Glad to hear from you again. I was wondering if all was well. Looks like I have something (infuriating) to read for lunch today.
On something closer to your preferred topic of pursuit, I was watching the shitshow over in Congress where McCarthy is exemplifying his absolute lack of leadership and it occurred to me that a large portion of the conundrum he's in is due in two parts of Citizen's United and the successful, multi-decade long gerrymandering efforts that create completely safe seats that end up being backwaters that collect scum. In another era the howler monkeys that are going to shut our government down would be vulnerable to pressure from the party- witholding of campaign fund assistance or just a willingness to let a seat change for a term in order to clear out someone who is clearly antagonistic to the party. That doesn't happen any more. The MAGA howlers can do what they do because they're 100% safe, even from their own party.
I've been calling it Monkey's Paw politics in my head, the unanticipated consequences of winning after you've broken the rules. I've been thinking of writing a piece on it. Curious what your take might be on it.
I think that's a really interesting take, that it makes perfect sense, and that it's poetic justice for the party that passed it--that we also have to suffer for, apparently
I'd love to read a piece on that, I hope you do it
But perhaps we should just set the whole suitcase on fire.
Freud (bless his cocaine-addled heart) would have a *field day* with the implications of the idea that not having a penis means no longer having any genitals at all.
“It’s kind of an alien idea to many people, that you just have to suffer your pain,” Joseph Burgo, who is heavily quoted in the Genspect article, said on gender-critical podcast A Wider Lens in June of 2022. Co-host Sasha Ayad echoed his sentiment. “We don't know how [suffering] might transform, how it may teach [trans youth] something valuable. And like you said, Joe, how they might develop a healthy way of coping or growing from it.”
Ho-lee shit. As someone who is just starting to go through the process of realizing what the "just suck it down and get on with life" approach to dealing with incidents from childhood that are *far* less traumatic than what these kids are going through, this is a *breathtakingly* callous take.
This is on par with the "slavery was cool because slaves learned valuable vocational skills" argument. Just... like... no. We don't work that way. Society should not be encouraging children to undergo trauma splitting where you bury your emotional life and instead surface an "apparently normal part" of your personality that goes through life like a goddamn robot, it's not healthy, it doesn't help you, it's a defense mechanism that a child creates to save themselves from a pain or complex event that they can't fucking process because they're incapable of it.
Part of me wants to shout "of course they want you to STFU and go numb and just go through life like a robot, you're easier to control that way". I don't know if that scans with the rest of this liquid fecal discharge generally advocates but I'm repeatedly tripping over the idea that some emotional trauma can be a good thing for everyone else attitude.
Also from some of the gender critical asshats own studies they like to show, there's an interesting tendency that even among people who detransition or undergo desistance, a significant percentage of those people not only don't feel regret, they regard their transition as a positive experience. You only get the kind of numbers the gender critical people claim by assuming that anyone who stops transitioning or de-transitions does it because they regret the experience but their own data suggests that isn't the case often enough to make broad statements like that.
I've come around to short-handing modern conservatism and right-leaning politics as "obedience, or at least submission to the hierarchy". I have Jordan Peterson to thank for that ironically since it's the idea that keeps him erect at night. When you put all this through that lens, it becomes a pretty simple story to me. It's A Clockwork Orange. It's trauma-induced submission. It's Ruby Franke and "To Train Up A Child" beat the fuck out of your children until they are meek and submissive. Obedience is the primary virtue, or if not obedience, then compliance. Trans kids do not comply almost by definition with their parents' expectations at the most fundamental levels- their gender. Acknowledging that trans kids are real, normal, and relatively common undermines their entire universal belief structure. Better to punish them until they bury that part of them and put on a blank, mechanical face, than to admit that your child is an individual apart from yourself and that that's a *healthy* thing.
Sounds like a back eddy for some sis people, perhaps, but well done and valuable for the people and families directly experiencing the situation, and others who care about what seems out of the path of their orbit. Thanks.
This is extremely useful. Thanks for the data about Transition Regret. I'm Gender Critical but am growing increasingly disturbed at how much no-data propaganda GCs are spreading: Transition Regret; claims of kids choosing to transition because of 'pederast adults grooming them'; refusal to acknowledge that the small number of assaults on cis-women by 'gender dysphoric' individuals claiming to be trans is dwarfed by the number of assaults on trans-women by cis-men.
I'm Gender Critical, in that I believe that if you went thru puberty male you appear to have an advantage in some sports even after Hormone Replacement Therapy (Lia Thomas placing 554th, 65th & 32nd as a man vs 5th, 1st & 8th as a woman in the 200/500/1650 free) & I don't think there's adequate data to explain why trans women prisoners appear to rape cis women prisoners at a higher rate than cis women prisoners.
I think the trans sports argument is another place where science needs to shine. It's such a deeply, genuinely thorny question and I too havce questions. Lia Thomas is absolutely a woman. Does she have a physical advantage? If so, does she have more of a physical advantage than an AFAB person might have? She doesn't win every one of her races, so it would seem not. I genuinely don't know the answer, but we're gonna have to figure it out
The trans woman prisoner problem seems, to me, a lot more simple: we need to do more to prevent prison rape, period. My understanding is, as things stand now, rape is so built into the carceral experience that it is part of the punishment. That's gotta stop, apart from gender stuff
"If so, does she have more of a physical advantage than an AFAB person might have? She doesn't win every one of her races, so it would seem not"
She has to win every single one of her races to have a physical advantage that matters? Guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
If your point was that at some point the advantage gained is too small to matter, I'd agree... but going from 554th & 65th (Lia's final season competing against men before HRT) to 5th & 1st? I'm going to guess that that particular example is going to play poorly with the huge majority of Americans unless Lia turns out to be an outlier.
Sports isn't a particularly logical field of endeavor. People might manage to be calm & analytical about Lia going from 554th to 200th. Might. But keep their shit if they feel that they lost their place on the medal podium because of a new factor? Nope.
Glad to hear from you again. I was wondering if all was well. Looks like I have something (infuriating) to read for lunch today.
On something closer to your preferred topic of pursuit, I was watching the shitshow over in Congress where McCarthy is exemplifying his absolute lack of leadership and it occurred to me that a large portion of the conundrum he's in is due in two parts of Citizen's United and the successful, multi-decade long gerrymandering efforts that create completely safe seats that end up being backwaters that collect scum. In another era the howler monkeys that are going to shut our government down would be vulnerable to pressure from the party- witholding of campaign fund assistance or just a willingness to let a seat change for a term in order to clear out someone who is clearly antagonistic to the party. That doesn't happen any more. The MAGA howlers can do what they do because they're 100% safe, even from their own party.
I've been calling it Monkey's Paw politics in my head, the unanticipated consequences of winning after you've broken the rules. I've been thinking of writing a piece on it. Curious what your take might be on it.
I think that's a really interesting take, that it makes perfect sense, and that it's poetic justice for the party that passed it--that we also have to suffer for, apparently
I'd love to read a piece on that, I hope you do it
"He has no genitals."
The genuine lack of understanding on how vaginoplasty works is just... unbelievable.
So much to unpack in that tiny little quote
But perhaps we should just set the whole suitcase on fire.
Freud (bless his cocaine-addled heart) would have a *field day* with the implications of the idea that not having a penis means no longer having any genitals at all.
“It’s kind of an alien idea to many people, that you just have to suffer your pain,” Joseph Burgo, who is heavily quoted in the Genspect article, said on gender-critical podcast A Wider Lens in June of 2022. Co-host Sasha Ayad echoed his sentiment. “We don't know how [suffering] might transform, how it may teach [trans youth] something valuable. And like you said, Joe, how they might develop a healthy way of coping or growing from it.”
Ho-lee shit. As someone who is just starting to go through the process of realizing what the "just suck it down and get on with life" approach to dealing with incidents from childhood that are *far* less traumatic than what these kids are going through, this is a *breathtakingly* callous take.
This is on par with the "slavery was cool because slaves learned valuable vocational skills" argument. Just... like... no. We don't work that way. Society should not be encouraging children to undergo trauma splitting where you bury your emotional life and instead surface an "apparently normal part" of your personality that goes through life like a goddamn robot, it's not healthy, it doesn't help you, it's a defense mechanism that a child creates to save themselves from a pain or complex event that they can't fucking process because they're incapable of it.
Part of me wants to shout "of course they want you to STFU and go numb and just go through life like a robot, you're easier to control that way". I don't know if that scans with the rest of this liquid fecal discharge generally advocates but I'm repeatedly tripping over the idea that some emotional trauma can be a good thing for everyone else attitude.
Also from some of the gender critical asshats own studies they like to show, there's an interesting tendency that even among people who detransition or undergo desistance, a significant percentage of those people not only don't feel regret, they regard their transition as a positive experience. You only get the kind of numbers the gender critical people claim by assuming that anyone who stops transitioning or de-transitions does it because they regret the experience but their own data suggests that isn't the case often enough to make broad statements like that.
"Pain builds character" really tips these groups' hands as to whether they're fundamentally liberal or conservative in worldview, I think.
Imagine thinking that allowing your child to experience pain without helping them won't have psychological effects
I've come around to short-handing modern conservatism and right-leaning politics as "obedience, or at least submission to the hierarchy". I have Jordan Peterson to thank for that ironically since it's the idea that keeps him erect at night. When you put all this through that lens, it becomes a pretty simple story to me. It's A Clockwork Orange. It's trauma-induced submission. It's Ruby Franke and "To Train Up A Child" beat the fuck out of your children until they are meek and submissive. Obedience is the primary virtue, or if not obedience, then compliance. Trans kids do not comply almost by definition with their parents' expectations at the most fundamental levels- their gender. Acknowledging that trans kids are real, normal, and relatively common undermines their entire universal belief structure. Better to punish them until they bury that part of them and put on a blank, mechanical face, than to admit that your child is an individual apart from yourself and that that's a *healthy* thing.
Sounds like a back eddy for some sis people, perhaps, but well done and valuable for the people and families directly experiencing the situation, and others who care about what seems out of the path of their orbit. Thanks.
This is extremely useful. Thanks for the data about Transition Regret. I'm Gender Critical but am growing increasingly disturbed at how much no-data propaganda GCs are spreading: Transition Regret; claims of kids choosing to transition because of 'pederast adults grooming them'; refusal to acknowledge that the small number of assaults on cis-women by 'gender dysphoric' individuals claiming to be trans is dwarfed by the number of assaults on trans-women by cis-men.
I'm Gender Critical, in that I believe that if you went thru puberty male you appear to have an advantage in some sports even after Hormone Replacement Therapy (Lia Thomas placing 554th, 65th & 32nd as a man vs 5th, 1st & 8th as a woman in the 200/500/1650 free) & I don't think there's adequate data to explain why trans women prisoners appear to rape cis women prisoners at a higher rate than cis women prisoners.
(also, cheers to your willingness to look at the evidence, and I really hope we get a lot more studies on all of these things very soon)
I think the trans sports argument is another place where science needs to shine. It's such a deeply, genuinely thorny question and I too havce questions. Lia Thomas is absolutely a woman. Does she have a physical advantage? If so, does she have more of a physical advantage than an AFAB person might have? She doesn't win every one of her races, so it would seem not. I genuinely don't know the answer, but we're gonna have to figure it out
The trans woman prisoner problem seems, to me, a lot more simple: we need to do more to prevent prison rape, period. My understanding is, as things stand now, rape is so built into the carceral experience that it is part of the punishment. That's gotta stop, apart from gender stuff
Also, here's what happens when trans women go to male prison: https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/23/us/trans-women-incarceration/index.html
"There is a callousness amongst many Gender Criticals towards the pain that gender dysphoria."
I think you are missing a verb here? :)
Thank you! Fixed
"If so, does she have more of a physical advantage than an AFAB person might have? She doesn't win every one of her races, so it would seem not"
She has to win every single one of her races to have a physical advantage that matters? Guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
If your point was that at some point the advantage gained is too small to matter, I'd agree... but going from 554th & 65th (Lia's final season competing against men before HRT) to 5th & 1st? I'm going to guess that that particular example is going to play poorly with the huge majority of Americans unless Lia turns out to be an outlier.
Sports isn't a particularly logical field of endeavor. People might manage to be calm & analytical about Lia going from 554th to 200th. Might. But keep their shit if they feel that they lost their place on the medal podium because of a new factor? Nope.