I was always suspicious of it, but never gave it much thought until the past couple years or so.
When I was in late elementary and early middle school, I was part of a small, now long defunct forum Called CodeModuleKND. It was basically a spoof of the Codename Kids Next Door show on Cartoon Network, which I of course was a fan of growing up. Initially that's what we did, kept up the fiction of being in the various sectors. Now despite what you may think, this actually was a bunch of kids and young teens, not pedos. We did a bunch of video calls together and I even met a few of them in person later, so I can confirm that. But at some point, a few of the higher ranked members really began to push early LGBT shit hard. For context, this was ~2008-2011, so this was before social justice became even remotely mainstream. And a girl who was basically 2nd in command of the whole site "came out" as an FTM. Mind you this girl is only a few months older than I am (she's one of the people I met in person. She is who she said she was) and I was only 13 at most when this happened. And after this, 1 or 2 of the other girls there announce their troonship as well (there were only maybe 25-30 of us at most who were really active, so 3 troons is a lot in context).
I had gotten to know these girls before they trooned, they seemed fairly normal and happy. But after, they became increasingly depressed and almost feral. They'd snap at people over minor shit, they just become more unpleasant all around. The first girl was dating one of the guys prior to the troon thing and made a stink about him ultimately breaking up with and eventually cutting contact with her over it. I didn't really know any better at the time, so I still had some contact with her for a few years after the forum effectively went dark. And she gradually became a more and more feral leftoid slacktivist. I haven't spoken to her at all since maybe 2017, but she still has my brother and I on her socials, so I see the troonposting. She even went full circle and went from insisting she was really a man to claiming that she's now a nonbinary lesbian. It's funny to point and watch from a distance, but it's just surreal seeing the change happen to someone you know in real time. And there is no good that comes out of it for anyone involved. You end up a slave to pharma and you become too ideologically posessed to have normal friendships or relationships. In her case, it's even more sad because this happened before she was even 18. She was left broken before she could even know better and how she either has to spend the rest of her life coping by doubling down on the delusions of grandeur or take an honest look at what she let herself get talked into and probably spiral into a deep depression that you can never really recover from.
The 3 girls aren't the only people I saw fall victim to troonhood, just the first. While troon ideology itself is absolutely evil, I understand that many people were manipulated into it against the better judgement of those around them. It is repulsive and transphobia (it's not fear ofc, more like disgust) is a good snd proper thing, but unless they're talking about grooming kids or forcing pronouns, honestly feel more sorry for them, particularly for those who got got under 18. But in spite of this pity, if anyone I care about in the future expresses desire to troon, I will do my best to keep them from making that mistake. Do not cater to their delusions whatsoever, but be willing to offer support otherwise. Many of those targeted are often outcasts like I myself was at that age, and people will do some crazy things to fit in when they have nowhere else to belong.
