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The American Civil Liars’ Union?
I’m old enough to remember when the ACLU stood for something (agree with them or not). They were free speech absolutists who defended the rights of Nazis to march in Skokie, because they believed that shutting down speech was more dangerous than what the Nazis were saying. They stood up for Japanese-Americans facing FDR’s concentration camps. They defended Communist Party members and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
To be truly principled, though, you need to be honest.
Today the ACLU tweeted:
BREAKING: Arkansas has become the first state to ban health care for trans youth.
— ACLU (@ACLU) March 29, 2021
That sounds awful, I thought. Denying health care to kids? That has to be unconstitutional. So I pulled up the bill out of morbid curiosity, you can read it here.
Of course, it does no such thing. As you’ll see if you read it, the bill simply makes it illegal to perform gender transition procedures on minors. The basis for this, as stated in the bill, is as follows: “Studies consistently demonstrate that the majority [of children experiencing distress with their sexual identity] come to identify with their biological sex in adolescence or adulthood, thereby rendering most physiological interventions unnecessary.”
Jack kicked Trump off his site, ostensibly for making misleading statements. Will he do anything about the ACLU’s (intentionally) incorrect description of the bill? Of course not. After all, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
The truth does not matter. All that matters is an army of uninformed robots pushing the retweet button.
Published in General
Does anyone have the right to make a doctor preform a surgery? Ever? Does anyone ever have a right to make others pay for his surgery?
A right is personal and individual, and can be done in solitude. Rights are personal. And individual. Freedom is individual. They can all be satisfied when no one else is in the room, or alone on a desert island.
The American ethos is individualism. But socialists are communalists. No wonder socialists don’t like rights. And invent new ones whenever they can.
I just posted this on the PIT. This is about a different healthcare bill in Arkansas though.
I used to wonder at how people could become so crazy in Salem during he Witch Trials or how the Satanic Panic of the 1980s happened. There are other periodical silly moral outrages. I wonder less now. People are herd creatures and people follow other people without thinking too much.
I fear that we will look back at this time with revulsion at how quick we were to mutilate people.
This is a really good question. I’ve been asked to perform mutilating surgery on a woman who wished to present herself as male, and I’ve been asked to perform abortions. I simply declined to do so. If the urologists and plastic surgeons of the world would honor their professional obligations to FIRST DO NO HARM, a lot of insanity would end tomorrow.
Surgery requires skill. Skill requires mental commitment. I would not want to have an operation performed upon me by a surgeon who was not committed to my need for it.
This logic should apply to cake-bakers too.
Socialized medicine was originally sold to Canadian voters in the 1950s on the premise that it would only apply to “medically-necessary” procedures (“because nobody should die from a broken leg” was one popular slogan of the day), with everything else left to the private sector. Predictably, it didn’t take long for the definition of “medically-necessary” to be expanded beyond all logic and reason.
Arguably, day care owners were much greater victims of the 1980s satanic panic than D&D players were. It was a sometimes-amusing inconvenience for us D&D players. It meant poverty and jail time for some day care owners.
They don’t have the power to force a doctor to perform a surgery, but they do have the authority to revoke a doctor’s license to practice medicine.
Confused kids who end up getting mutilated might have it even worse than the day care owners. I’m actually quite willing to change my mind about the trans issue if compelling evidence emerges that demonstrates that transitional surgeries help people and make them happier. But the “first do no harm thing” is a good principle.
American Civil Liars’ Union. Might as well be. They stopped being about actual “civil liberties” a long time ago. You are more likely to find the ACLU or one of its state affiliates on the side of government coercion and using government power to suppress liberty than you are to find the organization standing up for actual civil liberties.
This is because without G-d morality fails to sustain itself isn’t it. Without a G-d that says that all men are created equal and government exists to protect their rights, men make their own rights in a manner similar to making golden calfs. G-d doesn’t even need to exist for this observation to be accurate. G-d and religion can prevent humans from going insane.
And I really meant this to include forcing a surgeon to perform surgery without payment (because surgery is a right) or without regard to an agreed-upon payment (such as with a nominal payment).
If it’s a right, I should be able to simply demand it, regardless of any thought of paying for it. But if the surgeon won’t be required to perform surgery without an acceptable payment, then it is a commercial matter and not an enforceable right.
It’s like the right to worship as I choose. I can do so, but I can’t require anyone else to provide the room, the heat, or the bread and wine free of charge.
And back to your main point, such dishonesty about what a policy, or legislation, or a proposal does or doesn’t do, is a staple of statements by politicians, and unfortunately much “news” media. The prevalence of such dishonesty makes having a rational discussion of the policy, legislation, or proposal even more difficult than it was beforehand.
Just tell me what is happening and let decide how I feel about it. I don’t need your opinion. I need to know what the heck is happening in Arkansas.