I’ve got a dozen Google Docs, maxed out at something like a million characters each. Like any respectable magpie, I know where I’ve stashed different pieces of information that once had the power to surprise me. But I never sit down and read what I’ve gathered straight through. Because the tools at my disposal are modest, my focus is modest. I tinker in the shadows of The Thing itself. Take my thesis, the initial submission of which I finished—entirely coincidentally—on the day the Cass Report dropped. Over the course of two years, I looked at how one subpopulation handled one subject in one setting. Possible that I know this subject better than anybody else does. But in the scheme of things, it’s a stray footnote about a strange corner of the Internet and its unhappy denizens and the doubts they confessed and then disowned.
I’ve been in this for about six years with my FtM daughter. And yes, I’ve daydreamed of the day when the whole ugly horrid thing would be laid bare in the light of day.
But now that the day is here, I feel no relief. I feel sad and really effing angry.
For one thing, we’re in Canada where media, doctors, schools and most politicians still have their head in the sand. And my daughter is 20, so as an adult, she could still easily get whatever hormones or surgery she wants.
I am ultimately grateful for this thorough review. But I feel it’s a document for people in the next generation, when they want to understand what happened, rather than those of us struggling today.
This must be why I have been sad yesterday and today. Hoping my 19 year old college daughter finds this information - she is seven months on HRT and I can't look at her bearded face it hurts so much.
It all hurts so much, for all of the families and fractured relationships.
I will probably be this sad when she eventually comes out of this madness too.
I have lost so much.
Thank you for being a beacon of hope Miss Eliza!!!
"this whole movement within medicine was so senseless, so blind, and cut such a path of destruction through our societies."
I'm not so confident that past tense is appropriate here. We still have a long way to go before medical practice changes in the US and many other countries.
Finally, this terrible medical scandal is being brought to light. My daughter is now over 25--she hopped on the trans train in college. I don't hold out much hope for her--how often does one commit to a journey, hop on a train--and then do an about-face?
For parents in this sad camp, we place much hope on the detransitioners.
I am grateful for the Cass review, for more mentions in the media, for all of those who say something.
Thank you so much for your work, Eliza!
And then there are people I know in real life, the people we all know, let's call them people unscathed by gender ideology. Are they aware of any of this? Do they know about the Cass review, the WPATH file dump? No. They don't even have an idea what the acronym, WPATH, stands for. It is not in their feed.
Sure, we all share information as much as we can--but we are often met with disbelief, disinterest, or a mention of another family that someone knows who affirmed their daughter (whom they now call son), and this new son is so very happy being breastless, and passing (sort-of) for male.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the U.S. It's a billion dollar industry.
Many congratulations on your thesis. What a great accomplishment.
I am less optimistic that the Cass Review will really change things because I think people will just pivot, saying yeah, yeah, we went too far with the puberty blockers (which quite obviously is true!!). However, they aren't ready to realize the whole idea of "trans kids" and "trans teens" and even "trans people" (unless it simply means those who have socially and medically transitioned and are living "as if" they are the opposite sex) is the problem. They will state that puberty blockers have to be more carefully administered, but they won't say what really needs to be said. That is:
WE MUST STOP SOCIALLY AND MEDICALLY TRANSITIONING ANYONE WHO IS NOT MATURE ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WILL NEVER ACTUALLY BE THE OPPOSITE SEX, THAT THE MEDICAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN TRANSITION ARE QUITE EXTREME, MAKING THIS A RISKY CHOICE, AND THAT NOBODY IS INEVITABLY "TRANS." THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BEING "BORN IN THE WRONG BODY" OR HAVING A "MALE BRAIN IN A FEMALE BODY" OR VICE VERSA. THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO MIGHT END UP REASONABLY HAPPY AFTER CHANGING THEIR BODIES TO APPEAR THE OPPOSITE SEX AND LIVING "AS IF" THEY ARE THE OPPOSITE SEX, ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO GUARANTY THAT SUCH COSMETIC TREATMENTS AND LIVING "AS IF" ONE IS THE OPPOSITE SEX WILL MAKE LIFE ANY BETTER, ANY EASIER, OR ANY MORE OF A SUCCESS. THE CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH CHOICES, INCLUDING THE MANY MEDICAL COMPLICATIONS, ARE MANY, AND THE REWARDS ARE UNCLEAR. A FEW PEOPLE MAY POSSIBLY BE HAPPIER LIVING "AS IF" THEY ARE THE OPPOSITE SEX AND LOOKING LIKE THE OPPOSITE SEX, EITHER BECAUSE OF AN INHERENT NON-CONFORMITY PLUS A STRONG AVERSION TO BUCKING SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS, OR BECAUSE THEY REALLY ENJOY BEING PERCEIVED AS THE OPPOSITE SEX FOR SOME OTHER REASON, OR BECAUSE OF AN EXTREME FORM OF BODY DYSMORPHIA OR BOTH, BUT THAT'S A QUESTIONABLE PROPOSITION. IT WILL ALWAYS BE DIFFICULT TO LIVE A "STEALTH" LIFE WHERE ONE MUST PRETEND ONE WAS BORN WITH A DIFFERENT TYPE OF BODY (MALE OR FEMALE), AND, EVEN IF ONE IS OPEN ABOUT BEING "TRANS," THE MEDICAL ISSUES WILL ALWAYS BE A LARGE CONCERN. SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION AND STERILITY ARE NOT IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE, AND A FEW LUCKY PEOPLE MAY NOT BE SEXUALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL OR STERILE AFTER TRANSITION, BUT THIS IS A SERIOUS CONSIDERATION DESERVING OF MUCH THOUGHT. LONG-TERM USE OF EXOGENOUS HORMONES WILL HAVE A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON ANYONE EVENTUALLY. INFECTION RATES FROM THESE INVASIVE SURGERIES ARE ALL TOO COMMON.
Until anyone who wants to transition knows all of the above, and can really absorb it, I don't feel like anyone is truly consenting to such invasive cosmetic procedures. Until society acknowledges the above, I think it will continue to abuse vulnerable people, selling them a bag of lies, messing with their minds, and tinkering with their bodies.
So I am sad, because I think Hillary Cass did something extremely important, but I don't know if it will have the effect of stopping this medical scandal. It may just limit the use of puberty blockers - which is great, but not nearly enough, in my opinion. (That my trans-identified daughter is now 18 may have something to do with my point of view here.)
Let’s stop using some of ‘their’ terms. No more HRT. hormone replacement therapy. No these are not postmenopausal women replacing estrogen. These are people taking cross sex hormones. Let’s recover correct language. Language distortions are part of the madness.
I am so sorry the sadness over this report, this summation, has taken away what should be relief and joy over finishing your thesis. (Although of course the whole topic has been about excruciating issues.) Finishing!! That’s good news to my ears! It’s wonderful, no matter what else may go on. To me, your work sounds more like a PhD thesis than a Master’s. I want to believe your work will matter, it will not be an undiscovered little corner. That day might actually come, and you would then be recognized as the important contributor you are to the new understanding of this thing that crept up on us while we were trying to be caring people.
I have been in the process of mostly disengaging from the gender crisis for some time now- once I realized the feeling of catharsis and justice I was hoping for (which I guess would occur when “everyone” would realize the harm done?) would never arrive.
I just finished The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman, and your post made me think about how the fantasies of the French’s Plan 17 and the German’s Schlieffen Plan eventually crumbled and gave way to the harsh reality of years of agonizing, muddy trench warfare. The naive fantasy that some bold, carefully laid plan will solve some big, complicated issue quickly is so human- rather, what gets people through is constantly being able to course correct, think on their feet, rest and save their strength to push when truly needed, and keep their spirits up (seems the French ultimately had it right- élan vital!)
What this medical scandal has taught me is that we have been checked again in our naive trust in institutions, our arrogant self-belief in our technological mastery over our bodies and our societies, and in the danger in a lack of belief in something greater than ourselves.
All we can do is try to live by our values- this movement has been a wake up call to figure out what those values are.
(Weirdly- maybe you can draw a line from the catastrophe of WWI -> WWII -> cultural postmodernism -> queer theory -> to the trans medical scandal. Maybe that’s taking it a bit far. Or is it? WWI happened bc Kaiser Wilhelm and Berlin had Paris-identity-dysphoria. You heard it here first, folks! 😅).
Anywayyyys- I was SO glad to see that you created a Substack for your amazing photography, Eliza! I don’t live for this medical scandal (although I contribute some of my time to it)- ultimately, I live for art (including the art you share with us!). There’s this great quote above the entrance to the fine arts building in Chicago that says “All passes- Art alone endures.”
A bleak sadness comes across in your article. The subject matter is depressing enough: underlined by the Cass Review. But some of it might be the emptiness it's possible to feel on completion of a big effort like a thesis. (I remember long ago feeling unexpectedly depressed and purposeless after completing a blockbuster, rather than any sense of achievement.)
But congratulations anyway! And I hope your thesis is going to be really helpful to detransitioners: who seem to be cast out and disowned as soon as they shed damaging hopes and delusions.
Can you take a holiday and get away from it all? However briefly.
Congratulations, Eliza! Thank you for your academic and emotional devotion to this horrific topic and scandal. I can fully understand how difficult it is to celebrate, but I hope you can and that you know how important your voice has been to so many.
"Mad every step of the way. How could it possibly have cost so many people so much (relationships, livelihoods, body parts)? How has it dragged on so long?"
Amen to "mad", and good questions. Something of a serious "post mortem" -- sadly too accurate in too many cases -- is going to be required, not least because there were more than a few of the "usual suspects" who have contributed to that clusterfuck -- excuse my French. And one might reasonably suggest that Cass is still part of the problem herself since her Glossary has some definitions for a bunch of terms like "gender identity" and "gender fluid" ["have you changed yours lately?" 🙄] but she never does define exactly what she means by "gender" in the first place, at least there.
Maybe not surprising since virtually every last man, woman, and otherkin seems to have a different, incoherent, inconsistent, and/or quite antithetical definition for the term -- a cast of thousands of culprits from gender ideologues, to GC-feminists, to radfems, to "social scientists", and even to so-called biologists. For example, many people seem to "think" that "sex" and "gender" are synonymous. And too many others refuse to consider that there's any scientific or psychological merit in the latter.
Apropos of "social scientists", you might have some interest in a conference last September which ostensibly had the objective of reaching a consensus on that difference, but, on that score, it was pretty much of a bust except for the closing Roundtable 2 that featured "biologist" Carol Hooven and neuroscientist Daphna Joel:
Of particular note was an interjection of sorts by David Geary (at 15:51 or so) in the conversation between Hooven and Joel where he emphasized that he had "no idea what 'gender' means". If pros from Dover haven't a clue then how can barely pubescent teenagers not be totally confused? No wonder pretty much everyone is riding madly off in all directions.
But you might also have some interest in an older post by Marco Del Giudice, one of the organizers of that conference, on "Ideological Bias in the Psychology of Sex and Gender" -- bias, indeed. More like incoherent if not psychotic dogma -- the Trinity is more tractable. But of particular note therefrom and which underlines the contributions of various so-called biologists to that clusterfuck:
"On a deeper level, the 'patchwork' definition of sex used in the social sciences is purely descriptive and lacks a functional rationale. This contrasts sharply with how the sexes are defined in biology. From a biological standpoint, what distinguishes the males and females of a species is the size of their gametes: males produce small gametes (e.g., sperm), and females produce large gametes (e.g., eggs; Kodric-Brown & Brown, 1987)"
Entirely different definitions in the so-called "social sciences" and in biology. Sadly, too many so-called biologists are peddling rather self-serving definitions for the sexes that are only marginally better than folk-biology, if that.
Whole bunch of people deserve to be in the docket for the medical scandal that Cass and company have described in damning detail.
My biggest concern is that the Cass Report was needed.
All that research and investigation just to highlight what was obvious to so many – should that have been necessary?
Gender dysphoria is a subjective experience. Objective truth claims based on that subjective experience were asserted and taken seriously. Lies, social pressure, blackmail and lost jobs were all part of the strategy to support those truth claims.
In actual fact, I almost don’t care about the consequences of such poor reasoning and power plays; there will always BE negative consequences.
For the heart of this issue was always truth, language and power; it seems that truth and language – the great democratisers – finally lost in the battle against power. And this battle took place in the most esteemed organisations in the world.
If the Enlightenment principles are still with us, they’re on life support, and that is the real tragedy here.
I’ve been in this for about six years with my FtM daughter. And yes, I’ve daydreamed of the day when the whole ugly horrid thing would be laid bare in the light of day.
But now that the day is here, I feel no relief. I feel sad and really effing angry.
For one thing, we’re in Canada where media, doctors, schools and most politicians still have their head in the sand. And my daughter is 20, so as an adult, she could still easily get whatever hormones or surgery she wants.
I am ultimately grateful for this thorough review. But I feel it’s a document for people in the next generation, when they want to understand what happened, rather than those of us struggling today.
This must be why I have been sad yesterday and today. Hoping my 19 year old college daughter finds this information - she is seven months on HRT and I can't look at her bearded face it hurts so much.
It all hurts so much, for all of the families and fractured relationships.
I will probably be this sad when she eventually comes out of this madness too.
I have lost so much.
Thank you for being a beacon of hope Miss Eliza!!!
Congratulations on finishing your thesis!!!
"this whole movement within medicine was so senseless, so blind, and cut such a path of destruction through our societies."
I'm not so confident that past tense is appropriate here. We still have a long way to go before medical practice changes in the US and many other countries.
Finally, this terrible medical scandal is being brought to light. My daughter is now over 25--she hopped on the trans train in college. I don't hold out much hope for her--how often does one commit to a journey, hop on a train--and then do an about-face?
For parents in this sad camp, we place much hope on the detransitioners.
I am grateful for the Cass review, for more mentions in the media, for all of those who say something.
Thank you so much for your work, Eliza!
And then there are people I know in real life, the people we all know, let's call them people unscathed by gender ideology. Are they aware of any of this? Do they know about the Cass review, the WPATH file dump? No. They don't even have an idea what the acronym, WPATH, stands for. It is not in their feed.
Sure, we all share information as much as we can--but we are often met with disbelief, disinterest, or a mention of another family that someone knows who affirmed their daughter (whom they now call son), and this new son is so very happy being breastless, and passing (sort-of) for male.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the U.S. It's a billion dollar industry.
Many congratulations on your thesis. What a great accomplishment.
I am less optimistic that the Cass Review will really change things because I think people will just pivot, saying yeah, yeah, we went too far with the puberty blockers (which quite obviously is true!!). However, they aren't ready to realize the whole idea of "trans kids" and "trans teens" and even "trans people" (unless it simply means those who have socially and medically transitioned and are living "as if" they are the opposite sex) is the problem. They will state that puberty blockers have to be more carefully administered, but they won't say what really needs to be said. That is:
WE MUST STOP SOCIALLY AND MEDICALLY TRANSITIONING ANYONE WHO IS NOT MATURE ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WILL NEVER ACTUALLY BE THE OPPOSITE SEX, THAT THE MEDICAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN TRANSITION ARE QUITE EXTREME, MAKING THIS A RISKY CHOICE, AND THAT NOBODY IS INEVITABLY "TRANS." THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BEING "BORN IN THE WRONG BODY" OR HAVING A "MALE BRAIN IN A FEMALE BODY" OR VICE VERSA. THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO MIGHT END UP REASONABLY HAPPY AFTER CHANGING THEIR BODIES TO APPEAR THE OPPOSITE SEX AND LIVING "AS IF" THEY ARE THE OPPOSITE SEX, ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO GUARANTY THAT SUCH COSMETIC TREATMENTS AND LIVING "AS IF" ONE IS THE OPPOSITE SEX WILL MAKE LIFE ANY BETTER, ANY EASIER, OR ANY MORE OF A SUCCESS. THE CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH CHOICES, INCLUDING THE MANY MEDICAL COMPLICATIONS, ARE MANY, AND THE REWARDS ARE UNCLEAR. A FEW PEOPLE MAY POSSIBLY BE HAPPIER LIVING "AS IF" THEY ARE THE OPPOSITE SEX AND LOOKING LIKE THE OPPOSITE SEX, EITHER BECAUSE OF AN INHERENT NON-CONFORMITY PLUS A STRONG AVERSION TO BUCKING SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS, OR BECAUSE THEY REALLY ENJOY BEING PERCEIVED AS THE OPPOSITE SEX FOR SOME OTHER REASON, OR BECAUSE OF AN EXTREME FORM OF BODY DYSMORPHIA OR BOTH, BUT THAT'S A QUESTIONABLE PROPOSITION. IT WILL ALWAYS BE DIFFICULT TO LIVE A "STEALTH" LIFE WHERE ONE MUST PRETEND ONE WAS BORN WITH A DIFFERENT TYPE OF BODY (MALE OR FEMALE), AND, EVEN IF ONE IS OPEN ABOUT BEING "TRANS," THE MEDICAL ISSUES WILL ALWAYS BE A LARGE CONCERN. SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION AND STERILITY ARE NOT IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE, AND A FEW LUCKY PEOPLE MAY NOT BE SEXUALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL OR STERILE AFTER TRANSITION, BUT THIS IS A SERIOUS CONSIDERATION DESERVING OF MUCH THOUGHT. LONG-TERM USE OF EXOGENOUS HORMONES WILL HAVE A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON ANYONE EVENTUALLY. INFECTION RATES FROM THESE INVASIVE SURGERIES ARE ALL TOO COMMON.
Until anyone who wants to transition knows all of the above, and can really absorb it, I don't feel like anyone is truly consenting to such invasive cosmetic procedures. Until society acknowledges the above, I think it will continue to abuse vulnerable people, selling them a bag of lies, messing with their minds, and tinkering with their bodies.
So I am sad, because I think Hillary Cass did something extremely important, but I don't know if it will have the effect of stopping this medical scandal. It may just limit the use of puberty blockers - which is great, but not nearly enough, in my opinion. (That my trans-identified daughter is now 18 may have something to do with my point of view here.)
Congratulations on your thesis! After I finished mine it took years to fully realize I was finally done with grad school.
Let’s stop using some of ‘their’ terms. No more HRT. hormone replacement therapy. No these are not postmenopausal women replacing estrogen. These are people taking cross sex hormones. Let’s recover correct language. Language distortions are part of the madness.
I am so sorry the sadness over this report, this summation, has taken away what should be relief and joy over finishing your thesis. (Although of course the whole topic has been about excruciating issues.) Finishing!! That’s good news to my ears! It’s wonderful, no matter what else may go on. To me, your work sounds more like a PhD thesis than a Master’s. I want to believe your work will matter, it will not be an undiscovered little corner. That day might actually come, and you would then be recognized as the important contributor you are to the new understanding of this thing that crept up on us while we were trying to be caring people.
I have been in the process of mostly disengaging from the gender crisis for some time now- once I realized the feeling of catharsis and justice I was hoping for (which I guess would occur when “everyone” would realize the harm done?) would never arrive.
I just finished The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman, and your post made me think about how the fantasies of the French’s Plan 17 and the German’s Schlieffen Plan eventually crumbled and gave way to the harsh reality of years of agonizing, muddy trench warfare. The naive fantasy that some bold, carefully laid plan will solve some big, complicated issue quickly is so human- rather, what gets people through is constantly being able to course correct, think on their feet, rest and save their strength to push when truly needed, and keep their spirits up (seems the French ultimately had it right- élan vital!)
What this medical scandal has taught me is that we have been checked again in our naive trust in institutions, our arrogant self-belief in our technological mastery over our bodies and our societies, and in the danger in a lack of belief in something greater than ourselves.
All we can do is try to live by our values- this movement has been a wake up call to figure out what those values are.
(Weirdly- maybe you can draw a line from the catastrophe of WWI -> WWII -> cultural postmodernism -> queer theory -> to the trans medical scandal. Maybe that’s taking it a bit far. Or is it? WWI happened bc Kaiser Wilhelm and Berlin had Paris-identity-dysphoria. You heard it here first, folks! 😅).
Anywayyyys- I was SO glad to see that you created a Substack for your amazing photography, Eliza! I don’t live for this medical scandal (although I contribute some of my time to it)- ultimately, I live for art (including the art you share with us!). There’s this great quote above the entrance to the fine arts building in Chicago that says “All passes- Art alone endures.”
Thank you for all you have sacrified and accomplished.
"It would've been better to have been wrong about something so grim."
That's one of the deepest, saddest things I've ever read.
A bleak sadness comes across in your article. The subject matter is depressing enough: underlined by the Cass Review. But some of it might be the emptiness it's possible to feel on completion of a big effort like a thesis. (I remember long ago feeling unexpectedly depressed and purposeless after completing a blockbuster, rather than any sense of achievement.)
But congratulations anyway! And I hope your thesis is going to be really helpful to detransitioners: who seem to be cast out and disowned as soon as they shed damaging hopes and delusions.
Can you take a holiday and get away from it all? However briefly.
Congratulations, Eliza! Thank you for your academic and emotional devotion to this horrific topic and scandal. I can fully understand how difficult it is to celebrate, but I hope you can and that you know how important your voice has been to so many.
"Mad every step of the way. How could it possibly have cost so many people so much (relationships, livelihoods, body parts)? How has it dragged on so long?"
Amen to "mad", and good questions. Something of a serious "post mortem" -- sadly too accurate in too many cases -- is going to be required, not least because there were more than a few of the "usual suspects" who have contributed to that clusterfuck -- excuse my French. And one might reasonably suggest that Cass is still part of the problem herself since her Glossary has some definitions for a bunch of terms like "gender identity" and "gender fluid" ["have you changed yours lately?" 🙄] but she never does define exactly what she means by "gender" in the first place, at least there.
Maybe not surprising since virtually every last man, woman, and otherkin seems to have a different, incoherent, inconsistent, and/or quite antithetical definition for the term -- a cast of thousands of culprits from gender ideologues, to GC-feminists, to radfems, to "social scientists", and even to so-called biologists. For example, many people seem to "think" that "sex" and "gender" are synonymous. And too many others refuse to consider that there's any scientific or psychological merit in the latter.
Apropos of "social scientists", you might have some interest in a conference last September which ostensibly had the objective of reaching a consensus on that difference, but, on that score, it was pretty much of a bust except for the closing Roundtable 2 that featured "biologist" Carol Hooven and neuroscientist Daphna Joel:
https://santafeboys.org/the-big-conversation-program/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRW_II_-iFY&t=758s
Of particular note was an interjection of sorts by David Geary (at 15:51 or so) in the conversation between Hooven and Joel where he emphasized that he had "no idea what 'gender' means". If pros from Dover haven't a clue then how can barely pubescent teenagers not be totally confused? No wonder pretty much everyone is riding madly off in all directions.
But you might also have some interest in an older post by Marco Del Giudice, one of the organizers of that conference, on "Ideological Bias in the Psychology of Sex and Gender" -- bias, indeed. More like incoherent if not psychotic dogma -- the Trinity is more tractable. But of particular note therefrom and which underlines the contributions of various so-called biologists to that clusterfuck:
"On a deeper level, the 'patchwork' definition of sex used in the social sciences is purely descriptive and lacks a functional rationale. This contrasts sharply with how the sexes are defined in biology. From a biological standpoint, what distinguishes the males and females of a species is the size of their gametes: males produce small gametes (e.g., sperm), and females produce large gametes (e.g., eggs; Kodric-Brown & Brown, 1987)"
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346447193_Ideological_Bias_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_and_Gender
Entirely different definitions in the so-called "social sciences" and in biology. Sadly, too many so-called biologists are peddling rather self-serving definitions for the sexes that are only marginally better than folk-biology, if that.
Whole bunch of people deserve to be in the docket for the medical scandal that Cass and company have described in damning detail.
My biggest concern is that the Cass Report was needed.
All that research and investigation just to highlight what was obvious to so many – should that have been necessary?
Gender dysphoria is a subjective experience. Objective truth claims based on that subjective experience were asserted and taken seriously. Lies, social pressure, blackmail and lost jobs were all part of the strategy to support those truth claims.
In actual fact, I almost don’t care about the consequences of such poor reasoning and power plays; there will always BE negative consequences.
For the heart of this issue was always truth, language and power; it seems that truth and language – the great democratisers – finally lost in the battle against power. And this battle took place in the most esteemed organisations in the world.
If the Enlightenment principles are still with us, they’re on life support, and that is the real tragedy here.