As a lifelong progressive, it pains me to see my side push policies and narratives that do so much harm on the basis of so little evidence. This series chronicles people in the UK, but based on conversations and firsthand accounts from people I trust, the situation is the same here in coastal, “blue” states.
I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump, but I also can’t argue against his assertion that we have seen a cult take over many institutions… including those that are supposed to protect children. His rhetoric is gross and he lies constantly, but he is right to oppose this (wow, that hurt to write).
This is all so tragic because a more live-and-let-live policy approach from advocates could have created greater acceptance for a wider range of (mostly non-medicalized) gender expression, benefiting trans-identified adults and the rest of society. As in, “there are as many ways to be a boy as there are boys… but you are still a boy, and that’s fine”. Non-crazy, MLK-style, Andrew Sullivan-style progressivism without mantras and the punishment of heretics.
Instead, we got a quasi-religious gender totalitarianism that demands your allegiance, that has a cultish obsession with attacking the parent/child bond, and that mercilessly punishes dissent. It’s rocket-fuel for demagogues, and it creates an inevitable backlash.
I wish I lived in some parallel universe where the US “moderate” (Biden) and the UK “conservatives” hadn’t let this happen (and actively enabled it). So much harm could have been avoided by following centuries-old standards of medical ethics.
Most voters in the US wanted to believe Biden would restore sanity in 2020, not deliver a different flavor of crazy… but that’s what he served up on this issue. In any case, overreach on this issue has handed Trump not only the presidency but the entire US government. Well done, team blue!
I wonder what Gorge Orwell would say about this if he were still around. I’m sure the police would pay him a visit if he spoke out to chat about his “non-crime”.
