Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Trump press secretary and now governor of Arkansas, gave the State of the Union rebuttal last week. She defined the contrast in America today:
The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy.
She re-iterated the point:
And while you reap the consequences of their failures, the Biden administration seems more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day. Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight.
“Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols, all while big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is—your Freedom of speech.
“That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.
Are we in a culture war? If so, who started it? Does it matter or are we avoiding this important fight:
https://www.newsweek.com/can-gops-culture-war-gamble-help-it-win-2024-1775914
Jeff Myers, president of Summit Ministries, a Christian Group that polls Americans monthly about cultural mores, sums up the culture war like this: “Our polls find that 70 percent of Americans want to be left alone and the other 30 percent keep telling them that they must believe things that they don’t want to believe.”
I encounter so many who don’t want to get involved in “politics”, something they have no time for and a topic best avoided. However, the problem is that politics has infested everything. We will all eventually be made to care.
I see three groups here. First, there is a small group of outspoken cultural reformists (radicals in reality) in media, education, and the arts who force their views upon our culture. There is a small reactionary group, people like me, waving their hands and pointing out problems to the largest group, the 70%. The 70% must become involved or the battle may be lost before they even realize what happened. Three in ten is not a critical mass, so the cultural radicals, the small minority, defeats the larger “silent majority”. Don’t be silent. The only way to lose to these incompetent and ridiculous people is to cede ground without a fight.
Cultural Debate Topics
Newsweek lists culture war topics. One category includes things most are either for or against: Transgender rights, Critical Race Theory, Diversity, and Language (i.e. a re-definition of formerly agreed upon terms). Are these topics crazy, as Governor Sanders suggests, or just an extension of basic rights afforded all? Is it reasonable to advocate for these or do advocates push the rest beyond the bounds of sanity?
The second grouping I take from Newsweek are items most still agree matter: Free Speech, Law and Order, and Voting Rights. I would add Education and the Arts as well. The problem with these topics is that both Left and Right accuse the other of being opposed to these values. Which side is actually for these values and which are undermining them? Which side can’t recognize they are creating problems, not improving lives?
Religion, faith, and life are a third category Newsweek doesn’t include.
Transgender rights
Are Transgender Rights crazy or normal? Let’s examine recent events.
Last week, urinals were removed from the boy’s bathroom in a high school in New Hampshire, in fealty to the transgender movement. What is the point exactly? Thankfully, the kids objected and walked out of school. However, they should have walked earlier when the school adopted a policy that anyone could use the bathroom of their choice.
Here is the school board’s explanation for this nonsense:
Friday’s demonstration comes after a lengthy debate by the board of education over whether to separate school bathrooms and locker rooms by the sex assigned at birth or by gender identity, The Boston Globe reported.
Board Education member Noah Boudreault proposed the urinal prohibition as part of a ‘compromise,’ that was accepted by a 4-1 vote on Monday.
Compromise? What? Everyone has always known which bathroom to use. There was no confusion, no discussion of this ridiculous topic before five years ago.
The Scottish prime minister two weeks ago was forced to defend a policy which separates transgender women from the rest of the women’s prison population. It was a difficult position for her since she is sympathetic to transgender rights.
A transgender woman, a biological male, should not be housed with biological women, she insisted in an interview. But they are women too, right? she is asked. Yes, of course, they are women too, but it is not safe to house them together, she rightly replies. Still, she is roundly criticized by the LGBTQ/LMNOP “community” because she can’t adequately defend her earlier positions on their rights.
https://www.ft.com/content/9ca38e1b-c9b0-46da-9d3c-59709fa5ef5f
Adopt the notion that a person can be whatever they want whenever they want to be despite the biological limitations imposed on them, and insist that there are no more mental conditions which might need to be treated and you come to this illogical conclusion.
More: https://seek-the-truth.com/category/trans/
Critical Race Theory and Education
“I’m going to say this one more time. Elements of Critical Race Theory are not taught to 5-year-olds. It’s not taught to 8-year-olds. It’s not taught to 10-year-olds … listen, if you’re scared of American history, I don’t get it.” Whoopi Goldberg on The View, February 8, 2023
I have repeatedly heard this same basic rhetoric regarding CRT: nobody is teaching CRT to your kids, but even if someone is (and they are) why do you object? Why do you want to erase the American history you are embarrassed of?
Goldberg’s argument is telling in itself. Why must she first deny it is being taught? If it were a good thing, she wouldn’t be hiding it, would she?
Further, I know nobody erasing American history. How many schools during the last 150 years didn’t teach about the Civil War and slavery in America? The assertion CRT opposition means opposition to history is baseless.
Florida Governor DeSantis recently said “We are going to eliminate all DEI and CRT bureaucracies in the state of Florida. No funding, and that will wither on the vine.” When the college board association subsequently changed its AP African-American-studies seminar, DeSantis was blamed, and, of course, accused of re-writing history. Objecting to courses with a highly slanted (i.e. political) view of queer studies, BLM, reparations, and mass incarcerations are not what constitutes re-writing history.
“In Florida, we do education, not indoctrination. That runs afoul of our standards,” DeSantis clarified.
The problem with education is government involvement. Parents don’t have a say in what is taught; too many trust that schools will limit themselves to appropriate subjects and not influence value systems (rightly, the parent’s domain). Government officials too often cater to teacher’s unions who help fund their campaigns. Privatize education and let parents choose schools which match their values and provide a better education.
Except in Florida, government education appears to place kids interests last. Further, government is not good at education. This year, Baltimore city schools spent $21,000 to educate each student. My wife and I sent two kids to private school for far less, and got a better education. The results achieved for $21,000 per student are terrible:
The Maryland State Department of Education recently released Baltimore students’ 2022 test results, which revealed that 93% of third- through eighth-graders tested below their grade level in math . . . the local news outlet found 23 city schools where not a single student tested proficient in math
Give the $21,000 (or a lesser amount) to parents to spend on the school of their choice. The government saves money and less well-off parents can finally send their kids to better schools. Everyone but the teachers’ unions and diversity hustlers, wins.
Further, government run schools institute crazy policies to satisfy political cronies:
“The University of South Florida has adopted radical DEI programming that segregates students by race and promotes the idea that white students should think ‘I feel bad for being white’ and ‘it’s not my fault I’m white’ as part of their ‘racial identity development,’” Rufo tweeted.
What? Is this a return to “separate but equal”?
The education establishment is also biased against Asians. Because Asians are more successful than other ethnic groups, one principal hid the academic achievement of more than 1200 Asian students during her tenure. Equity, equal outcomes, is the goal here. Fairness and equal opportunity are a distant second.
Ann Bonitatibus, the Principal of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ), was dubbed as a racist after reports surfaced that she withheld notifying students, largely Asians, about their National Merit Scholar awards for several years. Bonitatibus took the decision on the school’s recent desire for “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.”
Her views are not unique. Higher education institutions routinely set barriers for Asian students to keep their numbers proportional. In 2021, Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill to protect Asians against discrimination from educational institutions. The amendment failed with every single Democrat voting against it. Who is looking out for kids and for fairness?
https://www.congress.gov/amendment/117th-congress/senate-amendment/1456
The primary interests of government education are not promoting learning and providing opportunities for deserving kids.
More: https://seek-the-truth.com/category/systemic/
Language and Diversity
From the Newsweek article:
Another language spat has been over the use of the gender-neutral term “Latinx” – although two years ago Democratic polling firm Bendixen & Armandi International said just 2 percent of Latinas and Latinos used it while 40 percent deemed the term offensive and 30 percent said they were less likely to support a political organization that used it.
A few want to force the rest of us to use a term that those it refers to find offensive. Go figure. The Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians changed names even though most American Indians view such mascot names as a positive.
Jordan Peterson came to prominence a few years ago for fighting the Canadian government’s attempts to criminalize “mis-gendering”. He was also recently suspended from Twitter for the same thing. It is frightening to have citizens punished for not using a simple pronoun in everyday speech.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/06/30/jordan-peterson-suspended-twitter-misgendering-trans-actor/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37875695
New terms such as gender fluidity along with the affirmation of all sexual and gender anomalies have led to problems: marriage rates and even sexual encounters have declined, births have fallen below sustainable levels, suicide rates are rising, and society is collapsing. Still, some people demand more of the same.
The Arts
This year’s Super Bowl featured two national anthems: a Black National Anthem and the USA National anthem. Should we also adopt an Hispanic National Anthem, a Christian National Anthem, a Jewish National Anthem, etc.? The Black National Anthem is a perfectly fine song in itself. Still, let’s have one national anthem which unites us, not multiple national anthems which in their own small ways divide us.
Kari Lake was called out because she didn’t stand for the first anthem. She wasn’t disrespectful (she didn’t take a knee). She demonstrated how the culture war should be fought: respectfully, calmly, patiently. Two anthems are unnecessary; we will emphasize that point until you stop.
During the halftime show, a pregnant Rhianna grabbed her crotch and gyrated her hips repeatedly. I prefer a demur Kari Lake to this overt sexuality from Rhianna.
Sex is God’s gift to humanity, but it should be used appropriately. Otherwise, problems result as we have seen the last sixty years. Promoting all manner of sexuality publicly leads to horrors like unsuspecting women being victimized by “deep fake” pornography:
During the pregame, four women flew jets over the stadium. This is wonderful, but nothing new. My dad told me this story many years ago:
At the beginning of his career he dealt with the integration of blacks into the army, and now at the end of his career, it was the integration of women into non-traditional roles. Women, of course, had been in the army for quite a while before then, but the Equal Rights Amendment was a big thing at the time, and the army was caught up in its politics.
“I had the first two women in jump school,” he tells me without elaborating.
“What happened?”
“Nothing happened. They were tough broads,” he says, using a term that would probably get him in hot water in today’s new army. “But then, they had to be tough to do all the things the guys could do.”
I thought perhaps, he would leave it at that, but this is a sensitive topic, and he cannot remain silent. “But after that beginning, the Army didn’t handle it right. Within a year, they started lowering standards. Women didn’t have to do as many push-ups as the men. They said it’s not fair to make women do the same number of push-ups. Bullshit!”
Nearly fifty years later, we celebrate female football kickers for non-accomplishments. The hype far exceeds the actual kick from Sarah Fuller last year. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30445173/sarah-fuller-impact-goes-historic-kick-two-college-football-game. Let’s not celebrate non-accomplishments.
We were also reminded this year was the first Super Bowl featuring two black quarterbacks. Why the continual reminders of firsts? It was historic when Barrack Obama became the first black president 15 years ago. Thirty-five years ago, Doug Williams was the first black quarterback in the Super Bowl, something worth noting. Forty-five years ago, JC Watts, quarterback at Oklahoma University, led the Sooners to two Orange Bowl victories. Watts race and excellence were worth noting then, but a barrier was broken ten years earlier when Marlin Briscoe became a starting NFL black quarterback. Jackie Robinson preceded Briscoe by more than twenty years. Robinson’s breakthrough 77 years ago was indeed historic and should be celebrated, but each time there is a new breakthrough, this narrative loses oomph. There isn’t much oomph left in the balloon. Dr. King’s goal was for a color-blind society, but generations later the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion crowd can’t get past noting our differences.
The first lady was present at the Grammy’s last month. The song “Unholy” which celebrates adultery, was performed by a man in a Satan costume surrounded by scantily clad women bowing to him. Don’t support these people, don’t praise their work, and don’t give them platforms on which to voice their equally ridiculous political opinions. Demand the First Lady speak out. To this point, the media criticism is only of those who objected to this performance.
Lil Nas’s performance a few years ago was far worse. He descends into hell, has sex with the devil, and becomes the devil himself. There is no subtlety whatsoever. The video is demonic and lacks any good. Why does You Tube censor political speech but not this horror? Why is this available to kids? It has ten million views. Don’t support these artists, call them out along with those who support them.
Free Speech
Rep. Nancy Mace last month asked a former Twitter exec where she received her medical degree.
Rep-Nancy-Mace-asks-Twitter-exec-where-did-you-go-to-medical-school
“You’re not a doctor, right, Ms. Gadde?” Mace asked.
“No, I’m not,” Gadde responded.
“What makes you think you or anyone else at Twitter have the medical expertise to censor actual, accurate, CDC data?”
“I’m not familiar with these particular situations,” Gadde said before Mace cut her off: “I’m sure you’re not.”
“You guys censored Harvard-educated doctors, Stanford-educated doctors, doctors that are educated in the best places in the world, and you silenced those voices,” Mace said,
Mace is correct and summed up the problem in under five minutes. Gadde dissembled during that time. Twitter, Face Book, YouTube, and others routinely censored medical professionals speaking on COVID, something I have extensively covered. People died because information was stifled. We need to finally hold them accountable.
Rise-of-the-4th-Reich (more on this evil perpetrated on the American people)
This woman summed up problems wonderfully in less than a minute.
She’s 100% Correct 🤷🏾♂️ – YouTube (things that make no sense in 2022)
Law and Order
What does “defund the police” have to do with law and order? Calls to defund the police lead to retirements, stifle recruitment, and limit training, all of which lower the quality of the police force. When there are more problems as a result, racism is blamed, not the awful “defund the police” solution.
Racism is highlighted no matter what. Last week, I wrote about claims of racism when a black man appears to be unjustifiably killed by five black police officers.
everything-is-white-supremacy-even-when-it-is-not
Why can’t these folks move on from that agenda? My father recognized the problem thirty years ago:
“I’ll give you the prime example,” he starts, animated again. “When I took over the battalion, all my guys were afraid to shoot. They had all these rules about when to shoot and when not to shoot, kind of like the police are burdened with these days. You can get too cute . . . making guys stop and think in a situation when they need to react quickly. I wasn’t going to get my guys killed for a bunch of silly rules. I didn’t want them to ask: ‘Are you a bad guy?’ every time they heard a noise. I told them if it moved after curfew, then it was probably a bad guy. Don’t ask questions, just shoot. If they weren’t sure, if they hesitated, they might wind up getting killed themselves . . .” They were his charges, and he had to make sure they could protect themselves. It is another of his fundamentals of war: keep your guys alive by killing more of them than they killed of you.
Interestingly, he compared his war experience with the police’s experiences. Trust the police to do their jobs, encourage the best qualified people to enlist, train them well, and when they fail to do their job, punish the wrong-doers, but not everyone else. It is a simple formula. The culture war needs to highlight it.
Voting Rights
What exactly is racist about voter ID laws? How do they exclude certain groups? So many activities today require an ID, yet only requiring IDs for voting is labeled racist. If you believe voter ID is racist, you must believe certain groups are not smart enough to obtain an ID, and you, my friend, are the racist, not me who supports voter ID.
Years ago, poll taxes clearly were directed at those who could not pay; they disproportionately affected blacks. There is no poll tax today. Voter ID only limits the ability of those not eligible to vote.
Fight back against this lie regarding voter ID.
Religion
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer:
In recent months, the Biden Administration has quietly stood by as leftists committed over 100 violent attacks upon faith-based pregnancy resource centers and pro-life organizations. And since May of 2020, more than 225 Catholic churches have been firebombed, smashed, ransacked, or vandalized. Meanwhile, the Left continues to impose Critical Race Theory, radical transgenderism, and other “woke” views on children in public and Catholic schools alike, something Catholic parents recognize as antithetical to Christian values and teachings on love for neighbor and family.
Why is this ignored? The attack on religion comes from within the government itself.
The FBI has rescinded a report classifying “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” as a national security threat based on claims from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center after a former FBI agent voiced concerns about the FBI’s reliance on partisan sources.
“RTCs are typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid church council; disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II; and frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, and white supremacist ideology,” the document states.
This is absolute nonsense and untrue. I’ve been a Catholic all my life and have never heard of the “Catholic Radical Tradition”, nor has anyone else I know. The FBI report has been rescinded, but why was it ever a thing? Does the government wish to discredit an outspoken and credible voice against abortion?
More: https://seek-the-truth.com/category/systemic/
https://seek-the-truth.com/category/faith/
Dave (About me: https://seek-the-truth.com/about/)
Seek the Truth 