Wow! Well done, Dad. My heart breaks for you losing 2 sons to this cult. I appreciate your clever, creative twist to such an unbearable topic. I am the mother of a son who has also been fooled by a Kingdom full of court Jesters. (AKA- Brown University & UCLA) I am curious to know if Anyone else on this platform has a child who was reprogrammed there?
I just met with my 21 year old daughter a year after she announced she was going on testosterone. We had kept it to texts over the past year. My husband and I met her at a park last week. We looked all over and couldn’t see her, but she was right in front of us. Her posture is hunched, she has a beard and a mustache, and she’s had a double mastectomy. Her voice is deeper than my husband’s. Her whole body is tense as a stone and her eyes are so angry.
I’d call this a traumatic event. Yet life goes on.
I was just on the phone with a (now former) friend…and I made the mistake of talking about my daughter. This person interrupted and said, “Hold on. You need to change your language…to HE.”
I took a breath and said, “Clearly this is something we disagree on. I cannot continue this conversation. Good bye and I love you.” And I hung up and blocked.
It’s just that simple, just go along with the Emperor.
“Stacie” (Barry) Laughton, a trans New Hampshire legislator just got busted for child sexual exploitation. All over the media, they’re calling this beast a “she.” No.
What is happening? I don’t know which way is up. Twenty years ago if you told me what would break up my family, what would send me running from my own church…I would have laughed. I can’t believe this is happening. It’s evil.
we can philosophize all day about the nature of truth. whats true is when i go in a womens room i dont get looks, and when i go in a mens room i usually get someone calling me slurs, someone hitting on me, or someone
Just as the flat earth movement is strongly US-centric at its origin, in my personal experience, so is the idea of gender as a separate concept from biological sex. I come from a different culture and it took me some time to understand the proposition of gender being a construct, as for my entire upbringing it was just a factual category: something that "is", irrespective of the observer's belief.
Disagree with comments that we should use sex not gender. Gender has in our language, until recently, been used to refer to one’s biological sex. We should reclaim that word too. I love people are having gender reveal parties. People know what kind of party they are going to — it is to reveal the biological sex of the fetus.
The analogy is very good! But not perfect . . . In the case of gender, a good proportion of the adults can see and think and do not believe in gender-woo. But children, alas, are often defenseless against the onslaught of propaganda delivered to them by authority figures . . .
I can not even begin to imagine what this is like for you , or all parents that find themselves in this tragedy. Kind of gives a whole nother take on having "the talk" with your son.
“What they can plainly see.” The huge tragedy is that people, like my son (who is in his forties, retired 23 year military veteran), cannot see themselves as others see them. Robert Burns, the Scottish poet said the same, “Aye, for the gift the Giftie gie us/To see ourselves as others see us.” How does a 6’4” man with size 14 shoes and male pattern baldness think he looks female with his implanted missile cone DD boobs? He is just today’s version of Bozo the Clown. Including the inexpert use of makeup. I love my son, but he will never be a women (in this life, anyway). The day needs to get back to where we were with the John Belushi days of Saturday Night Live when we howled over “Pat,” the person who could not distinguish what sex it was. Accommodating and “affirming” deluded mentally unstable people is enabling and ultimately, an unkindness. It is like telling a fat person they are thin, insisting to a blind person that they can see, or telling an aged person they look like they are age 20. It is ingenuous, thoughtless, mean-spirited, and does nothing for these people’s self esteem. They know they don’t pass when they look in the mirror. They count on us all pretending not to see it, like the crowds in the story. Start being the little boy. Don’t be mean about it. Just be truthful.
Agree. Very similar to the anorexic who truly, truly sees an overweight person in the mirror. As someone who suffered from gender dysphoria (brought on by trauma) and later anorexia, I can attest that they are two sides of the same coin. I agree that it's unkind to lie, even though it feels unkind to the person to hear truth.
Thank you for this great retelling of the classic tale.
Theodore Dalrymple Feb 2023
"Lying to Ourselves"
One of the peculiarities of our age is the ferocity with which intellectuals and politicians defend propositions that they do not—because they cannot—believe to be true, so outrageous are they, such violence do they do to the most obvious and evident truth. Agatha Christie (a far greater psychologist than Sigmund Freud), drew attention almost a century ago to the phenomenon when she had Dr. Sheppard, the protagonist and culprit of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd say, “It is odd how, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial. I burst immediately into indignant speech.”
Among the propositions defended with such suspect ferocity is that men can change straightforwardly and unambiguously into women, and vice versa. Now everyone accepts that they can change into something different from ordinary men and women, and can live as if they were of the opposite of their birth sex; moreover, there is no reason to abuse or otherwise maltreat them if they do, and kindness and human decency require that we do not humiliate them or make their lives more difficult than they are. But this is not at all the same as claiming that those who take hormones and have operations actually are the sex that they choose, or that it is right to enshrine untruth in law and thereby force people to assent to what they know to be false. That way totalitarianism lies." etc.
Our society sends vulnerable people this lie that they can be or else truly live as the opposite sex. And, they are informed by medical doctors that it is "safe and effective to "transition".
Sorry to ask here but I have a situation which I’m hoping is not unique and could use some advice and encouragement. If anyone is willing, please send me a DM and I’ll explain my situation in more detail. I’m choosing to remain anonymous at this point. I hope you understand. This is really raw right now. My college son started hormones a couple weeks ago. I found out by chance now that’s he’s home. He has not confided in me and only in passing to my wife. Don’t know what to do besides trying to have a calm and compassionate conversation. Also not sure whether 2 weeks of hormones are enough to cause permanent consequences.
Great story alternative to the Emperor's got no clothes. We just need to use the word sex instead of 'gender'. One can never change one's sex, biological fact and 'gender' adds to the confusion.
"Over time, many people learned to suppress what they saw and repeat what they were expected to say."
Great line. I remember the first time . . .
In the mid 90s, I was there, at the capitol building in Oregon. The hotly contested new law was about marriage. Did that word correspond to something real? Could sociologists engineer a new approved definition?
Two odd groups debated. Side one were preachers and pastors wearing rainbow colors and insisting we legislate LOVE! Side two were refugees from the Soviet Union. Russian speakers whose children and grandchildren translated as they retold the tyranny communists used to rule people's minds. These immigrants were deeply concerned that their new home would fall for the same lies that ravaged their old home.
The debate went on for hours. Liberal pastor. Russian immigrant. Over and over I heard this warning:
"Over time, many people learned to suppress what they saw and repeat what they were expected to say."
Wow! Well done, Dad. My heart breaks for you losing 2 sons to this cult. I appreciate your clever, creative twist to such an unbearable topic. I am the mother of a son who has also been fooled by a Kingdom full of court Jesters. (AKA- Brown University & UCLA) I am curious to know if Anyone else on this platform has a child who was reprogrammed there?
I just met with my 21 year old daughter a year after she announced she was going on testosterone. We had kept it to texts over the past year. My husband and I met her at a park last week. We looked all over and couldn’t see her, but she was right in front of us. Her posture is hunched, she has a beard and a mustache, and she’s had a double mastectomy. Her voice is deeper than my husband’s. Her whole body is tense as a stone and her eyes are so angry.
I’d call this a traumatic event. Yet life goes on.
I was just on the phone with a (now former) friend…and I made the mistake of talking about my daughter. This person interrupted and said, “Hold on. You need to change your language…to HE.”
I took a breath and said, “Clearly this is something we disagree on. I cannot continue this conversation. Good bye and I love you.” And I hung up and blocked.
It’s just that simple, just go along with the Emperor.
“Stacie” (Barry) Laughton, a trans New Hampshire legislator just got busted for child sexual exploitation. All over the media, they’re calling this beast a “she.” No.
What is happening? I don’t know which way is up. Twenty years ago if you told me what would break up my family, what would send me running from my own church…I would have laughed. I can’t believe this is happening. It’s evil.
its really telling that the entire anti trans movement’s arguments sort of just boil down to “nuh uh”
Yes, truth. It simply boils down to truth.
we can philosophize all day about the nature of truth. whats true is when i go in a womens room i dont get looks, and when i go in a mens room i usually get someone calling me slurs, someone hitting on me, or someone
Well written. Thank you.
Just as the flat earth movement is strongly US-centric at its origin, in my personal experience, so is the idea of gender as a separate concept from biological sex. I come from a different culture and it took me some time to understand the proposition of gender being a construct, as for my entire upbringing it was just a factual category: something that "is", irrespective of the observer's belief.
Disagree with comments that we should use sex not gender. Gender has in our language, until recently, been used to refer to one’s biological sex. We should reclaim that word too. I love people are having gender reveal parties. People know what kind of party they are going to — it is to reveal the biological sex of the fetus.
The analogy is very good! But not perfect . . . In the case of gender, a good proportion of the adults can see and think and do not believe in gender-woo. But children, alas, are often defenseless against the onslaught of propaganda delivered to them by authority figures . . .
Lovely post.
Thank you.
Blessings and appreciation from Sydney Australia.
I can not even begin to imagine what this is like for you , or all parents that find themselves in this tragedy. Kind of gives a whole nother take on having "the talk" with your son.
“What they can plainly see.” The huge tragedy is that people, like my son (who is in his forties, retired 23 year military veteran), cannot see themselves as others see them. Robert Burns, the Scottish poet said the same, “Aye, for the gift the Giftie gie us/To see ourselves as others see us.” How does a 6’4” man with size 14 shoes and male pattern baldness think he looks female with his implanted missile cone DD boobs? He is just today’s version of Bozo the Clown. Including the inexpert use of makeup. I love my son, but he will never be a women (in this life, anyway). The day needs to get back to where we were with the John Belushi days of Saturday Night Live when we howled over “Pat,” the person who could not distinguish what sex it was. Accommodating and “affirming” deluded mentally unstable people is enabling and ultimately, an unkindness. It is like telling a fat person they are thin, insisting to a blind person that they can see, or telling an aged person they look like they are age 20. It is ingenuous, thoughtless, mean-spirited, and does nothing for these people’s self esteem. They know they don’t pass when they look in the mirror. They count on us all pretending not to see it, like the crowds in the story. Start being the little boy. Don’t be mean about it. Just be truthful.
Agree. Very similar to the anorexic who truly, truly sees an overweight person in the mirror. As someone who suffered from gender dysphoria (brought on by trauma) and later anorexia, I can attest that they are two sides of the same coin. I agree that it's unkind to lie, even though it feels unkind to the person to hear truth.
I loved those "Just Pat" sketches on SNL!
Thank you for this great retelling of the classic tale.
Theodore Dalrymple Feb 2023
"Lying to Ourselves"
One of the peculiarities of our age is the ferocity with which intellectuals and politicians defend propositions that they do not—because they cannot—believe to be true, so outrageous are they, such violence do they do to the most obvious and evident truth. Agatha Christie (a far greater psychologist than Sigmund Freud), drew attention almost a century ago to the phenomenon when she had Dr. Sheppard, the protagonist and culprit of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd say, “It is odd how, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial. I burst immediately into indignant speech.”
Among the propositions defended with such suspect ferocity is that men can change straightforwardly and unambiguously into women, and vice versa. Now everyone accepts that they can change into something different from ordinary men and women, and can live as if they were of the opposite of their birth sex; moreover, there is no reason to abuse or otherwise maltreat them if they do, and kindness and human decency require that we do not humiliate them or make their lives more difficult than they are. But this is not at all the same as claiming that those who take hormones and have operations actually are the sex that they choose, or that it is right to enshrine untruth in law and thereby force people to assent to what they know to be false. That way totalitarianism lies." etc.
https://lawliberty.org/lying-to-ourselves/
Our society sends vulnerable people this lie that they can be or else truly live as the opposite sex. And, they are informed by medical doctors that it is "safe and effective to "transition".
Sorry to ask here but I have a situation which I’m hoping is not unique and could use some advice and encouragement. If anyone is willing, please send me a DM and I’ll explain my situation in more detail. I’m choosing to remain anonymous at this point. I hope you understand. This is really raw right now. My college son started hormones a couple weeks ago. I found out by chance now that’s he’s home. He has not confided in me and only in passing to my wife. Don’t know what to do besides trying to have a calm and compassionate conversation. Also not sure whether 2 weeks of hormones are enough to cause permanent consequences.
Email Pitt@genspect.org for information
Great story alternative to the Emperor's got no clothes. We just need to use the word sex instead of 'gender'. One can never change one's sex, biological fact and 'gender' adds to the confusion.
"Over time, many people learned to suppress what they saw and repeat what they were expected to say."
Great line. I remember the first time . . .
In the mid 90s, I was there, at the capitol building in Oregon. The hotly contested new law was about marriage. Did that word correspond to something real? Could sociologists engineer a new approved definition?
Two odd groups debated. Side one were preachers and pastors wearing rainbow colors and insisting we legislate LOVE! Side two were refugees from the Soviet Union. Russian speakers whose children and grandchildren translated as they retold the tyranny communists used to rule people's minds. These immigrants were deeply concerned that their new home would fall for the same lies that ravaged their old home.
The debate went on for hours. Liberal pastor. Russian immigrant. Over and over I heard this warning:
"Over time, many people learned to suppress what they saw and repeat what they were expected to say."
May the day come when we can state a simple fact, such as biology is real and women are women, without being shouted down.