Watching the latest season of The Voice with my wife, I couldn’t help notice a trend with a lot of the contestants. After telling the panel their name, age, place of origin, a lot of them followed up with the same sentence, “and I was bullied.”

Despite the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence, State Schools adopting the Bullying. No Way! platform, umpteen ads and media campaigns addressing bullying, multiple lessons and school parades on cyber-bullying, and schools having to respond to every single bullying complaint their child makes – real or imagined – it seems bullying grows exponentially. It’s an epidemic that cannot be stopped!

Or is it?

Could the growth of bullying also be a lack of perspective from young people who are yet to experience life’s hardships? Young people who are taught an easy way to get attention, to get out of trouble, and to get out of work when things get a little tough? I’m not saying there is no such thing as bullying, or that there are not cases that are severe and warrant addressing, but when you teach kids that they’re victims, it’s no surprise that there are more and more victims every year.

I mean, can that many kids on The Voice be victims of bullying? It’s a bit rich too that these youngsters stand in front of a person like Boy George – who was one of the first high-profile trans/gay people in mainstream culture in the 1980s – and complain about the hard time they experienced at school. I’d wager he experienced true bullying compared to most of them.

For once I’d like to see a contestant get up and go, “Hi. My name is… I’m from… and I was bullied. But it’s okay, I got on with it.” Until then, we’ll just have to get used to more and more victims on our screens. I’d wager it won’t be long before a contestant who doesn’t get picked accuses the judges of – you guessed it – bullying.

Gender neutral.

Gender fluid.

Gender confused.

Gender nonsense.

An unconscious patient is brought into a hospital emergency room. Upon removing the patients clothing, hospital staff determine that the victim is one of two genders – male or female. The doodle and the va-jay-jay are the deciding factor here, not sociology professors.

Please don’t get me wrong, if someone wishes to identify as a different gender that is their choice. It’s of no concern to me. But when people argue that gender is a social construct, something needs to be said because that’s absurd. Sure, gender can be and is impacted and influenced by social constructs, but simply choosing to switch genders does not trump biology. Put simply,

– a woman who chooses to be a man is not suddenly impervious to cervical cancer.

– a man who chooses to be a woman is not suddenly resistant to testicular cancer.

– a woman suffering from endometriosis didn’t just eat a bad burrito with the boys Friday night.

– and a man who determines he wants to give birth cannot do so without surgical assistance to install some serious plumbing.

Simply thinking one way will not change the biology of the situation. At the end of the day, listening to your bodies biological chemistry will tell you more truth than any sociology professor will.

Without doubt the left has waged a highly successful campaign of weaponizing language in the war on free speech. Milo Yiannopoulos summed it up perfectly when he highlighted that leftists immediately hit you with an accusation, such as being racist, which instantly puts you on the defensive and makes you defend a position of their choosing. I cite Milo here because there is hardly a better example of being mislabeled a racist. And until someone can explain to me how a Nazi can have a black husband, I’m calling bollocks on that one.

So, the thing I am wondering is, when will we as a society agree to deny power over the “racist” accusation? Why do we endow these words with such meaning? Imagine if someone held racist views – and I argue that the majority of conservatives do not – is that worse than being a murderer? A rapist? A pederast? An arsonist? An embezzler? A kidnapper? A homophobe? A fan of Amy Schumer’s comedy?

Rather than fall into being defensive, there’s two things you can do. First, you need to take the air out of this balloon by simply laughing and asking, “Is that it? That’s all you have? No facts? No logic? Just a baseless accusation to try and win this argument. Wow, you really don’t have a case do you? Come back when you have some facts little one.” Laughing and shaking your head will make them mad and lose their composure, instantly shutting this line of attack down and give you the advantage. Check.

Second, you need to put it straight back on them. If the person calling you a racist is white, that’s the time to hit them with the ‘thou doth protest too much’ approach. “You seem really worked up on this issue when you’re not actually black. You know how diehard homophobes who rail against gays are secretly gay, could it be that your intensity on this issue is really a cheap mask for self-loathing due to your deep-seated racist beliefs? Are you really a Klu Klux Klan sympathiser deep down? Because that’s not cool, you should really get some help with that, you racist.” Checkmate.

Simply put, the best thing conservatives can do is laugh it off and not give any air to this ridiculous accusation. We would be further along as a society if we stopped letting liberals tar us with the racist brush. Oh wait, is that racist? If so, I have a very important question to ask – “What’s for lunch, you racist?”

Politico.com once wrote an article about 155 outlandish comments made by Donald Trump in the lead up to the 2016 election. Comedian Bill Burr best described his campaign by claiming he said, “three things a week that would torpedo anyone’s career”, but both miss the brilliance behind his strategy. Yes, I did just use the word ‘strategy’ and ‘Donald Trump’s election approach’ in the same sentence. Allow me to draw long bow.

Eminem, Pink, and Lady Ga Ga dominated the charts for years on end by following a simple approach – after a song peaked on the charts and began to decline, they quickly released another track, followed by another and another. What this did was keep the artist in the public consciousness as their songs were always playing on the television and radio. Trump used both his campaign speeches and his Twitter account to achieve just that.

Here is just a snippet of some of the outlandish things that emanated from Trump on the trail:

– On Senator John McCain: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?”

– He said he knew, “more about ISIS than the generals”.

– He described Hillary’s campaign loss to Obama as being, “schlonged”.

– He gave out Lindsay Graham’s cell number.

– He stated that, “Heidi Klum. Sadly, she’s no longer a 10.”

– And lastly, he advised, “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of ’em, would you? Seriously. OK? Just knock the hell—I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise.”

Bold? Yes. Absurd at times? Sure. Un-Presidential? You could say that. But the reality was these throwaway lines became the focus of the commentariat (news media, talk shows and celebrities) day after day, all of which dampened the message his opponent was struggling to get airtime for. While the media fixated on the newest ‘dumb Trumpism’, they inadvertently gave him free advertising and allowed him to dominate the public consciousness.

The left may claim that he is an idiot, and that’s one opinion. But he’s the 45^th President of the United States, and that’s a fact.

Above is a picture of protestors attempting to block ICE employees from entering a building.

So the left are stopping people from entering a location… by building a wall.

Good job everyone.