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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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You don't have to transition physically to be trans in the trans activist camp, not one bit.

Then why in God’s name are children, let alone adults, being given “trans-affirming healthcare”? What are all the puberty blockers, top and bottom surgeries, etc. for, if gender identity has no connection to the body? I’m fully aware that there is a gender-abolitionist and/or “gender-fucking” faction within the Queer activist vanguard, but it is very obvious to me that the actual Overton window is still centered on costly biomedical engineering of bodies in order to produce consonance between the physical and the psychological/spiritual elements of gender identity. Are you arguing that this is already the stale and passé approach of people who are not on the, ahem, cutting edge? Even though it is ramping up and expanding by the month and appears to be gaining more steam than ever?

Then why in God’s name are children, let alone adults, being given “trans-affirming healthcare”? What are all the puberty blockers, top and bottom surgeries, etc. for, if gender identity has no connection to the body?

Trans activists are consistently clear that some trans people want to transition and others don't, but both are equally the gender they say they are. This was a major point about the Attack Helicopter poem that was rejected for transphobia, people afterwards went around reminding others that the trans experience varies from person to person. Some want to physically alter their bodies, others don't.

The reason for gender-affirming care for children is that they're on a timer - if you wait until they are adults to see if the dysphoria goes away, you get some people whose bodies have been permanently altered via puberty and this causes significant distress. The idea behind the blockers is that delaying puberty doesn't cause any harm (the accuracy of this idea is irrelevant, we're asking why they do something).

As for why we talk about those who physically transition, that should be obvious. The ones who don't want to never get media attention on them. Action naturally attracts attention in a way that inaction doesn't.

Trans activists are fighting for all trans people, regardless of whether they transition physically or not. This has never been in contention.

As for why we talk about those who physically transition, that should be obvious. The ones who don't want to never get media attention on them. Action naturally attracts attention in a way that inaction doesn't.

Well, they sometimes do, in the context of specifically transwomen being allowed in female/women's spaces. The idea that any random male could declare herself a woman and expect to walk into a female locker room or bathroom is something that's caused some controversy. But it's the kind of thing that has happened rarely enough that it hasn't attracted as much attention as kids transitioning (beyond just the fact that controversies involving kids automatically tend to punch above their weight).

Trans activists are fighting for all trans people, regardless of whether they transition physically or not. This has never been in contention.

I think this is in contention. Perhaps I'm just being pedantic, but who trans activists are fighting for are trans people of any stripe who also happen to agree with the activists' ideology. I believe it's an open question as to whether this constitutes all trans people or enough to round up to all or even most trans people - trans people are so few and dispersed that I'm not sure it's even possible to do a credible random sampling of them to get some accurate view of what they tend to believe.

There's a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue in this as well, in that there's indications of a social contagion, especially among girls, where there's actual causality - people who were led to being trans from their ideology.

Well, they sometimes do, in the context of specifically transwomen being allowed in female/women's spaces. The idea that any random male could declare herself a woman and expect to walk into a female locker room or bathroom is something that's caused some controversy.

I think the context of what I was responding to isn't about the bathroom thing, but about the focus on surgeries.

I think this is in contention. Perhaps I'm just being pedantic, but who trans activists are fighting for are trans people of any stripe who also happen to agree with the activists' ideology.

Eh, kind of? Clarence Thomas benefits from the anti-racist fight even if he doesn't want to, same with any trans person who isn't aligned with the movement.

Eh, kind of? Clarence Thomas benefits from the anti-racist fight even if he doesn't want to, same with any trans person who isn't aligned with the movement.

This presumes that both the anti-racist fight and the trans activist movements, by their actions provide benefits to black people and to trans people in general, respectively. I don't think that presumption is well justified generally and particularly for the latter. Certainly if one subscribes to whatever ideology is in question, then seeing their favored ideology pushed and succeed can provide benefits, but whether or not the success of the ideology provides benefits to the subjects of the ideology is an open question.

Anecdotally, a family friend was willing to accuse a store of racism because they weren't giving him fast enough service and jerking him around. There wasn't any racial hostility (at least, how I was told it), but I heard others say that it was a wise use of how to deal with those who weren't responding or acting fast enough.

The fights of the those movements were about instituting bans on discrimination without consideration of ideology. I think the benefits to the subjects of the ideology are clear and being used even by those who don't support it, but I have no statistics to back it up.

Eh, kind of? Clarence Thomas benefits from the anti-racist fight even if he doesn't want to, same with any trans person who isn't aligned with the movement.

This assumes the "anti"-racist aren't counter productive, aren't harassing him for disagreeing, etc, etc.

That seems like an artifact of being a SC justice, even white justices don't get left untouched. I don't think federal judges, for example, get as much criticism or harassment.