The Lincoln Logue | Silence, Shutdown, and the Sound of Power Breaking Things
Identity, justice, and governance are all being rewritten — one ban, one deployment, one indictment at a time.
The week opened with the Supreme Court preparing to rewrite the definition of harm. Justices agreed to hear a challenge to Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy — a move that revives an outlawed cruelty and dresses it in the language of free speech. The therapist at the center claims she only wants to help children “align” with their bodies, which sounds like care until you remember that’s the vocabulary of erasure. Trump’s health department joined in, calling psychotherapy a “noninvasive alternative” to medical transition, as if repression were a form of wellness. Once again, medicine is being drafted into ideology. The new prescription for identity isn’t acceptance — it’s obedience. And the state is standing by with a clipboard to make sure you comply.
While the Court debated what counts as compassion, the president redefined law and order as a personal brand. Trump deployed the National Guard to Chicago over the objections of its mayor and governor, then demanded both be jailed for “failing to protect ICE officers.” Protesters filled downtown streets chanting the name of an immigrant killed by federal agents, their grief drowned out by helicopter blades. The administration insists it’s restoring peace; residents know it’s declaring control. What we’re watching isn’t governance — it’s an occupation marketed as patriotism.
By the end of the week, the pattern was complete. Letitia James became the latest political opponent indicted on charges thin enough to fit on a sticky note. Congress stayed home while 750,000 federal workers missed paychecks, and the president’s budget director bragged online, “The layoffs have begun.” Therapy was punishment, justice was retribution, and labor was leverage. Every branch of power spoke the same language this week — the vocabulary of control.
Welcome back to The Lincoln Logue. Let’s break it down.
Monday, October 6 — The Supreme Court Revisits Conversion Therapy
▌When compassion becomes coercion, the scalpel turns inward.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy, reopening a wound that medicine long ago declared closed. The therapist at the center claims the law silences her “speech” as she counsels minors to “align with their biological sex.” What’s framed as dialogue is actually direction — therapy that starts with the answer and works backward. Trump’s health department has already helped launder the idea, calling psychotherapy a “noninvasive alternative” to medical transition, a phrase that sounds like safety but means denial. The question before the Court isn’t about free speech at all — it’s whether the state can legally permit harm if it’s polite enough to call it care.
The case is a time capsule from a darker era, one that punished identity in the name of morality. A decade ago, major medical associations labeled conversion therapy unethical, even dangerous. But as trans rights became the new political fault line, old arguments were recast as legitimate “exploration.” Colorado’s ban reflects the medical consensus that identity isn’t a choice; the lawsuit argues that questioning that fact is a constitutional right. It’s a perfect collision of religion, politics, and psychology — where “freedom” means the right to make someone else suffer.
What’s really on trial isn’t a single therapist but the country’s definition of harm. If the justices side with the counselor, the state will have officially rebranded abuse as a protected opinion. Every future restriction — from gender-affirming care to contraception — can hide behind the same excuse. The cruelty is being couched in vocabulary soft enough to pass for compassion. This is the quiet genius of modern authoritarianism: it doesn’t outlaw your existence; it convinces you that resisting is unhealthy.
Source: New York Times