‘Trans genocide’ is back. And that means we need to talk about phobia indoctrination again—because there’s no trans genocide. Claims of ‘trans genocide’ rest on two pillars. The first is the idea that ‘trans’ pharmaceuticals and surgeries are life-saving, therefore regulations that restrict access in any way—such as by removing public funding or opening providers up to malpractice suits—are by definition life-threatening. (Never mind that the evidence doesn't support the idea that transition is life-saving.)
I was a gender non-conforming child raised in Thailand, a culture that recognizes this cross-dressing phenomena with its own third gender tradition. This tradition rests on the concept that we are all born with karma from a previous life. I was enormously empowered when my aunt told me, at the age of 8 that I had the spirit of a boy. It made me feel like I had a reason for being and a destiny to unravel that was unique to this past life and that my family would honor this past and also gently shepherd me into my unfamiliar female body which would offer me new lessons to learn in this life. I immigrated to the U.S. shortly after and came of age as a butch lesbian which I am to this day. That was in the '70s when things still made sense.
So this brand new American interpretation of the "trans child" as somehow a biological aberration is running roughshod over my entire cultural upbringing. It feels, not only like a cultural appropriation, but a Western medical abomination. Western medicine being a big cultural difference to Asian medicine. Ironically Thailand was the sex change capital of the world until the U.S. took over. Thai people understand this to be plastic surgery to enhance one's presentation just as it is for women wanting to enhance and preserve their beauty (a big industry in Thailand). We never claimed that this cross-dressing population was anything but the sex they were born, and most if not all are gay.
To watch this trans issue become a focal point of political rhetoric now polarizing the population here in the U.S. is equally alarming for Thailand is also the country of perpetual coups, but at least we are used to the temporary destabilization. The last one nearly completely trashed the emerging embracing of democracy as a citizen participation activity. Freedom of information is once again severely monitored and protests are carefully watched. But compared to this constant mindfuckery I find it quite peaceful and I look forward to clearing my head and breathing easier every time I return.
Meanwhile, here in the Bay Area, I stay engaged hoping to pierce some sense into those going along with this cult, which is just about everyone I know from the gay community. At least I can hammer on them with facts and news about what is going on. No one is bothering to look beyond the social justice slogans. Thank you for this article being both breaking news and analysis. It has prompted me to see deeper into the psyche of this coup.
Eliza, great work as usual but I'd like to add another set of lenses. You may recall some weeks back I wrote about incentives, and I think that also helps us understand the "trans genocide" meme.
In contemporary progressive discourse, moral authority is gained by having oppressed, intersectional identities, with "transwomen of color" probably winning the top prize. Being a middle class, white, cisgender, straight kid gives you no authenticity, no moral authority, and a great deal of unearned responsibility for everything from racism to climate change. So what better way to shed yourself of "white privilege" or "cisheteronormativity" than being a potential victim of LITERAL GENOCIDE?
That's one set of incentives. The other is, well, where we are right now, which is the internet. A few internet communities reward and validate reason, compromise, moderation in speech and thought, genuine reflection upon the other's point of view, and so on. But most don't, as you well know- most internet spaces reward the most emotionally charged claims, and this is by design. The algorithms at the big tech companies push the emotionally charged claims/memes/articles because that keeps us engaged on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, etc. In turn, this creates a cycle of one-upmanship, where "these laws are unreasonable and may have bad outcomes" is outdone by "the GOP is racist and transphobic" which leads to "Republicans are FASCISTS" and onward to "they're literally GENOCIDING US." That's the logic of online discourse- the biggest flame wins the most attention.
This is not to say that phobia indoctrination isn't real- of course it is- it's to say that phobia indoctrination is hypercharged when it's enmeshed in the weird incentives of progressive politics and the evil algorithms of Big Tech.
If we were all sitting around in a coffee shop and someone said, "I'm being genocided by Ron Desantis", we'd all say, let's get you some decaf, c'mon, you're right here and you're fine. That's the opposite of online discourse, right?
Those of us who've divorced a husband after he went down the glitter rabbit hole are familiar with this rhetoric on a personal level. As FR Prete said a short time ago here, this is all DARVO; overblown word salad to distract from the mother erasure and female erasure these men engage in within families, sports and society. The states passing laws to restrict the medicalization of children exhibiting this psychiatric illness, a social contagion, are advised to find catchy descriptors for their legislation and get it out on the airwaves. Ironically, I wouldn't be surprised if a rash of detransitioning is coming. On the personal level, my soon-to-be ex husband claimed I "forcibly ejected" him from our home in court documents and that I assaulted him twice, in sworn affidavits--a ploy to get custody of our two sons. He moved out when we were 900 miles away in another state. He is more than 4 inches taller than me and I would have been quite battered if he'd had to defend himself from my fists. It is a habit they have, connected to the pathological narcissism. Wrong sex hormones do shrink the brain, the evidence tells us.
Feb 6, 2023·edited Feb 6, 2023Liked by Eliza Mondegreen
I don't see transgenderism as being a 20th century phenomenon. I believe trans people have always been with us -- that is, if you define a trans person as someone who wants to be the opposite sex. Western culture has, I'm sure, always been intolerant of them, but there are probably other cultures that tolerated them to some extent, Eastern cultures especially. In ages when surgery wasn't possible, such people would have limited themselves to dressing and acting like the opposite sex. Even so, it is pretty disingenuous of any person in a Western culture to speak of "transcestors".
It seems to me that the chief weapon that trans activists have used to convince the public that they must be given everything they want is the idea that trans people suffer so much that they are always on the verge of suicide. I do think it's true that suicide is more prevalent among trans people, but that's to be expected when you believe you are something you are not -- i.e., a man who thinks he's a woman, or vice versa. Clearly, these people have psychological problems. Even so, to claim that you suffer more than other people is pretty nervy given the amount of suffering that human beings in general endure.
We also need to remember that many trans people are not trans at all. They are people with other psychological problems who have glommed onto the idea of being trans because it suits their emotional needs. Indeed, it's pretty infuriating to think that a lot of those people who are blocking the doorways at lectures, or shaming others for not believing in gender identity, or talking about their "transcestors" are not even trans, just confused.
Most days I just wish for some friggin clarity on these matters.
Is it my 'ancient' brain that simply can't process concepts like 'gender' or 'gender identity' or 'authentic self' or whatever 'non-binary' is supposed to mean?
And I have no idea how to 'identify' **AS** something.
Although I'm essentially retired now (a bit early - I really need to get back to work) I have been for most of my career a theoretical physicist engaged in academic and industrial research. I'm used to starting with 'axioms' (or laws) and figuring out the *consequences* of these in various scenarios. I try to do a similar job with the 'axioms' of gender ideology and end up getting quickly unstuck - the bloody stuff just doesn't make any kind of sense to me.
Stuck in the middle of all this are human beings who, for one reason or another, have convinced themselves they 'really' **are** the opposite sex in what seems to me to be in some mystical fashion, similar to the assumption of the existence of a soul.
Might be true. Might not be true. But one thing is absolutely 100% certain - we don't have anything like a firm enough understanding of the phenomenon to be so certain that things like "affirming" therapy are the one-size-fits-all gold standard of treatment - particularly when it comes to children. Especially when it comes to children. Their identities are not fully formed, and are very responsive/adaptive to their environment and the people guiding them - and it's debatable that adults have a 'fully-formed' identity either.
As a parent myself, I consider it a great blessing that my kids have grown up in saner times. I try to imagine the absolute terror had one of my daughters come home from school one day and told me they 'were' a boy. Transphobic? Possibly - but the thought of my child undergoing traumatic surgery and living a life on medication would scare the shit out me. It certainly wouldn't be any cause for *celebration*.
I'd rather see 'talking' therapies being used to steer people away from this medicalization, and if this is deemed to be trans 'genocide', then I'm all for it. I'd much rather pay Freud than Frankenstein.
It's just so DARVO. The only agents of genocide are the medical corporations and their program of mass self-sterilization, sexual mutilation surgeries, and metabolic diseases caused by huge doses of wrong sex steroids. For PROFIT. The tranz are committing slow suicide and have been directed to target the people trying to stop the eugenic atrocity as the cause of their distress.
I love that story of adding sparkles on top. It shows his spirit and refusal to be put on the defensive. You are reminding me of so many incidences where my collective family supported my gender non-conforming choices from my choice of toys (a gun to play cops and robbers) to my request for trousers with pockets. Your gentle guidance about what others might think being informative rather than restrictive. As an old timer I rarely got to hear such stories of support for a gay child which is why all this trans affirming support just feels doubly wrong. It is so clearly a scripted narrative that eclipses organic preferences. I certainly wanted support as a teen for my emerging sexuality, but the trans narrative demands another level of thought. It forces them to take up the belief that being gender non-conforming is not a matter of preference, but a symptom of being biologically incorrect. I don't believe that a young person would come up with that themselves.
One small point of disagreement, when you say Trump's proposals include
"investigating pharmaceutical companies and hospital networks for suppressing negative transition outcomes to controversial ones like banning pharmaceutical and surgical interventions for minors"
the latter should not be controversial. Indeed the two parts are closely linked. If the medical-pharmaceutical complex is presenting transition as a cure for psychological and emotional distress, and asking children too young to buy a beer or get a tattoo to consent to removal of healthy organs, removal of fertility, anorgasmia, lifelong medicalisation, and in the case of girls, premature menopause, when they are too young to understand the concepts, then banning them seems a rational response.
The sad thing is, such hysterical reactions may end up being an awful self-fulfilled prophecy. If TRA and trans people actually believe that Trump's words amount to genocide, then if Trump gets elected , there may be a huge increases in suicide, especially among the young. The kool-aid drinking analogy sounds even scarier now. As much as I am grateful to people on the right who are fighting this , we cannot destroy this cult (while hopefully saving every single deluded member) without good science and honest politicians and journalists on the left.
I very much doubt that even Trump called for "trans genocide". I certainly hope the US can get rid of Biden, Harris and Co. in 2024. I don't know much about de Santis, and, anyway, I can't vote. I'm waiting for my own people to kick Trandeau to the curb. Please!
TRAs accusing others of wanting their genocide smacks of projection to me.
I saw a video clip on Twitter yesterday of a young white man with sparkly eye-shadow and pig tails (so presumably 'trans') declaring that no one should be 'cis' at it was the equivalent of clubbing baby seals.
This fringe whackery is good for a chuckle, but if we add it to the recently much discussed Scottish 'decapitate all terfs' protest sign along with all the other violent rhetoric targeting GC people, I wonder: 'who wants to genocide whom?'
I've tried listening to it several times but always get bored -- though people whose judgment I trust have raved about it - anyway, the guy who made the Martyr Made podcast about Jim Jones' People's Temple (the original koolaid drinkers, literal not metaphorical) has said he sees tremendous parallels between that cult and its ratcheting paranoid rhetoric of external threat (deployed to police cult members' doubts) and gender ideology. Since gender ideology has adherents in many mainstream institutions, not just in an isolated compound in Guyana, if they really come to believe the End is Nigh the number of people they may be willing to take down with them could be frighteningly enormous.
This rhetoric is obviously ridiculous, although the number of people who buy into it (including my own kid) is scary. One thing that I think would be helpful would be for gender-critical groups and especially candidates to clearly state their positions, both what they believe should be done and should not be done. For example, I think nearly all of us would agree that people should be free to dress in whatever clothing they want, regardless of whether it is traditional for their sex or not, under most circumstances. (Should there be exceptions? Probably, and we’d need to outline those.) We can all agree that no one should be subject to arrest or violence for dressing in a manner or participating in activities traditionally associated with the opposite sex. We can probably also state that housing and job discrimination against gender nonconforming people should be illegal. We should allow people currently receiving medical treatments for gender dysphoria to continue their current treatment. We should allow families to make decisions about social transitions of minors without government interference. We should as much as possible protect trans people in situations where they might be vulnerable or subject to bias, without infringing in the rights of others (eg. house them in a prison unit away from the general population as they would for someone who is a known informer or who is disabled). We should allow adults who have received intensive counseling to initiate medical transition if desired. (I’m stating my own opinions here, yours may be different.) If those types of things are clearly stated up front, along with the proposed limitations (no medical transitions for minors, physical sex is still the deciding factor for locker rooms, prisons, and sports teams), it becomes a lot harder for these groups to convince reasonable but uninformed people (I.e. most of the population) that they are victims and we are all violent bigots.
Honestly, the trans movement is SO good at spreading propaganda and lies and practicing tactics of undue influence. Our side needs to get smarter about how to counteract those tactics and spread the truth as effectively as they are spreading lies. So far we have not been very good at demonstrating what’s really happening and more and more of the uninformed are believing the lies.
I was a gender non-conforming child raised in Thailand, a culture that recognizes this cross-dressing phenomena with its own third gender tradition. This tradition rests on the concept that we are all born with karma from a previous life. I was enormously empowered when my aunt told me, at the age of 8 that I had the spirit of a boy. It made me feel like I had a reason for being and a destiny to unravel that was unique to this past life and that my family would honor this past and also gently shepherd me into my unfamiliar female body which would offer me new lessons to learn in this life. I immigrated to the U.S. shortly after and came of age as a butch lesbian which I am to this day. That was in the '70s when things still made sense.
So this brand new American interpretation of the "trans child" as somehow a biological aberration is running roughshod over my entire cultural upbringing. It feels, not only like a cultural appropriation, but a Western medical abomination. Western medicine being a big cultural difference to Asian medicine. Ironically Thailand was the sex change capital of the world until the U.S. took over. Thai people understand this to be plastic surgery to enhance one's presentation just as it is for women wanting to enhance and preserve their beauty (a big industry in Thailand). We never claimed that this cross-dressing population was anything but the sex they were born, and most if not all are gay.
To watch this trans issue become a focal point of political rhetoric now polarizing the population here in the U.S. is equally alarming for Thailand is also the country of perpetual coups, but at least we are used to the temporary destabilization. The last one nearly completely trashed the emerging embracing of democracy as a citizen participation activity. Freedom of information is once again severely monitored and protests are carefully watched. But compared to this constant mindfuckery I find it quite peaceful and I look forward to clearing my head and breathing easier every time I return.
Meanwhile, here in the Bay Area, I stay engaged hoping to pierce some sense into those going along with this cult, which is just about everyone I know from the gay community. At least I can hammer on them with facts and news about what is going on. No one is bothering to look beyond the social justice slogans. Thank you for this article being both breaking news and analysis. It has prompted me to see deeper into the psyche of this coup.
Eliza, great work as usual but I'd like to add another set of lenses. You may recall some weeks back I wrote about incentives, and I think that also helps us understand the "trans genocide" meme.
In contemporary progressive discourse, moral authority is gained by having oppressed, intersectional identities, with "transwomen of color" probably winning the top prize. Being a middle class, white, cisgender, straight kid gives you no authenticity, no moral authority, and a great deal of unearned responsibility for everything from racism to climate change. So what better way to shed yourself of "white privilege" or "cisheteronormativity" than being a potential victim of LITERAL GENOCIDE?
That's one set of incentives. The other is, well, where we are right now, which is the internet. A few internet communities reward and validate reason, compromise, moderation in speech and thought, genuine reflection upon the other's point of view, and so on. But most don't, as you well know- most internet spaces reward the most emotionally charged claims, and this is by design. The algorithms at the big tech companies push the emotionally charged claims/memes/articles because that keeps us engaged on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, etc. In turn, this creates a cycle of one-upmanship, where "these laws are unreasonable and may have bad outcomes" is outdone by "the GOP is racist and transphobic" which leads to "Republicans are FASCISTS" and onward to "they're literally GENOCIDING US." That's the logic of online discourse- the biggest flame wins the most attention.
This is not to say that phobia indoctrination isn't real- of course it is- it's to say that phobia indoctrination is hypercharged when it's enmeshed in the weird incentives of progressive politics and the evil algorithms of Big Tech.
If we were all sitting around in a coffee shop and someone said, "I'm being genocided by Ron Desantis", we'd all say, let's get you some decaf, c'mon, you're right here and you're fine. That's the opposite of online discourse, right?
Blech.
Those of us who've divorced a husband after he went down the glitter rabbit hole are familiar with this rhetoric on a personal level. As FR Prete said a short time ago here, this is all DARVO; overblown word salad to distract from the mother erasure and female erasure these men engage in within families, sports and society. The states passing laws to restrict the medicalization of children exhibiting this psychiatric illness, a social contagion, are advised to find catchy descriptors for their legislation and get it out on the airwaves. Ironically, I wouldn't be surprised if a rash of detransitioning is coming. On the personal level, my soon-to-be ex husband claimed I "forcibly ejected" him from our home in court documents and that I assaulted him twice, in sworn affidavits--a ploy to get custody of our two sons. He moved out when we were 900 miles away in another state. He is more than 4 inches taller than me and I would have been quite battered if he'd had to defend himself from my fists. It is a habit they have, connected to the pathological narcissism. Wrong sex hormones do shrink the brain, the evidence tells us.
I don't see transgenderism as being a 20th century phenomenon. I believe trans people have always been with us -- that is, if you define a trans person as someone who wants to be the opposite sex. Western culture has, I'm sure, always been intolerant of them, but there are probably other cultures that tolerated them to some extent, Eastern cultures especially. In ages when surgery wasn't possible, such people would have limited themselves to dressing and acting like the opposite sex. Even so, it is pretty disingenuous of any person in a Western culture to speak of "transcestors".
It seems to me that the chief weapon that trans activists have used to convince the public that they must be given everything they want is the idea that trans people suffer so much that they are always on the verge of suicide. I do think it's true that suicide is more prevalent among trans people, but that's to be expected when you believe you are something you are not -- i.e., a man who thinks he's a woman, or vice versa. Clearly, these people have psychological problems. Even so, to claim that you suffer more than other people is pretty nervy given the amount of suffering that human beings in general endure.
We also need to remember that many trans people are not trans at all. They are people with other psychological problems who have glommed onto the idea of being trans because it suits their emotional needs. Indeed, it's pretty infuriating to think that a lot of those people who are blocking the doorways at lectures, or shaming others for not believing in gender identity, or talking about their "transcestors" are not even trans, just confused.
Most days I just wish for some friggin clarity on these matters.
Is it my 'ancient' brain that simply can't process concepts like 'gender' or 'gender identity' or 'authentic self' or whatever 'non-binary' is supposed to mean?
And I have no idea how to 'identify' **AS** something.
Although I'm essentially retired now (a bit early - I really need to get back to work) I have been for most of my career a theoretical physicist engaged in academic and industrial research. I'm used to starting with 'axioms' (or laws) and figuring out the *consequences* of these in various scenarios. I try to do a similar job with the 'axioms' of gender ideology and end up getting quickly unstuck - the bloody stuff just doesn't make any kind of sense to me.
Stuck in the middle of all this are human beings who, for one reason or another, have convinced themselves they 'really' **are** the opposite sex in what seems to me to be in some mystical fashion, similar to the assumption of the existence of a soul.
Might be true. Might not be true. But one thing is absolutely 100% certain - we don't have anything like a firm enough understanding of the phenomenon to be so certain that things like "affirming" therapy are the one-size-fits-all gold standard of treatment - particularly when it comes to children. Especially when it comes to children. Their identities are not fully formed, and are very responsive/adaptive to their environment and the people guiding them - and it's debatable that adults have a 'fully-formed' identity either.
As a parent myself, I consider it a great blessing that my kids have grown up in saner times. I try to imagine the absolute terror had one of my daughters come home from school one day and told me they 'were' a boy. Transphobic? Possibly - but the thought of my child undergoing traumatic surgery and living a life on medication would scare the shit out me. It certainly wouldn't be any cause for *celebration*.
I'd rather see 'talking' therapies being used to steer people away from this medicalization, and if this is deemed to be trans 'genocide', then I'm all for it. I'd much rather pay Freud than Frankenstein.
It's just so DARVO. The only agents of genocide are the medical corporations and their program of mass self-sterilization, sexual mutilation surgeries, and metabolic diseases caused by huge doses of wrong sex steroids. For PROFIT. The tranz are committing slow suicide and have been directed to target the people trying to stop the eugenic atrocity as the cause of their distress.
I love that story of adding sparkles on top. It shows his spirit and refusal to be put on the defensive. You are reminding me of so many incidences where my collective family supported my gender non-conforming choices from my choice of toys (a gun to play cops and robbers) to my request for trousers with pockets. Your gentle guidance about what others might think being informative rather than restrictive. As an old timer I rarely got to hear such stories of support for a gay child which is why all this trans affirming support just feels doubly wrong. It is so clearly a scripted narrative that eclipses organic preferences. I certainly wanted support as a teen for my emerging sexuality, but the trans narrative demands another level of thought. It forces them to take up the belief that being gender non-conforming is not a matter of preference, but a symptom of being biologically incorrect. I don't believe that a young person would come up with that themselves.
One small point of disagreement, when you say Trump's proposals include
"investigating pharmaceutical companies and hospital networks for suppressing negative transition outcomes to controversial ones like banning pharmaceutical and surgical interventions for minors"
the latter should not be controversial. Indeed the two parts are closely linked. If the medical-pharmaceutical complex is presenting transition as a cure for psychological and emotional distress, and asking children too young to buy a beer or get a tattoo to consent to removal of healthy organs, removal of fertility, anorgasmia, lifelong medicalisation, and in the case of girls, premature menopause, when they are too young to understand the concepts, then banning them seems a rational response.
there is no such thing as someone who is truly trans. transition is impossible. no one can change sex. the whole thing is just rock solid lunacy.
The sad thing is, such hysterical reactions may end up being an awful self-fulfilled prophecy. If TRA and trans people actually believe that Trump's words amount to genocide, then if Trump gets elected , there may be a huge increases in suicide, especially among the young. The kool-aid drinking analogy sounds even scarier now. As much as I am grateful to people on the right who are fighting this , we cannot destroy this cult (while hopefully saving every single deluded member) without good science and honest politicians and journalists on the left.
Thank you. Thoughtful and thought provoking!
I very much doubt that even Trump called for "trans genocide". I certainly hope the US can get rid of Biden, Harris and Co. in 2024. I don't know much about de Santis, and, anyway, I can't vote. I'm waiting for my own people to kick Trandeau to the curb. Please!
TRAs accusing others of wanting their genocide smacks of projection to me.
I saw a video clip on Twitter yesterday of a young white man with sparkly eye-shadow and pig tails (so presumably 'trans') declaring that no one should be 'cis' at it was the equivalent of clubbing baby seals.
This fringe whackery is good for a chuckle, but if we add it to the recently much discussed Scottish 'decapitate all terfs' protest sign along with all the other violent rhetoric targeting GC people, I wonder: 'who wants to genocide whom?'
I've tried listening to it several times but always get bored -- though people whose judgment I trust have raved about it - anyway, the guy who made the Martyr Made podcast about Jim Jones' People's Temple (the original koolaid drinkers, literal not metaphorical) has said he sees tremendous parallels between that cult and its ratcheting paranoid rhetoric of external threat (deployed to police cult members' doubts) and gender ideology. Since gender ideology has adherents in many mainstream institutions, not just in an isolated compound in Guyana, if they really come to believe the End is Nigh the number of people they may be willing to take down with them could be frighteningly enormous.
To say that these people are undergoing genocide is demeaning the term . But then again, these people don’t care for truth.
This rhetoric is obviously ridiculous, although the number of people who buy into it (including my own kid) is scary. One thing that I think would be helpful would be for gender-critical groups and especially candidates to clearly state their positions, both what they believe should be done and should not be done. For example, I think nearly all of us would agree that people should be free to dress in whatever clothing they want, regardless of whether it is traditional for their sex or not, under most circumstances. (Should there be exceptions? Probably, and we’d need to outline those.) We can all agree that no one should be subject to arrest or violence for dressing in a manner or participating in activities traditionally associated with the opposite sex. We can probably also state that housing and job discrimination against gender nonconforming people should be illegal. We should allow people currently receiving medical treatments for gender dysphoria to continue their current treatment. We should allow families to make decisions about social transitions of minors without government interference. We should as much as possible protect trans people in situations where they might be vulnerable or subject to bias, without infringing in the rights of others (eg. house them in a prison unit away from the general population as they would for someone who is a known informer or who is disabled). We should allow adults who have received intensive counseling to initiate medical transition if desired. (I’m stating my own opinions here, yours may be different.) If those types of things are clearly stated up front, along with the proposed limitations (no medical transitions for minors, physical sex is still the deciding factor for locker rooms, prisons, and sports teams), it becomes a lot harder for these groups to convince reasonable but uninformed people (I.e. most of the population) that they are victims and we are all violent bigots.
Honestly, the trans movement is SO good at spreading propaganda and lies and practicing tactics of undue influence. Our side needs to get smarter about how to counteract those tactics and spread the truth as effectively as they are spreading lies. So far we have not been very good at demonstrating what’s really happening and more and more of the uninformed are believing the lies.