We Create The Villains We Want To Fight

I've been pondering this one for quite a while and I've seen a good bit of it in myself. It came into full bloom when wife kitteh showed me an article a friend of hers, we'll call her Gail, had posted to Facebook with a great deal of head-nodding and oh-yeahs. The article claimed that opposition to Pope Francis is really the fruit of opposition to Vatican II. You could immediately see that Gail had a vision for the enemy she wanted to fight and she wanted people who disagreed with her to wear that costume.

I'm no fan of Pope Francis. I think they guy is a flibbertigibbet, an intellectual lightweight who has completely misread the moment. He's also the King of Unforced Error. To be honest, I know very little about Vatican II because it doesn't interest me. The Latin Mass doesn't bother me, either. I've never been to one, but I see no need to shut them down. No harm, no foul.

Still, there it is. I'm being asked to strap on the RadTrad costume so Gail can whip out her practiced arguments in favor of Vatican II. Err, no. Not even close.

I do this as well, most recently with the trans mania. I'm not as far down the rabbit hole as some on the right who claim the trans thing is all about control and dominance, but I still love to generalize. If I could get them to wear the costume of my favorite villain, I'd be happy to shout logical conundrums at them all day long.

In fact, there's no need to do this. At work, I've taught the kids with whom I work that when they brief VIPs, they should write down the questions the VIPs ask. People only bring up topics that are important to them. If you listen to their questions, they will give you a decent outline of their key concerns and from that, you can design a sales pitch for the next meeting.

Similarly, social media gives you a window into the minds of the people who disagree with you. As far as I can tell, the well-meaning proponents of trans, by which I mean the ones who aren't sexual degenerates looking to recruit children, truly believe they're helping children who are in psychic pain. They believe our medical authorities who are currently telling us that puberty blockers and hormones are perfectly fine.

The flaws in their arguments aren't about grooming, they're about the severe damage being done to children and young adults. The way to convince them they're wrong is not to yell, "OK, groomer!" at them like I do all the time on Twitter, but to show them examples of people whose bodies have been wrecked by the drugs and surgeries.

They don't want to cause pain, they want to alleviate it. They're telling us how to sell to them. It's actually pretty straightforward. Should we do it?

Nah. Let's meme them into oblivion!