Very interesting as always. I suppose that I have a tendency to see what I already believe in everything but it seems to me that the point is that those who subsume their identity in to some group, in exchange for whatever advantages, always wind up pushing us in the same direction, whether they call what they are doing Left or Right, Progressive or Conservative.
Fundamentally, I think that you are a less superficial thinker than many others who are, at least apparently, in similar circumstances to yours and you can't help but be critical of their lack of understanding of root causes. 'The Right' has put a lot of hope into detrans on the theory that having seen this particular evil that they will generalize in a great way and catalyze some new renaissance of Traditionalism. But we need to ask if a fellow that has to chop his dick off to realise that having a dick is a good thing is really likely to be a thought leader. But modern society, on both sides, continues to be unable to realise that theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge are not at all directly related.
Society is on a downward path and the thing about a downward path is that whether you walk well or you stumble you keep going down. You can't fall up a hill. Unless some new life and new direction comes to society the only difference between Left and Right will remain: do you want an easy smooth walk to Hell(Progressivism) or do you want to do the whole thing rolling and smashing your head(Conservatism)? Which is better? Which gets you deeper faster? Which leaves you in better shape for the climb back up, assuming we ever turn around? I dunno but neither side knows how or really wants to turn around. So, while society continues to fall, we as individuals can go another way so long as we do not bury the self in the crowd and are willing to do that hardest of things, Repent.
Wow, loved it, your thinking about the issues is full of subtlety.
I was particularly intrigued by section 4. I’d like to read more about the topics you touch on there, perhaps you could find more to say? I think the whole subject of how homosexuality came to occupy the sociopolitical space it does now is very interesting.
I’m in my fifties and have always been against the stigma attached to homosexuality. I thought the issue had been very much resolved towards the start of the 90s when the attitude was to live and let live and whatever happens between consenting adults is nobody’s business. But for the last ten years or more I have been surprised to see the topic of ‘gay rights’ growing more heads than the mythological Hydra to the point of being a permanent news fixture. From sympathy, to incomprehension, all the way to confused revulsion. I don’t know what is happening but I’m starting to sense dangers I’d never considered before. I can’t really see the justification for instance for a whole Pride month. What the hell, how we ever pushed mothers, fathers or, say bus drivers like that (even in primary schools too!)?
Also, I’d never questioned homosexuality per se but you make some very convincing points about the regulation of sexuality which go some way to explain the dislike for the prominent publicity homosexuality receives nowadays (even in populations that have accepted it in the private realm).
About your last question, what will make real political headway on the Trans Question, I have an idea that may be controversial. I think the present confrontation between Russia and the west (at a deeper level between the global south lead by China/Russia and the Anglo Saxon-led west) is going to end up with them winning and, as a corollary, a dramatic shifting of values in the west. Putin has mentioned LGBT+ a few times, characterising it as a carrier movement of disruptive imperialist influences, one more propaganda weapon against countries that don’t tie the western line.
The trans question (and a few other questions) is not going to be solved intra-nationally, our culture has destroyed the tools necessary to change direction, we are powerless to stop this train. But stop it will, only not by us.
And what might happen is that when our elites call on us for a last ditch defence of ‘western values’ more people than we expect might just shrug their shoulders. The trans question is part of a package of end of empire morbidities. I believe you talked about that when you wrote about the eunuchs of antiquity. Cheers.
Interesting, as always! I’m sure most readers are trying to place ourselves in your rotogravure of those orbiting the “detrans” world. And it would be good to settle on a new term for this type of recovery process.
"Even if someone hasn’t medicalized, there is no gaining back that time, those months or years of struggle and self-destruction" - this bit resonates with me personally. I wish I'd snapped out of it sooner, but can't take back the past. You tried to talk me out of it but I wasn't ready to.
While reading through this piece my mind kept coming back to an individual, his name escapes me though you may know who I am thinking of, I came across in my brief time lurking on kiwifarms who was a living embodiment of many of the "detranser identity" pathologies you mentioned. This was a homosexual(?) man clearly suffering from multiple serious personality disorder and mental illness issues who went back and forth between periods of stability and paranoid, neurotic, delusional episodes. This man had gone through several cycles of trans-detrans, clearly in line with the cycles of his episodes of poor mental health. At some point circles of internet radical feminists attached themselves to him because he was apparently willing to go along as one of their ideal "Dworkinite Messiah"-type detrans cases you mentioned in the piece. As time went on and it became clear this was an individual whose serious mental health issues precluded his ability to fill their neat role the feminists turned on him and engaged in the usual kind of internet behavior against him that would only exacerbate the mental illness of someone struggling with paranoia, delusions, etc. I don't know what ultimately became of him.
I found your mention of the issue of female perversion, by which I take it you mean pedophilic tendencies, as a driver of the current phenomenon of transgenderism towards the end of the section on the radical feminists interesting. I have wondered when considering the extent of female pedophilia as a driver of current transgenderism why this isn't brought up in the public discussion seemingly at all. The issue of grooming is now well established in the discourse and as others and you yourself in this essay pointed out a lot of the grooming is being done by women, in female-dominated spheres, in positions of authority over vulnerable youth; shouldn't the the pieces of the puzzle as to what is going on be coming together there? Have we just not reached the point where someone with a platform has publicly raised the issue yet? Perhaps I shouldn't be as confounded on this question as I am as I do believe even breaching the issue of sexual predation by women of any kind, but especially predation of children by women, is perhaps one of the last real taboos of our society. Do you have any thoughts on this you may explore in future writings?
Very interesting as always. I suppose that I have a tendency to see what I already believe in everything but it seems to me that the point is that those who subsume their identity in to some group, in exchange for whatever advantages, always wind up pushing us in the same direction, whether they call what they are doing Left or Right, Progressive or Conservative.
Fundamentally, I think that you are a less superficial thinker than many others who are, at least apparently, in similar circumstances to yours and you can't help but be critical of their lack of understanding of root causes. 'The Right' has put a lot of hope into detrans on the theory that having seen this particular evil that they will generalize in a great way and catalyze some new renaissance of Traditionalism. But we need to ask if a fellow that has to chop his dick off to realise that having a dick is a good thing is really likely to be a thought leader. But modern society, on both sides, continues to be unable to realise that theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge are not at all directly related.
Society is on a downward path and the thing about a downward path is that whether you walk well or you stumble you keep going down. You can't fall up a hill. Unless some new life and new direction comes to society the only difference between Left and Right will remain: do you want an easy smooth walk to Hell(Progressivism) or do you want to do the whole thing rolling and smashing your head(Conservatism)? Which is better? Which gets you deeper faster? Which leaves you in better shape for the climb back up, assuming we ever turn around? I dunno but neither side knows how or really wants to turn around. So, while society continues to fall, we as individuals can go another way so long as we do not bury the self in the crowd and are willing to do that hardest of things, Repent.
Wow, loved it, your thinking about the issues is full of subtlety.
I was particularly intrigued by section 4. I’d like to read more about the topics you touch on there, perhaps you could find more to say? I think the whole subject of how homosexuality came to occupy the sociopolitical space it does now is very interesting.
I’m in my fifties and have always been against the stigma attached to homosexuality. I thought the issue had been very much resolved towards the start of the 90s when the attitude was to live and let live and whatever happens between consenting adults is nobody’s business. But for the last ten years or more I have been surprised to see the topic of ‘gay rights’ growing more heads than the mythological Hydra to the point of being a permanent news fixture. From sympathy, to incomprehension, all the way to confused revulsion. I don’t know what is happening but I’m starting to sense dangers I’d never considered before. I can’t really see the justification for instance for a whole Pride month. What the hell, how we ever pushed mothers, fathers or, say bus drivers like that (even in primary schools too!)?
Also, I’d never questioned homosexuality per se but you make some very convincing points about the regulation of sexuality which go some way to explain the dislike for the prominent publicity homosexuality receives nowadays (even in populations that have accepted it in the private realm).
About your last question, what will make real political headway on the Trans Question, I have an idea that may be controversial. I think the present confrontation between Russia and the west (at a deeper level between the global south lead by China/Russia and the Anglo Saxon-led west) is going to end up with them winning and, as a corollary, a dramatic shifting of values in the west. Putin has mentioned LGBT+ a few times, characterising it as a carrier movement of disruptive imperialist influences, one more propaganda weapon against countries that don’t tie the western line.
The trans question (and a few other questions) is not going to be solved intra-nationally, our culture has destroyed the tools necessary to change direction, we are powerless to stop this train. But stop it will, only not by us.
And what might happen is that when our elites call on us for a last ditch defence of ‘western values’ more people than we expect might just shrug their shoulders. The trans question is part of a package of end of empire morbidities. I believe you talked about that when you wrote about the eunuchs of antiquity. Cheers.
Interesting, as always! I’m sure most readers are trying to place ourselves in your rotogravure of those orbiting the “detrans” world. And it would be good to settle on a new term for this type of recovery process.
Outstanding as usual. Thanks.
"Even if someone hasn’t medicalized, there is no gaining back that time, those months or years of struggle and self-destruction" - this bit resonates with me personally. I wish I'd snapped out of it sooner, but can't take back the past. You tried to talk me out of it but I wasn't ready to.
Another excellent essay Limpida.
While reading through this piece my mind kept coming back to an individual, his name escapes me though you may know who I am thinking of, I came across in my brief time lurking on kiwifarms who was a living embodiment of many of the "detranser identity" pathologies you mentioned. This was a homosexual(?) man clearly suffering from multiple serious personality disorder and mental illness issues who went back and forth between periods of stability and paranoid, neurotic, delusional episodes. This man had gone through several cycles of trans-detrans, clearly in line with the cycles of his episodes of poor mental health. At some point circles of internet radical feminists attached themselves to him because he was apparently willing to go along as one of their ideal "Dworkinite Messiah"-type detrans cases you mentioned in the piece. As time went on and it became clear this was an individual whose serious mental health issues precluded his ability to fill their neat role the feminists turned on him and engaged in the usual kind of internet behavior against him that would only exacerbate the mental illness of someone struggling with paranoia, delusions, etc. I don't know what ultimately became of him.
I found your mention of the issue of female perversion, by which I take it you mean pedophilic tendencies, as a driver of the current phenomenon of transgenderism towards the end of the section on the radical feminists interesting. I have wondered when considering the extent of female pedophilia as a driver of current transgenderism why this isn't brought up in the public discussion seemingly at all. The issue of grooming is now well established in the discourse and as others and you yourself in this essay pointed out a lot of the grooming is being done by women, in female-dominated spheres, in positions of authority over vulnerable youth; shouldn't the the pieces of the puzzle as to what is going on be coming together there? Have we just not reached the point where someone with a platform has publicly raised the issue yet? Perhaps I shouldn't be as confounded on this question as I am as I do believe even breaching the issue of sexual predation by women of any kind, but especially predation of children by women, is perhaps one of the last real taboos of our society. Do you have any thoughts on this you may explore in future writings?