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And yet the Dems seem to be unable to help themselves and want to die on the hill of fighting for the right to talk about sex with 5yr olds. It's pure insanity. That, defund the police, fight inflation by spending a whole lot printed new money--the left has gone bonkers.

Which has had me thinking. Have the Dems slipped into being a cult? Unthinking dogma, jargon that only makes sense to people who are part of the group, obsession with sex, spinning bigger lies to cover for uncovered dishonesty, casting all outsiders as enemies--these are all behaviors of a cult. Sure, one might argue to lesser degrees political parties have had hints of these characteristics. But the Dems seem to me to have become a bonafide cult. They weren't always this way--last few years brought it on, really.

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Americans need to be aware this is not just an American issue. The gender/sexual radicalisation of our young people is happening in the UK and other western countries. The UK is equally under attack from trans/sexual radicalists and literature is being made available in schools here too. The Scottish government (!) has decreed that children as young as 4 yrs should be allowed to decide their gender at school and teachers don't have to tell parents. With what is happening in the U.S combined with here it is like we are being caught in a pink pincer movement which if not stopped will deconstruct our societies within a generation.

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Unbelievable.

I guess Kristol is hoping for a replay of when the Birchers got defenestrated by the eGOP. Or when the tea party was smeared and destroyed by both parties.

Just like Jonah Goldberg at that misinformation conference claiming the Hunter Biden Laptop was not important.

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I'll say this about schools indoctrinating American children, and how they get away with it. The whole system of public schools is dysfunctional by design, school boards at least in Texas are unpaid and mostly activists of some form or another, they are initially elected in low turnout contests and often run unopposed afterwards. School Districts, Superintendents, etc. are unnecessary bureaucracies, should be abolished. Convert all public schools into charter schools, with a parent-teacher council that operates each school. Of course the Feds should have never been allowed to interfere.

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Thanks for the shoutout and also the positive note!! I think Disney will continue to slide for a while, even if they backpaddle once they figure out the reason in 3-4 years, because opposing an anti-groomer bill isn't a real great way to appeal to sane parents with real money in the bank. Nor is releasing an animated movie about periods and sex urges targeted at 3–6-year olds that involves a tween girl who transforms into a red colored panda when she gets hot and bothered. Creepy.

The only thing I'd add is to give a shoutout to Daily Wire. They are putting $100million into child entertainment that is meant to entertain, not groom them!! Alternatives are the best solution.

Fortunately, my 10-year-old daughter has been over Disney for years, and my 8-year-old son always thought Disney was "dumb." Nothing like spending thousands to go to Disney and stay in the Grand Floridian only for the little one to repeat "this is boring, can we leave?" even as a toddler, and by 10AM every single day. We only made the mistake of trying Disney twice, which was twice too many but at least all pre-2019, before figuring out we belonged in Negril, Jamaica on family vacay. The cost is about the same, but at Beaches resorts you get as much actually edible food as you want, adult beverages all day long, cave swimming along the shoreline at sunset, no lines for the slides, the lazy river isn't freezing, real wildlife, way better activities, crystal clear water you can see what is in it, better toys, and sane people - wins all the way around.

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What's interesting to me is that it seems like that big gap between 'elite' progressives and their base is actually getting wider. The 'elites' (IMHO) are far, far more radical left - and toxic - than their base. The 'elites' just keep trying to hit the gas on agenda's that appear to be not only out of touch with their base, but are dying. You can feel the panic as this window of bizarre progressive agenda items closes - by their own base...

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Dunno whether you saw this, but Al Sharpton just warned Dems that Wokeism is alienating Blacks. Duh!

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My sense is that the Dem 'base' is fully on board with self-righteous fury at the right. The progressive's agenda is Chaos and the "moderate" Dem base expends all its intellectual energy cloaking the excesses and concocting transparent, pathetic, and hypocritical rationalizations.

The base likes power, too, and are willing to look the other way to retain it. They may wish their more strident ideological frères would dial back the insanity, but only for pragmatic, tactical reasons. There is nothing left of this relationship as far as I am concerned. The Dems have proved to me over the past five years that they are my ENEMY and not merely my political opponent. Does that shock you? They are political accomplices to murder, serious bodily harm, tyranny, demonic societal mayhem, child torture. If we look at this through some antiseptic, neutered political lens we will never survive. My two cents.

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I think you overlook we aren’t born Republican or Democrat. While far too many make their “political” identity part of their personal identity, many more don’t. They are being overrun with propoganda and it’s on all of us to call out Dem politicians for the lunatics they are, but change minds and welcome those who realize the mistake they made in supporting the lunacy...........

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Apr 13, 2022·edited Apr 13, 2022

Exactly my point. The people to whom I refer were educated in wonderful Palo Alto schools with me in the 1950s-60s. They went to Berkeley--or similar schools--with me in the late 1960s-early 1970's. They lived in Silicon Valley and worked at software companies in the 1990s-2000s with me. Many of them spent years of their lives literally hanging out with me--connected by a rope on rocks and mountains of the western USA.

The point is that their political identity was forged in the same places mine was. There are two primary differences between me and them: 1) I started and ran businesses in CA for a few decades and 2) I walked away from corporate media in 2000 and began an email political listserve where I sent a daily sampling of articles and opinion pieces from independent, right-leaning sources.

They all hated the stuff I sent them and soon begged off. They subscribed to the NYT and WaPo. They refused to consider that there were alternative viewpoints. They especially disliked having the dishonesty and bias of their news sources pointed out. To them, liberal was "normal" and everything else was "not normal." A few decades later it became "moral" and "not moral"--with conservatives playing the villain role in their internal play. Over the years our trips to the mountains waned along with our friendships.

Karl Popper said, "True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.” These people are not "overrun with propaganda" and moral actors without agency. They have chosen to protect their personal identity by insulating themselves from reality. They fairly bristle with indignation when confronted with CRT and LGBTQi in schools, abortion raised to sacramental status, Bureau of Justice national crime statistics, and evidence of their political party careening into tyranny. These people have not made mistakes in supporting lunacy--and you are being far too kind--not to say purblind--in characterizing them in that fashion. They have made clear choices.

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Depends on how you define "base". Blacks are base to Dems big time, but they are not on board with Wokeism--and it's starting to show.

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But it's interesting (not surprising) that people like Sharpton aren't leading the way out, but instead merely advising that they tone it down a bit. The leadership of the black community made a deal with the devil years ago.

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The "leadership" is too "invested." In other words, their monetary wagon is hitched to the Dem party.

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True. I'm speaking of my college friends, family members, former work colleagues, and neighbors who are run of the mill Dems and who completely reject the notion that they are "leftists"--despite voting to put this administration in place. Moreover, if forced to confront CRT and the sexualization of youngster head on, they refuse to acknowledge that it is happening. For instance, my friend who is a former superintendent of schools insists that it is the charter schools that are the indoctrination factories. They are adamantine.

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How did we get so many sick, deranged, incompetent people into such high-levels of all of our institutions?! Seriously. How do you/we stop this? These degenerates are everywhere. Oh, and I don't think it's just men...having been on the receiving end of this type of activity almost 50 years ago.

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