The question of how history will remember that time we chemically castrated a bunch of gender-confused kids and claimed women could have penises comes up a lot… My answer? I don’t know. It could go either way. Medical scandals tend to sink quietly into the murky depths, rather than blow up. Remember the big public reckoning over lobotomies? Yeah, me neither.
You may be right that few medical and other leaders will be held accountable for all the harm that their leadership has caused; however, history eventually will judge this correctly as the scandal it is, just as it judges lobotomies that way, even if no one got fired for doing them. We can look at the opioid epidemic and see that it didn't take too long for moral clarity to reassert itself. In that case, those punished most were the drug companies. Perhaps that will happen again with the companies churning out puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children.
Despite my pessimism, I think you make a good point about the opioid crisis, and it is in our recent memory. So that does give me some hope about perceptions changing quickly and leading to at least better medical practice. I do think the medical establishment itself was let off the hook for that scandal, as they will likely be for this scandal of drugging and mutilating kids. I mean, we have known for CENTURIES how powerful and destructive opioids can be! How could medicine itself have had so little accountability? I want to listen to the podcast Eliza shares from the Wider Lens to understand this concept of the chain of trust. But there is also another significant difference—pushing those drugs was never framed as a civil rights issue, no culture war was created. We truly are in new waters and how this all will evolve is still guesswork.
Sadly, I think Eiza is probably right in her reading of the tea leaves. Things didn't turn so great for Cassandra, after all. Being right about this is not only cold comfort in the present, but I don't hold out much hope for being "vindicated” in some lovely future where we are celebrated and are given ample shelves in the Library of History. I just don’t see the cake and balloons coming--let alone the just platforming of feminists and others who have been fighting this tragedy. My former band mates who think I am in league with the Proud Boys (because I don’t think male rapists should be in prison with women and wrote a song about it) may come to see the truth as the media narrative changes, but I doubt they will ever forgive me for the “harm” I have caused them. They will more likely believe I am “right for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way” as Eliza puts it so well. Having gloomed out a bit, I also hope I am wrong, at least about my friends who I still love.
There are so many examples of people getting swept up in collective madness whether it's gender ideology, Satanic Panic, or war. In our madness, our memories for things like state sanctioned medical abuse (lobotomies, thalidomide, Tuskegee syphilis experiments, institutionalization of people with disabilities) fade and suddenly we've never been more sure that the medical field is without blemish and doctors are infallible. Those of us that say "hold on, wait a minute, let's talk about this" are dismissed as hateful or maliciously ignorant in our attempts to stem the tide. Our culture doesn't really encourage independent thought, reasoned debate, or slow progress and doesn't really leave room for people to make mistakes or change their minds either; I think it would take a monumental shift in our cultural values for any of that to change.
Here is a current ( Jan 4th 2023) article from Medscape, which a lot of physicians read, describing the climate around detransitioners. This adds some insight into the barriers to even getting studies done: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/986476
I agree with you, Eliza, but I have a smidgeon of hope in that we have so much evidence. We aren’t talking over our fences, we’ve got the ACLUs tweets. We have the UNWomen’s thoughts on how Women are formless.
But we have to hold some people to account and I am very worried about our (collective) short attention span.
I really think this coming US election is going to be so important. We need a strong collective NO that is indisputable.
You may be right that few medical and other leaders will be held accountable for all the harm that their leadership has caused; however, history eventually will judge this correctly as the scandal it is, just as it judges lobotomies that way, even if no one got fired for doing them. We can look at the opioid epidemic and see that it didn't take too long for moral clarity to reassert itself. In that case, those punished most were the drug companies. Perhaps that will happen again with the companies churning out puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children.
Despite my pessimism, I think you make a good point about the opioid crisis, and it is in our recent memory. So that does give me some hope about perceptions changing quickly and leading to at least better medical practice. I do think the medical establishment itself was let off the hook for that scandal, as they will likely be for this scandal of drugging and mutilating kids. I mean, we have known for CENTURIES how powerful and destructive opioids can be! How could medicine itself have had so little accountability? I want to listen to the podcast Eliza shares from the Wider Lens to understand this concept of the chain of trust. But there is also another significant difference—pushing those drugs was never framed as a civil rights issue, no culture war was created. We truly are in new waters and how this all will evolve is still guesswork.
Humility isn't common in the medical profession. Nor in the other professions, law, academia, psychiatry - on the contrary.
Never underestimate the human capacity for denial.
Oh, yes. HUGE capacity for denial.
Sadly, I think Eiza is probably right in her reading of the tea leaves. Things didn't turn so great for Cassandra, after all. Being right about this is not only cold comfort in the present, but I don't hold out much hope for being "vindicated” in some lovely future where we are celebrated and are given ample shelves in the Library of History. I just don’t see the cake and balloons coming--let alone the just platforming of feminists and others who have been fighting this tragedy. My former band mates who think I am in league with the Proud Boys (because I don’t think male rapists should be in prison with women and wrote a song about it) may come to see the truth as the media narrative changes, but I doubt they will ever forgive me for the “harm” I have caused them. They will more likely believe I am “right for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way” as Eliza puts it so well. Having gloomed out a bit, I also hope I am wrong, at least about my friends who I still love.
PRIDE - STONEWALL, these labels within the genderideology movement don't bode well for a mea culpa.
There are so many examples of people getting swept up in collective madness whether it's gender ideology, Satanic Panic, or war. In our madness, our memories for things like state sanctioned medical abuse (lobotomies, thalidomide, Tuskegee syphilis experiments, institutionalization of people with disabilities) fade and suddenly we've never been more sure that the medical field is without blemish and doctors are infallible. Those of us that say "hold on, wait a minute, let's talk about this" are dismissed as hateful or maliciously ignorant in our attempts to stem the tide. Our culture doesn't really encourage independent thought, reasoned debate, or slow progress and doesn't really leave room for people to make mistakes or change their minds either; I think it would take a monumental shift in our cultural values for any of that to change.
We are going to write the books about this and we will mostly have to publish ourselves in makeshift pamphlets. It's always been this way. There has recently been a takeover of our Feminist Library in London and I heard the other day that valuable writings have been purged from the collection. https://feministlibrary.co.uk/lgbtqia-collection-items/ https://sofasrus.substack.com/p/campaigning-stickers-c6e?s=w
I'm almost certain you're right. Everyone will move on. It's already happened with a scandal much greater in scope, Covid.
"will rediscover everything they used to know about child and adolescent development"
I do not think that's going to happen. This is simply going to get worse and worse.
Here is a current ( Jan 4th 2023) article from Medscape, which a lot of physicians read, describing the climate around detransitioners. This adds some insight into the barriers to even getting studies done: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/986476
I agree with you, Eliza, but I have a smidgeon of hope in that we have so much evidence. We aren’t talking over our fences, we’ve got the ACLUs tweets. We have the UNWomen’s thoughts on how Women are formless.
But we have to hold some people to account and I am very worried about our (collective) short attention span.
I really think this coming US election is going to be so important. We need a strong collective NO that is indisputable.
I'm fairly new to substack. What does the 'give gift beneath the comments signify
And so it goes... Thanks for another great post!
And let's remember who "they" are, those wrong-headed purveyors of fake history.
As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."