Without The Melodrama

No.281: January 16, 2026

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Dear Friends,

Many years ago CCL hosted Jennifer Lahl as a speaker for our annual symposium. Jennifer is the founder of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, and her task was to speak on the rising tide of transgenderism. This was at the very crest of the trans wave that would soon inundate our society like a tsunami. This must have been right around the time Abigail Shrier published Irreversible Damage, documenting that the rise in transgenderism among young people is a social contagion having little to do with actual biology. JK Rowling was just getting warmed up going to war with trans ideology. My point is that this was the early innings of the cultural conflict. And Jennifer said:

“Friends, we are going to win this one.”

It sure didn’t seem like it, and I couldn’t tell at the time if this was just wishful thinking or a prediction based in reality. It was a prediction, and in spite of all appearances—the overwhelming and aggressive onslaught of trans ideology from every cultural institution—it was … correct. I can hardly believe it myself.

Here is a massive archive of what happened. It is an essay that has something like a billion links to source material that walks through the timeline of who, what, when, where, why, and how the whole transgender “moment” began and how it has essentially ended. Yes, ended. The essay concludes:

The story of the progressive left’s calamitous plunge into radical trans activism is a tale almost too wild to be believed. No accounting in prose, however extensively sourced, can fully communicate the disorienting surreality of what living through this period was like. Of all the archives contained in this series [of the author’s work], none more clearly demonstrates the ways in which political extremism can backfire and roll back years of hard-won progress. Preserving a detailed record of this period in American cultural history — against both memory-holing and revisionism — is the best way to ensure that we learn the painful lessons of trans activism’s failures.

The posture of the piece seems to suggest that the author is someone of the political Left, lamenting that this crusade has “set back” progressive “progress.” I don’t think much of progressive “progress” and so I don’t lament, but it does warrant significant praise that he was able to deal with this issue as honestly as he did. No stone unturned.

Why was Jennifer right in her bold prediction? Because trans ideology ultimately bumps up against reality in ways that cannot be camouflaged or disguised with eyeliner and euphemisms. At some point, the Emperor is going to have show off some actual clothes. Senator Josh Hawley demonstrates:

I am currently listening to George Orwell’s 1984, and I cannot help but see a witness terrified of using words that are not Newspeak. It is, in fact, a simple yes or no question, and hand-waving about “where the conversation was going” or underlying, ulterior political motivations will not work because not answering the question exposes political motivations of its own. Critical theories that “unmask” secret, hidden agendas are susceptible to an unmasking of their own. As Oliver O’Donovan writes, “Criticism can be turned back upon the critic ad infinitum. For criticism, too, is the strategy of some actor within the socio-historical polyphony, the representative speech of some historical grouping.”

Everything isn’t just ulterior motives and political power plays all the way down. At some point reality is decisive: men cannot get pregnant.

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It is time for me to write something about the Minneapolis shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. This was definitely one of those events that rewards not giving in to the impulse to broadcast instant hot takes. There are a lot of people and news outlets not getting that particular award.

The narratives formed instantly. A person’s reaction to what occurred could tell you with 100% accuracy that person’s political views. And the only conclusion to be drawn from that curious and infallible correlation is that people are enslaved to political tribes. They will not only parrot whatever narrative their “side” comes up with, they will literally see the world through its lenses. People are outsourcing their own critical thinking skills to political propagandists.

On the Left, Renee Good was a “motorist.” She was an innocent bystander, a mom shuttling her daughter around, shot down in cold blood by a masked fascist thug for no reason whatsoever.

On the Right, Renee Good was a “domestic terrorist” (yes, that was the label applied by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem) who “literally ran over” (said President Trump) the ICE Agent.

It takes a very melodramatic view of the world to divide responsibilities in this neat, clean-cut way, and while it certainly gives a certain satisfaction, scratching the itch to blame one’s perceived enemies, it is also stupid. In almost no arena of actual life do moral responsibilities and duties cash out perfectly in line with one’s prior political views.

Some dust has settled, the video content is all released for everyone to see, and I will tell you what I see without the melodrama. And, of course, I’m aware that I am about to upset somebody or another.