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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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At this point I have to ask you, how do you think cults do control of information?

They encourage people to use cult-approved sources of information, generally other sources inside the cult, and disapprove or punish the acquisition of information from non-approved sources. The fact that transgendermap links directly to O'Mally, in her own words, seems quite the opposite of that.

They encourage people to use cult-approved sources of information, generally other sources inside the cult, and disapprove or punish the acquisition of information from non-approved sources.

Not quite. Discouraging even looking at outsider information is too obvious (contrary to popular belief, the typical victim of a cult is pretty intelligent), so what you actually want to do is convince your followers that a certain class of arguments is evil. That way they'll stop themselves from considering the arguments without the impression they're being prevented from looking at something.

You'll notice that you yourself have pointed out O'Mally's positions are "anti-trans" according to the website, even though in itself there's nothing anti-trans about "disease models", "gatekeeping", or ROGD (or even "LGB without the T" though I can grant that it's more debatable).

The fact that transgendermap links directly to O'Mally, in her own words, seems quite the opposite of that.

It's funny you should say that. Every single link on that page links to another page on the website itself, not to primary sources where O'Malley explains her positions in her own words. The only direct link to her material is a link to the homepage of her personal website, but by that doesn't help you find what her arguments about the mentioned positions are, and point the well is poisoned anyway.

BTW, do you think that portrait on top is neutral and accurate, or might be at all caricatured?

You'll notice that you yourself have pointed out O'Mally's positions are "anti-trans" according to the website, even though in itself there's nothing anti-trans about "disease models", "gatekeeping", or ROGD (or even "LGB without the T" though I can grant that it's more debatable).

That's why the descriptions of those positions link to other articles explaining why they're anti-trans. Maybe you don't think they're anti-trans but the site authors do and link to specific arguments for why they think that.

It's funny you should say that. Every single link on that page links to another page on the website itself, not to primary sources where O'Malley explains her positions in her own words. The only direct link to her material is a link to the homepage of her personal website, but by that point the well is poisoned.

This is just false? In addition to the link to O'Malley's own site it contains a link to Beyond WPATH. An anti-WPATH declaration of which O'Malley is a signatory. As well as O'Malley's Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Substack, YouTube and more. As I write this there are five articles about trans issues, four of them about ROGD, on the first page of the substack as I write this. If people want to read O'Malley's beliefs about trans people in her own words, transgendermap has told them where to go!

BTW, do you think that portrait on top is neutral and accurate, or might be at all caricatured?

Relevance?

That's why the descriptions of those positions link to other articles explaining why they're anti-trans. Maybe you don't think they're anti-trans but the site authors do and link to specific arguments for why they think that.

Right, like I pointed out, cults don't tend to censor members' access to information, they just tell them which information is hostile.

This is just false?

Ooops, should have kept scrolling.

In addition to the link to O'Malley's own site it contains a link to Beyond WPATH. An anti-WPATH declaration of which O'Malley is a signatory. As well as O'Malley's Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Substack, YouTube and more

Other then the anti-WPATH declaration, all of them are main profile pages, not citations to the specific arguments.

If people want to read O'Malley's beliefs about trans people in her own words, transgendermap has told them where to go!

Again, cults don't actually prevent you from "going to" information they consider hostile, they just tell you it's hostile

Relevance?

What is the point of caricaturing her, if they're just "presenting information"?