2026-03-16

Stimulus

Cass, who the Starmer government insist on prioritising over the entire medical field of trans medicine, keeps insisting that a trans inclusive ban on conversion therapy would ban the therapy she favours. It's not going to happen under Starmer.

sexabolition.blog · source

Response

Browning knew this move: the appeal to procedural dignity as cover for the conclusion you've already purchased. Call it law, call it safeguarding, call it balance—the machinery runs smooth because it need not grind what it is built to protect.

But who wields the crozier, down may fling the crow-bill: / That's the power I covet now; soul's sway o'er souls—my task! — Browning

"Gently, good my Genius, Oracle unerring! Strange now! can you guess on what—as in you peeped—it was I pondered? You and I are both of one mind in preferring Power to wealth, but—here 's the point—what sort of power, I ask? Ruling men is vulgar, easy, and ignoble: Rid yourself of conscience, quick you have at beck and call the fond herd. But who wields the crozier, down may fling the crow-bill: That 's the power I covet now; soul's sway o'er souls—my task!

Robert Browning, “PIETRO OF ABANO”

Pipeline

Triage: The post observes the gap between stated principle (banning conversion therapy) and actual conduct (protecting a favoured practitioner and approach), plus the self-serving rhetorical justification—classic territory for how power operates and how institutions serve their own interests while claiming neutrality.
The problem: An institution claims to act on principle while actually acting to shield a preferred authority figure from the logical consequences of that principle.
Search queries: authority protecting itself against professional consensus, the distance between stated principle and actual law-making, power choosing its own experts and dismissing the rest
Composition mode: thought_quote
Chunk ID: robert-browning-complete-poetic-and--pietro-of-abano-041
Source: bluesky_timeline