Academia has led the way in destroying Western medicine in the name of wokeism. Naturally, it leads the way in providing the replacement:

Diane Schenandoah does not have any formal medical training to assist students, instead she has multiple art degrees, including one in three-dimensional art from Syracuse University. She currently is hosting a series of “meditation” sessions along with her monthly “moon sessions,” according to the university.

Ms. Schenandoah is an expert in smudging.

“Smudging” involves burning sage to get rid of “negative energy.”

She is also adept with tuning forks, which provide an accessible alternative to elaborate technology like MRI machines.

Tuning forks can be used “in conjunction with acupressure points to work directly with sound on the body, to balance and regulate your spiritual and emotional energy channels,” according to a musical instrument and healing website.

Although Syracuse University has her on the payroll, exactly why they pay her is not clear:

“There was really no definitive direction in the job description other than helping students. I talk with students about finding their center and their balance” the healer stated in a campus news release.

This is done in part through dream interpretation and ceremonies that honor Grandmother Moon.

Happily, we will be able to afford indigenous healers even after Democrats have finished incrementally nationalizing the healthcare industry.

On a tip from Steve T.

The depraved ideology of our self-loathing ruling class is truly totalitarian. Every aspect of reality must be subordinated to it — including healthcare:

This past weekend Harvard played host to the sixth annual Black Health Matters confab, the theme of which was “Decolonizing Black Health.”

The objective was…

…to “‘challenge and transform’ approaches to health care that may have been shaped by ‘colonialism, racism, and other forms of oppression,'” The Crimson reports.

Like everything else, healthcare must be “decolonized.” As medical schools have made explicit, this entails rejecting modern medicine in favor of the practices of savages.

The practical effect of decolonization is regression … all in the name expunging the white man’s influence. Students at South Africa’s University of Cape Town even said exactly that — that science should be “scratched” because it is a “product of racism.”

One UCT student defined “decolonization” as “doing away with [Western science] entirely and starting all over again to deal with how we respond to the environment and how we understand it.”

Two and two may or may not make four. It all depends on whether a white guy was first to notice it:

Durham University’s decolonization efforts include professors asking themselves if they are citing too many “white or male mathematicians.”

Not even physics is safe from antiwhite race hate:

Scholars at Concordia University are working to decolonize light — “advancing other ways of knowing about light, science and physics.” Courses will be developed in conjunction with Native scholars to “elevate” indigenous knowledge … while “Eurocentric” science is “de-centered” and “scrutinized for its alleged past and present contributions to colonialism.”

Once universities were repositories of Western Civilization. Now they exist to eradicate it.

On a tip from R F.

Compliments of Chuck A.

Since the days of the Greeks, doctors have been guided by the Hippocratic Oath, by which physicians pledge to administer only beneficial treatment and to refrain from causing harm. This oath is obsolete, now that killing children in the womb and sexually disfiguring them to advance a political agenda are considered “health care.” Columbia University — the American beachhead of the cultural Marxist Frankfurt School that has remained at the cutting edge of wokeness — provides an alternative:

The 140 members of the Class of 2025 were welcomed into the profession of medicine at August’s White Coat Ceremony with the usual traditions but with one twist…

Students decided on a new oath … that better reflects the values they wish to uphold as they enter their medical training.

These “values” consist mainly of leftist identity politics.

The VP&S [Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons] Class of 2025 has more students from underrepresented minority backgrounds than any medical school class in Columbia’s history.

Formerly, medical schools took pride in their students’ aptitude. Now they take pride in the students not being white. This does not bode well for the future quality of healthcare.

Going forward, each incoming MD class will have the opportunity to create its own oath.

This is important, because what is politically correct one year can fall behind into thoughtcrime the next as we rush at an ever-accelerating speed toward absolute moonbattery.

Here’s how this year’s oath starts:

“We enter the profession of medicine with appreciation for the opportunity to build on the scientific and humanistic achievements of the past. We also recognize the acts and systems of oppression effected in the name of medicine. We take this oath of service to begin building a future grounded in truth, restoration, and equity to fulfill medicine’s capacity to liberate.”

The loaded buzzwords “oppression” “equity,” and “liberate” signify that medicine is not about medicine anymore. Like everything else that has fallen to the Long March Through the Institutions, it is about leftism.

On a tip from Franco.

The federal government gluttonously consumes 31¢ of every dollar Americans create. In return, we get nothing, because the government is useless. It doesn’t even defend the border from foreign invasion. To grasp how useless it is, consider that there is an obesity epidemic and that Fatima Cody Stanford is a member of Joe Biden’s 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee:

Stanford, a doctor specializing in obesity medicine at Mass General Health in Boston, claims diet and exercise have little impact on the disease that affects nearly half of all Americans, so what does she think people should do about it?

Embrace it, because like sexual deviants (according to liberal ideology), fat people are born that way.

“The number one cause of obesity is genetics,” Stanford told CBS’ Lesley Stahl.

60 Minutes specializes in catering to those with an excessive appetite for liberal idiocy. Yet not even Stahl could refrain from a skeptical expression:

You might just as easily claim that smoking cigarettes is caused by genetics. Proneness to addiction is surely biological. However, smokers are not a preferred identity group according to cultural Marxist ideology, as the morbidly obese now are.

Stanford elaborated during the interview to claim that an overwhelming majority of U.S. doctors hold a bias toward obese patients.

Doctors fail to affirm their identity by recommending they lose weight. Such fatphobia constitutes not merely bigotry but oppression, according to Democrat ideology.

According to a USDA press release,

“The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will examine the relationship between diet and health across all life stages and will use a health equity lens throughout its evidence review to ensure factors such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and culture are described and considered to the greatest extent possible…”

Since there are always going to be fat people, maybe Pfizer can help impose equity with a mandatory drug to make everyone obese.

Obesity is a risk factor for many serious diseases, prominently including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Whatever the ailment, obesity will make you more likely to get it and make it more severe when you do. It will take years off your life. Yet obesity has its advantages; by driving up the mortality rate, it helped our rulers hype Covid as a life-threatening disease.

In case you are wondering how someone as clueless as Fatima Cody Stanford could be a doctor, much less a member of a federal committee empowered to tell us how to live, the mentality exemplified by a surgery internship program at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine may help explain:

On their website, Loyola claims that the internship “is intended to encourage medical students from racial and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in medicine to consider pursuing a career in academic surgery.”

Applications are limited to those who identify as “African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.” Notably absent from the list are Asians and white students.

It isn’t just Loyola:

In an interview with the Daily Caller, [Do No Harm] senior fellow and University of Michigan professor emeritus Mark Perry pointed out that Loyola’s actions should not be viewed in a vacuum, rather they are “representative of the illegal discrimination taking place at almost every US medical school on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”

Under liberal hegemony, the primary purpose of healthcare is the same as for journalism, education, entertainment, et cetera: to impose moonbattery. That is the only effective purpose of our cripplingly expensive federal government.

On tips from Chris Neilson and R F.

Living in a woke society, it is a challenge to avoid committing microaggressions. Because new ones are invented each day by social engineers, constant attention must be devoted to staying on top of them, lest you inadvertently commit thoughtcrime. Now we learn that asking someone if they speak English is a microaggression:

According to documents obtained by the medical watchdog group Do No Harm and shared with the Washington Examiner, Covenant Medical Center in Texas required its employees to complete an implicit bias training [i.e., cultural Marxist brainwashing] that contained a list of microaggressions worthy of an apology, including asking if someone spoke English and asking to speak to a manager.

Regarding speaking to the manager, it should go without saying that bad service is to be expected, now that hiring and promotion are based on identity politics rather than merit. Failure to embrace this would be racist. However, this directive applies to patients, not employees. They should put up signs in the waiting room.

For once, the thought police offer a path to redemption for those who realize they have committed a microaggression:

The first steps listed are acknowledging a harm was committed and offering to “repair the issue.” To complete the apology, one must “repent for the problem” and “request forgiveness.”

Falling to your knees and groveling couldn’t hurt.

Ayn Rand explains why there are so many microaggressions:

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Only when we are all thought criminals will our liberal overlords have the leverage to perfect utopia. Making thoughtcrime a federal offense will help in this regard by allowing more involvement by the FBI.

Covenant Medical Center is part of the West Coast-based Providence Health and Services system…

The healthcare system says it prioritizes diversity in hiring and promotion decisions and has a “zero-tolerance” policy for “behavior that perpetuates bias or stereotypes.” The system also says it is committed to “health equity” and acknowledges “long-standing inequities have led to health disparities.”

Rather than worrying about microaggressions, it would be wise to find a healthcare system that prioritizes patients’ health over punishing or rewarding them for their race.

On a tip from ABC of the ANC.

Marginalizing America’s core population is not the ultimate objective. To actualize the liberal conception of utopia, those of European ancestry must be erased. This is already underway in academia:

The Texas A&M School of Medicine bragged that removing photos of white male alumni was an example of its institutional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, new documents reveal.

Good thing liberals can erase white males without erasing their accomplishments, or people of all skin tones would be lying cold, hungry, and sick in the dark.

The institution included the response in a survey it completed for the Association of American Medical Colleges last year, which the organization used for its Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity Inventory. The school’s survey responses were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the medical watchdog group Do No Harm and shared with the Washington Examiner.

The accomplishments referred to above will be scaled back if the medical profession continues to succumb to moonbattery. The University of Minnesota Medical School already places the practices of witch doctors on a par with advanced medicine.

In response to a question that asked schools if they had modified branding and communications displays to eliminate aspects that could be “perceived as noninclusive,” the Texas A&M School of Medicine said it removed “the predominantly white male photos of [the] graduating class prominently displayed on the entrance” to the school.

Other avowed DEI efforts at Texas A&M include discriminating against white males in admissions and salaries. Where liberals dominate, as they do in education, systemic animosity is virtually unrestrained.

When the statues of Robert E. Lee started coming down in the South, most knew it was only the beginning. But even now, few realize how far wokeness will go if it is not turned back.

On a tip from Lyle.

The ideology of Democrats combines authoritarianism with love of depravity. The result is appalling stories like this:

A federal judge ruled Friday that a Catholic hospital in Maryland discriminated against a biological female patient who identifies as a transgender man by refusing to provide her with a hysterectomy.

Jesse Hammons, the transgender patient, was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the University of Maryland Medical System, which operates St. Joseph Medical Center…

The ACLU ostensibly exists to defend liberty. Yet again we see its actual purpose: to help impose tyranny so absolute that doctors are forced to commit crimes against nature in violation of the Hippocratic Oath, their morals, and their faith.

Hammons was told that for ethical and religious purposes, the facility would not disfigure her, so she had it done elsewhere. But the story doesn’t end there.

“This court has determined that undisputed facts establish that, as a matter of law, Defendants discriminated against Plaintiff on the basis of his sex,” District Court Judge Deborah Chasanow wrote in her ruling. She also wrote that the hospital refusing to perform the surgery violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws and that the hospital, which receives Medicare and Medicaid funding, violated a section of the Affordable Care Act.

You can see why Democrats want everyone dependent on federal funds through programs like Medicare, and why they went to such lengths to ram through ObamaCare along party lines.

In December, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit blocked Biden’s Health and Human Services department from enforcing finalized regulations pertaining to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act against several Catholic organizations, according to The Christian Post. The appeals court ruled that the Biden administration cannot force healthcare institutions with religious affiliations to pay for or provide irreversible transgender care, including surgeries. This came after Biden’s HHS’s interpretation of the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1557 deemed that “sex” includes “gender identity.”

However, leftists never relent until they get their way.

On tips from Lyle and Ed McAninch.

In a militantly secular society like ours, the highest authority is the intelligentsia. The innermost sanctum of the intelligentsia, our answer to the Oracle of Delphi, the dispenser of ultimate truth, is Harvard University. That’s how we know that it is possible for even infants to achieve the pinnacle of cultural Marxist oppressedness by identifying as sexual deviants:

Harvard Medical School students can learn about how to provide healthcare to “infants” who are LGBTQIA+, according to a course catalog description.

“Caring for Patients with Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities, and Sex Development,” a regularly available med school course, promises to give students a chance to work with “patients [who] identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or asexual.”

The course description explicitly includes infants — i.e., babies less than 1 year old.

Prelingual babies would not be able to share the details of their perverse sexual proclivities even if they had any. But this doesn’t matter, because the LGBTism comes from woke parents, until kids are old enough for schools to provide indoctrination in progressive sexual ideology.

Ivy League college credit can be earned by evangelizing on behalf of the LGBT agenda:

Students in the course may also “engage in a mentored scholarly endeavor” such as “advocacy, quality improvement, medical education, original research, or public health project.”

The directors of the course are Alex Keuroghlian and Alberto Puig. They also work at Massachusetts General Hospital, where the course is held. This hospital performs horrific sex change surgeries starting at age 18. In addition,

It also has a patient guide telling parents how to support their child’s “transgender journey” by affirming an identity contrary to their biological sex.

Let’s not single out Mass General:

Another institution involved in the course is Boston Children’s Hospital, which became the center of a national controversy in August due to videos of employees promoting “a full suite of surgical options for transgender teens,” including vaginoplasties and hysterectomies. One video contained the claim that children can know they’re transgender “from the womb.”

What’s more,

Keuroghlian has authored research that connected transgender drugs and surgeries to better mental health outcomes for patients. He has also condemned government restrictions on the procedures.

You do not have to attend a prestigious and outlandishly expensive medical school to know that people cannot be transformed into members of the opposite sex. Harvard students are taught to unknow it.

On tips from Ed McAninch and Franco.

We already knew that the cross-dressing weirdo Richard “Rachel” Levine — the Assistant Secretary for Health extolled by liberals as America’s first “female” four-star admiral — is in favor of committing crimes against humanity by sacrificing children on the altar of LGBTism through horrific sex change procedures. We knew that the Biden Regime has relied on the suppression of information to achieve and exert power. Yet it is hard not to be shocked by the blatant evil as Levine calls on Big Tech to censor “misinformation” that would protect kids from having their genitals mutilated.

It has come to light that during a Zoom address to the Federation of State Medical Boards…

…Levine spoke about the need for the government to “address health misinformation directly” and specified that includes encouraging Big Tech to combat health misinformation “beyond COVID-19.”

The topic he had in mind is the transsexualization of children.

By now we all know that “misinformation” is any information or opinion that leftists want suppressed.

Pushing the Orwellianism that characterizes Democrats to the point of overkill, Levine declared that resistance to the exceedingly unhealthy “LGTQI+” agenda is “dangerous to the public health.”

As Joseph Goebbels observed, tell a lie big enough, keep repeating it, and sheep will believe it. Squeaks Levine:

“The positive value of gender-affirming care for youth and adults is not in scientific or medical dispute.”

“Gender-affirming” is Orwellian for “gender-denying.” In many cases, gender is “affirmed” by surgically removing healthy body parts so that woke parents of a transsexual trophy child can pretend their offspring is a member of the opposite sex.

The official called for tech censorship to quell any dispute on the subject, adding, “And we need to use our clinicians voice to collectively advocate for our tech companies to create a healthier, cleaner information environment.”

By this he means an information environment reduced to a cesspool of depraved leftist propaganda.

Levine has largely gotten his way:

Conservative journalist Ian Miles Cheong tweeted, “You’re not allowed to criticize Rachel Levine on other social media platforms. You will be banned.”

That is, social media platforms other than Twitter under Elon Musk’s ownership. Previously, the Babylon Bee was banned from Twitter for drawing attention to the incontrovertible biological fact that Levine is a man.

Levine, a transgender woman, made the statements in May, though the video gained newfound attention on Twitter just after Christmas.

Presenting our degenerate ruling class personified:

On tips from Varla and Chris Neilson.

A drawback to attempting rational argumentation with progressives is that often they are not so much wrong as evil. How else would you describe those who want to force Christians to perform abortions and to surgically mutilate children for the sake of sexual depravity? Thankfully they have encountered resistance:

A federal court has dealt a significant blow to the Biden administration’s leftist medical agenda, sparing Christian doctors and religious hospitals from being forced to perform sex change mutilations and abortions in violation of their conscience and better judgment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit agreed with a district court’s opinion that the Obamacare mandate requiring facilitation of sex changes posed “irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs’ “exercise of religion.”

The court ultimately found the transsexual mandate unlawful and granted a coalition of Catholic healthcare professionals a permanent injunction. They will no longer face multimillion-dollar penalties for keeping their consciences clear.

Democrats can excuse any extreme of tyranny with the magic word “discrimination”:

Section 1557 [of ObamaCare] prevents federally-funded healthcare programs from discriminating against patients on the basis of sex.

The reason most everything is at least partially federally funded is so that it can be federally controlled by Democrats.

The National Review reported that in recent years, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has broadened the statute’s definition of sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of “termination of pregnancy” and “gender identity.”

Ergo, not to kill inconvenient babies or surgically remove children’s healthy genitals is discrimination. Pick up that scalpel, bigot!

The ruling is welcome, but basing it on religious liberty is a problem. You do not need to belong to a church to understand fundamental differences between right and wrong. What if a doctor wants to refrain from committing crimes against humanity not because he is a Christian, but simply because he is a decent human being? He has no defense from fiends who would force him to commit atrocities.

On a tip from Mr. Freemarket.

Leftists have subverted medical education (see here, here, and here). Before long, this will have devastating effects on our health, as qualifications are abandoned in favor of identity box checking and training is dumbed down accordingly. The effects of moonbats having taken over the administration of hospitals will be more immediate:

“Words or actions that are disrespectful, racist, discriminatory, hostile, or harassing are not welcome” at Mass General Brigham (MGB), according to a “Patient Code of Conduct” imposed this fall after a year of development.

MGB includes the highly prestigious and therefore influential Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

The Patient Code of Conduct is a speech code. It applies to patients, families, visitors, and research participants.

The code covers … “offensive comments about others’ race, accent, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or other personal traits” or refusal to see staff based on those traits.

As for those who violate the speech code,

MGB warns that it may ask them to “make other plans for their care” in response to some violations. They might also be banned from “future non-emergency care.”

No minimum number of violations is given, nor is it explained who determines when thoughtcrime has been committed.

Failure to use preferred pronouns could constitute “harassment,” disputing the existence of systemic racism could be deemed “racist,” and favoring equal access to care over equity could be labeled “discriminatory,” according to Do No Harm.

That medical care would be provided on a racial basis is a legitimate concern:

Do No Harm noted that one of MGB’s founding members and Harvard Med’s training hospital, Brigham and Women’s, launched a pilot last year that explicitly granted “preferential care based on race” to redress past wrongs, even while acknowledging it might be illegal.

It won’t be illegal for long if Democrats have their way.

Antiwhite racism appears to be rampant at MGB, as noted at Behind the Black:

MGB’s website shows it to be totally invested in the agendas of critical race theory as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion. The top of its About page includes a link to a description of its “Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” which describes in careful terms the quota policies the hospital now follows, designed to choose minorities in hiring rather than those with better medical qualifications.

Modern liberalism is pernicious and insane. It can only be imposed by force. The regulation of all speech everywhere is as inevitable as the confiscation of firearms if progressives are not pried away from power.

Already, getting canceled by militantly tolerant liberals for saying something that contradicts their ideology can cost you employment. Soon it may cost you your health.

On a tip from R F.

Moonbattery destroys everything it infiltrates. Now it is subverting medical education:

The [Association of American Medical Colleges] surveyed 101 institutions, representing almost two-thirds of American medical schools (two are in Canada), asking for audits of their DEI-related policies and programs.

DEI is short for hardcore Cultural Marxist moonbattery. D for Diversity translates to antiwhite racial discrimination. E for Equity implies the level of authoritarianism necessary to dictate that no blade of grass can grow taller than another. I for Inclusion emphasizes the promotion of sexual depravity.

The AAMC asked medical schools to answer 89 yes-or-no questions on whether they have specific DEI activities. The results are shown as a kind of report card. Schools that score 80% are colored green, and those that score between 61% and 80% are yellow. Institutions below the 60% threshold are red — a sign of failure.

The leftist social engineers at the AAMC have power because they are involved in the accreditation of medical schools.

We have gotten used to test scores plummeting, but this time scores are high:

All told, more than six out of 10 medical schools scored 80%. … Crucially, no institution scored lower than 50% — meaning virtually every medical school is implementing at least half the policies woke activists want.

Among the most favored of these policies is Affirmative Action, which promotes less qualified individuals based on their membership in preferred identity groups.

100% have “admissions policies and practices for encouraging a diverse class of students.” Fully 85% have leaders who’ve “used demographic data to promote change” within their institution.

To state the obvious,

This approach risks de-prioritizing merit, leading to a lower quality of medical students.

As if this were Stalinist Russia, students learn in a climate of political fear and ubiquitous ideology:

Some 98% have created a system for students to report bias, which risks self-censorship from educators who fear reprisals for teaching health care’s more difficult topics. The same percentage have launched new initiatives or funding streams for DEI, while 97% have “a dedicated office, staff, and resources.”

The Long March Through the Institutions has claimed medical education, the primary purpose of which is no longer to train health professionals but to promote moonbattery.

The AAMC is pushing 100% of medical schools to score 100% in each category, and most are trending in that direction. This doesn’t bode well for the future of health care. Medical schools are broadly lowering standards for admissions, faculty and research while devoting a higher share of resources to political lobbying, politicized bureaucracy and public virtue signaling.

Moonbattery works fast and has been picking up speed. It took only 3 centuries to reduce Dutch art from Rembrandt to Willem de Kooning. It took only 2 centuries to reduce American government from James Madison to Joe Biden. Unless reversed, it will take less than 1 century to reduce the medical profession to uselessness.

On a tip from R F.

Before moonbattery twisted society into an unfolding nightmare, nurses abided by the Nightingale Pledge. The original was written in 1893:

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I shall abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and shall not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I shall do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. I shall be loyal to my work and devoted towards the welfare of those committed to my care.

As part of the liberal establishment, the American Nurses Association has rejected this pledge in favor of the LGBT agenda by issuing a statement opposing laws and policies that protect children from being subjected to grotesque sex change procedures. The statement refers readers to propaganda promoting the ideologically motivated disfigurement of children.

If you want to see a scary movie this Halloween, try 1981’s Dead and Buried. Warning: it goes over the top when an evil nurse played by Lisa Blount comes into the room of a helpless guy in traction. About all you can see of him through the bandages is one eye. She sticks a needle into it.

The real horror comes not from the gruesomeness, but from knowing that we might find ourselves at the mercy of nurses, having to trust in the benevolence that normally characterizes the profession.

Imagine a scene like the one below, except featuring the sexual mutilation of a child. Not even Hollyweird would push the envelope that far. But the American Nurses Association would. With leftists in control, real life is more horrifying than the scariest movie.

On a tip from Franco.