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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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That's sort of a different topic. You're not really respecting their identity by being transphobic about it and maintaining that it's something to be cured, regardless of anything else.

But on that point, marginalizing the already marginalized doesn't, in my view, solve anything. All it does is reinforce the victimary discourse those groups rely on. Sure, it might change the discourse if transphobia wasn't banned to the extent it is now, but how much? For reference, no matter how much fun comedians in the 80's and 90's made of feminists they all have to toe the line today. Society has genuinely changed towards feminist ideals.

You're not really respecting their identity by being transphobic about it and maintaining that it's something to be cured, regardless of anything else.

Well of course, because I believe it is a false consciousness, taught to them by others who are crazy and/or evil and needs to be treated and cured with reality, not coddled until they turn themselves from depressed teens into sterilized depressed teens.

But on that point, marginalizing the already marginalized doesn't, in my view, solve anything. All it does is reinforce the victimary discourse those groups rely on. Sure, it might change the discourse if transphobia wasn't banned to the extent it is now, but how much? For reference, no matter how much fun comedians in the 80's and 90's made of feminists they all have to toe the line today. Society has genuinely changed towards feminist ideals.

That is a true description of the feminist victories in the culture war, but we are all the worse for it, these poor confused teens most of all.

Marginalizing the trans advocates solves quite a bit in this frame, because it means that teens are not confused by the message that being trans makes you a special snowflake who will receive unearned accolades (as most trans public figures get). Yes often these kids are marginalized, typically they were before they became trans. The transness is their hope for relevancy. It is no coincidence that trans kids, statistically, almost always have a mother with a mental illness, often severe such as borderline personality. There is a genetic component, likely, to be predispositioned to a mental illness (trans being the newest faddish one) and also the fact that having a trans kid is a status icon for this subset of mothers.

I hope for a return to sanity and we need not have a new age of scientism akin to the lobotomy craze of the mid 20th century, alas I despair we will have another era of quack-psychiatry butchery.