Navigating the choppy waters of gender, sex differences, and their societal impact can leave many of us feeling lost. That's why we invited back Cynthia Breheny from the Paradox Institute to shed light on these challenging topics, offering her expertise to guide us through the fog. This episode peels back layers of confusion in healthcare, highlights the risks of conflating intersex conditions with gender ambiguity, and emphasizes the bravery required, but absolute necessity that each citizen speak the truth.
Visit Cynthia Breheny at
Visit the Paradox Institute!
Follow her on X @PTElephant
Website Coming Soon: Affirming Reality Connected
"The future of humanity passes by way of the family"--John Paul II.
Please send donations to support our work to:
John Paul II Renewal Center
902 S Randall Road
STE C #296
St. Charles, IL. 60174
Support the show
Don't forget to sign up for our Newsletter!! JPll Renewal Center email list
For more information please go to our website: jp2renew.org
Navigating the choppy waters of gender, sex differences, and their societal impact can leave many of us feeling lost. That's why we invited back Cynthia Breheny from the Paradox Institute to shed light on these challenging topics, offering her expertise to guide us through the fog. This episode peels back layers of confusion in healthcare, highlights the risks of conflating intersex conditions with gender ambiguity, and emphasizes the bravery required, but absolute necessity that each citizen speak the truth.
Visit Cynthia Breheny at
Visit the Paradox Institute!
Follow her on X @PTElephant
Website Coming Soon: Affirming Reality Connected
"The future of humanity passes by way of the family"--John Paul II.
Please send donations to support our work to:
John Paul II Renewal Center
902 S Randall Road
STE C #296
St. Charles, IL. 60174
Support the show
Don't forget to sign up for our Newsletter!! JPll Renewal Center email list
For more information please go to our website: jp2renew.org
Welcome to Become who you Are. Podcast. The production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Rigard, your host. Glad you're joining us today.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to have Cynthia Brayhenian. She's from the Paradox Institute. She's a return guest at the Paradox Institute. They teach others about the biological and psychological differences between males and females and why they're important, and they do it in animated videos, articles, podcasts. You got to check them out, theparadoxinstitutecom. And why does it matter today? I think you know why it matters. The denial that two sexes is one of the most fundamental issues of our time. It's never been more important to have an educated public and how sex differences impact individuals and society. You know, cynthia is not only knowledgeable and she's really concerned. She's really concerned about people and it comes out in our hearts. She said Delight is a person. Buckle up and get ready for today's episode. I am so excited to have Cynthia Brayhenian back with us. I thought it was a couple of months ago, but it was October 2023. She's such a delight. So knowledgeable, cynthia it's. It's a time goes really fast. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing really well, thank you. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm doing awesome. You are such a joy last time you and I start to talk about all kinds of things. You talked about growing up with gender dysphoria. We talked about some of the crazy cultural factors that reign. Yeah, bring us all in. You know there's so much brokenness out there. We run into that all the time with the John Paul Turingel Center.
Speaker 1:So let me just give a little background to people that maybe haven't heard that podcast or haven't heard it for a while. You're a professional digital artist, animator and author. Your lifelong experience with gender dysphoria and her professional design skills provide her with the unique abilities to communicate sex and gender concepts, and you're the communications and design director for the Paradox Institute. I'll just add this you know, cynthia, I came across you guys a few years back speaking to young people and they're talking about anxiety and depression and suicidal thoughts that you think, oh my gosh, we're so broken and I'm trying to bring some clear insights to them with this gender dysphoria, and even the people that aren't involved in you know don't feel like they have it themselves. I think they're all feeling this anxiety. Something's a little wrong with anity right now and you guys just make it clear you can go back and I suggest everybody go to the paradox. Institutecom right, or is itorg?
Speaker 2:It'scom.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the paradox, institutecom, and I'll tell you what the videos, the blogs you can listen. So you got everything there, cynthia, so tell us a little bit about the new things going on there. And you're in a midst of this battle, so thank you for it. It takes courage, doesn't it, nowadays, to stand up and just tell the truth.
Speaker 2:It does. But you know, it's like my grandparents always talked about communism in Cuba and how it got to a point where you couldn't say anything because they would come after you and they would jail you and stuff like that, and so they would take everything. They took everything from my family. That's just what they did, and I don't want to be in that position. None of us should be in that position. And yes, it's scary.
Speaker 2:Confrontation is so scary, and it's especially when there are people who are out there and the first thing they're going to do is throw a death threat out you or make an accusation about your character or threaten your job or something, and we just have to all start doing it. It's not easy, it's hard, it's scary. It's easy to just go about your day and ignore it and try to act like it doesn't affect you, but it does affect you. It affects all of us. These are changes that have come into the law. These are changes that have come into the field of medicine. You can't go to a major doctor's office or anything like that now without being asked for your gender identity in most places, which is silly.
Speaker 2:You now get to mark off whether you are male, female or neither, which, in a medical setting, they need to know. That's not a game to be played, because there are things like your kidney values and stuff like that, that if you're not being truthful about your biological sex, about your sex I shouldn't even say biological sex, it's just your sex If you're not truthful, then it could cost you your life. It could be, you know, that could put the doctors at risk too of not being able to help other patients because now they're in trouble because they didn't adequately mark down somebody's sex or something like that and hurt somebody and people left to bring up.
Speaker 2:Oh, what about intersex, though that term is a container for and it's a misnomer for over 40 different conditions that the majority of which are not ambiguous in any way, shape or form they're referring. You know, when you think about that, people think hermaphrodites. There are no human hermaphrodites. When you think about that term, people also like to associate well ambiguous genitalia, that these are again male and female, clear conditions. That ambiguous quote, unquote genitalia is actually something like a hypospadia in a male or a virilized clitoris in a female, and just it doesn't take a whole lot of extra investigation most of the time to figure out okay. Well, this is a male and this is a female.
Speaker 2:So that's not gonna jive either with this whole like oh, I'm gonna break neither on my medical forms like that. That's not an excuse. It's all just a way to infiltrate these institutions with this deconstructionist like view and and dismantle institutions and dismantle fundamental realities that we know to be true.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what you're saying is, even with the, with these intersects or say, some kind of a deformity, possibly a physical deformity with people, that's painful, I'm sure, for parents and everything, but at the end of the day you can identify them with the sex, can't you?
Speaker 2:And yes, and they need to be adequately identified Because if they're not, again this could really damage their health. So if you have a man with client filters, I've seen people say, well, you're, you're less male.
Speaker 1:What is that? So it's a it's a karyotype.
Speaker 2:I think it's 46 x, x, y. Zach will probably correct me.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure it's 46 x y, but so it's a chromosomal disorder that happens during development and basically this male just has an extra X chromosome and that can cause a lot of issues and some physical, I guess, abnormalities from like a typical male gynecomastia and things like that, issues with the testes and stuff, and it can also cause some learning disabilities in the more extreme cases. As far as I know, same thing with other things like Turner syndrome, which is a single X chromosome in females. And so yeah, these are. These are clear cases of if a man with client filters does not get testosterone, for example, he's at a huge risk with his health. He could die like the. Getting testosterone and being properly treated will keep him alive and it will keep him alive longer and it will keep him from having a lot of issues with his health.
Speaker 2:Same thing with Women with Turner syndrome if they don't get proper treatment, then they can also have issues. They already have to be screened for hearing and and heart health because they're at higher risk of heart attacks and in going deaf. So Just, it is so offensive to say these people are not male and female and to say that they are in between sexes or sexless, or Neither. You know it, because they are male or female and they need that to be accurate so they can get proper treatment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for that. You know I mean this. You know here's. Here's what you and I and I really appreciate it your conversation last time you were on. It's the human side of this and these are people. These are human beings.
Speaker 1:And you know you want to get this right because you want to help them. You know they're ready in a tough situation. And then we extend down to these, these men and women who are perfectly normal Physically, that, for whatever reason, are confused in this crazy culture. And there's a lot of reasons for that which I'm not going to take the time to get into now because you know, we know I mean this pornographic culture, that's sexual abuse, that's going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know so many women that were in Situations similar to yours. I mean one after another. You know one and four adult women walking around today. We're sexually abused as children and and that's growing and it's and and so at the end, I mean, if I was a woman coming into this world and I was sexually abused by a man and then this crazy porn culture, I would think you know what, maybe I don't want to be with a man, you know. I mean I've talked to young women that just been really hurt, you know, and hurt by their fathers and all kinds of things.
Speaker 1:So I'm not going to go there right now with you, because we covered that before. But this is, you know, we have to be honest and help those people, and this is again what you're doing at the paradox Institute, I think. So well you clarify these issues so that those of us that see this brokenness in the world can at least stand up on two feet and have a dialogue with people, you know.
Speaker 1:I think we're gonna just speak the truth and and there's something nefarious about what's going on- I'll just mention this to you because One of my favorite articles I've ever read about all these issues was the one that you wrote back last year Trans ideologies, the modern Hydra and you really said, hey, look at, if we don't tackle this Legislative thing, you know these laws are being pushed on honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah we're not gonna solve this, and and so I'm just gonna bring up this and I'm gonna throw it back in your court. We have a law here in Illinois. You can't make this up up, cynthia.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah, the days I wake up and I pinch myself to say yeah then I really have a conversation with somebody yesterday about, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm non-binary or transitioning or whatever, and these poor kids and man, I just want to hug them and say, okay, let's just sit down, just let's just talk about this issue, you know, and so anyways.
Speaker 1:Hb 4876 here in Illinois would amend the abused and eclectic child reporting act by redefining abused child to include Children whose parents do not consent to their minor children receiving chemical or surgical treatments to conceal their sex. So this is what they so-called gender affirming care. Yeah, and if a parent pushes back on this, they can come in and and With this law they're gonna come in and try to take your child away.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think they're doing this in California already and another place yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, not only are they doing this in California and other places, but in states like Montana, where gender affirming care is banned, the governor, gianforte, and the CPS recently took a girl from her family anyway and sent her to Wyoming to get gender affirming care and then sent her from Wyoming To Canada to live with her mother, who previously had a record which is why she lost custody of this daughter of being abusive. So they took her from the parents who had no history of abuse with her other than she told a friend that her dad was like being mean or something. That that was what prompted the friend to call CPS and it was all about this, this gender stuff. And so because they were reported as being, you know, bad parents or whatever for not affirming her and Causing her distress, and she said she was suicidal and this, and that she admitted to CPS, by the way, that she had not done what she said she did. She said she had Drank chemicals and things like that. So she lied. She admitted that she lied, but the parents still had her removed.
Speaker 2:I don't understand why they still removed her when they found that there was no evidence of abuse, there was no evidence of a suicide attempt. It was all just a hoax so that she would get removed and get this affirming care. She was removed, she was sent to Wyoming where they started the whole process of putting her in a facility and affirming her and whatever, and then they moved her to Canada where she would be affirmed by the mother who had previously been convicted of abuse. So, yeah, there is no safe state, obviously, in this, because even if your state bans it, this could happen to any family and it is happening to families. So, yes, we need to get this stopped everywhere, because it could be a thing where your kid is Very distressed, for whatever reason, because they're they're being influenced by by social media and by their friends and you don't know who your kid is talking to on their phone. That is terrifying. You need to be so. On top of that, this is the other organization I'm working with. She provides parents it's arc affirming reality connected. She provides.
Speaker 1:Give me that one more time affirming reality connected.
Speaker 2:Arc okay arc and it's run by Gabrielle Clark, who brought lawsuits against school boards and things like that with this type of thing before, and basically we're on the one front, trying to Stop these laws from getting passed and, on the other front, we are providing parents with the resources to combat this. So, to be ready if this happens to your family, what to do if this happens to your family, the steps you need to take to prevent your child from getting into contact with strangers online, like different types of cell phone plans, different plans for getting them out of a school where there's a lot of this indoctrination Happening, getting alternative learning programs for them. She even covers moving out of state or even out of the country if you feel like it's still not enough, and and it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Where is she? Where is she located?
Speaker 2:in Texas and Texas.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you're gonna be working with her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've been working with her as well.
Speaker 1:That sounds awesome, you know how many questions I get just on. Look you know, this is of course. This may not be as simple as it sounds, but just what kind of phone do I get my child?
Speaker 2:or do I give him a phone?
Speaker 1:I mean yeah those are things that we need to start to talk about, you know, parents.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Abdicated the responsibility to these so-called experts, you know, and the schools, and then in the government. And didn't you find out? They don't have your child's best interest in mind. Certainly not in all the cases, do they.
Speaker 2:But see, they believe they go into these programs when they go through the universities. The teachers do, and they indoctrinate these teachers, who are also young minds and saying this is the best way, and, and, and. Another organization that talks about this is Gosh. Courage is a habit. They're great. So if you, if you want to talk to them, I highly recommend them.
Speaker 2:They're great, so they get into these schools. They indoctrinate these incoming teachers and they spit out activists because they make them believe that you do have the best interest of these kids at heart. You know, in fact, you're a safer place for them than their own parents, which is crazy Like and yes, there are parents who are abusive, sure, but Are these strangers who do not have your kids every single day, every single year of their lives? Are these strangers the ones who have your kids' best interests? No, they have them for a few hours a day with 30 other kids. They're just there pushing their own agenda. They don't know your kid's heart. They don't have their best interests. They're fundamentally destroying relationships with people these kids love and trust. And for what? Because they have this belief in their heads. And it's absolutely not true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm on the front line with that too. People are listening to this and going. I can't see how teachers are being brought up with these ideologies getting supplanted into their brains, but they are. You know I stand up at school board meetings just to talk about the books and different things. Sometimes the teachers will stand up and refute what I'm saying, which is very simple. It's called stolen innocence most of the time and I just say look it.
Speaker 1:I don't know where you're coming from, but you don't show pornography to children, and I'm talking about young children.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't see it as pornography.
Speaker 1:No, this is they keep going.
Speaker 2:It's exactly right they legitimately believe that this is healthy and that if we show these kids sexual imagery from a young age, that it will make them more accepting and it will give them a healthier attitude about consent and sexuality. Well, we know that not to be true from previous studies that have been done about introducing sexuality to younger and younger kids. You can talk to a child about consent without it being sexual. You can say no one can put their hands on you, it's like a stranger with it. You know mommy and daddy can hug you and stuff like that, and you know obviously like put their hands on you, like to teach you things or whatever. But when it comes to a stranger or another kid without your permission, it's not okay for somebody to come in and touch you and make you feel uncomfortable and make you feel distressed or touch you in such and such places. Like you can say that to a child without bringing in conversations about like anal sex and toys and all this. Like my God.
Speaker 2:I don't understand why they feel like these graphic images are necessary to talk about consent or to be accepting, because you can also tell a child certain people might get married, that you know it's a daddy and a daddy instead of a daddy and a mommy, and that's just that family, and that's those people, and that's you know we. Just that's all right, you can, it doesn't affect you whatever, and you move on. We don't need to say these people are kissing each other, these people are in bed together, these people are, you know, like.
Speaker 1:You don't even say that that's exactly what they do. Some of the books that we talk about are recommended for eight year olds and some for 10 year olds. I mean the book, perfectly normal. That normalizes. Everything that you're talking about is for 10 year olds.
Speaker 2:Tending up, it says you know, you don't see them saying we have never been in a place where you know. You go over to Suzie's house and she's got straight parents, for example, and say see Suzie's parents, they kiss and hug each other and here's pictures Like nobody did that ever. That's a great point, you know that's a great point.
Speaker 1:Here's your neighbor having heterosexual pictures of them right. No so you know, there's something behind all this.
Speaker 2:But what?
Speaker 1:surprises me, cynthia, is that these young teachers are like desensitized themselves. They don't, like you said, they don't look at as pornography. You know there are the people that wrote the national sex ed standards and the comprehensive sex ed that's being pushed in Illinois. In Illinois, you don't have to teach sex ed in schools, but if you do, you have to teach comprehensive sex ed. And then it's pushing these ideologies down to these younger and younger and younger kids. And what they do is they say that this is a pleasure-based. You know that it's not fair to the children. It's a pleasure-based, sexist pleasure-based, and there's no meaning or purpose behind it.
Speaker 1:And it blows your mind. And the last thing I'll say is that you know, we were just talking to some people and just said you know, part of this news program that somebody wants to bring in. They wanted to show kids the ultrasound of what a baby looked like and they said no way, they don't want anything to do with it because they don't want the children to actually see that there's a baby in a womb and what that looks like.
Speaker 2:You know and you just go I want you to think it's just a clump of cells.
Speaker 1:It's not a it's the clump of cells.
Speaker 2:no, Well, it's almost. It's puritanical in an odd way, because it goes back to the decency laws from the 60s, where you couldn't say things in a comedy club or something like that, like you couldn't talk about a woman being pregnant or giving birth because that was indecent we can and or things like I love Lucy. I love Lucy was the first television show, if I recall correctly, to show a husband and wife sharing a bed and they were just laying there reading but and so again we're doing that same thing, but only with heterosexuality, only when it comes to like babies, only when it comes to showing loving relationships that last longer than a hookup right.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:And I don't know what that's for. Because if we're supposed to be promoting love and acceptance, what's more loving and accepting than a traditional family, two people who love each other and their kids that go in for the long haul, getting on Tinder and advising somebody to hook up on Tinder? That's not love, that's not acceptance. That is a hookup with somebody who's not gonna remember your name and is just using you. And it's very unhealthy.
Speaker 1:When we and the reality always for me is the practical aspects of this I'm out speaking to young people and I'm getting older and I keep telling people. I said, how about find somebody else to speak to these young people, you know, and? But they asked me to come back and the kids want to, because it's really interesting, cynthia, when you just speak the truth to young people, especially when they're searching, you know, and I'm talking about now getting into like eighth grade, ninth grade, into high school, and they grew up on pornography and they grew up on all of this. You know this, this relativism, you know, where there is no objective meaning to our sexuality, to who we are or anything. They are searching for the truth. When they hear it, when they hear something, they want to bite into it, they want to ask more questions and it's really beautiful when it happens and you realize that human beings are made for the truth. We're made to hear the truth, we are yeah.
Speaker 1:And, and we settle down when we do I'll just give you this one example. I was talking to young boys 15 to 16, about what you know. You mentioned love. You know what it would look like or how a man would treat, how a young man would treat a girl if he really loved them. And we just went through some stuff right Self sacrifice and protection, and not just protecting them from other people, but from your own lusts and selfishness, you know. So what does that look like to a man?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I tell you what they really stood up to the plate, you know. They said yes, yes, right. So then we were having lunch, so I had the boys for two sessions. Somebody else was doing all the you know, had all the girl talks, and then we would break into these small groups. So at lunchtime we're going to do some co-ed stuff. And so the teacher sat down next to me that's in charge of this high it was a high school retreat, so four sessions in a day and she sat down next to me and she goes Jack, we have to change the afternoon sessions. And I said, well, what's up, we already got everything planned. She goes. Well, the boys told the girls what you told the boys about how they would treat a girl if they really loved them. And now the girls want you to tell them what you told the boys. And so I said okay. So I went in and, honest to goodness Cynthia, within 10 or 15 minutes a couple of girls started to cry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So I said to the teacher, you know, right after that session was done, I said go and sit those young girls while they started to cry. And there's one girl that was really sobbing. It kind of scared me a little bit, you know, and she said that's the first man that ever stood up. She goes I don't have a father in my home. That's the first man that ever stood up and said how a young man would treat me if he really loved me. And it was so beautiful, love was so beautiful that I started to cry. What a shame, right.
Speaker 1:That we never modeled and she was feeling used. You know, yeah, it's sexualized all these relationships and then she's looking back and she goes. I'm just having, like you said, she's hookups. And they're empty. They're empty.
Speaker 2:Well, if you look at the book why Gender Matters it's a great book talks about sex differences. They talk about how girls at these schools are just doing whatever the boys want them to do sexually, because they feel like they don't have value if they aren't just totally submitting to these boys. Because these boys are getting the pornography and they're learning all of these really extreme things and they really ridicule the girls and everything if they don't do it and I feel so horrible for them because it's so unhealthy and it's unhealthy for the boys as well. Sex addiction and porn addiction we've seen leads to and it's not just about emotional health but also physical health erectile dysfunction. It leads to like more stress, which is not great for your blood pressure, and things like that. So it really makes people sick.
Speaker 1:It doesn't make people sick. You know, cynthia I was talking to this was a little while back now, some months back, talking to it to a young man they got married was addicted to porn for a long time and he could not consummate his marriage on his wedding night. And you know, it was amazing. He saw his, you know, his wife was got undressed and you know, and, and, and he just was so and he was an agony himself.
Speaker 1:He just said she wasn't perfect, she wasn't like I thought. Everything you know I mean you know human beings have you know, you know you know, or we got a little bit of extra fat on one side. And you know, when it's really a love you really can. I could look at somebody and say that's who they are. Yeah you know, I love them in their imperfections. Sometimes it, I think, a woman's more beautiful With you know, without just a perfect, you know operation on her. Right or whatever that might be right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And and so it's, it's. It's really something. He couldn't consummate it. I think they ended up getting divorced, you know, or she filed for divorce after that, you know so it's.
Speaker 2:It is a shame and like it leads to depression. Because we know psychology and biology like the male brain revolves around sex like a lot, and so to have that impacted, to not be able to perform, to be so addicted and over simulated in this way, eventually that breaks to to where porn doesn't work for them anymore and then they start getting into the really extreme stuff and then that doesn't work anymore and then they go and start doing and getting into the Hiring prostitutes and things like that and that doesn't work anymore. So it it all will just keep failing. So the sooner you can get away from it the better. So yeah, we're just we're not built for it. And it makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint that we would be more inclined to longer lasting relationships, that we would be inclined to to have a connection with the person that we're Copulating with, because if we don't, that can risk our offspring. So Even if you're not looking at it from a religious perspective, from an evolutionary perspective it makes sense as well.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about a little bit more, about some of the things that you're doing with the, with the paradox Institute, because I know you're taken, you know you have to be taken some heat, especially. I know that you have a, an online presence, don't you?
Speaker 1:and I know that you're trying to post the truth and trying to bring Light into this. The same thing I do. Right, we're trying to say, not to tell you how to live, but just to say guys, have you considered this? And, like you said, if you don't push back on some of these ideologies, young people, especially Cynthia, I think our hearts both go out to young people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just don't like to see young people get hurt and as they become adults they can make their their own choices. But right now you know you started out with. You know there's something in the ear here, where there's an ideology that's being pushed down, somebody's trying to get power. You mentioned Marxism and communism. That's what they always did. They always threw out God and they broke up marriage and the family. Because that that breaks the, the Civilization down, kind of throws us into chaos and you see, these young people struggling.
Speaker 1:They can be manipulated now very easily, can't they?
Speaker 2:yeah. So if, if you're a six year old and you walk into a new place, this classroom, and you've got this smiling authority figure who's a stranger telling you fundamental things like your mommy and your daddy and your doctors got it wrong or they might have, that you're not the sex that you are, you, you could be the opposite sex or you could be neither, or you could be something else entirely and nobody knows. Because people get that wrong and, like your parents or your doctors, it's going to totally destroy, like, start to put cracks at the very least in their fundamental like belief and trust in institutions, in their parents, in family, in biology, everything. Because here's this grown-up to acting like oh, I know this special secret information that no one else told you and they might have lied to you and they might have been wrong. Can you imagine being six years old, from a healthy family, you love your parents, and some other adult telling you your parents are wrong? What does that feel like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and when they get a just a little bit older I'm starting to talk to kids about there they, they lost their whole identity. They don't even know who they are anymore and you think well, what does that mean? When you lose your identity and it really is something you become almost unanchored From your humanity, which which has roots in in your, in your family and your parents. And you know, I have ancestors, I have roots, I come from some place.
Speaker 1:I'm a person that that that has a history, you know, that's flowed down to me and now, like you said, to supplant all of that and just put them on on, I look at it as a surface of an ocean, you know where, where it's really wavy and the waves are coming up and we live up there and I'm a diver, so it's really something.
Speaker 1:You know we, we bob around on these boats up there, but then we go underneath the waves. You know we, we, we go diving and then all of a sudden a piece will come over us. You know it's quiet and you don't feel that turbulence from the surface. But in order to do that, sent there you, you have to have roots and you have to go into silence and you and you can't.
Speaker 1:Always be listening to all this noise and all this coming at us right, and that kind of gets us back to this Corruptive influence of social media that these kids are on, you know yeah, and so it's.
Speaker 2:It's really terrible to to see that, but then, yeah, you, you don't know, like online, who your kids are talking to, and it's very turbulent, like even as adults. In this I have been seeing People that I thought were very grounded in reality, people who were very Trustworthy and people who had a lot of integrity and that I believed in and that I considered my friends. Just go bananas recently and I don't know if it was just something in the water or what, but they, they've just been reveling in this toxic attitude and just like yelling at each other and being so nasty and then so I've been afraid to reach out and be like what is going on, because I don't know if they're gonna yell at me. So I so this isn't nothing.
Speaker 1:This isn't something that you said safe through the Pirate Axe Institute, or something. You're just talking in general, yeah.
Speaker 2:You just see in more, because it's it's not just you know, I expect it from certain people like the, the nasty ones online and a lot of times really just kind of, really just kind of killing that with kindness is very effective to just be very polite and and explain. I had it in exchange with a young lady who was 17 and was identifying as a boy and she's getting very upset that people were calling her a girl and I plainly said to her sweetie, you're, you're a woman, your young woman. Nothing's gonna change that about you and that's okay. You can express yourself Any way that you choose to do so as a woman.
Speaker 2:There's nothing wrong with that and I'm sorry that society has made you feel like there's one way to be a woman or your interpretation of society that way. But I really want you to look at what you think manly is, because she said she's very manly and she takes a lot of pride how manly she is, which is something I would have said at the time as well. I want you to take a look at what you consider manly and what you consider womanly, and I want you to, that is, decide what about that is in a stereotype. So you're doing that gender stereotyping that you're accusing other people of doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very interesting and so this other person came in and was like, why can't you just let her live how she wants? Why do you care how she lives? She's happy. And I said, well, you don't know that she's happy. But the other thing is to me that looks like self-harm, and I care deeply about people, especially young people. So if I see somebody self-harming or if I see somebody joining a cult, I'm going to come in and I'm going to challenge that idea and I'm going to tell them the facts. I'm not going to just continue to let them self-harm in front of me. I can't do that Morally. My conscience does not allow me to do that, which is why, when my friends are also behaving this way, it's really distressing to me, because it makes me feel like, well, I don't know who my friends are now. I don't know this integrity and whatever that I thought these people have. It was disabilizing in that way too, and very demoralizing, and so, finally, yeah, so keep that thought because we've become unsiddle.
Speaker 1:There was a time I remember being a person your age and even a little bit younger. We would go out for a beer and we would love these discussions. We would love to have these discussions because I could throw something at Cynthia, she would throw something at Jack and sometimes you don't know, you're just bringing stuff out into the form to say, okay, well, let's all look at this from different angles and tell me if I'm right or not. You can't do that now. Everybody. As soon as you say something, boom it's unsiddle.
Speaker 2:We should be allowed to push back on each other and have that discourse and that exchange of ideas.
Speaker 1:That's what we learn.
Speaker 2:Exactly without getting nasty and saying well, you are just this and I'm dismissing you and poking the bear and antagonizing. And so, finally, I managed to get around to prodding some of them as to why they were exhibiting this behavior.
Speaker 1:Was there anything particular when you say that, or just in general?
Speaker 2:It was if, well, they were really poking the bear. They were antagonizing people and just being nasty and saying some things and painting everybody with a broad brush, and anybody who didn't agree with them was this hardcore extremist and they were terrible. And that was not the case. That was not what I was seeing. But then them saying that was causing people to become extremists because they were offended, and so it was just.
Speaker 2:It got escalated and exhalated back and forth, back and forth, and I felt very put in the middle. And then I was getting messages from some people who were like how can you be friends with this person? Don't you see what they're saying? Don't you see what they're doing? They're saying I hate women. And then other people were like well, how dare you, You're putting me in a struggle session by trying to ask me about my behavior, and it was really a felt like I was walking on like through a minefield. So finally I did get around to these people and I was like so what is going on? Like you are really kicking ant hills. You're really like what's happening. One of them was like well, my dog's actually dying. And so doing this and engaging in this vitriol online was fun, because it was a distraction and it was getting my attention somewhere else, making me really passionate about something else. So I didn't have to be depressed about my dog and so that made sense to me and I was like, okay, I still don't make sense.
Speaker 1:I guess you know, except the one of poking up your.
Speaker 2:That's, that's not my fun, you know it made sense to me in that I understand why you needed the distraction and I understand why you may have not had a healthy coping skill at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I. That's why it made sense to me Like you're in pain, so you want to make other people feel pain too. I understood it from that perspective, and so I was.
Speaker 2:I was able to reach them and connect to them. And then that person came out and apologized and was like I'm sorry I've been behaving this way, it's because of this. And I was like, okay, good thing, goodness. Then the next person. Why are you doing this? Oh, because you know I'm going through a lot of financial hardship right now. So it makes me feel better to do this because it's a distraction. So it is this weird thing where people are trying to distract themselves with this because it's addictive. And finally one of them came out today and said the same thing it's addictive, I'm sorry, I engaged in this and, and we all need to stop doing that, we need to model better behavior and it's like okay, good, yes, yes, Like this is all I want and I feel like I might have alienated some of them by constantly going in and being like hey, can you please?
Speaker 2:Well, this is not helpful, this is not helpful and they were getting irritated with me. But I think eventually, like it sinks in, because I'm not doing it out of like I'm trying to wag my finger at you. How dare you? It's please. I'm very concerned for your mental health. I can see this isn't healthy behavior. You're not inciting healthy behavior in others. Can we just like bring down that temperature a little bit, talk to each other like people and and that's what I think I think, cynthia, what happens when yeah, when you're on on the internet you know you're, you're not, you know.
Speaker 1:One on one is much better for this kind of stuff, or a couple of friends sit with somebody. You know I always tell people hey, let's grab a coffee or let's grab a glass of wine and let's go talk about it. And people call me all day. I've had calls this morning already about you know, people with different issues and problems and stuff and I'm always happy to be there for them and be a friend for them.
Speaker 1:Right, I give these talks all over and then people come back and they want to know, like, how do I heal, where do I go? From here, but you can't do that in a public forum, you know you have to sit with people.
Speaker 1:I think, cynthia, cynthia, you got to look people in the eye and you got to see their hearts and you got to see that they're human beings, and if you're not willing to do that. But but we're growing up like this, and this gets back to these schools today, with DEI and CRT and all these things. It's all dividing people, and so we start to look at their various characteristics or their various temperaments or something they say, and we lash out at them instead of just. You know, my advice to people is always just, I don't react too fast. Now.
Speaker 2:Right, especially online.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly you know people will make a bad comment to me A lot of times. I don't have to win the argument, I just go dude. You know I'm thinking to myself, cynthia, that person is so different than I am that I would suck out. It would take all my energy today just to answer these.
Speaker 2:Crazy questions. The best way that I've found is just kill it with kindness, just be like you know what. I'm sorry you're so upset. I really am, and like I wish I could talk to you about this in some other way and hopefully we'd see eye to eye, but I can see that we aren't going to. So you know it's okay to disagree and if you want to talk about this more but some people don't have the patience I totally understand. I totally understand. I do. This is it's all very heated. Our kids are involved in this, our jobs, our livelihoods, our country is tied up in this, and so to Well that's the point.
Speaker 1:If we keep fighting. Look at again, there's forces at work in this. I did this in my newsletter I sent out this morning. There's forces at work that would love to have us all fighting with one another and, you know, from a religious standpoint we'd say that this is evil, you know.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And you could see the evil. What you're describing is really kind of evil. You know we're starting to really bicker and civilization starting to break down and the only way to reverse that again is really to bring in the power of authentic love and kindness back to people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:And I don't think we have the power, cynthia, to do that on our own. You know it takes a spiritual person. You know we're bodies and souls, Not only male or female.
Speaker 2:we're bodies and souls Right.
Speaker 1:And if we, just If we don't connect to that depth of our heart that I was saying you can't live just on the surface of the ocean, you have to go down. People would say it to do it in different ways, you know, we'd say prayer walking in nature.
Speaker 1:You know see the stars and the yes, While you and I are talking right here, think about this. We are talking. We're sitting on the surface of a gas-fired planet. Right, it's burning up on fire inside. Yeah, we are spinning around 1100 miles an hour on our axis. We're revolving around a nuclear fireball 93 million miles away, at 67,000 miles an hour, and we're not done yet. The whole thing is exploding out to space. It's like 448,000 miles an hour and we're worried about you know. We're trying to figure out what you know, to take a picture and put it on Instagram of what we had for breakfast this morning.
Speaker 1:You know it's just like I go, dude, I don't care what you ate for breakfast. You know we're spinning and turning and revolving, yeah, and it's beautiful outside and the sun is out. Did you see the moon last night?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:But we got to start to do those things we do.
Speaker 2:Whenever I'm feeling really stressed out or really angry with somebody, the best thing I can do is just, instead of writing like a public, like, oh, I'm so mad, it's you know what Go outside and take a deep breath of fresh air. Go remind yourself that the birds are out there flying, building their little nest.
Speaker 1:The trees are growing.
Speaker 2:The sky is blue somewhere, even if it's not blue for you right now. We'll be again tomorrow. Sun's going to come up tomorrow, so it's all going to be okay. And just to remind people to take that moment and appreciate life and I really try to do that above everything else. I, you know, obviously everybody has their breaking points, but it's online. You have the time to stop. You have the time to stop and to just rethink before you send anything, before you click on anything. So I just advise that, above everything else, just take that moment and do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on, so before I let you go here, tell us a little bit about where we can get these resources.
Speaker 2:Again, you mentioned ARC for that, yeah, so our website is in progress right now, but she has her old website still up, so I can send you that.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so affirming reality, connected ARC. She's going to have branches for the different groups within ARC, she's going to have an ARC women's and ARC men's and we're also considering the idea of an ARC specifically for detransitioners, so that they can get their resources together and do what they need to do and have An organization that tries to help them with their advocacy, because a lot of the stuff they do is out of pocket, which they've already had and they're all on their own sometimes.
Speaker 1:You know some of these people, yeah. I mean you know you get somebody like Chloe Cole and Prisha Moseley you know I follow them a little bit and man, you just see what people have done to those poor young ladies and what they continue to say to them after everything.
Speaker 2:It is vile, it is really, really horrendous, and I'm so sorry that people are that, that they have that much darkness and insecurity in their hearts. And this is what I say to anybody who is that way. I don't say anything nasty, I say really hope that you heal from whatever made you that way. Yeah, that that wound heals for you, because that's where it comes from. It all comes from a wound.
Speaker 1:Yes, it does yes. And we're all wounded, right.
Speaker 2:And again, you know, I'll see how wounded animals will attack you. We need to be.
Speaker 1:We need to be redeemed, cynthia. I mean somehow, if you figure it out how you want to do it, you know for us again. You know from a religious standpoint, you know it makes more and more sense to me. You know I came back into the church after being gone for 20 years because of that brokenness that you're talking about and figuring out that I couldn't do this anymore.
Speaker 1:You know we do need to. We need to look at a higher power. You know I'm talking to more and more people that were atheists and agnostics that just say I saw so much evil that we're doing to each other that there must be good out there, and I'm going to search for the good. Like right.
Speaker 1:As a counterbalance, you know you can't just get into more evil. And then, how about the Paradox Institute? I again, I'll put that in the. I'll put that website in the show notes. People need to go on that site and poke around, because it'll give you confidence to speak, and we've been talking to experts now as well, and opronologists, plastic surgeons I know you have. You're getting deep with this stuff and you guys are holding your own too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, like anybody that didn't think you know in the beginning, when you, when, when Zach came out and you were writing things and Zach said you think, okay, I wonder if they could really hold up against you know, you know the big wigs out there in the world and and and it does, and I go, wow, that's very impressive. Those stuff that you guys are doing is very impressive.
Speaker 2:And so we're getting those professionals to talk with us now to show this is not just about denying biology, this is infiltrated so many other fields, and they're professionals who have been in these fields for decades and all of this stuff is breaking protocols, all of this stuff is going against these fields and corrupting these fields. And so we're getting those other expert opinions out there. They love to fill their, their you know their section with these experts, quote unquote, these gender studies majors and these ideologically captured people. Well, we've got people with integrity and that's much stronger so.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, you do. And we're courageous, brave, courageous people who are standing up and, and you know, I, you know some people are pioneers at this. I think you guys are, in some ways, are pioneers too. There are others and those voices have the courage to take the kind of the heat in the, in the front lines, but people are starting to stand up, you know, because they starting to see their own brokenness.
Speaker 1:But also, I think, cynthia, we're starting to see our kids, and I have grandkids. You know I have seven grandkids, six of them are girls and I see what the culture is doing to them. This is why I do what I'm doing. This is why I like talking to someone like you and and you know people that you know, you see the human side of this right and we see that. That what's going on with actual people? This isn't about winning an argument. This is it.
Speaker 2:No, it's not. This is definitely not about winning an argument. This is about winning at life really. It's just to continue life and to continue just the joy of life, to separate people from these superficial fixations that are so toxic. And I mean, there's nothing more toxic than trying to have the perfect ideal body and think everything's wrong with your body. That is terrible. You're never going to have it, ever. All of us are imperfect. All of us are lumpy and bumpy, and that's all right, that's great. We're all hairy little humans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's good to know that. I was talking to a group of young people and I told them how long I was married and it was a long time, and I said you know, it's a crazy thing, but I said I'm more in love with my old wife now and I'm an old guy, right, so we're the same age. And I said I'm more in love with her than I ever was and there's something special about that. And, yes, and she doesn't look the same as she used to and, you know, got a couple of wrinkles, more right, and a couple of things you know are changing a little bit. Right, that's what happens. And I'll tell you what it's a lot more fun getting older when you can accept yourself, like you're saying.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You better get used to it, because yeah, it's like I hate to tell you but you're going to hate aging. If you think you've got problems with your body now, just wait till everything starts hurting.
Speaker 1:Isn't that so true?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just, and stop over medicalizing everything. Just learn to just exist and be at peace with what you can be comfortable with. And you know there's a lot of like zen in that. Well, I was just thinking when you were saying that.
Speaker 1:So here again, look at you, you can see the religions on my mind, right, because that's kind of the other side of what we do. But but this is lent, and so what lent does for Catholics, it gives you that time to detach, right? So we fast what's called mortifications. It's not so bad, right it's. It's like saying, ok, I'm not going to be on social media, you know, I'm going to cut way down, no TV maybe. And so you think, well, that sounds really hard, but it's in, it is at first, you know, but it's so peaceful, like you find a piece, that you go, wow, all I had to do is get offline for a few hours and take a walk in the woods.
Speaker 1:And I'm feeling better. And you don't feel better the first minute you walk out there. It takes you a little while, you have to do it for a while because you have to unwind. You know you have to get this, this craziness, out of you, but it's possible. So every day, bring lent, I'm taking a walk somewhere, I don't care what the weather is like. I get off of social media as much as I can and and I fast. I food fast, this fast that you know whatever, and you detach from all of this stuff.
Speaker 2:And you just go.
Speaker 1:you know you mentioned Zen. It's like a Zen thing too, you know it's like oh, I love this, it's so peaceful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly that's. I mean, that's really the best place to be. It's just where you can find a little bit of peace. It's fantastic and it makes you I feel like it makes you a more empathetic human. To achieve that peace because you're in a very like self loving state, yes, no you're exactly right, so you can then radiate that out to others.
Speaker 2:And so I just really I want more people to get there. I'm like we could get everybody to do that just a little bit every day, Then I think we could get everybody to be better people, but it's hard to, it's hard to spread. That you know, like like we were talking about there's. There's those forces, there's those people that are just so invested in making everybody toxic and angry all the time and it's no good. It's no good. We just have to get back to that peaceful play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I tell you what you know. We just have to do it yourself, because the only one you control is you.
Speaker 1:And then hopefully you can surround yourself with those people and hopefully Emmy is your little one, you know, takes that from you and she loves her mom because of those type of qualities and that's how you change really. That's how you change your neighborhood and your community and you just start doing it yourself and that's how it goes right. And you're always going to have these crazy people in the world. You know it's. They're, they're narcissistic and they're inward driven and everything becomes grasping. They want to take, take, take, take, take, take. Or the person you're describing, cynthia, is someone that's a giver, you know, someone that is in touch with their own heart and then wants to be a person of love. And at the end of the day, a person of love means that I want your good, not my good, I want your good as a fellow human being. Once you step out of yourself and you start doing good for others, you'll find yourself, and that's just the reality, that's the you know.
Speaker 1:Talk about the paradox, the paradox Institute. Well, this is the paradox of life to find yourself, you have to give yourself away. Yeah you know it's, it's just the way it goes.
Speaker 2:It's the way it goes.
Speaker 1:Hey, god bless you. Thank you so much for being on I I wish time wasn't up, but it's already. Oh, it's over, already again. So thank you so much and and thanks just for being a warm hearted person that's standing for the truth. Keep up the good work. It's in you to do that. Tell Zach we said hello. He has a new book, doesn't he? Yes, he does Touch base with that real fast.
Speaker 2:We just just that's out now, right Cause I just bought it. So yes, I wish I had it behind me. But yeah, his book binary. It debunks the sex spectrum myths and he shows different arguments that people have presented and then the flaws in their argument and how to combat those arguments. So he is out there educating people and giving people those tools to combat those nasty little arguments that they put out there.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you. Well, he's doing great work and so are you with him, so thank you so much. Thank you, thanks for being with us. Goodbye everyone. Thanks for joining us today.