Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

On October 19 of this year, a truly historic event took place. On that day Dr. Rachel Levine was sworn by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as a four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

This is how the occasion was reported by the Huffington Post:

“Levine was appointed to full admiral on Tuesday while sworn in as the first-ever female four-star admiral to oversee the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.”

Levine’s appointment set off a salvo of celebratory articles. From CNN to Forbes mainstream media outlets across the land effused about what a great milestone Levine’s appointment represented for American women.

There was only one problem with all this. Rachel Levine is not a woman. Levine is a man.

Born Richard Levine, he has lived most of his life as a man. His male credentials include a twenty-five-year marriage to a biological female by whom he fathered two children.

Dr. Levine can never be ‘the first female four-star Public Health Service admiral,’ because he is a biological male (the image in the public domain - source).

That Levine is a man there can be no doubt. Every cell in his body testifies to this incontrovertible fact by containing the male XY chromosomal combination in the nuclear DNA.

But no DNA analysis is necessary to know the truth. That Levine is a man is obvious to everyone who takes a good look at his pictures. No amount of make-up, woman’s clothing, jewelry, painted nails, or wigs can conceal the indisputable reality of his gender.

And yet the Biden administration, the Democrat party, and nearly all of the political left refer to him as “she” and claim with a straight face that he is a woman. They put this man before the American people and say: “Look at this woman. Look the first female four-star Public Health Service admiral in this country’s history.”

This is nothing other than wholesale denial of reality. To say that Levine is a female is a brazen in-your-face lie.

It is difficult to conceive of a more egregious form of lying than this because it blatantly denies the obvious and incontrovertible biological, physiological, and physical facts before our eyes. And yet there are those who insist that the truth is the exact opposite of the reality that stares us right in the face.

This glaring inversion of reality is gaslighting at its purest.

Those who claim such things are inveterate liars who try to shove the most obvious and grossest untruths down the throats of their fellow citizens.

People who claim that biological men are women have no respect for truth. The lie they seek to propagate is so great and obvious that it is impossible that they are merely mistaken, confused, or sincerely wrong.

People who say this do not argue or act in good faith. They lie willfully and deliberately.

To any honest observer, it is immediately apparent that Dr. Levine is not a real woman. (The image published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license [source link])

Those who claim that a biological man is a woman have no moral qualms. They are willing to say anything no matter how obviously untrue or false it may be. Such people are fundamentally dishonest. They possess no integrity and cannot be trusted on anything.

Some of those who willingly participate in this flagrant subversion of the truth include President Joe Biden and his administration, the Democrat party, nearly the whole of mainstream media, large portions of academia, woke corporatists, a number of big tech oligarchs, and even some among the current leadership of the US military.

All throughout history brazen liars have been held in contempt. And this is for a good reason since flagrant and repeated lying is indicative of underlying moral corruption

A wise man once said that courage is the greatest virtue because it preserves all the others.

I’d say truthfulness is equally important. It is quite possible for a timid person to be virtuous if he can be honest about his weakness. It is, however, impossible for a rank liar to be a virtuous person.

Honesty is a prerequisite of virtue. Courage makes it flower.

Virtue and gross dishonesty are fundamentally opposed and cannot coexist in one human being. A virtuous person does not have to be perfect or possess heroic courage, but he or she must be reasonably honest.

Such a thing is, however, not possible for a bald-faced liar no matter how courageous he may be. An unrepentant liar cannot be truly honest, because if he were he would have to cease his lying.

It is a paradox that the gaslighters who try to convince us that men are women claim to occupy a higher moral ground than those who honor reality and truth. This itself represents a preposterous violation of moral law. Barefaced lying is indicative of underlying moral bankruptcy and those who engage in it should not be taken seriously, since they do not act in good faith. Instead, they should be publicly called out on their deceit and treated with the scorn their words and actions deserve.

They should also examine themselves and ask why they are so bent on denying reality and forcing obvious untruths on those around them. What kind of person would do such a thing and why?

Their gross error is evident in the way they react to those who refuse to go along with their lies. Anger and the desire to silence those who object are almost invariably their reaction.

This is not a good way to live, and it is dangerous to our nation as it threatens the very foundations of a civil and free society.

A healthy society cannot exist on gross lies and censorship. These are the hallmarks of totalitarian systems.

There is, however, a way to moral healing. All that is required as the first step is a measure of personal honesty and goodwill.

The guidance is simple: Stop lying, try to be truthful, and do not deny the reality before your eyes.

Vasko Kohlmayer was born and grew up in former communist Czechoslovakia. You can follow his writings by subscribing to his Substack newsletter Notes from the Twilight Zone. He is the author of The West in Crisis: Civilizations and Their Death Drives.

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