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Feb 9, 2023
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Avivit Fisher's avatar

I stopped watching John Oliver because of his deep dive segments on issues he knows very little about. But he has an immense audience who love him only for his snark.

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Joshua Brown's avatar

I wouldn't say that "open minds" are the problem. I've watched a lot of liberals become more and more like the religious right looked three decades ago - willing to believe anything as long as it came from the "right people" and willing to invent demonization on the fly for anything that conflicts or comes from the "wrong people".

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Missy's avatar

I would amend that to say "more and more like the left's caricature of the religious right three decades ago."

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steve rensch's avatar

I don't think that many on the "left" even knew there was a "religious right" three decades ago. But now that you have turned your church into a political party, they all know.

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Missy's avatar

LOL. The term "religious right" has been around at least 40 years. Plenty of boogeyman coverage in the media, then and now. They invented the term, after all.

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steve rensch's avatar

Whatever it's called, you people created it. And the question is how you reconcile your use of politics with Jesus' example?

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Missy's avatar

I recognize the attempt to change the subject. Your statement about the left and the "religious right" is still incorrect.

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steve rensch's avatar

"Three decades ago???"

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Gerda Ho's avatar

I do think there is a small minority of Democrats , like me , and a few others that see through this tissue of lies, and more important, realize that this is a dangerous authoritarian agenda? If we can get some Democrats to show some balls , maybe we can stop this insanity from taking over completely!

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mathew's avatar

Agreed. Though sadly we see the same blind partisanship in far too many Republicans though obviously about different stuff (stolen elections etc)

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Pacificus's avatar

Mathew A, it must be noted that we now know, thanks to the revelations of the Twitter files that the FBI and Big Tech conspired to control the flow of information in the 2020 election, most notoriously by labeling the 100% real Hunter Biden laptop story as "Russian disinformation." That is a fact that is not subject to partisan debate. Sorry to be the one to have to break this news to you, but that election was indeed rigged.

And Hillary and the FBI tried to rig the 2016 election with the Russian Collusion "scandal," which we now know was also a hoax. Facts do matter, and when we get them, we need to change our opinions as to what did or did not occur.

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steve rensch's avatar

I have friends who say the same things you are saying, but when I ask them where they got the info, the conversation ends. Where do you guys find these crazy radio stations? (No defense of the liberals who have also sold the truth for money.)

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Pacificus's avatar

You have no idea who you are dealing with or where my ideas come from. Buzz off.

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Robert Schulman's avatar

No one has any idea where your facts come. Actual sources would and to your credibility.

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steve rensch's avatar

The ole right-wing ad hominem.

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Amy Z's avatar

‘Their minds so open they’ve fallen out’ — amazing image and perfectly explains what has happened to so many people I once believed to be intelligent

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Renata Parkes's avatar

I think you meant "hive" mind. Buzzing, circling bees.

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Linoak's avatar

Newly ex-Dem because of this issue after 40+ years. Many of us with kids stuck in this are liberals and are fighting behind the scenes, shoulder-to-shoulder with conservatives. We’d hoped John Oliver would blow this wide open — it’s so obviously wrong and anti-science. That betrayal showed us how in trouble we are. And yes, his support and Job Stewart’s support IS all it takes. Liberals believe themselves so much more intelligent and ethical than conservatives, but I’ve seen the ugly, ignorant, torches-and-pitchforks side and I am disgusted. There is NOTHING, even a tsunami of post-transition suicides and distress, that will get a huge population of liberal Dems to see this as the tremendous medical scandal it is.

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Gerda Ho's avatar

How can former Democrats get together and start a campaign to get some Democrat congresspeople to stand up and tell the truth, for God’s sake?! Are there no Democratic congressmen that will do that?

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Snarling Fifi's avatar

Ask Brandon Straka of #WalkAway

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Richard Koffler's avatar

John Oliver?!? The man is an Idiot (capital i). Clueless, bombastic, never saw an issue that doesn't require massive regulation. Truly an abominable man.

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Linoak's avatar

You are more than welcome to that opinion. The important thing is that liberals listen to the man. If we want this to end, we need to hit it from whichever direction works. Plenty of us despise what Matt Walsh stands for and think Tucker Carlson is an annoying moron, but this is irrelevant when we’re dealing with a horrific medical scandal and we are thankful for their work fighting it. Tribalism is dangerous from any side.

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Gerda Ho's avatar

Tucker Carlson is not an idiot! On this issue he is totally correct!

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Gerda Ho's avatar

Tucker Carlson is on the right side of history on this! I never thought I’d say that, but I thank him for speaking up on this issue. I also thank Matt Walsh for his work! My liberal friends would forsake me, but I am for truth above all!

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Smarticat's avatar

I still mostly like John Oliver, but he has become more stridently "woke" in recent years. He does still bring attention to a lot of important issues. I'll never forget how he got a bunch of urban progressives to push for reforms to benefit small chicken farmers after he ran an informative segment about their plight : )

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Snarling Fifi's avatar

The first time I heard him it was in some older youtube videos & I thought he was hilarious. Then he went waywoke & I just quit listening.

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Robert Schulman's avatar

Reflective of your open mind.

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Pacificus's avatar

Yes, and the worst thing about John Oliver--strident and un-funny.

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Maggie's avatar

Also: foreign. ; )

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Robert Schulman's avatar

British is now foreign? He is an American citizen everyone comes from somewhere else, what is you point?

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Maggie's avatar

; )

; )

; )

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Keep it up. Refuse to be labeled.

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ThinkPieceOfPie's avatar

In 2016 two moms of teenage girls introduced me to the concept of binders. Down the rabbit hole I went. On one hand, watching a social contagion unfold in real time has been fascinating. On the other hand, I´ll never understand how people can think that castrating more boys/sending girls into premature menopause is progressive.

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Gerda Ho's avatar

This is just so insane that I have no words! Binders are self mutilation and should be taken off the market!

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ThinkPieceOfPie's avatar

Right? In 2016 I found like-minded people who confirmed it wasn't just me saying this. My go-to question for advocates is "do you really think society would be better if we castrate more boys? send more girls into menopause at 16?"

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Snarling Fifi's avatar

I'll tell you something, I haven't even been in favor of circumcision for infants in the US, the way it's done so automatically & justified with statistics about cancer etc. that aren't entirely true. That was back in the 90s, flash forward to the whole FGM thing, which I first found out about in around 2010 & which sent me right off the deep end, & I wondered, where the heck are the feminists & why aren't they shrieking from the rooftops about this practice, & then I realized, Ah. I know where they are. They are captivated by hijab chic & hiring Linda Sarsour to be the spoxhole for the Women's March, that's where.

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steve rensch's avatar

Yeah, it's kind of like "where are the women screaming about abortion when the child is born and needs help?"

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Snarling Fifi's avatar

Don't be such an opportunistic pos. Stick with my comment & your "compassion" & "kindness" & don't be so intellectually dishonest. if you want to talk about how people who oppose abortion are focusing on facilitating adoption, or on the many programs available, or on birth control, make your own comment after doing your own research. But don't hop on my comment with your lefty talking points & start fucking it in the ass. Even if you don't care about anything any more. In the few miserable years you've got left, try hard for the honesty you say is one of your last values.

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steve rensch's avatar

Cute but facile.

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Snarling Fifi's avatar

Yes. They reinforce shame about one's natural body.

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Gerda Ho's avatar

Progressive? It’s anything but that! I find myself really disgusted with the left, even though I had considered myself to be liberal. It is only the Republicans who are saying anything against this idiocy.

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Rose L's avatar

I’ve yet to find someone or something labeled Progressive that is anything but Regressive.

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Gerda Ho's avatar

Well, it certainly seems that way now!

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Lynne Morris's avatar

You can be liberal and not be a leftist or Progressive. You are what we want - people capable of reason in the middle.

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Julia G's avatar

The concepts of liberal and conservative have lost their meaning (Dem vs Republican) I think we have to change the categories. Maybe "sees the crazy and doesn't see it"? or "wants what really is good for humans not just the claiming to be good."? or "harmfully delusional vs. Trying not to be"? I don't know.

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CynthiaW's avatar

The earlier social contagion was mothers of young children, often preschool age, declaring their child "trans" if (usually) he put a toe outside the strictest of gender stereotypes. "Just like the kid I saw on 'Oprah'!"

Speaking as the mother of six sons and four daughters, I can say with confidence that very young children often do not know what sex they are, believe they can change from a boy to a girl to a truck to a dinosaur, and haven't assimilated the full set of "gender" markers for their society. Because they are little children!

The idea that a child who cannot use the toilet unaided has mystical insight into his or her "gender identity" is insane.

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Sandy's avatar

The idea of "progressives" who force children into strict gender roles is sickening. Didn't we fight to get out of strict gender segregation? Remember, a woman's place... A boy who likes to cook doesn't have to be tagged a girl. A girl who likes to work on car engines is not necessarily a boy at heart. Exploring non traditional roles for your birth gender doesn't mean your birth gender is wrong. I know whereof

I speak, as this is coming from a female orthopaedic surgeon married to a retired male nurse who is a stay at home dad to our dogs.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I find this bizarre, too. In the 70s and 80s, they didn't tell us, "Here are your miniscule 'gender' boxes, and if you don't fit into them perfectly, you have to change sex."

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Sandy's avatar

I'd be super messed up today if they had!

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CynthiaW's avatar

A lot of young people are being super messed up now.

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mathew's avatar

Not to mention that playing with certain toys doesn't change your sex.

My daughter will play dinosaurs with her brother. And my son will play barbies with his sister. That doesn't mean they are a different sex.

For that matter my wife does all the construction and car fixing. That doesn't make her a man.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Normal people understand this.

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Deb Hill's avatar

Yeah, we do. My husband was a nurse. I was a welder.

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Pacificus's avatar

Yeah, Oprah...her feels good "progressivism" explains a lot about how things have gone off the track in the last 30 years...all those white women in her audience are now largely in control of our culture and taking us all off a cliff.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Fully aided by a lot of the boys. Otherwise it would not work.

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Pacificus's avatar

Not sure the boys aided this process so much as they went along with it...too afraid to contradict what was happening for fear being name called....sigh...the state of American "manhood," circa 21st century.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Going along is going along. Being afraid does not excuse it.

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Pacificus's avatar

"Going along is going along. Being afraid does not excuse it."

True. All too many American men have been weaklings these past thirty years or so. Present company included, at times.

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Missy's avatar

True, but once upon a time men had society's support and were encouraged, educated and expected to be strong. Now, they no longer have that support - quite the opposite.

Why wouldn't anyone think that demonizing masculinity wouldn't have societal impact? Of course it does - and that is by design.

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Leah Rose's avatar

One of my kids, when he was four, was sure he was going to be a bumble bee when he grew up. Good thing I didn't believe him.

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KNP's avatar

My son wanted to be a dolphin when he grew up. I could see why this would be rather nice, but I didn't arrange for him to be grafted with a tail and fins.

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YM's avatar

When I was little, I wanted to be a cat. It's a good thing my parents didn't take me seriously.

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CynthiaW's avatar

When I was that age, I told my parents I was Christopher Robin.

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