268 Comments

I feel at home... and sane, reading your work. We are many, but we have not organized well yet. Thank you again sir.

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In my discussion about word abuse and distortion I am also interested in seeing the judicial system pull itself together and not allow such distortion to enter into the legal dialog. When we refer to someone who is objecting to, let's say, legalized homosexual marriage or exposing children to transgender presentations as a domestic terrorist, let' s compel the accuser to define terrorism. In my understanding, the word describes extreme fear, such as is produced in a torture chamber, not an argument against unethical behavior or activities. Someone praying at a trans gathering or before a corrupt legislature is nowhere close to be causing extreme fear (terror), so the media need to be held to account for correct use of the language, while they exercise their freedom of speech. Otherwise they need to be accountable for libel.

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thank you

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Jun 17, 2023Liked by Toby Rogers

closely related to dignity is respect. while respect must be earned, and given by others, dignity is part of oneself, and describes a quality (how, or the manner in which one does something).

"...Dignity is our inherent value and worth as human beings; everyone is born with it. Respect, on the other hand, is earned through one's actions...." - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dignity/201304/what-is-the-real-meaning-dignity-0

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Indeed Mr. Rogers! The cult of death, bougiecrats, have mastered Orwell's newspeak to confuse the masses. It's so freaky when amazing people Tom Elliot from Grabien make Supercuts of all the useful idiots repeating the same words/lines, over and over. The brainwashing is so clear when you see the supercuts and the repetitive distortion of language, hence distortion of reality. God Bless you, sir.

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very true. one of the most powerful examples was the (ab)use of the terms 'our democracy', which suddenly acquited a surreal and almost frightening meaning.

the power of the talking heads indeed....

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Jun 14, 2023·edited Jun 14, 2023

sex, gender, how a person interacts with the environment are all physiologically determined. how your mind and psyche develop is physiologically determined. there are tens of trillions of cells in a human body and you can hardly imagine how many trillions of cellular transactions have ocurred to result in an adult human, beginning with a single cell that divides according to an inherent genetic blueprint and ocurring continuously till whatever stage of life you currently occupy. there is no process that can take you back to where you started and gross surgical interventions can never congruently rearrange the physiogically of sex or phsiologically determined psychology of gender. in millions of years of evolution there has not resulted a society where superficially re-gendered individuals have naturally achieved a significant percentage of the population and i am skeptical that this phenomenon would exist without ulterior financial or political motives. self cutting and body modification seem to be an expression of dissatisfaction with oneself & might also result from historical trauma. since the brain is malleable the most non invasive and psychologically safest procedure for aligning sex and gender incompatibility is some type of non pharmaceutical mental therapy or counseling till such time till an individual has a fully formed mental capacity. Cutting off or reshaping body parts or absorbing alien hormones is not an effective way to alter genetically determined physiology since they are counter to inherent physiological elements that can't be wrong since they are primally determined. a certain degree of alteration of characteristics is possibe by selective breeding, but selective breeding only creates value when it results in the innovation, increase or preservation of valuable traits. It is illogical to think that a person would wish to be less than they could be. The question would then become "is there value in creating species of individuals who sexual identity and gender identity are non-congruent". On the other hand genetic variation is like a wild vine that explores every possible niche. There is value in variation and non conformity which sometimes result in beneficial mutations and enhances the collective opportunities for survival. If this is the case then what is the benefit of performing permanent surgeries or hormonal therapy to reconfigure persons with non-congruent sexual and gender identities. It seems that financial and political considerations are overwhelming the ethical considerations in this discussion and people are being pushed to irreversable surgical and hormonal therapies to the detriment of the individuals and for the benefit of institutions or other individuals. If you disagree, I would like to hear your point of view.

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Hear him, hear him.

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a poem for you Toby;

Watch Our Language Wreak Havoc

When parents

leave up to their son

the choice of

how to treat his

foreskin

he is called

‘uncircumcised’

when what he is

is

genitally intact,

as Nature created him.

When parents train

their children’s immune systems

to get ill and get well

as they have done since

the dawn of time

they are called

‘unvaccinated’

when what they are

is

immunologically intact

as Nature created them.

When adults

trust their hearts

their educated minds

choose to trust their intact

immune systems

to know how to get well,

they are called antivaxxers

when what they are is

no-thanksers.

I have two legs.

Am I then un-amputated?

A full head of hair.

Un-bald?

My two smallish breasts.

Unenhanced?

When did illness become a sin?

recovery a crime?

When was Mother nature

given a pink slip? (made redundant?)

When did inoculations

replace sacraments?

Worship at ’Father Knows Best’ church

if you like.

Me, I’m still betting on Nature.

She bats last.

Allelujah for choice. Amen.

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Blurse, I’ve used it for years - a blessing and a curse.

I do commend your effort as Babylon is exhausting!

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author

Great word!

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Thanks. It’s accurate! Recently, sitting at a friend’s dining room table with my back to a desk, the minute he stepped outside, a blurse hit me. It was the sensation of something not good being behind me. There was no audio, I didn’t hear “It’s coming right for you!” No visions of drapes being pulled back and things hidden in the folds, no scents or chills, just the idea that something was behind me. (Yeah, right! A desk. Not my desk, a friend’s desk.)

That is about the time Sane Brain and Insane Brain started their dialog with Insane urging me to look and Sane refusing, yet again explaining that such behavior is not proper; we must wait and ask permission. Imagine walking into your home to find your friend rifling through your desk! Absolutely no! Insane gives great argument and launched into a tirade becoming more urgent and hysterical with each ‘reason’ to act crazy. Same becomes quite still and stoic.

I’ll cut to the chase: when my friend walked in to find me furiously rifling his desk, Sane tried to explain but Insane jumped in with “There’s something here you need to know!”

As he’s benefitted in the past from my blurse, he checked his shocked surprise and said “Well find it!”

His ex-wife had placed the tax bill for his vacation property to the side in a neat pile, under a couple of lottery tickets. This happened on a Saturday. He had until Tuesday to straighten it out or the property would go to auction! I really would prefer to behave in socially acceptable ways. Blurses do not often accommodate that.

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I particularly like the word "philanthropath" which is roughly synonymous with a communal, moral or altruistic narcissist but is more instantly recognizable as the big, bad wolf in sheep's clothing.

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Worse! The wolf in sheepdog’s clothing!

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Jun 13, 2023Liked by Toby Rogers

https://www.etymonline.com is a good etymological source

apostate

from Greek apostasia, apostasis "defection, desertion, rebellion,"

https://www.etymonline.com/word/apostate

apostle

"messenger," especially the twelve witnesses sent forth by Jesus to preach his Gospel (Luke vi.13), from Late Latin apostolus, from Greek apostolos "messenger, envoy,"

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=apostle

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"Gender Affirming" - a Newspeak term to mean the denial of someone's true self - such as a girl with a masculine essence, or a boy with a feminine essence.

Used in a sentence - Louie loves to play dress up, hates competitive sports, and seems like he will be attracted to other males. He can't possibly be these things and still be a boy, so, to affirm him, his teachers encouraged him to change his pronouns to she/her, and his name to Lola. His school is so affirming, that they help him hide from his parents, who love him and accept his natural femininity.

"Gender Affirming Care" - a Newspeak term for poisoning, and in some cases physically mutilating, bodies of gender nonconforming people, usually children. Even the 'care' is Orwellian, as in the name of "affirmation", these kids are often medical patients for life, sometimes sterile, with higher risks of cancer and osteoporosis, at least.

Used in a sentence - The LGB Alliance, who claim that transing kids is an insidious form of conversion therapy, and if left alone, most kids who are led to think they're trans would just end up being gay or bi and in much better health than if they medically transitioned, are bigoted transphobes out to deny children the gender affirming care they deserve. The LGB Alliance should be classified as a hate group, and placed on a domestic terror watchlist. Obviously, they're also far alt right wackos, because it's the right wing that's out to rob innocent children of the gender affirming care they deserve.

(In reality, the LGB Alliance is non political and make room for different political views, from green to left to right and all in between).

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My mom swears she has some friends with a little kid that is whatever. She defended the concept as she was a tomboy. However, she doesn’t think they would’ve transitioned her because she was so boy crazy. You should’ve seen her face when I said “well then, you’re gay! that’s fine. You’re a boy who is attracted to other boys that means you’re gay when do you want to have your surgery?”

She looked so lost. So I asked her “If I can do that to you at your age with all that you know what do you think happens to a little seven or eight-year-old kid?”

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FYI, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard the term “bougiecrat” before you started using it. I think it may have been from a hip-hop artist, perhaps Boots Riley from The Coup but I can’t be certain. Nevertheless I still consider you one of my favorite Substack authors...

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I never liked the phrase "speaking truth to power" when I first heard it spoken on Air America and I was agreeing with the people who said it. I never thought that "power" was even listening, so why bother "speaking to" it? Plus it was being used so often by so many people that it turned into a mantra, like "they hate us for our freedoms" that those same people were mocking.

We need lexicographers like you, Toby, and George Carlin.

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Deb--

I'm not a practicing Christian. The Bible is a book of mythology in my opinion. Don't try to draw me into this. I am a preacher's kid. Furthermore, although I recognize you don't agree with me, in my opinion God does not exist. I'm responding to your post as a courtesy but will not discuss the Bible further.

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lemmingdread

lem·​ming·dred

The reluctance to run into a good friend that you haven't seen in three years for fear that, in the interim, he/she may have developed some bizarre political/cultural syndrome that makes him/her utterly unrecognizable.

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Excellent word, Posthumous!

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author

Oooh, that's a good one! 🙌

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