Don't mean to hijack the thread, but in the past 2 years or so, in attempting to understand our time of mass psychosis, I've read:
The True Believer Eric Hoffer
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Gustave Le Bon
The Captive Mind Milosz
The Reckless Mind Mark Lilla
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism Robert Jay Lifton
A Colorful History of Popular Delusions Robert E. Bartholomew
PRISONS WE CHOOSE TO LIVE INSIDE Doris Lessing
The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing Joost A. M. Meerloo
The Devils Of Loudun Aldous Huxley
Public Opinion Walter Lippmann 1922
The Tyranny of Opinion Russell Blackford
The Madness Of Crowds Douglas Murray
The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages Norman Cohn
The Elephant in the Brain Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson 2018
Of course, all this focused reading has only succeeded in alienating me from just about everyone I know and made me feel like a deranged freak (psychosis is contagious, after all:))
But then I read your thoughts and feel a bit better.
I've done General Wokeness quite a bit, but I find that others speaking on the viral nature of the teen tran phenomenon do a better job than I. Here's a few, browse around...
I'll check those out, but I'm not sure anyone's done a sufficient job speaking on the viral nature of ROGD teens. Trust me, I'm 3+ years into this nightmare in a personal way.
To borrow your "Sensemaking" concept - we *know* that no one is born in the "wrong body." We know that no one can actually change sex. We know that the field of transsexualism was created in an era in which women were property and homosexuality was deviant. We have a 100 year history of how the disorder presents: Overwhelmingly male, either at very young ages or in middle age. The very young overwhelmingly get over themselves at the end of puberty, and more than half of those end up being garden variety homosexual. The middle age men tend to be Autogynephiles.
Fast-forward to the advent of social media, and the idea that everyone is born with a "Gender Identity" is now taken as given. Now there is a new cohort presenting in puberty - girls. And cosmetic surgeons have flocked to fill (create?) the demand. All major LGB orgs have pivoted to advocating for "trans rights."
I side with "not a conspiracy, but an emergent phenomena" on that. I think the overall framework goes a bit like this:
Crenshaw Intersectionalty Matrix applied to morality states that the more intersectional categories you check off the more virtue is assigned to you within the woke framework. This leads to ladder climbing behavior among the woke indoctrinates, where anyone who accrues more marginalization accrues more virtue. This is covered in the 2nd link.
Teen and preteens (esp. girls) desperately seek social virtue.
Social media becomes realspace via dynamics explained in more depth with today's article:
Preteens adopt a category that gets them the most instagram dopamine for being "brave" etc. And when some see that their peers are accruing this social virtue, they follow suit to accrue the same social virtue, and the viral nature of these teen trans outbursts matriculates.
I haven't written this specific article because I don't want a bunch of Big Trans activists to come burn my house down.
I should add, if the woke trans teen also has woke parents, then those woke parents are socially rewarded for going along with and supporting it, because they too accrue Facebook virtue in their own social media spaces from their woke friends for being so supportive of a "brave" child.
I think this is brilliant. The big picture is painfully obvious to me, but I lack the ability to articulate it precisely. Want to help me ghost write it? TRAs are all bark and I'm unemployed, so...
I do know two families in my ROGD support group whose schools have called Child Protective Services for the crime of getting their kid therapy. But we're in private school, and those CPS folks know what real abuse looks like.
This is a truly well-written piece, although you might want to correct the "Zuccerberg" misspelling in the last paragraph. If you're concerned that those on the Twitter call would not understand your point, this piece clearly lays it out. Well done!
Haha. Sorry, I'm a compulsive nitpicker. ;-) By the way, the Lab Leak theory has always been the most obvious explanation to me, even lacking hard evidence. But, if anyone wants hard evidence, the recent book "Viral" by Matt Ridley and Dr. Alina Chan should be all you need. It's not definitive -- in the sense that there's no smoking gun -- but it puts the lie to the wet market theory and demonstrates that there is an infinitessimally small chance that this virus evolved naturally from the wild to its present state. In other words, it is almost without question that lab intervention caused this.
China's conduct and that of Dr. Peter Daszak are covered in detail. Both engage in highly suspicious activities before and after the virus emerges. At some point in the next five years, I suspect we'll know more about what Fauci's involvement was/is. That guy should have been separated from any responsibilities vis-a-vis this pandemic long ago.
On top of all that, the book is a great read. Cheers!
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but in the past 2 years or so, in attempting to understand our time of mass psychosis, I've read:
The True Believer Eric Hoffer
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Gustave Le Bon
The Captive Mind Milosz
The Reckless Mind Mark Lilla
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism Robert Jay Lifton
A Colorful History of Popular Delusions Robert E. Bartholomew
PRISONS WE CHOOSE TO LIVE INSIDE Doris Lessing
The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing Joost A. M. Meerloo
The Devils Of Loudun Aldous Huxley
Public Opinion Walter Lippmann 1922
The Tyranny of Opinion Russell Blackford
The Madness Of Crowds Douglas Murray
The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages Norman Cohn
The Elephant in the Brain Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson 2018
Of course, all this focused reading has only succeeded in alienating me from just about everyone I know and made me feel like a deranged freak (psychosis is contagious, after all:))
But then I read your thoughts and feel a bit better.
Thanks!
You might dig this:
https://hwfo.substack.com/p/spot-the-true-believer
OK, now do Teenage Transgenderism
I love the term "speaking performatively" or "Performative Speaking" (such as performative pronouns in one's email sig or social media bio)
Ooofff.
I've done General Wokeness quite a bit, but I find that others speaking on the viral nature of the teen tran phenomenon do a better job than I. Here's a few, browse around...
https://hwfo.substack.com/p/science-says-sam-harris-is-alt-right
https://hwfo.substack.com/p/a-detailed-look-at-woke-update-mechanics
I'll check those out, but I'm not sure anyone's done a sufficient job speaking on the viral nature of ROGD teens. Trust me, I'm 3+ years into this nightmare in a personal way.
To borrow your "Sensemaking" concept - we *know* that no one is born in the "wrong body." We know that no one can actually change sex. We know that the field of transsexualism was created in an era in which women were property and homosexuality was deviant. We have a 100 year history of how the disorder presents: Overwhelmingly male, either at very young ages or in middle age. The very young overwhelmingly get over themselves at the end of puberty, and more than half of those end up being garden variety homosexual. The middle age men tend to be Autogynephiles.
Fast-forward to the advent of social media, and the idea that everyone is born with a "Gender Identity" is now taken as given. Now there is a new cohort presenting in puberty - girls. And cosmetic surgeons have flocked to fill (create?) the demand. All major LGB orgs have pivoted to advocating for "trans rights."
Is it a conspiracy or does it just look like one?
I side with "not a conspiracy, but an emergent phenomena" on that. I think the overall framework goes a bit like this:
Crenshaw Intersectionalty Matrix applied to morality states that the more intersectional categories you check off the more virtue is assigned to you within the woke framework. This leads to ladder climbing behavior among the woke indoctrinates, where anyone who accrues more marginalization accrues more virtue. This is covered in the 2nd link.
Teen and preteens (esp. girls) desperately seek social virtue.
Social media becomes realspace via dynamics explained in more depth with today's article:
https://hwfo.substack.com/p/memespace-egregores-and-google-maps
To gain virtue some of the intersectional categories can be adopted and some can't. (Again refer to https://hwfo.substack.com/p/a-detailed-look-at-woke-update-mechanics )
Preteens adopt a category that gets them the most instagram dopamine for being "brave" etc. And when some see that their peers are accruing this social virtue, they follow suit to accrue the same social virtue, and the viral nature of these teen trans outbursts matriculates.
I haven't written this specific article because I don't want a bunch of Big Trans activists to come burn my house down.
I should add, if the woke trans teen also has woke parents, then those woke parents are socially rewarded for going along with and supporting it, because they too accrue Facebook virtue in their own social media spaces from their woke friends for being so supportive of a "brave" child.
Can confirm - have seen this in action in our community.
I think this is brilliant. The big picture is painfully obvious to me, but I lack the ability to articulate it precisely. Want to help me ghost write it? TRAs are all bark and I'm unemployed, so...
I do know two families in my ROGD support group whose schools have called Child Protective Services for the crime of getting their kid therapy. But we're in private school, and those CPS folks know what real abuse looks like.
This is a truly well-written piece, although you might want to correct the "Zuccerberg" misspelling in the last paragraph. If you're concerned that those on the Twitter call would not understand your point, this piece clearly lays it out. Well done!
I continue to be thankful I have readers to help with my copyedit. ;)
Haha. Sorry, I'm a compulsive nitpicker. ;-) By the way, the Lab Leak theory has always been the most obvious explanation to me, even lacking hard evidence. But, if anyone wants hard evidence, the recent book "Viral" by Matt Ridley and Dr. Alina Chan should be all you need. It's not definitive -- in the sense that there's no smoking gun -- but it puts the lie to the wet market theory and demonstrates that there is an infinitessimally small chance that this virus evolved naturally from the wild to its present state. In other words, it is almost without question that lab intervention caused this.
China's conduct and that of Dr. Peter Daszak are covered in detail. Both engage in highly suspicious activities before and after the virus emerges. At some point in the next five years, I suspect we'll know more about what Fauci's involvement was/is. That guy should have been separated from any responsibilities vis-a-vis this pandemic long ago.
On top of all that, the book is a great read. Cheers!
send me an email if you want an invite to the Slack server, you can do copyedit from there ;)