Not to gild the lily here, but to piggyback as your unofficial (unwanted?!) correspondent from the Blue Bubble, there are two opposing primary values here that can never be squared, the first value being Truth (w in this case a healthy dash of Do No Harm) and the second being Compassion.
Whenever I raise this issue with anyone I know I'm met with a Great Wall of Compassion, with arguments like this, sometimes singular, sometimes combined:
If it makes one sad suicidal child feel better, it's worth it; so what if I have to use a new pronoun or pretend that dude w stubble and linebacker shoulders is a girl (or let them in my bathroom)? it's fine if it makes them feel better; it doesn't harm anyone's child to learn about Gender Theory in grade school, it's "inclusive" and "tolerant"; why do you care!!?; why do you care if some kid takes puberty blockers, they're reversible and it's not your business; there's always been gay or Trans kids, they're just expressing themselves now in ways that make you feel threatened; then of course the cherry on top: when did you become a Trump-loving Fox News-watching Republican?
Abandon all hope ye who enter! Conspicuous compassion is simply the must-have item of our time, the ultimate bauble to express your inherent superiority, and whatever kids or adults are harmed here will just have to be sacrificed on the altar—Compassion demands it!
Of all the insanity we have witnessed from the progressive left, this is the most disturbing.
It’s crystal clear that progressives have a strong aversion to children. They had no second thoughts at all about how they treated children during COVID. Here in Illinois, children 2 and over were forced to wear masks all day, every day for 2 years. Oh, it’s no big deal; kids are resilient.
They have treated abortion as a sacrament for years, and make it the central focus of their agenda.
The trans hysteria is the modern-day version of alchemy- we can turn boys into girls and vice-versa. At least medieval alchemists only experimented on metals, not on young children. It seems the ultimate goal is to force people to deny reality, in favor of progressive pronouncements. Boys can so be girls, and 2+2 really does equal 5!
But why do they consistently choose children as the focus of their attacks on civilization? What kind of monstrous evil does that?
"And even when this deranged ideology finally collapses in on itself like a dying star, and gender dysphoria is finally seen as a psychopathology that should be treated rather than an identity to be celebrated, those who supported the medicalization of children will remain wrapped in the mantle of moral absolutism. They will not apologize. Their alibi will be that Good People™ couldn’t help but be swept away by this multi-year ideological intoxication."
Indeed, they will claim that they were NEVER for this OBVIOUSLY terrible thing. And the ones who haven't sterilized their children might even believe it one day.
about 6 months ago I started following the PITT Substack (Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans). it’s mostly testimonials from parents (mothers) who are experiencing one of their children in varying states of transition or estranged from the ones who did. they are all pretty heartbreaking as you can imagine. the most interesting aspect is that 9 out of 10 testimonials all start the same: very liberal households with yard signs, Obama pins, Pride flags and uber Democrat. they support and say all the progressive shibboleths until the Trans comes home. then they start tapping the brakes.
it’s all fun and right side of history until your beautiful, feminine 15 year old daughter decides she wants surgery and hormones. then your whole world explodes.
the moral of the story? it’s one thing to support the progressive narrative until it effects your family directly. and yes, like vaccine mandates, it will be hard to find anyone who will admit to greenlighting PBs and surgery for kids in 4-5 years...
Thank you for this Brad. I appreciate the hard work that goes into it.
I live in a liberal college town that is ground zero for this toxic gender ideology pushed through the K-12 public school system. The number of mostly young pre-teen and teen females claiming gender disphoria or trans identity is significantly over the national average. Not ironically so is the incidence of diagnosed depression and other mental health problems in the local K-12 student population.
We know the science is fake by our common sense and observation. These kids hit puberty and get awkward and hormonal. Many are a confused mess of emotional reactions they don't yet have the developed frontal lobe to process. The are on Instagram seeing the pretty and popular people, and lacking coping skills and understanding that they will grow and change over the next several years to become more comfortable in their skin, they do what young people do and over-react that they are different and don't fit in.
But instead of adults in the education system mentoring them to a calm place, the radicals in control exploit those strong childish emotions to push the kids into a toxic gender ideology that backs a political agenda. These radicals are evil.
The frustrating part is the lack of science speaking out against this. With this post I am a bit more hopeful that the tide is turning.
My compassion is for those who have been misled and often mutilated in the name of caring and who either choose to ignore or disbelieve science in favor of their misguided and evil gender ideology.
When the gender dysphoria death star implodes, as it must, there will be no consequences for the insane zealots who constructed it, no repercussions, and certainly no apologies, just as with the Russian collusion hoax, the Covid insanity etc etc......
Transgenderism is real but exceedingly rare - less than one-quarter the number of flat-earthers globally. There is no known medical, including environmental, source or cause for clusters, leaving social contagion the most likely source. Ethical psychiatrists don't medicalize the condition in children or teen-agers. The brain is still developing until the age 24-26, most of those treated with talk therapy and, where needed, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications "grow out of" self-reported transgenderism. Many turn out to br gay.
When you hear "The science is settled," run, don't walk, away. Science is never settled. The speed of light is an upper limit, right? Maybe not. The speed of the effect of gravity has not been determined. There is anecdotal evidence that it is as much as 2.5c.
In 1985 I was offered a spot for an experiment on the International Space Station. I proposed an experiment to measure the effect of the speed of gravity, but did not have the time to develop and vet the protocols, despite access to the best scientists and engineers in the nation through the national labs. Without those the experiment would be useless. I withdrew it almost immediately.
"[T]he trans agenda … is an effort to entrap children into a miserable life of despair to help normalize the mental illness of a very small number of adults."
My 3 brothers and I (four boys, I'm the oldest) were raised by a hard working (glorious) single mother. We went to 10-13 different schools growing up, with attendant struggles, most of them unique to our personalities. For the earlier grades I'd assess the environment and adopt personality quirks that would, in my young opinion, help me "fit in" to each new school, i.e. for my Greenwich Village 4th and 5th grade I'd raise my hand to answer the teacher's questions, for my majority black school I'd walk and talk "street", for my low-income majority white school in a former steel town, I stopped answering easy questions in class after a few fist fights with my (hulking) classmates accusing me of thinking I was "hot shit". Soon I discovered my best ways forward in new schools was to play dumb, act tough, and fight if necessary... eventually I learned my personal key to social acceptance and a sense of well being was to yell out jokes in class; one day in the 9th grade of a brutally bad school I was basking in the accolades of winning "Class Clown", and joyfully told my mother. She got mad, even though she knew the school sucked, and told me academics are important to escape poverty (the 5 of us lived in my grandmother's upstairs 1 bedroom area, our dining table a 6' piece of plywood over our bathtub), and I got furious at her. Years later I told her of course she was right. Any great loving wonderful glorious (liberal) supportive hard working great mother like mine who knew to mention a factoid about academics, would also know that I wouldn't be ready to shoot up chemicals and gulp meds and start slicing & dicing my body, and any parent who encourages this procedure on their under-18 year old children are mentally ill monsters, to a one. Most normal people know this whole thing involving kids is monstrous, and I'm betting it becomes the camel's nose in the tent of pendulum swings that need to happen, and quick.
This will go down as crime on par with the sterilization of the tribal people of Canada, the sterilization of the Sami in Sweden & other medical horrors that are recorded from this century & the previous centuries. Cries & accusations, horrors & finally apologizes but no real punishments nor restitutions. The p es truly responsible will avoid it all. Those who aided & abetted this will express remorse, possibly even select one of their less well favored to face a public persecution as a ritual sacrifice to exonerate the others.
One question of the demographics and the preponderance of girls. I bet if you get more granular regarding income groups and social glass the statistics become even more stark
Nailed it, as usual.
Not to gild the lily here, but to piggyback as your unofficial (unwanted?!) correspondent from the Blue Bubble, there are two opposing primary values here that can never be squared, the first value being Truth (w in this case a healthy dash of Do No Harm) and the second being Compassion.
Whenever I raise this issue with anyone I know I'm met with a Great Wall of Compassion, with arguments like this, sometimes singular, sometimes combined:
If it makes one sad suicidal child feel better, it's worth it; so what if I have to use a new pronoun or pretend that dude w stubble and linebacker shoulders is a girl (or let them in my bathroom)? it's fine if it makes them feel better; it doesn't harm anyone's child to learn about Gender Theory in grade school, it's "inclusive" and "tolerant"; why do you care!!?; why do you care if some kid takes puberty blockers, they're reversible and it's not your business; there's always been gay or Trans kids, they're just expressing themselves now in ways that make you feel threatened; then of course the cherry on top: when did you become a Trump-loving Fox News-watching Republican?
Abandon all hope ye who enter! Conspicuous compassion is simply the must-have item of our time, the ultimate bauble to express your inherent superiority, and whatever kids or adults are harmed here will just have to be sacrificed on the altar—Compassion demands it!
Of all the insanity we have witnessed from the progressive left, this is the most disturbing.
It’s crystal clear that progressives have a strong aversion to children. They had no second thoughts at all about how they treated children during COVID. Here in Illinois, children 2 and over were forced to wear masks all day, every day for 2 years. Oh, it’s no big deal; kids are resilient.
They have treated abortion as a sacrament for years, and make it the central focus of their agenda.
The trans hysteria is the modern-day version of alchemy- we can turn boys into girls and vice-versa. At least medieval alchemists only experimented on metals, not on young children. It seems the ultimate goal is to force people to deny reality, in favor of progressive pronouncements. Boys can so be girls, and 2+2 really does equal 5!
But why do they consistently choose children as the focus of their attacks on civilization? What kind of monstrous evil does that?
"And even when this deranged ideology finally collapses in on itself like a dying star, and gender dysphoria is finally seen as a psychopathology that should be treated rather than an identity to be celebrated, those who supported the medicalization of children will remain wrapped in the mantle of moral absolutism. They will not apologize. Their alibi will be that Good People™ couldn’t help but be swept away by this multi-year ideological intoxication."
Indeed, they will claim that they were NEVER for this OBVIOUSLY terrible thing. And the ones who haven't sterilized their children might even believe it one day.
about 6 months ago I started following the PITT Substack (Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans). it’s mostly testimonials from parents (mothers) who are experiencing one of their children in varying states of transition or estranged from the ones who did. they are all pretty heartbreaking as you can imagine. the most interesting aspect is that 9 out of 10 testimonials all start the same: very liberal households with yard signs, Obama pins, Pride flags and uber Democrat. they support and say all the progressive shibboleths until the Trans comes home. then they start tapping the brakes.
it’s all fun and right side of history until your beautiful, feminine 15 year old daughter decides she wants surgery and hormones. then your whole world explodes.
the moral of the story? it’s one thing to support the progressive narrative until it effects your family directly. and yes, like vaccine mandates, it will be hard to find anyone who will admit to greenlighting PBs and surgery for kids in 4-5 years...
Thank you for this Brad. I appreciate the hard work that goes into it.
I live in a liberal college town that is ground zero for this toxic gender ideology pushed through the K-12 public school system. The number of mostly young pre-teen and teen females claiming gender disphoria or trans identity is significantly over the national average. Not ironically so is the incidence of diagnosed depression and other mental health problems in the local K-12 student population.
We know the science is fake by our common sense and observation. These kids hit puberty and get awkward and hormonal. Many are a confused mess of emotional reactions they don't yet have the developed frontal lobe to process. The are on Instagram seeing the pretty and popular people, and lacking coping skills and understanding that they will grow and change over the next several years to become more comfortable in their skin, they do what young people do and over-react that they are different and don't fit in.
But instead of adults in the education system mentoring them to a calm place, the radicals in control exploit those strong childish emotions to push the kids into a toxic gender ideology that backs a political agenda. These radicals are evil.
The frustrating part is the lack of science speaking out against this. With this post I am a bit more hopeful that the tide is turning.
My compassion is for those who have been misled and often mutilated in the name of caring and who either choose to ignore or disbelieve science in favor of their misguided and evil gender ideology.
When the gender dysphoria death star implodes, as it must, there will be no consequences for the insane zealots who constructed it, no repercussions, and certainly no apologies, just as with the Russian collusion hoax, the Covid insanity etc etc......
Can you even imagine being the parents of these kids when they turn 21 or 25? I would never, ever, ever forgive my parents.
I pray sane and rational people heed this data as many of us have been saying from day 1. Europe seems to have awoken.
Transgenderism is real but exceedingly rare - less than one-quarter the number of flat-earthers globally. There is no known medical, including environmental, source or cause for clusters, leaving social contagion the most likely source. Ethical psychiatrists don't medicalize the condition in children or teen-agers. The brain is still developing until the age 24-26, most of those treated with talk therapy and, where needed, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications "grow out of" self-reported transgenderism. Many turn out to br gay.
When you hear "The science is settled," run, don't walk, away. Science is never settled. The speed of light is an upper limit, right? Maybe not. The speed of the effect of gravity has not been determined. There is anecdotal evidence that it is as much as 2.5c.
In 1985 I was offered a spot for an experiment on the International Space Station. I proposed an experiment to measure the effect of the speed of gravity, but did not have the time to develop and vet the protocols, despite access to the best scientists and engineers in the nation through the national labs. Without those the experiment would be useless. I withdrew it almost immediately.
The ideology is settled.
"[T]he trans agenda … is an effort to entrap children into a miserable life of despair to help normalize the mental illness of a very small number of adults."
Exactly.
My 3 brothers and I (four boys, I'm the oldest) were raised by a hard working (glorious) single mother. We went to 10-13 different schools growing up, with attendant struggles, most of them unique to our personalities. For the earlier grades I'd assess the environment and adopt personality quirks that would, in my young opinion, help me "fit in" to each new school, i.e. for my Greenwich Village 4th and 5th grade I'd raise my hand to answer the teacher's questions, for my majority black school I'd walk and talk "street", for my low-income majority white school in a former steel town, I stopped answering easy questions in class after a few fist fights with my (hulking) classmates accusing me of thinking I was "hot shit". Soon I discovered my best ways forward in new schools was to play dumb, act tough, and fight if necessary... eventually I learned my personal key to social acceptance and a sense of well being was to yell out jokes in class; one day in the 9th grade of a brutally bad school I was basking in the accolades of winning "Class Clown", and joyfully told my mother. She got mad, even though she knew the school sucked, and told me academics are important to escape poverty (the 5 of us lived in my grandmother's upstairs 1 bedroom area, our dining table a 6' piece of plywood over our bathtub), and I got furious at her. Years later I told her of course she was right. Any great loving wonderful glorious (liberal) supportive hard working great mother like mine who knew to mention a factoid about academics, would also know that I wouldn't be ready to shoot up chemicals and gulp meds and start slicing & dicing my body, and any parent who encourages this procedure on their under-18 year old children are mentally ill monsters, to a one. Most normal people know this whole thing involving kids is monstrous, and I'm betting it becomes the camel's nose in the tent of pendulum swings that need to happen, and quick.
This will go down as crime on par with the sterilization of the tribal people of Canada, the sterilization of the Sami in Sweden & other medical horrors that are recorded from this century & the previous centuries. Cries & accusations, horrors & finally apologizes but no real punishments nor restitutions. The p es truly responsible will avoid it all. Those who aided & abetted this will express remorse, possibly even select one of their less well favored to face a public persecution as a ritual sacrifice to exonerate the others.
One question of the demographics and the preponderance of girls. I bet if you get more granular regarding income groups and social glass the statistics become even more stark