My progressive friends often accuse me of "both-sides-ism" (is that a word?). It's true that I strain to understand all arguments and try to land at the right place.
But on the exhausting and absurd trans debates, allow me to stake out a position based on 5 years on Medium reading hundreds of articles on the debate by trans ideologues, tr…
My progressive friends often accuse me of "both-sides-ism" (is that a word?). It's true that I strain to understand all arguments and try to land at the right place.
But on the exhausting and absurd trans debates, allow me to stake out a position based on 5 years on Medium reading hundreds of articles on the debate by trans ideologues, trans people, feminists, liberals et al.
There are a fair number of really reasonable, decent, reality-based trans writers--Tara Ella, Lady K, and Ann Williams to name several. But as a group, there is a level of hostility, of ad hominem attacks, of disrespect, of complete delusion and of unreasonable entitlement among trans writers that really sets them apart.
If they want fairness, they have to be fair in return. If they want respect, they have to respect in return. If they want recognition, they have to recognize reality.
I've had it. The trans activists can grow up or go to hell. They are turning me into someone I don't want to be.
"They are turning me into someone I don't want to be."
God, I feel this so much. It's a battle, every type I put fingers to keyboard on this issue, to temper my frustration into something compassionate and hopefully useful. I've seen so many people who are paying attention to this issue turn into angry, unreasonable versions of themselves. And it's really hard not to when you see the depths of the misogyny, bullying and reality denial that are endemic to the activism.
What (mostly) keeps me sane is remembering how utterly many prominent "anti-racists" fails to speak for me or anything I believe. I was lucky enough to have a platform to push back against it. But many trans people don't. And frankly, the viscousness that trans people face if they challenge the orthodoxy is brutal.
This article on Medium criticizes a straw man position attributed to you. Trans woman activists just can’t seem to understand that when .06% of the population demands that the other 99.4% completely change how humanity is organized for delusional reasons and without any sense of reciprocity or fairness that resistance might be based on something other than hate. That no discrimination does not require that humanity surrender its grip on objective reality.
Wondering whether responding is a total waste of time
I’m thinking more like prison than hell. People who promote surgery to psychologically disordered children should be arrested for predation.
I’ve read Tara Ella and I agree, I never ran across those other two and never will, Medium keeps kicking me off even if I stay away from the “trans” creeps. In fact it seems to me that clicking “I don’t want to be referred to this topic” on the “trans” stuff gets you banned now.
And most of the “trans” writers on there are just vile. One was really striking, “her” article’s very title was something like “this is going to piss you off,” and “her” picture above it was giving a middle finger to the reader. And needless to say, the article was incoherent rage from the first sentence to the last.
Medium prints this garbage, sends emails recommending it. And then bans anyone who writes anything less than fully onboard with “gender ideology.” I remember medium as a good place. This “trans” shit has ruined it.
I remember the “give the finger” article. Written by Queer Kari. Why Medium blocks you and not this vile tempered harridan is a real indictment of the so called “progressive” mindset these days. How did we fall so far so fast????
Did we fall? I don’t know many people who buy into “trans.” The CEO of Medium says “there’s no room for transphobia on Medium.” Actually there’s no room for debate. It’s 100% gender ideology and not the tiniest piece of discussion. People like “Queer Kari” can put their sickness on full display and get *recommended* for it.
There’s nothing progressive about that.
But even outside the “trans” stuff, they’ve lost their way. I wrote about software development, mostly opposition to the many dum fads like agile and test-driven development, and while I mostly had hostile responses from fad-followers, I also developed a loyal readership.
There were some good articles. Not anymore. Now it’s the same few worn out topics over and over. Dumb Indians with a few months of experience trying to tell 20 year people how to be good developers.
There are a few articles I’d like to write on there, but as soon as I show up I am somehow recognized and banned again.
I checked, my earliest account still says "your account is under investigation." That's some investigation, it's been years.
I peeked at "Queer Kari" and it was a deluge of hateful titles. I didn't actually open any articles, I don't want that malignant person in my head.
One caught my eye, "she" said "Cis women are women too." Duh. I detest "cis," I think distinguishing gender congruence is about as useful as distinguishing one-headedness, the only reason for it is the pretense that "trans" is a thousand times more commonplace than it actually is.
But it was candor I did not expect from Queer Kari.
Well thanks for trying. Not the biggest deal if you can't find the therapist. (Don't care about King Kari a whit). Yeah, I've been under investigation for years too. Apparently a Medium investigation takes longer than OJ's.
Distribution is a popularity contest at Medium, always has been. I know I'm not the greatest writer ever and I certainly wasn't there; but I also wasn't their worst, by far, and they had their favorites who always got distributed regardless of what they wrote. Even their best, most popular writers aren't capable of hitting it out of the ballpark every single article but they got fairly robotically distributed. It was a couple of years before they distributed anything of mine, and probably because it got published in The Ascent. Later, another distributed article got taken down, because it apparently offended some when I argued that white people who hate white people are racist. No mention of trans anywhere.
Unfortunately, many platforms have become woke shitholes. Free speech my ass. The woke love censorship every bit as much as Ronald DeSantis.
I've never written anything remotely antagonistic on Medium, even about "trans." But something as uncontroversial as "trans women are biologically male" is treated like "trans people all deserve Zyklon-B."
I had one guy react to that simple assertion by telling me he was going to summon all his Medium cadre and have them pound on the Report button until I was banned. I just deleted the response and blocked him (if only substack had block). His Medium profile was nothing but a recitation of his "queer" credentials and like so many "trans" writers on there his avatar was himself wearing an angry snarl.
On another substack I read a therapist was saying that she can usually make progress with depressed and angry patients, but never with the "trans" ones.
You see it all the time, transitioning is nothing but joy. But you don't see a lot of joy among these nincompoops. They're all in a state of maximum rage, when they aren't crying about not getting everything they want immediately.
Seems to me they're getting way too much. Middle schoolers can get a teacher fired for forgetting to change to the pronouns that a student adopted fifteen minutes ago.
And transitioning is anything but joy. Complications galore; shortened urethras that leak piss, fistulas that have feces oozing out around stitches, sterility, lifelong sexual dysfunction. Yeah, joy. Uh-huh.
Yeah, they don't tell you that at the gender identity clinic, do they. Your description of what these spoiled brats are like is something to remember the next time they go on about how 'marginalized' they are. They choose it. They want it. And they know no one's trying to murder them all. I found recently that in 2021, about 59 transpeople were violently killed in Canada; before that it was less than fifty a year, about a third the number of women violently killed in Canada that same year. And both groups' murders look pretty similar: Most by male partners.
These people have WAY too much power, especially the kids. It's time for the Level Left and Rational Right to start drawing some boundaries.
Unfortunately the right goes at them for the usual right-wing reasons, founded on plain bigotry.
So when we voice our opposition for completely different reasons, we are seen as having the same reasons as the right, which most people probably know is not true but run with it anyway, because truth is not something they care much about.
It makes me laugh a little, being told I watch too much Tucker Carlson and I support Trump. I let them know I'm gay and I've dated real transgender men (actually diagnosed dysphoric and headed for surgery after the requisite year living as women) and of course this makes no impression, they just keep reading out their act.
I feel the same about Twitter. A few minutes of reading and I am sickened. No more.
I don’t know what happened to Medium. It was a great place to read and write, then very suddenly it wasn’t. I made enough from their partner program to buy a dozen synthesizers. Then I did a polite response to a “trans” rage case and got the red box.
My progressive friends often accuse me of "both-sides-ism" (is that a word?). It's true that I strain to understand all arguments and try to land at the right place.
But on the exhausting and absurd trans debates, allow me to stake out a position based on 5 years on Medium reading hundreds of articles on the debate by trans ideologues, trans people, feminists, liberals et al.
There are a fair number of really reasonable, decent, reality-based trans writers--Tara Ella, Lady K, and Ann Williams to name several. But as a group, there is a level of hostility, of ad hominem attacks, of disrespect, of complete delusion and of unreasonable entitlement among trans writers that really sets them apart.
If they want fairness, they have to be fair in return. If they want respect, they have to respect in return. If they want recognition, they have to recognize reality.
I've had it. The trans activists can grow up or go to hell. They are turning me into someone I don't want to be.
"They are turning me into someone I don't want to be."
God, I feel this so much. It's a battle, every type I put fingers to keyboard on this issue, to temper my frustration into something compassionate and hopefully useful. I've seen so many people who are paying attention to this issue turn into angry, unreasonable versions of themselves. And it's really hard not to when you see the depths of the misogyny, bullying and reality denial that are endemic to the activism.
What (mostly) keeps me sane is remembering how utterly many prominent "anti-racists" fails to speak for me or anything I believe. I was lucky enough to have a platform to push back against it. But many trans people don't. And frankly, the viscousness that trans people face if they challenge the orthodoxy is brutal.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/i-support-queer-rights-but-7eda17fae1e0
This article on Medium criticizes a straw man position attributed to you. Trans woman activists just can’t seem to understand that when .06% of the population demands that the other 99.4% completely change how humanity is organized for delusional reasons and without any sense of reciprocity or fairness that resistance might be based on something other than hate. That no discrimination does not require that humanity surrender its grip on objective reality.
Wondering whether responding is a total waste of time
I’m thinking more like prison than hell. People who promote surgery to psychologically disordered children should be arrested for predation.
I’ve read Tara Ella and I agree, I never ran across those other two and never will, Medium keeps kicking me off even if I stay away from the “trans” creeps. In fact it seems to me that clicking “I don’t want to be referred to this topic” on the “trans” stuff gets you banned now.
And most of the “trans” writers on there are just vile. One was really striking, “her” article’s very title was something like “this is going to piss you off,” and “her” picture above it was giving a middle finger to the reader. And needless to say, the article was incoherent rage from the first sentence to the last.
Medium prints this garbage, sends emails recommending it. And then bans anyone who writes anything less than fully onboard with “gender ideology.” I remember medium as a good place. This “trans” shit has ruined it.
I remember the “give the finger” article. Written by Queer Kari. Why Medium blocks you and not this vile tempered harridan is a real indictment of the so called “progressive” mindset these days. How did we fall so far so fast????
Did we fall? I don’t know many people who buy into “trans.” The CEO of Medium says “there’s no room for transphobia on Medium.” Actually there’s no room for debate. It’s 100% gender ideology and not the tiniest piece of discussion. People like “Queer Kari” can put their sickness on full display and get *recommended* for it.
There’s nothing progressive about that.
But even outside the “trans” stuff, they’ve lost their way. I wrote about software development, mostly opposition to the many dum fads like agile and test-driven development, and while I mostly had hostile responses from fad-followers, I also developed a loyal readership.
There were some good articles. Not anymore. Now it’s the same few worn out topics over and over. Dumb Indians with a few months of experience trying to tell 20 year people how to be good developers.
There are a few articles I’d like to write on there, but as soon as I show up I am somehow recognized and banned again.
"The CEO of Medium says “there’s no room for transphobia on Medium.” Actually there’s no room for debate. "
Nailed it. In many people's minds debate (or reality) and transphobia are the same thing. It's frightening to see.
Yeah, I lost the red BANNEDer after my LinkedIn exchange with Tony and then a week or so ago I tried to clap or comment or something and it came back.
I checked, my earliest account still says "your account is under investigation." That's some investigation, it's been years.
I peeked at "Queer Kari" and it was a deluge of hateful titles. I didn't actually open any articles, I don't want that malignant person in my head.
One caught my eye, "she" said "Cis women are women too." Duh. I detest "cis," I think distinguishing gender congruence is about as useful as distinguishing one-headedness, the only reason for it is the pretense that "trans" is a thousand times more commonplace than it actually is.
But it was candor I did not expect from Queer Kari.
Well thanks for trying. Not the biggest deal if you can't find the therapist. (Don't care about King Kari a whit). Yeah, I've been under investigation for years too. Apparently a Medium investigation takes longer than OJ's.
No loss, it was only a sentence. But I looked.
Distribution is a popularity contest at Medium, always has been. I know I'm not the greatest writer ever and I certainly wasn't there; but I also wasn't their worst, by far, and they had their favorites who always got distributed regardless of what they wrote. Even their best, most popular writers aren't capable of hitting it out of the ballpark every single article but they got fairly robotically distributed. It was a couple of years before they distributed anything of mine, and probably because it got published in The Ascent. Later, another distributed article got taken down, because it apparently offended some when I argued that white people who hate white people are racist. No mention of trans anywhere.
Unfortunately, many platforms have become woke shitholes. Free speech my ass. The woke love censorship every bit as much as Ronald DeSantis.
I've never written anything remotely antagonistic on Medium, even about "trans." But something as uncontroversial as "trans women are biologically male" is treated like "trans people all deserve Zyklon-B."
I had one guy react to that simple assertion by telling me he was going to summon all his Medium cadre and have them pound on the Report button until I was banned. I just deleted the response and blocked him (if only substack had block). His Medium profile was nothing but a recitation of his "queer" credentials and like so many "trans" writers on there his avatar was himself wearing an angry snarl.
On another substack I read a therapist was saying that she can usually make progress with depressed and angry patients, but never with the "trans" ones.
Can you pass along that therapist article? I'd love to read it!
If I can find it again,, sure.
You see it all the time, transitioning is nothing but joy. But you don't see a lot of joy among these nincompoops. They're all in a state of maximum rage, when they aren't crying about not getting everything they want immediately.
Seems to me they're getting way too much. Middle schoolers can get a teacher fired for forgetting to change to the pronouns that a student adopted fifteen minutes ago.
And transitioning is anything but joy. Complications galore; shortened urethras that leak piss, fistulas that have feces oozing out around stitches, sterility, lifelong sexual dysfunction. Yeah, joy. Uh-huh.
Yeah, they don't tell you that at the gender identity clinic, do they. Your description of what these spoiled brats are like is something to remember the next time they go on about how 'marginalized' they are. They choose it. They want it. And they know no one's trying to murder them all. I found recently that in 2021, about 59 transpeople were violently killed in Canada; before that it was less than fifty a year, about a third the number of women violently killed in Canada that same year. And both groups' murders look pretty similar: Most by male partners.
These people have WAY too much power, especially the kids. It's time for the Level Left and Rational Right to start drawing some boundaries.
Unfortunately the right goes at them for the usual right-wing reasons, founded on plain bigotry.
So when we voice our opposition for completely different reasons, we are seen as having the same reasons as the right, which most people probably know is not true but run with it anyway, because truth is not something they care much about.
It makes me laugh a little, being told I watch too much Tucker Carlson and I support Trump. I let them know I'm gay and I've dated real transgender men (actually diagnosed dysphoric and headed for surgery after the requisite year living as women) and of course this makes no impression, they just keep reading out their act.
I could have written that. I know exactly where you are coming from. It is unpleasant.
I feel the same about Twitter. A few minutes of reading and I am sickened. No more.
I don’t know what happened to Medium. It was a great place to read and write, then very suddenly it wasn’t. I made enough from their partner program to buy a dozen synthesizers. Then I did a polite response to a “trans” rage case and got the red box.
They banned you?
For politely pointing out that a “trans” woman is biologically male.
I’ve been back several times but I am somehow recognized and banned every time. Despite staying away from “trans.”