I'm going to take a Biblical approach here, something I rarely ever do in public, and come down firmly on the side of God, or at least what the Bible says about it.
It doesn't appear to say what most folks seem to think it does.
First, I dunno why God makes one person thisaway and another person thataway. Only God knows that, and God ain't telling - I don't have the mind of God, nor am I consulted in God's decisions, and think it would be foolish of me to claim I am. I don't write policy for God.
What we find actually written, however, is at odds with what most folks are saying is written. Biblically, going all the way back to Genesis, parents have the right of life and death over their own children. Not other folks' kids, just their own. Abraham didn't snatch up some other goat herders son to sacrifice up on the mountain when he was told to sacrifice one - he snatched up his own son. Now it's true that God provided an alternate sacrificial critter at the last minute, but the basic decision was just between Abraham, his son, and God. No one else had any say in it.
Likewise, in these cases at hand here, the decision is between the child, the parents, and their doctors. No one else. Not government, not the news agencies, not me, not you, not "consensus". No one but those previously mentioned people. They are closest to the situation, and If I look at all, I'm just an outsider looking in. As they used to say around here, I ain't got no dog in that fight, so it ain't none of my damned business, and my opinion doesn't count.
If it doesn't affect me, then I've no say in it. I don't like government telling ME what I can and can't do, so how could I support government telling THEM what they are and are not allowed? Would that not be hypocrisy? The only time government ought to step into the matter at all is if some other set of parents were trying to tell me how to raise my OWN child. See, that would then affect ME, and other options would suddenly come into play.
Likewise with religion and the religious - their god can tell THEM what to do, but it ain't gonna tell ME what to do. I've got my own God for that sort of thing, don't need nor want theirs.
The news? Hell, the news don't even run it's own world, how in the hell can it run mine? Or yours?
I think it would be a better world if this or that batch of little heathens just stopped trying to run the lives of all the other little heathens, and let them take up their own steering wheel through life. Whether the decisions they make are ultimately good or bad makes no difference to me - it ain't MY life they are improving or wrecking, whichever the case may be.
I reckon I'm just heartless like that. I've had to live with my own decisions in life, both the good and the bad ones, and don't see that anyone else is any better or any worse than I am - they have the right to live with their own decisions, too, without my interference if it ain't asked for and it ain't affecting me.
It ain't MY job to look after THEIR kids. That is on the respective parents.
ETA: there is another side-facet to this subject that is sure to come up sooner or later - that of "preferred pronouns". That debate is some bullshit. Folks have the right to identify themselves any way they like - I don't care if they want to self-identify as a transcendental attack zebra - but they do NOT have the right to insist that I or anyone else go along with their delusion by ignoring the evidence before us in favor of their fantasy. See, that is where it crosses over into affecting ME, by insisting that I play along against my own judgement. That just ain't gonna happen. If the Emperor looks naked to me, I'm not gonna tell him what a fine and pretty new set of clothes he is wearing.
Well, not unless he's pretty when he's naked, too, which is pretty damned unlikely in my eyes. Either way, I'm not going to mistake a birthday suit for Brooks Brothers or Calvin Klein, nor am I going to call it what it ain't. That would be a betrayal of my own intellect. To thine own self be true.
.
It doesn't appear to say what most folks seem to think it does.
First, I dunno why God makes one person thisaway and another person thataway. Only God knows that, and God ain't telling - I don't have the mind of God, nor am I consulted in God's decisions, and think it would be foolish of me to claim I am. I don't write policy for God.
What we find actually written, however, is at odds with what most folks are saying is written. Biblically, going all the way back to Genesis, parents have the right of life and death over their own children. Not other folks' kids, just their own. Abraham didn't snatch up some other goat herders son to sacrifice up on the mountain when he was told to sacrifice one - he snatched up his own son. Now it's true that God provided an alternate sacrificial critter at the last minute, but the basic decision was just between Abraham, his son, and God. No one else had any say in it.
Likewise, in these cases at hand here, the decision is between the child, the parents, and their doctors. No one else. Not government, not the news agencies, not me, not you, not "consensus". No one but those previously mentioned people. They are closest to the situation, and If I look at all, I'm just an outsider looking in. As they used to say around here, I ain't got no dog in that fight, so it ain't none of my damned business, and my opinion doesn't count.
If it doesn't affect me, then I've no say in it. I don't like government telling ME what I can and can't do, so how could I support government telling THEM what they are and are not allowed? Would that not be hypocrisy? The only time government ought to step into the matter at all is if some other set of parents were trying to tell me how to raise my OWN child. See, that would then affect ME, and other options would suddenly come into play.
Likewise with religion and the religious - their god can tell THEM what to do, but it ain't gonna tell ME what to do. I've got my own God for that sort of thing, don't need nor want theirs.
The news? Hell, the news don't even run it's own world, how in the hell can it run mine? Or yours?
I think it would be a better world if this or that batch of little heathens just stopped trying to run the lives of all the other little heathens, and let them take up their own steering wheel through life. Whether the decisions they make are ultimately good or bad makes no difference to me - it ain't MY life they are improving or wrecking, whichever the case may be.
I reckon I'm just heartless like that. I've had to live with my own decisions in life, both the good and the bad ones, and don't see that anyone else is any better or any worse than I am - they have the right to live with their own decisions, too, without my interference if it ain't asked for and it ain't affecting me.
It ain't MY job to look after THEIR kids. That is on the respective parents.
ETA: there is another side-facet to this subject that is sure to come up sooner or later - that of "preferred pronouns". That debate is some bullshit. Folks have the right to identify themselves any way they like - I don't care if they want to self-identify as a transcendental attack zebra - but they do NOT have the right to insist that I or anyone else go along with their delusion by ignoring the evidence before us in favor of their fantasy. See, that is where it crosses over into affecting ME, by insisting that I play along against my own judgement. That just ain't gonna happen. If the Emperor looks naked to me, I'm not gonna tell him what a fine and pretty new set of clothes he is wearing.
Well, not unless he's pretty when he's naked, too, which is pretty damned unlikely in my eyes. Either way, I'm not going to mistake a birthday suit for Brooks Brothers or Calvin Klein, nor am I going to call it what it ain't. That would be a betrayal of my own intellect. To thine own self be true.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’