Fifty Shades of Stupid

Argumentum ad populum is Latin for “appeal to the people” and is an argument used by some for justifying their actions because it appeals to the masses.  Elvis famously titled one of his albums 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong as an example of this argument. This line of thinking can have grave consequences, because although 50 million people had bought Elvis records does it really make them right? 

For those of us that have kids at some point have probably heard the argument (or made it ourselves when we were kids) “well, all my friends are doing it.”  This argument is always used by children who in their stupid kid brain know that what they are asking for is ridiculous or harmful or against a parent’s wishes.  This argument is generally a last ditch attempt to convince a parent to relent.  However, the parent’s response is almost always “well if all of your friends [enter outlandish scenario], would you do that too?” This is a classic parenting technique which then renders argumentum ad populum ineffective.   

My question is this, at what point does argumentum ad populum go from being a silly argument  which parents easily refute to valid reason for adults to act like idiots?  This Valentine’s Day the movie Fifty Shades of Grey opens up in theaters.  The movie is based on the book of the same name and is part of trilogy.  The books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide and according some cinematic prognosticators the movie will be a blockbuster. 

I cannot comment on the content of the books because I haven’t read them, but from the water-cooler talk around my workplace the story seems to be nothing short of pornography with a tad more plot.  According to the Daily Mail one fifth of the 100 minute movie is filled with sex scenes.  But it’s not just the amount of sex that is drawing criticism; it’s the nature of the sexual content.  The books/movie glorifies sadomasochism and takes the practice from the seedy underbelly of society and puts it in the mainstream.

It’s almost nauseating to think that a book of this nature has sold 100 million copies and then the movie is set to become a blockbuster.  Our society has become the preverbal frog slowing being boiled to death.  We have sat around for so long slowing accepting the perversion of sex that it has gotten to this.  When I first heard they were making the book into a movie I naively thought that it would be a direct to video release with little fanfare and no real following.  I naively thought that the American people would at some point come their senses and decry a piece of trash like this. 

Like I said, I was naïve.  Now you have sex toys being sold at Target and hotels offering Fifty Shades of Grey package deals complete with bondage accessories.  If this movie is a commercial success, which it looks to be, there are many far-reaching implications for our society.

Understandably feminist groups have rallied against this movie because they fear that glorifying S&M practices will lead to more domestic violence and women will be humiliated through domineering practices. This movie is sending mixed messages to our kids as well.  They have been inundated the past decade with anti-bullying messages.  One organization’s tag line is “Hands and Words Are Not for Hurting.”  Now, they are going to have to modify it to “Hands and Words Are Not For Hurting Unless for Bondage.” 

In the end though, this movie glorifies the idea of sex without consequence.  It takes the most intimate expression of love between a man and a woman and demeans it to an act of savagery.  At one point during the movie trailer the protagonist says to the lead female actress something like “I’m not into romance.”  What he’s basically saying is “I don’t care about you as a person, all I see you for is a vessel for me to obtain physical gratification.”

Listen, I understand that pornography is a huge business and that sex in Hollywood movies is a staple.  I also understand that movies studios try and use the ‘shock factor’ in order to sell tickets.  This movie goes beyond the simple shock and awe technique.  This movie puts abnormal sexual behavior in the forefront for everyone to see and dresses it up as acceptable, nay, desired behavior.  This movie does more than simply cross the bounds of acceptability; it redefines the bounds all the while saying “100 million fans can’t be wrong.”

Fifty Shade of [Stupidity] may not be the raunchiest movie to be shown on the big screen or perhaps not even the most perverted.  The Sundance Film Festival is a staple of low budget independent films whose themes are just as provocative, but then very few of those films ever get viewed on the Today Show with Matt Lauer.  Proof again that Hollywood is trying to bring a certain amount of glitz and glamor to sexual perversion.

The magazine covers, the talk shows, and media blitz all do one thing; erode away at the Biblical model of sexual relationships—one man, one woman within a marriage relationship.  So much of our focus has been given to homosexuality that a story of a man and woman involved in sadomasochism seems tame.  In fact it almost seems romantic because they are wrapping it in the big heart-shaped box that is Valentine’s Day. 

But mark my words; more insidious things are to come.  It won’t be long now before orgies, bestiality and even pedophilia will be dressed up and made to seem acceptable.  If you don’t believe me just ask your grandparents if Fifty Shades of Grey would be acceptable in their day.  In 50 years time our morality is almost nonexistent.  The justification to destroy morality is done with the four little words “whatever makes you happy.” 

People think that God is prude and that he limits their fun, but God created all things, including sex.  He never intended to limit our fun, but He gave boundaries to enjoy ourselves without bringing harm.  Sex does have consequences despite what Fifty Shades makes you think.  Besides STD’s there are many unintended consequences of sex; broken hearts, failed marriages, emotional disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse, rape and sexual assault, sexual exploitation, just to name a few. God doesn’t want to spare us from the momentary pleasure of sex; He just wants to spare us from the long-term unintended consequences of sex outside of marriage. 

One hundred million fans can be wrong, no matter how loud they cheer.

Leftovers, enjoy.

L. Kyle

Hostage crisis…

The First Amendment of the Constitution provides every American with freedom o f speech.  The freedom has been tried and tested many times, sometimes in favor of the individual, sometimes in the favor of the government.  Americans are free, for the most part, to criticize their government, like Rush Limbaugh, without a fear of being dragged into the gulag.  Americans are free, for the most, to speak in a lewd manner, like Howard Stern, without fear of penalty (that might even attract more listeners). 

Despite the freedom, legally, to speak our minds we are not free from the court of public opinion.  The recent comments by Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-Fil-A restaurants have created an outpouring of anti-Chick-Fil-A comments, sponsorship rejections and even a same-sex kiss-in in August to protest Mr. Cathy’s comments.  For what?  Because he said they support heterosexual marriages?  GASP!  That hate monger! 

This all started last year when an LGBT (that’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender for those of you who have not attended a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” training session) group accused Chick-Fil-A of donating more than $3million to Christian groups who support traditional marriage.  In an interview which was printed 18 July, Mr. Cathy said that the company was “guilty as charged”.  They indeed do support the idea that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman.  And he and his company have been tried, convicted and sentenced in the court of public opinion. 

So severe is the sentence that the Boston mayor said he would block future Chik-Fil-As from being started in the Boston area.  Jim Henson and the Muppets, once affliate of Chik-Fil-A has since pulled their affiliation. 

The fact that Mr. Cathy is being halted from building restaurants or shunned by celebrities is proof that we are being held hostage.  We are being held hostage with language not guns.  Dan Cathy did not use hateful rhetoric or mean-spirited language like the idiots from West Borough Baptist Church; he simply and politely stated that he used his money to support a cause he believed in.  The fact that he is being lambasted in the media and demonized as a hatemonger should serve as a wake-up call for everyone in America. 

We have truly come to a place in our society where if you do not subscribe to a certain belief that you are ostracized or labeled as hateful or labeled as ignorant.  It’s not just with the issue to sexual preference, but global warming and abortion carry the same sentence for those who might oppose.  Recently the Susan G. Komen foundation (the foundation responsible for Race for the Cure) recently found itself in the same predicament when the Chairwoman decided to pull funding from Planned Parenthood.  They faced such a backlash that they reversed their stance and continue to give money to an organization responsible for the deaths of millions. 

How could this happen?  How can a non-profit organization and privately held company be bullied into making apologies for an ideological position?  There was nothing hateful in their speech.  Mr. Cathy didn’t say “I hate all of the gay people in the whole world” or the Susan G. Komen foundation didn’t say “All women who get abortions need to go to hell.” 

It has happened because there has been an ideological shift in our society which has taken control of our language.  The exact time the shift happened really can’t be pinpointed to a certain day or year.  Maybe it was when as a society we stopped believing in absolute truth.  At some point the Enlightenment Era, which was steeped in the assumption that science, art, literature etc. searched for or believed in an absolute truth.  Our Declaration of Independence was formed during the Enlightenment Era and it states “we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…”

But the Enlightenment Era gave way to the Modern Era where people began to reject the certainty of a Creator.  Science, art, and literature no longer had that foundation to begin with, but a foundation of humanism, which is to say that humans are the center of the world and human pursuit should be above all. Humanism rejects anything supernatural and replaces it with human reasoning and the idea of human nature is essentially “good.” 

This line of thinking is what has led us into the Post Modern Era which further separates us from absolute truth.  Postmodernism rejects any objective way to explaining reality.  So in the post-modern world if a person says they believe the sky to be purple, well, it’s purple.  Even if scientific evidence supports the sky being blue, the sky is purple in their mind and in their mind they are right. 

It is from this line of thinking that our language has been hijacked and anyone who does not subscribe to the postmodern thought process is held hostage.  Postmodernism is responsible for the politically correct world we live in.  No longer can Dan Cathy (or anyone like him) state that he doesn’t support gay marriage.  He can’t say this because he is telling people he believes in a standard and that anything that deviates from that standard is wrong. 

But if Dan Cathy says that gay marriage is wrong he is demonized, he is tried in the court of public opinion and found guilty of being hateful.  The scary thing is that in Canada’s hate speech law sexual orientation is included in the protected classes of people.  Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not advocating for gay-bashing or saying cruel things.  This is scary because a person, let’s say, oh, a pastor perhaps, gives a sermon on Romans 1 and says that homosexuality is wrong.  That pastor can then put into jail.  For what?  For nothing more than his beliefs.

Well, L. Kyle that’s Canada, this is America that would never happen here. 

If Boston and Chicago are successful at blocking the building of a restaurant because the CEO doesn’t support gay marriage,  I would say that we are not far off.

Leftovers enjoy!

L. Kyle

We've been hoodwinked

On June 25 Kraft Foods, the parent company which manufactures the Oreo cookie, posted on their FaceSpaceMyBook page this picture of a rainbow colored Oreo.  Just look at all that stuffing.  I thought Double Stuffed Oreos were good, but, WOW, look at all that filling.  Hold on a sec.  They are not going to make these cookies?  What’s that you say?  The cookie is a celebration.  Of what, God’s covenant, that He will never again flood the earth (after all that is where we get the rainbow)? Oh.  How silly of me, of course Oreo is celebrating gay pride month. 

The tag on the picture is “We support love”.  Well so do most people, but why is it only the gay community has love?  What about the rest of us?  Don’t we have love?  So now you are telling me that first the gay community has high-jacked the rainbow and now they have high-jacked love too? 

Recently the White House saw fit to get in on the celebration and support of “love” by inviting a delegate of the gay community for a little get-together.  Some of the pictures of the event found their way onto the Interweb.  Maybe you have seen the picture of one of the members of the delegation posed by the picture of Ronald Regan.  A sweet picture really save for the woman flipping President Regan the double bird with a huge scowl on her face.  Classy.

Shortly after the White House event the Pentagon held a gay pride event.  One of the speakers was a female Army Colonel and former platoon commander.  She was speaking in front of other military officials stating what a relief it is that she can now openly admit that she is gay.  In her speech she said that it is not about sexual preference, but it’s about moving into a new home and mowing the lawn and all the other regular stuff a family deals with. 

Just days after the Pentagon event Anderson Cooper, famed CNN journalist, announced that he too was gay.  He said that it was time that he stands up and is counted; that he has always been gay, always will be gay and is proud to be gay.  That’s sweet, but why does he get to stand up and say he’s proud to be gay?  Because. This is where the magician is hoodwinking us.

Did you know that in 1962 every state in the nation had a sodomy law?  There were lengthy prison terms or hard labor for those found engaged in sodomy.  Additionally, homosexuality has been considered a mental disease for hundreds of years, but starting in the early 1900s psychologist Sigmund Freud -- and 50 years later Alfred Kinsey --  was making the case that homosexuality was inborn rather than immoral or even a mental disorder. 

According to the UCDavis psychology webpage: 

In 1973, the weight of empirical data, coupled with changing social norms and the development of a politically active gay community in the United State [emphasis mine], led the Board of Directors of the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Some psychiatrists who fiercely opposed their action subsequently circulated a petition calling for a vote on the issue by the Association's membership. That vote was held in 1974, and the Board's decision was ratified.

So what was once illegal and then a mental disorder is not only accepted, but celebrated.  Granted not all of us are celebrating, but the push by the mainstream media of the homosexual agenda is astounding.  And really the mass media is where the magician does his work and tricks us all. 

Even scientists are in on the trick.  Notice that UC Davis cites that empirical data AND changing social norms AND the development politically active gay community as the reason to remove homosexuality from the mental illness list.  Do you think that we could lobby scientists to find that massive amounts of candy and soda are in fact good for you?  If science can succumb to social pressure, who then is immune?

It first started out with tolerance and the eroding of social morals and norms.  The gay community first preached tolerance.  That was their mantra.  Tolerate our behavior, tolerate lifestyle.  Tolerance was not enough though.  Once they received enough tolerance they moved on to a new mantra. 

That mantra is acceptance.  Tolerance is no longer good enough.  Instead of just tolerating the gay community the rest of society must accept their lifestyle as normal.  Smoking has become unacceptable by most in our society.  Some might even argue that smoking is not even very well tolerated.  “If you want to smoke fine, but do it somewhere else, you smell bad.”  What a role reversal we have here!  In the 1920s people were smoking like no tomorrow and homosexuals were being thrown in prison. Now homosexuals are celebrating like no tomorrow and smokers are being thrown in jail…well maybe not jail, but they are being fined in some cases.

L. Kyle, smoking is choice!

So is who you choose to have sex with! But that’s the magic trick.  We have been tricked into thinking that people are born gay.  If being gay is inborn then so is bestiality and pedophilia, right? Why else would people want to have sex with animals or children, it must be inborn, that’s the only logical explanation.  Despite what Freud and Kingsey tell us, sexual preference is not inborn.  Scientists tell us there is empirical data to support inborn abnormal sexual preference, but they also say that there is empirical data to support evolution.  If both are true, wouldn’t have evolution weeded out homosexual tendencies long ago? 

Imagine Ellen Degeneres and Anderson Cooper were the last two people on earth.  Could the human race go on? Which inborn instinct would win the war, sexual preference or survival?  My bet would be on survival.  Because once we strip out all of the pleasure of sex, it serves as a way of sustaining human life, it’s how we procreate.  It just so happens that God is pretty awesome in that he made sex pleasurable, but the magician has tricked us there too.

L. Kyle you hateful bigot!   

See that’s my point exactly.  The gay community has pushed the agenda of acceptance to the point that anyone who speaks out against their lifestyle is labeled as hateful and a bigot.  Did I say that I hate gay people?  No.  I am simply resistant to the idea that homosexuality is anything but a choice.  Is an adulterer born that way?  “I’m sorry I had sex with that other woman, but honey I was born that way.” 

“Don’t hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you’re set, I’m on the right track baby, I was born this way” sings Lady Gaga. 

And our society is no longer questioning Lady Gaga and her statement. We simply accept what she says because that is what we were tricked into doing by the magician.   The problem is that while we were watching the magic act and captivated by words like sexual freedom, enticed by endless pleasure we have ushered in a new era in which all sexual choices cannot be questioned. 

The sad part is that rather than hate and bigotry I truly have compassion because just as much as the rest of society has been hoodwinked by the magician so has the gay community…

Leftovers enjoy.

L. Kyle.

We are going downhill...

…and we are picking up speed.  

On June 10, 2012 the Netroots Nation conference was held  in San Jose, California.  Most people were probably unaware that the conference happened or even what Netroots is even about. Suffice it to say that this conference was a gathering of progressive-minded people who get together a couple times a year to discuss how to be activists using the internet and other technologies.  Don’t think pocket protectors and WOW, but think of people set on changing the political landscape of this country.  Netroots is to the left side as the Tea Party is to the right side.

If you go to their website you can see an archive of their different topics and even listen to most of the speakers.  Most of their topics are typical leftwing type items: “From Defeat to Triumph: Erasing the Death Penalty in America”, “Inside the Activists’ Studio: What to Do When the Right Comes After You”, “People, Not Polar Bears: Digital Revolutions and the New Fight Against Climate Change”.  Then there was this…”Liberate Your Ass: Why Sexual Freedom is Key to Fighting the Right”. 

You might think the Tea Party is comprised of a bunch of crackpots, but they probably don’t sit around and discuss sexual freedom in this country.   That’s the point though.  Believe it or not there is a segment of this country that sees sexual freedom as the defining issue in this country.  They believe that if somehow everyone has the right to express themselves sexually that this country will be healed, the economy will be booming and all will be right in the universe.  This is their all; sex in any form, sex with anyone (perhaps anything?), sex no matter what the cost. 

One of the panelists for “Liberate your ass” was Elizabeth Fernandez-Kimmel one of the staff members at the Woodull Sexual Freedom Alliance.  There’s an alliance for that?  Really?   The WSFA is all about making sure that people have the opportunity to have as much pleasure as possible.  Here’s an excerpt from their website

            Woodhull has been hard at work to combat the prohibition of pleasure, the rollbacks on hard-won freedoms and protections and to advance an agenda that recognizes the wonderful diversity of sex, sexuality and our rights to make informed, consensual choices in our lives.

Prohibition on pleasure?  Hard-won sexual freedoms?  Oh come on! Now they’re just making this stuff up.  Right?  Wrong.  There is a definite element in society whose goal is to sexualize our society to the point that sex between a married man and women in the privacy of their own bedroom will become deviant.

The WSFA wants to advance an agenda that recognizes, which is to say that they want you to recognize, the wonderful diversity of sex.  What does that mean?  Well for starters they want you to forget that there is a God-given standard in regards to sex.  Sex is intended to be between one man and one woman who are married. 

L. Kyle you old-fashioned prude! 

Let’s suspend reality for a minute and think what we would have to live without if everyone subscribed to this standard for sex.    Adultery. Gone. Teen Pregnancy. Gone.  STDs.  Gone.  AIDS. Gone.  Pornography.  Gone.  Prostitution.  Gone.  Dang, the WSFA’s is right, we need to champion the diversity of sex and pursue pleasure at all costs because we have gained so much. 

I’m no fool, I realize that even in the most conservative of places in our nation that sexual desires are lived out which deviate from this standard. But it’s alarming to what rate we as a nation have embraced the idea of sexual diversity and we have unabashedly thrown decency out the window.  It’s been 50 years since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.  Free love was the theme of the day.  But today, as the WSFA puts it, it’s all about sex and pleasure.  At least the hippies tried to sell their debauchery as love and not just self-gratification. 

In the past year a series of books have taken this country and the U.K. by storm.  The first in the series is titled 50 Shades of Grey.  The story is about a young college student becoming sexually involved with a Billionaire banker who has a panache for kinky sex.  What started as books sold only in digital format has now come to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide and currently is #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, both in paperback and digital.  There is even talks of a movie deal some in the future. 

The problem?  The books (from what I’m told) are beyond graphic in their sexual content.  The New York Times dubs this book as “mommy porn”, not because there are mommies in them, but because now mommies can read books with graphic sexual content and feel okay about it.  After all, 10 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong, can they?  Ten million readers have purchased a book with a central theme of graphic, pornographic sex.  Although critics may have panned the books as poorly written it has not stopped millions from celebrating the sex scenes.  “I read it for the dramatic story line.” 

Millions are celebrating deviating from the standard.  The problem with deviating from the standard is that there are often times severe consequences.  We however began to minimize the consequences.  When AIDS became a problem we taught “safe sex.”  That is we taught that sex without a condom and with multiple partners was dangerous.  When teen pregnancy was on the rise we taught sex education.  That is we demonstrated to kids how to put on a condom, passed out free condoms and gave them some stats on STDs.  When unintended pregnancies happened we legalized abortion.

It seems we don’t have to minimize the consequences any longer.  Groups like the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance see it as their goal to maintain the “hard-won” freedoms to seek pleasure.  Books like 50 Shades of Grey will apparently continue to sell so that mommies can have their porn in a socially acceptable way.  To what end?  What is the eventual outcome of all this hedonism? 

The moral decay of our society, that’s what.  And when decency and morality stand in the way of seeking pleasure, then decency and morality will become deviant behavior.

Leftovers.  Enjoy

L. Kyle.