7 ms·

>We're seeing a tripling in the amount of people identifying as transgender. This really makes me wonder if there isn't something else going on, such as young

>We're seeing a tripling in the amount of people identifying as transgender. This really makes me wonder if there isn't something else going on, such as young people simply being unhappy with their lives or the gender roles expected of them, and jumping on the "transgender" bandwagon as a way to escape that. The idea that 20% of the population is transgender really makes no sense. Maybe a large part of the population simply doesn't want to conform to what conservative society expects of "masculinity" or "femininity", so instead of simply ignoring that crap like they did in the past, now they believe they're "transgender" and try acting like the opposite sex.

Unduereturn 4y ago
It seems like desperate kids, full of Internet obtained knowledge but lacking any real wisdom, looking for a panacea.
- rsfern 4y ago
  Do you know any of these people personally, or is that just what it seems like (based on what you’ve seen on the web or something?). I know a few trans and non-binary people and they don’t really fit the picture you paint (admittedly also an anecdote, but still)
  - klyrs 4y ago
    Green accounts concern-trolling in one comment and referring to a transgender "ideology" in another aren't here in good faith.
    - rsfern 4y ago
      Thanks, had dark mode on so didn’t notice the green username, but that does make more sense of the tone of the comment
    - Unduereturn 4y ago
      I promise these are in good faith. For what it's worth. I'm green because I lurk more than I post and I don't tend to save my account data after more than a few threads and this is a topic which personally affects me in which I have experience to share.
  - Unduereturn 4y ago
    One of my best friends from school chose reassignment. And yes at that age we all fit that description, only he decided to take hormone pills and surgery rather than deal with the real issues he had from childhood and school. I wanted to be a girl too to a while, I wanted a sister so I made one up and lied about it. I can't tell you why at my age now, my solutions to my feelings weren't really all that logical. I'm fine now. I'm a happy to be male, I got used to shouldering some of the responsibilities of being a man, still learning though. And I'm a green account because I don't stick with an account for more than a few threads. I don't see the point anymore. But I am being genine in my experiences shared, for what it's worth to you, which seems very little at this point.
    - rsfern 4y ago
      Thanks for sharing your experience, I think that adds a lot more to the discussion than your previous comment, which frankly came off kind of callous and out of touch because it reads like you’re writing off “kids these days”. I don’t much see the point of rotating accounts if you lurk more than post (I lurk more than post too, usually), but whatever. But comments that come off as not thoughtful from new accounts tend to get less grace because there’s a non-negligible amount of bad faith posters, especially on politically charged topics Honestly I still think this is an alt account, because the account age almost exactly matches the age of the thread (12h now) but your first post is only like an hour old. Plus the initial tone, I don’t know. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but it’s lot of doubt. please post more thoughtfully in the future, your followup was good discussion at least but the initial post was borderline noise IMO
jamilton 4y ago
That linked article says 0.5% of adults and 1.4% of teenagers are transgender. Maybe you misread the stat that says 18% of transgender people are teenagers, compared to 7.5% of the general population being teen-aged. I think there's some truth to the idea that people who might have previously "just" been gender non-conforming now identify as transgender.
red-iron-pine 4y ago
See also: The Calhoun Mouse Experiments. https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/mathematics/calhoun-rodent-experiments/ https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/mathematics/calhoun-roden... Faced with population pressures, a lot of rats just gave up or altered their behavior. > Among the aberrations in behavior were the following: expulsion of young before weaning was complete, wounding of young, increase in homosexual behavior, inability of dominant males to maintain the defense of their territory and females, aggressive behavior of females, passivity of non-dominant males with increased attacks on each other which were not defended against > After day 600, the social breakdown continued and the population declined toward extinction. During this period females ceased to reproduce. Their male counterparts withdrew completely, never engaging in courtship or fighting and only engaging in tasks that were essential to their health. They ate, drank, slept, and groomed themselves – all solitary pursuits. Sleek, healthy coats and an absence of scars characterized these males. They were dubbed "the beautiful ones". Breeding never resumed and behavior patterns were permanently changed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun This was also just a social structure; those rats might not have been exposed to high levels endocrine disrupting plastics, lead, obesity, etc., that modern humans are. But that mouse behavior looks an awful lot like what we're seeing these days in online incel, or trans, communities, et al.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  The flaw I see here is that there have been many instances where humans have been "overpopulated", especially compared to US population density, and we don't see these kinds of behaviors to such extents. There's no place in the US that has the kind of population density that exists in many different cities in the world today, particularly in India, yet there's no trans movement there that I've ever heard about.

Unduereturn 4y ago

It seems like desperate kids, full of Internet obtained knowledge but lacking any real wisdom, looking for a panacea.

rsfern 4y ago
Do you know any of these people personally, or is that just what it seems like (based on what you’ve seen on the web or something?). I know a few trans and non-binary people and they don’t really fit the picture you paint (admittedly also an anecdote, but still)
- klyrs 4y ago
  Green accounts concern-trolling in one comment and referring to a transgender "ideology" in another aren't here in good faith.
  - rsfern 4y ago
    Thanks, had dark mode on so didn’t notice the green username, but that does make more sense of the tone of the comment
  - Unduereturn 4y ago
    I promise these are in good faith. For what it's worth. I'm green because I lurk more than I post and I don't tend to save my account data after more than a few threads and this is a topic which personally affects me in which I have experience to share.
- Unduereturn 4y ago
  One of my best friends from school chose reassignment. And yes at that age we all fit that description, only he decided to take hormone pills and surgery rather than deal with the real issues he had from childhood and school. I wanted to be a girl too to a while, I wanted a sister so I made one up and lied about it. I can't tell you why at my age now, my solutions to my feelings weren't really all that logical. I'm fine now. I'm a happy to be male, I got used to shouldering some of the responsibilities of being a man, still learning though. And I'm a green account because I don't stick with an account for more than a few threads. I don't see the point anymore. But I am being genine in my experiences shared, for what it's worth to you, which seems very little at this point.
  - rsfern 4y ago
    Thanks for sharing your experience, I think that adds a lot more to the discussion than your previous comment, which frankly came off kind of callous and out of touch because it reads like you’re writing off “kids these days”. I don’t much see the point of rotating accounts if you lurk more than post (I lurk more than post too, usually), but whatever. But comments that come off as not thoughtful from new accounts tend to get less grace because there’s a non-negligible amount of bad faith posters, especially on politically charged topics Honestly I still think this is an alt account, because the account age almost exactly matches the age of the thread (12h now) but your first post is only like an hour old. Plus the initial tone, I don’t know. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but it’s lot of doubt. please post more thoughtfully in the future, your followup was good discussion at least but the initial post was borderline noise IMO

jamilton 4y ago

That linked article says 0.5% of adults and 1.4% of teenagers are transgender. Maybe you misread the stat that says 18% of transgender people are teenagers, compared to 7.5% of the general population being teen-aged. I think there's some truth to the idea that people who might have previously "just" been gender non-conforming now identify as transgender.

red-iron-pine 4y ago

See also: The Calhoun Mouse Experiments. https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/mathematics/calhoun-rodent-experiments/ https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/mathematics/calhoun-roden... Faced with population pressures, a lot of rats just gave up or altered their behavior. > Among the aberrations in behavior were the following: expulsion of young before weaning was complete, wounding of young, increase in homosexual behavior, inability of dominant males to maintain the defense of their territory and females, aggressive behavior of females, passivity of non-dominant males with increased attacks on each other which were not defended against > After day 600, the social breakdown continued and the population declined toward extinction. During this period females ceased to reproduce. Their male counterparts withdrew completely, never engaging in courtship or fighting and only engaging in tasks that were essential to their health. They ate, drank, slept, and groomed themselves – all solitary pursuits. Sleek, healthy coats and an absence of scars characterized these males. They were dubbed "the beautiful ones". Breeding never resumed and behavior patterns were permanently changed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun This was also just a social structure; those rats might not have been exposed to high levels endocrine disrupting plastics, lead, obesity, etc., that modern humans are. But that mouse behavior looks an awful lot like what we're seeing these days in online incel, or trans, communities, et al.

midoridensha 4y ago
The flaw I see here is that there have been many instances where humans have been "overpopulated", especially compared to US population density, and we don't see these kinds of behaviors to such extents. There's no place in the US that has the kind of population density that exists in many different cities in the world today, particularly in India, yet there's no trans movement there that I've ever heard about.