# The Right Wing Paranoids Are Right Again **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 13, 2016, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667 "2016-05-13T12:49:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/121 "2016-05-14T13:39:23Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Rex Huppke, Chicago Tribune: > [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-obama-transgender-students-bathrooms-huppke-20160512-story.html](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-obama-transgender-students-bathrooms-huppke-20160512-story.html) > > “The real problem here is not that supporters of the North Carolina law or the people and politicians who, as you read this, will be flipping out over the administration’s letter to school districts don’t understand gender identity. The problem is that they don’t want to understand gender identity.” The real problem is that there is no such thing as “gender identity”. That’s a meaningless, politically correct buzzword designed to cover up the fact that the people involved have severe mental issues which require psychiatry instead of surgery. Now we are all being told that the mental disconnects are suddenly quite normal. And of course, anyone who bothers to point this out will immediately be called homo-phobic, trans-phobic, etc.-phobic by those who can’t be bothered to look at the reality of the situation. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/122 "2016-05-14T13:43:14Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The real problem is that there is no such thing as “gender identity”. That’s a meaningless, politically correct buzzword designed to cover up the fact that the people involved have severe mental issues which require psychiatry instead of surgery. Now we are all being told that the mental disconnects are suddenly quite normal. And of course, anyone who bothers to point this out will immediately be called homo-phobic, trans-phobic, etc.-phobic by those who can’t be bothered to look at the reality of the situation. You really need to admit that you’re intellect-phobic. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/123 "2016-05-14T14:15:32Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > _Sliiick_. You slipped polygamy right in there to muddy the waters. Its part of the concerns over a slippery slope that were expressed by the anti-gay folks when gay rights were being discussed from the military to gay marriage. For the record, I am nominally on the pro-gay marriage side. I won’t march on washington over it but i will vote for it. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/124 "2016-05-14T14:17:09Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Given that (according to Wikipedia) leftists have been using the acronym “LGBT” since 1988, that’s more than a quarter century since the left has dismissed transphobia as paranoia. Are you saying that the left has always been saying that transgender rights were next as soon as they got gay marriage taken care of? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/125 "2016-05-14T14:33:01Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Sorry, but slippery slope implies that the subsequent extensions of the ideas are negative things, or at least make the situation worse. > > Extending rights to those who have been overlooked by the majority is a positive thing. From a liberty and rights perspective it is a good thing but from the conservative perspective it may indeed be a negative thing. In the long run we are going to figure out a way to respect the rights and privacy of all people but that does nothing to address the argument that the the Op is presenting that gay rights started us down a slippery slope. Are you arguing that progress on gay rights has not had an effect on the viability of transgender rights? Or are you saying that it was clear to everyone from the start that gay rights was going to lead to transgender rights? There were certainly people telling conservatives that they were making false slippery slope arguments including arguments about transgender rights which were much less popular than gays in the military when all this got started. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/126 "2016-05-14T14:38:02Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The real problem is that there is no such thing as “gender identity”. That’s a meaningless, politically correct buzzword designed to cover up the fact that the people involved have severe mental issues which require psychiatry instead of surgery. I love it when morons like yourself try to justify your bigotry by making reference to a field that overwhelmingly tells them they’re wrong. **Clothy** , psychiatrists who have spent years and years studying the subject say that gender identity is real, and that transitioning is the proper treatment for gender dysphoria. You’re a guy who gets kicked in the head for a living, and you say it’s not. Why would anyone listen to you over them? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/127 "2016-05-14T14:38:54Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Too late; we’re already there and you’re the next contestant! > > No, they weren’t “frequently dismissed as paranoia”; they were consistently dismissed as loathsome and stupid things to be concerned about, inconsequential and of no significance to anyone not participating in the events in question. Those “concerns” were ridiculed and made a target for mockery to counter the contempt and hatred they expressed and the baseless fears that they showed in those that voiced their “concerns”. You make it sound like getting gay rights recognized was a walk in the park. That everyone was jumping onto the gay rights bandwagon as soon as it rolled out of the depot. That is not my recollection. My recollection was that it took a LOT of education and discussion to get the American public to the point where it would accept gays with critical skill sets to help us fight a war. It took a sustained effort to get gay marriage and I suspect that if the people pushing for gays in the military trumpeted that they would then be pushing for transgender rights, then it would have taken longer than it did. > [@](#): > > I have no idea how you could have misread events and people to try and characterize them so inaccurately; perhaps you were dropped on your head as a baby? Right, and I’m the one filled with contempt and hatred? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/128 "2016-05-14T14:40:15Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I’m beginning to believe that while this sucks now for the transgender community it’s for the best. > > When you are a minority it is public awareness of your situation that is the most difficult impediment to progress, people who care don’t need to be convinced of your plight and people who don’t care can’t be convinced. All the right wing outrage is making this front and center but will eventually wash away and the majority of Americans who once saw a sexual deviant will see an American who has to piss. It will change their mind on not only this one silly issue, but the transgender community as a whole and will ultimately drag our nation up one more rung of the civilization ladder. > > As it was with gay marriage, gay pride parades, etc. I generally agree with this. It took the plight of honorably serving gay men and women in the military to get us off our asses on gay rights. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/129 "2016-05-14T14:41:44Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > The right wing can still be paranoid and wrong. > > Every single one of the objections to the whole bathroom issue going on has started with “Your wife and daughter are in danger”. None ever ask “Does your husband or son want to share a bathroom with a woman?” Until they do, this isn’t about protection or religious freedom or any of the other fake euphemisms that the right conjures up. This is about hate and discrimination, plain and simple. Nobody gives a shit about the occasional use of bathrooms until it became a political issue but like gay marriage, the GOP thinks they can find a wedge issue to win votes. They’ll lose this one eventually, just like gay marriage, just like interracial marriage, minority civil rights, women’s suffrage, etc. But they’ll go kicking and screaming and make a lot of people uncomfortable in the meantime IIRC they won an election cycle or two before they lost. I still remember Karl Rove using this to win a few elections by driving turnout. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/130 "2016-05-14T14:44:57Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Its part of the concerns over a slippery slope that were expressed by the anti-gay folks when gay rights were being discussed from the military to gay marriage. > > For the record, I am nominally on the pro-gay marriage side. I won’t march on washington over it but i will vote for it. Your statement confuses me. A slippery slope implies one event (transgender civil rights) must inevitably follow another (homosexual marriage). A slippery slope need not be negative as DrFidelius states, you could argue work place equality for women would involve legal protection for equal pay AND THEN paid maternity leave. It’s the ‘concern’ you use that is strange. What concern do you have of this slippery slope since, as you say, you are nominally pro-gay marriage? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/131 "2016-05-14T14:52:58Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > You know what this lefty would have said at the time? > > That i don’t give a flying fuck if polygamy and trans rights were next. There’s no reason that transgender people shouldn’t be treated as human beings, and allowed to live as the gender they have chosen, and i also see no reason why consenting adults shouldn’t be allowed to marry more than one person. You may be OK with the eventual course history would take but how do you think the voting public at the time gays in the military would have felt if they knew that there was a slippery slope between gays in the military and transgender rights? Once you recognize that gay people exist, I personally don’t understand the opposition people feel towards transgender bathroom use. After all aren’t gay men using bathrooms with homophobic straight men? Aren’t lesbians using the same bathrooms as homophobic straight women? AFAICT transgender people don’t usually feel a sexual attraction towards people they want to share the bathroom with. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/132 "2016-05-14T15:12:37Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The real problem is that there is no such thing as “gender identity”. That’s a meaningless, politically correct buzzword designed to cover up the fact that the people involved have severe mental issues which require psychiatry instead of surgery. Now we are all being told that the mental disconnects are suddenly quite normal. And of course, anyone who bothers to point this out will immediately be called homo-phobic, trans-phobic, etc.-phobic by those who can’t be bothered to look at the reality of the situation. Why don’t you put down your ideology for a second, go read the DSM V entry (or a summary thereof) on gender dysphoria, try to think like a medical professional for a couple of minutes, and then get back to us. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/133 "2016-05-14T15:21:49Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > You may be OK with the eventual course history would take but how do you think the voting public at the time gays in the military would have felt if they knew that there was a slippery slope between gays in the military and transgender rights? I suppose they would be free to vote their conscience. Much like they did when bathrooms and water fountains for the coloreds were being integrated. I have the sneaking suspicion that a non insignificant minority is still not over that one. > [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Once you recognize that gay people exist, I personally don’t understand the opposition people feel towards transgender bathroom use. After all aren’t gay men using bathrooms with homophobic straight men? Aren’t lesbians using the same bathrooms as homophobic straight women? AFAICT transgender people don’t usually feel a sexual attraction towards people they want to share the bathroom with. From your mouth to… ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/134 "2016-05-14T15:54:13Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > Why don’t you put down your ideology for a second, go read the DSM V entry (or a summary thereof) on gender dysphoria, **try to think like a medical professional for a couple of minutes** , and then get back to us. You’re in for a looooong wait. **Clothy** has trouble thinking like a piece of medical _equipment_, much less a professional. Although he does do a mean impression of a bedpan. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/135 "2016-05-14T16:05:42Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > So your point is that Scalia predicted something that was a reasonable conclusion for most people to make. Well that’s…totally mundane and uninteresting. Was there some larger point you were trying to make? He meant it in a cautionary way, to show what a handbasket society would find itself in as a result of the majority decision. The prediction wasn’t mundane and neutral, not at all. I think the broader point is that, after a frustrating period where the regressives have had some success in holding us back, we are now back in a period where we are looking for wrongs to right, and we are succeeding. We are rapidly improving as a decent society once again. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/136 "2016-05-14T16:17:09Z")
Too long. Can someone please boil the issue down to a few phrases I can repeat to myself while I wring my hands and rock back and forth? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/137 "2016-05-14T16:27:44Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > You make it sound like getting gay rights recognized was a walk in the park. That everyone was jumping onto the gay rights bandwagon as soon as it rolled out of the depot. That is not my recollection. No, I don’t make getting gay rights recognized sound like anything because I never fucking mentioned getting gay rights recognized. Neither did you, so it wasn’t even a subject implied by what I wrote. > [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Right, and I’m the one filled with contempt and hatred? :rolleyes: That’s what I got from your post, aye. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bruce\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/138 "2016-05-14T16:55:26Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The real problem is that there is no such thing as “gender identity”. That’s a meaningless, politically correct buzzword designed to cover up the fact that the people involved have severe mental issues which require psychiatry instead of surgery. Now we are all being told that the mental disconnects are suddenly quite normal. And of course, anyone who bothers to point this out will immediately be called homo-phobic, trans-phobic, etc.-phobic by those who can’t be bothered to look at the reality of the situation. [Yahoo’s “best answer” on if gender identity is real](https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100706163450AAEDw9x) gave a satisfying(imho) explanation of the science of how men can have have unmasculinized brains and how it all develops when one is a fetus. I recommend reading just the first few pragraphs the author goes off the rails after that. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/139 "2016-05-14T17:34:13Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > …the people involved have severe mental issues which require psychiatry instead of surgery. Now we are all being told that the mental disconnects are suddenly quite normal. Considering the severe mental disconnects you regularly display here, this is highly ironic. But I doubt a psychiatrist could help you. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/140 "2016-05-14T19:00:33Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > In 2008, if I had stated on these boards, “Barack Obama will order schools to let transvestites to use the ladies room at all American schools, and will threaten any school that does not comply,” Absolutely nothing of the sort has happened and you’d have to be willfully ignorant to imagine it has. This is why it’s impossible to consider the Republicans adults in any sense of the word other than the grossest physical ones, which must be why they fixate on those senses so assiduously. You give aid and comfort to those who murder people for absolutely no reason. You’re equivalent to the people who defend the morality of child abusers and rapists. Your party is dying and the only regret any sane person has is that it isn’t dying quicker. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667.md?page=8)