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Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

@xtrole.bsky.social

5.4K followers 20K following 2.6K posts

I write books, doodle art, create characters, and do some casual audiobook recordings. 📚🖼🦖 My links are all available here: linktr.ee/xtrole #MoralityTrumpsLaws #DontTreadOnAnyone

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Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 17d

"When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group. What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option."

-Charlie Kirk

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Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 7h

I’m talking about talk therapy.

Scientific consensus can be wrong, and I reject the notion that we’ve gotten past the point where scientific consensus is ever wrong.

Scientific communities should be able to promote not going to certain talk therapists, but I oppose government force being involved.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 7h

What I’m saying is that I don’t want the government to regulate talk therapy.

Science communities should be free to warn people that certain therapists disagree with the majority opinion, but in my opinion government force shouldn’t be used to regulate talk therapy; and it cuts all ways to do it.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 7h

We’re talking about the government regulating talk therapy.

I don’t want the government to do that, and I’ve already explained how it might someday be used against therapists who want to affirm a kid’s stated gender identity.

Scientific consensus can be wrong.

Here’s one that was extremely wrong:

“DSM-I classified “homosexuality” as a “sociopathic personality disturbance.””

Source: a Google search

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 9h

Again, I don’t want the government using what professionals have said to dictate what kinds of talk therapies are allowed.

I don’t want some on the right to be able to produce studies and use them to ban therapists from affirming a kid’s stated gender identity.

I want the government out of it.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 9h

No, I don’t have to believe anybody.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 9h

When government force is being used against those who practice controversial talk therapy then the government is indeed picking winners and losers when it comes to the science of speech therapy.

I don’t want the government to be doing that, and it can cut in lots of different directions.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 13h

Providing a therapy that the provider knows is junk science is fraud, and people should be able to sue for fraud and there shouldn’t be qualified immunity or tort caps.

Fraud is different from the government picking winners and losers when it comes to the science of what is and isn’t talk therapy.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 13h

There’s the problem though.

Now some on the right just have to figure out a way to create those studies and then they can use government against therapists who affirm a kid’s stated gender identity.

I don’t want the government picking winners and losers in regards to the science of talk therapy.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 13h

The government banning speech and expression is always about setting fires in public to one degree or another, because where speech ends violence is likely to begin.

This is why the standard for what constitutes an actual specific and credible violent threat should be very very high.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 13h

I don’t want the government picking winners and losers when it comes to what is and isn’t legitimate talk therapy science.

This can easily be weaponized by many different sides of the political spectrum.

Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 18h

ICE dress up like day laborers—ask workers to "prove" they are citizens.

"I want to share they are disguising themselves as construction workers," she said.

"With neon vest and a straw hat... so we'll think it's one of 'us,' I guess?"

Agents racial profile her brother after dropped off at work.

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Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

DEREK ELLIOTT for NIAGARA @elliott4mp.bsky.social · 1d

It needs to be said that #Inflation is never sexy!
#politics #canada #niagarafalls #investing #cdnpoli #onpoli #lgequalsmf
youtube.com/shorts/wk3s1...

Inflation is never sexy! #politics #freedom #minimumwage #investing #savings

YouTube video by Derek Elliott for Niagara

youtube.com

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Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

Libertarian Party of Texas @lptexas.bsky.social · 19h

Watchdog report finds Greg Abbott’s donors got nearly $1B in no-bid contracts, then gave millions to his PAC—some just days before the deals. Texans deserve honest leadership, not pay-to-play politics. Dump Greg Abbott.

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Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

rdp666.bsky.social @rdp666.bsky.social · 21h

Which goes back to my other comment
It easier to fool somebody than it is to convince them they've been fooled
Nobody wants to admit they were wrong and will tie themselves into mental knots trying to prove they are right

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Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 15h

Some on the right have lots of laws that they’d like to make about therapy that affirms a kid’s stated gender identity, and we shouldn’t create precedent to make it easier for them to create and enforce such laws.

The government deciding what the science is can go badly.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 15h

And Trump’s arguing that flag burning’s incitement.

Saying a credible and direct violent threat violates the non-aggression principle, but the bar for what combinations of words in which situations equals direct and violent threats that violate the non-aggression principle should be very very high.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 15h

Again, government restrictions cut in all directions.

Imagine what many on the right would say about a therapist affirming a kid’s stated gender identity.

I don’t support governments dictating this stuff.

I support ending tort caps and not having qualified immunity for healthcare workers though.

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 1d

Government restrictions can cut in all directions.

“Imagine a conservative state bans therapists from talking to gay or transgender minors in a way that affirms their sexual orientation or gender identity. That would cross a line, right? Whatever conservative lawmakers personally think about homosexuality or gender dysphoria, preventing LGBTQ-affirming counseling is an affront to the First Amendment.

For this same reason, Colorado's ban on conversion therapy should be opposed.”

“It's one thing to personally oppose counseling practices aimed at suppressing same-sex attraction or someone's questioning of their gender identity. But it's quite another to use government power to stop anyone from engaging in this sort of talk therapy—and the latter is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

That's the crux of Kaley Chiles' case before the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

And oral arguments in the case yesterday made clear that more than just Colorado's conversion therapy ban is at stake here. If allowed to stand, it could pave the way for talk therapy restrictions based on conservative views of sexuality and gender, too.”

Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

CollinCountyDems @collincountydems.bsky.social · 1d

This is terrifying!

ICE breaks into this woman’s car in the pick-up line at West Loop Elementary school in Chicago and detains her before she can pick her kids up from school. (They were eventually let go after showing their documents)

This is Trump’s America.

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Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 1d

Steven Nekhaila:

If the Trump admin believes Antifa is just as bad as ISIS and Al Qaeda, and I have no love lost for Antifa, just imagine when a left-wing government is in power?

The pendulum swings, and suddenly “domestic terrorism” will be back on the rise (perhaps per black budgets?)

Remember what they think of us.

Source: https://x.com/stevennekhaila/status/1976352769323016255?s=46

Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 1d

Which makes it even less worth caring about, for sure.

“CBS News later clarified she did stay and finish the interview, which aired as part of a 30-minute segment in which the candidates answered similar questions about California's redistricting plan, which will appear on the ballot in November.”

Katie Porter nearly walks out of CBS interview

Former Congresswoman Katie Porter is facing criticism after trying to walk out of an interview Wednesday. The former Orange County representative took exception to a reporter's question about appealin...

www.ktvu.com

Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

RoseAvakian @roseavakianb.bsky.social · 1d

LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 1d

ICE smash car window & drag 2 sisters out—in front of elementary school at pick up time.

13 masked agents surround car—while children yelled "It's ICE!" running away in fear.

Both Jocelyn and her sister, who was driving, are DACA recipients—and were released after allowed to prove legal status.

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Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

JDB @amistadsociety.bsky.social · 1d

Joe Rogan appears to have broken with President Donald Trump on one of the president's key policy platforms. Rogan said Trump's effort to deport immigrants to foreign countries "shows no heart"
youtu.be/2E5Ra7yYDNA

Joe Rogan CALLS OUT Trump’s Cruel Immigration Crackdown

YouTube video by The Bulwark

youtu.be

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Reposted by Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲

ACLU @aclu.org · 1d

NEW: A Texas court just blocked the execution of Robert Roberson, a man falsely convicted of a crime he did not commit.

While this is good news, the work for justice isn't over. Robert's legal team is still fighting for a retrial.

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Joel Waterman 🧢🦔🐻☪☮𝔼✡ℹ️☯✝🗽🇺🇸🎲 @xtrole.bsky.social · 1d

I can think of a million things that bother me more than Katie Porter not wanting to continue an interview. 🤷‍♂️