So around mid-May, my girlfriend of two years broke up with me out of the blue. I was "surprised" with this information coming home from work and finding half of her things gone. She only gave me a cryptic closure: "I've just run out of things to talk about". Which was odd, because every day we spent together was amazing. She was very much a girly girl and I loved being able to provide for her. Hell, I had bought a ring that matched her personality perfectly and was intending to pop the question a week or so after the breakup date before it happened. Over the next three weeks of her slowly moving shit out of the house, I tried to press her into telling me the real reason why she wanted to break up and never got far.
I learned later from a friend of hers (who was leaving her friend group I guess) that she was transitioning into a man. She used Discord for a lot of her cute hobbies like sewing, crocheting, gardening, etc., and had apparently gotten swept away into a tranny server. She never showed any signs throughout the relationship. But her friend showed me some chat logs of my girlfriend stating her plans...that she was going to leave me, that me being a bigoted Christian (my religion never played into our relationship ever) wouldn't be the "appropriate environment". She "wanted an environment of affirmation, not one that would spread negativity", which I assume meant that she didn't want her decision challenged by me. Couldn't try to talk her out of it because she blocked me on every possible platform.
So this whole thing kinda shattered my entire reality of her. But I'm doing about as good as I can be right now. I just wonder how long the troon cult had been silently indoctrinating her.
That sucks. Sounds like you dodged the bullet of a mentally weak woman who would get swept up in lofty promises from bullshit artists. I mean how does someone go onto a discord server, read some posts, and think "oh yes absolutely Im gonna ruin my life by destroying my genitals and leaving my lover to please a discord mod"?
Take solace in knowing: if she hadnt trooned out, she'd likely drive you bankrupt through MLM cults, or insist on using crystal chakras for your zodiac sign to heal any ailment that may have befell yourself or your future children.
While I would say I've had a couple genuinely bad practitioners, I can tell you a lot of fantastic doctors were doing their level best while I went through a horror-show level bad time. This isn't a pill to replace actual effort.
Fat distribution- what possible change can there be when there is a morbid surplus everywhere already. It's why I'm saying you need a diet, gym time, and off the zombie pills.
I can't lie about being self conscious about losing my hair, but both the males and females in my family tend to start balding fairly young. I'm gonna lose it either way. But the other side effects are well worth it, for the good bits.
I wasn't joking when I said talk to roidheads. There is a wealth of "field research" that's actually results oriented and these motherfuckers aren't afraid of putting in effort so they likely did some actual research. Nothing is going to make you a bodybuilder but this might actually proffer some benefit with the risk you're all-too-happy to accept. The same doctors that have had you zonked out on pills since your age was single digits are going to do the same thing with HRT and it is not going to get better. Better people aren't profitable. A prolonged and worsening spiral is very profitable. I frankly don't care if you take this advice. I just want to make sure there is someone who is giving you the facts of what your intentions will manifest. If you go begging for sympathy down the road you cannot say nobody told you this would happen.
Why do tranny-posters come onto the tranny threads and then proceed to reveal the most saddening/embarrassing/depraved information to us? They are always overcome with the urge to confess their deepest sins.
Why do tranny-posters come onto the tranny threads and then proceed to reveal the most saddening/embarrassing/depraved information to us? They are always overcome with the urge to confess their deepest sins.
Why do tranny-posters come onto the tranny threads and then proceed to reveal the most saddening/embarrassing/depraved information to us? They are always overcome with the urge to confess their deepest sins.
I'm in a (hungover) rambling mood today, so please forgive my lack of brevity. I wish I could warn people like me, I wish I could help people, I wish I could spare them the same anguish. I'm going to powerlevel quite a bit, to an almost obnoxious degree, because I really can't talk about this anywhere else, as even my therapists and doctors are pozz'd on transgender ideology and they challenge me on my gender dysphoria that I experienced, saying that I was "misdiagnosed".
I was not misdiagnosed, the diagnosis was accurate. The treatment, however, was not.
The text block below is intended to provide context.
I was on exogenous testosterone for approximately 3.5 years, and, despite my regular objections to procedures deemed cosmetic, or medications not strictly necessary, I expected to remain on it for the rest of my days. I didn't talk about my transsexuality with anyone other than medical professionals, and was generally very quiet about my transition, because I truly considered it a medical condition for me to keep quiet and shut up about. I believed, at the time, that I did not care how others perceived me, because I chose to make no fuss about things such as pronouns and other terms of address. I didn't identify as "male", I didn't feel any kind of internal "gender identity", and struggled to understand what a gender identity even was, even after having it explained countless times to me by "queer" individuals.
The gender dysphoria began when I was a kid, though I obviously did not have the vocabulary to describe it as such. I grew up with all-male friends and, like all kids, could not fully grasp the concept of "puberty". I knew that my friends would grow up to be men, and I expected the same to happen to me, because, despite different sexes, considered myself to be the same as my male friends. My very first memory of intense mental distress at my gender must have been when I was 10 years old, and an older, very pretty girl was regaling me with stories of puberty, of periods, and breasts, and boys, and, let me tell you- I was absolutely devastated. I told her as much, she questioned as to why, and I replied, as we sat on a bench watching some friends of mine play basketball:
"Because I won't be one of them anymore"
I admired girls as a kid, I thought they were very pretty and very intimidating, but all of my socialisation came from my brothers, my male friends, and my father, and as such I was always rejected socially. I was criticised for being too loud, too weird, too dirty, and they didn't take too kindly to my habit for catching reptiles and other creepy crawlies, and proudly showing them off. I saw the way that my friends treated other girls, they were another species, and I was certain I'd lose my friendships. I was right, unfortunately.
It was alright for a few years, but most of my friends were gone soon enough. The ones who weren't no longer treated me as an equal, because, while they were reaping the benefits of testosterone and becoming faster, stronger, more capable, I was not, and, instead of being one of the most athletic as I once was, I was suddenly the weakest, which put me at the bottom of the social pecking order. I played co-ed sports and I envied my male peers for how much stronger and faster they were becoming with minimal training, whereas I would work my ass off and never fully match them.
Like every other woman, starting in my early teens, when I still very much had the mind of a child, I was sexually harassed by strange men old enough to be my father, I was groped on public transit, I was made to feel like prey. I developed migraines and arthritis due to oestrogen causing inflammation and causing my immune system to attack my tissues. I couldn't run, or draw, or do much of the normal childhood activities after puberty. In interactions with family and school, I was forced to perform femininity and suppress my loud, tomboyish personality, I couldn't understand why my interactions with society were suddenly so irreversibly changed simply because I had breasts and hips. I was still the same person I was a kid, so I couldn't understand why I was being treated so differently, why I could no longer enjoy what I used to.
I didn't know then that I could just be an unapologetically butch woman, the only examples I saw of womanhood were sexualised, hyper-feminine, and entirely antithetical to my ideals and character. I mistakenly believed that manhood was what I was "meant" to live as, because I didn't see any other option, I didn't see that I could just be a person.
My symptoms of gender dysphoria were classic, the same ones expressed by all the "old guard" transsexuals, and my doctors believed this was sufficient reason to pursue transitioning for me. My body truly felt "wrong", I hated my feminine characteristics, I had expected to develop as a man, I couldn't understand why my body was developing this way and the distress I felt was debilitating. I was desperate for a cure, and, because of my history, my autoimmune disease that was triggered by oestrogen, and the mental symptoms that manifested, I was considered a perfect candidate for gender transition. Looking back, I get the sense that the doctors had no fucking idea how to help me, and were just throwing shit at the wall to try to fix me. They did their best, honestly.
I naively believed that my psyche was discrete from my experiences, trauma, society, and conditioning. This was categorically incorrect.
In early 2022, I realised that transitioning could never get me where I truly wanted to be, and, while the experimental treatment was a valiant effort, and seemed to at least lessen the severity of the symptoms, I wanted a real cure. I just wanted to be happy, and I knew deep down that transitioning was not the answer.
There was a story I was told by a psychiatrist many years ago, it went something like this:
There was a woman who had treatment-resistant OCD. Everyday, when she would try to leave for work, she would start to drive, and suddenly be gripped by the fear that she'd left her curling iron on, and that her home would burn down. She arrived to work hours late, because she would turn back over and over again, to double-check that her curling iron was not left on. Her doctor tried everything- therapy, medications, nothing worked.
Finally, at an appointment, her doctor said to her: "Why don't you just take the curling iron to work with you?"
So, the next day, she took the curling iron with her in her car, and she got to work on-time for the first time in years.
The doctor was criticised by his colleagues for not treating the root cause of the OCD, only treating the symptoms. However, the woman's OCD was in remission at this point, and she was able to lead a normal life and participate in society.
I had originally believed that I was like this patient, that I had done everything I could do, and this would treat my symptoms and make me functional.
Now, I realised what a massive mental burden transitioning was, and I wanted to treat the disease itself, to get off of these hormones, to allow myself to date, and love, and live like a normal person. I wanted to be able to be able to just fuck off and travel without having to worry about medications, I hate surgery, and I didn't want to feel forced to modify a physically healthy body. As before, therapy and medication still did not work, it felt as though this gender dysphoria was an in-grained, immutable part of my psyche. All of the people that I spoke to, my parents, medical professionals, LGBTs, that I spoke to, affirmed that gender dysphoria was incurable except by transitioning. I'd read about how psychedelics had helped military veterans with PTSD, and I figured, "If it can help them, maybe it can help me".
So, caution to the wind, I took LSD, and it made me realise that my psyche and all of its aberrations were a direct result of a lifetime of trauma. My personality is a sum of my experiences, but not all of them. Ideas could be integrated or discarded, if an idea were enforced over and over again, it would become a larger part of my personality, but personality is not static. This seems so obvious in retrospect, but there's a difference between understanding something logically, and actually knowing it. My gender dysphoria was just a very deeply-rooted case of OCD, quite frankly, like other body dysmorphic disorders, such as anorexia nervosa.
I think of gender as a set of ideals, stereotypes, and performances that are passed down like tradition through society. It makes me sad that they are being revived with such fervour in western society, I wish they didn't exist, I wish women could be as masculine as they please without punishment, I wish men could be as feminine as they want; I wish it weren't "safer" and more socially acceptable to be a tranny then to be a butch woman or an effeminate gay man. I traded one set of gender norms for another to conform to the wills of idiots, when I could have just rejected all of it and lived however the fuck I wanted. I wish I could tell this to every modern transgender person, so they don't have to go through what I did to arrive at this conclusion. I wish I could make them see that there is nothing "wrong" with their body if it is functional and healthy, that they're facing a brutal mental illness that they can recover from with significant time and effort (and, I'll admit, maybe some very powerful mind-altering psychedelics).
I'm in therapy now, tackling the experiences that shaped me, those mentioned above and those omitted, because I can only powerlevel so hard on a public forum before even I believe that I am oversharing (LOL). It's a bit grating sometimes, because my therapist believes in transgender ideology, but it works, and it helps. Everyday it gets easier, everyday I grow, and change, and heal as a person. It's hard, but it is worth it.
I'd believe that not everyone recovers from gender dysphoria, it's hard to recover, believe me, I know it most of anyone, but transitioning shouldn't be treated as a first-line treatment, if dispensed at all, especially to young people still in the throes of puberty. It's cosmetic, it's a last ditch effort to try to help someone who is suffering. It is no silver bullet, and the pronouns, the denial of sex, is just a bizarre way to try to comfort and indulge someone who is deeply mentally ill.
I do mourn a bit of my visibility as a butch woman. Although my bone structure is undeniably female, due to my voice and personality, I am taken to be male most of the time in public. It's fine, such is life as a masculine woman, but I do wish I had taken pride in my identity and my reality, to live unapologetically as myself, to encourage young butch women to live as themselves without giving a fuck about what other people think of them. I transitioned to conform, and to escape mental anguish, and sexism, I shouldn't have had to have done that.
As an ironic aside, there has been promising research into my autoimmune disease using certain steroids to ease the symptoms and improve quality of life, so I may be going back on testosterone analogues in the near future, lol. Lady Fate has a dark sense of humour, I guess.
I haven't started HRT, I find the ass kissing retarded, but at the same time the discomfort is immeasurable. I just wanted to check other options before I did something like HRT. I'm close to getting it. My therapist and psychiatrist were actually skeptical and quizzed me on it repeatedly when I still had them, got a diagnosis at 16 after I got tested for it. I'm exhausted so sorry if this is incoherent.
Just saw the dysphoric female in the thread. I'm about to pass out and sleep off this dreadful hangover, but I just want to say: you can recover from this buddy.
That sucks. Sounds like you dodged the bullet of a mentally weak woman who would get swept up in lofty promises from bullshit artists. I mean how does someone go onto a discord server, read some posts, and think "oh yes absolutely Im gonna ruin my life by destroying my genitals and leaving my lover to please a discord mod"?
Take solace in knowing: if she hadnt trooned out, she'd likely drive you bankrupt through MLM cults, or insist on using crystal chakras for your zodiac sign to heal any ailment that may have befell yourself or your future children.
The weird thing is that she was usually pretty well-balanced. We'd joke about MLM schemes and people who believed quartz rock from the gas station could heal you. The only thing that annoyed me sometimes was that she'd romanticize ADHD a little too much.
Which, looking back, could've been a flag. I can see quite a few connections between the ADHD and trans communities now.
Why do tranny-posters come onto the tranny threads and then proceed to reveal the most saddening/embarrassing/depraved information to us? They are always overcome with the urge to confess their deepest sins.
I was not, and, instead of being one of the most athletic as I once was, I was suddenly the weakest, which put me at the bottom of the social pecking order. I played co-ed sports and I envied my male peers for how much stronger and faster they were becoming with minimal training, whereas I would work my ass off and never fully match them.
I don't know if this will help you or anyone else considering the troonery/HRT/pronoun decision, but I write this in hopes that I can dissuade one person from this cult then I would be happy. Life is inherently unequal and one must not ascribe to the notion of equity or equivocate it to equality.
The most important I think is train in and master a skill-set that offsets other people's advantage, ignore the majority of society and join a group that values skill.
I am actually one of the weaker responders in my volunteer unit (aside from our old ass chief in his seventies and a tiny girl who's probably 100lbs with the gear), but I stick around and am welcomed because of the fact I have the fastest mental math for pump ops alongside my ability in vehicle extractions and climbing skills. Said other girl is really great for her maneuverability in confined spaces/ maneuverability, be it for search and rescue or vehicle extraction. I don't think any of the other volunteers (me included) would expect her to carry one of our asses out if we collapsed, or operate the jaws of life (it's 50 lbs) but she is invaluable to the department and we would trust her actions with our lives just like we would trust the our mechanic with the equipment We have zero trust for outside agencies and sfeds because the former seem to fuck things up everytime we do something, and the latter just tells us to get bent even when we have concerns because "I have more experience and I do this for a living" attitude. . Just like we value the chief for his ability to coordinate the department and keep the entire show running with administrative bullshit.
The mechanic hates me though for my predisposition to flood the chainsaw and busting the hydraulics since I'm usually the one using the latter though
Unfortunately I have just lost another friend to troonism. It's rather unfortunate but they're already too far gone unfortunately.
They call themselves "Gender Fluid/2 Spirt individual now. (They/Them/Neutral) AMAB/ACAB, BLM, Fuck12 and etc..... now.
I unfortunately know the reason they're doing this has little to do with themselves and everything to do with the fact they want to get laid by chicks but can't control their possessive personality.
And in the womb, too! I learned that last night, unfortunately. But I can't change the past.
Really? It happened on occasion since I was 12, but has rapidly picked up frequency since about December. My grandma forbid me from eating in front of her the 1 1/2 years I lived with her. I learned to stockpile as much food as I could and hide it, but I would also go on massive binges at 1AM because that was the only time I knew I could eat. I got kicked out in December, but I still binge, I can't stop, but it's all day now.
No, I hate feminists. I hate them violently. I mean violently. If we directed the Handmaid's Tale explicitly towards feminists and nobody else, it'd be justified.
I am not a woman, and you can get your license revoked if you, a professional, insist I am. And I will act on that.
Most of what I say and do is entirely motivated by anger or fear. I do not lack emotion entirely, but I lack a few emotions.
I love drawing & music, so thank you!
I know, but I figured the perspective of an actual troon would be worth some value.
Trooning out isn't fixing your mental problems you're just sterilizing yourself at best for cheap sexual pleasure at best. At worst you're doing this because you want to get new age pussy tail but don't have the balls to impress them.
I'll keep it brief as to not power level TOO much but basically I'm close friends with this dude who has two female family members that are doing the whole enby shit, none of which are any older than 16.
I really hope this kind of stuff is just the new emo phase but for zoomers.
EDIT: @Mr. Cool ICE We're telling you this for your own good as almost everyone here has known a troon before in their personal life, stop while you're still ahead.
I think transgenderism is mostly something to do with vanity and lookism. All these people want to "pass", they want society's validation and since they don't get that in their current form, they think adopting another gender is the solution.
It doesn't seem to be a thing where I live... I only ever met a tranny one time, years ago. It was a sex crazed maniac.
I consider myself lucky I've never had to actually interact with any of these people and as far as I know have only ever seen one troon in real life. I didn't see any in high school thank god, which is quite remarkable since I'm young, relatively speaking.
The single troon I've seen in real life I only saw once or twice, and it was a female-turned-male that chopped off her breasts and was grossly overweight. She showed interest in a close family member of mine but the family member just called her insane and the troon wasn't really near them for more than a few different instances and hasn't been around since, as far as I know.
Reading through this thread I can't even get angry at them since the feelings of disgust and sadness are overwhelming. I can't even begin to fathom what goes through someones mind to completely abandon decades of their life to take on a new, false identity that will probably end up with them dead. Shame on the people who enable this shit and act as though "TERFs" (catch-all term for people they don't like) are the bad guys in society for refusing to go along with the delusions of the severely mentally ill. The whole troon ecosystem is a self-perpetuating mind virus, and people will look back upon this time period retrospectively as we look back upon the lobotomies of the 20th century.
As bleak as this thread is, its comforting to know that most people in real life don't know nor care about this kind of stuff, and tend to actually be put off by it when it worms its way into the news, like with that one swimmer troon. Humans have faced all kinds of social adversity throughout history so surely this will blow over someday, and not in a manner of fear-based, conforming acceptance. We must always push onward.
@Mr. Cool ICE has received her needed threadban and anyone wanting to convince this woman artificial hormones aren't the solution to her massive mental health issues can do so here
After witnessing the horrors in this thread I'm truly afraid of what will happen to a close friend.
Let's say by not having enough autism + a bit of luck I avoided being groomed when younger — total lack of hair due to problems from like 12 led to somehow being rejected enough by peers offline but not online so puter friends = good friends, plus no body hair apparently means being more feminine and stuff, basically prime vulnerable grooming subject — and I'm now very familiar with discord/4chan trannies.
I've also seen two people get sucked in, both through furry telegram groups, then discord, then the whole real life pastel aesthetic, imitation of how a girl should be in their twisted idea thing.
The thing is I'm very worried about this girl: she's past prime grooming years since she's over 18, but has always been one of the alphabet letters, and told me a couple times she's been questioning being a "she" and maybe feels more of a "they".
Troubled childhood, mommy issues which cause panic attacks and ptsd, (very mild) daddy issues due to absence, feminist activism, tomboysh aura but can still wear dresses and such still make her an "egg" however, plus she'll soon go to one of the best (and most liberal) art universities in the UK.
To me this screams DANGER from every fucking side you can possibly imagine. Plus knowing how UK trannies are I'm getting more anxious as her moving date approaches. I'll try to be with her for the first weeks and plan to visit very often, but nonetheless I know I'll have to live with the fear of her getting sucked into this vortex.
How am i supposed to react in this situation? I cannot sit back and watch, but I can't step in and ban her from using discord or telegram either. I'm just at a loss.
How am i supposed to react in this situation? I cannot sit back and watch, but I can't step in and ban her from using discord or telegram either. I'm just at a loss.
I don't mean to sound negative but sometimes you just gotta take the L. When you're young you feel like you have to do whatever it takes to help/protect your friends and family, but as you get older you learn that you have no choice but to allow some people to fuck up their own lives since nothing you can do will change their mind anyway. It's tough but it's the way it is.
Be there if she needs you so long as it isn't harmful to yourself, but just accept the possibility that she may be lost to The Borg.
After witnessing the horrors in this thread I'm truly afraid of what will happen to a close friend.
Let's say by not having enough autism + a bit of luck I avoided being groomed when younger — total lack of hair due to problems from like 12 led to somehow being rejected enough by peers offline but not online so puter friends = good friends, plus no body hair apparently means being more feminine and stuff, basically prime vulnerable grooming subject — and I'm now very familiar with discord/4chan trannies.
I've also seen two people get sucked in, both through furry telegram groups, then discord, then the whole real life pastel aesthetic, imitation of how a girl should be in their twisted idea thing.
The thing is I'm very worried about this girl: she's past prime grooming years since she's over 18, but has always been one of the alphabet letters, and told me a couple times she's been questioning being a "she" and maybe feels more of a "they".
Troubled childhood, mommy issues which cause panic attacks and ptsd, (very mild) daddy issues due to absence, feminist activism, tomboysh aura but can still wear dresses and such still make her an "egg" however, plus she'll soon go to one of the best (and most liberal) art universities in the UK.
To me this screams DANGER from every fucking side you can possibly imagine. Plus knowing how UK trannies are I'm getting more anxious as her moving date approaches. I'll try to be with her for the first weeks and plan to visit very often, but nonetheless I know I'll have to live with the fear of her getting sucked into this vortex.
How am i supposed to react in this situation? I cannot sit back and watch, but I can't step in and ban her from using discord or telegram either. I'm just at a loss.
If she hasn't fallen off the cliff into the cult yet, I've had good luck pushing back desire to transition by finding females who are cool and brave and ...all the things that we'd typically transition for. This book, by one of the first women photojournalists to cover some of our recent wars, was great: https://www.amazon.com/Its-What-Do-Photographers-Life/dp/0143128418
And the rock climber Lynn Hill is pretty dope.
And if she's into lesbians, I hear there's some great gender-non-conforming women there.
One of the weird things I've learned about cults recently is that they can basically "inoculate" their followers against leaving the group by teaching them the counter-arguments, against their cult ideology, and refuting them beforhand. The refutation doesn't have to be well-researched, but it gives the cult members a "go to" when someone, who is trying to argue with them, starts to actually make headway. If that makes sense...
And honestly, it seems a bit dirty but you can use the same methodology to keep people out of cults by giving them easy answers to default to in a moment of uncertainty or questioning.
I don't mean to sound negative but sometimes you just gotta take the L. When you're young you feel like you have to do whatever it takes to help/protect your friends and family, but as you get older you learn that you have no choice but to allow some people to fuck up their own lives since nothing you can do will change their mind anyway. It's tough but it's the way it is.
Be there if she needs you so long as it isn't harmful to yourself, but just accept the possibility that she may be lost to The Borg.
Well that sucks. The thing is I already invested quite some time in helping her drop bad habits (yeah yeah, sunken cost fallacy), from quitting smoking to fixing up EDs, I'd just be crushed if something like that ever happened. And then it'd be her mother's turn. We're young, but I'd rather keep her in my life for as long as possible.
And honestly, it seems a bit dirty but you can use the same methodology to keep people out of cults by giving them easy answers to default to in a moment of uncertainty or questioning.
I think that may be something I've been doing subconciously for some time. Still haven't revealed anything autism powerlevel related, but I started out saying stuff like "it's more profitable to cut off their dicks rather than make them attend therapy", or basic math around potential profit per demographic to justify it being a for profit cult if that can even be a thing. We've talked about the issue and she agrees it's a wildly unexplored psychological issue and surgery/hormones usually isn't the answer, bringing up body dismorphic people who feel like they shouldn't have a limb or something helped with getting through the concept.
Something I noticed is very counterproductive though is plain statistics. I've had to explain basic concepts and manipulation techniques, but even bringing up quantitative statistics (like X% are unsatisfied after transition) doesn't make a difference in her thinking, and I've noticed it's a very common occurrence outside of STEM/business people.
Well that sucks. The thing is I already invested quite some time in helping her drop bad habits (yeah yeah, sunken cost fallacy), from quitting smoking to fixing up EDs, I'd just be crushed if something like that ever happened. And then it'd be her mother's turn. We're young, but I'd rather keep her in my life for as long as possible.
I think that may be something I've been doing subconciously for some time. Still haven't revealed anything autism powerlevel related, but I started out saying stuff like "it's more profitable to cut off their dicks rather than make them attend therapy", or basic math around potential profit per demographic to justify it being a for profit cult if that can even be a thing. We've talked about the issue and she agrees it's a wildly unexplored psychological issue and surgery/hormones usually isn't the answer, bringing up body dismorphic people who feel like they shouldn't have a limb or something helped with getting through the concept.
Something I noticed is very counterproductive though is plain statistics. I've had to explain basic concepts and manipulation techniques, but even bringing up quantitative statistics (like X% are unsatisfied after transition) doesn't make a difference in her thinking, and I've noticed it's a very common occurrence outside of STEM/business people.
If she's listened to you before then you may have a chance of getting through. Still though, you have to be prepared for a negative reaction as these types can be very defensive and cut people out of their lives for questioning the trans movement.
I'm not sure what EDs is when you say "fixing up EDs." Whether that's fixing up Erectile Dysfunction on guys or fixing up Encyclopaedia Dramatica pages that's good to hear.
And yeah, there is a general trust of data and statistics these days. Public trust in data has been eroded due to politicians and corporations manipulating/skewing/faking data to fit their narrative (cough, covid) while simultaneously discrediting any data that doesn't fit their agenda, even going as far as saying that data collection itself is a tool of the oppressive white supremacy. I feel confirmation bias is at an all time high (even within those with statistics and research methods backgrounds) and is a huge problem within the trans, lgbt, and general woke type communities. So it makes sense why you say plain old statistics is counterproductive.
First post. Long time lurker. Wanted somewhere to marshal my thoughts on what's happening to a relative of mine.
My brother-in-law is now firmly on the path of trooning out, and there is seemingly no way off of it. This is because he reacts extremely aggressively and defensively to any perceived slight to his "identity", which makes it too awkward to broach the subject. Suggesting that his continued transition might not be a good idea would likely result in a response that doesn't bear thinking about. It's downright "cultish" behaviour, and it's frustrating that I, and everyone else, have to police our language (his pronouns are "they/them") and generally walk on eggshells just so we can all maintain some sense of normalcy when my partner and I visit her parents (with whom my BIL lives). We are nervous around the dinner table. Hardly indicative of someone who is mentally stable.
I will never forget the time his father accidentally deadnamed him, which elicited a vicious "fuck off!" and disappearance of the troon-to-be for TWO days until he "recovered" enough to appear in public again. I have no doubt that his hurt was genuine, but it comes from an utter denial of reality. How can you negotiate with someone like that?
3 years ago, he was fine. Normal. Then the coof/lockdown hit and everything went to hell. I am convinced that my brother-in-law has been groomed into this nonsense by his acquaintances on the internet, and by the pricks in healthcare who affirm this shit and never, ever challenge it. He was always a progressive type and thus possessed that slightly domineering personality, ready to pounce on any wrongthink and mildly bully you into the "correct" opinion.
All I can say is that sense of righteousness is serving him (and his groomers) very well. His poor mother is assisting him in this madness, but my gut says she is doing so reluctantly. The home-life situation isn't ideal for her to do anything else, and actually is the perfect crucible for turning a lonely young adult (locked down at home in an isolated community all day every day) who likes anime into, as per the copypasta, "a mockery of nature's perfection."
I've now noticed that he must be on HRT; on my last visit. he turned to the side to pick up something, and I noticed two weird little pokey lumps on his chest that weren't there 6 months ago.
I really think he might go all the way. My real BIL is already dead, and this thing that's replaced him may very well join the 41%.
One of the weird things I've learned about cults recently is that they can basically "inoculate" their followers against leaving the group by teaching them the counter-arguments, against their cult ideology, and refuting them beforhand. The refutation doesn't have to be well-researched, but it gives the cult members a "go to" when someone, who is trying to argue with them, starts to actually make headway. If that makes sense...
I completely agree. I'd further add that the "cult" in this case almost certainly teaches it's followers to respond with hostility and indignation when anything other than affirmation is given. I pointed this out to my mother-in-law after the deadnaming incident I wrote of above. It's not a natural response to a mistake so innocently made. It must, MUST, be behaviour taught in the bible of troonery.
I want to save my brother. But I think I'm going to lose him regardless of what I do. I can either destroy my relationship with him, trying to pull him off this journey, or I can just sit and watch him inevitably destroy his body and himself.
