Hold Fast

Fanatics brook no compromise. When it comes to rights and liberties, neither should we.

Gun owners and defenders of gun rights are often derided as paranoid fanatics who won't budge an inch where "reasonable" people would compromise in the name of safety. The common (and proper) response to this criticism tallies thus: 1 - The other side will not be satisfied with whatever compromise or concession is granted. 2 - Gun rights have been sharply curtailed from their original Constitutional protections. 3 - the end-goal of gun control activists is total prohibition of civilian ownership.

The response to 3 is usually a condescending "no one wants to take your guns away," along with a virtual pat on the head. It's so common that I crafted a Gun Rights Lesson about it:

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Nestled among many other affirmations of the confiscatory desire running through our political class was one from Mighty Joe B.

Banning guns is an idea whose time has come. -- Senator Joe Biden, November 1993

Gun rights have had a very good run since the 1970s, despite (or perhaps including) the ineffectual Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, which helped propel the GOP into a Congressional majority, and which woke many Americans up to the government's rights-grabbing lust. Sixty years ago, only one state (Vermont) treated guns as the Second Amendment commands. Today, twenty-seven states have enacted "constitutional carry" laws, with another fifteen guaranteeing issuance of a concealed carry permit absent individual disqualifiers. The remaining eight are wrestling with the Supreme Court's Bruen ruling, which debars arbitrary denial of carry permits, and which was the third major pro-gun-rights Court decision in the past fifteen years.

I've not heard of legislators losing their jobs because they supported pro-gun-rights laws at the state level, and this half-century surge should be a tell-tale to those at the top of the pyramid. Despite that messaging, Biden continues to bang the gun-control drum, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has mighty aspirations, is gonging on about a Constitutional Amendment to ban guns. Snowball, meet hell, of course, but it really is red meat for those who dominate our cultural conversation, and a useful bargaining chip for the “compromise” demanders.

Those same cultural dominants are at the fore of another wild-eyed public debate: transgenderism.

What was originally an acceptance movement (live and let live) has become, as I've blogged here several times, about coercing a radical, gender-eradicating ideology onto our society. This isn't about acceptance of gays, lesbians, or other sexual orientations. It's not about accepting adults' right to gender self-determination. Those at the fore of "queer theory" are (Marxist) radicals, denouncing gays who won't date people with women parts who identify as men, and the like. Their piggybacking the LGBT acceptance movement has proven both successful and tragic, and not just for the "straights" whose feathers may be ruffled by those of other orientations.

They allow no room for dissent or even discussion. Cancelers are running roughshod over any prominent voice of dissent, and demanding affirmative compliance and alliance. Corporate America is proving to be scared snotless of their wrath. AMC recently produced a documentary called "No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care" about five people who "detransitioned." An activist group bullied AMC into pulling the film from its theaters. Because transitioning is a one-way street, and no one who questions their "assigned at birth" gender should be allowed to answer that question with anything other than "pump me full of drugs and cut off the offending parts." Meanwhile, Netflix renewed its "woke" animated Scooby Doo prequel "Velma," despite absolutely horrific ratings (7% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, 1.6/10 on IMDB). You don't need to be a mystic to read these tea leaves.

As with gun rights, the only way to repel the freedom-hating fascists is through eternal vigilance and a hard line against their excesses. There's no "compromise" to be had in athletics, for example, where men are destroying women's sports. There's no "compromise" to be had in the transitioning of minors. As Camille Paglia noted, making permanent changes to children's bodies is a crime against humanity.

Over on the other side of the pond, the Europeans are coming to their senses. Transitioning of minors has pretty much ceased, as rational professionals realize that most "childhood-onset gender incongruence" resolves on its own, and that many who feel they're in the wrong body eventually figure out that they're simply homosexual - no gender transition needed or wanted.

Why the hard-line? Because, as Abigail Shrier notes here, the radicals will not stop. The pendulum will not swing back absent a real push. An occasional dissent piece published in the Times is, Shrier concludes, a "pawn sacrifice" intended to con us into thinking the tide has turned and that we might reach a steady-state compromise.

Don't count on it. Just as with guns, the freedom-hating fanatics will not relent no matter how many concessions the rest of us proffer. The biggest victims of all this, by the way, are the adult-age transitioners who have found some happiness and simply want to live their lives. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place - obligated to stand with the gender radicals and risking "splash damage" from the reactionaries.

Those of us who believe in liberty have a narrow path to walk. We mustn't cede freedoms to the fascists, but we mustn't act in an anti-freedom fashion either.

We stand tall when we protect minors from the amok "affirmers."

We do the right thing when we confirm the undeniable physical advantages that men, even those who've transitioned, hold over women in athletic competitions.

We defend reality when we stand hard against those who'd eradicate our understanding of gender.

But, we go wrong if we tell an adult "I reject your right to self-determination." That’s the essence of acceptance, and it has nothing to do with the coercion movement that’s Trojan-horsed its way into our culture. We don’t have to condone or even agree with other adult’s choices, we should simply agree those are theirs to make.

Liberty is hard. But it is necessary.