AWAY  WITH  WORDS

  Daniel Boland Ph. D.

 

AWAY  WITH  WORDS

 

Daniel Boland Ph. D.

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13 September 2023

 

Conditioning The Mind Of The Nation


Recently, a friend visited a mutual acquaintance named Tom. Tom’s seven-year-old son, Little Georgie, greeted my friend at the door. Little Georgie was dressed as a pirate: tri-corner hat, red sash around his waist. a prominent black patch covering one eye.

My friend greeted Little Georgie, complimenting him on his pirate outfit. But Little Georgie merely growled, then whacked my friend on both shins with his pirate’s sword. Georgie’s father, Tom smiled approvingly at Georgie’s antics. “Some kinda kid, eh?” Tom declared, as my friend rubbed his throbbing tibia.

Tom continued: “Little Georgie’s an independent kid. He’s decided he wants to be a pirate, so his Mother and I have an appointment with an eye surgeon to remove one of Georgie’s eyes. Then Georgie can wear that eye patch and feel like a real pirate, and not have to pretend any more. Isn’t that great…?”


Freedom


Many people agree with Tom’s parental logic. “Let him be an authentic, one-eyed pirate. Who are we to stand in his way?”

Tom’s support of his son’s nascent career as a patch-wearing, high seas marauder is in sync with America’s latest cultural doctrine: childhood mutilation as “gender affirming care.”

Many people (e.g., some educators, physicians, psychologists, corporate types, parents) believe “gender affirming care” justifies a child’s decision to change his/her natural sex in drastic, life-altering (and genetically impossible) ways.

In some States, if parents object to their child’s transsexual fantasies, those parents may be jailed as “abusive.” And in California (where else?), the State will remove children from the homes of parents who disagree. But there’s also much more to fear if pending legislation is enacted. See these links:
California Primed to Launch Transgender Inquisition Into Heretic Parents (dailysignal.com)

California Passes Bill That Would Require Parents to Affirm Kid's Gender (dailysignal.com)

SaveCalifornia.com | Campaign for Children and Families - SaveCalifornia.com

AG Bonta Sues CA School District Saying Parent Notification ‘Endangers’ Kids - California Family Council

Bills Threatening Families Decided on as Legislative Session Ends - California Family Council

You may also wish to read the following essay which expresses the confusion of parents as they contend with these issues: (16) In the Shadows of Sorrow: Parenting Through Gender Dysphoria (substack.com)


Solid Traditions Wane


I was (as many Americans were) taught to respect every person’s inherent dignity, especially the immature innocence of every child.

I was taught that, in fact, there are stages in the process of maturing, which is a process unique to each person … a process which is neither predictable nor linear.

I was taught that serious decisions (e.g., surgery) require a great deal more maturity that children (and immature adults) possess. I was taught that, above any other agents or agencies, parents are primary educators of their children … rightly entrusted by God, Nature and society with the grave responsibility to guide their children toward spiritual depth and moral maturity.

I was taught that before a child may make life-altering, irreversible decisions, parental knowledge is utterly essential … yet parents are today excluded with increasing fervor.

Through decades of study and experience, I’ve learned that achieving mental insight, emotional stability, solid judgment and moral maturity is a life-long process (which some adults never finish). To allow a child or a young adult to make grave, life-altering decisions without mature parental involvement is patently absurd.


The New Normal


These days, we’re bombarded by transgender deceptions in many areas by supposed adults, who encourage children to:


  • adopt contradictory pronouns,
  • use locker rooms and bathrooms of the opposite sex,
  • take life-altering medications,
  • undergo surgical mutilation for gender transition,
  • dress as a member of the opposite sex,
  • join an opposite-sex sports team….
  • on and on.

Even Sports (including bike racing and weight-lifting, for goodness sake) are now infiltrated by trans-men intruding into women’s activities: Transgenders Dominate Multiple Women's Cycling Events | MRCTV

Many professionals in America encourage children to make decisions which affect the child’s mind and body, soul and spirit, for a lifetime … and do so without shame or recrimination.

This is child-abusing madness on a nation-wide scale.

Experience and common sense (not to mention Natural Law and the prohibitions of long-established moral traditions) tell us that many adults do not even achieve sufficient maturity to understand the consequences of their behavior. It is, therefore, utter folly to assume children possess the cognitive maturity or emotional insight to make informed, life-altering decisions involving powerful drugs and radical surgeries.

Nonetheless, a large number of school districts still deliberately conceal a child’s transgender illusions from the child’s parents. See this essay: Over 1,000 School Districts Hide Students’ Gender Identities From Parents (dailysignal.com)

Instead of protecting vulnerable, deeply impressionable children from grave and irreversible error; instead of guiding children through confusion and doubt, some physicians and parents actually support transgender surgery for mentally and emotionally unknowing children.

Indeed, some agencies even recommend transition for children as young as three – three - years old. Major Hospital System Promotes 'Trans’ 3-Year-Olds in DEI Training - CatholicVote org


What Is “Gender Affirming Care ?”


If the phrase “gender affirming care” is new to you … or if it sounds benign or beneficent, I urge you to read the following articles and/or listen to the words of a transgender surgeon ---
but I suggest you do so cautiously; the details of “gender affirming care” are grim and, to some folks, quite upsetting:

Oregon Health & Science University’s Castration Machine (city-journal.org)

4thWaveNow on Twitter: "Here's the interview w/ Dr. Blair Peters, in full. He & his interviewer admit--quite openly--how little gender docs know about the outcomes for medically-transitioned minors "We'll know more in 5-10 years." It will be "fascinating" to see how these young people fare.

You may also read this essay for an insight into the transgender craze which infiltrates the adult world:
(15) Barbarism in the Name of Equality - Christopher F. Rufo (substack.com)


What’s Happening ?


Despite these deeply disturbing facts, the incidence of “gender affirming” surgical activity shows rates of increase. See this, from American Medical Association:
National Estimates of Gender-Affirming Surgery in the US | Obstetrics and Gynecology | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

What has happened to so completely nullify common sense and clear thinking … to vilify the God-given authority of parents … to so disrespect the obvious, inherent limits of human nature … to so disregard the divinely-established boundaries of Creation?

Prof. Michael Hanby refers to these changes as “the absolutization of politics.” Theological traditions and religious faith have been replaced by political jargon. The Word of God once held persuasive sway over our behavior, but political agendas now push freedom far beyond any reasonable limits and are now given far greater weight even by people who should know better.

For decades, our culture reveled in scientific and technological achievements; we “conquered” Nature. At the same time, our link to Nature’s God weakened, our hold on our religious heritage waned. Today, America’s religious affiliations continue to drop. Faith in science gives way to moral relativism and distorted doctrines of rebellious self-expression (seeking the “inner self”).

We are afflicted by exaggerated sense of “freedom” unrestrained and widespread abuse of the reasonable limits of all human rights. Much of our culture now values righteous “self-expression” at any price, including innocence of children and abandonment of religiosity. Unlimited “freedom” to express our “inner selves” (however bizarre) has become the ultimate human “right.”

This search for the mythic “inner self” leads to:


  • expressing individual “freedoms” without qualification,
  • devising “human rights” without limits,
  • giving in to individual “feelings” and personal “urges,”
  • disregarding both the Constitution and law enforcement,
  • disdaining the restraints of Nature and morality,
  • obliterating social restraints and common sense, and
  • denying the divine prohibitions of moral tradition.

Much of our culture now accepts toxic ideas, such as “gender affirming care” (and others) simply because they seem to honor “freedom.” Unwisely, we accept these fatal fads, unchallenged by Faith and Tradition, history and humility – yes, humility!

Why humility?

Because humility requires us to admit the truth when we’re wrong, but many people never admit they’re wrong … about anything, including 1) fallen human nature, 2) our tendency to error, and 3) our state of stubborn denial, as when we defend our errancy and alibi our flawed behavior – even when children pay the price.

Here is a further analysis of the “gender affirming care” by Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., who earned his Doctorate in Neuroscience from Yale University and did postdoctoral work at Harvard. He is senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. His analysis is excellent.

Rapid onset gender dysphoria. Published Sep. 1 2023. Opinion. (thebostonpilot.com)


Science Denied


The process of personal and social denial and abuse of children in America is a moral steamroller gone amok. I say this because:


  • Even scientific fact (e.g., there are only two sexes; changing one’s sex is an impossible fantasy) means nothing to a large swath of Americans.
  • It’s shockingly clear: transgender rhetoric dishonors logic, religious faith, history, scientific facts, solid tradition and common sense. It echoes the deceptive jargon of corruptive individualism.
  • Even intelligent atheists insist that sex is binary (i.e., male and female – period). See this link:

Richard Dawkins Follows the Science and Rejects the Transgender Illusion (tfp.org)

In addition, read this excellent essay by a competent biologist, who examines the disturbing fact that even fundamental sciences (and some once-trusted scientists) are now tainted:
The Ideological Subversion of Biology | Skeptical Inquirer


Compassion ? Really ?


People who push puberty-blocking medications and surgical mutilation of children and adults may be proficient in specific fields but they lack Wisdom, both human and divine.

Transgender cultists would have us believe that:


  • We can be whomever, or whatever, we wish.
  • We are not made by God nor designed by Nature.
  • We create ourselves in god-like fashion.

Such contradictory fallacies offer the absurd fantasy that through drugs and/or surgery, one’s “true self” will be re-born. This thinking relies on the illogical, but persuasive, pressures of mob psychology, and ignores:


  1. the fundamental facts of human biology,
  2. thousands of years of human experience,
  3. limits of common sense,
  4. Natural Law and Scripture,
  5. centuries of moral tradition,
  6. the gullibility and naivete of some people who are swayed by their wayward urges.

Adherents of “gender affirming care” sometimes rationalize their approach as “compassionate,” even as they further indifference to truth. But true compassion does not – not - work against scientific fact and moral reality. True compassion observes laws and limits which God and Nature clearly establish. These laws and limits teach us that:


  • Biology, human nature, and traditional ethics are not impediments to freedom and virtue.
  • They are guides to true compassion, which is sometimes effectively given through intense listening and “tough love.”
  • All laws (especially moral laws) put limitations on human freedom and provide rational restraints on behavior.
  • Just laws are realistic limitations to primitive human urges.
  • Without laws, the community descends into anarchy and chaotic violence, as current events and history attest.
  • As Christopher Rufo says, “…the human mind, untethered from moral limits, can conjure up nightmares...”

Irresponsibility Cannot Be The Norm


Recovering our moral balance and our common sense is indeed the challenging path. Read the words of another parent whose child returned from the madness of her transgendered journey:
(15) From Darkness to Desistance (substack.com)

Our culture now encourages actions which are actually abhorrent to God and Nature. People are arrested for praying in public. The mention of God is banned in our children’s schools, lest we offend the godless amongst us. "Freedom of religion" is protected by the Bill of Rights, yet many politicians avoid any mention of religion or morality, lest they appear "judgmental" or "non-inclusive."

No doubt about it - our national commitment to moral and cultural health (even for our children) no longer inspires public life in America. As a result, the beneficial restraints and healthy limits we once honored are radically undermined, our accountability diminished, replaced by codes of personal gratification without limits, even at the cost of family, church and history.

If we are to preserve our Republic, we cannot pursue non-existent freedoms and exaggerated rights, while we dishonor necessary limits and ignore reasonable boundaries. We cannot sideline traditional religious belief, nor can we avoid moral considerations, because every action we take has consequences.


Where Will It End ?


The dregs of the “sexual revolution” proceed apace and are now the accepted standard. Corruption of our youth is big business, part of our infected cultural patrimony – accepted even by many parents, ignored by many churches who are (or were) our hope for moral sanity … and Wisdom languishes.

Speaking of Wisdom, I here offer the wise and thoughtful statement of the Catholic Medical Association about bodily, emotional and spiritual dangers contained in “gender affirming care.” The Ideology of Gender Harms Children - Catholic Medical Association : Catholic Medical Association (cathmed.org)

And the future? How far will America willingly go with all this?

Given our nation’s present enchantment with unrestricted “freedoms” for everyone (including children), we continue to live in dreadful anticipation of further shameful abuse of our youth. Here, for example, is one - of many - repugnant scenarios already coming true:

Mercator | A Compass for Common Sense (mercatornet.com)

Thank you for reading this … and pondering what you’ve read.

Now, in your opinion, what is the logically sound and morally healthy next step for us to take?



 


 

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