I saw it and thought you were fab. Shame GL had to cut it short and I’m looking forward to him having a longer chat with you. I have so much empathy for you with the difficult situation you are going through with your son and admire how you are both navigating it. It is easy for people to be dismissive or even outright abusive about trans identified males when all they hear about or experience are the very worst examples. You are working through it with compassion but also without shying away from hard analysis and I have so much admiration for that because it cannot be easy for either you or him. I hope that with time and continued patience he’ll come out the other side healthy and strong🤞🏻
Looks, sounds intriguing. What was particularly noteworthy, so far, was your comment about a "bizarre form of empathy".
I've often argued or suggested that part and parcel of the issue is imprinting, a fairly durable psychological concept that may have some relevance:
"Lorenz demonstrated how incubator-hatched geese would imprint on the first suitable moving stimulus they saw within what he called a "critical period" between 13 and 16 hours shortly after hatching. For example, the goslings would imprint on Lorenz himself (to be more specific, on his wading boots), and he is often depicted being followed by a gaggle of geese who had imprinted on him."
This is why it is imperative to begin stressing a childs sex from day 1 even before they can speaj. My beautiful baby boy etc. The Canadian grade 1 girl whose teacher tsught multiple lessons about 'no such thing as girls & boys was able to reject the lesson based on a strong foundation from home.
Never having had kids myself -- though I've had second-hand experiences from seeing those of my siblings -- I've often wondered at the process of a child's developing sense of self.
Bit of a rocky road, and something of an awesome responsibility on the part of parents to be shepherd of that process; "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the nation". Unfortunately too many "parents" seem ill-suited for, or are overwhelmed by the task; often no more than children raising children -- something of a recipe for disaster which society eventually winds up paying for, one way or another.
A very complex and demanding process, and one might reasonably wonder why it often goes off the rails, particularly in the case of transgender kids. But I think a part of the reason for that "derailment" is that society in general is labouring under various "cognitive distortions", misperceptions, and untenable premises when it comes to what it means to be "male" and "female" in the first place.
Basically, too many don't seem to realize that there are no intrinsic meanings to those words -- as with most words. They mean whatever we say, and agree they mean; if we can't agree then they mean pretty close to nothing. The only things that are "real" are brute facts of reproductive abilities and related traits: chromosomes, genitalia, and gonads in various stages of functionality. How we connect those brute facts to the labels is very much a matter of "social construction" and the state of biological science -- at one point "female" meant "she who suckles" by which Bruce Jenner and his ilk would qualify:
A consequence of that confusion over the nature of words and their definitions seems to be an insistence that "sex is immutable" which is most certainly not the case, at least according to the standard definitions of biology. As a result too many are turning "male" and "female" into identities based on some "mythic essences", instead of recognizing that, as per those biological definitions, the words are just labels for quite transitory reproductive abilities. A contributing factor may be that most people don't have a good handle on the nature of categories, and wind up turning category names into identities, the "sin" or logical fallacy of reification.
Although categories and categorizations is a bit of a murky concept -- been a source of confusion, and of job security for "philosophers" for the last 2500 years or so. But the basic elements aren't all that hard to grasp which I've attempted to illustrate in my "answer" to that "age-old question" of "what is a woman?" 🙂:
No doubt a bunch of dead bodies and damaged minds in the wake of the drug culture.
Though I doubt it is quite that simple. For example, Maya Forstater -- who I doubt has "destroyed her mind with drugs" -- has been a champion of that "sex is immutable" mantra which is so much arrant nonsense, but which is far too common. See that Substack post of mine for details and a link.
But thanks for the suggestion about TullipR who I hadn't run across before; interesting comment in his latest:
"It may seem cliché, but many of our issues stem from poor relationships with our parents. Not all of course, yet using the detrans male support group as an example, we have found that an overwhelming number have experienced a disconnect with their fathers."
There are no simple answers of course but Tulippr has said in an interview that he believes it is one of the great unexamined facilitators of the contagion (for parents & kids)and it has been decades in development since the 70s. Makes me wonder why no one wants to look at this? Here's the thing. DRUGS CHANGE THOUGHTS and remove boundaries. Isn't that the heart of the matter?
Which drugs are you and he talking about? Cocaine? LSD? Heroin? Some drugs ARE "mind-expanding", and some are soul-destroying.
Or are you talking about estrogen and testosterone? Maybe "gender dysphoria" is partly due to too much or not enough of one or the other? Maybe there's some benefits in prescribing either? Even if too much is a cure worse than the disease? Like cutting off an arm because of a hangnail...
But maybe other alternatives wouldn't have the same serious side effects.
I saw it and thought you were fab. Shame GL had to cut it short and I’m looking forward to him having a longer chat with you. I have so much empathy for you with the difficult situation you are going through with your son and admire how you are both navigating it. It is easy for people to be dismissive or even outright abusive about trans identified males when all they hear about or experience are the very worst examples. You are working through it with compassion but also without shying away from hard analysis and I have so much admiration for that because it cannot be easy for either you or him. I hope that with time and continued patience he’ll come out the other side healthy and strong🤞🏻
You were great on it. 👍
Looks, sounds intriguing. What was particularly noteworthy, so far, was your comment about a "bizarre form of empathy".
I've often argued or suggested that part and parcel of the issue is imprinting, a fairly durable psychological concept that may have some relevance:
"Lorenz demonstrated how incubator-hatched geese would imprint on the first suitable moving stimulus they saw within what he called a "critical period" between 13 and 16 hours shortly after hatching. For example, the goslings would imprint on Lorenz himself (to be more specific, on his wading boots), and he is often depicted being followed by a gaggle of geese who had imprinted on him."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_(psychology)
You might also be interested in Woody Allen's Zelig - "The Chameleon Man":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUW8JsLDsNo
A phenomenon with much broader manifestations than just transgenderism, the studies on which may provide some useful illumination.
This is why it is imperative to begin stressing a childs sex from day 1 even before they can speaj. My beautiful baby boy etc. The Canadian grade 1 girl whose teacher tsught multiple lessons about 'no such thing as girls & boys was able to reject the lesson based on a strong foundation from home.
Never having had kids myself -- though I've had second-hand experiences from seeing those of my siblings -- I've often wondered at the process of a child's developing sense of self.
Bit of a rocky road, and something of an awesome responsibility on the part of parents to be shepherd of that process; "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the nation". Unfortunately too many "parents" seem ill-suited for, or are overwhelmed by the task; often no more than children raising children -- something of a recipe for disaster which society eventually winds up paying for, one way or another.
A very complex and demanding process, and one might reasonably wonder why it often goes off the rails, particularly in the case of transgender kids. But I think a part of the reason for that "derailment" is that society in general is labouring under various "cognitive distortions", misperceptions, and untenable premises when it comes to what it means to be "male" and "female" in the first place.
Basically, too many don't seem to realize that there are no intrinsic meanings to those words -- as with most words. They mean whatever we say, and agree they mean; if we can't agree then they mean pretty close to nothing. The only things that are "real" are brute facts of reproductive abilities and related traits: chromosomes, genitalia, and gonads in various stages of functionality. How we connect those brute facts to the labels is very much a matter of "social construction" and the state of biological science -- at one point "female" meant "she who suckles" by which Bruce Jenner and his ilk would qualify:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/female#etymonline_v_5841
A consequence of that confusion over the nature of words and their definitions seems to be an insistence that "sex is immutable" which is most certainly not the case, at least according to the standard definitions of biology. As a result too many are turning "male" and "female" into identities based on some "mythic essences", instead of recognizing that, as per those biological definitions, the words are just labels for quite transitory reproductive abilities. A contributing factor may be that most people don't have a good handle on the nature of categories, and wind up turning category names into identities, the "sin" or logical fallacy of reification.
Although categories and categorizations is a bit of a murky concept -- been a source of confusion, and of job security for "philosophers" for the last 2500 years or so. But the basic elements aren't all that hard to grasp which I've attempted to illustrate in my "answer" to that "age-old question" of "what is a woman?" 🙂:
https://humanuseofhumanbeings.substack.com/p/what-is-a-woman
I think the truth is simpler. People have destroyed their minds with drugs and you know who agrees with me? Richie aka Tullip .
No doubt a bunch of dead bodies and damaged minds in the wake of the drug culture.
Though I doubt it is quite that simple. For example, Maya Forstater -- who I doubt has "destroyed her mind with drugs" -- has been a champion of that "sex is immutable" mantra which is so much arrant nonsense, but which is far too common. See that Substack post of mine for details and a link.
But thanks for the suggestion about TullipR who I hadn't run across before; interesting comment in his latest:
"It may seem cliché, but many of our issues stem from poor relationships with our parents. Not all of course, yet using the detrans male support group as an example, we have found that an overwhelming number have experienced a disconnect with their fathers."
https://tullipr.substack.com/p/what-detransitioners-actually-need
Not entirely sure the issue is just with the kids themselves.
There are no simple answers of course but Tulippr has said in an interview that he believes it is one of the great unexamined facilitators of the contagion (for parents & kids)and it has been decades in development since the 70s. Makes me wonder why no one wants to look at this? Here's the thing. DRUGS CHANGE THOUGHTS and remove boundaries. Isn't that the heart of the matter?
Which drugs are you and he talking about? Cocaine? LSD? Heroin? Some drugs ARE "mind-expanding", and some are soul-destroying.
Or are you talking about estrogen and testosterone? Maybe "gender dysphoria" is partly due to too much or not enough of one or the other? Maybe there's some benefits in prescribing either? Even if too much is a cure worse than the disease? Like cutting off an arm because of a hangnail...
But maybe other alternatives wouldn't have the same serious side effects.