“The Emperor Has No Clothes”? Sure, it’s an amusing fairy tale. Its message? Most of my life I’ve regarded it appropriate only for comically extreme — and rare — circumstances. Increasingly, however, the warning/wisdom proffered in Hans Christian Anderson’s fable is finding immediate application; conspicuous application; in events unfolding all around.
Jaw-dropping developments, ludicrosities, undeniable head-scratchers — they’re multiplying like that tractable throng surrounding the undressed king. Everywhere. The majority of the population? Like the majority in “Emperor”, they go with the flow, saying nothing, playing along that all is well, please don’t stare.
While the mob’s eyes are fixed on their shoes, a few redoubtable types poke their heads above them, crying out: Hey, anybody paying attention?!?! There’s lots of weird and troubling stuff going on here!
En Masse, society is being jostled into acting like nobody notices deviancy and insanity are masquerading as acceptable behavior on nearly every front. Merriam-Webster defines psychosis as: “a serious mental illness … characterized by defective or lost contact with reality.” Western Civilization growingly seems to be suffering from a borders-spanning case of it.
For weeks now, for instance, Americans have been subjected to the nationally degrading spectacle of court-martialed traitor “Chelsea Manning” (formerly Bradley Manning) released by Barack Obama from his much-deserved thirty-five-years at Fort Leavenworth and paraded around as one of today’s most prominent examples of gender-dysphoria, err, gender-confusion, err, transgenderism. Making matters worse, those reporting the details of the Manning debacle are pummeled into speaking of him using female pronouns and terms: “she”, “her”, “woman”, etc. He’s a “transgender female”, you see; that’s technical jargon for a man aping life as a woman.
And #@%!!* it, the rest of the world is going to collaborate in that heart-breaking fantasy, to blazes with intrusive facts to the contrary.
The tragical “Chelsea Manning” farce is just the tip of the delusional ice-berg, mind you:
— Two “transgender females” — again, physiological males faking they’re women — recently laced up the cleats for their respective schools’ female track and field competitions. At Haines High School in Alaska, Nattaphon “Ice” Wangyot, raced in the 100- and 200-meter dashes (having suited up in the fall for girls’ volleyball and basketball.)
Meantime, thirty-eight-hundred miles to the southeast, Cromwell, CT high school freshman — and genetic male — Andreya Yearwood captured a pair of state titles in the girls’ 100- and 200-meters. Apparently Yearwood’s plans are to “eventually undergo hormone therapy to complete a transition from her male birth gender to female.” For all that, photos indicate “she” couldn’t be bothered even to shave off “her” mustache before sprinting as a female entrant.
USA Today‘s High School Sports site unctuously cooed that “the state of Connecticut is clearly stuck in a delicate tap dance.” There are “no easy answers” for the situation, gravely pronounced the Hartford Courant‘s Jeff Jacobs.
Plainly, what there are none of — or at least not enough of — anywhere near these sporting events are adults with the ground-level integrity to decry the obvious: both these arrangements are preposterous; they’d be hilarious if they weren’t so creepily pathetic.
— Did you hear about the “pregnant man”? Or the “menstruating man”? The former is a biological woman who’d been living as a fella but who, wanting to become pregnant, ceased her male hormone intake. Voila! Reality — her birth sex – returned; she subsequently conceived.
The latter, similarly born with XY chromosomes, went the transgender route to “become” male and, while switching “his” brand of testosterone, experienced the reappearance of “his” once-a-month cycle.
“It didn’t make me any less of a man,” he/she declaimed, presumably without any sense of irony.
Over twenty-one-hundred years ago, Horace, contrarily, warned, “You can drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but she keeps on coming back.” (Sometimes monthly, I’d add!)
No expectant or menses-afflicted dudes in view here — instead, a couple of disturbed ladies being patronized in their self-deception by a pusillanimous and morally AWOL culture averting its gaze from uncooperative actualities.
— Mid-June, “[t]he Army has begun compulsory transgender sensitivity training“. An Obama-administration July 1 deadline for recruiting gender-bending troops has arrived; although the military has been granted requested delays in implementing the bewildering new guidelines.
— Further in the reality-aversion department, Oregon is breaking new ground: Starting July 3, applicants for a state driver’s license will be able to select “X” as their gender option, if they conclude neither the dusty “XX” or “XY” alternative suits them. Salt in the wound: France — oui, dissolute France! — recently rejected a similar policy change; thumbs down on “neutral”, a “third gender category”.
— Currently, the bullying of law is targeting those who balk at gender-make-believe. (See New York City’s Human Rights Commission and even aspects of the Trump Administration’s Education Department policy.)
Reality-disconnect actually extends far beyond loopy outbursts of transgenderism. I just spoke with a friend whose niece, days ago, birthed dangerously premature twins. Clocking in at a mere three pounds each, they were, of course, bustled along to the NICU where, prayerfully, they’ll thrive. Meanwhile, the same society would’ve allowed mom to tear them to pieces weeks, even months, hence had they remained inside her body.
Then there’s the fierce-eyed Leftist trope that enabling unmotivated, non-working people to live a comfortable life by giving them other people’s money — effectively paying them to NOT work — won’t encourage sloth and dead-beatism. No, the welfare state doesn’t facilitate the ranks of lay-abouts, because, allegedly, in no other part of life does funneling money into things increase the likelihood of producing more of them. And pouring kerosene on an open flame doesn’t court trouble either …
Yes-sirree, across-the-board the hallmark of Secularistic Progressivism is reality-denial.
In a recent commentary, National Review‘s excellent David French modeled the only workable solution for quenching this galloping, societally-enforced psychosis: civilly but firmly and consistently insisting on dealing with matters as they actually exist. Though reality-champions will be derided as “bullies”, “bigots”, “haters”, they must keep addressing life’s verities, not providing oxygen for fashionable charades. When crusaders for political correctness gasp sanctimoniously at honest observers’ “insensitivity”, they must keep reinforcing truth.
In a post analyzing Manning’s criminal misconduct and release from the hoosegow, French understandably alluded to him by using parts of speech applicable to a human being born with a penis. For this, predictably, he drew fire from trans- activists. In a follow-up essay, French clarified, “When I use a male pronoun to describe Chelsea Manning, I’m not trolling. I’m not being a jerk. I’m not trying to make anyone angry. I’m simply telling the truth. I’m reflecting biological reality”.
Sigh. Shouldn’t be a controversial approach. Alas, in 2017 it’s nearly scandalously so.
An editorial in the June 6 edition of French’s masthead publication took a similar bent, casually relaying a Manning update via accurate language: “he changed his name”, “Barack Obama commuted his prison sentence”, “[d]eclaring himself to be a transsexual won him more support”, etc. (emphases mine). Notice: no fuss, no apologies for communicating in normal-people-speak. Just precise explication of circumstances as they are.
It’s not complicated, but in the twenty-first century that way of conveying ideas demands an uncommon measure of courage.
By the way, there’s one benefit to the Emperor’s nakedness: Should he decide to throw in with the transgender brigade and identify as a gal? His claim’s falseness will be directly, anatomically apparent, right before the eyes of those willing to recognize it. Those of us rejecting collective psychosis and valuing reality will point that out — along with the deficiency of his wardrobe.
photo credit: Excerpted from: Cayusa You Are Getting Sleepy…SLEEEPY via photopin (license)
