Whitlock: Kelley Robinson, Human Rights Campaign president and transgender advocate, lies like all other oppressors

Season 3 of the HBO crime-and-politics drama "The Wire" explained the corruptive nature of the pursuit and defense of power.

It analogized a feud between rival Baltimore drug gangs to President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. The season concluded with drug kingpin Avon Barksdale reaching a jarring epiphany in reaction to the murder of his crime partner, Stringer Bell.

The folly, dishonesty, and hubris of his summer-long bloody conflict dawned on Barksdale as he brooded and mourned. He disclosed to his new top lieutenant, Slim Charles, that their bitter rival, Marlo Stanfield, played no role in the murder of Bell.

Slim Charles channeled Dick Cheney: “Don’t matter who did what to who at this point. Fact is, we went to war, and now there ain’t no going back.I mean, shit, it’s what war is, you know? Once you in it, you in it. If it’s a lie, then we fight on that lie. But we gotta fight.”

Fighting on lies is a characteristic of corrupt power. Righteousness characterizes the fighting style and spirit of people and institutions devoid of power. The oppressed utilize respectability, a synonym for righteousness, as a weapon of war. They have no choice. It’s all they have.

I bring all of this up so that it’s easier to discern the fraudulence and unprecedented power of the feminist, LGBTQ, and social justice movements. They’re fighting on lies. They’re corrupt oppressors.

Yesterday, Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, testified during a Senate hearing discussing biological males competing in women’s NCAA sports. The Human Rights Campaign is a cleverly named advocacy group for the LGBTQIA+ Alphabet Mafia. Founded 43 years ago to fight for legalized same-sex marriage, the organization now pushes for the rights of transgenders and empathy for “minor-attracted people.”

The HRC is really the Slippery Slope Campaign.

Robinson, according to the HRC website, is the first “black queer woman” to lead the organization.

Like White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Robinson is a historical figure. Her job is to fight on lies. Robinson did her job yesterday. Senator Ted Cruz repeatedly asked Robinson if she believes there is a difference between men and women.

“I mean, what I can say here is the NCAA has rules in place, they’ve had rules in place for the last decade, and when this competition [took place], the rules were clear,” Robinson responded, referring to NCAA rules that allowed biological male Lia Thomas to compete against women.

Cruz asked several follow-ups trying to provoke a definitive answer. Robinson dodged each time. Later, Senator John Kennedy asked Robinson if men have a competitive advantage over women in sports.

“I’m not a physician, I can’t speak to that,” Robinson said before pivoting to suggest that Serena Williams could beat men in tennis. “There’s been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis. And it’s just not the case. She is stronger than them.”

In 1998, Serena and Venus Williams bragged that they could beat any man outside the world top 200 rankings. Karsten Braasch, then the 203rd-ranked player, challenged and beat both sisters easily.

Kelley Robinson’s testimony epitomizes the tactics of the modern social justice movement. Her testimony underscores the overarching point of "The Wire." Power, in any form, corrupts. Politicians and drug dealers, to protect their power and turf, fight on and with lies and distortions.

Kelley Robinson is a liar, no different from Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court justice who pretended to be baffled when asked to define the term "woman." Like Robinson, Jackson claimed she would need to be a scientist to answer the question.

The oppressed stand on truth. The powerful stand on lies.

Martin Luther King Jr. and leaders of the civil rights movement gained support by stating simple truths: “I’m a man worthy of the same inalienable rights as other U.S. citizens.” They pursued equality and fought oppression by presenting themselves as more righteous than their opponents. Their tactic is now denigrated as “respectability politics.”

The denigration of respect is a tactic to eliminate righteousness, a tenet of religious faith, and to normalize propaganda, a tenet of Marxism.

Dueling propaganda campaigns define our public square, our debates about every issue.

Social justice warriors argue we should defund the police because law enforcement is executing a genocide against black men one traffic stop at a time. That’s a lie. Everyone knows it’s a lie. Data proves it’s a lie. But we’ve spent the last decade in an endless war fighting on that lie.

WNBA players are underpaid and exploited. That’s a lie. Everyone knows it’s a lie. The women’s basketball league loses millions of dollars each year. The players are overpaid and pampered.

Anyone who objects to Juneteenth as a national holiday is a white supremacist or a sellout. That’s a lie. Everyone knows it’s a lie. The holiday that supposedly commemorates the final end to American slavery ignores the fact that slavery ended in Delaware and New Jersey long after June 19th, 1865.

Men can get pregnant. Donald Trump is the second coming of Adolf Hitler. There are more than two genders.

America is flooded with lies and propaganda. The people screaming the lies the loudest are the most powerful. They’re doing what the powerful have done for thousands of years. They protect their power by provoking and sustaining conflict with lies.

The oppressed use truth as a defense. Oppressors lie.