I’m tired of being lied to by the Left and the Right.
It’s been a rough couple of years for me as I’ve been riding a bit of a roller-coaster when it comes to demarcating my political position and adopting a cognitive frame in which to reasonably process the world.
Talk about unintended veracity.
I come from a academic traditional left background. My blog started in 2009 and I published a paper (self-published) which I wrote for one of my sociology classes (sociology of the family). Here is my preface and conclusion from my paper.
“One of the dominant themes of the course was the gendered assumptions our society is based on. Like the Matrix, until you are shown what it is, you really do not understand it. One of the conditions of the paper was that I had to use a pop culture piece to illustrate how heteronormativity works in our culture. I chose the cartoon ‘Family Guy’ because it is a very offensive show and I was sure I would find heteronormative gold when I analyzed a couple of episodes. Sadly, I was correct…
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“If “Family Guy” were truly edgy, the so-called deviant vignettes and their radical take on society would be the norm instead of the cutaway gags, but then the show would be unmarketable. Heteronormative assumptions, like media functions of Chomsky’s model, serve the dominant patriarchal interests. Therefore, the authors of the show would either bend to the wishes of the institutional will, or they would be out of a job as producers of a cartoon. In reality “Family Guy” is a safe cartoon from the patriarchal point of view as it amplifies the correct heteronormative assumptions (albeit very crudely) and intensifies the ‘othering’ of competing non-patriarchal based narratives. Similarly, news that is outside of the dominant acceptable paradigm or boundaries of debate is marginalized or simply ignored by the mass media. In both cases, the interests of the powerful institutions are served and alternative views are either marginalized or ignored. Therefore, “Family Guy” as a cartoon may poke fun at heteronormative values, but by its very nature must endorse and propagate an ‘acceptable’ version of the dominant patriarchal norms to continue to be successful in the mass media.”
Oh sweet jebus. Just look at the conflict theory in action – over a popular cartoon no less. I received top grade for this paper – I worked hard on ii – but ‘wow wow wow’ the frame I was using was problematic. Before we get to comparisons, let’s get a few more data points.
“The war on women and their rights continues to chug along, it can get depressing having to digest all the misogyny that leaks from the anti-choice, anti-woman side.”
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“Trust women.
Oh and a big heart-felt fuck you to so called ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ that are always filled to the brim with toxic bullshit. We need you like we need smallpox in the world.”
Did I take the time to really understand the rational behind what Crisis Pregnancy Centres were doing. Absolutely not. They were part of the religious right, and the religious right in my cognitive frame were an irredeemable source of EVIL (and patriarchy, we mustn’t forget patriarchy).
[Quoted Material] “As Friedrich Engels made clear, even before feminism’s First Wave, women were historically controlled because we are “a means of production”—without women, there are no heirs, and without heirs, no inherited property and wealth. Women’s reproductive capacity is why we were colonized as property, just as animals, countries, weapons and land was colonized. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been important at all; any thing we could do (cooking, cleaning, sewing clothes) could have been done as well by men (and in the military, it was). The reason women were oppressed was to control our REPRODUCTIVE ABILITIES. This does not mean all women had these abilities, but women were assumed to have them until proven otherwise. (In many religious traditions, a woman’s “barren” status was the only acceptable reason for divorce.)
There can be no other logical, rational basis for women’s oppression; unless you think men were just being “mean” or something. No, it was for a very real, profit-centered reason. Men without families and heirs could not build empires (or even working farms) and without this centralized, religiously-sanctioned consolidation of the family, the state could not have evolved. The state then effectively empowered men to be women’s keepers until very very recently in human history.
THIS is the origin of women’s oppression.”
Yep. The feminist streak here at DWR runs deep and wide – but then a funny little bit of legislation happened in Canada – Bill C-16. And then the wide feminist river began to narrow into a direct defense of females as a distinct political and social class in society as Bill C-16 codified the unfalsifiable notion of Gender Identity into our Charter of Rights.
“So here we be – enshrining more patriarchal norms into our laws – big surprise right? This legislation potentially represents a large step backwards for women.
“As unpopular as this fact has become, a man or boy who wishes to identify as a woman or girl, perhaps taking on stereotypically feminine body language, hairstyles, and clothing, is still male. He still has male sex organs, which means girls and women will continue to see him as a threat and feel uncomfortable with his presence in, say, change rooms. Is it now the responsibility of women and girls to leave their own spaces if they feel unsafe? Are teenage girls obligated to overcome material reality lest they be accused of bigotry? Is the onus on women to suddenly forget everything they know and have experienced with regard to sexual violence, sexual harassment, and the male gaze simply because one individual wishes to have access to the female change room? Because one boy claims he “feels like a girl on the inside?” And what does that mean, anyway?”
So which is more important male gender feelings or female safety? I would like to advocate here for gender neutral washrooms/changing area as the beginning of a compromise in this area. We still live in a patriarchy and sex segregated facilities are still necessary for the protection and safety of females in our society. The choice whether to co-mingle with men in washrooms or change rooms should be up to all those involved.”
It was a watershed moment for me. Gender-magic suddenly, was made a part of our Charter of Rights and the resulting bullshit was quite beyond the pale as female rights, boundaries, and safety continue to be curtailed and rolled back up here in Canada. It is 2023 now, and push-back against the tide of regressive gender ideology has a reasonable start, but we still have a long way to go as most of our government institutions are thoroughly captured by this insidious ideology.
“Forget about ‘just wanting to pee’ wedge issue bullshit – this is what we are in for in Canadian society; this is the upside-down, nothing has any meaning, timeline that trans ideology has in store for us.
Do not believe your eyes, but rather what some individual says about who they are. This is where belief in gender-magic takes us, where male violent crime is somehow called ‘female’ violent crime because the violent male has fucking delusions of gender and we need to respect that. No. The word must get out of what is happening here and the bald-faced misogyny that is transgender ideology must be stopped.”
Yeah, the gloves have come off and up till the present it has been a journey that has seen my reject my ideological left leaning beginnings. The argument can be made that since 2015 the Left has hit the crazy button and, in many cases, simply left former supporters and adherents politically homeless. The rise of Radical Activist Leftism (queer theory based gender ideology, the misogyny that is Transactivism, BLM, the so called anti-fascists et al.) has left me so cold toward my former home on the left. So I went looking and much to my chagrin the “Right” isn’t much better. So started to lean into some of the bugbears the Right chases. For example,identity politics –
“Identity politics sow division and strife within society. We need to revisit the idea that we are all Canadians first and foremost. We come in all different shapes, beliefs, and abilities. Those differences and the acceptance of our actual diversity is what makes Canada a wonderful place to live and prosper.
“I’m pleased that in 2023 LGBT people can be themselves in public, and that there is zero tolerance for bullying in schools and workplaces. That said, I’m starting to worry that some LGBT people are becoming the new bullies.”
“People see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear” – signed *EVERYONE* on twitter. It was late 2018 that I started to lean harder into twitter as a social media outlet., and to be honest, it has had negative effect on my writing here on DWR. Sparing with others, getting the dopamine hit from winning a successful snipe argument, the format of the short tweet all sap the intentionality and nuance of writing and thinking in complete descriptive thought. I was necessary though folks; January 2018 was when my marriage went pear-shaped and what I thought was a partnership for life turned out to be a much more temporary experience. Amiable and all that, but my mental resources available at the time were MUCH more suited to Twitter than the long form essay. Twitter also has a way to weave a quasi-net of acceptance and understanding to your particular points of view and preferred ideologies, it is rather alluring to be perfectly honest.
The silos present there at first confirmed my left bias, but then led by the likes of James Lindsay and his podcasts from The New Discourses I embarked on a journey to the right, or at least centre-right.
Lindsay, one of the authors of the Grievance Studies Affair, has taken it upon himself to combat the what he describes as the encroachment and capture of our cultural institutions by Cultural Marxist ideologues. Lindsay has topics ranging from grooming in schools to DEI training to the Sustainable Development Goals. The picture he assiduously paints is one of a long subtle Communist march through the Western institutions with the goal of overthrowing Western values and unfurling the new collectivist revolution. He unpacks concepts the Left is based on – and it is an impressive intellectual shortcut, but ultimately a shortcut it is. The picture you take away from him, despite his charitable efforts (sometimes) is fairly negative view of the evolution of Marxist and how it affects society now. There is no shortcut around grappling with the texts and thoughts of thinkers (on the right and the left) that have shaped and are shaping our reality.
You listen to him – he’s at his most persuasive when he’s reading a primary source from the other side – whether it be the record of the Combahee River Collective or the works of Paulo Friere or Herbert Marcuse – the work he’s amassed and digested into a reasonable format is impressive. Impressive enough to build a hollow cognitive frame around… one could say.
On reflection, I think I’ve learned a fair amount about the topics that I had little or vague knowledge about. What I haven’t done is yet is to formulate a coherent cognitive frame that makes sense of my dual experience of being on the Left (and then having being discarded by the current bullshit activist left) and embracing some of the ideas and notions that are ascribed to the Right.
I need answers.
I’ve read Noam Chomsky’s keystone works on media and media production – Manufacturing Consent. The well spring of evidence points to a distinct conservative take in the news media. Yet, the Herbert Marcuse’s thesis of Repressive Tolerance is an artifact in society in which I have witnessed happening. Did you see all the articles in the media about how they are putting males into female prisons and how dangerous that is for the female prisoners? No?
Me either.
Not a fucking peep.
Make it all make sense!
You would think that such a infringement on female rights and safety would have our Left media up in arms… But not a peep. CBC, The Toronto Star, Counterpunch nothing. NOTHING. The bullshit they do run though is the ideological drivel that is being vomited into society by the Activist Left – because somehow male gender feelings outweigh female rights, boundaries, and safety in society (in the name of tolerance, diversity,and inclusion no less).
Where do you find the stories of women fight back and reclaiming their rights, spaces, and sports? News organizations on the RIGHT. Stories about Riley Gaines (who was forced to compete against the male Lia Thomas in swimming) appear on Fox News. The toxicity of gender ideology or really just discussing it has only appeared in the rightward National Post and never in the Left Globe and Mail. What the actual hell is going on – why is the media I was taught to distrust and malign suddenly become the only avenue of reasonable argument and debate that is allowed in mass communications? The whole media situation really cooks my noodle :/.
This post is already too long, stay tuned for part two where I go into how I think I should build my new cognitive frame from the current giggly-piggley state of being.
There is currently a shortage of national symbols and ideals Canadians can call on to foster a feeling of belonging and a sense that they are part of an entity that is bigger than themselves. Our national identity is rarely mentioned these days and it is sort of a shame because it is the supererogatory symbols and notions of identity that help hold our nation together.
I think that it is important that we as Canadians can all point to our flag and say, “Hey look. A symbol that represents ALL of us here in Canada”. Fostering the notions of Peace, Order, and Good Government are qualities most Canadians can get behind.
It is also why I think that Public Institutions in Canada should only fly the Canadian Flag – because none other is necessary.
It’s been weird over in twitterland regarding Canadian politics as of late. The amount of furor and nasty partisan attacks going both ways seem to have intensified – people are doubling and tripling down on their hills to die on. I’m not sure as to exactly why, but here’s an example. This is a attack by a self identified Liberal supporter in Canada.
It is my understanding that one part of the Left’s body politic is this small topic called “Feminism”. One of the things that Feminists point to and try to move society away from is judging women by their looks. “Vicki” not only does this, but then further extrapolates what Pierre Poilievre ‘s wife’s motivations are. Her name is Anaida Poilievre which never seems to be mentioned – another little detail that would rankle most authentic feminists as believe it or not women exist outside of their relationships to men. But treating women as subjects as opposed to objects seems to be a bridge too far for Vicki in her blind rage against all things Pierre Poilievre.
I would be concerned if I was part of the Liberal tribe because how you treat your political enemies reflects on no one but yourself, and letting unhinged partisan hackery slip into outright misogyny isn’t a flattering perception to demonstrate in the public sphere.
At one time I thought that perhaps the level of Canadian political discourse was a little less divisive and partisan – at least compared to our neighbours down south – I was wrong.
“Increasingly, Western societies – especially the English-speaking countries – are becoming two different peoples speaking two very different languages and believing in two modes of living. One camp believes in some form of objective truth and labels humans as either male or female. They acknowledge there are endless variations in the ways humans express themselves, but they are certain there are only two sexes. The concept of two sexes is so ancient and fundamental to our makeup as a species, we’re still wrapping our heads around having to verbalize what was always common sense. Defending the obvious is exhausting.
Clash of two camps: If universal truths are no longer recognized and everything is a “construct,” writes the author, society becomes increasingly divided even at the level of basic understanding and language. Shown are: (top) the 2023 Drag Up Fight Back protest, San Francisco, CA; (bottom) the meeting against minor children transgender policies, Vancouver, B.C. (Sources of photos: (top) Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock; (bottom) EJ Nickerson/Shutterstock)
The other camp believes in a post-modernist version of constructed truth in which there are dozens of “fluid” genders that negate sex and biology. They also believe that anyone who does not subscribe to this belief is a heretic and as evil as a Nazi. They have the news and entertainment media, most of academia, much of the corporate world, and more and more of the state apparatus (from educational bureaucracies to human rights commissions) on their side.
How do these two camps speak to one another? The two belief systems require very different laws and social norms. If there are only two sexes, the man in my mother’s story is not allowed in the women’s changeroom. If sex is a social construct and can change through self-declaration or self-perception, that man can be a woman and is therefore allowed in the women’s changeroom. Right now, it seems the latter camp is winning and that we no longer share a common understanding of basic truths or even of language. Words like “man” or “woman” that were once universal are no longer.
A society that does not have a shared language cannot share thoughts. A society that is divided on whether or not there is objective truth, outside of personal feelings and emotions, cannot set laws or policies that work for the broadest range of people. A society where women and girls are cowed into silence when a crime is perpetrated against them for fear of being labelled the enemy is a shaky society indeed.”
You cannot cure what you don’t understand. Let’s, with the help from Woke Watch Canada, understand what is going on under the hood of the activist Left and their gender ideology.
“So what is the ideology behind the activists pushing these expanded pride flags? First it is clear that the ever more complex flags we are seeing represent the entrenchment of Critical Theory- the belief that our society is a kind of caste system made up of a hierarchy of identity based groups. Your intersectional identity supposedly dictates your place in this dystopian country we are said to inhabit. We are told it is our duty to break this oppressive system down! But don’t ask for actual empirical evidence that this hierarchy exists (do believe any anecdotal evidence, though) and don’t ask too many questions about what the system that is going to replace the current one will look like.
Trans activists claim their place at the zenith of the oppression hierarchy (most oppressed) and thus portray any opposition to their gender ideology- a belief system holds that a person’s gender is some kind of ethereal essence, akin to a soul, which is untethered to the biological sex of a person’s body- as transphobia. Their goal is to win maximum public acceptance of this belief system. The key to entrenching any ideology is of course the indoctrinaiton of youth. Thus the battle rages in our schools. Youth, who are confused in general as they are learning about the ever more complex world in which they find themselves, are exceptionally vulnerable. The gender activists know that, which is why they try to keep potentially recalcitrant parents in the dark as long as possible.
Since this “sexed soul” concept is a rather hard sell among rationally minded people, activists have another front on their attack which is to deny the biological sex binary even exists. These denials usually come from social scientists rather than biologists but are nevertheless often effective in conflating biological sex with gender identity (a person’s internal feeling as to the sex to which they belong) among the general public, most of whom are not well versed when it comes to reproductive biology.
Given all the above, you can see why people generally, and devoutly religious people especially, would object to the indoctrination into gender ideology taking place in Ontario schools. For the gender ideology activists, it is convenient to point to the many truly homo and transphobic people out there and then paint all opposed to gender ideology with one brush, but that does not change the fact that there are plenty of people who accept and support the rights of gay and trans people yet do not accept gender ideology. Many such people are in fact gay or trans themselves!
In a free and democratic society, no schools should be indoctrinating kids into any kind of ideology. Students should be taught what we currently understand to be scientific fact, along with the understanding that what is believed to be true today may be proved false tomorrow. Knowledge is not socially constructed, as the Critical Theory proponents would have you believe, but rather acquired by making observations, formulating hypotheses, and then testing those hypotheses through carefully controlled experiments.
The idea that sex is anything other than the body’s intended reproductive strategy has no scientific validity at all. Of course gender identity, on the other hand, is a personal matter. But it should be pointed out that without a clear definition of biological sex, it would be impossible to associate behaviours, attitudes, feelings, etc. as male or female. Thus gender identity rests on the sex binary (which holds notwithstanding the tiny number of intersex people). This is an example of the kind of nuance kids need to be able to understand before making permanent and life-altering decisions like drug regimens and surgeries.
Gender ideology has gained a great deal of traction in the Western world. It has captured many of our institutions. Given the egregious history of oppression gay and trans people have faced, the lure to want to be “on the right side of history” and accept the ideology is understandable. But anyone who ever embraced any ideology always believed that they were right, and looking back at the 20th century we see the human misery in the wake of many fervently held ideologies, all of which employed the strategy of state indoctrination of youth.
Thus, while it is appropriate that students should learn about Critical Theory and gender ideology in school when they are old enough to understand them, it is equally important that they not be indoctrinated into these belief systems.
Sadly, the pride flag, which once simply represented a basic call for acceptance and human dignity for gay people, has been appropriated by gender ideologues who would tell young kids that they may have been “born in the wrong body”. People who, in the interest of promoting their personal ideology, are ready to shepherd our youth down an irreversible path of drugs and surgeries based on nothing more than the coerced say-so of kids as young as 4 years old. Decades of studies, as related in the excellent BBC video Transgender Kids, exist to show that most gender dysphoria-suffering kids eventually grow to accept their bodies and go on to be relatively well adjusted adults.“
This is from a resource aimed at children and teachers to ‘educate’ them on the finer points of gender-woo. It is here the notion of the unfalsifiable gender-soul is born. This woo, because of Bill C-16 is a category. In the same list as “sex” in our Charter.
See the problem yet? Sex is based on physical observable reality. Gender Identity is nebulous at very best. I’m sure nothing can go wrong with these two aspects sharing the same priority in our Nations Charter or Rights and Freedoms…
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It was a watershed moment for me. Gender-magic suddenly, was made a part of our Charter of Rights and the resulting bullshit was quite beyond the pale as female rights, boundaries, and safety continue to be curtailed and rolled back up here in Canada. It is 2023 now, and push-back against the tide of regressive gender ideology has a reasonable start, but we still have a long way to go as most of our government institutions are thoroughly captured by this insidious ideology.
The silos present there at first confirmed my left bias, but then led by the likes of James Lindsay and his podcasts from The New Discourses I embarked on a journey to the right, or at least centre-right.
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