A recent survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek, found that 44 percent of millennials (between ages 25-34) favor criminal charges for people who use the wrong pronouns for others or so-called “misgendering.” We have previously discussed how misgendering is now a crime in countries like Great Britain. Misgendering has been referred to as an “act of violence” at some U.S. universities.
There has been a concern that we are seeing the rise of a generation of censors, who have been taught since a young age that speech is harmful and even violent.
Yet, hate speech is protected in the United States. Given that fact, it is astonishing to claim that a pronoun violation could lead to incarceration. Only 31 percent of the millennials disagreed with the proposition.
They are not alone.
Recently, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who is a lawyer, said that “if you espouse hate … you’re not protected under the First Amendment.” Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean declared the identical position: “Hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment.”
Even some dictionaries now espouse this false premise, defining “hate speech” as “Speech not protected by the First Amendment, because it is intended to foster hatred against individuals or groups based on race, religion, gender, sexual preference, place of national origin, or other improper classification.”
Question for Anonymous, I have a serious question: What specific pronouns are we to be mandated to use? A basic principle of criminal law is that crimes must be defined with as much specificity as possible because a person should never be in doubt as to exactly what actions are prohibited by the State, because the power of the State is terrifying and absolute, even unto imposing death upon those who break its laws.
The power obsessed have always sought ways to rule populations by appealing to the weakest minds in the land. It starts with the children and ends with the emotional, easy to manipulate adults. When they succeed, it allows for a centralized control structure where all rules come from those in power without exception and everyone is forced by law to march to the same drum. When such a low form of government exists; everything in that society quickly becomes inefficient and dependent. Innovation drops off along with public health while immorality and crime goes up. Mob rule governments never last because intelligence goes down and the absurd becomes accepted. Even gravity itself could be in danger of “change” if the majority decides to blame it for their weight problem. Let us all thank GOD that America is a constitution based representative republic and NOT a democracy.
I have a proposition: Raise the age of consent we use now–eighteen–to nineteen. Seems to me that eighteen was selected because that’s when the average person graduates high school, plus one’s physical body is mostly done growing after puberty. But there are a lot of young people who don’t graduate high school until age nineteen (our son was one of them; turned 19 in early June just before high school graduation), and maturity grows by leaps and bounds at these ages. As an example, the rate of automobile accidents lowers by half from age sixteen to age seventeen, and by half again at age eighteen (after learning this, we had our two kids wait until age seventeen before getting their driver’s licenses).
I think we should then consider allowing nineteen-year-olds to purchase alcohol. It’s crazy that older teens can join the military, sign legal contracts that impose every serious adult obligation imaginable on them, and make all medical decisions about their own bodies, but not be trusted to drink alcohol.
The age of consent and the social doctrines surrounding family forming have been raised continuously until population replacement has failed.
So raise it some more, then import the replacements, some more. Open borders for all. That’s what is currently happening.
It’s a nice idea but it has obvious consequences. We already see what a disaster it has brought.
“Raise the age of consent we use now–eighteen–to nineteen.”
Each state has it’s own “age of consent.” Here in Ohio, it’s defined by law as the age when someone is old enough to legally engage in sexual activity, and that’s 16 in this state. It would be quite an uphill climb to change it from 16 to 19. Some people currently having legal sex would have to stop having sex FOR YEARS in order to comply with the law. It’s one thing to not do something you’ve never done, but it’s something else to STOP doing what you’re already doing. As a general rule and a practical matter, people struggle with things like that.
And since 18 is the age at which US citizens can vote, I would guess that not many 18 year olds are going to vote to put off having sex for a year — especially if they’ve already been having sex for years. Others might vote for that, but not 18-year-olds. Instead what would likely happen is that those people would become violators of the law, and in response would lose regard for laws in general. That’s what happened by making pot illegal. It didn’t stop anyone from smoking pot, but it DID cause pot smokers to become law-breakers and stop repecting the law.
Anyway, from personal experience MANY decades ago, I can assure you that a LARGE percentage of teenagers here in Ohio were unwilling to wait until they were 16, and jumped the gun by at least a year (or three). That was then. Today, given the amount of sexuality in movies and on TV, I imagine that the situation is the same or that kids are jumping the gun by an even wider margin, not waiting longer due to legalities, rules, or even the best, most-well-intentioned parental advice.
Raise you children as you will and as best you can, but I don’t think it’s practical to expect the law to replace parental advice.
I see no problem with this….so long as all of these millennials just remember that I am to be addressed as “LORD GARTH – MASTER and HIGH EMPEROR OF THE GALAXY.” Oh….and they mustn’t forget to obey all of my commands without question or hesitation.
I am sure we will all get along just fine.
Otherwise, I’m afraid it will be “Off to the dungeons” with them. Titles are important, after all….
“If hate speech is constitutionally protected”. It most certainly is protected, according to the SCOTUS’ 8-0 decision in Matal v Tam (8-0 because Gorsuch was not on board for the hearing). Ginsberg, Sotomayor and Breyer all agreed with Alito’s opinion that:
“Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.” United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U. S. 644, 655 (1929) (Holmes, J., dissenting).”
Maybe Ben Cardin should reflect on the history of government control of free speech and other liberties we used to take for granted in America I seem to recall that people like him were were sent to gulags and gas chambers in those regimes
Gee, I’ve never heard about Matal V Tam before, I wonder why. Not.
Thank you.
“What happened in the Matal vs Tam case?
Matal v. Tam | The First Amendment Encyclopedia
By David L. Hudson Jr. In Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S. __ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled 8-0 that a federal law prohibiting trademark names that disparage others was unconstitutional because “speech may not be banned on the grounds that it expresses ideas that offend.”
Now is the time to start screaming the demoncrats don’t respect stare decisis.
When they squeal about roe v wade scream back murder is a violence exception.
OT, but related to the “It gets even dumber,” category,
Five times media has tried to pin physical fitness to political extremism
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/ent-five-times-media-pinned-physical-fitness-political-extremism
"The author and MSNBC columnist Cynthia Miller-Idriss opens the piece by claiming that the "far right" has used "at-home fitness trends" popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic "to expand its decade-plus radicalization" of combat sports like mixed martial arts (MMA)."
Guess what? "At-home fitness" and MMA do NOT go together! You need a SPARING partner! Otherwise it is at home, by yourself, exercise.
And, if the idea of physical fitness leads to far-right extremism, then the entire US Marine Corps are far-right extremists.
I trust a just arrived immigrant to have more intestinal fortitude than these home grown spineless wimps.
This is clearly a generTion of people who were coddled and protected and lived in mommies basement. Didn’t have their first job till they were thirty something. I don’t think these people would have stormed Normandy as my parents generation would have.
Independent Bob,
Yep.
They expect everyone else to do things for them to include their parents even when they are into their late 20s or 30s.
I want to see all those kids who #IStandWithUkraine to get their butts down to the recruiting office when WWIII kicks off.
I want jail time for those who want jail time for anyone disagreeing with their idiotic ideas.
Yep, CT… because THAT in itself is hate speech! (they want jail time because they hate the fact that I speak the Truth!)
The Woke Universe viscerally hates people simply because they had been born White and live in Iowa. The level of contempt for those people is off the charts in the Woke Ideological Ghettos. Hate from the fringe Right does exist, but hate from the Left is considered normative and is accepted across the spectrum.
All of it of course is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, which many on the Left would like to see rescinded.
Stick a fork in America – because it’s cooked…
“The Woke Universe viscerally hates people simply because they had been born White …”
Cautionary note: I notice that you capitalized “White.” Considering your apparent point of view, you might want to remember that not so long ago, “white” was a simple adjective as used in your sentence, as would “black” have been if it had been the appropriate color. At least that’s how the English language operated until recently.
Prior to the fairly-recent wokeism against which you justifiably rail, nobody with an education would have capitalized “white” (or “black”) the way the word was used in that sentence. It is the wokesters that snuck that capitalization into our American-English language and turned a simple adjective into a proper noun.
That might seem trivial, but I mention it because once we learn language, we use language to think, and thusly language can control our thoughts. So if people want to push back against the ludicracy of wokeism, the best place to start (in my opinion) is with linguistic choices, because surrendering your language leads quickly to surrendering your way of thinking.
^^^^ This.
That’s fine, I will uppercase White and lowercase black.
After all the Patriarchy makes the rules, has the power, and always wins.
Heterosexual is always uppercase too, while binary or whatever else is lowercase.
Same for Masculine , Toxic, feminism and queer theory.
OR, if you don’t want to take my word for it, you could just ask an adult to explain to you the difference between an adjective and a proper noun in common English usage.
This is the society we get when people are incentivized to call 911 when they are shorted a Chicken McNugget at McDonald’s. It also happens when people decide they need to video-record every hostile interaction they have with other people in their lives. And many times, it’s the “victim” that is also the instigator.
We have created a generation of people that are unable to properly interact in social situations, so they have become bullies of the rest of us. They have created their own society where they can act offended with every “micro-aggression” supposedly inflicted upon themselves. Just like “America’s Funniest Home Videos”, they want to record all their interactions with other people, with the anticipation of a reward from someone else for willingly providing that content for everyone else to view from their living rooms.
A key word is “incentivized” and the incentive has been instituted from the government demoncrat society FORMING minders in collusion with their shock troops.
Pretending otherwise is certain permanent loss.
How bazaar and predictable, Wow!
Are we raising a bunch of Fascist?
Have Smartphone Media Formats (Prescribed-News) and Walled Gardens (Facebook, TicTok, Twitter, et.al. …) created a Mindset of limited insular viewpoints,
so that a Manipulator (an Actor) can direct the Troops to a prescribed agenda? That’s Terrifying.
As Americans, We’ll all be working in Chinese Labor Camps, if this keeps up.
‘The Gateways’, Carriers (Xfinity, AT&T, Verizon, …), they are a double-edge Sword involved in this. They need the ‘commercialism’ to fund the Net, but the Commercialism is pushing-out the Diversity of Thought. Look at News Papers (Print) that have been forced out of the Market place, and with that a wide variety of Voices and Opinions.
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 by killing off the ‘diversity’, This Technology is pushing Us in one direction, until there will only be One Voice (Media Monopoly). There’s more to read than Google News, NYT, WSJ, Twitter, ……
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_media_in_the_United_States#Major_news_sources
Now you put A.I. behind this and you can see the dangers that lye ahead. Once A.I. is established, saturated into the Media Complex, You won’t know the difference.
We have been warned about this by Many, since the 1960s (The advent of Computer).
Thank God we are not there yet.
https://onlinenewspapers.com/index.shtml
The Future Is Now, Vocabulary has been Weaponized and Criminalized.
Twitter, Facebook, Your Cell Phone’s A.I. will assist you too Self-Censor.
SHUT-ḞỤĊḰ-UP or Get LOCKED-UP !
“Commercialism is pushing-out the Diversity of Thought.”
No. Fascists, in fact and in spirit, are doing that.
That “commercialism” you bemoan is called invention, innovation, the free market. As a practical matter, if left free, it creates opportunities — such as your ability to comment on a blog made possible by the advance of technology.
Word to the unwise: Make any attempt to arrest / jail me for “misgendering”, i.e. using proper grammar, and I will have no problem nor hesitation considering you a direct threat to my safety and, as such, immediately eliminating that threat by any means necessary.
I feel like a lesbian trapped in a man’s body. Am I a hero or a villain in this 21st Century farce?
And what is the statute of limitation for “I’m Pat!” and the despicable crime of “misgendering”? Should we round up the cast and writers of SNL from 30 years ago and frog-march them off to the gulag?
Haven’t you heard the latest? Now, there is guidance available for those “transwomen” who’ve no intention of actually transitioning medically but want to engage in sex with gay women. Lesbians are now told that refusal to be penetrated by a “female” penis is bigotry.
In short, you are all the rage! Congrats!
But I don’t wanna be all the rage!
Ralph, back when SNL was still funny. Those were the days. I always liked Julia Sweeney. And surprise, conservatives were well-represented: Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, and Rob Schneider. Maybe Victoria Jackson and Norm McDonald, too. I’m sure there were more. The funniest episode ever was hosted by Sam Kinison (now practically banned; you can’t find it with a search warrant).
Back when jokes were jokes and funny was funny — not “liberal” or “conservative” or “woke” — just hilarious — before politics became a social disease.
“[C]riminal charges for people who use the wrong pronouns . . .” (JT)
Just use Madame la Guillotine. It’s quicker. And more permanent.
Anonymous writes: “Professor Turley doesn’t understand the point of wanting punishment for misgendering. Jail time is never going to happen. But some form of punishment will in the private sector, businesses, organizations, etc.”
Anonymous appears unable to understand the problems surrounding misgendering. A male student wants to be labeled a female by the teacher. For good reasons, the teacher won’t call a boy a girl. Instead, the teacher provides alternative expressions to communicate rather than violate his personal beliefs. He might call that student by name or another term that doesn’t indicate his gender. That is the teacher’s right which is not any less important than the right of the student to believe he is female.
Anonymous, start using your brain rather than your ideology. That step will take you a lot further.
Anonymous writes: “No, they just want to be addressed as what they identify as. That’s it. It’s not a difficult concept.”
It isn’t but to you everything is difficult. The problem is the student’s, not the world around him.
“The teacher can certainly just address the individual by name only. But what if that name is female when the person is male?”
You are twisting in the wind. Turley has written several comments on this subject and all the teachers that ran into trouble were willing to use neutral terms to satisfy each individual involved. You can’t see that because your mind is foggy. Concentrate on the fact that each person has his own individuality and you can’t impose yours on theirs.
Remember, many people can think more than one level deep, so you might be left behind if you can’t keep up.
That is the silliest load of bovine fecal material I’ve ever heard. We can’t even appropriately jail our violent criminals. “Misgendering”? Nonsense. People who think this way are the real problem – they are disconnected from and deny reality. They belong in a “mental health institution” (read “nuthouse”).
Teens tell us that they want to change genders-fine.
Teens tell us we need to change energy policy right now-fine
Teens tell us they think we need more censorship-fine
Teens tell us we need to move away from capitalism-fine
Teens tell us we need jail time for those that misgender-fine
Teens commit murder-let them go, their brains aren’t formed yet.
This is the level of analytical thought on the left.
If you are ” Triggered” by a ” Microaggression” and need ” Safe Space” you are a PU**Y!! Grow the F**K UP !!!!
We should reinstate the draft for all between the age of 18-30, 2 years of training beginning with good old Marine Corps basic training and no matter your physical or mental condition, there will be a place found for you in the military to serve your country – and only then can you enter universities to study.
This takes crazy to a new level. It was bad enough to try to define “hate crimes” as something different than the crime itself. If person A hits person B, it is the hitting that is the only provable crime, and, even there, witnesses offer conflicting testimony. It is impossible to know what someone is thinking. Circumstantial evidence can suggest a motive, even strongly suggest it, but the actual motive is internal to the perpetrator. It doesn’t actually matter to the murder victim why he/she/it is dead – that person is dead. (I find it disgusting to try to write a comment without using/misusing pronouns, or to think that I should need to.)