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Shy Boy's avatar

You write well, Chris. I enjoy reading these, inasmuch as I enjoy good writing. Can't say I enjoy the immediate subject matter, but it's pretty generally well worth an unflinching gaze or two.

You have a good argument to make, and you've made it. You've convinced me: as a society, we are increasingly ruled by LARPers who judge themselves and each other on essentially aesthetic criteria divorced from any original meaning of the roles they play. The symbolic superstructures of our institutions have come unmoored from their earthy foundations, and the next tectonic hiccup will render it all disjoint rubble.

It's an acute diagnosis, in every sense of the word. You've done an admirable job of describing the symptoms, over and over again, in each of these posts. Occasionally I feel like you're making progress toward discovering the root causes of this illness. (I don't mean to imply that I have those answers. I can speculate and point at things, but it's a big subject and well beyond the intended scope of this comment.) But I don't see much in the way of a cure, here. Hold the line, sure. Ridicule them whenever you can. Fair enough, but that's all pretty much the consensus position of (say) the Babylon Bee. I'm not convinced it will suffice to save us. The emperor may be naked, but his army still holds most of the pointy sticks, and they are genuinely sharp on the business end.

I hope you're working on a book. It would be a good book, maybe even an important book. But, with all your eloquent iterations over the problem, I think it's only about half written. Press on!

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Frank's avatar

As to your introductory matter, I try to avoid gums (guar, xanthan, etc.). They don't sit well with me. I find Trader Joe's is the best place to find groceries without too much stuff, at least I can usually find some things there that I tolerate well. Canola (rapeseed) oil may be fine for most people, but it doesn't go down well with my stomach. Not a fan of organic.

As to your substance I really think the rallying cry of our time is the simple question, "What is a woman?" To deny having a position on natural rights simply evades the question. A good litigator would hammer the witness with, "Do you believe all humans have certain rights? Who or what gives them these rights?" etc. until I got her real answer. "When does an individual get these rights? Do you believe that people are responsible for their own actions, or are we predestined to act as our ancestors or evolution trained us? What is the difference between a human and an animal as to rights and responsibilities?"

It's sad that we need to be asking these questions, but as I say, I think the most straightforward and simple question is, "What is a woman?" Never stop asking that. Hammer them with it.

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