It's all of a piece

And so the largest school district in Minnesota is changing from its old policy whereby teachers remain neutral in cases where homosexuality seems to be a factor in a student getting picked on ("bullying" in regime-speak) to a new "Respectful Learning Environment" policy. Just when we thought some progress was being made against asinine speeech codes and hate-crimes legislation zeal, we now have a case where a policy gets changed, not because the school district found any evidence that bullying caused six recent student suicides (it didn't), but because a student got up a petition and took in to the school board.

So now we're going to have touchy-feely group-therapy puke-fests when a simple grabbing of Johnny the Jerk by his shirt collar and saying "knock it off" would take care of such situations the way it did for centuries in America. What I'm not finding out from the linked article is whether young Timmy the Transgendered has to curb wearing of his oh-so-fixed-at-not-even-the-age-of-puberty "identity" as a badge that dares anyone to give him the wrong kind of arched eyebrow.

I really like Mitch Daniels, my governor here in Indiana, but I do concur with those who responded to his suggestion that conservatives call a truce in the culture wars that that is not possible. Every development on any level of cultural, economic or national security consideration is occurring along a continuum. (This, by the way, is the one thing that really sets my teeth on edge about talk-show host Neal Boortz. He is so spot-on about most things, but when he sneers at pro-life and pro-normalcy spokespeople, he shows that he's merely fooling himself into thinking he has a consistent core set of values.) Every type of encroachment on your freedom currently taking place is occurring with the same end in mind.

How did we get to the place where we have to use a term like "social issues" anyway? ("Well, I'm somewhat concerned about social issues, but they come down the line after such-and-such.") At what point did the acceleration of change in - make that deterioration of - the norms and conventions and institutions and basic assumptions about human nature we took for granted as the foundation of our culture reach a point where we had a critical mass of the public that was sanguine about it (if not downright enthusiastic), and therefore on the other side of the chasm from those who proceeded through life the, you know, old-school way? The way in which one didn't ever encounter arguments about what was natural or normal or dignified?

This regime and its fellow travellers and useful idiots wants inside your head and inside your soul.

It is so very, very late in the day.