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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31958 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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In other bad news for Brinton, gay activists are starting to question his conversion therapy story:

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/12/sam-brintons-story-always-good-true/

The story does seem to have been maximised for public consumption and to bolster their cred as a champion against conversion therapy. Is there any record of what they claim being backed up by hospital visits and so forth?

Sam Brinton burst on the scene on October 1, 2010. In a riveting two-part interview with I’m from Driftwood, they revealed the most shocking conversion story activists had heard since the 1960s. It involved Brinton coming out to their parents at age 11 and their father reacting with a swift punch to their face.

“Dad just started punching,” Brinton said. “That was the first day that I was sent to the emergency room, because I had ‘fallen down the stairs.’ I was sent to the emergency room about six more times for ‘falling down the stairs’ or ‘tripping on the sidewalk.’”

“I’m in this constant state of fear,” Brinton also claimed, “My dad has held a gun up to my head multiple times.”

Brinton says that they were then sent to a cruel and sadistic Florida conversion therapist, who they saw for two or three years [Brinton’s timeline periodically changes depending on the media interview]. Brinton alleges this practitioner used aversion therapy, which included sessions where they were tortured with extreme heat, ice, and needles.

“We then went into the ‘Month of Hell,’” Brinton alleged. “The ‘Month of Hell’ consisted of tiny needles being stuck into my fingers and then pictures of explicit acts between men would be shown and I’d be electrocuted.”

I think it has been established that their parents did send them to some kind of camp, but whether the entire claims are correct is hard to prove. And yeah, it does seem that activists didn't look too closely at the story through a combination of not wanting to be seen as victim-blaming, giving ammunition to conservatives, and the story being as gruesome as possible being good tactics for the campaign to get conversion therapy banned.

Just like that teacher in the Canadian school with the fake breasts suddenly became a troll. I don't think any proof was adduced but it was spread far and wide.

It's become an increasingly common tactic with the activist left: once someone is embarrassing now the first move is just to muddy the water.

I actually don't even think this is an egregious case since some people legitimately may weigh the predictive value of public deviance lower. The above case...ugh.

“Too good to check” strikes again.

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