Compulsive sex mimicry can no more be “eradicated” than a compulsion to starve or wash hands. The effects can be managed through education (“these men are not women”), and doctors who affirm the emotions but not the delusion (“let’s find behaviors to cope”).
Affirming a delusion increases the break with reality and magnify negative consequences.
While I agree that the trans are not solely to blame, they are not innocent victims. Many actively work to convince others in their social set to become trans. Trans influences, actors, media persons, etc, use their fame and success to proselytize for the trans cause. I do not give them a pass.
Books promoting gender ideology are being presented to children in elementary school. A recent Supreme Court ruling (Mahmoud vs. Taylor) allows parents to opt their children out of reading such books, but there has been no discussion about why those books are on the curriculum in the first place. Our schools and universities have been ideologically captured.
The reason these filthy books are there is due to woke 2nd and 3rd grade teachers who see gender ideology as their mission to present. Librarians also are guilty of this grooming shit. That "drag queen story hour" garbage has destroyed children and made parents furious.
Another frightening aspect of this closed loop is that the more the Trans violence is drawn as a pitiful consequence of victimhood, the more these messed up people will seek such sympathetic limelight. We've created a real Frankenstein this time.
We need to get beyond the "pot is not a dangerous drug" myth. Pot is destructive and bad. It's much stronger today than in the past. Many daily smokers have huge problems and are psychotic.
Brilliant analysis. As a retired physician, I have a cardinal rule that a n of 1 never proves anything, meaning that generalizable truths rarely emerge from a single case. However, I think that your analysis of Westman is very fair and links the few pieces of information that we have on him in a meaningful way. The hysteria in some segments of the LGBT community and in the progressive media is hugely damaging and exacerbates the current crisis. Thanks for the help.
LGB is not the culprit, though we have not done anything near enough to dissociate ourselves from this radical cult movement that is at once misogynistic, homophobic and which poses a horrific threat to children. The TQ+++ were opportunistic addons that must no longer be uttered in the same breath as LGB and our silence is shameful.
Unfortunately the MSM has largely either tiptoed around or obfuscated the fact that the shooter was a trans identified male or they’ve ignored this inconvenient fact altogether. The MSM also knows that when one of these incidents occurs there is intense public interest around the shooter’s personal details. What kind of person commits such unspeakably evil? Some facts now have to reported in code.
The news media's obfuscation about the shooter's "transgender identity" is as shameful as it is dismaying. The underlying pretense is that this "identity" is what they call an "immutable characteristic," like a person's race or ethnicity, so that it would be a form of bigotry, or would at least feed bigotry, to mention it prominently in reportage. But the analogy is preposterous. Nobody has to buy into a contentious, not to say absurd, trendy academic theory in order to be black or Latino or the like. You don't acquire an immutable characteristic by "identifying as" something.
Yes, and the shooter’s own writings reflect his regret over his decision to transition, further underscoring the fact that “trans” identification is a subjective belief, a choice, not an immutable characteristic. And the shooter himself appears to have conceded, in his writings, that his trans identification had at least some bearing to his decision to kill children. I’m not saying that being trans necessarily made him kill, but in this case at least, it appears to have been a symptom of significant underlying mental issues. But the MSM won’t touch this with the proverbial ten foot pole.
I think that it is clear beyond reasonable dispute that transgender identity is a magnet for young people with serious mental and emotional disturbances, because it purports to be a solution, indeed THE solution, to these disturbances. I think it is also clear that transgender identity is no solution to these disturbances at all. So it is entirely predictable that among those attracted to this identity, and left with their mental disorder unremedied and untreated, will be some who present a danger to themselves and others, such as this shooter. This is not even to touch on the issue of whether the intellectual basis of transgenderism is itself malign, pathological, and ultimately nihilistic. I believe that it is all these things, but that, of course, is a more contentious point.
After reading the article and the comments, I have little to add besides my strong agreement. I can only think of one observation that has not already been made: On one side, there are a lot of bizarre academic fantasies, denials of undeniable facts, bogus statistics, and obfuscatory jargon, all of which has somehow attracted millions of adherents and, worse, lots of enforcers in places of power and influence, from school boards to the federal government. On the other side---our side---are people who are merely trying to expose the malignant falsehoods of the other side and halt the forcible imposition of them on children and on the public in general. The people on this side have no contentious academic theory, no suffocating jargon, no program for social revolution. What is more, so far as the matter can be determined by polling, it seems clear that a large majority of the public in the U.S. is closer to the second group than to the first. Yet it is the first group that has the upper hand not only in academia, from which it sprang, but in government, in the news media, and even, most horrifyingly of all, in medicine, though on this last front it may have lost its dominance. It is bizarre and perplexing that things could ever have come this far.
Along with Andy Ngo's documentation of violence perpetrated by trans identified, psychiatrically unwell criminals who use the veil of "trans victimhood" for their own vile justifications, I submit the fact that in my data on trans widows, the husbands who suddenly "identify" are also unusually violent to a wife before she's able to leave. In my data, the sole in the world on trans widows' experiences, now with 73 women's testimonies, about 40% of these men physically assaulted a wife and 38% sexually assaulted her. This was not the case with me, but as with a larger cohort of trans widows in my documentation, I was menaced, harassed and defamed by my husband, now ex-husband. The situation is serious enough, in my view, that I cannot take testimony from a trans widow until she is out from under the same roof. It is not safe to stay. Olesya Sinkova (d. 2024) and Jennifer Anderson (d. 2009) were both strangled to death by trans identified husbands as they attempted to leave. Both of these men continue to identify as females as they serve 11 years and 25 to life, respectively, in women's prisons. More on the data, which I've tried to communicate repeatedly, and been rebuffed by significant actors in Genspect and other organizations, who should recognize these dangers to youth as well:
Very measured and focused article, and accurate.
Compulsive sex mimicry can no more be “eradicated” than a compulsion to starve or wash hands. The effects can be managed through education (“these men are not women”), and doctors who affirm the emotions but not the delusion (“let’s find behaviors to cope”).
Affirming a delusion increases the break with reality and magnify negative consequences.
Your steady sanity on this polarized topic is most welcome.
While I agree that the trans are not solely to blame, they are not innocent victims. Many actively work to convince others in their social set to become trans. Trans influences, actors, media persons, etc, use their fame and success to proselytize for the trans cause. I do not give them a pass.
Books promoting gender ideology are being presented to children in elementary school. A recent Supreme Court ruling (Mahmoud vs. Taylor) allows parents to opt their children out of reading such books, but there has been no discussion about why those books are on the curriculum in the first place. Our schools and universities have been ideologically captured.
The reason these filthy books are there is due to woke 2nd and 3rd grade teachers who see gender ideology as their mission to present. Librarians also are guilty of this grooming shit. That "drag queen story hour" garbage has destroyed children and made parents furious.
“At the California State Capitol, I personally witnessed a Democrat legislator compare critics of gender ideology to Nazis. “
Colorado Representative Brian “Brianna” Titone made a similar reference during the legislative session.
And Representative Yara Zokaie insisted that a group of parents speaking out against schools pushing gender ideology were equivalent to the KKK.
Another frightening aspect of this closed loop is that the more the Trans violence is drawn as a pitiful consequence of victimhood, the more these messed up people will seek such sympathetic limelight. We've created a real Frankenstein this time.
And the victimhood narrative leads to the trans sanctification. We need to get away from "trans is marginalized". They are not.
The guy said, "Gender and weed fucked up my head" All these violent shooters are potheads.
We need to get beyond the "pot is not a dangerous drug" myth. Pot is destructive and bad. It's much stronger today than in the past. Many daily smokers have huge problems and are psychotic.
Brilliant analysis. As a retired physician, I have a cardinal rule that a n of 1 never proves anything, meaning that generalizable truths rarely emerge from a single case. However, I think that your analysis of Westman is very fair and links the few pieces of information that we have on him in a meaningful way. The hysteria in some segments of the LGBT community and in the progressive media is hugely damaging and exacerbates the current crisis. Thanks for the help.
LGB is not the culprit, though we have not done anything near enough to dissociate ourselves from this radical cult movement that is at once misogynistic, homophobic and which poses a horrific threat to children. The TQ+++ were opportunistic addons that must no longer be uttered in the same breath as LGB and our silence is shameful.
This should be at the top of every newspaper’s OpEd section, if not the science section, immediately.
Unfortunately the MSM has largely either tiptoed around or obfuscated the fact that the shooter was a trans identified male or they’ve ignored this inconvenient fact altogether. The MSM also knows that when one of these incidents occurs there is intense public interest around the shooter’s personal details. What kind of person commits such unspeakably evil? Some facts now have to reported in code.
The news media's obfuscation about the shooter's "transgender identity" is as shameful as it is dismaying. The underlying pretense is that this "identity" is what they call an "immutable characteristic," like a person's race or ethnicity, so that it would be a form of bigotry, or would at least feed bigotry, to mention it prominently in reportage. But the analogy is preposterous. Nobody has to buy into a contentious, not to say absurd, trendy academic theory in order to be black or Latino or the like. You don't acquire an immutable characteristic by "identifying as" something.
Yes, and the shooter’s own writings reflect his regret over his decision to transition, further underscoring the fact that “trans” identification is a subjective belief, a choice, not an immutable characteristic. And the shooter himself appears to have conceded, in his writings, that his trans identification had at least some bearing to his decision to kill children. I’m not saying that being trans necessarily made him kill, but in this case at least, it appears to have been a symptom of significant underlying mental issues. But the MSM won’t touch this with the proverbial ten foot pole.
I think that it is clear beyond reasonable dispute that transgender identity is a magnet for young people with serious mental and emotional disturbances, because it purports to be a solution, indeed THE solution, to these disturbances. I think it is also clear that transgender identity is no solution to these disturbances at all. So it is entirely predictable that among those attracted to this identity, and left with their mental disorder unremedied and untreated, will be some who present a danger to themselves and others, such as this shooter. This is not even to touch on the issue of whether the intellectual basis of transgenderism is itself malign, pathological, and ultimately nihilistic. I believe that it is all these things, but that, of course, is a more contentious point.
This is exactly right.
After reading the article and the comments, I have little to add besides my strong agreement. I can only think of one observation that has not already been made: On one side, there are a lot of bizarre academic fantasies, denials of undeniable facts, bogus statistics, and obfuscatory jargon, all of which has somehow attracted millions of adherents and, worse, lots of enforcers in places of power and influence, from school boards to the federal government. On the other side---our side---are people who are merely trying to expose the malignant falsehoods of the other side and halt the forcible imposition of them on children and on the public in general. The people on this side have no contentious academic theory, no suffocating jargon, no program for social revolution. What is more, so far as the matter can be determined by polling, it seems clear that a large majority of the public in the U.S. is closer to the second group than to the first. Yet it is the first group that has the upper hand not only in academia, from which it sprang, but in government, in the news media, and even, most horrifyingly of all, in medicine, though on this last front it may have lost its dominance. It is bizarre and perplexing that things could ever have come this far.
Very honorable of Colin not to try to flog some propaganda mileage out of this thing. It would be easy, and no doubt tempting, to do so.
Along with Andy Ngo's documentation of violence perpetrated by trans identified, psychiatrically unwell criminals who use the veil of "trans victimhood" for their own vile justifications, I submit the fact that in my data on trans widows, the husbands who suddenly "identify" are also unusually violent to a wife before she's able to leave. In my data, the sole in the world on trans widows' experiences, now with 73 women's testimonies, about 40% of these men physically assaulted a wife and 38% sexually assaulted her. This was not the case with me, but as with a larger cohort of trans widows in my documentation, I was menaced, harassed and defamed by my husband, now ex-husband. The situation is serious enough, in my view, that I cannot take testimony from a trans widow until she is out from under the same roof. It is not safe to stay. Olesya Sinkova (d. 2024) and Jennifer Anderson (d. 2009) were both strangled to death by trans identified husbands as they attempted to leave. Both of these men continue to identify as females as they serve 11 years and 25 to life, respectively, in women's prisons. More on the data, which I've tried to communicate repeatedly, and been rebuffed by significant actors in Genspect and other organizations, who should recognize these dangers to youth as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHDK0y9GZrk&t=28s
I can't watch this video where I am right now, but I thank you for drawing attention to this work of yours. It sounds very valuable and significant.
Thanks so much, OMYC! Great handle btw. You can find it all at uteheggen.substack.com, my channel on YouTube is called Trans Widow Ute Heggen.