This entire issue has nothing to do with gay people. Please stop using the LGBT acronym — it is a false equivalence and deeply offensive. The gay rights movement has been hijacked by trans activists on a power trip assisted by ignorant and patronising “straight allies”.
Well, ‘gay rights’ was a hijacking of the apolitical ‘homophile movement’ by the New Left as part of their backlash against ‘the workers’ in what became ‘identity politics’. The category of ‘male homosexual’ was then with no justification broadened to include lesbians, who had not been subjected to discrimination and oppression as had male homosexuals.
I was put out of Liberty Union Party(Google it) in Vermont. Called a “transphobic bigot” for opposing the drugging of children for “gender dysphoria” and the elimination of Women’s Sports. The instigator was an old, trusted close friend who is trans. Another reason for ousting me is that many of the radical trans activists are also closely connected to the violent elements in Antifa and support the looting going on in countless places in the U.S. This group and their supporters have taken over an ostensibly non-violent Party and are using it as a cover for promoting violence. The former friend of mine, Marina Brown, has run for office in VT and is unusually skilled at internet and other computer aspects. They and their partner,also trans, have a small arsenal in their house in rural NE Vt.More so than anyone I’ve ever met. And, on a personal note, still has a key to my apt., which they refuse to return.
Colin Brewer
3 years ago
Rather than simply responding with counter-arguments and additional evidence, there is an increasing tendency for people unhappy with a particular bit of research or journalism to ask for it to be withdrawn – i.e. to be expunged from the history of a debate. It happened to me and a pathologist colleague when The Times published a piece about some research in which we showed that contrary to claims from Orthodox Jewish and Muslim authorities, ritual slaughtering appeared to make no difference to the amount of blood remaining in meat. Happily, The Times did not surrender. These demands for withdrawal are the electronic equivalent of book-burning – and we all know what tends to get burned and ‘expunged’ next once people start on books. The expungers are the Brownshirts (and Redshirts) of academia and too many academics are becoming their appeasers.
Ann G
3 years ago
It is indeed very bad news when scientific enquiry and discussion gets stifled for political reasons.
gbauer
3 years ago
I blame the journals for pandering to the mob. Spineless!
The liberal ideology that underpins the journals, and in particular the state, has (for various reasons of decline) become less supportive of its authority, and now even the last vestiges of support, for the armed forces, is being increasingly challenged. What this means is that those left to defend their position alone, become spineless in the face of a potential confrontation with overwhelming numbers. To have a spine when alone means adopting a Rambo style of existence, or alternatively, in the same ideological framework, to gain support from other authoritarians who are sympathetic and can add backbone. In this way the liberal ideology is gradually changed to a more authoritarian model.
Juilan Bonmottier
3 years ago
Unfortunately this is a group that, in the main, does not tolerate well either thinking or making links -two psychological traits strongly associated with autism, so the ‘elevated presence of autistic traits’ in GD is highly relevant.
Reports from therapists treating patients for GD consistently relate the experience of encountering concretised forms of resistance, time and again. The experience of the work seems to be one of ideological views overwriting capacity for deeper reflections on personal experience and openness to thinking as an individual. Attempts to encourage reflection or deeper thought are attacked, often labelled as ‘conversion therapy’ -though in my experience therapists are not interested in bringing about any such ‘conversion’ -they just want to get to something that feels authentically like the patient’s own authentic views. The resistance to thinking is so strong that the patient ofen experiences thought itself as invasive and intrusive -dangerous and inimical to a highly defended self structure.
This state of mind, attacks on thinking and making links, is not just applicable to GD patients -it appears to be a current, near ubiquitous state of mind for many at the moment – reaching pandemic levels across the globe on many ‘issues’. The capacity to stay with difficult thinking, in avoidance of plain ‘acting out’; the capacity to stay with ‘thinking under fire’ in times of crisis, appears to be in short supply over the whole world at the moment.
I have experienced a lifelong neuro-metabolic imbalance, which has yielded only to alternative medicine based in diet and exercise. Similar symptomotology took my mother’s life. It is physiologically agonizing in bizarre ways. Through escaping the mental health system and mis-diagnosis I learned that there is no “norm” of human behavior or consciousness. Gender dysphoria, schizophrenia, bipolar, etc. are always subjective calls.
Morry Rotenberg
3 years ago
I’m waiting for Anorexia Nervosa to be declared a “normal” human variant.
Indeed. No one would have ever suggested that Karen Carpenter was really fat in spite of what she said/believed. So why do people believe that Bruce Jenner is a woman because he says so?
Roger Stephenson
3 years ago
A very interesting article, perhaps what is most troubling is not the howls of the affronted mob, but the failure of those in authority to hold the ring. By that I include editors, universities and the press. The deplatforming of those we disagree with has always been questionable. Much better to expose issues to healthy and vigorous debate.
AJ Spetzari
3 years ago
Science should never “debate” anything itself surely? Should it not inform the debate?
If the debate/controversy/issue is preventing the ability to properly conduct “good” science, then something is wrong. Which is the main point you make – but that headline is misleading.
jmkarohl
3 years ago
Isn’t anyone questioning the concept of “female brains” and “male brains”? Hasn’t science tried and failed over many years to establish significant, concrete differences between brains based on biological sex that have any discernible effect on cognition or personality? Feminists have been struggling against the old pink and blue boxes for decades, and here the trans activists are trying to cram us all back into them. Meanwhile, in a future that has regained its senses, I envision large class action suits filed by the children of today who will have been rendered sterile by irresponsible hormone treatments and medical procdures with no gate keeping provided by responsible adults to vulnerable minors.
Robert Flack
3 years ago
Thank god the mob have no influence on physics and technology research. I am so glad I chose physics.
Does anyone dare question the Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Theory or Global Warming Theory? Are these settled sciences? Just try pointing out discrepancies or problems. Could there be alternatives to evolution that would explain the data better? It appears that the earth has gone through many cooling and warming cycles in the past. Which shall we choose as the ideal? (I suspect that the current inhabitants of the Sahara desert would prefer that northern Europe be frozen over. What was the atmospheric carbon dioxide level before the fossil fuels were fossilized? The carbon came from somewhere.) Frankly, I am dismayed at the success of the ‘politically correct’ crowd to stifle any views but their own. This behavior should not be tolerated in scientific (or any) circles. Can those who disagree with one another still have honest discussions? Could we learn something by listening? Everyone has reasons for thinking what he (and yes, I use the masculine in the inclusive sense) thinks and the reasons may not be nefarious. Discussion is one of the great pleasures (and frustrations) of life as are the differences between the sexes!
Joe Blow
3 years ago
Andrew H (below) beat me to it. The phrase “LGBT people” should be set aside. There is little reason to group all these people under a common umbrella acronym. It makes no more sense than ADGT (architects, doctors, garbage-collectors, trawler-men).
stevescoe
3 years ago
It’s because the trans movement is used as a cudgel to demoralize society. It’s more about pushing an agenda than helping people with gender dysphoria. The moneyed activists funding the movement don’t actually care about transpeople, It’s not and has never been about “rigorous scientific research.” If it was, they would accept other theories besides the “brainsex-mismatch”
You’d think that people would rather take a pill or go to some kind of psychotherapy to cure them of their “functional differences in associated brain networks” that are causing their gender dysphoria, rather than undergo painful expensive surgery, and the lifetime of hormone injections that come with it.
But then again, “functional differences in associated brain networks” is a nice way of saying “mentally ill.” And if we admit that gender dysphoria is a mental illness, and therefore transgender people are mentally ill, activists would be at risk of undoing 50 years of “progress” in other fields like homosexuality.
Then, I’m sure, people would start to research if people are “born gay,” rather than the ignored literature which says the vast majority of homosexual people were abused as children, and the trauma(trauma is the father of most illnesses, with entire fields and theories about how trauma causes all things from cancer to depression) triggered changes in their brain which caused them to be homosexual. No, I’m serious, I’m not being ridiculous, go look it up, sexually abusing children and/or significant trauma during childhood can cause them to be homosexuals, with many homosexuals admitting to childhood sexual abuse.
This would risk closing the door on the “they’re born that way” theory, and possibly reveal both homosexuality and transgenderism to be mental illnesses. In the case of homosexuals, they’re abused as children, and are victims, just not victims in the way agenda pushers would have you believe.
This whole thing just proves that science is not immune from corruption. Lots of scientific research that came out of the soviet union was likewise no better than kindling because anything published against the grain of the politburo got you sent to the reeducation centre. The only difference nowadays is anything published against the grain of social justice activists gets your paper retracted and fired from your job. We have not progressed from religious thinking and tribalism as much as one would like to believe. Religion was simply replaced by ideology and tribalism by various activist movements.
bob alob
3 years ago
It’s an fanatical ideology and those wishing to debate it will be burned at the stake, so no science should leave it alone.
The shutting down of opposing views used to be ‘un-American.’ What happened? The leftist used to be the party of free speech. Seems the leftists are no longer liberals.
Steve Moxon
3 years ago
Isn’t this what has being going on re feminism for some time? Lots of papers suck up to ideology, whether because the authors assume it’s a requirement or that it’s a good ploy to help attract funding / publication in the future. All sorts of ideological nonsense — indeed, what is at root hate-mongering ideological nonsense — regularly appears in what are supposedly science papers.
It’s usual in science papers to use the non-, if not anti-scientific ideological term ‘gender’ when of course the term should be ‘sex’. A journal editor might be well advised to send back any paper employing the term ‘gender’ (other than in citing its usage by others) on the grounds that it indicates the likelihood of other non- / anti-scientific nonsense in the paper.
This entire issue has nothing to do with gay people. Please stop using the LGBT acronym — it is a false equivalence and deeply offensive. The gay rights movement has been hijacked by trans activists on a power trip assisted by ignorant and patronising “straight allies”.
Well, ‘gay rights’ was a hijacking of the apolitical ‘homophile movement’ by the New Left as part of their backlash against ‘the workers’ in what became ‘identity politics’. The category of ‘male homosexual’ was then with no justification broadened to include lesbians, who had not been subjected to discrimination and oppression as had male homosexuals.
I was put out of Liberty Union Party(Google it) in Vermont. Called a “transphobic bigot” for opposing the drugging of children for “gender dysphoria” and the elimination of Women’s Sports.
The instigator was an old, trusted close friend who is trans. Another reason for ousting me is that many of the radical trans activists are also closely connected to the violent elements in Antifa and support the looting going on in countless places in the U.S. This group and their supporters have taken over an ostensibly non-violent Party and are using it as a cover for promoting violence. The former friend of mine, Marina Brown, has run for office in VT and is unusually skilled at internet and other computer aspects. They and their partner,also trans, have a small arsenal in their house in rural NE Vt.More so than anyone I’ve ever met. And, on a personal note, still has a key to my apt., which they refuse to return.
Rather than simply responding with counter-arguments and additional evidence, there is an increasing tendency for people unhappy with a particular bit of research or journalism to ask for it to be withdrawn – i.e. to be expunged from the history of a debate. It happened to me and a pathologist colleague when The Times published a piece about some research in which we showed that contrary to claims from Orthodox Jewish and Muslim authorities, ritual slaughtering appeared to make no difference to the amount of blood remaining in meat. Happily, The Times did not surrender. These demands for withdrawal are the electronic equivalent of book-burning – and we all know what tends to get burned and ‘expunged’ next once people start on books. The expungers are the Brownshirts (and Redshirts) of academia and too many academics are becoming their appeasers.
It is indeed very bad news when scientific enquiry and discussion gets stifled for political reasons.
I blame the journals for pandering to the mob. Spineless!
The liberal ideology that underpins the journals, and in particular the state, has (for various reasons of decline) become less supportive of its authority, and now even the last vestiges of support, for the armed forces, is being increasingly challenged. What this means is that those left to defend their position alone, become spineless in the face of a potential confrontation with overwhelming numbers. To have a spine when alone means adopting a Rambo style of existence, or alternatively, in the same ideological framework, to gain support from other authoritarians who are sympathetic and can add backbone. In this way the liberal ideology is gradually changed to a more authoritarian model.
Unfortunately this is a group that, in the main, does not tolerate well either thinking or making links -two psychological traits strongly associated with autism, so the ‘elevated presence of autistic traits’ in GD is highly relevant.
Reports from therapists treating patients for GD consistently relate the experience of encountering concretised forms of resistance, time and again. The experience of the work seems to be one of ideological views overwriting capacity for deeper reflections on personal experience and openness to thinking as an individual. Attempts to encourage reflection or deeper thought are attacked, often labelled as ‘conversion therapy’ -though in my experience therapists are not interested in bringing about any such ‘conversion’ -they just want to get to something that feels authentically like the patient’s own authentic views. The resistance to thinking is so strong that the patient ofen experiences thought itself as invasive and intrusive -dangerous and inimical to a highly defended self structure.
This state of mind, attacks on thinking and making links, is not just applicable to GD patients -it appears to be a current, near ubiquitous state of mind for many at the moment – reaching pandemic levels across the globe on many ‘issues’. The capacity to stay with difficult thinking, in avoidance of plain ‘acting out’; the capacity to stay with ‘thinking under fire’ in times of crisis, appears to be in short supply over the whole world at the moment.
I have experienced a lifelong neuro-metabolic imbalance, which has yielded only to alternative medicine based in diet and exercise. Similar symptomotology took my mother’s life. It is physiologically agonizing in bizarre ways. Through escaping the mental health system and mis-diagnosis I learned that there is no “norm” of human behavior or consciousness. Gender dysphoria, schizophrenia, bipolar, etc. are always subjective calls.
I’m waiting for Anorexia Nervosa to be declared a “normal” human variant.
Indeed. No one would have ever suggested that Karen Carpenter was really fat in spite of what she said/believed. So why do people believe that Bruce Jenner is a woman because he says so?
A very interesting article, perhaps what is most troubling is not the howls of the affronted mob, but the failure of those in authority to hold the ring. By that I include editors, universities and the press. The deplatforming of those we disagree with has always been questionable. Much better to expose issues to healthy and vigorous debate.
Science should never “debate” anything itself surely? Should it not inform the debate?
If the debate/controversy/issue is preventing the ability to properly conduct “good” science, then something is wrong. Which is the main point you make – but that headline is misleading.
Isn’t anyone questioning the concept of “female brains” and “male brains”? Hasn’t science tried and failed over many years to establish significant, concrete differences between brains based on biological sex that have any discernible effect on cognition or personality? Feminists have been struggling against the old pink and blue boxes for decades, and here the trans activists are trying to cram us all back into them. Meanwhile, in a future that has regained its senses, I envision large class action suits filed by the children of today who will have been rendered sterile by irresponsible hormone treatments and medical procdures with no gate keeping provided by responsible adults to vulnerable minors.
Thank god the mob have no influence on physics and technology research. I am so glad I chose physics.
Think again after you check out this:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Hopefully the tide will turn before the hard sciences actually drown but it is hard to tell.
Does anyone dare question the Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Theory or Global Warming Theory? Are these settled sciences? Just try pointing out discrepancies or problems. Could there be alternatives to evolution that would explain the data better? It appears that the earth has gone through many cooling and warming cycles in the past. Which shall we choose as the ideal? (I suspect that the current inhabitants of the Sahara desert would prefer that northern Europe be frozen over. What was the atmospheric carbon dioxide level before the fossil fuels were fossilized? The carbon came from somewhere.)
Frankly, I am dismayed at the success of the ‘politically correct’ crowd to stifle any views but their own. This behavior should not be tolerated in scientific (or any) circles. Can those who disagree with one another still have honest discussions? Could we learn something by listening? Everyone has reasons for thinking what he (and yes, I use the masculine in the inclusive sense) thinks and the reasons may not be nefarious. Discussion is one of the great pleasures (and frustrations) of life as are the differences between the sexes!
Andrew H (below) beat me to it. The phrase “LGBT people” should be set aside. There is little reason to group all these people under a common umbrella acronym. It makes no more sense than ADGT (architects, doctors, garbage-collectors, trawler-men).
It’s because the trans movement is used as a cudgel to demoralize society. It’s more about pushing an agenda than helping people with gender dysphoria. The moneyed activists funding the movement don’t actually care about transpeople, It’s not and has never been about “rigorous scientific research.” If it was, they would accept other theories besides the “brainsex-mismatch”
You’d think that people would rather take a pill or go to some kind of psychotherapy to cure them of their “functional differences in associated brain networks” that are causing their gender dysphoria, rather than undergo painful expensive surgery, and the lifetime of hormone injections that come with it.
But then again, “functional differences in associated brain networks” is a nice way of saying “mentally ill.” And if we admit that gender dysphoria is a mental illness, and therefore transgender people are mentally ill, activists would be at risk of undoing 50 years of “progress” in other fields like homosexuality.
Then, I’m sure, people would start to research if people are “born gay,” rather than the ignored literature which says the vast majority of homosexual people were abused as children, and the trauma(trauma is the father of most illnesses, with entire fields and theories about how trauma causes all things from cancer to depression) triggered changes in their brain which caused them to be homosexual. No, I’m serious, I’m not being ridiculous, go look it up, sexually abusing children and/or significant trauma during childhood can cause them to be homosexuals, with many homosexuals admitting to childhood sexual abuse.
This would risk closing the door on the “they’re born that way” theory, and possibly reveal both homosexuality and transgenderism to be mental illnesses. In the case of homosexuals, they’re abused as children, and are victims, just not victims in the way agenda pushers would have you believe.
This whole thing just proves that science is not immune from corruption. Lots of scientific research that came out of the soviet union was likewise no better than kindling because anything published against the grain of the politburo got you sent to the reeducation centre. The only difference nowadays is anything published against the grain of social justice activists gets your paper retracted and fired from your job. We have not progressed from religious thinking and tribalism as much as one would like to believe. Religion was simply replaced by ideology and tribalism by various activist movements.
It’s an fanatical ideology and those wishing to debate it will be burned at the stake, so no science should leave it alone.
The shutting down of opposing views used to be ‘un-American.’ What happened? The leftist used to be the party of free speech. Seems the leftists are no longer liberals.
Isn’t this what has being going on re feminism for some time?
Lots of papers suck up to ideology, whether because the authors assume it’s a requirement or that it’s a good ploy to help attract funding / publication in the future. All sorts of ideological nonsense — indeed, what is at root hate-mongering ideological nonsense — regularly appears in what are supposedly science papers.
It’s usual in science papers to use the non-, if not anti-scientific ideological term ‘gender’ when of course the term should be ‘sex’. A journal editor might be well advised to send back any paper employing the term ‘gender’ (other than in citing its usage by others) on the grounds that it indicates the likelihood of other non- / anti-scientific nonsense in the paper.