I’m Done with “Progressives”

I am done with “progressives” or radical left, anarchists, and the rest of the purists who insist that they either get everything they desire or they want to blow it all up and test the waters of total social breakdown. My interest in their opinions on everything from politics to economics (especially banking) to engineering (social and otherwise) has gone from minimal to zero in the last three years of Trumpian chaos and insanity. I have heard some of the dumbest, most childish things spew from the mouths of the far left without self-reflection or even the slightest bit of humility. The next some half-wit quotes Chris Hedges to me will the last time i hear anything from that person. I can not, in fact, see a significant difference between the actions and attitudes of the far left from those of the far right. The are both spoiled teenagers in mind and spirit.

From example, take this “analysis” of the current political situation, “All I read is totally gloomy, including the prospect of Sleepy Joe Stuttering Biden, Uncle Tom Obama and the Clinton’s pick for prez…what a loser who has already stated what an ongoing pal he is of Israel, and that he won’t sign a universal health care bill. Welcome to Amerika, a fucking joke of a nation!” The only clue that this was written by someone from the left might be the Israel dog whistle. Of course, it could just be a wingnut who, stereo-typically, mixed up the nation he has decided is the enemy. Any way you read that (sentence, run-on phrase, spewing of venom?), you would have a hard time knowing that it wasn’t a Trump tweet. Any time you have written something that sounds like Trump you should really consider rewriting.

Support for Israel has devolved into a mindless march to global suicide for the faux-Christian right and an equally mindless anti-Israel dog whistle for the left. The fact that Biden is the chosen “back to normal” Democratic candidate is disappointing for everyone and will, likely, be a one-term President followed either by a young Democrat with ideas or another mindless Republican borrow-and-spender. I get that we’re screwed in this election, like so many in my lifetime and the country’s meandering and decadent history. One of the fatal flaws in being a quasi-democracy is that we only get to choose between one of two evils. Most democratic nations have a parliamentary system that forces some sort of coalition between two or more special interest factions: Canada’s Liberal Party, Conservative Party, the New Democratic Party, the Bloc Québécois, and the Green Party of Canada for example. Not us. We are only willing to digest two faux-opposing political parties because we’re not bright enough to cope with more. Most US citizens are too dull-witted to even comprehend Ranked Choice Voting as a way to break out of the two-party morass.

This far-left crowd, is who we should always remember who put G.W. Bush over the top in Florida in 2000 and who elected, by default, elected D.J. Trump in 2016 with their “alternative candidate” votes. They “work” in politics, every four years, for candidates with little-to-no-hope of winning primaries, they throw tantrums about having to vote for the “lessor of two evils” and, instead, waste their vote on no-hope alternative candidates so they can pretend the resulting mess is “not my fault.” We end up listening to both sides whining about not getting what they want for 4 years and fall further behind the world in every important category from education to science and technology to economic stability and equality while the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting dumber.

Men’s Reproductive Rights and Other Fantasies

Back in the 60’s, when I was about 15 or 16, I read an article about vasectomies. My father and step-mother were two of the most unsuited-for-parenthood humans who ever lived and by the time I was 17 I was pretty certain those genes had been passed on to me; and, most likely, my siblings.. Like most college kids of my generation, I had a health insurance policy that was an add-on to my tuition and I asked a local doctor for information about how I might go about getting a vasectomy. He wouldn’t even discuss the possibility and even told my father what I’d asked him. Telling my father wasn’t as much of a deal as it could have been, but by then I had been living on my own for a couple of years and my father’s outrage, if there was any, wouldn’t have been particularly influential or important to me. However, I did feel totally disrespected by that doctor and have not been a big fan of American medicine (one of the world’s most cynical oxymorons) since.

While I was looking for something completely different, I stumbled on this Chicago Tribune article, “Young, Single Men Choosing Vasectomies.” I sort of hoped that times had changed and that meant men were being allowed as much reproductive freedom as women have today. I was wrong.

This piece of “information” was presented pretty early in the article,, “’While any man older than 18 can legally get a vasectomy, doctors can turn men down if they don't believe them to be mature or sure enough of their future plans.

“’I received a call from an 18-year-old high schooler, and that was a no-no,’ said Dr. Arif Agha, owner of the Vasectomy and Reversal Center of Chicago, in Oak Brook, Ill.”

Seriously? A doctor who uses the phrase “a no-no” is considered adult enough to make decisions for other men? That half-wit shouldn’t be allowed to play with butter knives.

The article pretty much established that nothing significant has changed in at least the last 50 years. In 1973, after our 2nd child was born, I found a urologist in Amarillo, Texas who would at least interview me about the possibility of a vasectomy. Most likely, my wife would have continued popping out babies until it was no longer possible, but I was working 80-100 hours a week to provide for our family, pay the hospital bills, and keep the rest of the wolves at bay. Any life I had visualized for myself at that point was clearly in the pipedream category, but I needed to gain some control of how far down that rabbit hole I could be driven. What I learned in that interview was that, according to the doctor, Texas law would allow him to perform the operation if I had already fathered two children (check), I could get my wife’s written permission (maybe checked), and she would be present at his office the day of the surgery to ensure her agreement.

I have two brilliant daughters and one brilliant granddaughter. In many ways, because of them I have been a “feminist” all of my life. However, when it comes to issues like birth control and abortion, I’m on the sidelines. If men can’t decide their own reproductive fates, mostly due to idiot arguments like the claim that young men are five times more likely to want a reversal surgery than are men over 50 (even those the total number who do want that surgery is below 5%), I’ll wait till this is an equal opportunity debate. Still today, “while any man older than 18 can legally get a vasectomy, doctors can turn men down if they don't believe them to be mature or sure enough of their future plans.” When characters like Agha and his ilk are allowed to decide when another man is “mature,” men are not on anything resembling equal footing with women’s reproductive rights.

I recently discovered that Planned Parenthood facilities, occasionally, provide vasectomy services. Disgustingly, the Affordable Care Act requires most insurance plans cover birth control with no out-of-pocket costs, but that does NOT include vasectomies. Supposedly, some plans do provide minimal coverage, but I couldn’t find any evidence of that in Minnesota, for example. The Rochester, MN (home of the Mayo Clinic) PP offices provide no services for men. There are several facilities in Minneapolis/St. Paul that offer “Men’s Health” services, but drilling down into the websites of those specific facilities I found no evidence that vasectomies were among those “services.” I would love to be a contributor to Planned Parenthood’s mission. I am a member of the Zero Population organization and absolutely believe that the average human’s reproduction has nothing of value to offer to either the species or the planet. There are eight billion of us now, which is about seven billion more than the planet can sustain. I asked Planned Parenthood if it is possible to commit a contribution to men’s reproductive services and received a solid “no.”

Repeated studies have found that “Although children in the house make men less happy, just being a father has no appreciable impact on men's happiness.” Women are equally (or more) unlikely to be happy as mothers. That pretty much flies in the face of the propaganda men are fed about the “fulfillment” of being a parent. There are societal interests in reproduction, but individual interests are being steamrolled for those interests and the fact is that the overwhelming majority of humans (men and women) are lousy parents and should not be allowed to be occasional babysitters, let alone parents. Until both sexes have complete control of their reproductive rights, it is delusional of society to imagine that children are going to be wanted, happy, and secure in their homes and the costs of that are astronomical.