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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   831 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 30, 2025

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I'm finally going to write an overview of the whole trans cult/ideology because I'm tired of otherwise seemingly intelligent and well meaning people arguing with me about it.

Could you all send me your best deep dives into the topic of transgenderism, both pro and con?

"The Categories Were Made for Man to Make Predictions" by Zack M. Davis, a devastating takedown of Scott Alexander's "The Categories Were Made for Man, Not Man for the Categories".

"Changing Emotions" by Eliezer Yudkowsky approaches the issue from a transhumanist angle.

Not a deep dive as such, but I also enjoyed AntiDem's "On the Creation of Unicorns".

On the more philosophical side of things:

Brief, 1 hour interview with a Gender Philosopher: https://youtube.com/live/w8D5tyvodSM?si=1tORdLvMpXnTDLLi

Extended discussion/book club on Gender from a Catholic lens (but holy shit I learned so much about contemporary "queering the gender norm" academics): Season 1, Season 2.

On the more medical side of things: https://old.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/15hhliu/the_chen_2023_paper_raises_serious_concerns_about/

https://old.reddit.com/r/detrans/comments/hp0ee4/so_im_actually_a_doctor_who_specializes_in/

How deep do you want to dive? What sort of angle do you want to take? Medical / scientific? Sociological / philosophical? I don't think it's a subject that can be covered by a single write up, and worse, I can't think of a single source I could link you that would cover all the beats. Aside from what the others have recommended, I'd give a shout out to Mia Hughes, who has a knack for covering the history of the phenomenon, and digging out it's historical analogoues. She's the author of the WPATH Files (see chapters "A Brief History Of Transgender Medicine And The Early Days Of WPATH" and "Past Cases Of Pseudoscientific Hormonal And Surgical Experiments"), and the recent review of the NYT "The Protocol" podcast.

My go-to references for the pro-trans side are usually people like Jack Turban and Steven Novella & David Gorsky, though these "muh science" arguments have lost a lot of popularity on the pro-side recently, in the wake of the Cass Review (as well as every other systematic review on the subject that has been published to date), so I don't know how far you'll get addressing them.

@ymeskhout's "In This House, We Believe in Gender Stereotypes", which he originally cross-posted here: there's an interesting discussion in the comments.

In rationalist circles, Scott's post "The Categories Were Made for Man, not Man for the Categories" is a very respected pro-trans article. I used to find it persuasive.

On the pro side, Freddie deBoer has waded into this topic on several occasions, which prompted my response to him:

Wonderful! Huh, didn't realize you were on Substack too, I'll have to follow. Ty for the links.

Excellent! These are wonderful sources ty. Phew this is going to be... interesting.

Jesse Singal is pretty even-handed, even if he's vilified a lot by activists; His position is, as far as I understand it, that the evidence on the entire topic is far too unreliable to act on it the way the medical establishment is currently doing. Diagnostic standards are far to deferential and all the available treatments have muddy positive impacts; If anything, the negative impacts have far better evidence than the positive ones. Nevertheless, he still stresses that we should be tolerant, that most trans-people are perfectly fine, and that this is especially about protecting teens and children from haphazard decisions that will impact their entire life.

Andy Ngo really trashes crazy (violent) left extremism in general, which includes a trans-rate of seemingly >50%. Of course you can't call this representative of anything, but it still gives you a good view into a subgroup that nevertheless enjoys widespread support in media & academia.

Colin Wright (note that this substack also includes some other authors) lands somewhere in-between, generally also primarily highlighting the low evidentiary standards. But he also regularly makes a deliberate point about the primacy of biological sex, and is more openly dismissive of large parts of trans medical care.

Obligatory self-promo: https://firsttoilthenthegrave.substack.com/p/contra-deboer-on-transgender-issues

I recommend binging everything @zackmdavis posted on his old site.

Gender:Hacked by Sarah Mittermaier formerly/also known as Eliza Mondegreen.

A review of Shannon Thrace's memoir 18 Months, her account of how her marriage collapsed after her ex-husband came out as trans.

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