“Who’s going to tell these reporters that people exist whether we call them what they want to be called or not? Descartes did not say ‘You affirm, therefore I am.’”
Yes - I laughed out loud too, and I also wanted to scream. The notion that, according to the Trevor Project, using a young person's preferred pronouns is a "small, everyday act" that might save a life (and that they've got the "data" to prove it) is just another cruel restatement of the "do you want a dead kid" question.
"You brought this on yourselves." In this area, in the Trump taking on DEI, in Trump winning. In all ways - they brought this on themselves. And they aren't close to seeing it, so this is an ongoing problem. Maybe before the Presidential election the fever will break. The Democrats canned their autopsy of what went wrong. Not a good sign. I want to vote Democratic - but not of the party as it is now.
Trump’s sudden involvement in efforts to roll back the excesses of trans activism is not as beneficial as it may appear at first glance. Most Democrats share two characteristics: they loathe Donald Trump—which is understandable—and they are highly sympathetic to gender ideology and trans activism—which is lamentable. Winning over the hearts and minds of persuadable Democrats to a sex-realist perspective was difficult enough before Trump began signing gender-critical executive orders. If anything, the administration’s actions are likely to have hardened many Democrats’ support for all things trans.
Moreover, Trump is not known for deftly translating policy into nuanced, effective, and durable programs. There is no guarantee that he or his surrogates will succeed in realizing the full promise of these executive orders. What is certain is that Trump’s efforts to cripple gender ideology are triggering a wave of highly significant litigation. Some of these cases may finally resolve questions that have been contested for years. One can only hope that the resulting decisions do not end up creating new obstacles for the gender-critical movement.
I'm thinking about the Trevor Project data, that kids whose pronoun preference is honored have fewer suicide attempts. I have questions.
1) What qualifies as a "suicide attempt"? That seems like a term with a good deal of elasticity, and I'd like to know a bit more.
2) Looking at the list of categories of LGBTQwhatever people, I'm not sure they all make sense. What's the practical difference between bisexual and pansexual? What the hell is queer? And why would "questioning" people want different pronouns anyway?
3) Pronoun usage famously changes frequently with some of these folks. It's "he" yesterday, "she" this morning, perhaps "them" by lunchtime...some people are even "she/they." How do we know we are not just measuring that subjects feel better when other people do as they are told?
Finally, it seems to me that this is a category of people who are unstable to say the least. Currently, the things that will make them kill themselves are...
-- Lack of access to puberty blockers
-- Lack of access to cross sex hormones
-- Lack of access to various surgeries
-- Inability to play on any sports team they choose
-- Bans on entering sex-segregated spaces
-- Existing in a nation where some states--possibly not even their own--have laws they don't like
-- Not being referred to by the preferred name
-- Not being referred to by preferred pronouns
There's an old saying about not covering the world with leather, but simply donning shoes...
Once again, I am reminded of that tragic incident in July of 1944, near the end of World War II, when a village of brainwashed Japanese civilians' response to news of the advance of American soldiers made a place called Laderan Banadero -- also known as "Suicide Cliff" -- a famous illustration of the power of groupthink.
I've read that there is a memorial there for the Japanese families -- the fathers, mothers, and their children, whom they threw over the edge just before jumping themselves. These presumably ordinary people chose death rather than surrendering to U.S. soldiers. Imagine government propaganda so effective at filling its citizenry with such abject terror that ordinary people would do such a thing to their own children, throw toddlers and babies over a cliff, down hundreds of feet to jagged rocks and sea water. They expected nothing but total and inhuman depravity from the advancing American soldiers.
The precise number of these civilian suicides (whether hundreds or thousands) is still not known.
One technique for genocide that has been used throughout history to put an end to family lines comprising a particular population . . . sterilization . . . Ah, the irony of those appealing to human rights in order to be free to in-effect end so many family lines.
How do you get through to people so thoroughly indoctrinated by years of exposure to the mindless slogans in school curriculum, the activist journalists and clinicians and charismatic "influencers" on social media, all pushing Cargo Cult "science." I am in fear of people who cannot experience even the slightest glimmer of curiosity as to why more than half of their fellow human beings might want the gender medicine banned, but instead assume it's all due to ignorant hatred. If I can see humanity in even in the most ghoulish of those Mengele-like types who evangelize for child sex changes, and even grant them the "they know not what they do" benefit of the doubt, why can't the do the same? Instead they can only imagine monstrous "haters" bent on "trans genocide," and that is all they are capable of seeing. I'm afraid that the bravest and most action-oriented of those determined to defend "the trans child" will have to be stopped by force . . . and it will take berkerzers like Trump. And they can probably only end it temporarily, as the pandora's box of technology for radical body modification was opened long ago, and the conditioning our culture underwent to become so numb and blind to the vivisection of children likely began with popular aesthetics served by the cosmetic surgery industry . . .
The tragedy we all must live with is that there are limits to what one can do to save the panicked and delusional.
More libs should have a secret affair with RFKJ ideologically. He’s basically a pro-choice Dem and the pre-covid vaccine/autism stuff (discredited Andrew Wakefield study etc..) was standard fare in au natural affluent progressive circles 20 years ago. Blaming (mainly) the MMR shot for stuff was popular in ‘Hollywood’ back then and Obama even flirted with courting that left-leaning bloc*.
Then came covid, the definition of antivax became obliterated, and this much more dangerous trend emerged within the same crowd. In a way RFKJ is just deserts for covid overreach and Rachel Levine. It's obvious DT gifted him with his position, but the delegation to solid experts here was well done. He's shown he's very informed on this, unlike Senate and House Dems who are now a bigger menace to public health than he'll ever be.
While Trump's rhetoric is an editing job I'd take on, if invited, I don't think trans ally reactions would be different or nuanced if presented by Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson or other more temperate voices. Like the non-answers Dr. Richard/Rachel Levine gave in Congress, the indoctrinated Left will never acknowledge their decades of arrogance or their missteps. The system of suppression and censorship is institutionalized through the Trans Journalists' Association Stylebook and Coverage Guide, whose authors are not identified on their website. They do though, twist the arms of the New York Times and other news organizations such that the stories of trans widows are never covered, detransitioners are deplatformed and teachers continue to promote trans ideology in schools throughout the country. I continue to refer back to the principles of Piaget's stages of child development and developmental milestones of Object Permanence and Conservation of Matter. "Wrong body since birth" is a concept easily disproved. Treatment for Sex-based Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (coined by child psychologist, Elliot Kaminetsky) should include trauma treatment, movement for mind/body reconnections and the many breathing strategies developed to overcome panic reactions. I find the handwringing over the style of presentation to be a distraction from the actual work at hand, work that the mental health field completely abdicated.
While I agree that there are some in the gender movement who would never accept restrictions no matter who proposed them, it's hard to argue that Trump's thorough and pervasive corruption undermines anything his administration does.
The real kicker here is that pretty much *any* Republican president would have moved against gender stuff, but wouldn't be compromised by Trump's crude venality. For some reason, the GOP decided it HAD to have the worst conceivable Republican, and...well, here we are.
I understand these sentiments. However, these actions are protecting children. The Left engages in venal silencing and censorship, and I find they don't have the win on ethics.
Superb commentary on the HHS announcement, in particular. Lisa, you truly have established yourself as an important public intellectual on these issues. I have restacked.
(In the sentence “Over the course of this year, Trump has gone about reversing those deinstitutionalizing techniques” is that supposed to be “institutionalizing”?)
"Who’s going to tell these reporters that people exist whether we call them what they want to be called or not? Descartes did not say “You affirm, therefore I am.”"
Slightly off topic, but "You affirm, therefore I am," reminds me SO MUCH of a line from one of my favorite songs. The line is "I am quantum physics, My witness brings me to existence," and the song is called I/Me/Myself by Will Wood (it is about trans identity, written from the perspective of a man who used to identify as "genderqueer"). Every line in the song is so layered and poignant, 100% worth a listen if you have 5 minutes to spare.
“Who’s going to tell these reporters that people exist whether we call them what they want to be called or not? Descartes did not say ‘You affirm, therefore I am.’”
I laughed out loud. Thank you, Lisa.
Yes - I laughed out loud too, and I also wanted to scream. The notion that, according to the Trevor Project, using a young person's preferred pronouns is a "small, everyday act" that might save a life (and that they've got the "data" to prove it) is just another cruel restatement of the "do you want a dead kid" question.
Since the Trevor project is based on a lie, then why stop lying. Lying works.
Indeed.
Ask and you shall receive: Wahrheitsverkehrungsunbehagen.
Truth inversion confusion.
Or perhaps consider: Glaubwürdigkeitsumkehrschmerz
Pain experiences over the reversal of credibility
Really?! I have always appreciated seinsucht. (Is that how it's spelled?)
"You brought this on yourselves." In this area, in the Trump taking on DEI, in Trump winning. In all ways - they brought this on themselves. And they aren't close to seeing it, so this is an ongoing problem. Maybe before the Presidential election the fever will break. The Democrats canned their autopsy of what went wrong. Not a good sign. I want to vote Democratic - but not of the party as it is now.
Trump’s sudden involvement in efforts to roll back the excesses of trans activism is not as beneficial as it may appear at first glance. Most Democrats share two characteristics: they loathe Donald Trump—which is understandable—and they are highly sympathetic to gender ideology and trans activism—which is lamentable. Winning over the hearts and minds of persuadable Democrats to a sex-realist perspective was difficult enough before Trump began signing gender-critical executive orders. If anything, the administration’s actions are likely to have hardened many Democrats’ support for all things trans.
Moreover, Trump is not known for deftly translating policy into nuanced, effective, and durable programs. There is no guarantee that he or his surrogates will succeed in realizing the full promise of these executive orders. What is certain is that Trump’s efforts to cripple gender ideology are triggering a wave of highly significant litigation. Some of these cases may finally resolve questions that have been contested for years. One can only hope that the resulting decisions do not end up creating new obstacles for the gender-critical movement.
I'm thinking about the Trevor Project data, that kids whose pronoun preference is honored have fewer suicide attempts. I have questions.
1) What qualifies as a "suicide attempt"? That seems like a term with a good deal of elasticity, and I'd like to know a bit more.
2) Looking at the list of categories of LGBTQwhatever people, I'm not sure they all make sense. What's the practical difference between bisexual and pansexual? What the hell is queer? And why would "questioning" people want different pronouns anyway?
3) Pronoun usage famously changes frequently with some of these folks. It's "he" yesterday, "she" this morning, perhaps "them" by lunchtime...some people are even "she/they." How do we know we are not just measuring that subjects feel better when other people do as they are told?
Finally, it seems to me that this is a category of people who are unstable to say the least. Currently, the things that will make them kill themselves are...
-- Lack of access to puberty blockers
-- Lack of access to cross sex hormones
-- Lack of access to various surgeries
-- Inability to play on any sports team they choose
-- Bans on entering sex-segregated spaces
-- Existing in a nation where some states--possibly not even their own--have laws they don't like
-- Not being referred to by the preferred name
-- Not being referred to by preferred pronouns
There's an old saying about not covering the world with leather, but simply donning shoes...
Once again, I am reminded of that tragic incident in July of 1944, near the end of World War II, when a village of brainwashed Japanese civilians' response to news of the advance of American soldiers made a place called Laderan Banadero -- also known as "Suicide Cliff" -- a famous illustration of the power of groupthink.
I've read that there is a memorial there for the Japanese families -- the fathers, mothers, and their children, whom they threw over the edge just before jumping themselves. These presumably ordinary people chose death rather than surrendering to U.S. soldiers. Imagine government propaganda so effective at filling its citizenry with such abject terror that ordinary people would do such a thing to their own children, throw toddlers and babies over a cliff, down hundreds of feet to jagged rocks and sea water. They expected nothing but total and inhuman depravity from the advancing American soldiers.
The precise number of these civilian suicides (whether hundreds or thousands) is still not known.
One technique for genocide that has been used throughout history to put an end to family lines comprising a particular population . . . sterilization . . . Ah, the irony of those appealing to human rights in order to be free to in-effect end so many family lines.
How do you get through to people so thoroughly indoctrinated by years of exposure to the mindless slogans in school curriculum, the activist journalists and clinicians and charismatic "influencers" on social media, all pushing Cargo Cult "science." I am in fear of people who cannot experience even the slightest glimmer of curiosity as to why more than half of their fellow human beings might want the gender medicine banned, but instead assume it's all due to ignorant hatred. If I can see humanity in even in the most ghoulish of those Mengele-like types who evangelize for child sex changes, and even grant them the "they know not what they do" benefit of the doubt, why can't the do the same? Instead they can only imagine monstrous "haters" bent on "trans genocide," and that is all they are capable of seeing. I'm afraid that the bravest and most action-oriented of those determined to defend "the trans child" will have to be stopped by force . . . and it will take berkerzers like Trump. And they can probably only end it temporarily, as the pandora's box of technology for radical body modification was opened long ago, and the conditioning our culture underwent to become so numb and blind to the vivisection of children likely began with popular aesthetics served by the cosmetic surgery industry . . .
The tragedy we all must live with is that there are limits to what one can do to save the panicked and delusional.
More libs should have a secret affair with RFKJ ideologically. He’s basically a pro-choice Dem and the pre-covid vaccine/autism stuff (discredited Andrew Wakefield study etc..) was standard fare in au natural affluent progressive circles 20 years ago. Blaming (mainly) the MMR shot for stuff was popular in ‘Hollywood’ back then and Obama even flirted with courting that left-leaning bloc*.
Then came covid, the definition of antivax became obliterated, and this much more dangerous trend emerged within the same crowd. In a way RFKJ is just deserts for covid overreach and Rachel Levine. It's obvious DT gifted him with his position, but the delegation to solid experts here was well done. He's shown he's very informed on this, unlike Senate and House Dems who are now a bigger menace to public health than he'll ever be.
https://www.vox.com/2015/2/2/7963837/obama-vaccine-autism *
While Trump's rhetoric is an editing job I'd take on, if invited, I don't think trans ally reactions would be different or nuanced if presented by Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson or other more temperate voices. Like the non-answers Dr. Richard/Rachel Levine gave in Congress, the indoctrinated Left will never acknowledge their decades of arrogance or their missteps. The system of suppression and censorship is institutionalized through the Trans Journalists' Association Stylebook and Coverage Guide, whose authors are not identified on their website. They do though, twist the arms of the New York Times and other news organizations such that the stories of trans widows are never covered, detransitioners are deplatformed and teachers continue to promote trans ideology in schools throughout the country. I continue to refer back to the principles of Piaget's stages of child development and developmental milestones of Object Permanence and Conservation of Matter. "Wrong body since birth" is a concept easily disproved. Treatment for Sex-based Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (coined by child psychologist, Elliot Kaminetsky) should include trauma treatment, movement for mind/body reconnections and the many breathing strategies developed to overcome panic reactions. I find the handwringing over the style of presentation to be a distraction from the actual work at hand, work that the mental health field completely abdicated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5frvzBSSqfk
While I agree that there are some in the gender movement who would never accept restrictions no matter who proposed them, it's hard to argue that Trump's thorough and pervasive corruption undermines anything his administration does.
The real kicker here is that pretty much *any* Republican president would have moved against gender stuff, but wouldn't be compromised by Trump's crude venality. For some reason, the GOP decided it HAD to have the worst conceivable Republican, and...well, here we are.
I understand these sentiments. However, these actions are protecting children. The Left engages in venal silencing and censorship, and I find they don't have the win on ethics.
Superb commentary on the HHS announcement, in particular. Lisa, you truly have established yourself as an important public intellectual on these issues. I have restacked.
Thanks for this, Lisa. Excellent as usual.
(In the sentence “Over the course of this year, Trump has gone about reversing those deinstitutionalizing techniques” is that supposed to be “institutionalizing”?)
"Who’s going to tell these reporters that people exist whether we call them what they want to be called or not? Descartes did not say “You affirm, therefore I am.”"
Slightly off topic, but "You affirm, therefore I am," reminds me SO MUCH of a line from one of my favorite songs. The line is "I am quantum physics, My witness brings me to existence," and the song is called I/Me/Myself by Will Wood (it is about trans identity, written from the perspective of a man who used to identify as "genderqueer"). Every line in the song is so layered and poignant, 100% worth a listen if you have 5 minutes to spare.