Scroll down to read this post.

 

Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Today’s blacklisted American: Long-time scholar banned for questioning gender fluidity

Lysenko with Stalin
Trofim Lysenko, the APA’s new hero, preaching to Stalin as he
destroyed Soviet plant research, persecuted anyone
who disagreed with him, and caused famines that killed millions.

They’re coming for you next: John Staddon, a retired and well-published scholar and researcher, was banned from an email discussion group run by the American Psychological Association (APA) for daring to question the modern leftist concept that one can chose one’s sex.

Staddon was deleted from the listserv for allegedly violating the division’s code of conduct. “The division leadership has received complaints about some of the posts that you have sent to the division listserv,” wrote Jonathon Crystal, an Indiana University Bloomington provost and professor of psychological and brain sciences, on behalf of the division’s executive committee.

“I do not want to get into the particulars of the range of complaints over the years, but I will note that a number of members of the executive committee and others have voiced concerns publicly on the listserv in an attempt to make you aware of how readers of the list might view some of the posts,” Crystal wrote. “The executive committee views the use of the division listserv as a privilege and has voted to remove you from the listserv. I am writing to inform you that your email address has been removed from the listserv,” Crystal wrote, adding Staddon can use “other outlets to share your views.”

And what was Staddon’s evil conduct? This is what he had written:

“Hmm… Binary view of sex false? What is the evidence? Is there a Z chromosome?”

He readily admits that his comments were sometimes somewhat flippant, but since when did sarcasm against stupid ideas become forbidden? Moreover, Staddon says that his comments never attacked or insulted anyone. The comments, like the one above, attacked the ideas he found foolish.

In addition, allowing others to complain and get Staddon banned, simply because they didn’t like what he wrote, is the worst standard to use for determining what can or cannot be said. This is bowing to the heckler’s veto, and goes against the very heart of freedom of speech, which requires offensive speech to be allowed. Yet, this is now the standard being used by the APA. Make a complaint about someone for daring to express ideas you disagree with, and you can get them blacklisted.

Finally, while the listserv certainly has the right to enforce its own code of conduct, I guarantee that these thugs will not do anything at all to anyone who aggressively expresses leftwing political positions on this listserv, even if hundreds complain about it. No, freedom of speech demands that these ideas must be allowed. Other ideas, not so much.

Note that the APA, which runs this listserv, is supposed to be a scientific organization that claims on its website that its “mission is to promote the advancement, communication, and application of psychological science and knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.”

Hah. Not a chance. It now is clear that this organization no longer tolerates open and free debate. Any research that comes from it must thus be treated with strong skepticism, as it is very likely that it either will not be vetted properly or will be designed to advocate specific political agenda of the left.

In fact, by these actions the APA appears to be mimicking the Soviet Union and Trofim Lysenko. In the 1920s and 1930s Lysenko advocated crackpot ideas about farming and agriculture in the Soviet Union.

[He]e believed that plants and seeds could be trained to follow socialist organizational principles. His theory, which would eventually be dubbed Lysenkoism, stated that crops could be trained to conform and produce vast yields almost from out of thin air. According to what he called “the law of the life of species,” seeds wouldn’t compete with one another, but rather they would cooperate with each other in a near-sentient fashion — like humans.

Applying the Marxist principle of materialism, in which the conditions surrounding an individual dictate its behaviors and responses, Lysenko believed that plants and animals, too, could be reshaped as needed.

Such idiocy would not have mattered except that Lysenko became a favorite of Stalin and his communist government and was given by them dictatorial powers. Not only did Lysenko and the Soviet government forbid any opposition — arresting and destroying any scientist who dissented — Lysenko used his powers to force his agricultural ideas on the nation. The result: millions died from famine.

What happened in Russia was no different then what is happening now at the APA. Ideology, politics, and the misuse of power are being made more important than the scientific method that is dedicated solely to the search for truth, no matter what that truth might be.

The future is truly grim if our scientific organizations adopt such Soviet-style thinking.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

16 comments

  • Cotour

    Simply, this is where the justification for all of the “Progressive”, Liberal, Leftist counter intuitive to your logic and thinking comes from. 

    The “Progressive” Marxist, political operative conclusions: Christianity is the source, the well head of all that is not good on
    planet earth.

    The Founders were Christian and owned slaves, people having dark skin have existed from the start of
    America under the “Oppressive” rules and morality of a law and justice system that is primarily informed by Christianity
    and Biblical thinking.

    And that is precisely how the “Progressives” Marxists get to the conclusion that:

    ​1. There is no and can be no God.

    ​2. Western civilization, based in Christianity, is evil, so Christianity must be destroyed.

    ​3. The Western nuclear family model must be destroyed because Christianity does not make room for alternative “Inclusive” family models.

    4. In the sprit of inclusiveness men can become women and become pregnant.

    ​5. People with dark skin have been unfairly targeted and oppressed throughout the history of America by the legal and justice system formulated by the Founders in the Constitution and so in the interests of fairness it must all be destroyed and started anew. In a Socialist model.

    Its pretty much that simple, that is what they base their entire argument on.

  • Geoffrey Britain

    In the comment above, Cotour accurately describes the argument and ‘reasoning’ that Marxists use. What perhaps he has not considered, evidenced by its absence, is that he has described the majority of Marxists but not the most impactful. He has described the true believers, the ‘Trotskyites’.

    The Trotskyites are always surprised (fatally) when the Stalinists show up. Which they not only inevitably do but inescapably do given Marxism’s rejection of fact, logic and reason. That Marxism rejects reason and its components is demonstrated that Marxist ‘progressives’ do not argue on the merits of their ideas. Instead, they slander those who disagree and when they gain the power to do so, eliminate those who disagree.

    Millennia ago, Socrates identified the ideologues; “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser”.

    Stalinists have but one god, power and domination.

  • Cotour

    Well said.

  • Chris

    Keep your powder dry

  • Cotour

    Wait until the Democrat political party machine that panders to and is now controlled or heavily influenced by these Marxist operatives, essentially their street enforcers and some are now in the justice system and are elected to various positions, get together and in their universal interests indict Trump in what ever venue in order to eliminate him from running in 2024.

    And that action will galvanize the Right.

    I think at this point Trump does not have to be the candidate he is now a political anointer and king maker.

    It will get worse before it gets any better.

    All potentials exist.

  • Gary in Transit

    When will banishment and degradation be considered an inadequate punishment. When will total eradication of those with differing viewpoints become acceptable to the woke. Certainly, some have already seen this as a future goal. My question is, how far into the future will intolerance and dehumanization of others lead to more drastic solutions. History suggest this is coming should this insanity go unchecked. I firmly believe that this has been a war waged by foreign powers that could not compete, nor win on a level playing field. So, they reshaped the playing field.

  • wayne

    –> american psychobabble association…

    Alan Parsons Project / Orson Wells
    “Psychobabble” (1982)
    https://youtu.be/i7RbZNT5A2A
    4:50

  • wayne

    Assassination of Trotsky (1972)
    [Richard Burton]
    https://youtu.be/jFg1rX1EmGM
    2:01

    [Warning– Violence]

  • Jeff Wright

    Look at nature.com -they say the left is the victim,..wah

  • Gary … so in other words, when is the Church of Woke going to hold their Wannsee Conference?

    I firmly believe that this has been a war waged by foreign powers that could not compete, nor win on a level playing field. So, they reshaped the playing field.

    If so, they simply reshaped it to match their own authoritarian playing fields, reducing a free people and their distributed intellect to the diminished intellectual level of worker bees who are led to believe that “just following orders” is the be-all-end-all.

    As if we needed any help.

    IMO, most of this we did to ourselves, via the hubris of our Pedestaled Elite and the deference we have been conditioned to extend to them, instead of thinking for ourselves and reserving nearly all decision-making accordingly

    A “banality of decline”, parasitically feeding off the legacy of our predecessors in this nation, who were compelled to think for themselves and built this great nation on the responsible exercise of their initiative.

  • All potentials exist.

    If they succeed in incarcerating President Trump, the potential for a violent response becomes VERY high.

    Because if they can “get Trump”, it will be quite evident that no one is safe from the Woke Inquisition, and some among us will think they have nothing to lose by violent opposition.

    And the inquisitors have set the precedent for it, in the unrest of 2020.

  • Cotour

    What is the most intractable force of humanity once their sense of justice is offended and an “Obvious” solution is presented to solve it?

    And when those who teach them now and are in control of the halls of education and a segment of the justice system and law enforcement which will no longer hold and prosecute them for their unruly and violent actions are comprised of fully indoctrinated and sympathetic operatives essentially.

    What other conclusion can be arrived at by those people?

    “WE” propose we throw the “Baby” out of a high window with the bath water. And make sure the “Baby” is dead. We will show you, we will birth a new “Baby”, and that new “Baby” will be carried to full term by a pregnant man. And as that “Baby” grows that new “Baby” will be fair, and just, and will exude equality and “IT” will not allow the injustice that the last “Baby” allowed and even encouraged in its abuse of power.

    And when you hear the MSM and the politically empowered talking heads say in a confused state: “Why is the administration making these mistakes? They do not know what they are doing!”, understand that the administration and those operatives in the halls of education and in the justice and law enforcement system know exactly what they are doing.

    They know exactly what they are doing and the one just wants to further retain and acquire political power and control, and the other wants that “Baby” dead and lying in the street as they attempt to replace it using the methods listed.

    And on another planet in another universe it probably makes perfect sense.

  • Max

    “It makes perfect sense”

    Forward is reverse, progress is stagnation, up is down but when Congress comes to a bipartisan decision it’s actually comes out sideways…
    They’re even trying out Lysenkoism on us;
    https://needtoknow.news/2021/02/biden-signs-executive-order-for-federal-control-over-30-of-americas-land-and-30-of-us-oceans/

    This is not land that the government already controls! 30% of the US and the water nearby is to be turned into its original condition to preserve the planet. They’re doing this by raising land values and demanding that the Taxes be paid for that extra value now! Farmers have thousands of acres but no cash, so their land and water will be forfeit. Somehow this will save the planet?
    Build back better is turning out to be religious crap worse then Lysenkoism.

    Chicago mayor refuses to be interviewed by anyone but black journalist?
    Utah jazz won another game, so again they’re giving away a scholarship to a needy student (no white people can apply) They musta had a hard time finding anyone to meet their standards because they rewarded it to a kid from Somalia…
    I know of congresswoman who is going to be happy.

    I’ve been watching the news and there’s been no outcry of the secret ingredient “SM-102” being revealed as a cancer causing agent with long lasting health effects and permanent sterilization! Look it up.
    This reminds me of Logan’s run where they die at certain age, or a Star Trek episode where a neighboring planet would drop a virtual bomb on a city. Everyone in the virtual projected blast radius would report to a incinerator to kill themselves.

  • Cotour

    Does anyone notice a problem with this statement?

    Mayor Lightfoot Defends Her Racist Interview Policy, mayor Lightfoot will now only do one on one interviews with people with the same color skin color as she.

    “As a Woman of Color, as a Lesbian, It’s Important to Me That Diversity is Put Front and Center”

    Diversity: “The condition of having or being composed of differing elements”

    The best rise to the top. (The best what is the question)

  • Jeff Wright

    Alabama transplant and political cartoonist Scott Stantis draws Mayor Lightweight so well.

    More Golem than Beetlejuice.

  • wayne

    Hoppewave
    “Absurdistan” (2018)
    https://youtu.be/x15LTalV1b0
    4:33

    “…black is white, white is black, male is female, female is male…”

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *