The Overton Window and the “new normal” By Debra Marie Johnson Sept 2021
Previous columns covered a small portion of the corruption creeping into our society.
- Critical Race Theory and how it has infiltrated Government and Education
- The obtuse language of critical theory and how it hides in plain sight
- Censorship of alternative thought on virtually all mass media and social media
- Current events happening around these injustices including many parents and citizens speaking up in local county and school board meetings
- The suspicion surrounding the 2020 elections
- The flow of money feeding this “new normal”
In searching for some explanation or description of this current chaos in our society I came upon a video on Facebook by Benny Johnson describing the concept of the Overton Window. Googling this concept is very interesting. Many articles declare that Reagan and Trump moved the Overton Window to a drastically radical level justifying the progressive left movement. But let’s look at this window.
There are models where there are different terms marking the top and bottom of the diagram which is less relevant for this discussion. What is presented by the window is the area in which the majority of people find policy to be acceptable. When I saw this I recognized the abortion issue and what I perceived to have happened over the past decades. Abortion was legalized in the 1970’s and after initial controversy, other than being a political football it crept into the lower levels of acceptable like it or not. In the time around 2014 there became more issues around the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and it’s involvement in significant abortion activities. The left wanted you to think that all abortions are being stopped with no attention to the idea that there are many taxpayers that are definitely opposed to abortion and don’t want to pay for it. This was also triggered with Obama care requiring the funding of abortions. Then all of a sudden many may remember the Virginia governor describing in graphic detail “post birth abortion” as no big deal. After that it’s been a battle of no abortion vs live birth abortion. The Overton window can explain this. Who can even think that killing a live baby is OK? What kind of person is this? It takes out any definition of the thinkable – was it an attempt to move that window of acceptability in that direction? The reaction was a spate of legislation in the totally opposite direction. Was this an attempt to pull the window back? Was this an attempt by the left simply to make taxpayer funded abortion OK, or do they really think killing a live baby is OK? I just can’t attach anything but Evil to the bottom of this chart and Good to the top of the chart, but if you google the term you will see many disagree!
What is certain is that unthinkable shifts in norms are penetrating our society and schools. Shifts that assault the sensibilities of the vast majority of this country. Enter transgenderism in children. Abigail Shrier speaks to this in her IMPRIMIS article “Gender Ideology Run Amok”. You can view it here: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/gender-ideology-run-amok/ . Over 100 years of research has identified gender dysphoria as typically occurring in males and between the ages of two and four. This research has also found that 70% of the children if left alone naturally outgrow this dysphoria. That means if they were not intervened with medically or encouraged in what has become known as “social transition”. Today children are not left alone. If they are not perfectly male or perfectly female they are labeled as “trans kids.” They are encouraged to introduce themselves with new names and pronouns. They are sent to “affirmative” care – meaning to affirm the diagnosis of gender dysphoria and help the children medically transition with the use of puberty blockers. The Virginia Transgender Model Policy dictates that parents are not to be informed if their child “identifies” as trans at school. Also if parents are not supportive of this transition they can be punished. If teachers use the wrong pronouns or names they can be punished and have been even terminated in this state.
The story with girls is a bit different. Prior to 2012 there was little information on girls with gender dysphoria. In girls this is known as “rapid onset gender dysphoria” evident in teenage girls. In the last decade this has been noted as a 4,400% increase in teenage girls seeking treatment at just the United Kingdom’s National gender clinic. In the West teen girls are leading the demographic claiming to have gender dysphoria. This is known as social contagion. Anorexia and Bulimia are other examples of this phenomenon. There are studies showing that suicides in social groups can spread in the same manner. It is more simply termed peer pressure. Teen girls and children in general today are in the midst of the worst mental health crisis on record. How can this not be child abuse to encourage transgenderism in our schools? This full article is worth reading!
Even as this column is written Breitbart posted about Biden’s plan for transgender policy in K-12. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/26/biden-admin-back-school-transgender-message-we-intend-enforce-our-ideology/
It is quite direct, it is worth reading this entire article also!
“We intend to enforce our ideology, like it or not. We stand ready to use children as enforcers. We want children to rat out their parents and their teachers. They cannot trust the adults who are part of their lives, such as their teachers or pastors. They cannot trust the people who gave them life, their parents. We want every child to see us and us alone, as their savior and protector.”
It leads the discussion directly back to Critical Race Theory and the Transgender Model Policy that the Floyd County school board has yet to take aggressive action in the August 9th school board meeting. The September meeting will have occurred by the time this column is published. One could hope they take action to protect the children from this onslaught of indoctrination. It has led me to run as a write in candidate for the school board for the Indian Valley District to fight these abhorrent policies and assault on our most precious resource – our children. I post many more articles on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DMJwritein. Support candidates that will fight for your values and pull that “Overton Window” back away from the evil, unthinkable assault on our culture. We are entering dark times and our representatives must reflect accurately the voice of the people!
Deberosa Digs 