The Activists Are Losing | Black Sheep News
Gender-affirming atrocities, the fading facade of democracy, and Rowling’s revenge.
Just because you’re a black sheep willing to go your own way doesn’t mean you don’t want to know what’s happening in the world. Uncover the patterns you care about and catch the rays of hope—that’s what Black Sheep News is for.
Leaked Documents Make It Hard to Ignore “Gender-Affirming” Medical Care Is Often Medical Malpractice
People have been sounding the alarm on “gender-affirming” medical care for years now, only to be shouted down by activists and maligned by the media. Christina Buttons and Colin Wright (who shared their black sheep journeys with us) have done ground-breaking work highlighting the dangers of mixing medicine with ideology. The few black sheep like them who’ve been willing to face harassment and attacks on their reputation from trans activists for pointing out the scientific fallacies of gender ideology and the increasing number of detransitioners prove the importance of bringing awareness to what the collective would rather ignore.
Today, it just got a lot harder to ignore them.
Michael Shellenberger’s non-profit Environmental Progress has published leaked documents from the leading organization for transgender healthcare, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, that show exactly what gender ideology critics have long warned about: medical professionals are making up standards of care as they go and patients don’t realize they’re being used as guinea pigs.
I remember when I was at the same stage in life as many gender dysphoric kids: everything was confusing. I felt lost in both body and mind, and external solutions like disordered eating and plastic surgery seemed like perfect solutions. I wasn’t overweight or particularly unpopular at school, I was just going through the normal period of confusion and discomfort all young people go through—something many adults have long forgotten.
Around 12 years old, I bought a bottle of pills that claimed to increase height, hoping I could become a model and my internal turmoil would be ended by this physical resolution. I still remember looking at the bottle I’d secretly bought and teetering on the edge of taking them. I don’t know what could’ve been in those pills, so I’m thankful I decided not to take them. I learned to love my 5’2 self and more importantly, I learned to identify the internal root of my problems instead of making unhelpful and potentially harmful physical changes during a time of temporary confusion.
The complications from gender-affirming medicine discussed in these documents are dystopian.
If I was confused enough at 13 to think “tall pills” were the answer to my inner turmoil, I doubt the 13-year-olds signing up for a lifetime of medical upkeep from gender-affirming surgery, potentially life-long pain, and even cancer are any more clear-thinking. The disclosure of these documents may finally force the collective to reckon with what black sheep have been saying all along: doctors who claim “gender-affirming” medical care for minors is simple, safe, and ethically administered are just as confused as their young patients.
Last week I described the malpractice of gender-affirming care as akin to the malpractice of performing lobotomies in the past. This week, it’s reported that Michael Shellenberger sees the same connection:
Shellenberger’s nonprofit [released] a scathing summary report, comparing the WPATH promotion of “the pseudoscientific surgical destruction of healthy genitals in vulnerable people” to the mid-20th-century use of lobotomies, “the pseudoscientific surgical destruction of healthy brains.”
Colorado’s Supreme Court Nearly Offered A Masterclass in Mass Control
I will never run out of material demonstrating the dangerous mental pandemic possessing people today: believing that your own self-righteousness gives you the right to control others.
In Colorado, four out of seven state supreme court justices believed their unique moral righteousness entitled them to decide who nearly 6 million Americans should be allowed to vote for. Those four made history with the first-ever use of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to disqualify a presidential candidate. Either Trump is truly a Civil-war-era-style insurrectionist like those the 14th Amendment was written for, or, more likely, we’re living through a uniquely dangerous increase in hysterical self-righteousness.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened with a unanimous ruling that Colorado went too far. Specifically:
"We conclude that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency.”
There’s a silver lining to even the ugliest events. Much like the government’s heavy-handed approach to “managing” the COVID pandemic, the Colorado Supreme Court’s over-zealousness showed every American how thin the veneer of democracy really is.
Your choices as a voter are already restricted by a dysfunctional two-party system that forces hundreds of millions of people to choose between the lesser of two evils. Many states have laws designed in collusion between Republicans and Democrats for the purpose of disadvantaging third-party competition. At a time when the two-parties are hemorrhaging members, and more and more people are registering as independents, four court justices twisting the law to try to further restrict who voters can elect underscores how easily a country can slide into mass control.
Once Symbolically Rated 1/10 By Ideological Critics, Hogwarts Legacy Is Now The #1 Best-Seller Worldwide
Hogwarts Legacy is an role-playing game set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. I recently developed a new level of appreciation for the Harry Potter series, and equally, a new level of disgust for how many leftists have waged war against Rowling.
Once upon a time, we knew that one could both respect the agency of trans people and the reality that biological women and trans-women are not the same. Yet today, some cast members from the Harry Potter films have denounced Rowling for this once-progressive viewpoint and game critics intentionally rated Hogwarts Legacy 1/10 out of spite. That’s why Hogwarts Legacy becoming the #1 bestseller worldwide is important: it’s a perfect example of how often ideology and reality diverge.
I started playing Hogwarts Legacy to soften my sadness over running out of Harry Potter films to rewatch. Lately, the world had felt ugly and dominated by banal evil, so a magical world where good triumphs over evil was uplifting. I immediately became obsessed with Hogwarts Legacy like I haven’t since playing World of Warcraft in high school (night elf rogue, represent). I looked forward to studying new spells in a Hogwarts classroom and flying on my broomstick over a magical world every night. The game does exactly what you’d want: it brings you as close to experiencing the joyful unreal as you may ever get.
This game that rekindled my sense of wonder and adventure was the same game that activists had demanded people boycott or be condemned as “transphobic” for playing. Gripped by their self-righteousness, these activists didn’t care that a game of this size is a project that hundreds of people labor over—writers, artists, composers, producers, engineers, and more. Rowling’s participation was largely relegated to receiving a royalty check, whereas for the game’s creators, it’s a potential make-or-break part of their career.
I remembered hearing about symbolic reviews, where game critics falsely gave the game low ratings to protest Rowling’s political opinions. Some gaming forums banned members from even discussing the game, and some activists harassed Twitch streamers for not abiding by their boycott.
In reality, the worst parts of this game are those that were likely included to appease the unappeasable activists: a cast with so much diversity it makes Hogwarts look more like a U.N. meeting than late-1800’s Britain, a random trans character that was rejected as pandering by the same activists who bemoan a lack of trans representation in everything else, and an “arachnophobia mode” that removes all spiders from the game.
Within my first gameplay session, it was obvious the low ratings weren’t just a vapid stunt, but a serious act of deception: the game is awesome. Hogwarts Legacy proves why you should be skeptical of activists and tastemakers who claim unique moral insight apart from the rest of us: ideology and reality often diverge.
Examine the world for yourself or you might miss out on the magic.
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