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Rebecca de Winter During this campaign season of Twitter, I’ve noticed a lot of recurring themes, one of which was the worship of Rubio by a certain subset of the Twitter population. I finally had to mute many of these lovesick fans, whose admiration of him bordered on obsessive.
Still, I liked Rubio well enough, he was even my first choice for a brief moment. That moment didn’t last long, because I couldn’t get past the “Gang of Eight” debacle. Not for the reasons many others had, though. For me, it had far less to do with immigration than it did with his character. Let the record show: I did get annoyed with the constant shrill cries of “But Gang of Eight! But Gang of Eight!” It grated on my nerves as well. I even joked about it. However, behind the constant refrain was an undeniable truth. “Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior,” it is said, and throughout my life and relationships, this has proven to be true, with astonishing predictability. No matter how you feel about the immigration issue, the cold hard fact is this: In Florida, Rubio ran on a promise, then turned around and betrayed the people he made that promise to. You cannot sugarcoat that fact. So during this presidential campaign, while people marveled at his sunny optimism, his ability to stir up positive emotions and hope for the future and our party, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all strangely familiar, and not in a good way. Rubio had the best of intentions, I’m sure. I don’t think he was twirling an evil moustache and planning nefarious deeds. What I do think is that he used incredibly poor judgment, and went back on his word when it suited him to do so. “Don’t listen to what people say, listen to what they DO,” is the refrain that kept running through my mind. That is a bit of wisdom I learned many years ago, and that - more than any other piece of advice I’ve gotten in my life - has been proven true many times over. That is why I ultimately chose Cruz. No, he didn’t have the handsome face or the pretty words, but what he did have was far more valuable to me: his solid record of doing exactly what he promised he would do. Some sneeringly call that “grandstanding.” I call it character: making a promise to his voters and sticking to it, no matter how many people (and colleagues) mocked him or tried to shame him out of it. I “forgave” Rubio for the Gang of Eight debacle, but I couldn’t ever quite forget it. It hung like a cloud over him. It demonstrated what I consider to be a character flaw that is all too common in D.C. - the weaselly instinct to go along to get along, to make decisions based upon opportunity and political winds rather than on your word. So when the news hit that he would be “honored” to speak on Trump’s behalf at the convention, I didn’t feel even a moment of shock. Even though he was one of the most vocal “Never Trump” voices - I had put no stock into that. I knew, from his past behavior, that it could change on a dime. And it did. I still kind of like Rubio. He seems like a nice guy. He’s funny and engaging, and I don’t think he is a bad person. But as they say, “fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me.” I won’t be fooled again.
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Avi Woolf I mentioned before how many men neglect their social skills and physical social life, with often tragic results. Well, there's another thing we neglect to our detriment—and I include myself here—our physical health.
It's no secret that women live longer on average than men. While there are many reasons for that, a big one is that men simply don't look after their physical well-being anywhere near enough. While there is something healthy in not overreacting to every bruise and minor ailment (like some girls I know do), we often go way too far in the other direction. This isn't just about the distant question of dying at 60 instead of 85, an abstract question for most of us. We are physical beings; our health affects how well we function and act in every capacity, whether it's playing games or working or having fun. It also directly affects our mental and emotional health. To neglect our physical health is to neglect and degrade our ability to live life and enjoy it. I'm not talking about suddenly going on a crash course at the gym or a nutrition craze. We all know those tend to not only fail but leave one even more despondent than before. When I speak of taking care of health, I mean basic but rigidly regular maintenance, just as one might do for a car or computer. Start with the following list: 1. Get a regular amount of sleep (don't worry about specific hours, if you feel rested you've likely found the balance) 2. Eat regular meals at specific times you set for yourself (or perhaps have a friend set for you). And I mean meals, not scavenging for bits and pieces here and there 3. Walk a certain amount every day, even if for only 5-10 minutes 4. Visit your doctor once a year for a normal checkup, no matter how old you are 5. Maintain a daily hygiene routine of bathing and brushing teeth (yes, this is physical and emotional health-related. Even the family dog feels and acts better after a bath) If you can keep this up for a solid few months, move on from there to a gym or reasonable diets, but not before. I know this advice sounds ridiculously obvious, but sadly it isn't. I know many men my age who don't follow it, and I myself am only in the middle of the list. Don't make the same mistakes we have. Take care of your health.
Rebecca de Winter
Lately I’ve been writing about the slow yet persistent creep of the progressive agenda (the transgender issue and man-hating feminists, so far), insidious yet not silent. In fact, they are right up in our faces, telling us exactly what they are doing. It’s insidious because they’ve got so many of us on the defense, arguing the minor points while they are making major gains behind the scenes.
Too many of us are silent and complacent under this assault, willing victims lest we become one of so many branded as racist, homophobic, xenophobic, bigoted, sexist, and God knows what else. And while we waste valuable time and energy trying to explain and convince others that we aren’t bigots, they’ve got the ball and are running for the end zone. If there were ever an issue worth a fight to the death, it’s the one where progressives attempt to gain sympathy for pedophiles. In the most horrifying example of Culture Creep ™ yet, there are those on the far left attempting to make the case that pedophiles “are not monsters.” 
According to the Oxford Dictionary, “monster” is defined as: “An inhumanly cruel or wicked person.” The day we decide that sexual attraction to children is not wicked, is the day we’ve lost our humanity. The above-referenced piece is not Salon’s first foray into the disgusting attempt to destigmatize child creepers - it’s the fourth one since September of last year. * * * Sadly, Salon is not the first online news and culture outlet pushing tolerance and understanding of pedophilia. In 2012, Gawker.com published a piece suggesting “sympathy...for those who want to have sex with children.” Never mind the fact that there is no such thing as “sex with children.” Any adult having sexual relations with a child is ipso facto committing rape. We can go back several decades and see the groundwork being laid for this narrative (NAMBLA in the US and PIE - Pedophile Information Exchange - in the UK for starters), but what strikes me as particularly worrisome is the acceleration of the agenda-pushing in recent years. I’ve been reading the arguments that insist “starting a conversation” about this is helpful because if pedophiles step forward then they can get help. But our concern should never be about making things more comfortable for pedophiles. It’s a blatant lie to claim that doing so will reduce harm to children. Allowing pedophiles to have a voice, to lend credence to their claims of “can’t help it I was born this way” is to purposely push to legitimize their sick fetish, in the name of “getting help.” No one is helped by this, least of all the children they prey upon (even if only in their minds, as some claim). When you take something that is rightfully taboo, and reframe it in a more sympathetic light, you legitimize it and reduce the stigma. Once the stigma is reduced, and sympathy gained, the road to changing societal attitudes is well underway. A New York Times investigative piece covering the dark world of pedophiles on the internet revealed that “...pedophiles view themselves as the vanguard of a nascent movement seeking legalization of child pornography and the loosening of age-of-consent laws. They portray themselves as battling for children’s rights to engage in sex with adults, a fight they liken to the civil rights movement.” Experts also discovered that “Repeatedly in these conversations, pedophiles said the discussions had helped them accept their attractions and had even allowed them to have sex with a child without guilt.” If that isn’t horrifying enough, consider that for many pedophiles, “...acts of molestation are often celebrated as demonstrations of love.” The common theme found within internet communities of pedophiles is one of belief that there is nothing wrong with them, that it is society that must adapt to accept their desires as just another sexual orientation. It’s easy to believe that social acceptance of pedophilia as “just another sexual orientation” will never happen – because we are so viscerally repulsed by it. But it doesn’t matter one bit what we currently think of it. What matters is what people will think of it 20 years down the line. Look at what is happening in schools all over the country: children are being taught that morality is relative, that we should accept others unconditionally, that to shame someone because of their differences is always wrong. That sounds super sweet and noble, up until the moment they start demanding that girls have no choice but to “get over” their discomfort at sharing a bathroom with someone who happens to have a penis, because “acceptance” or something. Not even a generation ago, this would have been unthinkable. Nowadays, if you dare raise any concerns about it, you’re branded a bigot. What happened? Why is this so? Because of Culture Creep ™ – the slow, steady, persistent creep of the progressive agenda. Those who don’t see that some in the progressive movement are testing the waters and pushing for acceptance of pedophilia (and the lowering of age-of-consent laws) are uninformed or in denial. It’s time to wake up. It’s vitally important for people to stand up and loudly, publicly challenge and denounce this narrative at every turn. And if we can’t do that when the topic is pedophilia, then we are already irreversibly broken, and our children and their children after them will be left to pick up the pieces and pay the price. |
MisfitsJust a gaggle of people from all over who have similar interests and loud opinions mixed with a dose of humor. We met on Twitter. Archives
January 2024
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