What drives online mob campaigns, and what does this new Gallup survey of the U.S. LGBT population highlight that merits further examination and investigation?
I find the whole trans movement fascinating for a variety of reasons. As a gay person I do have some sympathy for transgenders, and as a strong believer of civil rights and free will, I support anyone's decision to live the life as the opposite gender if that is what makes them happy. And, as a gay person, I also know that there are many gays and lesbians who resent the notion of being lumped with transgenders in that ever exploding alphabet list that marks the modern LGBtA+ movement.
But at the same time I find it strange we can't have a frank and realistic discussion about transgenderism and all the implications that come with it (women's sports being an obvious one). And I am concerned that the hardcore activists refuse to accept the basic biological difference between women and trans women, and their insistence that trans women are real women when they biologically are not and cannot ever be and will never experience the whole range of biological experiences and body experiences only women can (which is also true for trans men, but I do notice that most cases it's transwomen rather than transmen that is causing most of the furore).
And I do also see a clear difference between genuine transexuals and a growing number of people, particularly younger people at certain ages, who seem to seek transgenderism as an escape mechanism for emotional or real life problems rather than a sincere belief in their own transgenderism. This is a topic that clearly merits exploration but whenever researchers or scientists try to, they're accused of transphobia and funding cancelled, and the drawbridge pulled up (or door slammed closed).
What is it about transgenderism that has turned its advocates to totalitarianists? I'm not quite sure what or why. But it is fascinating.
Here's my view on the "trans debate" as a "classical liberal":
Reasonable people don't care how anyone chooses to identify. As far as I'm concerned, everyone should be free to identify as a man, woman, non-binary or a turnip. The problems start when people try to force their views on others. You can identify however you want, but you have zero right to force me to accept or acknowledge your beliefs. Your subjective "lived experience" means nothing to me. We all have lived experiences - its called life.
The problem with the whole "trans movement" is that by its very nature it attracts the most mentally disturbed, confused and identity-obsessed people, from a pool of already mentally disturbed, confused and identify obsessed "crt" cultists, to its banner. The worst of the worst. These people aren't interested in living their own lives with their own identities, free from molestation. They are mentally damaged people who are obsessed with having their bizarre beliefs validated and respected by everyone. Nobody is owed or entitled to validation or respect. Respect is earned, and the way these people behave does the opposite of earn respect. They are cultists who lash out blindly and viciously at anyone who doesn't uncritically accept their dogma.
And that's the crux of Glenn's heresy and why he is absurdly being painted as "transphobic". He asked a question about the results of a poll. In doing so, he attempted to inject some objective reality into the "debate", and there is no greater crime to these people. Nothing strikes at the heart of faith-based belief like the injection of objective reality and critical thinking, no matter how innocently or unobtrusively it is done.
Hi Glenn, I just subscribed for the first time after watching your excellent video.
I'm probably a lot younger than your other subscribers (gen Z) and am also a trans woman, and I wanted to say that I completely agree with everything you said in this post and also your video. I've been following your tweets and writings for about a year and I have never seen you write anything that any rational person would consider transphobic. The massive expansion of what is considered "transphobic" (and who is considered "trans" to begin with) among my generation is something I first noticed occurring on Tumblr in the mid-2010s and has now made the jump to mainstream liberal discourse on Twitter and the corporate media.
As you said in the video, I think generally the increase in people identifying as bi or trans is due to increased social acceptance of the concept that these things are a spectrum and that many people place themselves on that spectrum instead of at the poles, but also that there is an unsual trend in people who would have once called themselves lesbians now calling themselves trans men (a trend that does not seem to exist in the opposite direction, i.e. gay men now calling themselves women) and it's worth investigating why that is. Anecdotally, I have seen significant social pressure for girls to identify as male, and as you said, there is overwhelming and widely-documented pressure to claim an oppressed identity so that you can fit into modern progressive spaces ("I'm not a straight white male, I'm a bisexual nonbinary!").
I laughed at your bit at the end discussing the bearded rich white boy who calls himself "nonbinary" because this is exactly the sort of thing I've discussed with friends -- but always in hushed tones. Saying this stuff in front of the wrong people would get me exiled from every social group I'm part of.
Anyway, thank you sir for your continued attempts at rationally examining and asking questions about important issues in our culture, from gender/sexuality to civil liberties, and I'm happy to join your community.
1) What do the words "male" and "female" or "man" and "woman" actually mean at this point? If a man feels like he's really a woman, but doesn't transition physically in any way, takes no hormones, maybe even doesn't dress as a woman, and still prefers women as sexual partners, but simply says, "I identify as a woman," what, exactly, is he identifying as?
2) Aren't the genders becoming identified by nothing more than their traditional gender roles, as frilly girls and manly men--stereotypes that earlier generations fought against?
3) What makes radical trans activists "left" in any way? Their agenda is about essentialism over class, and like the Puritans, they don't seem interested in fighting for any general tolerance or universal recognition of rights, but are primarily advancing their own interests. What specific aspects make their program leftist?
Holy shit and fucking A, GG! you write "If I, with these views, am a bigoted enemy of the trans movement, then who are its allies? Do many of those who form this movement even want allies? "
Before that you signal your - self presumed - bona fides on trans issues. "Like, wow, mang, I am on your side! Why do you criticize me?"
You are just as pathetic and virtual signaling as is Taibbi. You can't resist offering up your credentials to demo that you are "one of the good guys".
Don't fucking do that. Just write what you think, and let the chips - and shit - fall where it will. Let you supported opinion stand on its own.
As soon as you attempt to present your credentials, you've lost the battle. I cannot, I CANNOT believe I( nee to explain this shit to guys as smarter as I thought your were.
Watching the mob try to break/intimidate anyone who doesn't instantaneously display 100% compliance or dares to ask any questions or dig any deeper on any issue is a practice that will soon backfire. I view this as the honeymoon period where a small but vocal group, empowered by the echo-chamber dynamic of social media and the internet as a whole, can use their technical savvy to push and intimidate others into subscribing to the hivemind, or else...
Even here in Portland OR, like myself, most of my friends are liberal but none share the same extreme-left views that appear commonplace on sites like Twitter where, for example, there is a 'common understanding' that if a straight man is not romantically interested in a trans woman, he is thus "transphobic" and needs to be "dragged". This kind of thinking is absolutely insane. Threatening to cancel someone lest they romantically link up with someone they are not attracted to is a very dangerous path to go down, but the woke left seems eager to push everyone down it.
But as the 'woke left' tests the waters to see how far they can push their form of social extremism on society, it will eventually reach a breaking point. It seems like an impossibility (or at least, an improbability) right now, but I am certain eventually this irrational fear of being canceled for not subscribing to whatever the latest bizarro take on moral righteousness is will finally buckle and people will get over their fear of both the intimidation tactics of Twitter mobs and the compliant mainstream media who seems eager to take their editorial cues from whatever morality issue is trending that day.
And for all those reasons I am incredibly grateful to you for being one of the only voices of reason in the media right now. It is a gift to all of us and I am so thankful.
At first is was tolerance - that's good. Then it was acceptance - fine with that too. Next you were required to support. Now they are demanding celebration. Next step will be advocacy. It will never be enough.
One of the big things I wonder here is how many of these vocal trans activists who are at 100 on Glenn’s scale are parents, or ever plan to be. I am a millennial, so I have lots of blanket trans rights supporters in my circle of friends. However, I’m a rarity in actually being a parent within that circle. It was an agonizing decision to figure out if we wanted my son to have a circumcision or not - which we ultimately decided isn’t an appropriate thing to decide about someone else’s body. All of this to say, I can’t even imagine how much harder it is to decide what to do if your child or teenager decides they are trans and wants to start hormone therapy or any of the transitional therapies. I am mostly in favor of trans rights - probably an 80-90 on the scale - but if we can’t at least ask what age is appropriate to transition and whether or not the therapists are using coercive tactics to push kids towards becoming trans then I am sorry, but your movement is just ideological zealotry. Just like I would be told I can’t understand the trans experience as a straight white man, I would tell these people they can’t understand being a parent if they have no children. Anyone without a child needs to shut their mouth on this one - they can’t possibly understand what we have to deal with.
There is no longer a "left v right" juxtaposition. Glenn is under attack because he abandoned the plantation. Therefore, whatever he says, claims, writes, thinks is not just nullified, it is given a negative score ("Shut UP!! They explained"). Heretics must be stoned.
To leftists everywhere: there are always people to whom you are a right-winger. As the right is canceled, >you< come more into the spotlight. The people who keep moving left must rationalize this situation -> you are getting more extremely rightist.
The last one standing on the left will be so far to the left that she will be more right wing than Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Xi, AOC.
There is no centerground to a leftist, because >they< are the center of their universe, and it is a left wing center.
Confused? Don't be. It is not intended to be rational. All that is required is acceptance and compliance, or self-cancelation.
I haven't practiced medicine in more than 30 years; when I did, I was a psychiatrist. There are several issues involved here. The first is that we do not know what the long-term effects of puberty-blockers are on children. The second is that puberty begins around 12, bur the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain most involved in reasoned decision-making, does not mature until one's mid-twenties. Making irreversible decisions that seriously affect the remainder of one's life without a mature pre-frontal cortex is a form of Russian Roulette. Forcing those decisions on children of fifteen is nothing short of child abuse. I don't have a solution for this.
A few years ago I participated in an on-line forum that dealt with issues facing marginalized people. A transgender character was introduced in the story we all followed and discussed, and I began a comment with "The transgender phenomenon, as old as mankind, . . ." Cue shit-storm. I had insulted all transgenders by using the pejorative "phenomenon" to describe them. Since I was obviously transphobic, I must also be homophobic, and the pile-on occurred. Xenophobic, alt-right bigot, racist, etc, etc. The forum's intolerance, not to mention poor vocabulary, created a hostile space. I quit. Unknown to most, I provided half of the financial support to keep the forum alive. It withered and died.
I have to confess I do not understand transgenderism, nor do I expect ever to be able to. I don't need to. I accept that it's real. Acceptance beats understanding every time.
The left always eats its own. Strangely enough, when I served in the Army in the early ’70s, it was forbidden to be gay. You would be discharged immediately. I knew of several people who were gay, and it was common knowledge. Nobody cared as long as you did your job. What you did off duty and base was your business.
Over the years, things have changed, and now you must publicly accept alternative lifestyles or be skewed in the public arena. The criteria for that public approval are unknown to most of us, as it changes almost daily. Personally, I do not care what anybody’s sexual preference or practice is as long as children are not brought into the mix. Consenting adults is the keyword here.
This is only my opinion, and I accept that it will not be popular here, and that is OK with me. The worst thing for any movement is government involvement by picking winners and losers in these debates. It always ends badly because politicians are corrupt by nature and do what is best for them, and not us.
I find the whole trans movement fascinating for a variety of reasons. As a gay person I do have some sympathy for transgenders, and as a strong believer of civil rights and free will, I support anyone's decision to live the life as the opposite gender if that is what makes them happy. And, as a gay person, I also know that there are many gays and lesbians who resent the notion of being lumped with transgenders in that ever exploding alphabet list that marks the modern LGBtA+ movement.
But at the same time I find it strange we can't have a frank and realistic discussion about transgenderism and all the implications that come with it (women's sports being an obvious one). And I am concerned that the hardcore activists refuse to accept the basic biological difference between women and trans women, and their insistence that trans women are real women when they biologically are not and cannot ever be and will never experience the whole range of biological experiences and body experiences only women can (which is also true for trans men, but I do notice that most cases it's transwomen rather than transmen that is causing most of the furore).
And I do also see a clear difference between genuine transexuals and a growing number of people, particularly younger people at certain ages, who seem to seek transgenderism as an escape mechanism for emotional or real life problems rather than a sincere belief in their own transgenderism. This is a topic that clearly merits exploration but whenever researchers or scientists try to, they're accused of transphobia and funding cancelled, and the drawbridge pulled up (or door slammed closed).
What is it about transgenderism that has turned its advocates to totalitarianists? I'm not quite sure what or why. But it is fascinating.
Here's my view on the "trans debate" as a "classical liberal":
Reasonable people don't care how anyone chooses to identify. As far as I'm concerned, everyone should be free to identify as a man, woman, non-binary or a turnip. The problems start when people try to force their views on others. You can identify however you want, but you have zero right to force me to accept or acknowledge your beliefs. Your subjective "lived experience" means nothing to me. We all have lived experiences - its called life.
The problem with the whole "trans movement" is that by its very nature it attracts the most mentally disturbed, confused and identity-obsessed people, from a pool of already mentally disturbed, confused and identify obsessed "crt" cultists, to its banner. The worst of the worst. These people aren't interested in living their own lives with their own identities, free from molestation. They are mentally damaged people who are obsessed with having their bizarre beliefs validated and respected by everyone. Nobody is owed or entitled to validation or respect. Respect is earned, and the way these people behave does the opposite of earn respect. They are cultists who lash out blindly and viciously at anyone who doesn't uncritically accept their dogma.
And that's the crux of Glenn's heresy and why he is absurdly being painted as "transphobic". He asked a question about the results of a poll. In doing so, he attempted to inject some objective reality into the "debate", and there is no greater crime to these people. Nothing strikes at the heart of faith-based belief like the injection of objective reality and critical thinking, no matter how innocently or unobtrusively it is done.
Hi Glenn, I just subscribed for the first time after watching your excellent video.
I'm probably a lot younger than your other subscribers (gen Z) and am also a trans woman, and I wanted to say that I completely agree with everything you said in this post and also your video. I've been following your tweets and writings for about a year and I have never seen you write anything that any rational person would consider transphobic. The massive expansion of what is considered "transphobic" (and who is considered "trans" to begin with) among my generation is something I first noticed occurring on Tumblr in the mid-2010s and has now made the jump to mainstream liberal discourse on Twitter and the corporate media.
As you said in the video, I think generally the increase in people identifying as bi or trans is due to increased social acceptance of the concept that these things are a spectrum and that many people place themselves on that spectrum instead of at the poles, but also that there is an unsual trend in people who would have once called themselves lesbians now calling themselves trans men (a trend that does not seem to exist in the opposite direction, i.e. gay men now calling themselves women) and it's worth investigating why that is. Anecdotally, I have seen significant social pressure for girls to identify as male, and as you said, there is overwhelming and widely-documented pressure to claim an oppressed identity so that you can fit into modern progressive spaces ("I'm not a straight white male, I'm a bisexual nonbinary!").
I laughed at your bit at the end discussing the bearded rich white boy who calls himself "nonbinary" because this is exactly the sort of thing I've discussed with friends -- but always in hushed tones. Saying this stuff in front of the wrong people would get me exiled from every social group I'm part of.
Anyway, thank you sir for your continued attempts at rationally examining and asking questions about important issues in our culture, from gender/sexuality to civil liberties, and I'm happy to join your community.
I have questions, too.
1) What do the words "male" and "female" or "man" and "woman" actually mean at this point? If a man feels like he's really a woman, but doesn't transition physically in any way, takes no hormones, maybe even doesn't dress as a woman, and still prefers women as sexual partners, but simply says, "I identify as a woman," what, exactly, is he identifying as?
2) Aren't the genders becoming identified by nothing more than their traditional gender roles, as frilly girls and manly men--stereotypes that earlier generations fought against?
3) What makes radical trans activists "left" in any way? Their agenda is about essentialism over class, and like the Puritans, they don't seem interested in fighting for any general tolerance or universal recognition of rights, but are primarily advancing their own interests. What specific aspects make their program leftist?
Being called a TERF is not unlike being called a Kremlin asset: if it hasn’t happened to you at some point, you haven’t really lived!
Holy shit and fucking A, GG! you write "If I, with these views, am a bigoted enemy of the trans movement, then who are its allies? Do many of those who form this movement even want allies? "
Before that you signal your - self presumed - bona fides on trans issues. "Like, wow, mang, I am on your side! Why do you criticize me?"
You are just as pathetic and virtual signaling as is Taibbi. You can't resist offering up your credentials to demo that you are "one of the good guys".
Don't fucking do that. Just write what you think, and let the chips - and shit - fall where it will. Let you supported opinion stand on its own.
As soon as you attempt to present your credentials, you've lost the battle. I cannot, I CANNOT believe I( nee to explain this shit to guys as smarter as I thought your were.
Don't be a pussy, Glenn.
Transphobia, like Islamophobia before it, is a word invented specifically to stop discussion of certain pertinent facts while distributing propaganda.
Watching the mob try to break/intimidate anyone who doesn't instantaneously display 100% compliance or dares to ask any questions or dig any deeper on any issue is a practice that will soon backfire. I view this as the honeymoon period where a small but vocal group, empowered by the echo-chamber dynamic of social media and the internet as a whole, can use their technical savvy to push and intimidate others into subscribing to the hivemind, or else...
Even here in Portland OR, like myself, most of my friends are liberal but none share the same extreme-left views that appear commonplace on sites like Twitter where, for example, there is a 'common understanding' that if a straight man is not romantically interested in a trans woman, he is thus "transphobic" and needs to be "dragged". This kind of thinking is absolutely insane. Threatening to cancel someone lest they romantically link up with someone they are not attracted to is a very dangerous path to go down, but the woke left seems eager to push everyone down it.
But as the 'woke left' tests the waters to see how far they can push their form of social extremism on society, it will eventually reach a breaking point. It seems like an impossibility (or at least, an improbability) right now, but I am certain eventually this irrational fear of being canceled for not subscribing to whatever the latest bizarro take on moral righteousness is will finally buckle and people will get over their fear of both the intimidation tactics of Twitter mobs and the compliant mainstream media who seems eager to take their editorial cues from whatever morality issue is trending that day.
And for all those reasons I am incredibly grateful to you for being one of the only voices of reason in the media right now. It is a gift to all of us and I am so thankful.
When all you have is an ad hominem, everything looks like a Hitler.
Why can't we all just be treated as individuals, equally and not have special rules based on our race, sex, or sexual preferences?
At first is was tolerance - that's good. Then it was acceptance - fine with that too. Next you were required to support. Now they are demanding celebration. Next step will be advocacy. It will never be enough.
One of the big things I wonder here is how many of these vocal trans activists who are at 100 on Glenn’s scale are parents, or ever plan to be. I am a millennial, so I have lots of blanket trans rights supporters in my circle of friends. However, I’m a rarity in actually being a parent within that circle. It was an agonizing decision to figure out if we wanted my son to have a circumcision or not - which we ultimately decided isn’t an appropriate thing to decide about someone else’s body. All of this to say, I can’t even imagine how much harder it is to decide what to do if your child or teenager decides they are trans and wants to start hormone therapy or any of the transitional therapies. I am mostly in favor of trans rights - probably an 80-90 on the scale - but if we can’t at least ask what age is appropriate to transition and whether or not the therapists are using coercive tactics to push kids towards becoming trans then I am sorry, but your movement is just ideological zealotry. Just like I would be told I can’t understand the trans experience as a straight white man, I would tell these people they can’t understand being a parent if they have no children. Anyone without a child needs to shut their mouth on this one - they can’t possibly understand what we have to deal with.
There is no longer a "left v right" juxtaposition. Glenn is under attack because he abandoned the plantation. Therefore, whatever he says, claims, writes, thinks is not just nullified, it is given a negative score ("Shut UP!! They explained"). Heretics must be stoned.
To leftists everywhere: there are always people to whom you are a right-winger. As the right is canceled, >you< come more into the spotlight. The people who keep moving left must rationalize this situation -> you are getting more extremely rightist.
The last one standing on the left will be so far to the left that she will be more right wing than Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Xi, AOC.
There is no centerground to a leftist, because >they< are the center of their universe, and it is a left wing center.
Confused? Don't be. It is not intended to be rational. All that is required is acceptance and compliance, or self-cancelation.
Glenn and Matt are on a journey.
It’s hilarious that there are people who question Glenn Greenwald’s commitment to Trans rights and trans people....
So whacked out such people must be, it is hard fathom...
This is the result of being taught to “react” with emotions - the act of discernment (or “thinking”) must be regarded as a “white privilege” thing...
Such people cannot lead for they can barely follow...
I haven't practiced medicine in more than 30 years; when I did, I was a psychiatrist. There are several issues involved here. The first is that we do not know what the long-term effects of puberty-blockers are on children. The second is that puberty begins around 12, bur the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain most involved in reasoned decision-making, does not mature until one's mid-twenties. Making irreversible decisions that seriously affect the remainder of one's life without a mature pre-frontal cortex is a form of Russian Roulette. Forcing those decisions on children of fifteen is nothing short of child abuse. I don't have a solution for this.
A few years ago I participated in an on-line forum that dealt with issues facing marginalized people. A transgender character was introduced in the story we all followed and discussed, and I began a comment with "The transgender phenomenon, as old as mankind, . . ." Cue shit-storm. I had insulted all transgenders by using the pejorative "phenomenon" to describe them. Since I was obviously transphobic, I must also be homophobic, and the pile-on occurred. Xenophobic, alt-right bigot, racist, etc, etc. The forum's intolerance, not to mention poor vocabulary, created a hostile space. I quit. Unknown to most, I provided half of the financial support to keep the forum alive. It withered and died.
I have to confess I do not understand transgenderism, nor do I expect ever to be able to. I don't need to. I accept that it's real. Acceptance beats understanding every time.
The left always eats its own. Strangely enough, when I served in the Army in the early ’70s, it was forbidden to be gay. You would be discharged immediately. I knew of several people who were gay, and it was common knowledge. Nobody cared as long as you did your job. What you did off duty and base was your business.
Over the years, things have changed, and now you must publicly accept alternative lifestyles or be skewed in the public arena. The criteria for that public approval are unknown to most of us, as it changes almost daily. Personally, I do not care what anybody’s sexual preference or practice is as long as children are not brought into the mix. Consenting adults is the keyword here.
This is only my opinion, and I accept that it will not be popular here, and that is OK with me. The worst thing for any movement is government involvement by picking winners and losers in these debates. It always ends badly because politicians are corrupt by nature and do what is best for them, and not us.