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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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The first, of course, is to make sure neither you nor your spouse are ugly. The second is to ensure your children have a real, durable sense of self-worth. Do that, and I doubt even Elizabeth Guzman can take your kids from you.

I'm not convinced tbh, for a few reasons:

  1. The internet - especially TikTok -is awash with this shit.

  2. Authority figures are also promoting it and potentially creating a situation where denying it comes with huge social cost so parents not only might be wary about inculcating their kids with skepticism but the kids themselves may come to see their parents as bigots for trying.

  3. Boys and girls (who now make up the majority of cases) may just not be the same here: higher rates of co-ruminating by females could allow this to spread even if your daughter isn't a low-status person. Her friends are doing it and she gets sucked in.

tl;dr: It takes a village, parental influence is limited nowadays.

Parental influence is not actually that limited, it just takes far more enforcement.

Parent influence isn’t limited. Just take the phone and unplug the internet.

Boom, dysphoria cured

And what if she watches stuff on her friend's phone? Or she just picks it up from them? This is the rapid-onset gender dysphoria idea after all.

Or that nice teacher Mx. Robinson "teaches" her the truth about gender and how she can choose to be whatever she likes if she has some discomfort with being a girl? What if - as some activists want to become policy - the school encourages her to transition and never tells you, so you don't even necessarily know enough to counter this stuff before it sinks in? Kids spend 8+ hours at school. That's a lot of influence.

And, tbh, for whatever reason, I think a lot of Americans are unwilling to go this far. Maybe laziness, maybe not wanting to appear tyrannical (Western parents tend to be softer imo), maybe because it seems like an overreaction.

I don't think this sort of Benedictian withdrawal is feasible for most. Especially if you factor in the state -vastly stronger than it was in Benedict's time- coercing you anyway. Who is optimistic that the state won't encroach on your territory?

Sometimes there's no replacement for simply having a sane society with good norms (or at least norms that favor you). The other side seems to understand this implicitly; the libertarian "you go your way, I go mine" definitely doesn't seem to be their operating principle. If they don't think it works for them then you should ask why it would work for you?

And what if she watches stuff on her friend's phone? Or she just picks it up from them?

For most of these types of teens the problem is they don’t even have irl friends. Most of this social contagion is spread online amongst the terminally online and desperately lonely

The school stuff could conceivably happen. Live somewhere conservative? Check in with teachers and pay attention to what’s going on at school, attend the meetings etc

I’m not saying stop resisting their propaganda and social engineering, I’m just giving some basic and helpful tips.

Soon enough that will be considered child abuse.

I’m sure some already do but good luck enforcing mandatory internet and smartphones for everyone. They cant even keep potholes filled in my city