13 votes

Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network

2 comments

  1. NoblePath
    Link
    A fascinating and terrify research report from the southern poverty law center regarding the current incarnation of the hard right power structure pseudoscience-law axis. These folks also have...

    A fascinating and terrify research report from the southern poverty law center regarding the current incarnation of the hard right power structure pseudoscience-law axis.

    These folks also have been great at resisting and dismantling environmental protections, equality protections and promotions, all kinds of other things most tilderinos want for humanity and the planet.

    Worth a read if you wish to know thy enemy.

    8 votes
  2. chocobean
    Link
    It's not just white, and it's not just American law, and it's not just Christians either. I'm much more familiar with the Chinese Canadian side of things and there's a lot of conservatism in that...

    white Christian nationalist political movement that seeks to tear down the separation of church and state and ultimately encode their conservative interpretation of Christian scripture into American law

    It's not just white, and it's not just American law, and it's not just Christians either. I'm much more familiar with the Chinese Canadian side of things and there's a lot of conservatism in that community across all religion and non-religion. Don't underestimate the draw of anti-something among non-white and non-Christian families, is what I'm saying. Democrats made the mistake of assuming all immigrant families will somehow vote for them automatically, when a lot of them actual identify as being conservative even as they are non-white and non-protestant.

    I mean, all groups with power and money everywhere are always doing political things to encode their own beliefs into the law, right? We got oil lobby and smoke lobby and coal lobby and bank lobby. This is a very long article talking about who's lobbying for this and what are their messages. It's important to recognize that there are people who believe the message, but behind them there are payers who don't give a rat's butt about the message but are aiming for power. This article is about who's paying and what that message is; it does not talk at all about who these gullible believers are and why they would believe something like this without question, what they get out of it, and how they could be won over.

    that typically caricature LGBTQ+ people as dangerous to children and society.

    Funny because the tone of the entire article caricatures the opposite side as dangerous to children and society as well: air-quotes "research"/"trot out", use of "so-called", lots of [SIC] in very choppy quotes, sprinkling pseudoscience from beginning to end etc. It sounds highly biased, unprofessional and childish, which actually weakens their message, imho.

    This super long article kept calling these folks practitioners of "pseudoscience", when perhaps it would be better described as outdated science. The organizations and the scientists named sound more like the out-going ex-in-group, those who built the previous DSM but are ousted in the new one, rather than true pseudo science mumble jumble like scented oils and energy rocks. Of course they're gonna fight tooth and nail to remain relevant. Even soap didn't catch on right away and needed the anti-soap old guard to slowly die off. I'm not convinced there's some masterful grand mysterious shadowy conspiracy, rather than just good old new studies slowly pushing out the old, with the usual resistance.

    A later section mentions suicide stats without going into details of how the groups manipulated data to suit their narrative. I wanted to hear about how there is intentional misrepresentation of data and poor methodology by these groups, which I still wouldn't classify as pseudoscience but rather intellectually dishonest bad science. It probably talks about this in a different article from this site I guess.

    The Narrative Manipulation section is worth a quick reading. (1) Parental Rights ; (2) Conspiracy of Social Affirmation ; (3) Legal approach - this is the huge one. It all goes back to money in politics. As does the Funding section.

    public opinion even shows demonization of LGBTQ+ people is a major source of religious disaffiliation among many young people.

    Yup. And this will continue until they're completely hollowed out and wither away into nothing. In the words of St Paul, "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing (1st epistle to the Church in Corinth, chapter 13)." Young people are drawn to where there is love: fellowship, community and kindness. There's nothing these hate groups can do to retain the young, who aren't easily fooled by where they can find actual love and radical acceptance. God gave us free will and allow us to choose Him; these people want to take away every single choice that doesn't make them more puffed up with power and self righteousness. Easy choice.

    I wish folks who are actively suffering and young people who are caught up in all this have the luxury of waiting it out until they can escape to a better environment. Because it is my believe that it will blow over in favor of real care and real love and real acceptance in a decade or two. Look how quickly the other boogeyman of critical race theory has largely gone away. These think tanks and these bitter scientists and jealous out-going groups, they're just using trans issues as a means to be relevant and have something to say to a world that's rightfully leaving their hateful bigotry behind. They don't care about trans issues any more than they actually cared for babies or immigrants or anybody that isn't them. I hope younger folks facing all kinds of sadness can give the world a bit more time, just hang in there a little longer, find their tribe, and a safe space to truly flourish. Fund libraries, raise teaching income, open up your homes and volunteer and listen to what kids have to say, encourage true and loving communities for them to thrive in. If we all did that, there's nothing these groups can really do.

    7 votes