Raymond Ibrahim, 4/16/25
Few things better explain how common sense and morality have been subverted than the “boiling frog” analogy.
Here is a standard definition:
The boiling frog is an apologue describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly…. The boiling frog story is generally offered as a metaphor cautioning people to be aware of even gradual change lest they suffer eventual undesirable consequences. It may be invoked in support of a slippery slope argument as a caution against creeping normality… The term “boiling frog syndrome” is a metaphor used to describe the failure to act against a problematic situation which will increase in severity until reaching catastrophic proportions.
Take sexual depravity, for instance, which is today widely accepted, if not celebrated. It’s a complete byproduct of boiling frog syndrome.
Once Upon a Time in America
Younger generations may be unaware of this, but, decades ago things that are so taken for granted today, such as promiscuity (“sexual openness”) or sex out of wedlock were as strongly frowned upon in the U.S. as they still are in much of the world.
Needless to say, homosexuality was anathema. In 1955, for example, the Unified School District of Inglewood — in California, mind you — worked with the local police department to make an educational video warning against “the dangers of homosexuality,” describing it as “a sickness of the mind.”
Over a decade later, in 1966, a police detective used a large auditorium full of schoolchildren to lecture against homosexuality. In an effort to warn these impressionable youth, he said that if any kids were experimenting with it,
“You better stop, quick. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. And if we catch you involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. And you will be caught; don’t think you won’t be caught. Because this is one thing you cannot get away with. This is one thing that, if you don’t get caught by us, you’ll be caught by yourself, and the rest of your life will be a living hell.”
So, how did we get from the point at which authorities actively warned schoolchildren that homosexuality was a “sickness of the mind” that would lead to a “living hell” on earth to letting them be openly seduced by precisely the same predators the policeman warned about — pedophiles dressed as women (“drag story hour”) indoctrinating and confusing toddlers about their sexual identity?
Indeed, how did we get to the point where forms of sexual depravity that might’ve once made a homosexual blush in the 1960s are now loudly trumpeted from the roof, so that we must be bombarded with them for the entire month of June? The latest mutation of these things is that men and women can transform themselves into each other – and demand that you participate in their fictions under penalty of law.
Starting with the Media
Well, here is how we did not get here. Those who are pushing for the sexually depraved agenda did not start by pushing “transgenderism” down people’s throats. That would have instantly failed; that would have been throwing the frog in an already boiling pot, which it would have instinctively jumped out of post haste.
Rather, the heat was turned up very gradually, imperceptibly. The venerable and ever-trustworthy “scientists” — the predecessors of those who brought you COVID hysteria and vaccine mandates — began by telling us that homosexuality was not a “sickness of the mind.” It was, rather, quite normal. Only “bigoted,” unenlightened folk (among whom you obviously don’t want to be counted) thought otherwise. Besides, all that homosexuals wanted was to be treated with dignity and respect — and who could argue against such a seemingly modest request?
So homosexuality was legitimized and presented under a whole new set of euphemisms: being referred to as “gay” (that is, joyous), being represented by a beautiful and innocent-looking rainbow (once the preserve of children), and so on.
The media naturally lent a helping hand: All throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, homosexual characters — always presented in a sympathetic light — increasingly began to appear in movies, sitcoms, and in pop culture in general.
Once homosexuality had become normalized/standardized in American society, the heat was turned up another notch, preparing the American Frog to accept the next, greater form of sexual license, leading to where we are today.
A Necessary Waste of Time
Note, too, the power and efficacy of this creeping normalcy. By the time a second milestone (i.e., a second, greater perversion) is introduced and begins creating controversy, the first — now seen as a milder, more “acceptable” form compared to the second — has become an established, unquestioned fact of American society.
For example, the latest insanity being pushed on Americans, transgenderism, remains controversial and unacceptable to many. But because the perversity bar has been set so low, things like “standard” homosexuality have become absolutely normal — definitely preferable to transgenderism.
In other words, the American Frog, on reaching a new boil in the waters of transgenderism, starts longing for the “good ol’ days” in the cauldron when “standard homosexuality” seems ideal.
And so we come to the current situation, where “conservatives,” Republicans, and even Christians are falling over each other to endorse Buttigieg-style homosexuality (a man “marrying” another man, and both minding their own business and otherwise behaving “normally”) whereas that too was once an abomination. But to a slowly boiled frog, 50 degrees less heat can only register as a great “improvement.”
From here we understand why President Donald Trump’s recent executive order making it federal policy to recognize only two genders is more of an embarrassment than a victory. Which other nation requires none other than its Commander in Chief to waste his time creating and enforcing “laws” that any toddler already knows?
However, because we’ve been at a high boil for the last few years — not least thanks to the previous administration, which fostered and promoted gender insanity — passing an executive order to acknowledge what every child instinctively knows both feels and is treated like a great victory because it’s a lessening of the infernal boil. And so we’re thankful for it.
In reality, we should be expecting and demanding much more than that.