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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026

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So the steel man is something like: "fuck these idiots, real trans people exist but are rare and other conversations obscure what these people are like and what they need."

In your view, what's a "real trans person" and is there any objective way to distinguish such a person from non-real trans people?

A real trans person is pretty much what you expect, they do exist and are rare. The clearest examples I can find are people who have absolutely zero social deficits or mental health issues they just seem to have identification with the opposite sex. It doesn't seem unreasonable that a weird misfiring of biology could create this (rarely) and that in a permissive social environment these people would be allowed to exist.

Slicing these people off from "fake" trans people should be reasonably easy but in the modern environment where you aren't allowed to asks questions it is impossible. A fact of life in medicine is that we treat people who are almost certain not trans (especially a category I didn't mention above - malingering types) as trans because it's not acceptable to ask questions.

Hopefully things will settle down and we'll be allowed to get more focused care each segment.

he clearest examples I can find are people who have absolutely zero social deficits or mental health issues they just seem to have identification with the opposite sex.

Is there any objective way to distinguish?

I think the science would have to advance beyond the politics for the answer here to be yes.

I think the science would have to advance beyond the politics for the answer here to be yes.

I'll take that as a "no."

The answer also isn't no.

Does an objective way exist? Almost certainly.

Do we know what it is? No. Politics impairs true scientific verification.

Is that too strict a bar? Likely.

Could myself and a bunch of other non-woke educated professionals hash out something that is "good enough" in a day? Likely.

Scientific rigor encapsulates a wild and wide range of certainties.

Does an objective way exist? Almost certainly.

What's your evidence for this claim?

I mean it's not rocket surgery, assuming no need for secondary gain you just ask some pretty basic questions and you can figure out which of the phenotypes are here (assuming secondary gain it's harder but we do have inventories for that).

Coming up with and validating a structured interview or formal scale request genuine research and investigation, even if a few guys in a room can quickly spitball something that likely does the job that ain't the same thing a formal gold standard form of testing.

As for if it actually exists, I mean you have people who are attracted to feet, children, being murdered and eaten. Getting the gender/sex wires crossed seem to be a much simpler thing.

I mean it's not rocket surgery, assuming no need for secondary gain you just ask some pretty basic questions and you can figure out which of the phenotypes are here (assuming secondary gain it's harder but we do have inventories for that).

I'm not sure what your point is here. It sounds like you are saying that one can determine if a person is a "real trans person" is by interviewing them in some kind of rigorous way. What is your evidence for this claim?

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