This is also how you get people being able to use wedge issue shit like transgender women in sports and “being deeply concerned about protecting children” to allow transphobia to flourish.
I hate those two wedge issues. You couldn’t engineer better ones if you tried. They fucking work, which is the worst part. My (usually pretty decent) mother, who has two trans children who she loves, started trying to talk to me several months ago about how there might be fairness issues with trans women in sports. It was so hard to maintain my composure and argue her away from that deeply shitty “worry” rather than just yell at her and tell her to never bring it up again, which is what I wanted to do. But, of course, we look like we’re overreacting and, yes, crazy, if we say “that’s a bullshit unreal worry, never say anything like that in my presence again”. It is a bullshit unreal worry, but it sounds just reasonable enough to clueless cis people that we can’t dismiss it out of hand. I fucking hate it so, so much.
And, of course, the “worries” around childhood transition perform the same function! Luckily no one in my life is susceptible to that one, but I know a lot of people are. And again here you can’t just say “childhood transition is great, shut the fuck up”. That’s the truth, but it doesn’t sound like the truth to your average cis person.
The article says that “the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt will head to the Middle East to maintain a presence in the region”.
So it looks like it could be a routine ship swap. But if that were the case, I’d expect NPR to emphasize that in the article, and they don’t. They mention the other ship one time and then the rest of the article is talking about how the Houthis are doing lots of attacks.
I’m just confused about this article from a propaganda perspective, I guess. Is it trying to say “the Ike has done good work, it’s time for it to come home and be replaced by another ship, no worries, the US rocks, we have this under control” or is it trying to say “the Houthis are terrifying, they’re an absolute menace and our smol bean navy is trying valiantly to keep the strait safe, but we have to bring home our carrier because the Houthis are just too scary”?
Because this article seems to gesture in both of those directions, and they’re pretty contradictory.