This week, the former president of an LGBT group that sponsored Drag Queen Story Hour events was arrested on child pornography charges. A Canadian attorney general ordered the arrest of a father who called his gender-confused daughter a girl. Last week, a prison employee reported that the very day the Washington State women’s prison admitted biological males who claimed to be transgender, one of the “trans women” raped a female inmate.
Meanwhile, Christian baker Jack Phillips is still in court facing charges of discrimination related to his refusal to bake custom cakes celebrating LGBT causes with which he disagrees. Last week, the City of Cambridge, Mass., legalized domestic partnerships between two or more people, a step toward the normalization of polyamory.
Today, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm a secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who had no medical experience. This individual, Xavier Becerra, had used his position as California’s attorney general to silence pro-life journalists, force pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion, tried to force Catholic nuns to pay for contraception, tried to stop the Trump administration’s reversal of Obama’s transgender order, and demanded conservative nonprofits hand over their donor lists, likely exposing donors to harassment. It seems Becerra’s true qualification for the job is a hostility to social conservatives.
I remember debating the issue of same-sex marriage a decade ago. When I warned that it would lead to a slippery slope, I had no idea just how dangerous it would be.
The Left isn’t just racing to the fringes of abortion and LGBT policy, it’s actively demonizing and suppressing any dissent from this dangerous agenda. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., a decades-long champion of the Hyde Amendment in the Senate, now aims to force pro-life taxpayers to fund the intentional killing of unborn babies.
WATCH OUT: Senate Confirms Anti-Religious Bigot Becerra to Lead HHS
Despite its many scandals, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — which brands mainstream conservative and Christian groups “hate groups” and puts them on a list with the Ku Klux Klan — is widely considered the gold standard in reporting the threats of “hate” in America today. Never mind the claims of racial discrimination and sexual harassment or the former employees admitting the “hate” labeling is a fundraising scam — the SPLC abets Democrats in their rush to demonize conservatives by lumping them in with the criminals who stormed the Capitol on January 6, whom they call “white supremacists.”
Democrats are pushing Marxist critical race theory — the idea that a hidden “white supremacy” is systematically woven into American society, despite the clear laws against discrimination.
The culture war hasn’t just continued — it’s exploded. The Left isn’t trying to live and let live; they’re trying to enforce agreement with their agenda at the end of a gun.
I’m not naive enough to suggest that if the Supreme Court were just to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) — which is a horribly argued decision in addition to being heinously wrong and a threat to religious freedom — everything would go back to normal. Such a move would only inspire backlash and make things worse for the conservatives who dare to disagree with the Left’s agenda.
I’ve been warning about this stuff for years, and it just seems to get worse and worse. I’m also not sure how it can be stopped. Activists have infiltrated so many of America’s institutions that they can use their positions of power in academia, media, and politics to gaslight the sensible Americans who disagree with them. According to a recent study, almost three-quarters of U.S. academics said they wouldn’t even eat lunch with a fellow scholar who disagrees with transgender activism. (And to think I once wanted to go into academia…)
Also VIP: Big Business Is Losing Big Time, and They Only Have Themselves to Blame
I’m not the kind of guy who is prone to populism. I like to think I’m wise enough to trust tradition and experience more than my own fallible intuitions, and that often makes me prone to trusting experts. But so many “experts” live and work in bubbles that confirm their biases about issues like same-sex marriage, transgenderism, abortion, climate change, “institutional racism,” and the like — and these experts use their positions to make those among us who still have common sense seriously question whether or not we’re insane.
No, you’re not insane to note that the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, the Quran, and many other holy texts clearly define marriage as between one man and one woman. You’re not insane to think that adopting this definition does not make a person a bigot. You’re not insane to think that women’s sports shouldn’t let men compete if they say they identify as women. You’re not insane to note that climate alarmists have failed to predict the apocalypse so many times, even Democrats should doubt their Chicken Little hypotheses. You’re not insane to note that life begins at conception. You’re not insane to disagree with the concept of “institutional racism.”
You don’t “hate women” if you want to defend the unborn. You don’t “hate” gay people if you want bakers like Jack Phillips to be able to opt out of celebrating things he doesn’t believe in. You don’t “hate” transgender people if you’re concerned about how trans policies invite danger. You don’t “deny science” if you think carbon emissions aren’t going to cause the apocalypse in ten years.
You’re not insane to fight the Left’s insanity on these issues, but the very fact that I have to tell you that shows just how dangerous things have become for free speech and free thought in this country.
Seriously, I really hate saying, “I told you so.”
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
