Let’s take another look into the virtual worlds of trans-identified boys and young men, and how they can end up stuck there, even when they desperately want to find a way out.
This could be my son. The fact that strangers are coaching him and he has cut off family also because those strangers have convinced him we are the enemy when we just want him to be healthy and well is way beyond heartbreaking. What of his future? The ability to have loving relationships? Every morning I pray that he will wake up from this nightmare and remember who he was before some therapist told him he was trans rather than seeing the depression and anxiety he had as treatable.
Who says they "identify as an accountant" or as a TV repairman? But one can't say one "identifies as" a member or "a particular category" unless they can pay the membership dues. No tickee, no washee.
Whole pile of people getting dictionaries from Santa next Christmas ... 😉🙂:
"Who says they "identify as an accountant" or as a TV repairman? "
Many professions are full of people who 'identity as' something which they are not.
Politicians identify as public servants and leaders.
Doctors identify as promoters of health and wellness.
Psychiatrists identify as promoters of mental health.
Public school teachers identify as educators.
Feminists identify as systemically oppressed by men.
Mainstream media news anchors, writers and researchers identify as journalists.
Etc.
All of these groups have agreed to not expose each other's false identities in order to not upset the applecart and disrupt their considerable earnings.
The only people who DON'T identify as something delusional and fraudulent are blue collar workers and tradesmen. And of course that is why they are generally spat on by everyone else, because they risk exposing the BS that everyone else's careers. and social standing is based on.
The modern healthcare system is great for dealing with the body in an entirely mechanistic fashion. If you have a mechanistic issue - like bones sticking out of your legs after a car crash (a mechanistic event) they are experts at putting them back and hammering you back into the right shape again (like a panel beater or a blacksmith).
But when it comes to the more subtle side of health and wellbeing they are 150 years behind the times. Contagion theory, germ theory and the concept of 'viruses' were all REJECTED more than a century ago by the medical profession as a load of nonsense.
What is often referre to as 'alternative medicine' is really the conventional mainstream medicine that was run out of town at the beginning of the 20th century by the Rockefeller Foundation (the Flexnor Report etc).
Doctors back then knew that symptoms are not the disease itself, they are the body's healing mechanism. They understood that the aim of medicine should not be to suppress symptoms and call that 'curing the disease'.... but to assist the body in its healing and then address the the root cause (change the lifestyle or eradicate the environmental pollution) which had caused the body to react in the way that it did.
What happened was that the drug industry realised their alternative allopathic model of disease could make lots of money AND serve as a perfect cover story for industrial pollution (the cause of so many diseases and health issues) so they forced the medical schools to throw away their old text books and teach this new fraudulent model.
Medicine has been effectively hijacked for the last century. Doctors who refused to go along with the new dogma were literally struck off and even jailed. Today they are simply indoctrinated and paid off. Modern doctors are basically just white collar drug dealers.
The 'elites' who profit from the modern allopathic / drug based model have always been into natural health themselves. They all eat organic and would not touch vaccines with a barge pole!
Bill Gates' family doctor has stated that he refused to vax his own kids. Pfizer's CEO Bourla said he didn't take the covid vax because he didn't want to appear to cut in line. Tedros didn't take it because he was standing in solidarity with Africa. All of congress, the white house, the CDC, FDA , Moderna, Pfizer etc were exempt from mandates too. The WHO director general during the 2009 'pandemic' also admitted in a press conference that she had not had time to get the swine flu vax. Thousands of elites were caught buying fake vax certificates in 2021.
Anti vaxxers are not social dissidents (as they are portrayed), they are society's conformists!
They are copying the behaviour of the ruling classes. Modern medicine is for the peasants only, just as processed food, state education and Hollywood movies are. The vaccinated (like the trans medicalised) tend to suffer health problems for life, requiring constant medical interventions and drugs... which makes them extremely profitable to the drug and tech industries.
Ask any anti vaxxer mom how many times her child has been to the doctor or been prescribed antibiotics and they will most likely say "never". THAT is why they are stigmatised so hard. They are not profitable. The studies prove this.
The unvaccinated hardly ever go to the doctors with health problems. The unvaxxed have no autism, no ADHD, no behavioural issues, no skin rashes, no earaches, no asthma.... and given the link between autism and trans identity, we might consider vaccines a significant contributing factor to a trans identity too.
With this in mind, we might view the 'trans ideology' being promoted so hard by the establishment as a way to normalise vax injury and protect the profits of industry. The same might be said for their celebration and normalisation of autism itself. Putting rainbow stickers on vax injury victims and celebrating them as heroes keeps the public sweet and keeps the profits rolling in....
I don't see any "false identities" in that list; there's no "BS" involved. Yes some doctors are totally ignorant of everything outside medicine, and some are incompetent; that doesn't mean a medical career is "delusional and fraudulent." And I don't think blue collar workers and tradesmen are "spat upon" either. Inverted snobbery--your comment is full of it--is just a repugnant as the ordinary kind.
"Yes some doctors are totally ignorant of everything outside medicine, and some are incompetent; that doesn't mean a medical career is "delusional and fraudulent.""
A century of experiments have exposed 'germ theory' to be a fraud. The entire field of modern medicine is based on a false model of disease.
My point about blue collar workers is that they have shown themselves to be much more open to science, evidence and reason. The university educated are virtually impossible to get through to. They cannot even entertain the thought that their education was a load of nonsense, designed to increase the profits of the elites who write the text books, fund the universities and own the media.
Snobbery implies a bias based on prejudice. I am simply pointing out which demographics are more open minded, and which demographics are still clinging to dogma.
This last month we've seen yet another experimental study exposing virology to be a complete fraud. Show me one establishment scientist or medical professional who even shows an interest, let alone who helps to get the word out to a misinformed public who are still injecting themselves with booster poisons.
🙂 Certainly many of your claimants fall rather short. Though most have paid at least some dues towards their membership cards.
But reminds me of T.S. Eliot's, between the dream and the reality there falls the shadow. From his The Hollow Men which has more than passing relevance these days:
Warning: I have a cold and this comment is all over the place (apologies!)
"Certainly many of your claimants fall rather short."
That's quite an understatement considering we've just spent the last 4 years surrounded by people - including all of those groups I listed - who 'identify as' being at risk of 'deadly viruses'.
But the theory of contagion of colds and flus has been scientifically tested for the last century (over 200 experiments) and despite literally smearing volunteers with snot from sick patients (and all sorts of other disgusting variations on this theme) contagion has consistently been DISPROVEN as a disease mechanism. It's just not how we get sick. Even Florence Nightingale wrote that contagion had no scientific/ evidential basis back in 1858.
Virology itself does not meet even the most basic requirements of the scientific method. Virology uses CPE effects and genome sequencing to 'prove' the existence of viruses, and yet both procedures will provide that very proof even when no sample from a sick patient is added. It's all utter nonsense. A complete fraud. We have all the receipts (control experiments) which PROVE it's all a fraud.
'Trans' (or elements within that umbrella term which has lost all meaning) may well have MORE science behind it than contagion theory or virology (which have none). We know hormone levels are all over the place, and environmental pollution and processed foods are endocrine disruptors. Polluted rivers are even transing the frogs for real. I suspect even feminist identities going back 100 years are (to whatever degree) caused by EMF pollution which is known to interfere with the endocrine system, cause gender-bending behavioural changes, and a general sense of dysphoria and angst. But that's a whole other topic...
Despite the science being easy to confirm with a weekend's armchair research, only a handful of doctors, scientists, politicians, journalists and teachers have pointed out the fraudulent nature of virology and contagion theory (and by extension the multi trillion dollar pandemic industry).
The majority have helped to promote and affirm this 'covid pandemic' identity onto the rest of society. They have MANDATED this identity and forced people to adopt it against their will. They've FINED and ARRESTED people who have not adopted this delusional identity. That is more than merely 'falling rather short'.
BILLIONS of people were locked in their homes, denied the right to travel and work, traumatised, gaslit and then put on an EXPERIMENTAL MEDICAL PATHWAY with experimental drugs. These drugs have killed and injured MILLIONS of people since they were rolled out in 2021.
No alternative explanations for why people get colds and flus were allowed to be discussed (environmental pollution, bad diet/ lifestyle, the effects of fear mongering and trauma, the effects of isolation, psychosomatic mechanisms etc etc).
The entire 'pandemic' culture is critical theory applied to health, which has been endorsed by politicians, doctors, scientists, teachers etc.
In light of the millions injured and killed by the vaccine, the economic ruin, the suicidal children, the people forced to end their days (or give birth) all alone without their loved ones by their sides, and the very real prospect that the generation born to vaxxed mothers may turn out to be infertile in 20 years time (and may not even be able to reach full sexual maturity either)..... in light of all of that, I am not especially concerned about swimming races or locker rooms. I'm sorry but I'm just not.
Competitive sports are - in the wider context - are not essential to civilisation. There are other issues to be concerned about but as usual the feminists are taking up all the bandwidth and they seem to be focusing on men and locker rooms because it's the aspect most useful for framing women as vulnerable victims of men and their toxic sexuality.
In other words, they are spinning the issue of 'identity' to assert their own chosen identity as 'society's primary victims', and to force everyone to affirm that identity. They are using it to divide and conquer society, rather than foster a greater understanding of what is actually going on.
All 'isms' are just 'identities' which people try to impose onto everyone else. In the GC sphere, and on the internet in general, I see competing identities battling for supremacy, by trying ti invalidate their enemy's identity. This is just what tribal raids look like in the information age.
Delusional identities are encouraged and enabled by heavily socialised societies. To be a leftist/ feminist is to force the rest of society to fund such identities via an ever expanding set of state 'services'. Wherever there is dysfunction and delusion in society, it is being funded by the state (the taxpayer).
Therefore the primary identity which perhaps needs addressing is the identity of 'statist' (leftists and feminists being extreme example of statist identities). All 'statists' (including conservatives and centrists) demand everyone else to affirm their identity by literally FORCING THEM to fund and comply with their 'preferred policies' under threat of being shot.
To me that is the root cause of all of this madness. To address anything downstream of a statist identity is to address the symptoms, and not the disease itself.
I expect there's a vaccine for that cold of yours ... 😉🙂
No doubt there are some questions about the efficacy of such, but it looks like egregiously anti-scientific claptrap and outright Ludditism -- trepanning and blood-letting was good enough for grandpa so it should be good enough for us ... 🙄 -- to deny that the concept is generally sound. The increasing prevalence of smallpox because of anti-vax "thinking" being a case in point.
Though I'll tend to agree that endocrine disruptors may well be a significant contributing factor in the increase in "gender dysphoria". But that doesn't justify the claim of various transloonie nutcases, their useful & useful idiots, and their fellow-travelers that it is possible to change sex. At least in the human species. Quite unscientific and rather toxic claptrap.
And I'll generally agree with your "delusional identities" -- a rather ubiquitous phenomenon if not "fatal flaw" in the body politic. ICYMI, "Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma":
As something of an illustration of the crux of the matter, far too-many "women" are desperately committed to the "idea" that "sex is immutable!!11!!" -- what a steaming pile of antiscientific claptrap. They have turned the sexes into "immutable" identities based on some "mythic essences", instead of recognizing that "male" and "female" are JUST labels for rather transitory reproductive abilities.
A somewhat relevant quote thereon from Philip Wylie's "Generation of Vipers" -- highly recommended -- speaking somewhat directly to the rot in feminism:
PW: "To such females, womanhood is more sacrosanct by a thousand times than the Virgin Mary to popes—and motherhood, that degree raised to astronomic power."
Some reason to argue, as did Helen Dale, that the transcult is the bastard child of feminism -- and for the same "reasons": turning "male" and "female" into identities.
"No doubt there are some questions about the efficacy of such"
Viruses don't exist and contagion is not how disease manifests. To argue the 'efficacy' of vaccines is therefore nonsensical. Is unicorn repellent spray effective or ineffective? The question makes no sense. Vaccines are the same.
All studies of vaxxed vs unvaxxed people show that the unvaxxed are healthier in every respect. The data could not be more clear, hence the need for such aggressive marketing and censorship as well as social stigma for those who stay true to the science ('anti vaxxers'!)
Every disease that vaccines have taken the credit for eradicating or reducing were already 95% - 99% eradicated before the vaccine was brought to market.
The whole industry is a scam, a superstition and an 'identity' that people are encouraged to invest in. It is somewhat similar to feminism in that it EXTERNALISES your suffering, removes personal responsibility and places the blame on an external (and imaginary) cause.... a 'virus' or 'the patriarchy'..... enemies which are ever present, all around us, yet invisible and intangible.
I rarely get a cold, but when I do it's because I've over done it and not looked after myself, probably drunk too much coffee and had too much sugar and not gotten enough sleep. Blaming a 'virus' means I don't have to examine my life and make any changes or reset my priorities. I can just pop to the doctor or chemist and buy a potion which will suppress my symptoms (my healing/ detox mechanisms).
"They have turned the sexes into "immutable" identities based on some "mythic essences", instead of recognizing that "male" and "female" are JUST labels for rather transitory reproductive abilities."
I tend to view most of 'gender policies' through the lens of evolutionary biology, because that seems to explain almost all of the gendered behaviour we see through the ages (the only changing variable being technology, economic opportunities, living standards etc). But this idea that gender is merely the product of chromosomes and sexual organs feels like a cop out because (like all of modern science today) it completely disregards consciousness. Consciousness has no place in the modern materialistic/ mechanistic world view. To say it arises from brains is just another way of saying it does not exist and we don't want to have to talk about it. If we could put consciousness back in its rightful place ABOVE the material world (including the physical body) then we might not be so quick to view surgery and hormones as any kind of fix, because we are not really our bodies anyway.
I've noticed the GC crowd take the opposite stance to the 'essence' argument, and assert that we are 100% defined by our sex organs and chromosomes. To me this is leads directly into the mechanistic world view of the the transhumanists - a world view devoid of consciousness, spirit, essence or anything beyond or above the material world.
As far as I can tell we started out recognising masculine and feminine as different essences (energies, vibrations, conscious filaments or whatever) and this lasted for centuries and is depicted in all of the great artworks, stories and even architecture.
Then feminism came along and pushed the 'social construct' theory of gender instead, which says we are all born as blank slates and gender is socially constructed by the patriarchy and that by dismantling the patriarchy women will be able to become men which is empowerment because being a woman is rubbish.
A few generations of social constructivism paved the way for the modern trans ideology (a total free for all).
Then some of the feminists formed a splinter group (TERFs) after they realised trans people were displacing women from the number one spot in the victim charts. They quietly swept social constructivism under the carpet so that nobody would notice ALL OF THIS WAS THEIR FAULT and they came up with a new way to define women which is "somebody who does not have a penis".
Eliza, tears came to my eyes reading this. This could almost be my son, except he doesn’t or didn’t to my knowledge, see a therapist. I can see what he posts online and he is not doing well. I texted him to see if he would want to meet. I don’t know if he sees the messages, but of course there was no reply. He has been estranged for 3 yrs now. Trans is a cult. I wish more people would see this so we can help these kids. I don’t think it’s dysphoria that caused them to be indoctrinated. Porn is also a huge factor for many of the kids and even kids who do not adopt the trans id.
I'm a father of two beautiful daughters in their twenties, and this story reminds me of the difference between good and bad parenting, and by implication, friendship and even health care.
My younger daughter used to spend half her time with me and the other half with her mom. One day she complained to me that "mommy always says 'yes' to what I want and you often say 'no'". So I asked her if she'd like me to say yes to all of her requests and she paused, smiled, and said 'no'. She recognised that sometimes being loving and compassionate toward someone is to disagree with them and challenge their demands. In fact, it is the most loving thing to do when you know that the person you care about wants something that is harmful to themselves.
When I go for therapy I want my therapist to challenge me and to help me investigate my beliefs and perceptions of myself that are causing me to suffer. That is the responsibility of mental health professionals: to use science and psychology to help us recognise the long term value of what we believe or want. In this regard the mental health system has catastrophically failed an entire group of people who are struggling with their identity or physiology. It is profoundly lacking in compassion and love and has created a staggering level of suffering and social conflict.
The other thing that strikes me from this article is trans ideology's complete disconnect from material reality. The ideology grounds the self and identity in pure fantasy in a context where physiology not only clearly distinguishes men and women but where the lived reality of being a man or a woman is largely dependent on your body and the kinds of internal and external experiences connected to it, i.e., your personal experience of your physiology and the social experiences, roles and relations inescapably connected to it. I have in mind, for example, the differences in physical strength and the kinds of power dynamics that inevitably flow from that.
Thanks for writing this Eliza, it's a very insightful piece.
Eliza's post reminds me of the kinds of thinking and anguish I encountered in the 80s in the New Age movement. Often the people drawn to it fell into two camps: people who were struggling emotionally/psychologically for a variety of reasons and those who chose to create services in the form of seminars and books to profit off of that suffering. Many of the facilitators I encountered had good intentions - some did not - but were still making money off of "treatments" and "therapies" which had not been empirically shown to work.
Time after time I saw friends and myself set unrealistic, delusional goals for ourselves only to fail because the underlying premise of "cure" was faulty. I eventually found a therapist with whom I worked for 10 years to unpack my issues and learn new skills to overcome many of my problems. There is no quick magical cure to psychological distress - it takes time and patience and the willingness to explore to find the true underlying cause(s). I am not "cured" but I am better and have ways of of coping that have stayed with me the rest of my life. I so wish this kind of help for these young people who are suffering so much.
These are really good points, thank you for responding to my comment.
I suspect the reason physical and mental health scammers are successful is because they offer quick fixes to complex problems that, in truth, would otherwise require many years of painful investigative psychological work. Most transitioners (85%) are F to M, and most have a history of trauma and sexual abuse. What transitioning offers is the illusion of protection from future trauma--because men are less vulnerable to rape than women--and the option to avoid the excruciating pain of unpacking and processing the deep wounds of trauma. I also suspect that one of the reasons for wanting to be a boy/man is that we still live in a man's world--better than other worlds, e.g., Iran, but nonetheless one that at a minimum takes men more seriously than women--and being a part of that world might be attractive to some girls, especially those who have been harmed by men.
The problem is that transitioning doesn't alleviate the suffering caused by past trauma. It can't. Only by doing extremely painful trauma work can anyone develop a less painful relationship to underlying wounds. Transitioning offers an escape from that work and the ability to continue repressing the reality of a painful history. It's why the trans movement is so reactive and aggressive: to question their delusions is to weaken their ability to repress their traumatic histories and to open them up to the pain of potentially having to deal with those histories head on.
Very well said. I was wondering recently if there are any other mental or physical health conditions where the treatment is to tell the patient to completely deny reality and force everyone else around them to do the same. Treatments for depression, anxiety, ocd, and personality disorders rely on the patient seeing reality accurately through practices like correcting thought errors and radical acceptance. In the medical realm, doctors don't treat diabetes through stories of a "true self" that doesn't need an insulin pump. Neurologists don't tell migraine patients that the flashing lights and holes in their vision they experience during their migraine auras are actual representations of reality or their "true selves." They're not told they must convince their families that what they see is actually there. Yet both the medical and psychological treatments for gender dysphoria rely on creating more and more layers between the person and reality. I've always wondered if people who say and actually seem happy with their transition are defined more by their temperamental ability to live comfortably with the physical and mental work they must do that keep reality and cognitive dissonance at a distance?
I think there's a difference between physical and mental illnesses in that the former is virtually impossible to deny or play along with from a treatment perspective because it's got an objective quality to it that is hard to ignore or question. Mental illness doesn't have that quality because it's based in thought and belief, which are both invisible, internal states that can't be verified objectively. The only situation I can think of where the therapist doesn't question the patient's distorted thoughts is when the therapist 'enters' the patient's worldview in order to work on it from the inside out. But the goal is to enable the patient to eventually recognise their thought distortions and correct them.
Even DBT's Radical Acceptance asks us to accept our thought distortions--not as truth but as as mere passing phenomena. But I guess that's more about replacing the repression of those thoughts with observation because repression only makes them stronger. Interestingly, I suspect that trans ideology and activism are forms of individual and social repression of a person's uncomfortable relationship to her/his sex, which, as you say, makes it more comfortable to live in a state of denial of one's underlying pain. To avoid facing the cognitive dissonance between self perception and reality trans activists have to crush every aspect of reality that is not consistent with their delusional beliefs. It's why things like entering women's change rooms and playing in women's sports is so vital to the trans movement--to decide otherwise is to question the delusion that men can become women. It's why any literature that affirms sexual dimorphism must be thrown into the bonfire of "oppressive" thinking....
I personally lived and feel this story as a former full time adult trans identified male. I didn't have the virtual world but had the intense pressure of personally and socially juggling with the conflicting emotions of pushing ahead with gender transition while almost simultaneously pulling back from it. Confusing fantasy with reality I went down the gender road believing to be a woman in a man's body and gender is a psychological/psychosocial construct. Estrogen, (birth control pills) electrolysis, medical and psychiatric assessments etc. then coming out full time cross living(1994)and finally sex reassignment surgery (1997). Initially I was for a time euphoric however in time reality began to set in. I was "legally" female but I was living in a prison of fear. My conscience was convicting me with the truth that I was not a woman. I thought of God as the potter and me the clay rebelling against my creator thinking I could remanufacture my creation. I have a now closed neo vagina, no love life and not too large breasts but I am a man and have learned to be thankful for it. Identifying as a woman was untrue and I realized needing to restore my true male identity while living with the consequences of irreversible surgery.
I almost made a critical mistake of alienating my parents but am so thankful that they loved me unconditionally. A critical error made by many young (and adult) transitioners is abandoning a loving family. Gender transition might be right for a few however for most is a powerful self and community enabled deception & misdiagnosis destroying individuals, families and society being mandated to accept something that is factually untrue. I am horrified feeling a sense of responsibility seeing ROGD affecting young people esp. girls having once advocated for gender transition.Thank you Eliza for posting.
Yes, kids are encouraged to estrange or “go no contact” or “go silent” which is an alienation even while living in the house. This is one reason why it’s a cult or perhaps has always been?
I was introduced to the concept of gender transition many years ago long before the internet and social media. Gender confusion has been a long diagnosed mental disorder but unfortunately activism,sex education in schools and social media is deceiving many young people into believing they are their opposite sex or non binary. When I began my gender transition many years ago I knew I had to tell my parents first. I believed if I had to hide my gender confusion from my parents then it had to be wrong. Again I am so thankful as my now deceased parents came to an understanding over time and still loved me. I have witnessed people estranged from family who are sad and lonely especially when having to spend special occasions like birthdays and holidays on their own. I can't emphasize enough those who advise kids to go "no contact" or "go silent" to loving parents and family are evil and likely to cause great harm to the individual and their loved ones. Thank you for writing and I wish you all the best.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I appreciate the honesty and courage you clearly have. It is helpful yet I certainly wish that you had been sparred this road. By sharing you are helping us who are in the thick of it. Thank you. 🙏
Them: "If you could be any species in all the world what would it be?"
Me: "I'd be a cat."
Them: "Then you already are..."
Me: "Fuckwits"
Do you ever wish you could get involved in these threads without risking a full on reddit ban? I post on Reddit occasionally but on such minor subs that I've only ever had posts deleted for questioning Transgenderism, I've yet to be banned anywhere for it.
The trans community has done such a great job persuading people to only tell them what they want to hear rather than what they truly think. I wonder if years from now there'll be a sub demographic of detransitioners who are angry with their friends, family, and wider community for lying to them about how they truly felt about the limits of transition. Some people with blame themselves entirely, which isn't fair, but I can see others blaming the world for lying to them even though they joined a movement that made lying to them the only kind and moral thing to do.
I just meant to take the trans communities reasoning to the next level, species denial over sex denial. I chose cat purely because it was the first animal that came to mind, and tbh, what sensible, logical person wouldn't choose to be a cat if the option was on the table...
Beyond that there is a fair amount of overlap between the trans community and the Furry, Therian, and Otherkin communities so you are right to make the connection.
Another great article, Eliza! I've been looking forward to your delving into the male side of this, which I'm sure will prove very interesting. What struck me about this man is how hard he was working at asking the right questions, trying to think critically, and having it confounded at every turn by the others, whose convoluted self-contradictions seem to know no bounds. On complaining that trying to see himself as a woman made him feel like a fake, he's told that everyone feels like a fake, and the thing to do is go and live your authentic life. What!? Nobody ever feels like they're real, so go and be real? And the kicker is that they're all play acting, so the injunction kind of makes sense, but as a lie: it's to go and *pretend* to be real, like we're doing. Stop asking sensible questions and trying to be who you are! It would be interesting to analyse these communities in relation to studies of cults (or maybe someone's done that). I got myself in a bit hotter water than I was already in when I started to describe "Trans" as "a mad cult" on a forum, but it clearly is. I am so sorry for all those suffering in it and because of it.
Yes, that's exactly what struck me, too. He's trying to be honest with himself about his experiences. He's trying to reality-check. He's just doing it in the worst possible place.
You're right that this is a common dynamic in MTF online spaces. This is a good and poignant example of it. An alternative one however, which I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on is this: a lot of MTF spaces (egg_irl especially) feature a sort of titillation, for lack of a better word, about the process of denial and eventual "acceptance" of their trans identity. It strikes me as like a game, almost like seduction in a way, but I don't know that it's literally sexual in nature. I'm really interested to know how you would analyze this. Let me know if you'd like an example of what I'm describing for reference.
I know exactly what you're talking about. It's something I'll write about at some point. I've been putting it off because I don't want to write where I don't feel empathy and the transgressive-titillating-MTF side of things doesn't inspire much empathy for me. But impossible to understand these spaces without understanding that side of things.
That's fair! What's being done is enraging and it's hard to feel compassion for the people participating in it. But I would also imagine that in this dynamic the lines between victim and abuser get blurred--- in both directions, because of the mimetic, multilevel marketing aspect that it has.
I'm sure when you do get around to it you will do a great job, and it will be very illuminating, like everything else you write.
Yeah, they're victims in that they're being told (in some cases demanding to be told, but still) that they're women, can become women, belong in women's spaces, when they aren't, can't, and don't. And they're blowing up their own lives, destroying their health, making it impossible to have honest relationships. So certainly I do feel that it's not good for anybody, nobody is getting good care here, no matter how insufferable they are. I just need to work up to it, lol.
Have you found a pattern or patterns in how the gender questioning seed first becomes implanted in these people's minds? Apart from being online, what do these men have in common?
Much looking forward to it! I'm a layman, but it seems to me that the idée fixe in such cases must be a manifestation of a form of mental disorder that ideological purity is preventing the professions from acknowledging.
Very disturbing conversation. One of my biggest worries is the decline in mental health among young adults. This general decline is being ignored here in Canada when youth have higher rates of depression and anxiety than previous generations. This transgender BS is creeping into the sense of futility felt by so many young people and our institutions are letting it happen. Shame on us for forsaking the next generations.
This,this here is precisely why I have never went on Reddit.
Poisonous minds all in one place,a recipe for disaster.
I think more and more kids(I'm 44 everyone is a kid too me)are realising that the trans activist types who welcomed them in so readily will and do turn on them in am instant of any DARE to question the cult.
My heart breaks for this young man though,I hope against hope that he does have a loving family,that he comes out of the other side somehow..
Thank you for sharing this, plus your insights, Eliza. The amount of mind-effery amd gaslighting in his online community is terrible.
He needs to get away from those people, and find a healthy community, and healthy healthcare providers.
The more exposure such online communities get, such as you're doing, Eliza, the more it will cast doubt on them, amd the more critical thinking will be possible among their participants, such that they'll be able to walk away.
Great work. Sharing. This would be a good one to share with Dem and GOP legislators, so they can know and expose the mind games making and keeping trans-identified people delusional.
In addition to the insanity of men competing in women's sports and the mutilation of children in the pursuit of the unattainable, the issue of women’s privacy is equally troubling.
In my opinion the worst aspect of the Democrats’ new Education Act Title IX regulations that go into effect on August 1 of this year is that boys and men will be able to to shower with high school and college girls (including my 17 year old granddaughter).
They will have no shame in doing that when it's perfectly legal. Unless Kamala disavows this new rule she deserves to lose the election on this issue alone.
Here's an analysis of the new regulations by the Foundation Against Intolerance and
Racism (FAIR):
"The Final Rule is likely to result in sex-integration of all bathrooms and locker rooms because it prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity. After August 1st, if a school requires students to use facilities that align with their biological sex (which they are currently allowed to require under Federal law and regulations), a transgender student may file a discrimination complaint alleging that the school has violated Title IX by preventing him or her from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender."
This could be my son. The fact that strangers are coaching him and he has cut off family also because those strangers have convinced him we are the enemy when we just want him to be healthy and well is way beyond heartbreaking. What of his future? The ability to have loving relationships? Every morning I pray that he will wake up from this nightmare and remember who he was before some therapist told him he was trans rather than seeing the depression and anxiety he had as treatable.
Me and mine too Suzanne.❤️ He is the first thing I think of every morning. I worry, I miss him. How?
THIS is where the suicidal ideation comes from. Not from not pursuing this madness.
Just because you wish for something doesn't mean you are something.
When I hear the phrase "I identify as", it rephrases in my mind as, "I pretend to be".
It's a sad state of affairs.
Indeed. Though most people seem not to have a clue what that "identify as" actually means -- apart from being pretentious. Oxford Learner Dictionary:
OLD: "identify as phrasal verb; identify as something: to recognize or decide that you belong to a particular category"
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/identify-as
Who says they "identify as an accountant" or as a TV repairman? But one can't say one "identifies as" a member or "a particular category" unless they can pay the membership dues. No tickee, no washee.
Whole pile of people getting dictionaries from Santa next Christmas ... 😉🙂:
https://images.app.goo.gl/LNMmdLTqUf1zwfst9
"Who says they "identify as an accountant" or as a TV repairman? "
Many professions are full of people who 'identity as' something which they are not.
Politicians identify as public servants and leaders.
Doctors identify as promoters of health and wellness.
Psychiatrists identify as promoters of mental health.
Public school teachers identify as educators.
Feminists identify as systemically oppressed by men.
Mainstream media news anchors, writers and researchers identify as journalists.
Etc.
All of these groups have agreed to not expose each other's false identities in order to not upset the applecart and disrupt their considerable earnings.
The only people who DON'T identify as something delusional and fraudulent are blue collar workers and tradesmen. And of course that is why they are generally spat on by everyone else, because they risk exposing the BS that everyone else's careers. and social standing is based on.
>Doctors identify as promoters of health and wellness.
I mean, hot take. You tell me if you get hit by a car tomorrow you're not going to go to the hospital?
Doctors are the ones sterilizing and amputating healthy body parts from children. Not laymen.
So all doctors are bad? 🙄
The modern healthcare system is great for dealing with the body in an entirely mechanistic fashion. If you have a mechanistic issue - like bones sticking out of your legs after a car crash (a mechanistic event) they are experts at putting them back and hammering you back into the right shape again (like a panel beater or a blacksmith).
But when it comes to the more subtle side of health and wellbeing they are 150 years behind the times. Contagion theory, germ theory and the concept of 'viruses' were all REJECTED more than a century ago by the medical profession as a load of nonsense.
What is often referre to as 'alternative medicine' is really the conventional mainstream medicine that was run out of town at the beginning of the 20th century by the Rockefeller Foundation (the Flexnor Report etc).
Doctors back then knew that symptoms are not the disease itself, they are the body's healing mechanism. They understood that the aim of medicine should not be to suppress symptoms and call that 'curing the disease'.... but to assist the body in its healing and then address the the root cause (change the lifestyle or eradicate the environmental pollution) which had caused the body to react in the way that it did.
What happened was that the drug industry realised their alternative allopathic model of disease could make lots of money AND serve as a perfect cover story for industrial pollution (the cause of so many diseases and health issues) so they forced the medical schools to throw away their old text books and teach this new fraudulent model.
Medicine has been effectively hijacked for the last century. Doctors who refused to go along with the new dogma were literally struck off and even jailed. Today they are simply indoctrinated and paid off. Modern doctors are basically just white collar drug dealers.
The 'elites' who profit from the modern allopathic / drug based model have always been into natural health themselves. They all eat organic and would not touch vaccines with a barge pole!
Bill Gates' family doctor has stated that he refused to vax his own kids. Pfizer's CEO Bourla said he didn't take the covid vax because he didn't want to appear to cut in line. Tedros didn't take it because he was standing in solidarity with Africa. All of congress, the white house, the CDC, FDA , Moderna, Pfizer etc were exempt from mandates too. The WHO director general during the 2009 'pandemic' also admitted in a press conference that she had not had time to get the swine flu vax. Thousands of elites were caught buying fake vax certificates in 2021.
Anti vaxxers are not social dissidents (as they are portrayed), they are society's conformists!
They are copying the behaviour of the ruling classes. Modern medicine is for the peasants only, just as processed food, state education and Hollywood movies are. The vaccinated (like the trans medicalised) tend to suffer health problems for life, requiring constant medical interventions and drugs... which makes them extremely profitable to the drug and tech industries.
Ask any anti vaxxer mom how many times her child has been to the doctor or been prescribed antibiotics and they will most likely say "never". THAT is why they are stigmatised so hard. They are not profitable. The studies prove this.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33266457/#&gid=article-figures&pid=figure-5-uid-4
The unvaccinated hardly ever go to the doctors with health problems. The unvaxxed have no autism, no ADHD, no behavioural issues, no skin rashes, no earaches, no asthma.... and given the link between autism and trans identity, we might consider vaccines a significant contributing factor to a trans identity too.
With this in mind, we might view the 'trans ideology' being promoted so hard by the establishment as a way to normalise vax injury and protect the profits of industry. The same might be said for their celebration and normalisation of autism itself. Putting rainbow stickers on vax injury victims and celebrating them as heroes keeps the public sweet and keeps the profits rolling in....
I don't see any "false identities" in that list; there's no "BS" involved. Yes some doctors are totally ignorant of everything outside medicine, and some are incompetent; that doesn't mean a medical career is "delusional and fraudulent." And I don't think blue collar workers and tradesmen are "spat upon" either. Inverted snobbery--your comment is full of it--is just a repugnant as the ordinary kind.
"Yes some doctors are totally ignorant of everything outside medicine, and some are incompetent; that doesn't mean a medical career is "delusional and fraudulent.""
A century of experiments have exposed 'germ theory' to be a fraud. The entire field of modern medicine is based on a false model of disease.
My point about blue collar workers is that they have shown themselves to be much more open to science, evidence and reason. The university educated are virtually impossible to get through to. They cannot even entertain the thought that their education was a load of nonsense, designed to increase the profits of the elites who write the text books, fund the universities and own the media.
Snobbery implies a bias based on prejudice. I am simply pointing out which demographics are more open minded, and which demographics are still clinging to dogma.
This last month we've seen yet another experimental study exposing virology to be a complete fraud. Show me one establishment scientist or medical professional who even shows an interest, let alone who helps to get the word out to a misinformed public who are still injecting themselves with booster poisons.
🙂 Certainly many of your claimants fall rather short. Though most have paid at least some dues towards their membership cards.
But reminds me of T.S. Eliot's, between the dream and the reality there falls the shadow. From his The Hollow Men which has more than passing relevance these days:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/634202-between-the-idea-and-the-reality-between-the-motion-and
Reminds me also of a comment from, I think, Norbert Weiner's 'Human Use of Human Beings" -- in passing, the title of my Substack 🙂:
NW: "Science has (in general) not instructed man, it has only implemented him."
Arguably with some horrific consequences.
Warning: I have a cold and this comment is all over the place (apologies!)
"Certainly many of your claimants fall rather short."
That's quite an understatement considering we've just spent the last 4 years surrounded by people - including all of those groups I listed - who 'identify as' being at risk of 'deadly viruses'.
But the theory of contagion of colds and flus has been scientifically tested for the last century (over 200 experiments) and despite literally smearing volunteers with snot from sick patients (and all sorts of other disgusting variations on this theme) contagion has consistently been DISPROVEN as a disease mechanism. It's just not how we get sick. Even Florence Nightingale wrote that contagion had no scientific/ evidential basis back in 1858.
Virology itself does not meet even the most basic requirements of the scientific method. Virology uses CPE effects and genome sequencing to 'prove' the existence of viruses, and yet both procedures will provide that very proof even when no sample from a sick patient is added. It's all utter nonsense. A complete fraud. We have all the receipts (control experiments) which PROVE it's all a fraud.
'Trans' (or elements within that umbrella term which has lost all meaning) may well have MORE science behind it than contagion theory or virology (which have none). We know hormone levels are all over the place, and environmental pollution and processed foods are endocrine disruptors. Polluted rivers are even transing the frogs for real. I suspect even feminist identities going back 100 years are (to whatever degree) caused by EMF pollution which is known to interfere with the endocrine system, cause gender-bending behavioural changes, and a general sense of dysphoria and angst. But that's a whole other topic...
Despite the science being easy to confirm with a weekend's armchair research, only a handful of doctors, scientists, politicians, journalists and teachers have pointed out the fraudulent nature of virology and contagion theory (and by extension the multi trillion dollar pandemic industry).
The majority have helped to promote and affirm this 'covid pandemic' identity onto the rest of society. They have MANDATED this identity and forced people to adopt it against their will. They've FINED and ARRESTED people who have not adopted this delusional identity. That is more than merely 'falling rather short'.
BILLIONS of people were locked in their homes, denied the right to travel and work, traumatised, gaslit and then put on an EXPERIMENTAL MEDICAL PATHWAY with experimental drugs. These drugs have killed and injured MILLIONS of people since they were rolled out in 2021.
No alternative explanations for why people get colds and flus were allowed to be discussed (environmental pollution, bad diet/ lifestyle, the effects of fear mongering and trauma, the effects of isolation, psychosomatic mechanisms etc etc).
The entire 'pandemic' culture is critical theory applied to health, which has been endorsed by politicians, doctors, scientists, teachers etc.
In light of the millions injured and killed by the vaccine, the economic ruin, the suicidal children, the people forced to end their days (or give birth) all alone without their loved ones by their sides, and the very real prospect that the generation born to vaxxed mothers may turn out to be infertile in 20 years time (and may not even be able to reach full sexual maturity either)..... in light of all of that, I am not especially concerned about swimming races or locker rooms. I'm sorry but I'm just not.
Competitive sports are - in the wider context - are not essential to civilisation. There are other issues to be concerned about but as usual the feminists are taking up all the bandwidth and they seem to be focusing on men and locker rooms because it's the aspect most useful for framing women as vulnerable victims of men and their toxic sexuality.
In other words, they are spinning the issue of 'identity' to assert their own chosen identity as 'society's primary victims', and to force everyone to affirm that identity. They are using it to divide and conquer society, rather than foster a greater understanding of what is actually going on.
All 'isms' are just 'identities' which people try to impose onto everyone else. In the GC sphere, and on the internet in general, I see competing identities battling for supremacy, by trying ti invalidate their enemy's identity. This is just what tribal raids look like in the information age.
Delusional identities are encouraged and enabled by heavily socialised societies. To be a leftist/ feminist is to force the rest of society to fund such identities via an ever expanding set of state 'services'. Wherever there is dysfunction and delusion in society, it is being funded by the state (the taxpayer).
Therefore the primary identity which perhaps needs addressing is the identity of 'statist' (leftists and feminists being extreme example of statist identities). All 'statists' (including conservatives and centrists) demand everyone else to affirm their identity by literally FORCING THEM to fund and comply with their 'preferred policies' under threat of being shot.
To me that is the root cause of all of this madness. To address anything downstream of a statist identity is to address the symptoms, and not the disease itself.
I expect there's a vaccine for that cold of yours ... 😉🙂
No doubt there are some questions about the efficacy of such, but it looks like egregiously anti-scientific claptrap and outright Ludditism -- trepanning and blood-letting was good enough for grandpa so it should be good enough for us ... 🙄 -- to deny that the concept is generally sound. The increasing prevalence of smallpox because of anti-vax "thinking" being a case in point.
Though I'll tend to agree that endocrine disruptors may well be a significant contributing factor in the increase in "gender dysphoria". But that doesn't justify the claim of various transloonie nutcases, their useful & useful idiots, and their fellow-travelers that it is possible to change sex. At least in the human species. Quite unscientific and rather toxic claptrap.
And I'll generally agree with your "delusional identities" -- a rather ubiquitous phenomenon if not "fatal flaw" in the body politic. ICYMI, "Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma":
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242372156_Must_Identity_Movement_Self-Destruct_A_Queer_Dilemma
In the same vein, you might have some interest in my Medium essay, "Reality and Illusion: Being vs Identifying As":
https://medium.com/@steersmann/reality-and-illusion-being-vs-identifying-as-77f9618b17c7
As something of an illustration of the crux of the matter, far too-many "women" are desperately committed to the "idea" that "sex is immutable!!11!!" -- what a steaming pile of antiscientific claptrap. They have turned the sexes into "immutable" identities based on some "mythic essences", instead of recognizing that "male" and "female" are JUST labels for rather transitory reproductive abilities.
A somewhat relevant quote thereon from Philip Wylie's "Generation of Vipers" -- highly recommended -- speaking somewhat directly to the rot in feminism:
PW: "To such females, womanhood is more sacrosanct by a thousand times than the Virgin Mary to popes—and motherhood, that degree raised to astronomic power."
https://vultureofcritique.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/philip-wylie-generation-of-vipers.pdf
Some reason to argue, as did Helen Dale, that the transcult is the bastard child of feminism -- and for the same "reasons": turning "male" and "female" into identities.
"No doubt there are some questions about the efficacy of such"
Viruses don't exist and contagion is not how disease manifests. To argue the 'efficacy' of vaccines is therefore nonsensical. Is unicorn repellent spray effective or ineffective? The question makes no sense. Vaccines are the same.
All studies of vaxxed vs unvaxxed people show that the unvaxxed are healthier in every respect. The data could not be more clear, hence the need for such aggressive marketing and censorship as well as social stigma for those who stay true to the science ('anti vaxxers'!)
Every disease that vaccines have taken the credit for eradicating or reducing were already 95% - 99% eradicated before the vaccine was brought to market.
The whole industry is a scam, a superstition and an 'identity' that people are encouraged to invest in. It is somewhat similar to feminism in that it EXTERNALISES your suffering, removes personal responsibility and places the blame on an external (and imaginary) cause.... a 'virus' or 'the patriarchy'..... enemies which are ever present, all around us, yet invisible and intangible.
I rarely get a cold, but when I do it's because I've over done it and not looked after myself, probably drunk too much coffee and had too much sugar and not gotten enough sleep. Blaming a 'virus' means I don't have to examine my life and make any changes or reset my priorities. I can just pop to the doctor or chemist and buy a potion which will suppress my symptoms (my healing/ detox mechanisms).
"They have turned the sexes into "immutable" identities based on some "mythic essences", instead of recognizing that "male" and "female" are JUST labels for rather transitory reproductive abilities."
I tend to view most of 'gender policies' through the lens of evolutionary biology, because that seems to explain almost all of the gendered behaviour we see through the ages (the only changing variable being technology, economic opportunities, living standards etc). But this idea that gender is merely the product of chromosomes and sexual organs feels like a cop out because (like all of modern science today) it completely disregards consciousness. Consciousness has no place in the modern materialistic/ mechanistic world view. To say it arises from brains is just another way of saying it does not exist and we don't want to have to talk about it. If we could put consciousness back in its rightful place ABOVE the material world (including the physical body) then we might not be so quick to view surgery and hormones as any kind of fix, because we are not really our bodies anyway.
I've noticed the GC crowd take the opposite stance to the 'essence' argument, and assert that we are 100% defined by our sex organs and chromosomes. To me this is leads directly into the mechanistic world view of the the transhumanists - a world view devoid of consciousness, spirit, essence or anything beyond or above the material world.
As far as I can tell we started out recognising masculine and feminine as different essences (energies, vibrations, conscious filaments or whatever) and this lasted for centuries and is depicted in all of the great artworks, stories and even architecture.
Then feminism came along and pushed the 'social construct' theory of gender instead, which says we are all born as blank slates and gender is socially constructed by the patriarchy and that by dismantling the patriarchy women will be able to become men which is empowerment because being a woman is rubbish.
A few generations of social constructivism paved the way for the modern trans ideology (a total free for all).
Then some of the feminists formed a splinter group (TERFs) after they realised trans people were displacing women from the number one spot in the victim charts. They quietly swept social constructivism under the carpet so that nobody would notice ALL OF THIS WAS THEIR FAULT and they came up with a new way to define women which is "somebody who does not have a penis".
As the saying goes.... you can't stop progress :)
Eliza, tears came to my eyes reading this. This could almost be my son, except he doesn’t or didn’t to my knowledge, see a therapist. I can see what he posts online and he is not doing well. I texted him to see if he would want to meet. I don’t know if he sees the messages, but of course there was no reply. He has been estranged for 3 yrs now. Trans is a cult. I wish more people would see this so we can help these kids. I don’t think it’s dysphoria that caused them to be indoctrinated. Porn is also a huge factor for many of the kids and even kids who do not adopt the trans id.
Thanks for posting this.
This is my son as well and unfortunately he had the help of a woke therapist. We are the same heartbroken Mamas.
I'm a father of two beautiful daughters in their twenties, and this story reminds me of the difference between good and bad parenting, and by implication, friendship and even health care.
My younger daughter used to spend half her time with me and the other half with her mom. One day she complained to me that "mommy always says 'yes' to what I want and you often say 'no'". So I asked her if she'd like me to say yes to all of her requests and she paused, smiled, and said 'no'. She recognised that sometimes being loving and compassionate toward someone is to disagree with them and challenge their demands. In fact, it is the most loving thing to do when you know that the person you care about wants something that is harmful to themselves.
When I go for therapy I want my therapist to challenge me and to help me investigate my beliefs and perceptions of myself that are causing me to suffer. That is the responsibility of mental health professionals: to use science and psychology to help us recognise the long term value of what we believe or want. In this regard the mental health system has catastrophically failed an entire group of people who are struggling with their identity or physiology. It is profoundly lacking in compassion and love and has created a staggering level of suffering and social conflict.
The other thing that strikes me from this article is trans ideology's complete disconnect from material reality. The ideology grounds the self and identity in pure fantasy in a context where physiology not only clearly distinguishes men and women but where the lived reality of being a man or a woman is largely dependent on your body and the kinds of internal and external experiences connected to it, i.e., your personal experience of your physiology and the social experiences, roles and relations inescapably connected to it. I have in mind, for example, the differences in physical strength and the kinds of power dynamics that inevitably flow from that.
Thanks for writing this Eliza, it's a very insightful piece.
Yes, very well written response.
Eliza's post reminds me of the kinds of thinking and anguish I encountered in the 80s in the New Age movement. Often the people drawn to it fell into two camps: people who were struggling emotionally/psychologically for a variety of reasons and those who chose to create services in the form of seminars and books to profit off of that suffering. Many of the facilitators I encountered had good intentions - some did not - but were still making money off of "treatments" and "therapies" which had not been empirically shown to work.
Time after time I saw friends and myself set unrealistic, delusional goals for ourselves only to fail because the underlying premise of "cure" was faulty. I eventually found a therapist with whom I worked for 10 years to unpack my issues and learn new skills to overcome many of my problems. There is no quick magical cure to psychological distress - it takes time and patience and the willingness to explore to find the true underlying cause(s). I am not "cured" but I am better and have ways of of coping that have stayed with me the rest of my life. I so wish this kind of help for these young people who are suffering so much.
These are really good points, thank you for responding to my comment.
I suspect the reason physical and mental health scammers are successful is because they offer quick fixes to complex problems that, in truth, would otherwise require many years of painful investigative psychological work. Most transitioners (85%) are F to M, and most have a history of trauma and sexual abuse. What transitioning offers is the illusion of protection from future trauma--because men are less vulnerable to rape than women--and the option to avoid the excruciating pain of unpacking and processing the deep wounds of trauma. I also suspect that one of the reasons for wanting to be a boy/man is that we still live in a man's world--better than other worlds, e.g., Iran, but nonetheless one that at a minimum takes men more seriously than women--and being a part of that world might be attractive to some girls, especially those who have been harmed by men.
The problem is that transitioning doesn't alleviate the suffering caused by past trauma. It can't. Only by doing extremely painful trauma work can anyone develop a less painful relationship to underlying wounds. Transitioning offers an escape from that work and the ability to continue repressing the reality of a painful history. It's why the trans movement is so reactive and aggressive: to question their delusions is to weaken their ability to repress their traumatic histories and to open them up to the pain of potentially having to deal with those histories head on.
These are really discerning comments, thank you
Very well said. I was wondering recently if there are any other mental or physical health conditions where the treatment is to tell the patient to completely deny reality and force everyone else around them to do the same. Treatments for depression, anxiety, ocd, and personality disorders rely on the patient seeing reality accurately through practices like correcting thought errors and radical acceptance. In the medical realm, doctors don't treat diabetes through stories of a "true self" that doesn't need an insulin pump. Neurologists don't tell migraine patients that the flashing lights and holes in their vision they experience during their migraine auras are actual representations of reality or their "true selves." They're not told they must convince their families that what they see is actually there. Yet both the medical and psychological treatments for gender dysphoria rely on creating more and more layers between the person and reality. I've always wondered if people who say and actually seem happy with their transition are defined more by their temperamental ability to live comfortably with the physical and mental work they must do that keep reality and cognitive dissonance at a distance?
I think there's a difference between physical and mental illnesses in that the former is virtually impossible to deny or play along with from a treatment perspective because it's got an objective quality to it that is hard to ignore or question. Mental illness doesn't have that quality because it's based in thought and belief, which are both invisible, internal states that can't be verified objectively. The only situation I can think of where the therapist doesn't question the patient's distorted thoughts is when the therapist 'enters' the patient's worldview in order to work on it from the inside out. But the goal is to enable the patient to eventually recognise their thought distortions and correct them.
Even DBT's Radical Acceptance asks us to accept our thought distortions--not as truth but as as mere passing phenomena. But I guess that's more about replacing the repression of those thoughts with observation because repression only makes them stronger. Interestingly, I suspect that trans ideology and activism are forms of individual and social repression of a person's uncomfortable relationship to her/his sex, which, as you say, makes it more comfortable to live in a state of denial of one's underlying pain. To avoid facing the cognitive dissonance between self perception and reality trans activists have to crush every aspect of reality that is not consistent with their delusional beliefs. It's why things like entering women's change rooms and playing in women's sports is so vital to the trans movement--to decide otherwise is to question the delusion that men can become women. It's why any literature that affirms sexual dimorphism must be thrown into the bonfire of "oppressive" thinking....
Very well said.
I personally lived and feel this story as a former full time adult trans identified male. I didn't have the virtual world but had the intense pressure of personally and socially juggling with the conflicting emotions of pushing ahead with gender transition while almost simultaneously pulling back from it. Confusing fantasy with reality I went down the gender road believing to be a woman in a man's body and gender is a psychological/psychosocial construct. Estrogen, (birth control pills) electrolysis, medical and psychiatric assessments etc. then coming out full time cross living(1994)and finally sex reassignment surgery (1997). Initially I was for a time euphoric however in time reality began to set in. I was "legally" female but I was living in a prison of fear. My conscience was convicting me with the truth that I was not a woman. I thought of God as the potter and me the clay rebelling against my creator thinking I could remanufacture my creation. I have a now closed neo vagina, no love life and not too large breasts but I am a man and have learned to be thankful for it. Identifying as a woman was untrue and I realized needing to restore my true male identity while living with the consequences of irreversible surgery.
I almost made a critical mistake of alienating my parents but am so thankful that they loved me unconditionally. A critical error made by many young (and adult) transitioners is abandoning a loving family. Gender transition might be right for a few however for most is a powerful self and community enabled deception & misdiagnosis destroying individuals, families and society being mandated to accept something that is factually untrue. I am horrified feeling a sense of responsibility seeing ROGD affecting young people esp. girls having once advocated for gender transition.Thank you Eliza for posting.
How were you introduced to the concept?
Yes, kids are encouraged to estrange or “go no contact” or “go silent” which is an alienation even while living in the house. This is one reason why it’s a cult or perhaps has always been?
I wish you peace and strength.
I was introduced to the concept of gender transition many years ago long before the internet and social media. Gender confusion has been a long diagnosed mental disorder but unfortunately activism,sex education in schools and social media is deceiving many young people into believing they are their opposite sex or non binary. When I began my gender transition many years ago I knew I had to tell my parents first. I believed if I had to hide my gender confusion from my parents then it had to be wrong. Again I am so thankful as my now deceased parents came to an understanding over time and still loved me. I have witnessed people estranged from family who are sad and lonely especially when having to spend special occasions like birthdays and holidays on their own. I can't emphasize enough those who advise kids to go "no contact" or "go silent" to loving parents and family are evil and likely to cause great harm to the individual and their loved ones. Thank you for writing and I wish you all the best.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I appreciate the honesty and courage you clearly have. It is helpful yet I certainly wish that you had been sparred this road. By sharing you are helping us who are in the thick of it. Thank you. 🙏
*spared.
Thank you for your kind words. I felt the need to speak from personal experience to the harm being done by this false ideology.
Them: "If you could be any species in all the world what would it be?"
Me: "I'd be a cat."
Them: "Then you already are..."
Me: "Fuckwits"
Do you ever wish you could get involved in these threads without risking a full on reddit ban? I post on Reddit occasionally but on such minor subs that I've only ever had posts deleted for questioning Transgenderism, I've yet to be banned anywhere for it.
The trans community has done such a great job persuading people to only tell them what they want to hear rather than what they truly think. I wonder if years from now there'll be a sub demographic of detransitioners who are angry with their friends, family, and wider community for lying to them about how they truly felt about the limits of transition. Some people with blame themselves entirely, which isn't fair, but I can see others blaming the world for lying to them even though they joined a movement that made lying to them the only kind and moral thing to do.
Did you make that up? There seems to be a connection MTF like cats. I see it on my son’s account. Curious if it’s a thing.
I just meant to take the trans communities reasoning to the next level, species denial over sex denial. I chose cat purely because it was the first animal that came to mind, and tbh, what sensible, logical person wouldn't choose to be a cat if the option was on the table...
Beyond that there is a fair amount of overlap between the trans community and the Furry, Therian, and Otherkin communities so you are right to make the connection.
Interesting! From an outsider's perspective, it looks like dress ups initially innocently and whimsically engaged take on a darker aspect, esp. in the case of fursonas --seems like parents need less warning now https://www.wrongspeakpublishing.com/p/students-in-animal-costumes-a-cute
Oh. 😳
"I identify as..." = "I am not..."
Reminds me of the old Margaret Thatcher quote:
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
Yeah. ICYMI:
https://elizamondegreen.substack.com/p/why-cant-there-be-men-who-wish-they/comment/62956106
Another great article, Eliza! I've been looking forward to your delving into the male side of this, which I'm sure will prove very interesting. What struck me about this man is how hard he was working at asking the right questions, trying to think critically, and having it confounded at every turn by the others, whose convoluted self-contradictions seem to know no bounds. On complaining that trying to see himself as a woman made him feel like a fake, he's told that everyone feels like a fake, and the thing to do is go and live your authentic life. What!? Nobody ever feels like they're real, so go and be real? And the kicker is that they're all play acting, so the injunction kind of makes sense, but as a lie: it's to go and *pretend* to be real, like we're doing. Stop asking sensible questions and trying to be who you are! It would be interesting to analyse these communities in relation to studies of cults (or maybe someone's done that). I got myself in a bit hotter water than I was already in when I started to describe "Trans" as "a mad cult" on a forum, but it clearly is. I am so sorry for all those suffering in it and because of it.
Yes, that's exactly what struck me, too. He's trying to be honest with himself about his experiences. He's trying to reality-check. He's just doing it in the worst possible place.
Trans is a mad cult. You'll get no hot water from me on that point!!!
Those last sentences are everything and could help so many people.
You're right that this is a common dynamic in MTF online spaces. This is a good and poignant example of it. An alternative one however, which I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on is this: a lot of MTF spaces (egg_irl especially) feature a sort of titillation, for lack of a better word, about the process of denial and eventual "acceptance" of their trans identity. It strikes me as like a game, almost like seduction in a way, but I don't know that it's literally sexual in nature. I'm really interested to know how you would analyze this. Let me know if you'd like an example of what I'm describing for reference.
I know exactly what you're talking about. It's something I'll write about at some point. I've been putting it off because I don't want to write where I don't feel empathy and the transgressive-titillating-MTF side of things doesn't inspire much empathy for me. But impossible to understand these spaces without understanding that side of things.
That's fair! What's being done is enraging and it's hard to feel compassion for the people participating in it. But I would also imagine that in this dynamic the lines between victim and abuser get blurred--- in both directions, because of the mimetic, multilevel marketing aspect that it has.
I'm sure when you do get around to it you will do a great job, and it will be very illuminating, like everything else you write.
Yeah, they're victims in that they're being told (in some cases demanding to be told, but still) that they're women, can become women, belong in women's spaces, when they aren't, can't, and don't. And they're blowing up their own lives, destroying their health, making it impossible to have honest relationships. So certainly I do feel that it's not good for anybody, nobody is getting good care here, no matter how insufferable they are. I just need to work up to it, lol.
Have you found a pattern or patterns in how the gender questioning seed first becomes implanted in these people's minds? Apart from being online, what do these men have in common?
Yes, will be writing about this down the road...
Much looking forward to it! I'm a layman, but it seems to me that the idée fixe in such cases must be a manifestation of a form of mental disorder that ideological purity is preventing the professions from acknowledging.
Very disturbing conversation. One of my biggest worries is the decline in mental health among young adults. This general decline is being ignored here in Canada when youth have higher rates of depression and anxiety than previous generations. This transgender BS is creeping into the sense of futility felt by so many young people and our institutions are letting it happen. Shame on us for forsaking the next generations.
It’s here in the US too. I’m thankful that I know of 2 nephews and a niece who has their head on their shoulders.
This,this here is precisely why I have never went on Reddit.
Poisonous minds all in one place,a recipe for disaster.
I think more and more kids(I'm 44 everyone is a kid too me)are realising that the trans activist types who welcomed them in so readily will and do turn on them in am instant of any DARE to question the cult.
My heart breaks for this young man though,I hope against hope that he does have a loving family,that he comes out of the other side somehow..
Thanks for going on Reddit &etc, Eliza, so we don't have to!
Dante's Inferno -- or a "divine comedy" -- that you describe so well ... 😉🙂
ICYMI, you might have some interest in a related story from 2015 by Michelle Goldberg:
"The Trans Women Who Say That Trans Women Aren’t Women"
https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/12/gender-critical-trans-women-the-apostates-of-the-trans-rights-movement.html
Thank you for sharing this, plus your insights, Eliza. The amount of mind-effery amd gaslighting in his online community is terrible.
He needs to get away from those people, and find a healthy community, and healthy healthcare providers.
The more exposure such online communities get, such as you're doing, Eliza, the more it will cast doubt on them, amd the more critical thinking will be possible among their participants, such that they'll be able to walk away.
Great work. Sharing. This would be a good one to share with Dem and GOP legislators, so they can know and expose the mind games making and keeping trans-identified people delusional.
In addition to the insanity of men competing in women's sports and the mutilation of children in the pursuit of the unattainable, the issue of women’s privacy is equally troubling.
In my opinion the worst aspect of the Democrats’ new Education Act Title IX regulations that go into effect on August 1 of this year is that boys and men will be able to to shower with high school and college girls (including my 17 year old granddaughter).
They will have no shame in doing that when it's perfectly legal. Unless Kamala disavows this new rule she deserves to lose the election on this issue alone.
Here's an analysis of the new regulations by the Foundation Against Intolerance and
Racism (FAIR):
"The Final Rule is likely to result in sex-integration of all bathrooms and locker rooms because it prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity. After August 1st, if a school requires students to use facilities that align with their biological sex (which they are currently allowed to require under Federal law and regulations), a transgender student may file a discrimination complaint alleging that the school has violated Title IX by preventing him or her from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender."