phoenixvoice
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Hmm…
Populism is powerful — it tends to have gurus who are old, adherents of many ages, and followers who are young often have fervent zeal. Likewise, populism is dangerous — masses of people will operate under a “hive mind” rather than thinking issues. through on their merits. Communism and Nazism and Robespierre and other such movement have shown us how populism can be harnessed to take people down dark paths. At the same time, there are populist movements that have achieved noble purposes: the American Revolution, Ghandi in India, the ending of Apartheid in South Africa, etc. We have powerful entities today who try to create and/or steer populist movements for their own purposes (the CIA and others, with movements such as BLM, LGB@#$&, Maidan, countless terror groups,) as well as hamstring any organic populist movement that they cannot control (Tea Party, MAGA, Occupy Wall Street, Canadian truckers in ‘22, etc.)I suppose that one of the terrifying outcomes of communism is that it showed the powerful that steering a populist movement could successfully keep a small group in control of masses of people for decades, for generations. At the same time, “red fear” and branding others as “Nazi” has been stoked to attempt to brand all organic populism as dangerous and leading to communism/fascism. What is really going on is that populism condoned by the powerful is fomented and/or steered by the powerful, while those in power try to destroy or co-opt all populism that is not under their sway.
Dr D
True Public Housing has never been tried. We all know that giving people things they never worked for makes them strong, smart, capable, moral, and resilient.You know what often does work?
People work, and work hard (whatever that means to the individual), and then are rewarded a little bit higher than typical “market value.” Public housing can function that way — especially when the quantity or quality or “market value” is hampered by things that do not easily change, such as: disability, responsibilities to care for other (children, the infirm, the aged,) education/experience, available transportation, etc.You know what doesn’t work? When someone who is hampered by challenges that cannot be easily alleviated asks for help and is turned down by family who say: “I have the means to help you, but I am not going to bother because if I help you then I am doing you a disservice because you need to ‘pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.’” Bullshit. Said to a person who figuratively has no boots! It’s an idea designed so that those who haven’t experienced hardship can pat themselves on the back and feel good about themselves while ignoring the suffering of others. I found other family that did help, stabilized myself economically, and then slowly moved into a position where I required less and less help. Not all people want to be “on the dole.” Some people just need a damn bridge.
And — for any who are Christian — it is the same concept as the idea that all are sinners who must repent, do their best, and then Christ’s mercy will carry them the rest of the way. What if Christ had said, “Nah — if they can’t do it all completely by themselves then there is no point in me bothering to help them out.”
@ Dora
Thanks for mentioning the postal service “prefund 75 years of retirement” ridiculousness — now i don’t need to. 😉Communism
Does not work, writ large. Inside of a family, it may work just fine. (Many ideologies function relatively well on a small scale.). It requires the human qualities of compassion, empathy, love, and responsibility to be at the forefront of one’s effort. The group is held in high regard, and all members also cherish the needs of each individual. Writ large, it provides an excellent vehicle for the ideologies that enable totalitarianism to flourish. However, communism is not the only vehicle that enables totalitarianism. Believing that communism is the only path to totalitarianism enables those who desire it to put humanity on alternate paths to totalitarianism and for the realization of what is going on to come too late to the masses.Spouse and I continue to watch Dr Zhivago. The doctor’s family has now had both of their large homes expropriated by the Reds. The question is raised: but what do we do? We also need a place to live! If they violate the expropriation, they will be branded as “counter-revolutionaries” and killed. They realize that a tiny cottage on their erstwhile property was left alone by the Reds, so they inhabit it and start farming the land. We agreed that the act of taking another’s property creates a situation where the former “oppressed/abused” becomes the “oppressor/abuser.” It does not break the cycle of oppression/abuse, but mere causes the players to swap roles. The oppression/abuse lies at the heart of the societal problems under Tsar Nicholas, and therefore the communism adopted by Lenin and the Bolsheviks could never be a vehicle towards something that really improved upon their defunct feudalism. In fact, I suppose that a primary reason why Marx’s dreams of utopia could never be approximated through active revolution is likely because they relied upon channeling anger. While anger was certainly justified, given the extant oppression, angry action is most useful when it creates brief bursts of energy and action. Anger that is stoked over and over to keep action alive will harden people and lead them to oppress and abuse those their anger is directed against.
Drones – Mayorkas
So…essentially what he is saying is that he wants to use this moment to expand the power of the federal government. He gives us “suggestions” of what we might presume tge drones to be. Oh — and he said it wrong: dawn to dusk = daytime, and dusk to dawn = nighttime. Just a slip of the tongue? Or was he nervous? Or trying to recall a talking po8nt?Autism is now so prevalent that the fact that there are only a few populations that have not vaccinated their children is no longer a barrier to crafting an effective study. If I remember correctly, the numbers are now 1 in 32 children have autism. My sister’s six unvaccinated kids can be cohort-matched to similar vaccinated children. There are enough parents like her.
Dr John Day
They say nothing about assuming the expense of providing wholesome food to poor people. .Exactly. When one of my sons was struggling greatly with ADHD in school, the school fed him breakfast 5-days per week. I knew that his behavior was more difficult to manage when he had consumed copious amounts of sugar, and I was suspicious of artificial colors. So I looked into the breakfasts being served and was aghast: they were “sugar cereals” and whole-grain donuts washed down with milk (chocolate, if the kids desired,) and as much orange and apple juice as the kids wanted. The food had artificial colors and flavors. The kicker was this: the Arizona legislature had passed a law mandating that the school lunch food be whole-grain and “low fat” — as a result, it was nearly impossible to include any significant amount of eggs, sausage, or bacon in the school breakfast. Sugar was “in!” Highly processed foods were “in!”What could I do? The school received federal funding to feed all of the kids breakfast and lunch due to the percentage of kids served from low-income families — like my family. I didn’t have the money to send alternative foods with my kids for breakfast and lunch — and even if I had done so, the default foods would still have been freely available to my son who would have continued to eat them. So, I simply resolved to use the food stamp money that I had to purchase and prepare high-quality meals at home.
Recycling
The concept of recycling is sound. Plastic is limited in how it can be recycled. But, hey, let’s face it, the reason why plastic is used so much is mostly because (a) it makes money for the companies that produce it, and (b) it is CHEAP. (It is also true that for some applications plastic is ideal: it doesn’t rust, it is easily cleaned — in a dishwasher! — it can be disinfected easily, it doesn’t break easily (unlike glass and ceramics), with some care some plastics can last for decades, etc. — hence in my home, while I spurn plastic in many areas, my kids know that Lego blocks are embraced.). Plastic is cheap because it is made from a (toxic) byproduct of the creation of fuel from oil.
The public needs to understand that plastic is, generally, toxic, and that recycling plastic is always going to be limited. Then, as a society we can begin to unravel where and when to use plastics and where and when to use something else.
Starbase, TX
It looks very vulnerable to hurricanes. Perhaps it should be constructed specifically to survive and withstand hurricanes?As satisfying as it would be to see Fauci behind bars, the most important issue is that all that is hidden is publicly aired — the next best thing to prison time for these self-serving and elite-serving people is that their perfidies become general knowledge — part of the public vernacular — so that no one trusts them ever again and they do not have public sympathy.
You can’t keep hiring more government employees. You have to make them nongovernmental employees
*sigh*
No, hiring people through contracts so that you can avoid paying retirement and medical benefits does not fix any problems, all it does is (a) enrich the third part contractor, (b) likely reduce the compensation of those hired by the contractor, (c) cause those working for the contractor to either forego health insurance, have less robust health coverage, or be eligible for Medicaid, and (d) likely result in the contractor’s employee’s relying solely on Social Security for their retirement. When government doesn’t have to be bothered with pesky costs like medical care and pensions for its employees, then it is easier for legislatures to ignore such societal problems generally, or to outsource them to medical corporations and Wall Street who will deliberately organize the landscape to enrich themselves at the expense of the average worker. I agree that the federal workforce should be downsized to make it more efficient, not by rehiring workers by corporations contracted with the government. The corporations will take the wealth extracted by their contracts and use a sizable portion to lobby government for what benefits the corporations and their shareholders at the expense of the non-wealthy.@ CitizenX
If the movie is accurate (and I do not know), a non-Moscow, in opposition to the directions of the Lenin-led Bolsheviks, Soviet group apprehended the train carrying the Romanovs to Moscow for trial. That self-forming Soviet group held its own “trial” and decided to execute the Romanov family before the “White Army” arrived, as the White Army was only a few miles away.
Personally, I don’t find it very interesting whether or not the composition of that local Soviet group was predominantly Jewish or not. Totalitarianism arose and many died. Obviously, the Nazi totalitarians were not predominantly Jewish. Despite Lenin being Jewish a lot of Jews died under the USSR. So did a lot of non-Jews.
..compassion for vax injured children…
I was writing about compassion for young adults (I.e. 16 yo+) who are working and cannot easily “make change” without a calculator. The best way to protect and defend children from dangerous vaccines is for the parents to be well-informed.
For the last few days spouse and I watched the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra. While I can understand the anger of the Russian people against the abdicated Czar, and can see a reason for a trial, etc., and possibly against his wife, who ruled in some areas while Nicholas was away, there was no Enlightenment-based justification for murdering the children, who had never wielded power. (Yes, Alexis was a boy full of anger, but his hemophiliac cousins all perished from complications of minor auto accidents — chances are that if Alexis had lived, the same would have befallen him.). All I saw was a popular movement that had soured due to men losing their moral compass…just like the French Revolution, the Nazis, etc. The blood of the innocent (if angry) was spilt — and it was a precursor of more and more — millions more — blood both innocent and guilty spilt — the guilty without proper trials, punishment that often outweighed the crimes…if they were even crimes at all, in a more sensible environment.
We need leaders with strong moral convictions. We need populaces with strong moral convictions. Those morals cannot be of the current, snazzy and popular “groupthink,” but rather to other, longer-lasting standards, requiring thoughtfulness and deliberation. We need people who will step up and say, wait — I understand that we are all justifiably angry, but “two wrongs don’t make a right,” and murdering those who have done us no harm will only bring eventual woe upon us.
Dr D Rich
….if A Midwestern Doctor says so then it’s so.
Hardly. It is an informal citation that I give because I haven’t the time to corroborate further.Hmm…come to think of it, the water issue in Phoenix might be a fungal bloom rather than algae…it’s some sort of tiny, tiny thing blooming, I haven’t looked it up in a long time—but the same principle applies.
Dr D
it’s infinitely frustrating to warn people, point right at the published studies, tell them their kids will die…and they do nothing. Then to support your argument, you point out the LAST 12 times the SAME people did this, lied…and people did nothing.
Etc.It seems that is what is going on, because our minds automatically chunk individuals into groups, and then see the groups as singular, monolithic units. However, when you drill down, that isn’t quite the pattern at all. Thalidomide is a good example of this. The individuals in the FDA during the Thalidomide era have all passed, or are resting in care homes. (Like the woman who always comes out to listen when I sing at the care home where she resides — who will be 93 tomorrow. Crazy thing — I saw a woman, older than I, while shopping yesterday who appeared to have arm deformation indicative of mild Thalidomide poisoning in utero.) And, according to A Midwestern Doctor, it was a moral FDA employee who repeatedly blocked full approval of Thalidomide, preventing a larger scale catastrophe in the US.
Humans progress, generally, from ignorance and naïveté towards knowledge and (possibly) wisdom. If well-meaning, and otherwise effective and loving, parents and teachers and clergy and family give less-than-accurate narratives to the young, then the young adults will treat those narratives as “the gospel truth” unless or until life’s reality forces them to see otherwise. Because of this, I trusted that the food in the grocery store and the water from the tap was healthy and good for my body, until my own experience and research suggested or proved otherwise. Here in Phoenix there is an algae bloom that causes a weird odor in the tap water for a few months in the summer each year. We are assured that it is not harmful, however, it is the reason why many years ago my ex and I had water delivered in 5-gallon plastic bottles — tap water here often tastes gross. I did the math after a few years of water delivery and realized for less than one year’s cost of water delivery, we could purchase and install an under the sink reverse osmosis system. Now, I also understand that the fluoride in the tap water is problematic, as was letting the plastic 5-gallon bottles of water sit in the sun day after day until they were used. Oops. Did I drink tap water and water from plastic bottles that had sat in the sun for a couple of weeks because I was stupid? No — I was always intelligent. And then I start to understand how and why the Roman aqueducts were lined with lead even though the Romans knew that ingesting a lot of lead could cause mental illness.
Very often the people who are “in the know” are on separate tracks from the ignorant. (The Spanish word, “aislado” comes to mind, as being more fitting than any single English word.). Or, they behave in ways that come across as “odd” and our human minds, evolved in tribes, see oddness as a mark of being “not-tribe.” I think that this must be why the Greeks prized cogent thought (logic) and why our culture (supposedly) prizes the scientific method. While tribal thinking is a needed and necessary component of the human condition, for us to be more than tribes, it is necessary to also cultivate additional modes of thinking — such as logic, morality (ethics,) and the scientific method. (Not intended as an exhaustive list.).
If we understand that it is not general stupidity that causes others not to see the perfidy of The System, but rather naïveté and trust of those who led them well, then we find paths to convert the ignorant. On the most basic level, we build common ground with the ignorant, so that they see us as “in-tribe,” and are then going to see our oddness as “quirks” rather than “not-tribe.” This opens the door to leading the ignorant to the experiences and information that will cause them to adjust their personal narratives about the world. This is, essentially, what RFK Jr describes with the women of autistic children who repeatedly sought him out. He saw them as odd, dismissible, until a woman showed up on his doorstep, built common ground, and his training in logic demanded that he look at the evidence that she proffered. He was never “stupid” about vaccines — he was ignorant, trusting those who had led him well.
*sigh*
The not-able-to-calculate-change in the young adults may be a cognitive issue related to constant exposure to toxins: fluoride, vaccine adjuvants and contaminants, etc.When I was newly married I had heard whispers about vaccines causing autism — but there was little information about it, and life was busy, I and my siblings had been vaccinated — and I was not aware of the law change in the 80s, nor that the vaccine schedule had ballooned. I did not know about GMOs and glyphosate. I did not know that fluoride was a neurotoxin. I thought “organic” was a silly gimmick for expensive produce.
I thought that my kids had “dodged the bullet” when it came to harms from vaccination. I now know that I was wrong. My son at ASU had a therapist years ago that let me know that he was likely high-functioning autistic. His twin has had so many issues in school — last June that son was confirmed by a psychiatrist to also “high functioning autistic” — albeit less high-functioning than his brother. That son also has EOE, a rare, mild allergic problem of the esophagus (that is becoming increasingly less rare.). My daughter has a math learning disability — and can’t count back change well. She also has a couple odd allergies, is very picky about foods, and her skin is very sensitive — she occasionally has eczema outbreaks and she has frequent colds.
My sister had her kids just after me, and pursued the vaccine concern whispers. She has five kids and lives about 15 miles away — none are vaccinated. Her children have NO chronic illnesses, NO allergies, NO learning disabilities, NO autism.
I realize now that my children did not “dodge the bullet”…they simply did not get harmed as badly as some. I stopped their vaccinations when the doctors began pushing the HPV vaccine. I did my own research and asked doctors about it. The doctors gushed about how wonderful the vaccine was, and my OB/GYN tried to instill fear of cervical cancer in me. But my own research concluded that there was, as yet, no direct evidence that the HPV vaccine reduced cervical cancer (the vaccine had not existed long enough for such data to even be collected,) and the risks of the HPV vaccine were well-documented.
Please have some compassion on the young people of today. They have been badly poisoned physically, and bear the scars. They have been lied to about what is moral and right in many cases, being led to believe that “wokeness” is morally correct, and very often those doing the lying were parents, teachers, coaches, and even clergy. They can overcome these obstacles and find that truth is actually out there — when sought, truth can be found. But it is going to be a very long road for them, and many of them will forever be confused and deluded.
My fave part of Logan’s run was the scene with all of the cats…very implausible (how were there enough rodents, etc., to maintain the high house cat population?), but fun to muse about.
@ aspnaz. You said:
I am not a racist, I can accept white, black, yellow …. any race, but what I cannot accept is the corrupt, lawless degradation of society by a small elitist group who believe that they are above the rest of society and entitled to steal and murder without consequence.Okay, fair enough. I can agree with that statement. However, if that is the case for you:
– “Jew” refers to anyone who was born to someone of any of the “Jewish” races or the Jewish religion. I could renounce my membership in the religion of my birth and no longer be of it — a Jew can renounce all Jewish religion and is still a Jew.
– there are Jewish religious sects that are not Zionist or that are anti-Zionist. They are “on our side” — but by decrying Jews, you lump the anti-Zionist Jews in with the Zionists.
– most Jews are not a part of that “ small elitist group,” even if they have been duped by it, support Zionism, etc. For that matter, many Christians, etc., also support the cause of Zionism.Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Zionism is wrong — it is leading directly to genocide and apartheid. I do not support the “ small elitist group,” and I have come to the conclusion that Israelis who call for the murder of Palestinians and Gazans have permitted themselves to fall for a totalitarian mind-virus, much like what occurred to many Germans under Hitler. While these Israelis can “wake up” from the trance, they should be held individually accountable for crimes they commit against Palestinians, etc., crimes against humanity, war crimes, etc. Adults must think and “everybody else around me was doing it” is not sufficient excuse for crimes against humanity — such as blocking aid trucks to Gaza, causing Gazan civilians to deliberately starve to death. As far as the “ small elitist group” — I have no confidence that this group is isolated to only consist of people considered Jews by birth. Either there are non-Jews in this group, or there are multiples of these groups.
Regardless of how you slice it, the word “Jew” does not adequately describe the problems of the world, and by inaccurately invoking this word you open up innocents to future genocide.
Dr D posted- Hannah Arendt
A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish
between right and wrong.My spouse watches independent media that blasts Trump for neocon cabinet picks; he says that he knew that Trump never could be trusted, etc.
I am not familiar enough with the reputed neocon cabinet picks to genuinely evaluate one way or the other. Perhaps those doing the evaluations have that familiarity — but perhaps not. Regardless, passing final judgment on a presidency that has not yet begun seems a mite bit premature. I am certain that some of Trump’s future actions as president I will agree with, some I’ll be neutral, and for some others I will be incensed.
Regardless, passing judgment before inauguration seems to play into the desires of the deep state — whether those encouraging such judgment are direct appendages of the deep state or independent actors whose messages happen to align currently with deep state tactics and designs. The deep state does not want to lose power. That is the larger battle going on here. Giving up on the battle before it commences by deciding that Trump is a puppet of the deep state is abdicating victory to the deep state. The deep state can only be vanquished when those in opposition stand together and stand firm — the coalition must stand and not be frayed to bits before Jan. 20. This is the larger picture.
Thanks to oxymoron, aspnaz for weighing in on ideas for my technology of the 21st century class…this was helpful. 🙂
@ John Day
Sen. Ron Johnson is looking for letters from doctors in support of RFK Jr as HHS Secretary that he can read during the Senate confirmation hearings.
https://x.com/NicoleShanahan/status/1860412329583575473Makary, and the fact that early on in the Covid debacle he supported what is now broadly viewed in circles such as TAE as nonsense…
I have some patience with views such as his that evolved over time. My *own* views evolved over time. Early on I was terrified of getting sick. I was desperate for information which caused me to spend hours each day trying to figure out what was going on — which is how I found TAE. The first mask I had I sewed myself. I *enjoyed* some aspects of the lockdowns — I had just gone through three years of family court litigation, which was finally winding down, and I had essentially won — it gave me the time and space to exercise regularly, and create some healthy routines. By the time Covid hit my household, I wasn’t worried for me, my spouse, or my kids much — but my parents were with us and I was worried about them, especially my asthmatic mom. Covid, however, became a seminal moment: like the biblical sifting of the wheat and the chaff — it started becoming apparent who had their heads screwed on straight, which people had nefarious intent, and who was blindly deluded. There should be acceptance and welcoming for each person who passes from delusion by false narratives into the light of truth, I.e. “red pilling.”
AZ governor hedges on having AZ state police not participate in mass deportations…
https://x.com/Liberty_Scrypt/status/1858856362836422800
Perhaps because AZ passed Prop 314, making a state crime to enter the country illegally: https://www.acluaz.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-under-proposition-314I voted against that proposition…I want the immigration problems fixed, it is a federal issue, not a state issue; trying to make it a state issue has dubious constitutionality. The problem must be fixed on a federal level. (Kari Lake should have pushed the border, not abortion.)
Maricopa County also voted in a sheriff who promised to be “just like Joe Arpaio,” and to reinstitute the “tent city” prison.
I hope Trump gives Kari Lake a government position — I’m interested in seeing how she does.
and if we fire all the teachers who cannot pass a basic competency test, who will teach?
Almost anyone with a college degree can get a provisional teaching license and get hired to teach in the public school system….
Trump making Gabbard and Kennedy into stars…
What CNN commentators fail to realize is that these (and others of trump’s inner circle) already were “stars” to the American public. When RFK Jr walked out on stage to greet Trump in August he didn’t receive exuberant cheers because of anything Trump had done — he received whooping applause for his own merits.
CNNers believe that because they had low opinions of these two and others that their views are reflective of th3 majority of the American people — and the CNNers are, quite frankly, misguided and wrong.
News flash to 60 minutes —
I don’t believe that it is the job of the cabinet to represent the American people, since they are not elected.Regarding SNAP:
A work requirement might be added for some able-bodied adult beneficiaries, with federal spending on the program capped.*sigh*
Statements like these really cause me to wonder.
Except in times of high unemployment in the state (such as during C19) there already is a work requirement for SNAP. It gets waived (partially or fully) for adults who…- care for minor children
- Are disabled
- attend school
- Care for disabled or elderly adults
- are themselves elderly/retired
So…which category of the above are intended to be pushed into the workforce for SNAP?
@ Poppie
🙂 Makes sense. I had to walk away from my credit card debt (accrued due to family court) and my only other debt is my mortgage, which is private, through my parents. I am self-employed, and I speak my mind — selectively, with caution. My refusal to be vaccinated lost me a few small jobs, but only a few, and only small ones, so I was able to keep up my obligations to myself, my children, and my parents. I have compassion for others who do not feel free to speak up and out. There are clear reasons for the terms “debt peonage” and “wage-slave.” A slave is not free to speak as he would prefer.
My 91-year-old good friend, long-time client, and benefactor invited me to breakfast a week ago after I had helped her with something. She has been politically aware for decades, typically votes Democrat, although she supported a local Republican state representative for years, including sponsoring meet-and-greets in her home. She felt badly for chewing out her (30-something) granddaughter for voting for Trump. (She watches CNN frequently.) She had convinced her daughter to not vote for president when her daughter didn’t want to vote for Harris. She couldn’t understand why anyone would vote for Trump! So I explained to her how the MSM has not been honest about Trump, slicing and dicing clips of him speaking to imply that he said things that he did not say, and that the current way that most (younger) people are getting their news is via the internet, especially through long-form interviews called podcasts, where they can get a real feel for the candidate. Then I shared with her how bummed I was that I couldn’t vote for RFK Jr for president…and allowed her to believe as she wished regarding who *I* voted for.
Dr D, yesterday: So THEY want to endorse Trump, like 20%-40% of their artist FRIENDS want to endorse Trump, but no one, THEY won’t know because they’re fundamentally cowardly and dishonest.
There is some veracity to that, but it isn’t that simple. Most people are in debt — even artists. (Very often: artists — many historically aren’t that great with managing money, including Mozart, etc.)
Western society teaches that “it is no big deal to be in debt,” — but that isn’t really true. If living expenses are kept very small, typically because of no debt, because of “living within one’s means,” then whether or not the person speaks up starts coming down to (social) courage. However, when an adult is in debt, speaking up can mean loss of everything. Additionally, many adults have obligations to provide support to children and others — speaking up risks the ability to provide that support. So, perhaps that is why they merely voted for Trump in secret? It just goes to show how important anonymity can be!
10 min musk smear piece…I’ll admit, it is well put together. I can see why Dem voters believe what they do. It is my lived experience and personal research that tells me otherwise. And, to the deep state, Musk is a threat.
Elon “wildly charismatic magnate”
Hunh?
Elon is high functioning autistic and has the tells. He does odd social things. People embrace him anyhow, because of who he is and because they know that he is “just that way.” However, Trump is “wildly charismatic”. — Musk is not.20 million “missing” voters
Well, either the Democrats cheated in 2020 or the clot shot killed 20 million voters.
! It is that society has removed any and all restraints from one gender while bemoaning and blaming the other non stop.
Yes, I recognize that the most powerful, dominant part of society has done this — against men, against “white people.” However, that doesn’t mean that every issue they took up is automatically wrong or that everyone who agrees with the “woketards” on a single issue is automatically a part of their camp or with them for their entire agenda. I typically believe that most of the people who post here have good access to clear, cogent thought: kindly utilize this skill.
I am not a part of that dominant society. I seek personal liberty and individual sovereignty. I declined the Covid vax and lived through some uncomfortable social moments and lost some income. (Which is a very small thing when compared to what many others who declined the jab had to deal with.). I value the men in my life generally: my father, my spouse, my brother, brothers-in-law, my musical mentor, my sons — and my greatest anger towards my ex is that he was not “man enough” to be honest about his income so that a reasonable portion would go towards the physical needs of his children. (I still, to this day, hear horror stories from my children of the myriad of ways that my ex didn’t provide things for my kids when they were in his care, like clothes that actually fit or food that they liked and how they did not feel comfortable asking for what they wanted or even getting food for themselves out of the cupboards and fridge in his home.)
The reason why I know that only a small number of women intentionally use abortion as birth control is because I have always had more female friends than male friends. Women talk. Even the one woman that I knew years ago who used abortion as birth control felt very badly about it. (She wanted her friends to rally around and cry with her about it.) I believe that her position was morally wrong — she didn’t even try to avoid the situation with proper birth control methods—but she truly believed that it was the only viable solution to the quandary that she had gotten herself into. Another woman I knew felt so badly about getting an abortion that she had her tubes tied to prevent herself from being in that position again. She still got pregnant! She decided that god had sent her the child, raised the babe with the father, and had a hysterectomy after the birth. I have never, ever had a woman talk to me about an abortion with pride or flippantly. That doesn’t mean that they are not out there, and it isn’t a large enough sample to calculate a percentage, but the number cannot be great.
I suggest that the reason why some couples cease to have sex in their marriages is because the communication breaks down and one or both parties give up on figuring out the issues. It isn’t natively “the woman’s fault” nor “the man’s fault.” Such tropes are gross oversimplifications that are often expressed by those who are experiencing (or who have experienced) long periods of such frustration.
I have never in my life shot a gun. But I support the 2nd amendment and believe that the populace should have access to guns, even if through accidents and crimes of passion and wackos some people die.
I have never sought out an abortion. I have only had “unprotected sex” when I was open to welcoming a child. I do not want to ever be put in the position of a pregnancy that is unwanted — because I loathe abortion. But I believe that abortion is the woman’s choice, and that the government should not insert itself into that decision. I believe this even though I know that a small percentage of the population will have abortions for reasons other than rape or incest or danger to mother’s life, and even though I know that there will be a small number of women who will use abortion as birth control. I view the morality of abortion to be between the woman and god.
It is tyranny to take choices from people because you are afraid that they may use them in ways that you don’t approve. It removes their sovereignty.
