Notices by Cousin_Martha_Corey (cousin_isobel@spinster.xyz)

Anyone know when this thing, where Congress brings in people who do not work for the government, in order to yell at them, started? Examples include independent journalists, presidents of private universities, and CEOs of social media companies. Why is this Congress' place, and why do the people bother coming? Are they basically accepting a public beating in place of legislation that might affect them?

@pjw Thanks for offering to answer questions.

I have studied this issue very little. What I would like to know is:

a) What would the Israeli government like Palestinians to do? (E.g., where does the government want them to go?)

and

b) If a Palestinian wanted to move from what I suppose are called the “occupied territories” (the Gaza strip and the West Bank) to the middle of Jerusalem – get an apartment, get a job, etc., and just live like an Israeli citizen – could he or she do that? If not, and if Israel says that these areas are part of Israel, why can these people (those who were born on land that Israel claims) not move freely and have all the normal benefits of living in Israel?

@LaylaAlexandrovna Remember when conversations about teens and obscene content were mostly about what kids were allowed to watch at home? Parents would discuss what is appropriate. Everything has changed in such weird ways. We didn’t think we had to worry about schools. I know there was controversy about teaching about birth control, but not disgusting, graphic content.

@HebrideanHecate @LaylaAlexandrovna Where others see pedos, I tend to see – at least in the U.S. – a very, very top-down Democratic Party agenda that probably has a direct connection to the agenda of the Liberal party of Canada and other parties worldwide, going all the way up to the United Nations. I don’t fully understand it and I usually assume it is about money, but there could be a more personal (pedo-driven) agenda, as well. It would just have to come from way, way up. The Democrats on the school boards in my area are often women who are probably not pedophiles. In the exact district where I live, I see the Democrat candidates basically running on issues handed down to them from at least a state level, and they get in because most people just always vote Democrat here. These women, and some men, are forcing mixed-sex restrooms and locker rooms on our girls, and I can’t think of any possible reason for it except party politics. I think it’s the same with books. The Democratic Party line is that we have to have porn in schools or else we will be guilty of “book bans,” and nearly everyone, all the way down the line parrots it.

@sim @GrumpyOldNurse @HebrideanHecate @LaylaAlexandrovna Right. I’d misread @Biff ‘s post. I thought she was asking what Dems would sacrifice for their girls. They will sacrifice their girls. They really aren’t trying to protect them, and seem to think all this is fine.

@polarisera I heard him say that and I think it’s a good start. I just hope people understand that it’s an induced mental disorder. Telling people to look for something called a “gender identity” within themselves and having them come up with all sorts of answers that don’t meet the definition for “cisgender” (a totally made up thing, as are all the other “gender identities”) is what induces the disorder. Vivek is scrambling to come up with positions on all sorts of issues, and is mostly doing well on this one, but a deep understanding of the gender industry in any politician would be very welcome. I’ll take RFK, Vivek, or whoever can figure it out.

Chris Christie just wants to have parents participate and leave it at that. That’s not enough. Vivek seems to want to stop the whole thing, at least in kids, and that’s a real start.

2013: So, what does everyone think about Common Core?

2023: How do we get pornography out of the school library?

When the Hell was it put in???

https://thepostmillennial.com/exclusive-how-the-parents-of-floridas-indian-river-school-district-fighting-to-get-porn-out-of-schools

This is good.

A federal judge stopped enforcement of a New York law aiming to regulate online hate speech this week, siding with the video platform Rumble and law professor Eugene Volokh.

Rumble, a competitor of YouTube, and Mr. Volokh, who runs the Volokh Conspiracy legal blog, challenged the constitutionality of New York’s law that sought to force social media platforms to create mechanisms to flag hate speech and to publish policies for how it would address complaints.

Judge Andrew L. Carter granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday saying the law violated the First Amendment. He said New York’s law both forced social media platforms to speak about hate speech and chills the constitutionally protected speech of people using the platforms.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/16/judge-halts-new-york-hate-speech-law-after-challen/

I think the biggest thing I learned in 2022 was that people who believe in “trans” do so overwhelmingly because they believe in the authority of government and “expert” institutions to determine (or even create) truth.

It’s not primarily misogynists vs. non-misogynists. Misogyny is a big part of our culture – perhaps all human culture – and sometimes, women who have been pushed too far do “peak” because they care about themselves, their children, and other women, but the main breakdown isn’t between misogynists and non-misogynists.

I had hoped that many people (especially women) would peak when the Democrats went all-out on the gender extravaganza in 2021, and yet, largely, the opposite has happened. The government-led gender extravaganza has made them like “trans” more. That is because, to them, the elite progressive machine of government and elite progressive institutions are the ultimate authorities.

Until the institutions these people are following change their minds (which doesn’t seem likely to happen soon), the vast majority of those who are on the “trans train,” will stay on it.

Remember when we hoped Rachel Maddow might peak? We really hoped that, right here on Spinster. We hoped it because she is a lesbian and because she is a leftist, both of which we associated with caring about women’s rights. Ah, the innocent days of the early pandemic.

The flip side is that those who are not part of this expert/government-authority worshipping, “latest thing” supporting, “progressive” group, reject trans ideology effortlessly. Non-believers are a much more diverse group than believers. They range from religious conservatives to those who were atheists before atheism was cool. Almost invariably, anyone who doesn’t mold himself or herself to the latest institutionally-dictated beliefs thinks the idea that men can just somehow “be” women by receiving hormone treatments (or by thinking thoughts) is ridiculous.

This means that the idea won’t spread much further, at least within the existing adult population. Non-“progressives” are immune. However, mainstream “progressives” would have to change the very process by which they determine truth in order to reject the well-known mantras about “trans.”