The whole thing is so insane. Last month I took my 13 and 14 year-old children to their (now former) pediatrician. While there the nurse handed them a survey and a second survey hidden under that one. Thankfully, I went back to the exam room with my kids. Then nurse said, "if the second survey makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to fill it out.” That piqued my interest so I took a look. The survey was all about how you identify...have so many options!! Then it went to ask about sexual orientation....so many options. I was pissed! I took both of the surveys and gave them back to the nurse. I told her that she needs to let parents know ahead of time about this survey. Then I took a picture right in front of her and told her I would be letting my friends know about this survey since they also bring their kids here. I would upload the picture to this comment if I could!
We will not go back. My kids are old enough to go to a regular family doctor. And I am looking for one that is over 50, religious and sticks to science. I will drive extra miles if I have to.
I have said all along, in the Dem Party and their left wing pals, the inmates are running the asylum. They are completely off the rails and are dead set on destroying our country.
I was scolded by my daughter’s 8th grade English teacher for reading my kid’s essays and homework, marking spelling and grammar errors and making my daughter correct them.
According to the teacher I was “hindering her creativity.”
I informed the teacher that my kid would NOT leave high school unable to write a grammatically correct paragraph free of spelling errors. End of discussion.
Over 50 years ago my cousin tried to convince me it was ok to spell ‘tough’ as ‘tuff’. Ok if you’re talking about volcanic rock, but let’s see how far that will take you in employment. Spoiler alert: I think I fared better.
More recently, the Maine dairyman’s association lost a lawsuit that hinged on the use of the Oxford comma. It cost them about $5M in back overtime pay. Whoops.
Language matters, and accurate language matters more. More often than not, when someone says to me ‘ya know, right?’, I don’t.
I don't use the Oxford comma before conjunction. But I always try to use correct English and when I hear someone not using correct English, it is like fingernails on a black board.
I think I learned the Oxford comma in 4th grade or so. That would have been around 1956, give or take. My teacher didn’t call it that; she just said that that’s how you do it. It’s what I learned and it has served me well. I have nothing against people who don’t use it, but if you know about it—and you obviously do—why do you not use it? Just asking out of curiosity.
I was told in an English class in the 50s that there was no need for a comma before a conjunction, so I stopped using it. Now I know to use it when there is a conjunction between two independent clauses.
A comma to me is a pause that makes a list more readable. To me a conjunction is also a pause. It stands alone by itself and need no comma. I have been wrong all these years. However, it will be hard to break 70 year habit.
I saw that story last week and was stunned. Fast forward to none of her students being hired because they sound like idiots and aren't capable of following rules and then it will be called racism.
This is a west coast replay of Ebonics. Even the race baiter Jesse Jackson was against Ebonics. The left loves these idiots who claim everything is based on race.
I wonder how the left wingnuts on this BBS (R T & comprof) think about correct English being racist. They will probably love it. The left thinks everything is racist. It is their favorite excuse for everything.
The left loves this transgender crap. I have nothing against an adult wanting to get altered. Getting altered does not change your sex. If you are male, you will still have a Y chromosome and women will always have two X chromosomes unless they have Turner's syndrome. There are always natural mistakes with primary nondisjunction which will cause all sorts of anomalies but that is rare.
This is how much the left loves transgender people. I'll bet you money, this guy never gets fired for being a thief who stole luggage. This guy is DOE's Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, Sam Brinton. The bag he stole is worth $2,325. This is felony grand larceny.
Yes, if an adult has cosmetic surgeries and cross sex hormones after a lot of gate keeping that is one thing - although it would be better to help them with their mental /personality disorder rather than give them cosmetic surgery, IMO - and they need to understand that their sex never changes. That is pure fantasy and the rest of us should not be coerced into agreement.
It is another matter to pretend that "sex is assigned at birth" and all the rest of the ideology.
And, we cannot consider an 18 year old an adult for these purposes. Their brains are not fully formed and they have come off of years of Radical Gender Theory Brainwashing. Part of the narrative is to slow walk things until the magic age of 18 when you get to finally assert yourself...
Right, if Sam Brinton were anyone else he would be in trouble for the theft. And, he has no problem wearing whatever clothes he purchases himself. The weirdo must have wanted to possess an actual woman's clothing and bag. He promotes BDSM, pedophilia, and all the rest.
Did you know that CA is now a "Sanctuary State" for gender confused kids who run around from home to glitter mommies?
The ironic thing is that I've read the input of a number of trans people who transitioned in the "old school" way (surgery and hormones as a step taken only as an adult after many years of therapy). And to a person they are disturbed by the current phenomenon of transing children. Likewise, they recognize that their biological sex has not changed, even though they've taken steps to live as the other gender to ease their dysphoria.
Yes. There are also old men who are unhappy that doctors cut their parts off without trying to really find out what was behind that desire - like Walter Heyer. Maybe there are some guys who are truly thriving afterwards? And, there used to be some kind of therapy/gate keeping first. But, what is a "trans person"? When we say there are "trans people" are we not saying they are people who are not quite ok in the head so they wish to take it out on their body?
And there are so many men now who change nothing below the belt but insist they are women.
I respect those who say they are not truly the opposite sex - like Buck Angel (a woman). And all of those who are concerned about the children.
The grooming has just jumped to the next level. The American Girl company is promoting trans and magic pills that can halt your development so you can think about what you really want - and how if there are no grown ups you can trust there are organizations you can go to. Ahhhh! This happened with Teen Vogue years ago. The editors were guys in dresses with women's names.
It is not about "loving" transgender people. It is about wholeheartedly embracing the likely temporary gender confusion of 10 to 14 year olds and folding them into a system of reinforcement and pressurized decision-making which will have permanent effects on their bodies and minds. The AAP is supporting this system of indoctrination and mutilation, pure and simple.
100% spot on, George. Thank you for this post. We love our daughter before, during, and after the nightmare that is falling into the cult ideology - endorsed everywhere by people who should be more responsible. Virtually none of these young people have a thing called "gender dysphoria" but they are all trained to say this.
And, what is a "transgender person" anyway? Does it mean someone who suffers psychological confusion and has operations as a last resort, is it someone with a magic gender fairy inside of them, is it a man who wishes to get his sexual jollies in woman's prison or locker rooms? Why, it seems to be anything and everything that could possibly be taken in!
The AAP , the teachers unions, and the Biden Administrations have alot to answer for. So does first female four star admiral Richard Levine (and no I should not be made to say he's a woman when he is an evil dude).
An evil religion. Christianity teaches us that Satan is the father of all lies, and with health practitioners have to lie to parents you know what the source of that program is.
We fired our pediatrician of over a decade for mask humping and general lefty shit. She was normal and sensible for many years and then hired a young zealot to work alongside her in the practice and things went to hell in a handbasket after that. We now drive four towns over for a normal doctor for checkups and use a quick care (no masks, no vax pushing, no lefty crap) for acute situations.
Sounds similar to an experience I had 20 years ago (this trend goes way back) when I was asked to fill out a survey at my pediatricians office concerning child safety. Several questions were about guns in the home. I confronted both the nurse and the doctor and told them they weren't going to push there political agenda on me. They tried to tell me it wasn't political, but having read a book or three I explained to them if they were concerned about "child safety" they would have been asking me about whether I had a pool and how that pool was secured since that statistically is a much, much more likely danger that my child would face than a gun. They explained that it wasn't their opinions, but an AAP questionnaire. I was furious and told them that the AAP obviously cares more about politics than children. I ended up getting a call of apology later from the office manager and chief partner--apparently news of my stink spread through the whole office. Unfortunately there wasn't enough of this kind of push back and the AAP is truly rogue at this point.
Have your questionnaire ready for the doctor before they ever see your children. If you don't get good responses, find another doc. Intelligent and ethical docs are out there and the wallet talks.
Even here in central TX they want kids masked at the doctors office (I said “no thank you”) and they keep pushing for the COVID vaccine even after I politely but clearly declined. And we haven’t even gotten to the age of the gender stuff yet. Might be time for a new pediatrician..
I agree with you that it’s all ridiculous. One thing I feel a need to point out to everyone…CMS requires that every facility that accepts Medicare/Medicaid patients, has a mask policy for patient contact areas and a vaccine policy for healthcare workers. I work for a hospital system in a deep red state and patients hate the masks and protest but we’re forced to comply in order to keep our federal funding. And in most systems, Medicare/Medicaid makes up 60-70% of your patient base. It sounds like your pediatrician might be onboard with masks and vaccines, but even the ones that aren’t still have to parrot the narrative to stay in business.
Yep, for healthcare it’s a CMS mandate not CDC. And it’s technically not a mandate; healthcare offices can choose to not abide by not requiring masks but if they do they lose their CMS accreditation and thus the ability to accept Medicare/Medicaid payments. I know there are people that think the providers should stand on principle and not comply but the reality is that it would be next to impossible to convince all or even a majority of those patients to pay out of pocket instead. Healthcare doesn’t have quite the margins everyone assumes and the margin is now near zero or in the red with the rapidly rising cost of labor.
I’m a veterinarian and I was fired from a corporate-owned practice when I made a client “uncomfortable.” She asked me if a spay procedure would enable her bitch to express her masculine gender identity. I told her that dogs and cats don’t participate in gendered pronoun nonsense. Too much for Austin - terminated within a few hours.
Not for Austin, it isn't. Austin is further left than California if that is at all possible. It is the home of Texas University. The school flag has a hammer and sickle on it. (Just joking but it wouldn't surprise me if they put it on their flag.)
RSV is because of masks. And masks don't do anything significant. They never have. They were tried with flu and made no difference. The virus particles that matter are a third the size of the apertures on N95 masks worn perfectly and replaced continually.
Ignorant people like you are forcing nurses and medical personnel to endure continual respiratory and nasal infections because of these ridiculous policies.
Feel free to believe what you want. But don't pretend that you are speaking fact. You are speaking ridiculous propaganda that you have obviously not ever evaluated as to its truth content.
“Putz,” “Moron!,” “Doofus!” “An occasional bitch slap is necessary to wake people up...”
This is exactly the kind of arrogant cancer that has infected every corner of society. Hurling vitriol with self-appointed righteous indignation, ignoring uncomfortable facts that contradict the tirade.
Complex reality is rejected by loud, petulant tantrums. All the while, demanding unquestioning adherence to whatever ignorant stance is deemed critical to save the “victim” of the hour.
The rank hypocrisy is of the highest order - actual evidence is irrelevant, while huge sweeping terms are co-opted as unwitting support: “SCIENCE”, “EXPERTS”, etc. Meanwhile, they do incalculable damage to everything they touch.
Like small children dressed up in an ill-fitting Batman costume, carrying a megaphone and pepper spray, these people actually believe they are righteous warriors for Justice, battling against anyone that dares think for theorems themselves.Trigger their Trump hysteria, and you might just witness self-immolation.
What they fail to understand, is that a “bitch slap” never “woke anyone up” to any position (besides maybe the accuracy of the self-description of the slapper.)
Absolutely hilarious. When people resort to name calling and whatnot, it is always because they have lost the argument and have nothing else to fall back on. You then criticize others for "lack of evidence" when the entire article is about how ideological institutional capture has driven the entire profession to pursue policies that are completely contrary to science. You then top off your "educated" (at least in your own mind) opinion by citing the fact that the profession broadly agrees with you as evidence, completely ignoring the investigative journalism above (which clearly is way far beyond any research you have done yourself). But the last bit was the real gem. You compared using masks to prevent airborne illness to using masks to prevent bacteria from infecting patients during surgery, which simply illustrates how little you actually understand about the size of bacteria vs viral particles and the effectiveness of masks for different situations. I often find that when debating people like yourself, your own words do more damage to your argument than anything anyone else could ever say and I applaud you for so thoroughly and clearly proving that point. You have not said a single intelligent thing or presented even 1 fact but have been extremely aggressive and hostile to everyone you've interacted with. Well done
Just remember RT is an old, decrepit commune-loving hippie living in Vermont. This may be his only outlet of joy in an otherwise miserable personal existence.
The most recent study--and self evidently even though this is their job, neither the CDC nor NIH want any honest research done--from Europe actually showed a slight INCREASE in overall mortality the more masks were worn. That increase was within the margin of error/confidence interval, but so too was the Null Hypothesis, which wins by default.
And as I keep saying, all this jibes both with common sense, and the entirety of what was known and taught prior to March 2020.
Both R T and comprof claim to be teachers. I wonder if when one of their students asks a question that doesn't match up with their ideology do they humiliate their pupil was a vicious snarky remark. Does R T "bitch slap" them?
Also do they enter into all discussions they don't agree with, with vile, angry, pejoratives. One would think, hope, teachers could express themselves in a more civil and logical manner instead of trying to humiliate their opponents with vile language.
I would like to know where they teach so I could tell people to avoid their narrow minded NAZIesque institutions.
R T, when challenged on masks and the government response to Covid often asks, "What is your science background." as if this is a valid argument for wearing masks.
Well I wonder what R T's scientific background or is he just a lemming who believes anything a lying politician or a leftwing "scientist" tells him?
Among the Moravians, a Christmas decoration. Its essential is an evergreen tree, representing the tree of life. It is laden with nuts and fruit. Take your pick. or should I say prick
I find the group non-think terrifying, and it brings to mind past events in human history where the herd followed the piper into a dark tunnel. The 3rd Reich, Rwanda, Pol Pot to name a few.
I don't have children but it seems very inappropriate for the nurse to give them surveys without showing them to you first. Parents need to follow your example and actually parent their children instead of handing them over to Dr. and Nurse ideologues.
Right on. Asking the parent for permission to have the child take a survey should be standard practice. Not obtaining the parent’s consent is unethical.
In WA state, minors have medical autonomy at age 13. Parents lose rights to information and decision making about their children at that age without a court order.
And yet those same courts would hold those parents accountable if their children commit a heinous crime. I'm not saying parents shouldn't be held accountable, but rather the courts are inconsistent in the rulings concerning parent/child relationships. No wonder kids are so anxious, confused, and depressed. Everything is relative, and they have few absolutes on which to base their moral compass. Kids need structure, reliability, accountability, and discipline to mature into responsible adults.
And this is an 2019 update to the law that gives parents a little bit more leverage to obtain care for minor dependents over the age of 13 for mental health and substance abuse issues when the minor is refusing consent:
The revision was an important step forward for parents (and youth who need help). While I believe the original intent of the law was to allow teenagers to seek contraception and reproductive care services without parental consent, an unintended consequence was that it also allowed minors to refuse desperately needed mental health care as in the case of involuntary commitment for things like suicide attempts, homicidal thoughts, and acute psychiatric breaks.
Yup, continue in that direction and we’ll completely give up control over our health care. So much of our health care is already being paid for by third parties. Doctors are working for the insurance companies or for the government, insurance companies are working for the corporations’ HR departments. Who is working for the patients? Who is getting paid by the patients?
When AIDS was an epidemic, the school previewed two films for parents. One film was for AIDS and promised that all testing was confidential and parents would not be told the results. Another film was for testicular cancer and the importance of overcoming embarrassment to talk with your family and get treatment. While the latter film promoted talking to caring parents and being treated, the first film had parents who were so stupid and stingy with their love that they selected ring side seats to a disease that would destroy their child's health and life.
While long ago, this was the start of a messaging that would become louder and stronger that parents are not to be trusted and the child was the king-baby. The child was able to rule and make decisions but the parents were to pay for and pick up the results of these decisions. Those profitable surgeries for gender dysphoria are not being paid for with money saved from mowing lawns, babysitting, or allowances.
Send your photo of that survey to someone like Chris Rufo, who is collecting this data as well as this author. Daylight is the best disinfectant. And lord, the AAP sure needs to be disinfected.
Our assistant secretary of health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is an evil dude spreading a cult religion. He promotes harming children.
"Rachel Levine Enlists Doctors as Evangelists to Preach the Gospel of Transgenderism"
If your kids are in public schools, they are likely taking similar surveys called "Youth Risk Behavior" survey. At least in our public schools they let you opt out. If you want to know the questions, they make you come in to look at a physical survey. In other words, they make it hard for you and then your kid will probably be the only one sitting there not doing it because no parents will take the time to even think about opting out their kid. The questions are gross.
Yup, faced that in our schools here, too. Its everywhere. I am doing what I can. My family went through a year when my daughter was ROGD when she was 11. It was fucking awful. She has returned to herself now. And I am high alert for it. It must be fought at the local levels first. I pushed it out of my home by blocking all social media in my house and getting my family connected with a good church. Every single one of her teachers knows who I am. I am the direct mother who looks then in the eye and asks exactly what they are teaching. A team of local moms make sure that someone goes to the schoolboard meetings and we sniff through all the curriculum. One of us will run for school board for the next election. And its exhausting. During that year, I had two other close friends say they were going through/went through the same with their daughters. That's insane!
You are a wonderful parent. We were hit with this when our daughter was about 15 and it lasted longer. I think she is mostly ok now but I remain worried. Like you there were families around us with this issue but we seemed to be the only non-believers. I feel like this isn't going away until Democrats get worried and WSJ editorial board type "conservatives" who don't want to participate in "culture wars" are struck with gender confused grandchildren.
It is a real nightmare for the entire family including siblings. Teachers were calling her "he"and a weird name behind our backs. When I caught on they seemed gleeful and condescending about it. In my darker moments I have wished "trans" on those young, mostly childless teachers when they have kids. One or two teachers were not into it but felt they had to go with the flow. We were using a private school so we paid extra for it.
I am so glad to hear your daughter is on the other side of this. Way to fight for her! When it happens it's a complete isolating nightmare. Trust evaporates in every institution. There are family members that I will never allow around my children again. I will keep your family in my prayers. I am so happy to hear your daughter is ok.
Same here… last night I spoke to a foster parent of a 8 year girl who thinks she is a boy. My daughter befriended her.
That girl at some point called cps and they removed her from her family and assigned a foster… So I spoke to that woman. She is deeply into that “he” thing for a 8 year girl..
After that conversation I woke up at 2 am this night and couldn’t go back to sleep for several hours thinking of all the horrors of this situation.
You’re a good mom. And it is exhausting. I started down a similar path with my kids’ school two years over a radical diversity and equity plan they wanted to implement. I figured if they could get the diversity framework pushed through, a radical gender agenda would be next. Went (still go) to every school board meeting, picked apart curriculum with a fine toothed comb, was constantly rallying other parents to join me, threatened legal action, and eventually became the PTO president just so they’d know they’d never get rid of me up their ass. So many days I wish I’d just given up and homeschooled but I feel like the principal of the matter is worth fighting for. Good luck with the board election - school boards need parents like you fighting the good fight.
As a Bioethics professor, I will make this required reading for all my classes. Nurses have become progressively more skeptical of this new political tilt of young, what they see as, dangerously naive doctors. The schism between common sense nurses and politicized doctors is widening. Thankfully!
My sister is a doctor, and in the last two years her personality and politics have totally transformed. She loves diversity now and thinks Fox News is the only reason people refused the ineffective and deadly vaccines.
She may inadvertently be right about the impact of Fox News. Has any other network raised concerns about the rushed, experimental, ineffective and potentially dangerous vaccines? When I hear people criticize Fox News I ask if they have ever watched it.
Fox News had an impact, I agree, but my own opinion came from reading the abstracts of the initial studies on the vaccines. From day one, it was clear that they didn't prevent contagion or transmission, and clear that they only provided weak and temporary protection.
My sister absolutely refuses to discuss this. Not a single word of criticism of Fauci or the vaccines is acceptable. The science is irrelevant, the healthcare administrators are god.
Me too. Plus decades of procedures regarding vaccine safety was either unnecessary in the past or wholly disregarded for the Covid vaccine. And the conflicts of interest are staggering.
They didn’t raise concerns at first though. They were all on board. My hesitation came from my own gut feeling then was solidified by a now infamous Dark Horse podcast
You should get the book, Take Two Aspirin and Call Me by My Pronouns, but Stanley Goldfarb, MD, for her. It dives into the shift of American medical education from patient care to social justice.
Nurses have always been the backbone of the system. I received poor medical care many years ago resulting eventually in emergency corrective surgery. I basically checked myself out of hospital and went to my hometown l. It was the nurses who let me know something was wrong with the original treatment. Here in Canada I wish they permitted more nurse practitioners in Emergency instead of making us wait hours to meet some dimwit medical resident.
Jim, I'm sure that you are aware of the very political academic nurses who inculcate their students with a lot of left wing views. Nurses, like the rest of us, are extremely political, and the nursing professors, like education professors, are way out there on the AOC and Warren wings of socialism.
Nursing professors are definitely far on the unreasonable left, but that is because they feel like they have to pretend to be MD's. They seem to think if they are extreme leftists that gives them the same social status as being a real medical doctor. But real nurses, those who keep real people alive every single day, those who are the true compassionate care givers of the sick and the elderly and the dying, they are not the same as the envious wannabe doctors who teach nurses.
Maryland passed a law in the 90's making it illegal to present yourself in a medical setting as Doctor unless you are a physician for exactly that reason - a nursing school professor introducing herself to a VIP patient as Doctor. The VIP patient found out shortly thereafter that she was not one of his physicians, and he took it all the way to the governor. I've always thought teachers should be Professor, and it is nowhere more vital than in a hospital.
Thank you! My daughter is a public health major at Purdue. I would love for her professors to have this information and disseminate it to the students. I’d like to send it to the department head
"Common sense" nurses? Shouldn't nurses be using their training and expertise? "Common sense" has become shorthand for "an expert says something I disagree with, so I'm going to call my lack of expertise 'common sense' so I don't have to change my behavior".
If you had spent even 20 minutes speaking with an experienced nurse, you would never have written this. One of the primary obligations of a professional nurse is patient advocacy. Not so for politically motivated research MD's. If you cannot recognize the smell of C-dif when you walk in a room, you really do not know ....
Publicly cited "experts" have been disastrously wrong on nearly every major issue of the last several years. The word "expert" has totally lost its credibility and is mostly used by lazy journalists that don't want to go into detail or explain any other viewpoints or cite real sources.
But as somebody who was ahead of the CDC by several months on nearly every pandemic policy they eventually figured out, and who realizes the epic damages wrought on this nation by "experts", screw the experts. Authoritarian stupidity has infected this entire country and our inept leaders get away with it because "experts say!"
And they don't admit or learn when they're wrong, they're much too "expert" for that.
What is happening? Why is politics poisoning all aspects of our lives? It is like we are living in a dystopian nightmare. I used to love politics and writing about it was fun, but now I feel an urge to distance myself from it. There are no limits to these people. When reality closes in, they shape-shift, which makes them unstoppable, invincible. I witnessed in horror how this happened live, in front of our eyes, on the podium of the White House, concerning The Twitter Files. My heart aches for these children. Our only hope while we don't find a way to fight this disease is the parents' common sense, which is not very much unfortunately.
It happened because of decades of indoctrination at universities,the sad part is that it has now reached medical education and shows total disregard for science and caters to woke ideologies,political correctness that ultimately harms children.
Obama explicitly said he would fundamentally and radically transform the United States. This is happening despite half the nation not wanting it. The people who have been here hundreds of years don't want it, but they're being drowned out by historically unprecedented rates of both legal and illegal immigration.
This is all by design. I will never, ever be on board with the revolution, and that's why I and people like me are under a nonstop assault. They've dehumanized us with so many words and so many ways, and they get more powerful and aggressive every year.
Fascists can't allow dissent. Everything is political, and the Democratic Party is god until the revolution is complete.
I would venture to say far less than half the country wants this radical transformation. Too many are cowed by the shrill voices of the few radicals running the show.
Just a few weeks ago I felt differently, but the Twitter Files seem to demonstrate you are right. The real revolutionaries are really just a very few people in the right places.
This is really depressing. However, I don't believe this to be true and I don't see 160 million people as defenseless victims. In fact this impression is part of the problem. Not so long ago we were all full of energy and positive thoughts. What happened? Two years of covid, for sure, and a defeated president. This is still a free country. We just have to find the right people to govern it, and we shall overcome, I'm sure.
I think it’s bigger than politics. I believe it’s all about $money$ and positions taken by government, academia and corporations to solidify their hegemony. Just look at the process for new drugs in the USA - it’s corrupt. This corruption is seeking into other aspects of life too.
I think QX and Jaime both are correct. But IMO the heart of it is a populace which believes in a government fix for everything that ails it, coupled with a government willing to exploit that belief for the self-empowerment and wealth of government officials. In other words a very stupid populace. Or at least half of it. It has taken roughly a hundred years from the inception of entitlements/safety net/call it what you will to reach this point.
I agree. Given we can see so many politicians being incompetent idiots, it really baffles me how much people would complain about politicians and yet completely believe government is the solution to everything, and they constantly want more, not less, government. But faith in government to solve all social problems and create an ideal society is in fact the basis of socialism and communism. And even now, after the Great Communism Experiments had all not only failed, but historically proven to be frighteningly brutal, it is laughable to still see so many people proudly calling themselves Marxists.
"the AAP is first and foremost a standard-setting body".
The AAP is a professional association and in practice likely acts like one. That probably means that "professional association" should be replaced with "trade association" since professional standards and concern for all stakeholders (including the public) are likely subordinated to the economic interests of those members that are aggressive enough to pursue leadership positions. The practitioners that hold a "purist" view of their organization are likely laughed at by the organization's leadership.
I am aware of a midlevel provider association that represents thousands of practitioners (and are in line to treat millions of patients) that has been reduced to two leadership individuals and a team of lobbyists. There is no focus on even the membership at large that provide the dues to fund the association's activities.
That observation is straight from the mouth of the lobbyist that has been representing the organization for years. I should know. I introduced the association to the lobbyist. And that was not the narrow focus of the organization at the time of the introduction.
The real issue is not that some have now lost faith in the AAP. The real issue appears to be why these lobbying trade associations are ever thought of as standard setting organizations in whom the public should place their trust. Better to promote a healthy and active tort system. While not perfect, the public crucifixion of the reputations and finances of the worst actors will result in the setting of standards.
Perhaps the litigation mounting around the Tavistock gender identity clinic will serve to knock some sense into the area.
@Randy Nye nails it. Professional associations really are trade associations intent on advancing the financial interests of members and protecting them from competition from non members and people who want to become members.
They spend their time promoting their professions with phony public surveys, biased academic and non academic research that promotes their professions and lobbying for more government programs that subsidize them and their customers.
Think lawyers, physicians, nurses, allied healthcare professionals, accountants, CPAs, COPs, Sheriffs, teachers, principals, swimming pool maintenance firms, landscapers, engineers, architects, system administrators, and, of course, tenured professors.
Some professional associations have also shifted their focus away from their members, and instead have a primary goal of perpetuating the gravy train that their full-time administrators enjoy.
I belonged to a relatively prestigious engineering-based trade organization for many years, but became disillusioned by their increasingly political (and non-technical) positions. That's when I discovered that these decisions were being made by the professional administrators that handled the day-to-day operations of the professional society -- not the members/engineers that they purportedly represented.
A class action lawsuit would be one avenue to explore as these ideological zealots override true scientific inquiry for political objectives. This is part of a disturbing trend where expertise is cloaked in a Fauciesque "I am the science" mindset. The politicization of science on all levels has the capacity to facillitate an unchecked authoritarianism as CS Lewis has observed:
"“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
What bothers me about the gender identity stuff with young kids is that many, many kids don't do things that traditionally correspond to their gender but grow up to be happy with the gender they were born to.
For example, a boy who loves sewing. In the distant past, he would have been told "that's for girls, don't be a sissy" which is bad. In the recent past, he would be encouraged and perhaps grow up to have a career in fashion, which is fine. Now, he'd be asked "are you sure you're not a girl?" which is just as bad as what was done in the distant past only with new language.
Same thing with girls. My sister's favorite toy as a kid was a garbage truck. She would drive it around the house, pick up dust and paper, put it in her garbage truck and take it to the dump. Again, in the distant past she would have been directed toward dolls or something more feminine. In the more recent past most people would be fine with her playing however she wants. Now, she'd be asked "are you sure you're not a boy?" again which is just as bad as the distant past only with new language.
TLDR: not every kid behaves in a way traditionally associated with their gender but that doesn't mean they need to change genders!!!
100%! We worked so hard for many years to make it ok for kids not to be stuck in the rigid boy/girl toys and activities categorization, finally letting girls to play with 'action figures' instead of (or in addition to) playing with Barbies. In the recent past, it felt like we finally recognized that it's ok not to be a girly-girl and still be a perfectly fine girl human. Now the gender affirming stuff has crept in, and the cartoonish stereotypes of "girl" and "boy" toys, behaviors, etc have been resurrected, and now if a girl prefers action figures it's interpreted as a sign that she might really be a boy...
It is offensive when a man who identifies as a woman refers to themselves as a "Bimbo" and represent themselves as a giggling fool in a skirt. Affirming a stereotype that is pure Stepford Wife is insulting to the women who worked for the right to vote, achieve equal pay, and be recognized as intelligent human beings.
As a gay man, I find this especially disgusting. There will be no sissy boys or "tomboy" girls from this generation, most of whom would have grown up to be happy adults. We need men who want to be florists or fashion designers or interior decorators, or girls who want to be forest rangers or firefighters or gym teachers. But today, these kids will be told that they're actually in the wrong body and need drugs and surgery.
The sick thing is that parents would still, in 2022, rather have a kid with a medical condition that requires drugs and surgery than a boy who is merely a "sissy" or a girl who is a "tomboy".
I just saw your comment and I could not agree more. The whole "trans" movement appears to me to be nothing but a covert attack on gay people, as it's an abnegation of, and bizarre need to transform, men with feminine traits and women with masculine traits. (LGBT? - who decided that?) We all exist on a spectrum of behavior. I remember as a young man being asked if I was gay because I was fascinated by ballet. Well, I also loved - and played - lacrosse and football. And I'm not gay (no really lol). But all I can says is it's a good thing these fiends with scalpels weren't around then.
Manu Bennett, an Australian actor, had to choose between ballet and rugby at the end of high school (he was excellent at both). He chose ballet. And he's not gay either.
I think more and more LGB people are realizing that Trans Rights Activism is a nasty form of conversion therapy. Iran actually uses it this way--homosexuality is illegal there, but if you surgically transition to the "proper gender" for your attractions, it's not homosexuality anymore.
As a girl child I preferred horses and trees to Barbies, I grew up liking cars, and I became an orthopaedic surgeon (93% male profession). I am fully female, heterosexual, married to a man (who just happens to be a NURSE), and I thank God with you that no one had the gall to tell me I'm not who I am because I don't fit their stereotype of woman.
I am still a tomboy, at 56. I'm the one who drills and saws. I can put together plumbing and wire an outlet. I also sew, knit, and write. Still female. That's what I want to be; never wanted to be a boy instead.
Matchbox cars were my favorite toy. I was disillusioned by the expectation that I get interested in makeup at around the age of 11 or 12. I did not want marriage or kids.
I'm glad I didn't grow up in this type of culture. If asked if I thought I should be a boy, I would have said yes.
The hijacking of American professional associations is now the norm. Take the American Library Association whose recommendations are followed by school libraries. School libraries are the center of controversies right now over the presence of books that are clearly pornography.
Most people think the ALA applies neutral standards of literary merit to its recommendations. But the ALA is led by a far-left cadre that exercises influence nationwide far beyond its size.
The ALA claims 54,000 members. However, most don’t participate in elections that affect the direction of the organization. It recently held an election for president and a little more than 5000 members, opposed by a little over 4000 members chose a president who describes herself as a “Marxist lesbian.” She is well represented on social media advocating the “queering” of the library. What does that mean? I think we know and it is evident in the books they recommend that school libraries buy.
Why doesn’t the “silent majority” of association members revolt?
ALA also holds that the right of homeless men to view pornography videos is more important that the right of librarians and library public safety officers to have to see videos of women being raped and tortured in their workplace. So while sexual harassment laws at least in theory protect women from co-workers who would expose them to violent porn in the workplace, librarians have to put up with it. (Based on complaints by library workers and subsequent research a few years ago - may have changed since then, but I doubt it.
Great research/article. I love the quote that the AAP...'doesn't want kids crossing the street at 10, but puberty blockers are ok'. Love, but despise (the quote). 12 yrs old can find porn on their computer, upload videos to youtube, yet their parents don't expect them to do their laundry, mow the lawn or rake leaves. But I digress...I realized long ago that everything goes back to first and foremost money, and secondly, power (which leads to political alignment and... money!). This entire situation is so disturbing - I'm glad our kids are no longer kids. I personally have the education and work experience (pharma) to read and understand the research, but the vast majority of parents do not or don't have the time (I didn't have the time, nor did I even think I had to)....that wasn't that long ago. What has happened in such a short time????
Yes. Well. The politicization of the American Medical Association and its spinoffs is hardly new. But it occurs on a far more fragmented, state-by-state basis than Mr. Sibarium implies in his article above, and it supports conservative hegemony just as often as it supports progressive hegemony.
For example: The entire crisis in primary healthcare access could have been solved 15 years ago simply by allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to practice autonomously to the full extent of their training and education without physician oversight.
Instead, the U.S. got saddled with the Frankensteinian Affordable Care Act—as though access to healthcare _insurance_ was somehow equivalent to access to healthcare.
Anyway, I totally agree that most of the COVID restraints in this country were draconian: It falls on the people most vulnerable to infection to protect themselves—I am one of those people, by the way, and I would have been perfectly happy to cloister, shop at special store hours at 5 am in the morning, etc, etc, while the rest of America lived its normal life.
To apply COVID restraints to _children_ who were the least susceptible to COVID infections was totally ridiculous, and as it turns out _dangerous_ since it is very likely that the perfect storm of RSV/flu infections that are filling pediatric hospitals now are due to those COVID restraints.
And it is equally ridiculous to allow anyone under the age of consent to embark on surgical or hormonal gender change treatments. If you're too young to get a tattoo, you're too young to do anything else that's essentially _irretrievable_ to your body.
All our genius overseers had to do was protect the vulnerable, mostly the elderly and morbidly obese, and allow the rest of us to live our lives.
And they couldn't even get that right. In fact, they slaughtered the innocents in nursing homes while locking down healthy people, destroying their lives and livelihoods and then mandating a
"vaccine" that turned out not to be protective, at all. And we listen to these cretins, why???
Why indeed Bruce. It’s the first time in human history that a healthy population was locked down. Why, I think was to gain control of America. For 4 years the lunatics had been telling us we elected the wrong leader and the wrong party. For them Covid was a perfect storm and still to this very day they are milking the perfect storm! Where to from here is anybody’s guess
I recall fondly being in Bucharest and being told at dinner of the day that Ceausescu ordered his tanks to fire on the people protesting and jeering him. The tank turrets all began to slowly turn - around to target him. He then fled with his vile wife and was soon captured and executed Romanians rejoiced. We will too.
There are states that have allowed APPs to do virtually whatever they want, which has solved none of their healthcare problems as far as I can tell. And some are certainly practicing well beyond the extent of their education and training.
Not against these professions (and indeed I am against monopolies), but I am skeptical of anyone claiming that they can fix healthcare.
Right. It's decided on a state-by-state basis since it's the states that are supposed to legislate health policy. I apologize for not stating that more clearly in my post above.
The point I was trying to make—rather poorly, as you point out 😀— is that neither the American Academy of Pediatrics nor the American Medical Association are centralized organizations with a single policy focus. It's the constituency of these organizations on a state-by-state basis that influences policy.
Doctors shouldn't weep over the fact that the reputation of the medical profession lies in tatters and people are openly questioning and mocking their advice. "Gender affirming care?" If you think you can build a penis from a vagina or vice versa you're aping Mary Shelley. These quacks are condemning children to a lifetime of misery and pain.
Time to face facts - When you practice "political medicine," you're practicing politics, not medicine. When you do the bidding of Big Pharma, you have the morals of a streetwalker. Many of the policies advocated by Democrats are patent lunacy. No surprise, then, that 2/3 of the doctors in the AAP are Democrats. Nobody wants to be treated by a lunatic. The professional organizations - all stripes of the AMA, the ABA and others - have been captured by hard core leftist demagogues. Unless professionals want to see their professions mocked and degraded it's time to grow up, stop believing in fairy tales and recapture or replace these rotten structures.
The early transgender surgery pioneers *were* literal mad scientists. Lily Elbe's surgeon killed his first patient by implanting a uterus, which was untested, not thought out, and had nothing to do with feminizing the patient's outward appearance.
Not going to happen anytime soon and I think by the time it does our country would’ve been captured by Democrats, Radicals MSM and corporations, it’s going to be to late to do anything!
I think there are two fundamental forces at work here.
1. O’Sullivan’s Law: “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.”
2. Taleb’s Dictatorship of the Small Minority: “It suffices for an intransigent minority--a certain type of intransigent minorities--to reach a minutely small level, say three or four percent of the total population, for the entire population to have to submit to their preferences.”
We can also take a more civil approach just by resisting to participate with institutions that we disagree with. If this doesn’t work, I agree with you.
A new study , co-authored by Makary and Prasad, shows that the covid booster is a NET NEGATIVE in young adults. The risks outweigh the benefits. No one should be forced to get one.
Makary is great, Maureen, but you have to watch Tucker Carlson's riveting interview with Dr. Aseem Malhotra. He's one of Britain's most esteemed cardiologists and he definitely believes there's a link between heart attacks and the Covid vaccines. I never had cardio issues until I took the vaccines and then got a horrible calcium test result. Fortunately, a stress test/echo revealed no heart damage or malfunction but I definitely am pursuing the inflammatory effects of the Pfizer vaccine. I have developed a great distrust of our medical establishment. In fact, I trust nobody who refuses to answer questions and tries to muzzle people who raise doubts.
"Gender affirming medicine in the early 21st century echoes the international Eugenics movement of the early 20th century. And the depth of institutional capture is shockingly similar. "
"The medical profession has wrestled with the significance of the Doctors Trial. For instance, to observe its 50th anniversary, the British Medical Journal printed a special issue (free downloads here). The lead article “War crimes and medical science” warned that the Nazi problems were “not unique to one place or time, and could happen here” and the trial “left us with a legacy we still shrink from confronting.” It pointed to contemporary problems in American medicine and warned “there will always be imperatives that threaten the professional values we profess to hold so dear” and “the profession of medicine carries within it the seeds of its own destruction.” Yes. "
"“More than half of all German physicians became early joiners of the Nazi Party, surpassing the party enrollments of all other professions. From early on, the German Medical Society played the most instrumental role in the Nazi medical program, beginning with the marginalization of Jewish physicians, proceeding to coerced experimentation, euthanization, and sterilization, and culminating in genocide...” [Haque et al 2012]"
"“Physicians were the most over-represented academic profession in the Third Reich. ... The Nazi doctrine attracted a profession in economic and political distress ... It drew physicians into its movement by appealing to the medical profession's pride and prosperity in the context of a philosophy that glorified contemporary medical practice. Physicians were attracted to ... tenets that championed biomedical solutions to social problems.” [Cohen 1998]"
Great read, great reporting. I am a new parent and can absolutely attest to the distrust I now have for the AAP. How can we be expected to follow their lead with a track record like this?
Agreed! I'm a new parent as well and just discussed this very thing with my husband the other day after our daughter's wellness checkup. The politicization of science in general and our largest institutions has created a deep mistrust of the "experts" in our lives. We like our pediatrician so far, but my husband and I agree if she ever pushes the covid vaccine or asks our daughter what gender she is, we are out of there, no questions asked. The very next day this article was in my inbox... very timely.
When your daughter gets to be 12 or 16 you will want to beware of these online portals between the doctor's office and your child. They encourage one portal for parents and a separate one for the child that parents do not see. It might be mandatory some years down the road?
You need a pediatrician. Just read and educate yourself. Ask questions. If your Spidey senses go off, change docs. Find one you feel.is your partner. Expert partner yes but partner in the care of your child.
When I became a member of AAP about 30 years ago I was so proud of myself. I never forgot to add FAAP ( fellow of AAP) behind my MD. The AAP certificate hang prominently framed in my office. Now it’s shredded and flushed down the literal toilet. When discussing treatments with parents of my patients I would always add “ these are AAP recommendations” or some such. Now in the height of flu and RSV and many other viral illnesses I can’t bring myself to mention AAP. Hospitals and ERs are overwhelmed with sick children but you wouldn’t know about it just reading daily news. AAP has not being to say.
I stopped being a member about 10 years ago when the guidelines became less about health and more about politics. I am ashamed of their stance on “gender affirming “ guidelines. AAP used to be looked upon by other international pediatric medicine governing bodies but now the agency is a laughing stock. Covid restrictions were hard and nonsensical but after all they were temporary. Mutilating surgeries and medications to change gender are forever. Irreversibly damaging. Finally some of the victims are suing their doctors for performing these “treatments “ but the whole AAP should be held liable, charged and revamped. Or abolished and start from scratch. Pediatricians are in general completely brainwashed by leftist ideologues and now it is coming back at us in the new generations of children who are being forced to question their gender. This to me is the complete height of insanity in this country. I am not a conspiracy theorist but it seems there is a concerted effort to destroy us from within.
It was obvious to me that the masks and lockdowns (and physical distancing) were not supported by science as early as April of 2020. Pandemics come in Bell Curve's--it's called Farr's Law--and they don't end until a sufficient number of people have been exposed and developed immunity, or died.
I was reading this in March or so of 2020, and using common sense more or less developed what was eventually published as the Great Barrington Declaration months before they came out with it.
And somewhere along the way videos came out of Anthony Fauci saying, in separate interviews, both that masks do almost nothing as Source Protection, and even closer to nothing as PPE.
And the statistical data on vaccine safety is STILL NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. VAERS is not a good database. It was only created because even 40 years ago the CDC and FDA were withholding harm data from the public.
But it is obvious that this disease IS LESS DANGEROUS THAN THE FLU FOR ALL HEALTHY PEOPLE UNDER 65 OR SO.
And it was obvious early on that HCQ and Ivermectin help, particularly if given with Zinc, Vitamin C, and optimally some sort of antibiotic to act as an anti-inflammatory.
So as bad and and COMPLETELY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE all this was with regard to most adults--certainly most working and school age adults--the policies with respect to CHILDREN were utterly repugnant and EVIL. That is the word. Millions of lives have been set on diminished paths, by corrupted people who we trusted.
Anthony Fauci belongs in jail. The pediatricians who pushed masks and injections belong in jail.
The whole thing is so insane. Last month I took my 13 and 14 year-old children to their (now former) pediatrician. While there the nurse handed them a survey and a second survey hidden under that one. Thankfully, I went back to the exam room with my kids. Then nurse said, "if the second survey makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to fill it out.” That piqued my interest so I took a look. The survey was all about how you identify...have so many options!! Then it went to ask about sexual orientation....so many options. I was pissed! I took both of the surveys and gave them back to the nurse. I told her that she needs to let parents know ahead of time about this survey. Then I took a picture right in front of her and told her I would be letting my friends know about this survey since they also bring their kids here. I would upload the picture to this comment if I could!
We will not go back. My kids are old enough to go to a regular family doctor. And I am looking for one that is over 50, religious and sticks to science. I will drive extra miles if I have to.
(Edit for typos)
Nothing against your overall stance, but the office you're talking about most certainly was religious. Just with a different sort of religion.
I have said all along, in the Dem Party and their left wing pals, the inmates are running the asylum. They are completely off the rails and are dead set on destroying our country.
Here is another example of this destruction:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/watch-teacher-refuses-to-teach-grammar-claiming-it-is-part-of-white-supremacy/ar-AA14YACq?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=8c83ee465d9343f8853d36190cc2c9ca
I was scolded by my daughter’s 8th grade English teacher for reading my kid’s essays and homework, marking spelling and grammar errors and making my daughter correct them.
According to the teacher I was “hindering her creativity.”
I informed the teacher that my kid would NOT leave high school unable to write a grammatically correct paragraph free of spelling errors. End of discussion.
And that was in 2008(?) so it’s nothing new.
Good for you!
Over 50 years ago my cousin tried to convince me it was ok to spell ‘tough’ as ‘tuff’. Ok if you’re talking about volcanic rock, but let’s see how far that will take you in employment. Spoiler alert: I think I fared better.
More recently, the Maine dairyman’s association lost a lawsuit that hinged on the use of the Oxford comma. It cost them about $5M in back overtime pay. Whoops.
Language matters, and accurate language matters more. More often than not, when someone says to me ‘ya know, right?’, I don’t.
I don't use the Oxford comma before conjunction. But I always try to use correct English and when I hear someone not using correct English, it is like fingernails on a black board.
I think I learned the Oxford comma in 4th grade or so. That would have been around 1956, give or take. My teacher didn’t call it that; she just said that that’s how you do it. It’s what I learned and it has served me well. I have nothing against people who don’t use it, but if you know about it—and you obviously do—why do you not use it? Just asking out of curiosity.
I was told in an English class in the 50s that there was no need for a comma before a conjunction, so I stopped using it. Now I know to use it when there is a conjunction between two independent clauses.
A comma to me is a pause that makes a list more readable. To me a conjunction is also a pause. It stands alone by itself and need no comma. I have been wrong all these years. However, it will be hard to break 70 year habit.
I saw that story last week and was stunned. Fast forward to none of her students being hired because they sound like idiots and aren't capable of following rules and then it will be called racism.
This is a west coast replay of Ebonics. Even the race baiter Jesse Jackson was against Ebonics. The left loves these idiots who claim everything is based on race.
I wonder how the left wingnuts on this BBS (R T & comprof) think about correct English being racist. They will probably love it. The left thinks everything is racist. It is their favorite excuse for everything.
The whole thing is on Libs of TikTok.
It is very much anti-science and operates like a cult religion.
"The Most Passionate Science Deniers Are Pro-Trans ‘Experts’ Who Profit From Carving Up Kids" https://thefederalist.com/2022/11/29/the-most-passionate-science-deniers-are-pro-trans-experts-who-profit-from-carving-up-kids/
It is criminal what we are doing to the young, teaching Radical Gender Theory in the schools and then jumping to drugs and surgery:
"The Real Story Behind Drag Queen Story Hour
Aimed at children, the phenomenon is far more subversive than its defenders claim."
https://www.city-journal.org/the-real-story-behind-drag-queen-story-hour?wallit_nosession=1
and
https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/20/transgender-regret-detransitioner-luka/
These young people cannot possibly consent to such things - see Steven Levine's paper:
"Reconsidering Informed Consent for Trans-Identified Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults"
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2046221
The left loves this transgender crap. I have nothing against an adult wanting to get altered. Getting altered does not change your sex. If you are male, you will still have a Y chromosome and women will always have two X chromosomes unless they have Turner's syndrome. There are always natural mistakes with primary nondisjunction which will cause all sorts of anomalies but that is rare.
This is how much the left loves transgender people. I'll bet you money, this guy never gets fired for being a thief who stole luggage. This guy is DOE's Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, Sam Brinton. The bag he stole is worth $2,325. This is felony grand larceny.
He won't get fired nor will he go to jail.
I wonder how our wingnuts will respond to this?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11507755/Republicans-demand-non-binary-drag-queen-FIRED-DOE-stealing-womans-luggage.html
This is the face of the Democrat Party. Get used to it!
Yes, if an adult has cosmetic surgeries and cross sex hormones after a lot of gate keeping that is one thing - although it would be better to help them with their mental /personality disorder rather than give them cosmetic surgery, IMO - and they need to understand that their sex never changes. That is pure fantasy and the rest of us should not be coerced into agreement.
It is another matter to pretend that "sex is assigned at birth" and all the rest of the ideology.
And, we cannot consider an 18 year old an adult for these purposes. Their brains are not fully formed and they have come off of years of Radical Gender Theory Brainwashing. Part of the narrative is to slow walk things until the magic age of 18 when you get to finally assert yourself...
Right, if Sam Brinton were anyone else he would be in trouble for the theft. And, he has no problem wearing whatever clothes he purchases himself. The weirdo must have wanted to possess an actual woman's clothing and bag. He promotes BDSM, pedophilia, and all the rest.
Did you know that CA is now a "Sanctuary State" for gender confused kids who run around from home to glitter mommies?
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2022/10/03/california-passes-law-to-lure-keep-and-mutilate-children-n1634090
Why are we not outraged about that?
The best article on this entire subject is "The Transgender Leviathan":
https://reports.americanprinciplesproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022_TransLeviathan_web.pdf
The ironic thing is that I've read the input of a number of trans people who transitioned in the "old school" way (surgery and hormones as a step taken only as an adult after many years of therapy). And to a person they are disturbed by the current phenomenon of transing children. Likewise, they recognize that their biological sex has not changed, even though they've taken steps to live as the other gender to ease their dysphoria.
Yes. There are also old men who are unhappy that doctors cut their parts off without trying to really find out what was behind that desire - like Walter Heyer. Maybe there are some guys who are truly thriving afterwards? And, there used to be some kind of therapy/gate keeping first. But, what is a "trans person"? When we say there are "trans people" are we not saying they are people who are not quite ok in the head so they wish to take it out on their body?
And there are so many men now who change nothing below the belt but insist they are women.
I respect those who say they are not truly the opposite sex - like Buck Angel (a woman). And all of those who are concerned about the children.
The grooming has just jumped to the next level. The American Girl company is promoting trans and magic pills that can halt your development so you can think about what you really want - and how if there are no grown ups you can trust there are organizations you can go to. Ahhhh! This happened with Teen Vogue years ago. The editors were guys in dresses with women's names.
It is not about "loving" transgender people. It is about wholeheartedly embracing the likely temporary gender confusion of 10 to 14 year olds and folding them into a system of reinforcement and pressurized decision-making which will have permanent effects on their bodies and minds. The AAP is supporting this system of indoctrination and mutilation, pure and simple.
100% spot on, George. Thank you for this post. We love our daughter before, during, and after the nightmare that is falling into the cult ideology - endorsed everywhere by people who should be more responsible. Virtually none of these young people have a thing called "gender dysphoria" but they are all trained to say this.
And, what is a "transgender person" anyway? Does it mean someone who suffers psychological confusion and has operations as a last resort, is it someone with a magic gender fairy inside of them, is it a man who wishes to get his sexual jollies in woman's prison or locker rooms? Why, it seems to be anything and everything that could possibly be taken in!
The AAP , the teachers unions, and the Biden Administrations have alot to answer for. So does first female four star admiral Richard Levine (and no I should not be made to say he's a woman when he is an evil dude).
"Dr. Rachel Levine slammed after calling for Big Tech to clean up ‘misinformation’ on sex change" https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/dec/26/dr-rachel-levine-slammed-after-calling-big-tech-cl/ and
"BREAKING: Libs of TikTok shows her face for first time in epic Tucker Carlson interview "I think there’s something so unique about — the LGBTQ community has become this cult and it’s so captivating," Raichik said." https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-libs-of-tiktok-shows-her-face-for-first-time-in-epic-tucker-carlson-interview?utm_campaign=64487
An evil religion. Christianity teaches us that Satan is the father of all lies, and with health practitioners have to lie to parents you know what the source of that program is.
Christianity has caused plenty of child abuse of its own.
We fired our pediatrician of over a decade for mask humping and general lefty shit. She was normal and sensible for many years and then hired a young zealot to work alongside her in the practice and things went to hell in a handbasket after that. We now drive four towns over for a normal doctor for checkups and use a quick care (no masks, no vax pushing, no lefty crap) for acute situations.
Bravo. This is the new "do what it takes" mind set.
We are at the point where trust in every little item has to be earned... And once earned, worked to preserve.
Trust and authenticity are the new human platinum.
Of only there could be a registry of such practices so not to waste time with the nutty ones
Sounds similar to an experience I had 20 years ago (this trend goes way back) when I was asked to fill out a survey at my pediatricians office concerning child safety. Several questions were about guns in the home. I confronted both the nurse and the doctor and told them they weren't going to push there political agenda on me. They tried to tell me it wasn't political, but having read a book or three I explained to them if they were concerned about "child safety" they would have been asking me about whether I had a pool and how that pool was secured since that statistically is a much, much more likely danger that my child would face than a gun. They explained that it wasn't their opinions, but an AAP questionnaire. I was furious and told them that the AAP obviously cares more about politics than children. I ended up getting a call of apology later from the office manager and chief partner--apparently news of my stink spread through the whole office. Unfortunately there wasn't enough of this kind of push back and the AAP is truly rogue at this point.
Good on you!
Thank you for taking a stand. As a parent of young kids I’m furious and worried about what’s to come for them at the doctors office...
Have your questionnaire ready for the doctor before they ever see your children. If you don't get good responses, find another doc. Intelligent and ethical docs are out there and the wallet talks.
Even here in central TX they want kids masked at the doctors office (I said “no thank you”) and they keep pushing for the COVID vaccine even after I politely but clearly declined. And we haven’t even gotten to the age of the gender stuff yet. Might be time for a new pediatrician..
I agree with you that it’s all ridiculous. One thing I feel a need to point out to everyone…CMS requires that every facility that accepts Medicare/Medicaid patients, has a mask policy for patient contact areas and a vaccine policy for healthcare workers. I work for a hospital system in a deep red state and patients hate the masks and protest but we’re forced to comply in order to keep our federal funding. And in most systems, Medicare/Medicaid makes up 60-70% of your patient base. It sounds like your pediatrician might be onboard with masks and vaccines, but even the ones that aren’t still have to parrot the narrative to stay in business.
So this is why our local clinic continues to require masking, even though the CDC finally backed off.
Yep, for healthcare it’s a CMS mandate not CDC. And it’s technically not a mandate; healthcare offices can choose to not abide by not requiring masks but if they do they lose their CMS accreditation and thus the ability to accept Medicare/Medicaid payments. I know there are people that think the providers should stand on principle and not comply but the reality is that it would be next to impossible to convince all or even a majority of those patients to pay out of pocket instead. Healthcare doesn’t have quite the margins everyone assumes and the margin is now near zero or in the red with the rapidly rising cost of labor.
I see "masks required" signs on doors to healthcare facilities but inside, no one wears them.
Our Florida medical system finally abandoned mandatory masking in all areas. The CMS mandate has expired.
I’m a veterinarian and I was fired from a corporate-owned practice when I made a client “uncomfortable.” She asked me if a spay procedure would enable her bitch to express her masculine gender identity. I told her that dogs and cats don’t participate in gendered pronoun nonsense. Too much for Austin - terminated within a few hours.
Ouch! Sorry you suffered the wrath of the Woke. Better to practice in a more rural area.
That is truly appalling.
Wow - that's nuts!
Not for Austin, it isn't. Austin is further left than California if that is at all possible. It is the home of Texas University. The school flag has a hammer and sickle on it. (Just joking but it wouldn't surprise me if they put it on their flag.)
I love this story
You live in Austin, Moscow on the Colorado? Move to New Braunfels. It's a more conservative city and has a great Aggie club. TA&M, class of '67.
Are you near the Round Rock area? If so, come see us!
RSV is because of masks. And masks don't do anything significant. They never have. They were tried with flu and made no difference. The virus particles that matter are a third the size of the apertures on N95 masks worn perfectly and replaced continually.
Ignorant people like you are forcing nurses and medical personnel to endure continual respiratory and nasal infections because of these ridiculous policies.
Feel free to believe what you want. But don't pretend that you are speaking fact. You are speaking ridiculous propaganda that you have obviously not ever evaluated as to its truth content.
“Putz,” “Moron!,” “Doofus!” “An occasional bitch slap is necessary to wake people up...”
This is exactly the kind of arrogant cancer that has infected every corner of society. Hurling vitriol with self-appointed righteous indignation, ignoring uncomfortable facts that contradict the tirade.
Complex reality is rejected by loud, petulant tantrums. All the while, demanding unquestioning adherence to whatever ignorant stance is deemed critical to save the “victim” of the hour.
The rank hypocrisy is of the highest order - actual evidence is irrelevant, while huge sweeping terms are co-opted as unwitting support: “SCIENCE”, “EXPERTS”, etc. Meanwhile, they do incalculable damage to everything they touch.
Like small children dressed up in an ill-fitting Batman costume, carrying a megaphone and pepper spray, these people actually believe they are righteous warriors for Justice, battling against anyone that dares think for theorems themselves.Trigger their Trump hysteria, and you might just witness self-immolation.
What they fail to understand, is that a “bitch slap” never “woke anyone up” to any position (besides maybe the accuracy of the self-description of the slapper.)
Yes, I’m rather used to folks of a different persuasion hurling insults. I’d kindly suggest it’s not very effective.
Absolutely hilarious. When people resort to name calling and whatnot, it is always because they have lost the argument and have nothing else to fall back on. You then criticize others for "lack of evidence" when the entire article is about how ideological institutional capture has driven the entire profession to pursue policies that are completely contrary to science. You then top off your "educated" (at least in your own mind) opinion by citing the fact that the profession broadly agrees with you as evidence, completely ignoring the investigative journalism above (which clearly is way far beyond any research you have done yourself). But the last bit was the real gem. You compared using masks to prevent airborne illness to using masks to prevent bacteria from infecting patients during surgery, which simply illustrates how little you actually understand about the size of bacteria vs viral particles and the effectiveness of masks for different situations. I often find that when debating people like yourself, your own words do more damage to your argument than anything anyone else could ever say and I applaud you for so thoroughly and clearly proving that point. You have not said a single intelligent thing or presented even 1 fact but have been extremely aggressive and hostile to everyone you've interacted with. Well done
I don't think they ever read the articles. They just come to the comments to pick fights.
Just remember RT is an old, decrepit commune-loving hippie living in Vermont. This may be his only outlet of joy in an otherwise miserable personal existence.
Yeah but they don’t need the masks because they are vaccinated so they can’t get sick. Also, Biden’s dignity and character will heal their souls.
Glad I set my coffee down, before reading this. 😅
Oh do fuck off.
Because some people are addicted to their little garlic bulb necklaces to make them fEeL sAfE doesn’t mean they work, Moron!
They work so well that everyone wore masks before 2020, right?
Not a single study shows that masks are effective. In fact, they give a false sense of security, probably endangering those vulnerable even more.
The most recent study--and self evidently even though this is their job, neither the CDC nor NIH want any honest research done--from Europe actually showed a slight INCREASE in overall mortality the more masks were worn. That increase was within the margin of error/confidence interval, but so too was the Null Hypothesis, which wins by default.
And as I keep saying, all this jibes both with common sense, and the entirety of what was known and taught prior to March 2020.
They are security blankets for grown-ups.
Putz ?
Both R T and comprof claim to be teachers. I wonder if when one of their students asks a question that doesn't match up with their ideology do they humiliate their pupil was a vicious snarky remark. Does R T "bitch slap" them?
Also do they enter into all discussions they don't agree with, with vile, angry, pejoratives. One would think, hope, teachers could express themselves in a more civil and logical manner instead of trying to humiliate their opponents with vile language.
I would like to know where they teach so I could tell people to avoid their narrow minded NAZIesque institutions.
These guys are modern day Brown Shirts.
R T, when challenged on masks and the government response to Covid often asks, "What is your science background." as if this is a valid argument for wearing masks.
Well I wonder what R T's scientific background or is he just a lemming who believes anything a lying politician or a leftwing "scientist" tells him?
putz
pŭts
noun
A fool; an idiot.
A penis.
Among the Moravians, a Christmas decoration. Its essential is an evergreen tree, representing the tree of life. It is laden with nuts and fruit. Take your pick. or should I say prick
Just for the record RT - you are what the kids these days call a douche nozzzle.
This is good advice. Thanks!
Central Texas contains Austin and the BS is definitely spreading. But if it is in Alabama it is everywhere
I find the group non-think terrifying, and it brings to mind past events in human history where the herd followed the piper into a dark tunnel. The 3rd Reich, Rwanda, Pol Pot to name a few.
Me too. But I am by nature a contrarian.
Austin is about as far left as it gets.
I don't have children but it seems very inappropriate for the nurse to give them surveys without showing them to you first. Parents need to follow your example and actually parent their children instead of handing them over to Dr. and Nurse ideologues.
Right on. Asking the parent for permission to have the child take a survey should be standard practice. Not obtaining the parent’s consent is unethical.
In WA state, minors have medical autonomy at age 13. Parents lose rights to information and decision making about their children at that age without a court order.
And yet those same courts would hold those parents accountable if their children commit a heinous crime. I'm not saying parents shouldn't be held accountable, but rather the courts are inconsistent in the rulings concerning parent/child relationships. No wonder kids are so anxious, confused, and depressed. Everything is relative, and they have few absolutes on which to base their moral compass. Kids need structure, reliability, accountability, and discipline to mature into responsible adults.
But if you left a 9 year old alone for 30 minutes while you go to the grocery store someone would report you to the authorities.
I was crossing the street on my own at the age of 5. My parents once left me alone ALL DAY when I was 11. It's clearly a miracle I survived.
That's disgusting.
I would be grateful if you could provide a link to a resource on this topic so I can get more information?
Thanks
Here is one example https://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0061.htm , but you can google parental liability for minor child actions. Plenty of law firms have information on the subject.
Thank you
This is a great summary of the medical rights of minors to obtain care under various scenarios:
https://depts.washington.edu/uwhatc/PDF/guidelines/Minors%20Health%20Care%20Rights%20Washington%20State.pdf
And this is an 2019 update to the law that gives parents a little bit more leverage to obtain care for minor dependents over the age of 13 for mental health and substance abuse issues when the minor is refusing consent:
https://wapave.org/adolescent-health-care-act-provides-options-for-families-seeking-mental-health-and-substance-use-help-for-young-people-resistant-to-treatment/
The revision was an important step forward for parents (and youth who need help). While I believe the original intent of the law was to allow teenagers to seek contraception and reproductive care services without parental consent, an unintended consequence was that it also allowed minors to refuse desperately needed mental health care as in the case of involuntary commitment for things like suicide attempts, homicidal thoughts, and acute psychiatric breaks.
And educator ideologues, too.
Love your stand!
Everyone here who voted for socialized medicine is getting what he asked for - political control of healthcare with no escape.
Yup, continue in that direction and we’ll completely give up control over our health care. So much of our health care is already being paid for by third parties. Doctors are working for the insurance companies or for the government, insurance companies are working for the corporations’ HR departments. Who is working for the patients? Who is getting paid by the patients?
Public health service - run by the same people who run public restrooms.
When AIDS was an epidemic, the school previewed two films for parents. One film was for AIDS and promised that all testing was confidential and parents would not be told the results. Another film was for testicular cancer and the importance of overcoming embarrassment to talk with your family and get treatment. While the latter film promoted talking to caring parents and being treated, the first film had parents who were so stupid and stingy with their love that they selected ring side seats to a disease that would destroy their child's health and life.
While long ago, this was the start of a messaging that would become louder and stronger that parents are not to be trusted and the child was the king-baby. The child was able to rule and make decisions but the parents were to pay for and pick up the results of these decisions. Those profitable surgeries for gender dysphoria are not being paid for with money saved from mowing lawns, babysitting, or allowances.
In some cases, *too* many, it's being paid for by insurance. Insurance most everybody here is paying into. Or tax dollars. That too. <puke>
You've got that right, JT:
"Biden Administration Wants Taxpayers to Pay for Transgender Child Mutilation" https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/12/05/the-biden-administration-wants-taxpayers-to-pay-for-transgender-child-mutilation-n1650915
You know that Obamacare mandates that coverage right?
Trust me, insurers have no desire to cover plastic surgery.
No, I dunno much about Obamacare. Another thing the Rs could fix, if they ever got around to it.
And now they want to mandate it for children.
Way to GO, SP!
Appalling that this happens behind parents backs and from someone that you trust to do the best for your children
Send your photo of that survey to someone like Chris Rufo, who is collecting this data as well as this author. Daylight is the best disinfectant. And lord, the AAP sure needs to be disinfected.
Disinfected or ended and a new organization begun....
I’m under 50, sadly, but here’s the handout I give my patients
https://gaty.substack.com/p/fertility-saving-resource-list
Our assistant secretary of health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is an evil dude spreading a cult religion. He promotes harming children.
"Rachel Levine Enlists Doctors as Evangelists to Preach the Gospel of Transgenderism"
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/12/08/rachel-levine-enlists-doctors-evangelists-preach-gospel-transgenderism/
Good article and thank you for calling out the evil emanating from the office of Levine at HHS.
If your kids are in public schools, they are likely taking similar surveys called "Youth Risk Behavior" survey. At least in our public schools they let you opt out. If you want to know the questions, they make you come in to look at a physical survey. In other words, they make it hard for you and then your kid will probably be the only one sitting there not doing it because no parents will take the time to even think about opting out their kid. The questions are gross.
Yup, faced that in our schools here, too. Its everywhere. I am doing what I can. My family went through a year when my daughter was ROGD when she was 11. It was fucking awful. She has returned to herself now. And I am high alert for it. It must be fought at the local levels first. I pushed it out of my home by blocking all social media in my house and getting my family connected with a good church. Every single one of her teachers knows who I am. I am the direct mother who looks then in the eye and asks exactly what they are teaching. A team of local moms make sure that someone goes to the schoolboard meetings and we sniff through all the curriculum. One of us will run for school board for the next election. And its exhausting. During that year, I had two other close friends say they were going through/went through the same with their daughters. That's insane!
You are a wonderful parent. We were hit with this when our daughter was about 15 and it lasted longer. I think she is mostly ok now but I remain worried. Like you there were families around us with this issue but we seemed to be the only non-believers. I feel like this isn't going away until Democrats get worried and WSJ editorial board type "conservatives" who don't want to participate in "culture wars" are struck with gender confused grandchildren.
It is a real nightmare for the entire family including siblings. Teachers were calling her "he"and a weird name behind our backs. When I caught on they seemed gleeful and condescending about it. In my darker moments I have wished "trans" on those young, mostly childless teachers when they have kids. One or two teachers were not into it but felt they had to go with the flow. We were using a private school so we paid extra for it.
I am so glad to hear your daughter is on the other side of this. Way to fight for her! When it happens it's a complete isolating nightmare. Trust evaporates in every institution. There are family members that I will never allow around my children again. I will keep your family in my prayers. I am so happy to hear your daughter is ok.
Thank you. I appreciate that, SP. Same to you. There are moms I will never talk to again. I agree about losing trust in every institution.
Same here… last night I spoke to a foster parent of a 8 year girl who thinks she is a boy. My daughter befriended her.
That girl at some point called cps and they removed her from her family and assigned a foster… So I spoke to that woman. She is deeply into that “he” thing for a 8 year girl..
After that conversation I woke up at 2 am this night and couldn’t go back to sleep for several hours thinking of all the horrors of this situation.
You’re a good mom. And it is exhausting. I started down a similar path with my kids’ school two years over a radical diversity and equity plan they wanted to implement. I figured if they could get the diversity framework pushed through, a radical gender agenda would be next. Went (still go) to every school board meeting, picked apart curriculum with a fine toothed comb, was constantly rallying other parents to join me, threatened legal action, and eventually became the PTO president just so they’d know they’d never get rid of me up their ass. So many days I wish I’d just given up and homeschooled but I feel like the principal of the matter is worth fighting for. Good luck with the board election - school boards need parents like you fighting the good fight.
Bless you, sc-out!
Thank you SP. Yes, the Radical Gender Cult works hard to confuse the young and make life time patients of them.
You’re welcome in my practice :)
Thank you!
As a Bioethics professor, I will make this required reading for all my classes. Nurses have become progressively more skeptical of this new political tilt of young, what they see as, dangerously naive doctors. The schism between common sense nurses and politicized doctors is widening. Thankfully!
My sister is a doctor, and in the last two years her personality and politics have totally transformed. She loves diversity now and thinks Fox News is the only reason people refused the ineffective and deadly vaccines.
She may inadvertently be right about the impact of Fox News. Has any other network raised concerns about the rushed, experimental, ineffective and potentially dangerous vaccines? When I hear people criticize Fox News I ask if they have ever watched it.
Fox News had an impact, I agree, but my own opinion came from reading the abstracts of the initial studies on the vaccines. From day one, it was clear that they didn't prevent contagion or transmission, and clear that they only provided weak and temporary protection.
My sister absolutely refuses to discuss this. Not a single word of criticism of Fauci or the vaccines is acceptable. The science is irrelevant, the healthcare administrators are god.
Me too. Plus decades of procedures regarding vaccine safety was either unnecessary in the past or wholly disregarded for the Covid vaccine. And the conflicts of interest are staggering.
I'm in private practice and am currently telling patients who ask, no, I am not getting a booster.
They didn’t raise concerns at first though. They were all on board. My hesitation came from my own gut feeling then was solidified by a now infamous Dark Horse podcast
You should get the book, Take Two Aspirin and Call Me by My Pronouns, but Stanley Goldfarb, MD, for her. It dives into the shift of American medical education from patient care to social justice.
I wish she would read it but there is no chance of that happening.
Her recent residency placement was....quite prestigious, and you do not succeed in that context without supporting the state religion.
I might though!
That is a terrible sad statement about the brainwashing going on.
Nurses have always been the backbone of the system. I received poor medical care many years ago resulting eventually in emergency corrective surgery. I basically checked myself out of hospital and went to my hometown l. It was the nurses who let me know something was wrong with the original treatment. Here in Canada I wish they permitted more nurse practitioners in Emergency instead of making us wait hours to meet some dimwit medical resident.
Jim, I'm sure that you are aware of the very political academic nurses who inculcate their students with a lot of left wing views. Nurses, like the rest of us, are extremely political, and the nursing professors, like education professors, are way out there on the AOC and Warren wings of socialism.
Nursing professors are definitely far on the unreasonable left, but that is because they feel like they have to pretend to be MD's. They seem to think if they are extreme leftists that gives them the same social status as being a real medical doctor. But real nurses, those who keep real people alive every single day, those who are the true compassionate care givers of the sick and the elderly and the dying, they are not the same as the envious wannabe doctors who teach nurses.
Maryland passed a law in the 90's making it illegal to present yourself in a medical setting as Doctor unless you are a physician for exactly that reason - a nursing school professor introducing herself to a VIP patient as Doctor. The VIP patient found out shortly thereafter that she was not one of his physicians, and he took it all the way to the governor. I've always thought teachers should be Professor, and it is nowhere more vital than in a hospital.
Thank you! My daughter is a public health major at Purdue. I would love for her professors to have this information and disseminate it to the students. I’d like to send it to the department head
"Common sense" nurses? Shouldn't nurses be using their training and expertise? "Common sense" has become shorthand for "an expert says something I disagree with, so I'm going to call my lack of expertise 'common sense' so I don't have to change my behavior".
If you had spent even 20 minutes speaking with an experienced nurse, you would never have written this. One of the primary obligations of a professional nurse is patient advocacy. Not so for politically motivated research MD's. If you cannot recognize the smell of C-dif when you walk in a room, you really do not know ....
Publicly cited "experts" have been disastrously wrong on nearly every major issue of the last several years. The word "expert" has totally lost its credibility and is mostly used by lazy journalists that don't want to go into detail or explain any other viewpoints or cite real sources.
But as somebody who was ahead of the CDC by several months on nearly every pandemic policy they eventually figured out, and who realizes the epic damages wrought on this nation by "experts", screw the experts. Authoritarian stupidity has infected this entire country and our inept leaders get away with it because "experts say!"
And they don't admit or learn when they're wrong, they're much too "expert" for that.
What is happening? Why is politics poisoning all aspects of our lives? It is like we are living in a dystopian nightmare. I used to love politics and writing about it was fun, but now I feel an urge to distance myself from it. There are no limits to these people. When reality closes in, they shape-shift, which makes them unstoppable, invincible. I witnessed in horror how this happened live, in front of our eyes, on the podium of the White House, concerning The Twitter Files. My heart aches for these children. Our only hope while we don't find a way to fight this disease is the parents' common sense, which is not very much unfortunately.
I think this all happened because of social media.
It happened because of decades of indoctrination at universities,the sad part is that it has now reached medical education and shows total disregard for science and caters to woke ideologies,political correctness that ultimately harms children.
The common variable is universities. All our institutions are being taken over by brainwashed university graduates.
Academia is a major source of the problem. Yes.
Obama explicitly said he would fundamentally and radically transform the United States. This is happening despite half the nation not wanting it. The people who have been here hundreds of years don't want it, but they're being drowned out by historically unprecedented rates of both legal and illegal immigration.
This is all by design. I will never, ever be on board with the revolution, and that's why I and people like me are under a nonstop assault. They've dehumanized us with so many words and so many ways, and they get more powerful and aggressive every year.
Fascists can't allow dissent. Everything is political, and the Democratic Party is god until the revolution is complete.
I would venture to say far less than half the country wants this radical transformation. Too many are cowed by the shrill voices of the few radicals running the show.
Just a few weeks ago I felt differently, but the Twitter Files seem to demonstrate you are right. The real revolutionaries are really just a very few people in the right places.
This is really depressing. However, I don't believe this to be true and I don't see 160 million people as defenseless victims. In fact this impression is part of the problem. Not so long ago we were all full of energy and positive thoughts. What happened? Two years of covid, for sure, and a defeated president. This is still a free country. We just have to find the right people to govern it, and we shall overcome, I'm sure.
I think it’s bigger than politics. I believe it’s all about $money$ and positions taken by government, academia and corporations to solidify their hegemony. Just look at the process for new drugs in the USA - it’s corrupt. This corruption is seeking into other aspects of life too.
I think QX and Jaime both are correct. But IMO the heart of it is a populace which believes in a government fix for everything that ails it, coupled with a government willing to exploit that belief for the self-empowerment and wealth of government officials. In other words a very stupid populace. Or at least half of it. It has taken roughly a hundred years from the inception of entitlements/safety net/call it what you will to reach this point.
I agree. Given we can see so many politicians being incompetent idiots, it really baffles me how much people would complain about politicians and yet completely believe government is the solution to everything, and they constantly want more, not less, government. But faith in government to solve all social problems and create an ideal society is in fact the basis of socialism and communism. And even now, after the Great Communism Experiments had all not only failed, but historically proven to be frighteningly brutal, it is laughable to still see so many people proudly calling themselves Marxists.
I agree.
"the AAP is first and foremost a standard-setting body".
The AAP is a professional association and in practice likely acts like one. That probably means that "professional association" should be replaced with "trade association" since professional standards and concern for all stakeholders (including the public) are likely subordinated to the economic interests of those members that are aggressive enough to pursue leadership positions. The practitioners that hold a "purist" view of their organization are likely laughed at by the organization's leadership.
I am aware of a midlevel provider association that represents thousands of practitioners (and are in line to treat millions of patients) that has been reduced to two leadership individuals and a team of lobbyists. There is no focus on even the membership at large that provide the dues to fund the association's activities.
That observation is straight from the mouth of the lobbyist that has been representing the organization for years. I should know. I introduced the association to the lobbyist. And that was not the narrow focus of the organization at the time of the introduction.
The real issue is not that some have now lost faith in the AAP. The real issue appears to be why these lobbying trade associations are ever thought of as standard setting organizations in whom the public should place their trust. Better to promote a healthy and active tort system. While not perfect, the public crucifixion of the reputations and finances of the worst actors will result in the setting of standards.
Perhaps the litigation mounting around the Tavistock gender identity clinic will serve to knock some sense into the area.
@Randy Nye nails it. Professional associations really are trade associations intent on advancing the financial interests of members and protecting them from competition from non members and people who want to become members.
They spend their time promoting their professions with phony public surveys, biased academic and non academic research that promotes their professions and lobbying for more government programs that subsidize them and their customers.
Think lawyers, physicians, nurses, allied healthcare professionals, accountants, CPAs, COPs, Sheriffs, teachers, principals, swimming pool maintenance firms, landscapers, engineers, architects, system administrators, and, of course, tenured professors.
Some professional associations have also shifted their focus away from their members, and instead have a primary goal of perpetuating the gravy train that their full-time administrators enjoy.
I belonged to a relatively prestigious engineering-based trade organization for many years, but became disillusioned by their increasingly political (and non-technical) positions. That's when I discovered that these decisions were being made by the professional administrators that handled the day-to-day operations of the professional society -- not the members/engineers that they purportedly represented.
What are the obstacles to creating a competing organization?
Bingo. If there is a solution it is at the courthouse.
A class action lawsuit would be one avenue to explore as these ideological zealots override true scientific inquiry for political objectives. This is part of a disturbing trend where expertise is cloaked in a Fauciesque "I am the science" mindset. The politicization of science on all levels has the capacity to facillitate an unchecked authoritarianism as CS Lewis has observed:
"“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Brilliant post
And the approval of the victims.
Woah, that’s deep - ‘...tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims’.
I love that quote. One of the greatest writers of modern times.
What bothers me about the gender identity stuff with young kids is that many, many kids don't do things that traditionally correspond to their gender but grow up to be happy with the gender they were born to.
For example, a boy who loves sewing. In the distant past, he would have been told "that's for girls, don't be a sissy" which is bad. In the recent past, he would be encouraged and perhaps grow up to have a career in fashion, which is fine. Now, he'd be asked "are you sure you're not a girl?" which is just as bad as what was done in the distant past only with new language.
Same thing with girls. My sister's favorite toy as a kid was a garbage truck. She would drive it around the house, pick up dust and paper, put it in her garbage truck and take it to the dump. Again, in the distant past she would have been directed toward dolls or something more feminine. In the more recent past most people would be fine with her playing however she wants. Now, she'd be asked "are you sure you're not a boy?" again which is just as bad as the distant past only with new language.
TLDR: not every kid behaves in a way traditionally associated with their gender but that doesn't mean they need to change genders!!!
100%! We worked so hard for many years to make it ok for kids not to be stuck in the rigid boy/girl toys and activities categorization, finally letting girls to play with 'action figures' instead of (or in addition to) playing with Barbies. In the recent past, it felt like we finally recognized that it's ok not to be a girly-girl and still be a perfectly fine girl human. Now the gender affirming stuff has crept in, and the cartoonish stereotypes of "girl" and "boy" toys, behaviors, etc have been resurrected, and now if a girl prefers action figures it's interpreted as a sign that she might really be a boy...
It is offensive when a man who identifies as a woman refers to themselves as a "Bimbo" and represent themselves as a giggling fool in a skirt. Affirming a stereotype that is pure Stepford Wife is insulting to the women who worked for the right to vote, achieve equal pay, and be recognized as intelligent human beings.
The misogyny of Trans Rights Activists is sickening.
Thank you for calling it what it is "misogyny"
Couldn’t agree more.
Yes! Who remembers the kids' album Free to Be You and Me!
Here! 🙌🏻
As a gay man, I find this especially disgusting. There will be no sissy boys or "tomboy" girls from this generation, most of whom would have grown up to be happy adults. We need men who want to be florists or fashion designers or interior decorators, or girls who want to be forest rangers or firefighters or gym teachers. But today, these kids will be told that they're actually in the wrong body and need drugs and surgery.
The sick thing is that parents would still, in 2022, rather have a kid with a medical condition that requires drugs and surgery than a boy who is merely a "sissy" or a girl who is a "tomboy".
A trans child is a very Woke accessory. Lots of virtue points in it. I've heard the phenomenon called "Transhausen-by-Proxy."
I just saw your comment and I could not agree more. The whole "trans" movement appears to me to be nothing but a covert attack on gay people, as it's an abnegation of, and bizarre need to transform, men with feminine traits and women with masculine traits. (LGBT? - who decided that?) We all exist on a spectrum of behavior. I remember as a young man being asked if I was gay because I was fascinated by ballet. Well, I also loved - and played - lacrosse and football. And I'm not gay (no really lol). But all I can says is it's a good thing these fiends with scalpels weren't around then.
Manu Bennett, an Australian actor, had to choose between ballet and rugby at the end of high school (he was excellent at both). He chose ballet. And he's not gay either.
I think more and more LGB people are realizing that Trans Rights Activism is a nasty form of conversion therapy. Iran actually uses it this way--homosexuality is illegal there, but if you surgically transition to the "proper gender" for your attractions, it's not homosexuality anymore.
As a girl child I preferred horses and trees to Barbies, I grew up liking cars, and I became an orthopaedic surgeon (93% male profession). I am fully female, heterosexual, married to a man (who just happens to be a NURSE), and I thank God with you that no one had the gall to tell me I'm not who I am because I don't fit their stereotype of woman.
Yes! Why just why? (Said the girl who had tonka trucks and my gi Joe doll)
I am still a tomboy, at 56. I'm the one who drills and saws. I can put together plumbing and wire an outlet. I also sew, knit, and write. Still female. That's what I want to be; never wanted to be a boy instead.
Matchbox cars were my favorite toy. I was disillusioned by the expectation that I get interested in makeup at around the age of 11 or 12. I did not want marriage or kids.
I'm glad I didn't grow up in this type of culture. If asked if I thought I should be a boy, I would have said yes.
This is a great comment. Thanks
The hijacking of American professional associations is now the norm. Take the American Library Association whose recommendations are followed by school libraries. School libraries are the center of controversies right now over the presence of books that are clearly pornography.
Most people think the ALA applies neutral standards of literary merit to its recommendations. But the ALA is led by a far-left cadre that exercises influence nationwide far beyond its size.
The ALA claims 54,000 members. However, most don’t participate in elections that affect the direction of the organization. It recently held an election for president and a little more than 5000 members, opposed by a little over 4000 members chose a president who describes herself as a “Marxist lesbian.” She is well represented on social media advocating the “queering” of the library. What does that mean? I think we know and it is evident in the books they recommend that school libraries buy.
Why doesn’t the “silent majority” of association members revolt?
ALA also holds that the right of homeless men to view pornography videos is more important that the right of librarians and library public safety officers to have to see videos of women being raped and tortured in their workplace. So while sexual harassment laws at least in theory protect women from co-workers who would expose them to violent porn in the workplace, librarians have to put up with it. (Based on complaints by library workers and subsequent research a few years ago - may have changed since then, but I doubt it.
Yep. And that happened like 40 years ago.
40 years ago they were whackadoos.
They still are. We have just mainstreamed whackadooism. Which is why so many have that down the rabbit it hole feeling.
Great research/article. I love the quote that the AAP...'doesn't want kids crossing the street at 10, but puberty blockers are ok'. Love, but despise (the quote). 12 yrs old can find porn on their computer, upload videos to youtube, yet their parents don't expect them to do their laundry, mow the lawn or rake leaves. But I digress...I realized long ago that everything goes back to first and foremost money, and secondly, power (which leads to political alignment and... money!). This entire situation is so disturbing - I'm glad our kids are no longer kids. I personally have the education and work experience (pharma) to read and understand the research, but the vast majority of parents do not or don't have the time (I didn't have the time, nor did I even think I had to)....that wasn't that long ago. What has happened in such a short time????
Yes. Well. The politicization of the American Medical Association and its spinoffs is hardly new. But it occurs on a far more fragmented, state-by-state basis than Mr. Sibarium implies in his article above, and it supports conservative hegemony just as often as it supports progressive hegemony.
For example: The entire crisis in primary healthcare access could have been solved 15 years ago simply by allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to practice autonomously to the full extent of their training and education without physician oversight.
Instead, the U.S. got saddled with the Frankensteinian Affordable Care Act—as though access to healthcare _insurance_ was somehow equivalent to access to healthcare.
Anyway, I totally agree that most of the COVID restraints in this country were draconian: It falls on the people most vulnerable to infection to protect themselves—I am one of those people, by the way, and I would have been perfectly happy to cloister, shop at special store hours at 5 am in the morning, etc, etc, while the rest of America lived its normal life.
To apply COVID restraints to _children_ who were the least susceptible to COVID infections was totally ridiculous, and as it turns out _dangerous_ since it is very likely that the perfect storm of RSV/flu infections that are filling pediatric hospitals now are due to those COVID restraints.
And it is equally ridiculous to allow anyone under the age of consent to embark on surgical or hormonal gender change treatments. If you're too young to get a tattoo, you're too young to do anything else that's essentially _irretrievable_ to your body.
All our genius overseers had to do was protect the vulnerable, mostly the elderly and morbidly obese, and allow the rest of us to live our lives.
And they couldn't even get that right. In fact, they slaughtered the innocents in nursing homes while locking down healthy people, destroying their lives and livelihoods and then mandating a
"vaccine" that turned out not to be protective, at all. And we listen to these cretins, why???
Why indeed Bruce. It’s the first time in human history that a healthy population was locked down. Why, I think was to gain control of America. For 4 years the lunatics had been telling us we elected the wrong leader and the wrong party. For them Covid was a perfect storm and still to this very day they are milking the perfect storm! Where to from here is anybody’s guess
Tyrants always overreach.
I recall fondly being in Bucharest and being told at dinner of the day that Ceausescu ordered his tanks to fire on the people protesting and jeering him. The tank turrets all began to slowly turn - around to target him. He then fled with his vile wife and was soon captured and executed Romanians rejoiced. We will too.
Soon enough.
I sure as hell hope there will be a popular pushback soon. God willing
I think it will be over something that originally appears trivial. But the tinder is dry. The spark is inevitable.
Coming soon it’s already unfolding
This is the most hopeful thing I’ve read in a while.
Wonderful post!!!
There are states that have allowed APPs to do virtually whatever they want, which has solved none of their healthcare problems as far as I can tell. And some are certainly practicing well beyond the extent of their education and training.
Not against these professions (and indeed I am against monopolies), but I am skeptical of anyone claiming that they can fix healthcare.
Right. It's decided on a state-by-state basis since it's the states that are supposed to legislate health policy. I apologize for not stating that more clearly in my post above.
The point I was trying to make—rather poorly, as you point out 😀— is that neither the American Academy of Pediatrics nor the American Medical Association are centralized organizations with a single policy focus. It's the constituency of these organizations on a state-by-state basis that influences policy.
Also, advanced practice providers haven't been around long enough in most states to gauge the effects they have on access to healthcare.
There are many indications that they _do_ have a salutary effect on healthcare access in rural areas.
But, of course, there is always the issue that most healthcare providers, physicians and APPPs, prefer to practice in more densely populated areas.
I am.not against the professionals. I am against the faux leadership of the organization.
Yes and AMEN to full practice authority for NPs and PAs! 👏🏻
The result of the ACA was destruction of health care in favor of health business IMO.
Doctors shouldn't weep over the fact that the reputation of the medical profession lies in tatters and people are openly questioning and mocking their advice. "Gender affirming care?" If you think you can build a penis from a vagina or vice versa you're aping Mary Shelley. These quacks are condemning children to a lifetime of misery and pain.
Time to face facts - When you practice "political medicine," you're practicing politics, not medicine. When you do the bidding of Big Pharma, you have the morals of a streetwalker. Many of the policies advocated by Democrats are patent lunacy. No surprise, then, that 2/3 of the doctors in the AAP are Democrats. Nobody wants to be treated by a lunatic. The professional organizations - all stripes of the AMA, the ABA and others - have been captured by hard core leftist demagogues. Unless professionals want to see their professions mocked and degraded it's time to grow up, stop believing in fairy tales and recapture or replace these rotten structures.
“ If you think you can build a penis from a vagina or vice versa you're aping Mary Shelley.”
Right on. There is definitely some mad scientist energy going on right now. Are we marching toward Transhumanism ?
The early transgender surgery pioneers *were* literal mad scientists. Lily Elbe's surgeon killed his first patient by implanting a uterus, which was untested, not thought out, and had nothing to do with feminizing the patient's outward appearance.
Not going to happen anytime soon and I think by the time it does our country would’ve been captured by Democrats, Radicals MSM and corporations, it’s going to be to late to do anything!
I'm not as pessimistic as you are.
Lunacy can only prevail for so long.
Hopefully you right but we 3 years in could you give a time on how much longer?
We are more than three years in. My ex husband transitioned in 2015 and the ideology was well in place.
I think there are two fundamental forces at work here.
1. O’Sullivan’s Law: “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.”
2. Taleb’s Dictatorship of the Small Minority: “It suffices for an intransigent minority--a certain type of intransigent minorities--to reach a minutely small level, say three or four percent of the total population, for the entire population to have to submit to their preferences.”
We don't have to submit if we're armed.
We can also take a more civil approach just by resisting to participate with institutions that we disagree with. If this doesn’t work, I agree with you.
Gosh Dave that’s what it looks like it’s coming to America has gone mad!
A new study , co-authored by Makary and Prasad, shows that the covid booster is a NET NEGATIVE in young adults. The risks outweigh the benefits. No one should be forced to get one.
The Covid "vaccine" that now doesn't protect against getting Covid? We have truly entered bizzaro world with these clowns.
Yeah, but Pfizer is making a fortune.
Sic transit gloria...
If the risks outweigh the benefits they should be outlawed.
We do not even have people capable of an objective risk/benefit analysis.
Makary is great, Maureen, but you have to watch Tucker Carlson's riveting interview with Dr. Aseem Malhotra. He's one of Britain's most esteemed cardiologists and he definitely believes there's a link between heart attacks and the Covid vaccines. I never had cardio issues until I took the vaccines and then got a horrible calcium test result. Fortunately, a stress test/echo revealed no heart damage or malfunction but I definitely am pursuing the inflammatory effects of the Pfizer vaccine. I have developed a great distrust of our medical establishment. In fact, I trust nobody who refuses to answer questions and tries to muzzle people who raise doubts.
Mengele was a doc that worked with children
Yip he did it’s terrifying to have read your post
Yes, a bit too far.
Yip.
"Echoes of Eugenics: What the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Means for Us in the US
On the 75th anniversary of the trial of Nazi doctors at Nuremberg we examine Nazi medicine and gender-affirming care"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/echoes-of-eugenics-what-the-doctors
"Gender affirming medicine in the early 21st century echoes the international Eugenics movement of the early 20th century. And the depth of institutional capture is shockingly similar. "
"The medical profession has wrestled with the significance of the Doctors Trial. For instance, to observe its 50th anniversary, the British Medical Journal printed a special issue (free downloads here). The lead article “War crimes and medical science” warned that the Nazi problems were “not unique to one place or time, and could happen here” and the trial “left us with a legacy we still shrink from confronting.” It pointed to contemporary problems in American medicine and warned “there will always be imperatives that threaten the professional values we profess to hold so dear” and “the profession of medicine carries within it the seeds of its own destruction.” Yes. "
"“More than half of all German physicians became early joiners of the Nazi Party, surpassing the party enrollments of all other professions. From early on, the German Medical Society played the most instrumental role in the Nazi medical program, beginning with the marginalization of Jewish physicians, proceeding to coerced experimentation, euthanization, and sterilization, and culminating in genocide...” [Haque et al 2012]"
"“Physicians were the most over-represented academic profession in the Third Reich. ... The Nazi doctrine attracted a profession in economic and political distress ... It drew physicians into its movement by appealing to the medical profession's pride and prosperity in the context of a philosophy that glorified contemporary medical practice. Physicians were attracted to ... tenets that championed biomedical solutions to social problems.” [Cohen 1998]"
Psychologist and sexologist John Money also worked with children
https://reports.americanprinciplesproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022_TransLeviathan_web.pdf
Great read, great reporting. I am a new parent and can absolutely attest to the distrust I now have for the AAP. How can we be expected to follow their lead with a track record like this?
Agreed! I'm a new parent as well and just discussed this very thing with my husband the other day after our daughter's wellness checkup. The politicization of science in general and our largest institutions has created a deep mistrust of the "experts" in our lives. We like our pediatrician so far, but my husband and I agree if she ever pushes the covid vaccine or asks our daughter what gender she is, we are out of there, no questions asked. The very next day this article was in my inbox... very timely.
When your daughter gets to be 12 or 16 you will want to beware of these online portals between the doctor's office and your child. They encourage one portal for parents and a separate one for the child that parents do not see. It might be mandatory some years down the road?
You need a pediatrician. Just read and educate yourself. Ask questions. If your Spidey senses go off, change docs. Find one you feel.is your partner. Expert partner yes but partner in the care of your child.
When I became a member of AAP about 30 years ago I was so proud of myself. I never forgot to add FAAP ( fellow of AAP) behind my MD. The AAP certificate hang prominently framed in my office. Now it’s shredded and flushed down the literal toilet. When discussing treatments with parents of my patients I would always add “ these are AAP recommendations” or some such. Now in the height of flu and RSV and many other viral illnesses I can’t bring myself to mention AAP. Hospitals and ERs are overwhelmed with sick children but you wouldn’t know about it just reading daily news. AAP has not being to say.
I stopped being a member about 10 years ago when the guidelines became less about health and more about politics. I am ashamed of their stance on “gender affirming “ guidelines. AAP used to be looked upon by other international pediatric medicine governing bodies but now the agency is a laughing stock. Covid restrictions were hard and nonsensical but after all they were temporary. Mutilating surgeries and medications to change gender are forever. Irreversibly damaging. Finally some of the victims are suing their doctors for performing these “treatments “ but the whole AAP should be held liable, charged and revamped. Or abolished and start from scratch. Pediatricians are in general completely brainwashed by leftist ideologues and now it is coming back at us in the new generations of children who are being forced to question their gender. This to me is the complete height of insanity in this country. I am not a conspiracy theorist but it seems there is a concerted effort to destroy us from within.
“Temporary”
Look at Covid Twitter. There are people out there TODAY trying to close schools and re-mask children. Head Start kids are STILL masked.
These lunatics have brain worms that have addicted them to this bullshit.
It was obvious to me that the masks and lockdowns (and physical distancing) were not supported by science as early as April of 2020. Pandemics come in Bell Curve's--it's called Farr's Law--and they don't end until a sufficient number of people have been exposed and developed immunity, or died.
I was reading this in March or so of 2020, and using common sense more or less developed what was eventually published as the Great Barrington Declaration months before they came out with it.
And somewhere along the way videos came out of Anthony Fauci saying, in separate interviews, both that masks do almost nothing as Source Protection, and even closer to nothing as PPE.
And the statistical data on vaccine safety is STILL NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. VAERS is not a good database. It was only created because even 40 years ago the CDC and FDA were withholding harm data from the public.
But it is obvious that this disease IS LESS DANGEROUS THAN THE FLU FOR ALL HEALTHY PEOPLE UNDER 65 OR SO.
And it was obvious early on that HCQ and Ivermectin help, particularly if given with Zinc, Vitamin C, and optimally some sort of antibiotic to act as an anti-inflammatory.
So as bad and and COMPLETELY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE all this was with regard to most adults--certainly most working and school age adults--the policies with respect to CHILDREN were utterly repugnant and EVIL. That is the word. Millions of lives have been set on diminished paths, by corrupted people who we trusted.
Anthony Fauci belongs in jail. The pediatricians who pushed masks and injections belong in jail.