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January 2023

The Third Golden Calf: Gender Andrew I. Fillat and Henry I. Miller

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/01/31/the-third-golden-calf-gender/

Our previous two articles in this series dealt with the idol worship (i.e., secular religion) of Climate Change and Equity. Those symbolic Golden Calves at least have some connection to science and/or history. Although many climate initiatives are fatally flawed, and their supposed benefits grossly exaggerated, combatting atmospheric carbon dioxide accumulation is a valid objective. And although the quest for Equity for all attempts to address problems rooted in history, its methods are more appropriate to the accretion of political power than justifiable remedies.

By contrast, the Cult of Gender is an attempt to displace reality with a bizarre reimagining of humanity. 

The current popular usage of the word “gender” is now a conflation of sexual attraction, an individual’s chosen persona, and biological sex which is baked into our DNA. This is a specious construction. Sex dictates or at least influences many bodily functions, characteristics, and behavior, although there is, of course, variation. Only a miniscule portion of humanity has ambiguous DNA, so sex is as innate a trait as there is.

By contrast, whom we are attracted to sexually may be a conscious choice or a deeply felt orientation, but it is independent of our sex. A lesbian does not become a male because she is attracted to women, nor is a gay man female. Similarly, the persona or identity we opt to project is very much a choice embodied in appearance and behavior. It need not align with our biology at all. Sex and gender are, therefore, not interchangeable.

Society today is increasingly tolerant of gender identities. As far as we know, nobody is attempting to pass legislation (or to enforce outdated laws) to constrain any adult’s consensual sexual practices. Likewise, there are no restrictions on how we dress or interact in private, although there are some limits when it comes to potentially offensive behavior or appearance in public, depending upon the audience. The application of social “norms” is admittedly a gray and controversial subject.

To The Left, Racism Is Like The Matrix

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/01/31/the-left-struggles-to-shove-memphsis-killing-into-a-racist-narrative/

On Monday, the Washington Post sent an update to its email subscribers with the subject line: “The police officers charged with the murder of Tyre Nichols are black. Does it matter?”

The short answer is: Yes, but only to race hustlers on the left.

Which is why the Post enlisted three reporters who spent nearly 1,400 words twisting themselves into pretzels to explain how black police officers beating a black man to death was further proof of “systemic racism.”

Here’s how the Post puts it:

“The race of the five officers charged in the Nichols killing has prompted a complex grappling among black activists and advocates for police reform about the pervasiveness of institutional racism in policing.

“The widely viewed videos of the Nichols … spawned nuanced conversations among black activists about how systemic racism can manifest in the actions of non-white people.”

If you’re confused, join the club.

In trying to make the country view the Memphis death through a racial prism, the left not only manages to defy common sense but undermines everything it has been claiming about racist police officers. Namely, that systemic racism manifested itself in whites disproportionately targeting blacks, and the solution was more racial balance in police forces. Or to defund them altogether.

Not only were the officers involved in Nichols’ death black, the Memphis police force is 58% black, as is the police chief. And, as the Post admits, this was “the result of a decades-long effort to field a police force that resembles the city’s 64% black population.”

No matter. The reporters quote Samuel Sinyangwe, president of a group called Mapping Police Violence, saying that “diversifying law enforcement is certainly not going to solve this problem.”