View From the Ramparts: No amnesty
If ‘speech has consequences,’ it should be a universal rule
On Feb. 15, I posted a comment on Sasha Stone’s Substack that has garnered 194 “likes.”:
When the COVID hysteria was exposed as unscientific fraud, all of a sudden many of the Woke started writing and posting about the need for "amnesty" for those who'd advocated for school shutdowns and shuttering of "non-essential businesses." They were afraid they would be held responsible.
I assume the same thing will happen over the widespread pushing of children into irreversible mutilating surgery. Already, Europe is moving to stop any sex-change surgery until adulthood — and even then, only after counseling, waiting periods, etc.
I hope there is no amnesty — hold people accountable. The courts should allow the pending lawsuits against doctors, hospitals, and school counselors to move forward. The country deserves to hear how this all happened. (And the latest discovery that children being urged into surgery and hormone treatment are disproportionately autistic is truly disturbing.)
One of the main arguments in support of the Cancel Culture movement has been that its targets who lose jobs or are banned from social media are only being held responsible for having said offensive or hurtful things. “Speech has consequences,” we are piously assured.
Well, then, what are we to do about those who advocated for or — if working for the government — implemented school lockdowns that have been shown to have been ineffective at slowing the spread of COVID-19 yet have robbed tens of millions of children of their right to a meaningful education? And, again, a disproportionate number of these children are black or Hispanic.
What of the law enforcement personnel who knew the allegations that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 election were bogus yet fed them to a willing media anyway, deceiving their viewers and readers, and sowing further discord in our nation?
Or those, as mentioned above, who have passed rules requiring that physicians, counselors and even parents must simply go along with any child who claims to want to switch genders? We don’t let minors choose to smoke, but we’ll let them decide they want to be sterilized? And that any adult who tries to step in and follow the normal, sane processes that guide any other medical procedure — to, in essence, help protect the rights and interests of the child — can be criminally charged?
There has not yet been enough medical research into the surge in minors claiming they want to change genders to know how many will grow out of it the way our young grow out of many desires and fixations. But already numerous young adults who “transitioned” as teenagers are coming forward saying they were rushed or pushed into it by the adults who should have been protecting them.
As mentioned, most nations in Europe are already enacting new guard rails to make sure that only those adults who have been fully educated on what hormone therapy and surgery entail are legally able to authorize the process. These nations are formally rejecting what activists in the United States have been claiming is “settled science.”
So, yes, there very much needs to to be a full, sober accounting: On COVID-19 policies and news coverage, on the Russia-gate hoax, on the rush to allow minors to authorize permanent, irreversible procedures before the medical community was able to study the issue.
Having written all that, it’s also worth pointing out that the last thing this country needs is another witch hunt.
We need the adults to take charge, and to soberly investigate the above events, firmly establish the indisputable facts of each, find out who was responsible — and only then determine if any laws were broken, if anyone’s rights were violated.
Unfortunately, most of the national media have been complicit in the above, so it will have to be independent journalists who do the heavy lifting based on what the opposition party in Congress is able to publicly uncover.
Earlier this week, I activated the Chat feature for Lost in Cyberspace, and introduced a new character: Mr. LiC.
Mr. LiC is taken from the same vintage stock art that personified Mr. B-T and Mr. B-C in the sadly defunct Oceanside Blade-Tribune and North County Blade-Citizen newspapers in the 1980s and early ’90s.
During my stint as opinion page editor at the Blade-Citizen, I was generally responsible for coming up with some pithy, perhaps even witty, observation on the news of the day for Mr. B-C to share with our readers in the next day’s edition. Now, some days the publisher, Tom Missett, or the managing editor, Bill Missett or, later, Rusy Harris, would throw a good one my way.
And I’m certainly willing to take suggestions for Mr. LiC as well — I can’t promise I use all or even any, but feel free to send them to me via Substack.
Oh, and you can only see and participate in the Chat feature via the Substack app on your Android or iOS device.
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Powerful column.
Sounds like the young Jim Trageser who kicked ass and took numbers at The Blade.
Voices like yours have to be heard.
Well done Jim. You're going to get some heat from the woke/anti-American folks who hide behind their keyboards.
Keep up the good work.
Most respectfully,
J. Stryker Meyer
I don't think we share many political views, Jim, but I'm with you on this one