In a monologue being hailed for its Democratic centrism, opportunistic comic/pundit (you never know when he is being which) Bill Maher argued that the woke position that men should be regarded as women and vice versa accoring to their heartily felt whims of the moment was the irrational equivalent of the conservative belief that human fetuses were as worthy of having a chance to live as newborn babies.
I don’t have any interest in the policy analysis of anyone who regards that as a valid comparison. For one thing, human fetuses that are allowed to live become babies, and after that, fully functioning human beings. Men do not become women no matter how much they want to. I suspect know his analogy is false, but he also knows the majority of his fans lack the intellectual capacity to realize that.
It demonstrates the miserable state of public discourse in America that a cynical lightweight like Bill Maher is considered profound.
Ethics Alarms 
“In a monologue being hailed for its Democratic centrism”
I think a lot of conservatives, possibly most, are suffering from some variety of Stockholm syndrome. The left, the entire Democratic Party, has been committing severe forms of abuse against the right for so long that people cannot tell what is real anymore. Any leftist that even pretends to be not “one of the abusers” is hailed as awesomeness incarnate. People are broken. They want the sociopathic behavior to stop so bad that they will hail slightly less sociopathic statements as “centrist”. It isn’t centrist to say that holding the opinion that murdering full term babies is wrong is extremism. Extremism would be having the opinion that any and all forms of contraception are wrong. The “normal” position is “wear a condom, take the birth control pills, don’t get pregnant if you don’t want a baby”. People have been abused into conceding that leftist extremist viewpoints are normal.
“Normal” is now fearing to be normal. Fearing to say abortion is wrong. Fearing to say men and women are not the same. Fearing to say biological sex is immutable. Fearing to say citizenship is meaningful. Fearing to say that illegally crossing the border is criminal behavior. Fearing to say criminality is wrong. Fearing to say the government shouldn’t be able to inject experimental substances into the population by force. Fearing to say that brainwashing children is wrong. Fear to say that people should be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin. Fear to say that merit is the criteria by which people should be hired and fired. Fear, fear, fear.
Where does that fear come from? It comes from one political party using their power to terrorize everyone else.
Excellent points NP
I have wondered why no one ever directly asks those who want all sorts of – for lack of a better word – unique accommodations the questions on why we have different sports teams specifically segregated by biological sex for males and females or why we have separate changing facilities for males and females or different bathrooms for males and females. The questions are rhetorical of course because we know why we do this. The reason for them is to frame the question why do we let them force us into using terms like men and women when the issue is about males and females.
If a male wants to use a restroom but dresses like a woman in a skirt I don’t care if the male comes into the male restroom because that is appropriate. Further why should I care if they use a stall as “women” would. And I see no reason why a female who believes to be a male and wears pants cannot use the restroom designated for females. There are plenty of stalls without much waiting in line. No one checks if you are doing #1 or #2 to my knowledge.
As for intersex persons who have the biology of both they should get special dispensation to be able to choose regarding all of the above situations provided the individual is consistent in the gender expression. The need for consistency in expression is to ensure equal treatment as an equal member of society.
I am convinced that designating sports leagues, restrooms and locker rooms by terms such as male and female would solve the issue but it appears that the goal is not to solve the issue but to keep using it as a political cudgel from both sides.
“Fear, fear, fear.” Yup.
We seem to have an epidemic of fear-driven behavior, inadequately countered by courage-driven behavior. Which seems (?) to be the majority of people (?).
I’m curious, have you personally experienced any of these fears? Do you personally feel terrorized?
After living through Covid and the BLM riots in a big blue city, yes, I absolutely do feel personally terrorized.
I am sorry to hear that, NP. I hope you now feel better about your personal safety.
I do not think Stockholm syndrome is the correct way to describe the attitudes of conservatives who appreciate the discomfort with the current moral state of the Democrats; I would rather think that that term should be reserved for Never Trumpers like Bill Kristol, David French, David Brooks, Bret Stephens. The Never Trumpers play the same role for the Democrats as Patty Hearst for the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Conservatives (whatever that term means) and the GOP should be glad that outright liberals start to recognize that the Democrat Party (leadership and base) have gone batshit crazy. I do not know if there is any hope that Bill Maher, Stephen A. Smith, and John Fetterman will leave the Democrats, like many young liberal people are now doing (#walkaway).
What we can expect is that the base of the GOP will become more liberal on social issues (accepting gay rights including the Obergefell decision), more centrist on economic issues (adopting protectionist views favored old style Democrats, able to work with blue collar labor unions). The traditional Catholic and blue collar constituency that used to be a big part of base of the Democrats have already moved to the GOP. This shift to the center presents other risks for the GOP as they may lose some of the social conservative vote of the WSJ economic libertarians.
Personally I hope that the Democrats become so sociopathic that they lose electoral viability, or break apart.
Does that even qualify as an analogy? The two elements said to be analogous are not even in the same universe.