There are certain things about which there can be no compromise. Several years ago, I would not have made that claim, but now, in the light of chaos, the stars of sanity imploding under the heat of their own weight all around us, I will make the bold claim and say the era of black and white is upon us, stark divisions abound, and there are key issues where there is no equivocation, relativism, or nuance between them, there is simply what is right and just and what is entirely wrong. To be sure, it wasn't always this way. We had years, decades, in fact, of think pieces and essays that left the reader pondering questions posed, examining all sides of an issue, thinking to themselves "well, I see how on the one hand this could be true, but on the other hand, so too could it's opposite." We debated ideas, we said "I can see your point of view, too." The era of nuance is now officially dead. Surely, we would all rather bring more light than heat, but some things simply need to be burned down and light, while vibrant, doesn't have enough of an incendiary quality on its own to get that done.
In America, this election season, we have two sides, and not only are these two sides diametrically opposed on policy, they are completely at odds on a vision for the nation and the nature of humanity itself. Here, then, is the crux of the division, the areas where no nuance is possible, where compromise is not possible and should not be considered.
Trans. There's no such thing as a third gender. Everyone has one of two sets of chromosomes, XX or XY and those genetic markers determine one's biological sex. In body and mind, the male and female of our species has deep, meaningful differences. There is no reality in which men and women can swap their sex for the other, no matter how much a person wishes it. There is no universe in which a child can be liberated from their natural sex with the aid of pharmaceutical drugs and surgical procedures. There is no circumstance under which healthy children and teens should have their brains and bodies rewired to suit their temporary fantasy of what it might be like to be someone other than themselves. Men cannot be mothers. Women cannot be brothers. Children cannot change sex. Butchery is not healthcare. There's no nuance on trans, there is just biological reality, stark, cold and real.
Racial hatred. We used to know this, but over the past few decades the lines have become blurred until finally, here in 2024, they have been completely obliterated. Back in the days of the great civil rights leaders, Americans had to be convinced that racial animus was illogical, nonsensical, and anathema to our Constitutional values. As opposition to racism became antiracism, and antiracism became antisemitism, the entire concept of racial hatred went woke and became acceptable again. This is entirely wrong. There is no space in our nation to hate people based on their race or ethnicity. There's lots of reasons to really despise people without going for different = bad, which is the lowest of all reasons. We watched it happen, many in our society have encouraged it. Anytime you hear pundits complain about white people, or black people or Jews for that matter, know that this penchant for racial hatred is not new, it is as old as the sands, and it is just as disgusting and intolerable as it was in the 1960s, in the era of Martin Luther King Jr., in the era of Civil Rights, in the era of the 1940s when Jews were mass slaughtered in Europe, as it is now. It is never acceptable to hate based on race, there is no nuance here, hating white people, black people, Jewish people, Christian people, anyone else, is simply not a reasonable perspective. Give it no quarter.
National sovereignty. Either we're a nation or we're not. If we're a nation, we have national borders, and they matter. If we're not, then fling open the doors, tear up the Constitution, and let it all sink into the sea. Those are the options. Our national borders have become a joke. We may as well blur into the rest of the world for as much as our leaders care about our sovereignty. And that's not right. Our borders matter, our nation matters. Over the past four years we have seen a callous disregard for our nation's autonomy and self-determination. We have seen the rights that come with citizenship bestowed on people who have made their way here illegally, who have not gone through our legal process, who care nothing for our culture, our customs, or our rule of law. Even more, we've seen our leaders, the ones we elect specifically to vouchsafe our nation, throw the concept of citizenship out the window by advocating for mass amnesty, giving allowances to criminals, and putting Americans last in our own country. There's no nuance here: either citizenship comes with certain rights and privileges that are not extended to others or it does not, either American nationhood matters or it does not; there is no in between.
Nuance is one thing when all parties are looking toward the same future, embracing the same values, and having shared goals. The past argument in this country has not been about where we're going but how best to get there—we've been arguing about process. But that's not where we are anymore. The political opposition in the United States has drastically different views of what the future of the country should look like, and that means that not only does the process look different for both sides, but the goals could not be further apart. How can you compromise with people who think men and women can change sex, it's right to hate people based on race and ethnicity, and that our national sovereignty is negligible? It's a problem. It can't be done. There's no compromise here, there's no nuance, there's only truth and accuracy versus lies and obfuscation.
