trump foreign/economic/immigration policy. But only every single one.

Will Desantis aggressively take on the ChiCom's in economic policy/economic warfare?
Will DeSantis aggressively move to reform the Deep Stater's and rein in the corrupted federal law enforcement and Intelligence corruptocrats?
Will DeSantis finish the wall?
Will DeSantis stand up to the Chamber of Commerce crew? (someone better tell Ken Griffen STAT!)
Will DeSantis hold NATO partners accountable and call them out for their leeching off the US for decades?
Will DeSantis stand up to the MIC and refuse to push for continuing the Forever Grifter Wars?

The answer thus far is....no. The "insider" "gouge" (insider info) is that DeSantis is doubling down on the culture war issues to provide cover for what he won't be doing in those other areas.

Anyone remember what DeSantis said about the raid on Mar a Lago? Probably not as he had nothing much to say about it all as he was huddled up with the DC insider crew (that now comprises his campaign team with the notable exception of Christina Pushaw...though she is only on the comms side, not the policy side)

In any event, we'll know soon enough.

What is really ludicrous are the idiots who keep insisting the democraticals "fear" DeSantis more than Trump when ALL facts and actual actions taken point in the exact opposite direction. You can disagree with that and say the democraticals have it wrong, but that's the argument to make. Not the make believe "argument" that the dems prefer Trump.

They view Trump as an existential threat to them. They do NOT see DeSantis that way.

Now ask yourself why that is.

Not you HBTPFH. That's quite beyond you.

Blastfax Kudos said...

It's very interesting how a certain segment of the commentary here or the woman in the NYT immediately focuses on Tucker Carlson. Anyone notice that? Is Carlson Freddie Kruger? What is with their obsession with fox News? Not even a lot of conservatives watch fox anymore and it's left-wing for many conservatives now. It's uncanny that Tucker is the first thing they latch onto, in 5 seconds flat, on any subject, and they've probably never heard the man for more than 10 seconds, they just use his name to signal in-group affiliation.

Drago said...

boatbuilder (to the Hopeless gadfly): "Why do you keep listening to the sources who lie to you?"

Because he is on the far left, masquerading, though quite poorly, as a "conservative".

gadfly is the first Adam Schiffty-"conservative" in history. I probably shouldn't say that as not even Adam Schiff has tried to make some of the moronic leftist arguments gadfly has made.

All in all, gadfly is to the left of Adam Schiff....but very "conservatively conserving conservatism" left of Adam Schiff.

Beaneater said...

That's terrible.

Much less terrible, but still disconcerting, is the increasing frequency with which I'm seeing and hearing the word "villainize". I'm a linguist, so I know that there is never any end to languages evolving and creating new words and expressions. But I'm also a fuddy-duddy who thinks that the word "vilify" already exists and is fit for purpose.

Gusty Winds said...

As long as frothing liberals are in charge of America’s education establishment, our future is screwed. So are the kids.

Education is dominated by liberal women. What’s with the hatred of the family? Sexualizing children. Pushing their politics. Wanting mRNA mandates? Blow job books in the library.

It like the female version of abusive priests.

Rockport Conservative said...

It is sad to see people so astonished that the teachers are promoting this. As an elderly person I realize, and maybe some of you youngsters in your 60's do, this has been going on long enough for these teachers to have been brainwashed by their teacher's who were brainwashed. They really believe what they are teaching, they do not see it as a political symptom, they think it is real and they are helping those kids. And they think we who object have been brainwashed by the right. Heaven help us, and please help these abused kids.

gilbar said...

educators who seemed to think that they — not the parents — knew what was best for their children..

According to mainstream 'wisdom'.. They DO!! They Do Know What's Best! They had a class in it!

Gusty Winds said...

Imagine having your career and pension connected to all this bullshit. You have to go along with harming children for your own self preservation. If you speak up the liberal feminists will fire you and get you kicked out of the Union.

Probably unfixable at this point.

n.n said...

the new Soviet Woke non-binary gender-obsessed sex-obsessed left

Soviet? Perhaps. Nazis, certainly. Mengele, eat your heart out.

Its a dangerous and irreversable thing thats a sign it shouldnt be done

Progressive process. #PrinciplesMatter

Marxism all the way.

A class-disordered religion where a mortal god dictates a behavior protocol... Take a knee, beg, here are your bennies.

Social contagion of psychological symptoms among adolescent girls is a real phenomenon

Puberty. That said, civilized society has compelling cause to discourage the performance of human rites and dysfunctional progress for social, redistributive, clinical, political, criminal, and fair weather causes.

Richard Aubrey said...

Getting teenagers, especially the younger ones, and possibly most especially the girls, to BELIEVE in something is pretty easy. See the Slenderman stabbings. Murder your friend and you'll be an acolyte of Slenderman. So they tried. Fortunately, the cumulative effect of nineteen wounds didn't kill their friend.

The idea that this is all about "allowing" is happy horsehockey. And everybody knows it.

n.n said...

“These girls are trying to change their sex to escape violent porn-addled males.”

Mutagenic treatments? Gender attributes (e.g. sexual orientation) can be simulated, stimulated, but corruption of healthy minds and bodies have been scientifically established to increase dysfunctional perception and self-abortive intent.

robother said...

The problem with Libertarianism: when the Left embraced the anti-family (feminist or environmentalist) position in the early 70s, I shrugged and said, "no skin off my nose, its a free country, etc." Now, 50 years later it is clear that all these Leftists do want kids after all: your kids. The teacher who said "I'm your parent" to the troubled trans kids who don't want their parents to know makes it explicit.

Jamie said...

There's a continuum or spectrum that runs from

... girl to boy, in short form.

Not a continuum, per se, in that it's not an even distribution of kids along a number line. It appears the data support the idea of a strongly bimodal distribution. Strongly.

But we're being trained, groomed you might say, to think of "gender" as a "continuum" by dint of getting us to re-embrace sex stereotypes, so that as soon as a boy doesn't conform to the, what, Chris Evans school or masculinity, he's actually a girl trapped in a boy's body - or, as we've all heard is much much more common, a girl doesn't conform to the, I don't know, Zendaya school of femininity? In which she is slight, delicate, and very beautiful but supposedly can absolutely kick any man's ass?, She must actually be a boy trapped in a girl's body. All of which strengthens the bimodality even further, but artificially. What a crazy world progressives live in.

Original Mike said...

Blogger gadfly said..."If he gets anything right, such as two genders, his coin just happened to land heads up."

And securing our border, right gadfly? Because as a dyed-in-the-wool conservative you agree with Tucker that a country with open borders is not really a country. Right?

Sebastian said...

"hiding important information about kids’ mental health from their parents"

Important information about girls' mental health, as that comment itself indicates. What could it be? Are we even allowed to inquire? Is transdom an exercise of girlish agency? Or the opposite? Is it sexist to call out the trans craze as a girl thing?

I know, I know, it's not only a girl thing--see "Lia" Thomas. But still.

Mikey NTH said...

Messing with kids turns out to be the universal red line in American society uniting parents.

Václav Patrik Šulik said...

From Steven Hassan’s BITE Model of Authoritarian Control (which I got to from Oprah), in part:

Behavior Control
Regulate individual’s physical reality
Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates
When, how and with whom the member has sex
Control types of clothing and hairstyles...
Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet
Permission required for major decisions
Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative
Discourage individualism, encourage group-think
Impose rigid rules and regulations
...

Information Control
-Deception:
a. Deliberately withhold information
b. Distort information to make it more acceptable
c. Systematically lie to the cult member
-Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:
a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, media
b. Critical information
c. Former members...
-Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines
a. Ensure that information is not freely accessible
b. Control information at different levels and missions within group
c. Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when
-Encourage spying on other members
a. Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member
b. Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership
c. Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by group
-Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:
a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies and other media
b. Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources
...

Thought Control
-Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth
a. Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality
b. Instill black and white thinking
c. Decide between good vs. evil
d. Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)
Change person’s name and identity
Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words
Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts...
-Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:
a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
b. Chanting
...
Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism
Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed
Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful
Instill new “map of reality”

Emotional Control
Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish...
Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault
-Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as:
a. Identity guilt
b. You are not living up to your potential
c. Your family is deficient
d. Your past is suspect
e. Your affiliations are unwise
f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish
g. Social guilt
f. Historical guilt
-Instill fear, such as fear of:
a. Thinking independently
b. The outside world...
e. Leaving or being shunned by the group
f. Other’s disapproval...
Extremes of emotional highs and lows...
Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins
-Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority
a. No happiness or fulfillment possible outside of the group
b. Terrible consequences if you leave...
c. Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends and family
d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined...

-30-

Jim at said...

One sees this phenomenon from both sides. - TT

You're comparing support or nonsupport of a political candidate to choosing sides in a culture war where kids are mutilating their bodies at the behest of their thug teachers? Against their parents' wishes and without their knowledge?

Get some perspective, dude.

Václav Patrik Šulik said...

Joe Smith said... "Teachers should be prosecuted and school districts should be sued into bankruptcy..."

When the Supremes eliminate qualified immunity, it's Katie bar the door. I'm very supportive of teachers, but this group is truly a cult disguised as a profession.

It's time to move from a singular educational establishment to a voucher system. Very few parents would choose to send their kids to the Jim Jones Memorial Elementary School.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

If you had told liberals 15 years ago that this would happen, they would have mocked you.

You gotta draw the line somewhere. You can disagree about where, but you need a line.

n.n said...

Girls are the most aborted in a sex-positive, one-child, selective-child conservative culture. You've come along way, baby.

walter said...

"Carol said...
These girls are trying to change their sex to escape violent porn-addled males. They know what's expected of them now and they don't want to play."
--
That's an impressive theory....

Michael K said...

Blogger gadfly said...

Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson? As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, even I won't listen to really weird Tucker and his lies.

If he gets anything right, such as two genders, his coin just happened to land heads up.


No, by all means don't listen. Doing so might shake some of your left wing certainties. As far as being conservative, I would call you "a lied in the wool...."

n.n said...

Messing with kids turns out to be the universal red line in American society uniting parents.

The age of majority is not a suggestion. Even then, mom and dad are known to be semi-sweet clingers.

Quaestor said...

"Am I supposed to listen to Tucker Carlson?"

The core aspect of the "very liberal Democrat" (i.e. fascist) mentality inadvertently exposed, namely submission to authority -- not necessarily the law, perceived authority. In Nazi Germany, they called this Führerprinzip.

n.n said...

Messing with kids turns out to be the universal red line in American society uniting parents.

Not just American society. The Chinese go to great lengths to mitigate the progress of State's Choice, DiversityInequityExclusion (DIE) doctrine (e.g. racism, sexism), and redistributive change schemes that have net-zero effect in the not so short-term, and sustained effects in long to generational periods.

JPS said...

Been awhile since both the top-rated and second-rated comments shared by our host struck me as thoughtful and sound.

Mike Sylwester, I really liked your thoughts at 10:51.

Butkus51 said...

But Orange man bad Trumps all.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The ones feeling “weird” have not yet given in to politics-as-religion.

Gahrie said...

“These girls are trying to change their sex to escape violent porn-addled males.”

As a high school teacher I can tell you that the girls are watching porn too.

That said, I agree with the underlying point that hard core porn is far too easily and freely available.

gspencer said...

"Am I suppose to listen to Tucker Carlson?"

Well, you'd come away better informed, particularly on the way that your Democrat Party is intentionally destroying America by totally discarding the idea of limits, starting with constitutional limits.

bobby said...

This is what we get when we replace a patriarchy with a matriarchy.

Education Realist said...

It's so weird. Don't any of you read? Most of you are hyperventilating about the schools, even though the article clearly states three times that this is a matter of state and federal law. For example, the parents who were told by the teacher sued the school and their lawsuit was dismissed. The teacher was fired for NOT OBEYING STATE LAW.

Transgender activists were able to make this a matter of student privacy, long before anyone noticed. The way to fix it is to change the law and make it about parental rights.

But most of you commenters are so damn dumb--and misled--as to think this has something to do with schools and ideology. That's idiotic. Schools fear violating FERPA above all, and this is FERPA. And it won't fucking matter if it's private, charter, or homeschooling if you don't change the law.

It's a simple change: mandate notification if a kid announces he or she has identify issues. If the school legitimately believes the kid is in danger, they have to notifice Child Protective Services instead.

This will not only eliminate the secrecy problem, it will also lead to schools ending all the gender lesson bullshit going on in elementary and middle schools. Why? Becuase the lessons lead to some kids deciding they are transgender, and requiring mandatory nofication. Schools will do anything to avoid that.

But no, y'all know so little about public schools and how completely this is baked into STATE AND FEDERAL laws that you all are whining about how homeschooling will fix this. Absurd.

effinayright said...

@ Drago:

Why do you think a GOVERNOR should be tackling all those national and international issues over whiich he has no POWER to affect?

Saint Croix said...

It's uncanny that Tucker is the first thing they latch onto, in 5 seconds flat, on any subject, and they've probably never heard the man for more than 10 seconds, they just use his name to signal in-group affiliation.

If Joe Biden decided to invade Iraq, and Donald Trump said, "Hey, we shouldn't invade Iraq," how many people on the left would follow Joe Biden?

"We need to save Iraq!"

And how many Democrats would remember they are anti-war, and would be honest enough to say, "Donald Trump is right on this."

If you can never change your mind, your position, your vote, or your party, then honestly I don't think you have much of a mind. Or, at least, you're not using your mind to discern what is the right thing to do. You're just mindlessly following the guy in the blue shirt.

ALP said...

Nuance just goes right over people's heads these days, doesn't it? Look at the quote Ann pulled out as the title of her post. The person quoted simply can't believe there could ever be ANY overlap between two sides. So very - religious. Heaven is heaven, hell is hell - never any overlap. Ever.

Lurker21 said...

I used the word "continuum" in reference to young people grappling with gender problems, not to the entire population. I was referring to the way that girls with doubts and difficulties are being enticed through the various stages of uncertainty to a definite conclusion that they wouldn't have reached in earlier times. Maybe "progression" might have been a better word, but that could imply that motion through the stages is inevitable or desirable.

I wasn't saying that gender is itself a continuum with different genders in between masculine and feminine, but rather that many people do combine in varying degrees "masculine" and "feminine" characteristics, traits, and attitudes and that one can learn to live with that and build on that, rather than feel compelled to fit a stereotype or alter oneself surgically.

Saying that there are boys and girls and that each fits a certain pattern and that's it, isn't going to do much to dissuade girls from thinking themselves transgender. It may even encourage them.

Readering said...

A tipping point coming when legislatures are going to vote letting parents have the money to put into whatever school they want. So far from when I started parochial school under JFK, who was actually feared to be taking instruction from the Vatican or US Conference of Bishops.

Robert Marshall said...

Kids this unstable, flitting from one gender-expression to another, beset with multiple mental disorders, prone to suicidal ideation, and yet somehow the lefty school authorities think it's a great idea for THEM to assume the secret responsibility for the mental health care of these snowflakes; that's what they want to do?

The first time one of these double-secret high-school or middle-school trannies commits suicide, for real, that school district is going to be in some deep doo-doo, for concealing the situation from the parents.

Or, the next time one of them de-transitions, and starts looking around for defendants with deep pockets, it won't just be their pediatricians who dispensed the drugs, it'll include the school authorities who acted in loco parentis, when they didn't need to because the parents were around to fulfill their natural role.

They (the schools) are playing with fire. I expect (and hope) they will get burnt.

Martin said...

Any budding lawyers should consider the personal injury plaintiff's bar. Between people forced to take the COVID shots who suffered crippling or fatal reactions, and teens whose bodies are being ruined by gender "transitioning," it will be a very lucrative field in a few years, with more cases than attorneys to handle them.

Big Mike said...

It’s politically weird to be a very liberal Democrat and find yourself shoved in bed with, like, the governor of Texas.

What’s weird is that there seems to be no way for ordinary liberal Democrats to send a WTF message up the line other than declining to vote or even voting for a Republican. You’d think the Democrats would have learned from Loudoun County, Virginia, in 2021. Perhaps the political failures of McCarthy and Emmer, McConnell, McDaniel, and Trump in 2022 gave them amnesia about 2021.

I know this — screwing with people’s teenaged children is a risky political move.

Josephbleau said...

“But most of you commenters are so damn dumb--and misled--as to think this has something to do with schools and ideology.”

Mr.ER, thanks for your comment, I read your blog periodically and enjoy it. You may be right, but moral panics are a regular part of human psychology, and this school activity appears to be an example. Saying “ Now I am your mom”. Seems to go a bit further than a school demonstrating compliance with law.

If it is the law to require renaming and restroom assignments for kids who say they are a different sex, then why hide it from the parents? Just tell the parents that what they are doing with their kids is illegal and tell them you are going to transition their kids against their will as a matter of law. That is the honest path.

The things we hear about parents reported as terrorists or authorities lying about school rape don’t sound like trying to obey the law. I just read the paper so perhaps that did not really happen.

It sounds to me that there is some support at the teacher level for advancing this and CRT, although it is said CRT does not really exist. You are more expert, perhaps the teachers feel threatened by government inspectors and are wanting to be the students mom and such to stay out of trouble.

Josephbleau said...

I live in Chicago, and I read that a good number of teachers are having sex with students. I wish that those teachers were as scrupulous about obeying the statutory rape law as they are about the mandatory transitioning laws. I am sure that these are bad apples, but it happens.

Another question is, what triggers the mandatory transitioning law, the word of a teacher? An affidavit from the kid? Or a psychiatric evaluation? There must be a legal definition regarding how the school must precede in mandatory transitioning in the applicable law or the teachers will not know who they must legally transition.

n.n said...

authorities think it's a great idea for THEM to assume the secret responsibility for the mental health care

A handmade tale of school shootings, scalping, DIE, etc.

n.n said...

This calls for a return to celebration of womanhood, girlhood, and recognizing the differences attributable to sex, sex-correlated gender, and the limits of social imperatives. For men, and boys, too.

Drago said...

effinayright: "@ Drago:

Why do you think a GOVERNOR should be tackling all those national and international issues over whiich he has no POWER to affect?"

Perhaps you haven't been paying attention.

DeSantis has already put together a national campaign staff that is your typical DC types and has been fully engaged in a national fundraising campaign seeking support from all the major donors that opposed EVERY Trump policy in the areas I mentioned.

I apologize if my noticing that upsets some.

But as I stated above, we will find out for sure in due time but the question that is asked every single day remains unanswered by the early DeSantis backers:

How is DeSantis going to "deliver Trump policies without the Trump drama" when DeSantis' national campaign staff are DC insiders and DeSantis' major funders hated the Trump policies?

Is DeSantis really going to pocket $2 Billion from these dudes and then tell them "sorry, I've decided to go another way"?

Sorry amigos, I dont see that happening.

But hey, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush and Mitch McConnell all think DeSantis is swell, so I'm sure we can trust them, right?

FYI: I will be quite pleased to be proved wrong...I just dont think I am.

ken in tx said...

Tucker Carlson is the new conservative boogerman because Rush Limbaugh is dead. Too bad Tucker doesn't have Rush's sense of humor. Even Gutfeld doesn't come close. So far, no real replacement for Rush.

Aggie said...

You don't have to change your politics to be a parent - to be a parent, you just have to protect your kids from the deranged perverts that want to target them, to groom them into early sexual activity or indoctrinate them to extremest views. Right now, it happens that the public school systems seem to be the institution that is supportive of those ideas and these people. You can change your politics if you want, and even watch Tucker Carlson if you want - but that doesn't have a thing to do with being a parent and protecting your kid. It would be better if this was a more obvious and commonly-held understanding.

Marcus Bressler said...

Of course girls and young women these days watch or have been exposed to hardcore porn. How else to explain their desire to be choked, gagged by the male appendage, submissive, willing to be verbally and physically degraded, all while calling their sex partner(s) "Daddy"?

Maybe some of them were groomed by their male friends they hook up with. The amount of young women in porn, amateur and OnlyFans type is astounding.

And sad.

MarcusB. THEOLDMAN

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Hey miseducated realist, we already HAVE made it about parental rights and that is what is turning the tide. Now you should do some reading and figure out that widespread involvement of CPS that side with schools and the mentally ill children and cut off parental rights is the problem right now. School boards are fixing a lot of this and it happens damned quickly. Sunlight makes these cockroaches run.

walter said...

Drago,
You might be more persuasive with a link or two backing up your statements.

walter said...

Ken,
Give Rob Carson a try

Jamie said...

If the school legitimately believes the kid is in danger, they have to notifice Child Protective Services instead [of the parents].

Bold type is mine.

These two bolded points are like the "health of the woman" clause in abortion law: a way for schools to do what they - or their most radical elements, if you will - want to do.

Education Realist, I think the thing is that many of us here, while we recognize that taking over a majority of a school board will still do the job in many cases, are commenting not just on what schools (or, as I said, their most radical elements, if you will) seem to be doing in increasing numbers of cases, but on what two generations of Ed degree bastardization has done to the educational system generally. We're at the point where, yes, if we can take over our local school board we can still win this battle at this school - but the war is being fought not just with those most radical elements in education but with a second generation of students of those most radical elements - some of them now active and influential in local politics and beyond - who believe to their bones that to deny a teen the "right" to transition socially without informing their parents is a form of child abuse.

BillieBob Thorton said...

"I teach at a middle school in Bergen County, NJ."

The policy she is talking about comes from the state board of ed which is controlled by the NJEA the most powerful lobbying group in NJ. They in turn control Murphy and the rest of the democrats in the state.
The way to defeat this is to elect a board of ed that will stand up to the unions and administrators. This is no small feat as the state controls funding for the schools and failing to comply to state policy can result in the loss of that money. I our small community we elected all new members to the board of ed and they are pushing back against the administration and the state policy. There is also a small but vocal group in town that are all in on the trans thing.

rasqual said...

Not sure why we're not seeing a zillion lawsuits yet.

That amazes me as much as the insanity itself.

And we're gonna need public truth and reconciliation on this. One doesn't let these people continue as education leaders as if they can be trusted, without a lot of penance.

Birches said...

@RideSpaceMountain

And others who also fear the future with their kids. The best thing you can do is limit screen time and don't give your kids smartphones. My kids don't watch YouTube for fun. Our kids get a monitored smart phone in 8th grade. We spend a lot of time together, only one TV in the house, one computer in a common area. Our values are more prevalent than what they get with their friends or online. We also attend a no tech traditional charter school so we don't need to deprogram our kids from school. If we didn't have the school, I would homeschool. School takes most of a child's day. If it isn't a reflection of your values, then it will be hard to make sure you have enough time to instill yours.

Auntie Ann said...

Trans and eating disorders often walk hand in hand. What's one of the first things to happen when a young woman restricts calorie intake? They lose their period. What's one of the first things to happen when a young woman goes on male hormones? They lose their period. I highly doubt that's a coincidence. Adjusting to an adult woman's body can be traumatic and, for some girls, literally painful. Eating disorders and deciding you're trans (or both) gives young woman a way out. By affirming their trans identity, therapists and physicians are often avoiding the real underlying problem.

Drago said...

walter: "Drago,
You might be more persuasive with a link or two backing up your statements."

Have provided them multiple times in the past. No one reads them. That's why I simply say we'll see soon enough.

It's also why the same simple, straightforward question that is asked every single day never gets answered.

I suspect with the campaign launch of Ron DeSantis' book in the fall of this year we'll see more precisely the form of what RD's campaign themes will be, and I'd wager right now that the specific area's I noted above will remain vague and noncommittal.

That will be the tell.

If you want to read something interesting, look up Politico's interview of Ken Griffen regarding his support for Ron DeSantis and then also ask yourself why the McConnellite Doug Ducey of AZ, head of the Republican Gov's Association, stiffed so many Republican gov candidates, particularly in PA, but still shoved $17+ Million at Ron DeSantis in his going-to-win-walking-away campaign....after DeSantis had already raised $200+M from the biggest donors.

DeSantis still has $150+M on hand because of course he does.

RMc said...

They said that if a promising girl student came to them with a request to help her get an abortion unbeknownst to her parents, they would do that.

Gee, what if the girl is unpromising? "Sorry, Betty Lou, you can't have an abortion cuz yer dumb as a bag of hammers."

walter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Education Realist said...

"These two bolded points are like the "health of the woman" clause in abortion law: a way for schools to do what they - or their most radical elements, if you will - want to do."

If CPS agrees that the kid is in danger, it's not the school you need to worry about. More likely, CPS will not agree that the kid is in danger, so the teacher will change behavior.

Once again, though, it's not the schools. If the fear is that CPS will agree with the teacher, then the teacher isn't your problem.

Education Realist said...

"Not sure why we're not seeing a zillion lawsuits yet."

The one mentioned got thrown out of court.

Once again, you all are focusing on the wrong problem. Change the laws, don't whine about schools.

" while we recognize that taking over a majority of a school board will still do the job in many cases, "

No, taking over the school board won't help in the slightest. Did you even read what I said? The whole problem is you silly people think the school boards are the problem even though the article clearly states the schools are following STATE AND FEDERAL LAW. You are, in fact, exactly the dupe I'm discussing. You don't understand the problem or the source, and in blaming schools you are wasting energy and time.

Education Realist said...

"Saying “ Now I am your mom”. Seems to go a bit further than a school demonstrating compliance with law."

I'm not denying that activists exist. I am saying that right now, it's the activists who are following the law. Becausee they wrote the law while you wern't paying attention.

Narr said...

RMc@1118AM--

I don't recall asking, but that might well have been their answer if I had.

They both ended up with the DoD schools; as they pointed out, they were teaching mostly the HQ kids--a world away from small-town middle TN and generations of backwardness.

Lawrence Person said...

"On the one hand, my liberal friends will sneer at me for not supporting #SocialJustice.

"On the other hand, Republicans don't want to secretly cut off my son's penis.

"How am I supposed to choose????"

steve w said...

Hard as it is, stop your children from using social media. None of it until they are old enough to handle the mind and soul sapping onslought that constant immersion in this cess pool entails.