I am particularly concerned about the medical ethics stuff. It has HUGE implications for everyone. It goes far beyond the transitioning of children in terms of how dark it gets.
Earlier this week I was reading an article on the death of a guy who was 'pharmaceutical hacking' (I forget the exact term they gave it). It was basically about a guy who was 'researching' new drugs outside the framework of drug development. I believe he was part of a group trying to 'open source' and 'reverse engineer' drugs to stop the control and pricing of the big companies. He was in his thirties and had died suddenly. The article didn't give his cause of death (yet to be established) but mentioned he had said he believed so much in his own drug he would prove it worked on himself.
Apparently there are lots of people doing this now, so they can try and find a 'new' generic drug that can make them cheap for all. The trouble is they don't actually test these drugs properly. They just develop them and say they think they have found a new generic unpatented alternative. At best they might 'test' the drug on themselves. Not a clinical trial in sight.
Of course this movement is doing particularly well in the US. (Can't think why).
So its not just big pharma who potentially have big motives here.
We have full on anti-science and/or low ethic movements just bubbling along under the surface. Combine that with social media and no health care provision and you have a gold mine right there. The reasons for their development are of course 'progressive' in nature. Here the big caveat on the entire idea of being progressive that everyone forgets: every social and political movement ever thinks itself as essentially progressive even conservative ones. The whole concept of being progressive is simply about moving society forward towards a goal or enlightenment of some kind or other. Unfortunately some of these movements actually even up taking society backwards in terms of quality of life and equality even if the intent was to do exactly the opposite.
Its not prescription drug abuse. Its not straight illegal drug abuse as we know it. Its exploitation of the desperate and the destitute to be cured of the incurable or the uninsured.
Of course, who will back a movement who actively is working to remove medical gatekeeping? Who potentially ends up being the unwitting victim in doing so?
Its not just about transing children at that point.
If you are familiar with Margaret McCartney she talks a lot about the 'worried well' and how a long of health promotion which is very well meaning and very well intended is having this side effect where people are convincing themselves that they have terminal cancer if they have a bit of wind. But might be too scared to go to the doctor or go to the doctor frequently and get told (rightly) there is nothing wrong with them but they come away unsatisfied with what they are told. And of course they read all these horror stories of how the doctors missed a diagnosis....
You can see how all these forces building up in combination and at the same time, can be completely unconnected and yet completely tied together.
The gentle chip, chip away at protective frameworks in any form and from any direction no matter how noble they might appear on the surface is a worry. These frameworks were built up not to protect big pharma but to protect the masses. The effect might have been to create and support big pharma in many respects, but if you focus on that angle alone, you lose sight of the other reasons these frameworks were created.
Its all about a lack of understanding of the roots of how and why western liberal democracy developed the way it did in terms of rights and ethics which society seems to be forgetting. I think we are aware of how the 'holocaust is being forgotten' but its also about other things that came out of the same social bubble.
Its similar to how social media itself was championed as revolutionising society and freeing us, but in practice our data was always cynically also being used against us to exploit us. Its similar to how Trump weaponised identity politics and we see a mirror in Corbynite politics.
For all its noble intent, because its so unregulated, the best this particular movement becomes is like weaponised homoepathy or faith healing. At worst it works by creating mass Munchausen syndrome combined with potentially lethal drugs. And adults and children alike might be potential victims. Yes its full on dystopian nightmare stuff.
This is why, whilst the trans issues in their own right are huge and scary, it needs to be put into the bigger and wider context of everything else which is going on socially.
Right now, I don't see many individuals nor journalists looking at any of this particularly hard. Personally I think someone needs to have a proper look into it.
Frustratingly I can't find this article I saw the other day about the death of this guy. But here's an article on this open sourcing of drugs
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/9agk9y/meet-the-pharmaceutical-hacker-trying-to-make-open-source-drugs
Oh and btw, its not hard to see how this is very much a far left movement in search of utopia (just like the trans movement).
Of course there are some other rather alarming potential side effects here which I'm sure other MNetters are much better placed to explain and elaborate on.
Much of it adds up to the speed of our scientific and social advancement coming to something of a crashing halt in many areas. Almost as if its the end of an era of huge enlightenment.
That is how I am starting to see it. Neo-liberal capitalism got out of control and became unbalanced but what's working to counter that, has lost just as much sight of safeguarding and safety nets and universal social responsibilities.
I'm starting to ramble now, but I hope that someone gets what i'm trying to drive at.