As I was thinking about a response to Diana’s comment on yesterday’s post I realized I wanted to say too much and so here’s the reply. But firstly I need to apologize to her for my seemingly obsessive and compulsive need to generate a catchy title. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don’t.
As someone who generally hides out in the comment section, today I have been taken by surprise. Beware lest you suffer as Actaeon did! (I say this to cover up how verklempt I am.) Your response gives me enough to think about for days, but here's one moment I had of recognition:
One of my classmates was gender dysphoric from the time she went through puberty. This person transitioned and ultimately disappeared from our town and our lives, so eager was he for privacy and complete separation from life as female. This person's goal was not to be "trans", it was to live as a man. And to the extent that any of us would have or could have impeded that, even if only through our memories (as in the first sentence of this paragraph), he wanted out. The exploding ornaments are real. And perhaps sometimes I forget that (even willfully!) in response to the 'gaseous' among us.
Comparisons between treatments for anorexia and transgenderism are very revealing. In both cases, an individual's self-perception does not reflect reality yet in one case we affirm the disconnect. It's one thing for an adult to consent to surgery and body-altering hormones, but now they're going after children, school curriculums throughout the US tinkering with impressionable minds. Former Johns Hopkins professor and psychiatrist Paul McHugh has written many articles on this subject that you might find interesting (like all bad-thinkers, his Wiki page is full of smears.)
The explosion of drag queens and autogynephiles in the media has taken the focus away from those who suffer from gender dysmorphia and conflated them, to the detriment of those genuinely affflicted.
The most steely-eyed, cool-headed realist I know told me she saw a ghost traverse her hallway one night, then stroll right back the way it came. I too have experienced many phenomena that I cannot explain (family awakened by persistent, seconds-long loud banging on kitchen doors and roof on multiple occasions, among many other things).
I don't mean to hijack the comment section of your thoughtful essay with ghost stories, but I genuinely struggle to explain the West's descent into madness without going into the spiritual dimension. Greed and stupidity are insufficient explanations for how governments throughout the West, especially, demonized citizens and turned us against one another. Now they are launching a full-scale attack on children.
The Georgia Guidestones (Dr. Yeadon, for one, puts a lot of stock into it), calling for the culling of the population were located exactly 666 miles from the UN building in NYC. During the presidential campaign, the unknown ventriloquists had their Joe Biden dummy appear behind 2020 campaign signs urging people to text 30330 to learn more about Effjoe's plans for America. 2020 divided by 3033 gives you these numbers in a row: 666. Are they punking us? Three years ago, I'd have laughed at anyone taking this seriously. Now???
Earlier, the method for handling transsexuals here was to investigate the individual thoroughly, for their sake.
First, a psychiatrist conducted a deep study of the person, lasting no shorter than two years, one or two sessions per week minimum (socialised healthcare, so this was done on everybody else's dime and time). This was done to rule out schizophrenia or other psychoses, autism, trauma and so on as the root cause. During this time, the transsexual person was required to live as their (cliamed) real sex 24/7, no exceptions. So a man claiming to be a woman would have to live opnely every day as a woman, going to work and meeting friends and family and so on. I stress again, this was done for the person's benefit - it was a hard test for if the feeling, drive, sentiment, what have you was indeed real and not a symptom.
After the initial psych eval, two independent psychiatrists, not knowing anything more than what was on file from the first one, looked in the investigation, conducting interviews independently and also having a few sessions with the person in question. Two independent second opinions, and these had to match the first psychiatrist's assesment. Again, to rule out other factors.
Only after this was surgery and hormones ever discussed, as the surgery no matter which way is pretty much irreverisble, and the hormone treatment increases cancer risk (as in: the risk for all kinds of cancers) by up to a factor of 50. Not something to be undertaken on a whim.
All this was set up for the safety and security of the patient. It was done so in order to comply with the physician's oath: do no harm.
Nowadays, the usual suspects are pushing for pre-puberty children being allowed to decide for themselves if they are to start taking hormones. They aren't considered mature enough to buy energy drinks, but they can apparently make decisions only people with a degree in advanced cellular biology, endocrinology and the like really can make. All the while cheered on by the groomers in the LGBTQP-advocacy groups.
Here's an article on detransitioning from WebMD, lotsof different points of view:
Thanks for another great article. I loved the psychologists blog post, "childhood is not reversible". That makes so much sense, and I like the use of the term social transitioning. How awful for a child as they're reaching puberty. The child Emma mentioned in the article was basically me. I was a tomboy and dressed and looked very boyish, all my best friends were boys and we played sports and video games together. There was never any fuss made about it from anyone at home or at school. I'm so glad there wasn't adult pressure to consider changing my body. I've gone through times in my adult life where I dress and wear my hair more traditionally masculine, and other times more traditionally feminine. These days I have long hair and am in a dress most days. I don't really give it a second thought, I don't make an inner statement about it, I just see that I go through these natural phases of how I express myself. No biggie.
Of course the teenage years are about forming a sense of self and relation to one's peers and society. This normal teenage process has been sullied and confused for teenagers by trans and gender identity extremists. And adults need to get up to speed and firmly hold the space for biological reality. This sure isn't easy for some parents who have children or teens going through this. Sometimes it's confusing for them too, managing the judgments, the fear, etc.
I haven't had any trans friends. I know I would only go so far with pronouns, and not into ridiculous territory. I wouldn't be attracted to someone as a close friend if they needed me to use crazy pronouns. I could live with he and she, and maybe get used to the clumsy they if it was really important to someone I liked or loved. But that's it, I wouldn't use gaso, or the female gasa, for the gaseous gender! 😅 That's fine for teens to play those games with the one another, but I don't play those games.
I think there's so much more to being human than our physical reality and five senses. Physically, we are mostly space inside our bodies anyway. In my experience through meditation and spiritual inquiry, that can be experienced directly. It's very light and freeing. I could believe that as souls we live beyond our physical death. Now I don't have to believe that, I know it from surprisingly communicating with my mom after she died. It's understandable that people have different beliefs, but when you have a direct experience of something, that belief changes to knowing. Like the experience of your friend the vicar and whatever presence or non-physical entities were in that room. Of course we can fool ourselves into believing we are experienced such things, and that's where critical self-assessment is consistently needed, always being aware that what we choose to believe can be serving our self-centered personality, or our emotional needs.
"Granny Weatherwax had been an expert at Borrowing - moving her mind into that of another creature, using its body, sharing its experiences. It was dangerous witchery, for an inexperienced witch risked losing herself in the mind of the other and never coming back."
The story of the death of Granny Weatherwax is one of the most moving things one might possibly read. Of course it needs a slow build-up of working through the discworld canon.
It's hard to take seriously those who peddle the promotion and exploitation of biological processes to bring about a financial windfall for themselves and a trail of devastation for the people who fall for it. It is the "victims" who do need help. They do not have a grounding of who they are, a firm sense of identity and purpose, and so they let others define it, thinking they will be happier. (my wife works in the anesthetics industry and says these folks are pretty mentally messed up, and often filed with regret and sadness.)
I happen to be religious, and find this proclamation to the world on the family to be a great grounding and a great tool to establish good foundational principles for individuals, self identityand relationships, and the basis for a great marriage.
"Pfizer-tinted glasses - a special kind of viewer that allows one to re-categorize thousands and thousands of instances as ‘rare’." - Or, as Dr. Peter McCullough would argue, it's more accurate to say "tip of the iceberg'.
Unless and until science (REAL, not Pfizer-tainted) can determine what's truly going on with those desiring to transition, the smart and sane way to deal with them is for the medical establishment (psychologists, surgeons, endocrinologists) to live up to their Hippocratic Oath by treating ONLY those age 25+, since the brain is not fully formed until then. That policy (or maybe even a law?) would seem to weed out those who are truly suffering from those just confused by 'wokism.'
As someone who generally hides out in the comment section, today I have been taken by surprise. Beware lest you suffer as Actaeon did! (I say this to cover up how verklempt I am.) Your response gives me enough to think about for days, but here's one moment I had of recognition:
One of my classmates was gender dysphoric from the time she went through puberty. This person transitioned and ultimately disappeared from our town and our lives, so eager was he for privacy and complete separation from life as female. This person's goal was not to be "trans", it was to live as a man. And to the extent that any of us would have or could have impeded that, even if only through our memories (as in the first sentence of this paragraph), he wanted out. The exploding ornaments are real. And perhaps sometimes I forget that (even willfully!) in response to the 'gaseous' among us.
Comparisons between treatments for anorexia and transgenderism are very revealing. In both cases, an individual's self-perception does not reflect reality yet in one case we affirm the disconnect. It's one thing for an adult to consent to surgery and body-altering hormones, but now they're going after children, school curriculums throughout the US tinkering with impressionable minds. Former Johns Hopkins professor and psychiatrist Paul McHugh has written many articles on this subject that you might find interesting (like all bad-thinkers, his Wiki page is full of smears.)
The explosion of drag queens and autogynephiles in the media has taken the focus away from those who suffer from gender dysmorphia and conflated them, to the detriment of those genuinely affflicted.
Interesting story about the vicar. Here is a particularly well-documented and eerie story in Indiana: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/01/25/the-disposession-of-latoya-ammons/4892553/
The most steely-eyed, cool-headed realist I know told me she saw a ghost traverse her hallway one night, then stroll right back the way it came. I too have experienced many phenomena that I cannot explain (family awakened by persistent, seconds-long loud banging on kitchen doors and roof on multiple occasions, among many other things).
I don't mean to hijack the comment section of your thoughtful essay with ghost stories, but I genuinely struggle to explain the West's descent into madness without going into the spiritual dimension. Greed and stupidity are insufficient explanations for how governments throughout the West, especially, demonized citizens and turned us against one another. Now they are launching a full-scale attack on children.
The Georgia Guidestones (Dr. Yeadon, for one, puts a lot of stock into it), calling for the culling of the population were located exactly 666 miles from the UN building in NYC. During the presidential campaign, the unknown ventriloquists had their Joe Biden dummy appear behind 2020 campaign signs urging people to text 30330 to learn more about Effjoe's plans for America. 2020 divided by 3033 gives you these numbers in a row: 666. Are they punking us? Three years ago, I'd have laughed at anyone taking this seriously. Now???
Earlier, the method for handling transsexuals here was to investigate the individual thoroughly, for their sake.
First, a psychiatrist conducted a deep study of the person, lasting no shorter than two years, one or two sessions per week minimum (socialised healthcare, so this was done on everybody else's dime and time). This was done to rule out schizophrenia or other psychoses, autism, trauma and so on as the root cause. During this time, the transsexual person was required to live as their (cliamed) real sex 24/7, no exceptions. So a man claiming to be a woman would have to live opnely every day as a woman, going to work and meeting friends and family and so on. I stress again, this was done for the person's benefit - it was a hard test for if the feeling, drive, sentiment, what have you was indeed real and not a symptom.
After the initial psych eval, two independent psychiatrists, not knowing anything more than what was on file from the first one, looked in the investigation, conducting interviews independently and also having a few sessions with the person in question. Two independent second opinions, and these had to match the first psychiatrist's assesment. Again, to rule out other factors.
Only after this was surgery and hormones ever discussed, as the surgery no matter which way is pretty much irreverisble, and the hormone treatment increases cancer risk (as in: the risk for all kinds of cancers) by up to a factor of 50. Not something to be undertaken on a whim.
All this was set up for the safety and security of the patient. It was done so in order to comply with the physician's oath: do no harm.
Nowadays, the usual suspects are pushing for pre-puberty children being allowed to decide for themselves if they are to start taking hormones. They aren't considered mature enough to buy energy drinks, but they can apparently make decisions only people with a degree in advanced cellular biology, endocrinology and the like really can make. All the while cheered on by the groomers in the LGBTQP-advocacy groups.
Here's an article on detransitioning from WebMD, lotsof different points of view:
[https://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20220322/doctors-have-failed-them-say-those-who-regret-transitioning]
Thanks for another great article. I loved the psychologists blog post, "childhood is not reversible". That makes so much sense, and I like the use of the term social transitioning. How awful for a child as they're reaching puberty. The child Emma mentioned in the article was basically me. I was a tomboy and dressed and looked very boyish, all my best friends were boys and we played sports and video games together. There was never any fuss made about it from anyone at home or at school. I'm so glad there wasn't adult pressure to consider changing my body. I've gone through times in my adult life where I dress and wear my hair more traditionally masculine, and other times more traditionally feminine. These days I have long hair and am in a dress most days. I don't really give it a second thought, I don't make an inner statement about it, I just see that I go through these natural phases of how I express myself. No biggie.
Of course the teenage years are about forming a sense of self and relation to one's peers and society. This normal teenage process has been sullied and confused for teenagers by trans and gender identity extremists. And adults need to get up to speed and firmly hold the space for biological reality. This sure isn't easy for some parents who have children or teens going through this. Sometimes it's confusing for them too, managing the judgments, the fear, etc.
I haven't had any trans friends. I know I would only go so far with pronouns, and not into ridiculous territory. I wouldn't be attracted to someone as a close friend if they needed me to use crazy pronouns. I could live with he and she, and maybe get used to the clumsy they if it was really important to someone I liked or loved. But that's it, I wouldn't use gaso, or the female gasa, for the gaseous gender! 😅 That's fine for teens to play those games with the one another, but I don't play those games.
I think there's so much more to being human than our physical reality and five senses. Physically, we are mostly space inside our bodies anyway. In my experience through meditation and spiritual inquiry, that can be experienced directly. It's very light and freeing. I could believe that as souls we live beyond our physical death. Now I don't have to believe that, I know it from surprisingly communicating with my mom after she died. It's understandable that people have different beliefs, but when you have a direct experience of something, that belief changes to knowing. Like the experience of your friend the vicar and whatever presence or non-physical entities were in that room. Of course we can fool ourselves into believing we are experienced such things, and that's where critical self-assessment is consistently needed, always being aware that what we choose to believe can be serving our self-centered personality, or our emotional needs.
"Granny Weatherwax had been an expert at Borrowing - moving her mind into that of another creature, using its body, sharing its experiences. It was dangerous witchery, for an inexperienced witch risked losing herself in the mind of the other and never coming back."
The story of the death of Granny Weatherwax is one of the most moving things one might possibly read. Of course it needs a slow build-up of working through the discworld canon.
It's hard to take seriously those who peddle the promotion and exploitation of biological processes to bring about a financial windfall for themselves and a trail of devastation for the people who fall for it. It is the "victims" who do need help. They do not have a grounding of who they are, a firm sense of identity and purpose, and so they let others define it, thinking they will be happier. (my wife works in the anesthetics industry and says these folks are pretty mentally messed up, and often filed with regret and sadness.)
I happen to be religious, and find this proclamation to the world on the family to be a great grounding and a great tool to establish good foundational principles for individuals, self identityand relationships, and the basis for a great marriage.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/36035_000_24_family.pdf
With good foundational principles and relationships, there are fantastic elements to life that bring greater peace and harmony.
It was written in 1995, and is even more valuable today than it was back then.
An excellent piece. Thank you.
"Pfizer-tinted glasses - a special kind of viewer that allows one to re-categorize thousands and thousands of instances as ‘rare’." - Or, as Dr. Peter McCullough would argue, it's more accurate to say "tip of the iceberg'.
Unless and until science (REAL, not Pfizer-tainted) can determine what's truly going on with those desiring to transition, the smart and sane way to deal with them is for the medical establishment (psychologists, surgeons, endocrinologists) to live up to their Hippocratic Oath by treating ONLY those age 25+, since the brain is not fully formed until then. That policy (or maybe even a law?) would seem to weed out those who are truly suffering from those just confused by 'wokism.'