What scares you most about state of trans ideology

[PaddleBoardingMomma]

Musing over a few things this evening with a friend, talking about not only sanitary product companies but also make up brands jumping on the band wagon, new gender neutral toilets at work, the debacle of men being allowed in womens changing rooms, children being allowed hormone blockers and so on.

But out of everything, the thing that really frightens me most is how on earth im supposed to raise my daughters in amongst all this. We have always been respectful of peoples choice and differences, we try to instil this in the girls. However it's getting harder to keep the balance and explain things without having to get into why they as girls are on the back foot, pushed out of things and why they need to understand the dynamics and implications. I suppose im resentful that it's gotten to this point?

Anyway, what is it about the current climate that really gets to you the most?

TRA ideology doesn’t scare me - it makes no sense so was never going to stand the test of time. If we all fail and it becomes the norm it’s the first thing getting rejected by the next generation.

What has scared me immeasurably is the rest of societies reaction. I am not sure whether it was a lack of any critical thinking or an incredible display of real time 1984 double think, or worse even an understanding of the issue but a ‘not my circus’ mentality.

Its made me think a lot about how crazy things happen. I am not in any way saying train issues have anything to do with the nazis or hitler; but I used to watch the war movies and think how did that happen - that could never happen in our society! But now having seen how easy denial, double think, peer pressure and scaring people into submission is - I am honestly not one bit surprised.

And now we have the genocide of Ukraine and potentially the start of a horrific repeat in history.

Sorry that’s probably a bit of a tangent but that’s been my main takeaway from the whole trans thing. I just genuinely believed people weren’t stupid or cowards and it was quite a frightening realisation that on a societal level we generally function at that level.

The awful thing is that schools cannot be trusted any more. They might be affirming your child and changing his name to a girl's one without your knowledge. They may plant all sorts of bizarre ideas in his mind which will lead him down the trans route.
And even worse than all that is that I think it's too late to shift this ideology out of national institutions.

It doesn't scare y because my daughters are now adults. It amazes me that normal, sane people are believing this latest idiocy.

I was not that surprised that so many people were willing to accept something nonsensical. I think that tendency has been evident for much of the 20th century.

The scariest things to me have been academia, because I don't know where losing that will leave us as a culture - I'm inclined to think civilizational collapse if it's not fixed. And secondly and more immediately, the stuff in schools, because it's effect on the young is so terrible to watch. Not just the physical stuff either, but the intellectual capture of these children.

The enthusiasm with which people and organisations who are well aware that sex is binary have embraced a bullshit ideology that only disadvantages women is terrifying.

And the young people who, in years to come, will turn on my generation and say, "I was only a little kid, why didn't anyone say no to me?"

The speed and stealth by which things have been changed. There are millions of people walking around who still have no idea that their everyday rights they take for granted have been so radically removed. In Ireland it looks like this came in before abortion rights and in Australia it looks like this was in place before gay marriage. This is embedded in schools already. Astounding.

Also the lack of backbone exhibited by organisations and people I used to revere and respect. All my life people have inferred I’m a bit wet, pathetic, a pushover, too nice etc. But at least I have more moral fibre than the IOC! The number of orgs falling over themselves to placate 16 anonymous complainants on Twitter is crazy.

We obviously value doing the right thing as society and there seems to be real appetite amongst the young to change things and protest but at the same time we’ve somehow lost free speech and open and honest communication. No ones fact checking or looking at other angles.

Its the seeming acceptance that Gender is real and not just a social construct.
It just seems Ive spent arguing all my life saying that saying its crap/wrong to say girls do x/girls like that and boys do x etc and everyone can do what they like/act as they like- and now... you're not female if you like x/ you're not male if you like y- its so awful

Hard to choose, OP. Three spring to mind, but all are really about scale, so I guess the thing that scares me most is the sheer scale of the undermining of societal values: three points listed below.

a. The realisation that democracy can be critically undermined by techniques similar to those used in business for hostile takeover bids.

b. That despite all the push for evidence-based medicine, that the medical establishment can still rush into a treatment regime that makes as much sense as lobotomy and will almost certainly end up being a bigger scandal.

c. The realisation that women’s rights can be taken away without consideration by people who intended to do good, but simply ignored or forgot to consider the effects on women.

Personal stuff really. The 3 young women I know who are transitioning after tbh normal adolescent turbulence (not denying how painful that normal turbulence can be). My cousin's probable lifelong medical issues now after genital surgery - they're only my age, 50s, they should be well.

But also the 'assigned sex at birth' shite - i mean, the complete nonsense of it, in government documents of record. It feels like a frighteningly deep corruption of fact.

I find it frightening. That this has taken a grip so much.

As I have said elsewhere on mn, the fact that a tiny minority with absurd opinions can hold nearly every country and every organisation in that country to ransom just 'because' and that the rights of the majority of the population (certainly in the UK) can be totally ignored. I think is this some sort of experiment, are we a petri dish? It is terrifying. Very sadly a tiny minority or even most of the world can't stop the real horrors in the world. So much trans power to creat hate.

What this is doing to my teenage daughter's generation. I said to her one time "sex work is not work". She was horrified that I had that opinion. "Mum, I agree with you on pretty much all this but not THAT!" It was like I'd said "Mickey Mouse is a serial killer".

The capture and indoctrination of children and young people to feel they need 'fixing', on top of institutional and environmental capture which embeds and encourages the same.
Toxic & damaging.

I’m worried about the number of teenage girls I know who have absorbed the message that being female is dull and restricting and the only way to escape it is to reject their sex and potentially have life altering medication and surgery to remove healthy body parts before their old enough to understand what they’ve missed out on.

The kids. How much irreversible damage is being done to them and how mo one realises they are nothing but a human shield fir adults. There is nothing special, brave or stunning abiut teenagers and young adults undergoing double mastectomies and ending up peeing into a bag with seemingly no idea they won't be able to breast feed after. Completely clueless.

How despite no actual definitions of terms beyond stereotypes and circular definitions that fall apart the second you ask even one question , everyone is falling over themselves not just to buy it but to somehow display they buy it in a better more kind more inclusive way than everyone else.

And, how quickly privileged people who have yet to really face the discrimination/pay gap or who will never be in prison or have no interest in sports so it just doesn't matter to them, will give our rights away. Oblivious to the fact that one day, if they have kids or lose our on a promotion they worked their arse off for to mediocre man because he won't need maternity leave, they won't be able to discuss whats happened and why it's happened.

And of course just how daft people are. How easily they have been able to be co vunved that privileged middle aged white males are the most oppressed people on the planet. It's a level of stupidity that has me concerned fir the survival of the people saying it.

Perfect environment where everything is broken down into a tick box process, where no individual engages sufficiently or is accountable and where healthcare has become a transactional environment.
It's a disaster.
I can only pray that this country takes notice and it becomes an election issue because that's the only way we will see action.

That my daughter is on testosterone and will soon be old enough to cut off her breasts on the NHS. That she's changed her name by deed poll. That I can't say anything about it in our home because my husband is completely on board, and my daughter already claimed that I hate her when I raised some concerns. I don't hate her, but I hate what she's doing to herself and what I've allowed.

The sheer amount of power and money behind the big tech giants and big pharma which I believe are responsible for pushing this ideology.

The thing that scared me was how cowardly I am/was in that I was unwilling to put my head above the parapet without being anonymous!

i always liked the idea that I would be willing to stand up for what I believe in. I found out how far from the truth this was!

anon💐that must be heart breaking ro watch unfold.

That's really interesting. I hadn't thought about biology teachers.

Are you still at this point teaching accurate biology?

For me it is the way a lobby group has been so successful in capturing so many institutions of the state with its ideology - with the clear intention of bringing about legislative change through the back door. People in those institutions who should have been capable of identifying the glaring problems of this belief system were too scared to say anything to challenge it.

What has a conversation about sex work got to do with trans people?

The fear, the group think, that people are genuinely scared to state basic facts and sincerely held beliefs in their own home, workplace or school.