A few warnings to conservatives and the transgender lobby

 Since both conservatives and the LGBT lobby (really just the T the first three letters are an afterthought, more on that below) have some really idiot assumptions about each other, I want to thump noses on both sides and clear the air since I've had feet in both camps to hear their side of the story and have both things I concur on and disagree with myself.

Regardless, I have striven to keep my personal takes to myself and this post will simply be about objective facts. I warn both sides, I will certainly offend you, and if the mere thought of having your world view challenged, criticized, or denounced bothers you, then leave now, you will reject what I have to say out of hand, call me a bigot or a shill for deviance, and your mind is made up.

If you are still here, let me clear the air on a few things.

1. Conservatives: You have the right idea what to oppose, but some of your strategies are totally backward.

Conservatives, I really need to level with you, some of your backlash to the transgender lobby is very stupid. I do believe their movement does ask a lot of unreasonable things of society, agree children should not be exposed to their ideology or sexually explicit topics in general until they reach the age of majority, and I do believe, on biological grounds, your argument makes a lot of sense.

Regardless, some dos and don't for going forward.

A. BOYCOTTS WORK. 

Back when the American colonies were mad at the British over imposing taxes on imported goods, they decided to make the British suffer by refusing to import and thus killing not only their tax revenue but the profit from trade.

It worked beautifully and they were forced to capitulate badly as their merchants and wholesalers (today's corporations) went broke because people told them no to buying their crap because they did not want to subsidize their deviance (taxes then).

What happened to Bud Light should be the model. Do that to every corporation you hate for supporting a movement you oppose. It's a completely legal and quite effective way to force them to make a bitter choice: profits or promoting ideology.

As crude and insensitive as this statement is, someone once said, and I concur "You can stay retarded longer than they can stay solvent"

The best part about boycotts is they are completely legal. No one can force you to buy something, and frankly, the power of the purse is going to be one of the best ways to force corporations who back the alphabet agenda to decide if they want to be rich with the majority or poor for the minority. This will also have a knock-on effect politically, as it will show politicians' majority support your position.

B. BANNING BOOKS IS STUPID

I don't have a problem with keeping kids from seeing drag shows. That's sensible, as drag, despite all the apologists who want to excuse it, is inherently a sexual act. It's a farce of sexuality done for comedy in a sexual way, only a liar would dare claim otherwise.

Where you've gone full moron is trying to ban books from libraries. This is just stupid and treading into being unconstitutional.

Freedom of thought is one of the most vital things you can give a child, it helps them become adults who can make their own decisions by carefully weighing evidence with all viewpoints considered. Trying to shield them from things you consider undesirable is not only denying them freedom of intellectual endeavor, you are fighting a losing battle. We live in a world where information is everywhere, and you are fighting a tidal wave with a post office blotter.

Yes, you should have every say in making sure schools are not trying to indoctrinate your children, I concur, you should have parental rights to tell schools they are not to turn your children against you, you are parents for a reason. That said, the mere presence of an objectionable book in a library, school, or public, is not a reason alone to try to ban it. I went to school in the Deep South and my school library had all sorts of books, from Stephen King to biographies, to instructional manuals on botany to the Qu'ran. And that's good. By all means, instruct your kids what you prefer them to learn in a moral sense, but don't be stupid enough to pretend you can make sure they never see the material you object to. They will find a way to get it, and if you make it a forbidden fruit, you just give the other side a wedge to tempt them further and politically accuse you of violating freedom of expression.

So stop that, leave the libraries alone, so long as the choice of what to read is not forced on your child. Step in then, not before.

Caveat: I do, however, believe while a high school or college library wouldn't be inappropriate for learning about they gay lifestyle, STDs, or other mature sexual topics, it has no place in something like any elementary school, where children are not even at the stage of their lives where puberty is a concern. In that sense, restricting books is sensible protection for children. On a related note, school reading lists should have the general consensus of educators and parents. Having a fifth grader be assigned to read the works of Charles Dickens is unarguably good, as that is the work of a writer whose prose is a good example of quality and insight into the period his writing was written for and thus quite educational. A book about having a child question if they are a boy or girl before they have even started dating or even seriously considered sexual topics of any sort is unwise and indoctrination into beliefs that they are not physically and mentally capable of understanding, either in the short or long-term at that point.

C. QUIT INFIGHTING

If there is one thing conservatives have a problem with, it's not being able to stand united despite making a lot of noise about it. Quit caring so much about WHO you rally behind to get things done, just so long as you all agree on WHAT needs to be done. Swallow your pride and bile and quit fighting each other lest you waste your chances to turn back the excesses of society that offended you because you pissed away so much time infighting.

You have elections coming up in 2024. Settle who will be your candidate and drum up a united front or you will lose again.

Now, to cover the other side.

2. Transgender lobby, let me break some bad news to you.

YOU ARE NOT OPPRESSED.

I know you'll scream I'm wrong, people want to genocide you, that you are persecuted, and that I hate you. None of the above is true, and if you haven't already stopped reading, here's why you are wrong.

A. No one wants to "Genocide" you

Let's be clear, I have extensively researched actual genocides, and nothing your lobby complains about is remotely close. To this point, no one is trying to shove you into ovens, no one is forcing you into death marches and starving you to death, and no one is murdering you all in mass droves with the sanction and approval of the government.

So no offense, but shut up until those are actually happening. Do not dare try to put yourself in the same category as Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge, Armenians under the Turks, or Jews under Hitler. It's not true and you know it.

As for actual conservatives, I know them, and you know how they really feel about you all?

Some contempt, sure, for your choices, which they believe immoral, unrealistic, and deviant. Some pity, because they believe you're deluded fools slicing yourselves under surgeons and taking horse urine-derived pharmaceuticals in a vain attempt to be something you biologically can never become because humanity has no natural gender-changing functions. And yes, even some hate you because you are trying to corrupt their children and expose them to topics they believe are unfit and trying to subvert and pervert the organs of society and the state to aid you.

But no, they do not want to kill you, at least, not to the extent you expressed wanting to kill them for saying you need limits. In fact, your side has murdered them more than once, need I bring up murderess Audrey Hale?

Your side does have absolute perverts with no respect for the law, need I bring up compulsive clothing kleptomaniac, and "non-binary" criminal Sam Brinton?

And no, don't you dare try to disavow these people, your movement claims to not shame anyone, so accept your criminals and murderers just like anyone else. If the conservative side has moral hypocrites, criminals, and absolute wastes of human flesh, so do you, we both belong to the same overarching category called humanity.

But as for actual genocides, aside from some off-color "41%" jokes (a reference to the alleged high rate the transgender kill themselves) and some nasty comments mocking the transgender for being skinwalkers and Ed Gein in modern day, there is, to my knowledge, no Adolf Hitler in the wings with a clear plan to kill you all and stack your bodies.

That said, Hitler only got the ability to pull off his pogroms because he had society so ready for anyone like him they willingly went along with his Jew murders. But to my knowledge, no one wants to actually kill you, so quit the Chicken Little crap till you have an actual Mein Kampf for the transgender to point to.

B. YOUR OPPRESSION NARRATIVE IS A CROCK

For a group of people who claim to be oppressed, you have a very bizarre definition of it. You have the support of politicians, various segments of law enforcement, political lobby groups, and more corporations than I can name. Blacks during the height of Jim Crow didn't have the advantages you have, so take your comparisons to them and shove them.     

What is happening to the transgender lobby is that the majority (which, by your own admission, you claim to be the minority) have become well aware of what your side wants and how your demands that society contorts itself for your desires have encroached on their lives. It is no great sacrifice to give gays, lesbians, and bisexuals equal rights because what they ask does not require I disregard my own to generally accommodate them. By contrast, transgender demand I lie to their face so they can live their truth, regardless of my personal conscience.

You want to police language so no one can hurt your feelings. You want to suborn law enforcement to let you do as you please without consequence. You want political bodies to give you the right to do what you want at will. You want to wish away the unarguable fact humanity is sexually dimorphic mammals because, by your own admission, your heads don't match your bodies, and thus there is a mental disconnect between the two.

And if you had your way, the difference between male and female would disappear into the morning mist whenever you feel like it, everyone would have to accept whatever chimeric identity you adopt every other day as valid no matter how irrational and unreasonable it may be to accommodate you, and you want your enemies harassed, shamed, and destroyed for having the temerity to complain.

And to my horror, in defiance of logic, reason, and various laws guaranteeing equality before the law, you've been unbelievably successful, and to the extent your opposition believes you are getting away with far too much, I'm forced to agree with them.

That is not oppression, that is you being told NO, and firm limits being placed so that your rights do not encroach on that of others.

Which, under a just society, is as it should be.

Now, to both sides, I want to say this

SOCIETY IS SIMMERING WITH RESENTMENT RIGHT NOW

I am the last person who wants to see blood spill. Insofar as conservatives and the transgender lobby are concerned, whatever you do privately is your personal business, and so long as all parties can lawfully consent, then your rights should be safeguarded insofar as they do not encroach on anyone else.

It's that last part you both need to watch.

The key point of contention is the conservative side believes the transgender lobby has gone too far, has demanded unreasonable sacrifices of society, the law, and common sense, and is determined to force everyone to cater to their own wishes.

The transgender lobby is utterly convinced they are under attack and any legal restrictions, no matter how mild or severe, are the harbinger to their eventual Holocaust.

The way I see it, there is building rage on both sides, and blood has already been spilled. Much less than I feared would be spilled at this point, but one drop is too much, and if both sides want to hammer out some firm boundaries that will keep society from descending into madness, I support those people wholeheartedly, regardless of which side.

As for the rest, I belong to a group that neither hates the pro or anti-transgender side, I just don't want to see any more of your nonsense spill over into my life. I'm happy to tolerate your private lives being as you see fit, but even I will lose sympathy for both of you if you insist on destroying my happiness because neither of you can find a happy medium.

And people like me are the glue that holds society together. You'd do well to not destroy it. Because when you disgust the sane people in the middle, then if either of you is right about the worst intentions of the other side, then there will be no pity as we watch the extremes destroy each other while we curse how you despoiled our own lives in the process.

Critical Centrism: The Case for the Need of Political Centrists To Call Out Both Sides

 Modern-day politics has become the refuge of the fanatic. Agreeing to disagree is nigh extinct. Coming together and admitting while you don't always agree, you should at least hear each other out is now completely unheard of.

And as a political moderate, that galls me.

I prefer that title to "centrist", because, like most people, I too see centrism as a refusal to take a stand for something or instead I did, until I came to the conclusion I thought both sides kinda suck and that means I'm a centrist by virtue of contempt for both.

For example, I think the LGBT lobby trying to argue kids should be exposed to sexual cosplay (drag) is twenty different kinds of depraved, but I do think their enemies are just as depraved for attempting unironic book banning. I think reparations to black people is a cynical, venal, stupid, and dishonest ploy by liberals to keep black "on the plantation" by waving the bloody shirt about slavery, though conservatives who are total crime eradication zealots are fools for not realizing you can't solve crime by jailing all the criminals as harshly as possible. I thought Hilary Clinton was a shady and dishonest scumbag who should have never gotten near the Oval Office, but to be fair Trump already was an admitted scumbag, so our options blew either way. And the prospective 2024 is going to offer yet another round of choices from both sides that amount to a pick your poison than an honest choice based on people who you can trust to have morals and principles even if their politics gall you.

In short, the two-party system has too many lunatics, degenerates, and outright losers for me to like or respect either side. The politician who actually does their job instead of grandstanding for cameras is long dead, replaced by both sides putting a bunch of people onstage who do the least damage when they aren't doing anything at all.

That said, I'm sure I'm not alone. I think the fed-up members of the two sides of the aisle should form their own team to basically call out the two main teams. If politics is a game between two opposing teams, we need a third team of dedicated umpires to call them out on their violations of ethics, breaches of public trust, and outright stupidity at the expense of the voter, the person who should actually matter.

I'm not sure that's feasible in this day and age. I've had feet in both camps, still do, and it's hard to find anyone who is sane in either because while the left shuns those who cannot be made pliable tools, the right shuns those who point out their hypocrisy. The actual camps of both sides are thus filled with lickspittles and jellyfish who bend with the wind.

Unfortunately, as this world continues to get further mad, I sometimes feel I'm a lone voice telling both sides their Emperors are naked fools, but even more unfortunately I remain doubtful saying as much does me a lot of good because both sides have madmen who have banished anything less than the most simpering of yesmen and butt kissers.

Regardless, I do think that if enough voices banded together to call out both sides, they could be a powerful moderating influence politics sorely needs. Unfortunately, that requires even more courage than taking a stand for either side, as the way of the centrist is to oppose everyone else.

At the same time, I still think it's worth doing because the only other alternative is to pretend both sides' Emperors aren't naked. And I'm done pretending either sides' pants aren't on their heads instead of their waistlines instead.

Why I oppose special holidays simply for being a minority

 Fair warning, this was written by a white guy who is Christian and straight, so if you are gay, trans, black, or anything else I'm not and think I should shut up, you might as well stop reading now and spare yourself further offense. If, however, you don't mind a potentially offensive alternative point of view from a politically moderate person who thinks everyone should be equal regardless of their differences, then allow me to explain why I bring this up.

I recently offended a certain group of LGBT people (I shall respect their privacy by going no further than that) by saying I found it sad a minority group needs a specific period of time like "Pride Month" to feel dignity when I believed that was something that should be innate, no one should take it away from you, and those that tried could go to hell for all I cared.

Not my exact words, but close enough.

For my audacity to suggest this, I was inundated with various comments that the LGBT are on the verge of extinction and deserve Pride Month since they are robbed of everything else these days, had it implied I was racist when asked if I felt the same about Black History Month, and was soon after booted out of the community in question despite apologizing for my statement offending others.

For the record, so be it, I accept my exile like an adult. I shall not beg for a return and I wish that community the best despite my absence, I am not one to hold grudges, especially not after something like this.

However, since this is where I can elaborate on my opinion without having doors slammed in my face, let me explain why I think minority holidays, while noble in their intents, have become wedges to drive society apart instead of together.

They've Failed At Making Diversity Acceptable

Things like Pride Month and Black History Month started with the noble intention of bringing to light a minority group and celebrating their part in human society. I do not dispute this.

Unfortunately, the line between "here is a spotlight shown on a minority group for a brief period to show they too have contributed to the human race" and "putting them on a pedestal and flaunting them as somehow better than mere mortals" has become disturbing common these days.

For the most part, I lay the blame at the feel of corporations, lobby groups, and social media. While I do not oppose the basic concept of minority celebration, the parties I've mentioned have commercialized, politicized, and otherwise turned these celebrations into less "these groups exist and we should remember that" and more "these people are special. Disagree and you're a bigot"

To that, I'm not a bigot, but I don't think being a minority makes you "special". Different, but not special. Everyone is a human being, capable of free will, sapient intelligence, and the potential to shape their own destiny. Being white, black, gay, trans, or covered in polka dots does not make you a god amongst mortals.

I do not believe the mere act of being different means you deserve special treatment. You deserve to be treated the same as I would, insofar as is reasonable.

For example, if a black or white person runs a red light, they should pay the same fine and receive the same legal citation. If there is a job position available, they deserve the same CHANCE at the job based on their qualification for the job, not their skin color.

Regarding being gay or trans, my take is that your sexuality or whatever you define your body as is your personal business. No one except those you are intimate with is entitled to know more unless you are willing to share, and by the same token, others have a right to the same level of discretion and privacy. Whatever you do, provided you do not violate the rights of others nor trammel the protections of lawful consent, should be protected. Moral and ethical considerations should have no preferred preference over the law.

With this said, it galls me how polarized society has become. While it's inevitable groups will clash, the profound lack of "agree to disagree" disgusts me. I hate bible beaters and LGBT zealots with the same level of contempt, much like the racist (whether they be a black person saying whites are evil or a white saying blacks are evil) disgust me.

At the end of the day, your differences mean nothing to me. You are all human. You were born and you will die. You are no more above your own humanity than anyone else, so quit having the presumption your differences elevate you above anyone else.

All your difference means is that you are DIFFERENT, not special.

Getting back to my main point, minority holidays have just become flashpoints. Pride Month is one in recent days that has drawn both anti and pro-LGBT groups to scream at each other. The pro-LGBT consider even the slightest amount of differing opinion or insinuation they are as mortal as the rest of humanity (and thus as equal before the law as anyone else) as tantamount to genocide. The anti-LGBT are as blind and stupid as the fools who thought Prohibition would end the consumption of alcoholic beverages forever, trying to legislate morality despite behaviors like alcohol consumption and homosexuality having existed as far back as we have recorded history.

Therefore, if these minority holidays are just going to be flashpoints of further societal discord, then yes, I think we'd be better off without them.

Being a Part of a Group Has Become Entire Identity

I have been a member of intensely pro-Christian and LGBT groups. In both, I'm the moderate, and I admit, while I try to get along with these groups, I cannot stand either when it gets to the point it goes beyond "this is who I am" and it gets to the point "and I'll remind you every five seconds".

When I joined said groups, your stance was already known to me. I do NOT need to be reminded, and if you must remind me what you are constantly, then I must ask, why are trying to remind ME so hard, I already know. 

To this, you either get told to shut up and let others speak (how ironic, I must muzzle my tongue but you are above the same restriction) or that you are a bigot trying to silence them (despite the fact they've more than made their position clear)

Again, if you cannot go five minutes without reminding me what you stand for and daring to punish me for getting tired of being reminded, you are the problem. Whatever you stand for, if your position cannot survive without terrifying others into silence while you keep talking lest you punish them for daring to say anything that might offend you, you're the intolerant one. You create your own bigots by stirring resentment against you.

So, if this is already causing resentment, then special holidays for minorities, with this in mind, are just grinding glass in the wounds of societal discord, and we'd be better if they didn't exist.

Conclusion

I am white, male, Christian, and straight. That said, I rarely tell people any of the above unless I'm asked directly. My reason is simple: 

I am secure in this knowledge and do not need to hammer it into the heads of anyone else.

Diversity is the strength of the human race. Without it, we'd be boring and sterile in terms of creativity and endeavour, and I in fact celebrate our diversity. I do not, however, enjoy being forced to simper before any group and keep my mouth shut while they demand special treatment simply for being different. There is no faster way to create a bigot than by demanding special treatment of others, and while I have tried to resist falling into the trap of hatred over this, a lot more actual bigots have been created by this forced love of diversity breeding resentment against forced tolerance and faked acceptance under pain of retribution.

With that in mind, I do not reject the differences of my species, but I'd rather not have them rubbed in my face and be told I'm the intolerant one for daring to say "Who cares what you are, you're human, that's all that matters."

And with that said, minority holidays have become pedestals to elevate certain groups above humanity and trying to force me to revere them as gods. And I will not do that. No one man is god over another, no matter what difference you have from myself.