A Catchable Madness
Or, The Cronenberg Chronicles.
Below, Peter Boghossian and Mia Hughes, author of The WPATH Files, discuss the twisted history of transgender ideology. Topics touched on include the audacious propagation of pseudoscience; social contagion and the capture of institutions; experiments on children; and the psychology of doubling-down.
It’s two hours long and dense with detail, but much of that detail is likely to widen the eyes. It’s possibly worth noting, as Ms Hughes does around 01:16:00, that as the trans phenomenon has flourished – if that’s quite the right word – rates of anorexia and cutting have fallen, suggesting some correlation. Perhaps some shifting fashion, a swapping of self-harm signals. Given the subject matter and its realities, the squeamish may wish to proceed with caution.
A continuation of the discussion above – covering the abandonment of rigour and basic professionalism, surgical horrors, and the “insane experiment” of puberty suppression – can be found here.
Previously: The Bedlamite Contagion. From which, this:
Do note the self-satisfied smirk.
You see, it’s just an “adventure.” One in which the surgeons share, albeit, for them, temporarily. Not for a lifetime.
The surgeon referring to phalloplasty as an “adventure” – i.e., destroying the female genitals and attaching a grotesque, non-functional parody of penis – something like this or this – later admits that the procedure will “definitely” have permanent, ongoing complications, including incontinence and necrosis. That cadaverine stench.
It occurs to me that one of the reasons some people are reluctant to be realistic about the issue is that they might then have to consider the possibility that an entire, supposedly affirming industry – one worth close to a billion dollars a year and projected to reach five billion by the end of the decade – is exploiting mentally ill people, including children, and experimenting on them.
Those lovely surgical adventures.
This, then, is where we are. Doesn’t seem a good place to be, frankly.
She had an allergic reaction and shared it for social approval.
Dicentra, WTP: Yes. Horses are deeply attractive aesthetically, but they are in fact Large Animals and that makes them a risky proposition. (Always thought it intriguing that dairy cattle seem to account for a large chunk of farm fatality incidents — animal human transactions are a contact sport and the contacts can quickly go bad.) Even ponies — the Chihuahuas of equinity (?) — can stamp you into a red paste given the chance, {Random digression; an internet comedian the other day was proposing that French naming rules be applied to Chihuahuas, such that any not actually originating in Chihuahua must henceforth be designated “sparkling honey badgers”. Seems fair to me. Possibly unfair to honey badgers, though.}
“They’re connoisseurs of comfort and make excellent home decor,” I know mine always did, what time they were not actually shredding or gravity-testing the balance of the decor.
And regarding The sport you never knew you needed., that quite took me back to several incidents in the field, watching an excavator operator “feeling” for a live gas line. Give you a frisson for sure.
The ‘reality-based’ seem awfully prone to fictitious maladies.
It has to be said, when thinking of good uses of my time, setting up a camera and waiting around on a street corner until a Cybertruck comes into view and then pretending to be taken ill and uploading the feigned vomiting to social media… is not high on the list.
But hey. Maybe that’s just me.
I am, as you know, a straight-laced, buttoned-down kind of chap.
[ Carefully writes shopping list to match aisle layout of supermarket. ]
Dude, literally everything you wrote about horses in that screed is factually incorrect. It is on occasion okay to admit you just don’t know very much about something.
I owned, rode and (at a very beginner level) trained a Shire Cross for two years, and I learned that listening to the people who’d been doing this their entire life was a marvelous way of not getting my intestines kicked out the back of my torso.
My trainer friend eventually stopped training entirely except for close friends and family because of the number of injuries resulting from pretending the horse isn’t a horse, including one 17-year-old girl who suffered a life-altering spinal injury.
Literally Munchausen’s Syndrome.
@Daniel Ream – It is on occasion okay to admit you just don’t know very much about something.
Then you should admit you embarrassed yourself here on a topic you’re obviously ignorant about. Your friend complaining to you once doesn’t justify the bad faith attacks you are engaging in here. Maybe try actually reading his comment this time?
Oh and for future reference, when you make a claim like “literally everything you wrote is incorrect”, only to not provide a single actual example of something incorrect, you’re just embarrassing yourself. I don’t know who put the stick up your butt, but it’s obvious to me that you just can’t handle valid criticism. Too much ego, would be my guess.
I don’t…
I mean, I can’t see…
O for the sake of Pete, woman.
I recall someone saying that horses tended to be skittish and thus could quickly become violent over a non-threat. And also that they could be malicious to even the kindest humans. My mother said that a childhood friend was killed by a horse that deliberately knocked her off by running under a tree.
In part because they are more than a bit stupid, and can crush you without actually intending to harm you.
Bodycam records a police officer’s interactions with a Saudi douchebag.
When I was an undergrad, there were a very few Saudi students on campus, and they were universally recognized to be Class X scumbags. Now you mustn’t say such things lest you be condemned and disciplined for ‘islamophobia”.
(I’m not sure about the authenticity of the video, but my comments stand regardless.)
Dude..again the harrumph thing. You can thank me later for providing you opportunities to bleed that off. What *specifically* was “factually incorrect”? Dogs and humans go back 10,000 to 20,000 years depending on who’s counting and how. The point about cats was repeated here by numerous other commenters. Horses I may have recalled specifics incorrectly so checking with Grok…and I understand he doesn’t get stuff right all the time but this doesn’t seem out of line with anything else I read nor much different from my somewhat extemporaneous post…
Horses: Domestication of horses is believed to have begun around 4000–3500 BCE, likely on the Eurasian steppes, particularly in regions like modern-day Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Evidence from the Botai culture suggests horses were used for riding and possibly milking by this time.
Cats: Cats are thought to have been domesticated around 7500–7000 BCE, with significant evidence from the Near East, particularly in ancient Cyprus, where a cat was found buried with a human. However, their domestication was more gradual, tied to the rise of agriculture and the need to control pests like rodents. The more intentional breeding of cats likely intensified later, around 1500 BCE in Egypt.
Dogs: Dogs were the earliest domesticated animals, with evidence dating back to at least 15,000–12,000 BCE, though some studies suggest it could be as early as 30,000 BCE. This process began as wolves scavenged near human settlements, and over time, humans selectively bred them for companionship, hunting, and guarding.
But specific to horses, I acknowledged my experience was limited. Since you know so much, can you enlighten me in regards to wild vs domestic? You could harrumph again. It’s apparently good for you.
[ Runs a nice hot bath for quarrelsome commenters. ]
Bit of a squeeze, I know, but you’ll feel better afterwards.
What?
True. Good thing dogs never turn on people.
FFS, I only said that there were similarities. Which there clearly are. Of course there are differences. The kind that need to be explicitly explained to teenage girls. And apparently others…
The Incredible Dr. Pol is a show about a Dutch veterinarian in rural Michigan, and half the calls involve a plastic glove up to the shoulder to insert an arm into a cow’s nethers. Or puncturing the side with a trocar to expel gas, or lance an abscess or some other ghastly procedure.
Not all farmers have the squeeze-chute that holds the cows absolutely still — sometimes they’re just in a little stall and the farmer holds the harness to prevent the cow from trampling the vet. If they’re beef cattle they spend most of their time way out in the field, so they’re not used to being handled by humans the way dairy cows are.
So yeah, the vet inserts his arm up to the shoulder to check for pregnancy, the cow is not going to enjoy that overmuch, and she’s likely to bend his knee backwards.
OK…going back over the comments, I see my big mistake. In my original comment I said horses were “very much” like dogs. Yes, “very” is an overstatement. Though I didn’t think I was going to be taken all that literally in the context of that moment. Other than that..again…try taking your dog, and especially your cat, into battle. As skittish as horses are their use in battle provided those who used them tremendous advantages. They obey commands to a greater degree than cats, etc. dinner is ready…
Sounds like an updated James Herriot.
James Herriot didn’t have any plastic gloves. 😧
In the book Papillon, he wanted to be admitted to a hospital as it was easier to leave unnoticed.
He said the psych ward was the one where you were most likely to ‘catch’ what they had.
I forget which one he used, but he said you were better off in the TB ward.
Someone at the New York Times catches a catchable madness.
I’m glad we got onto horses.
I’ve been having trouble processing my Christmas. As some may know, my daughter is trans and when I say she is trans, I mean to say she is a female (no, not “asssigned at birth,” I don’t put up with that nonsense) who thinks she is a man.
So, my husband and my son, and I, had been enjoying a quiet Christmas when my sone gets a text from his sister in Denver. Except she’s not in Denver. She and her husband (a biological man) are in Knoxville and are “stopping by.”
And so she arrives – with long greasy hair and a silly neck beard, courtesy of hormones. And her husband, whom I never liked, is sans beard but the same long greasy beard. And I learn that they have, in fact, been in town for several days to visit his family and don’t you know, he’s marinating some sort of meat for them so while that was being done, they figured they’d stop by.
Conversation was strained, yet polite. No gifts for the family, despite me sending some to Denver where they live since, after all, I had no idea they drove to Knoxville. Nonetheless, we remained polite and after about 30 miniutes, they said they had to get back to his family; it is a large one as my daughter’s husband is one of seven, the youngest, and the only male child.
I haven’t really told anyone of what I consider my humiliation except two very close friends. But I can say, it feels . . . good. Yes, good, to say it here.
I hope every doctor, every therapist, every “ally” supporting the trans agenda gets damned to hell. I hold out hope that my daughter, who I believe if tested for IQ would register well above average, for whom math and physics was a walk in the park and thankfully is gainfully employed with her degree in Data Analytics from the University of Tennessee, will someday realize the mistake she made in becoming a pharmaceutical slave and be humble enough to admit it and take steps to cure it.
So, yeah, horses. And dogs. The pups keep me from screaming and embracing despair.
Except Pol isn’t known for his gentleness. He’s very old school and has received criticism for not using numbing agents when cutting into critters. Part of his schtick is that you don’t need fancy expensive stuff to be a good vet, so he’s kinda of the mindset that critters don’t really feel pain.
Which, they don’t feel it like we do (our frontal lobes light up like a pinball machine during pain; theirs [such as they are] don’t), but still.
What you’re describing isn’t ‘old school’. It’s sadism, practised on unwilling, unwitting victims who, no matter the brain structure, damned well do feel pain.
@Stephanie Richer, You & yours have my sympathy. It’s wrenching to watch a loved one go off the rails and not be able to do a thing about it.
Spectrum, right?
I’m guessing she wasn’t the girliest girl on the block, maybe not as into dolls as her peers, didn’t get totally giggly about boys as an adolescent, makeup she could take or leave. She might have had beef with other girls who rejected her for not being cool enough, she might have been confused about not being accepted, might even have been bullied for being “weird.”
When she ran into the transcult, they told her that because she doesn’t check all the girly-girl check boxes, she’s really a dude.
Which, autism has a masculinizing effect on the brain, so girls end up being interested in boystuff like math and systems and not all that enthused about pink frilly things. So to ASD girls, it’s plausible to them that they’re not “really” girls.
Hasten the day.
Because she’s already out of the house, living another time zone away, and half-estranged, your influence on her is limited compared to a teen living in your home.
Just make sure you’re not the reason she doesn’t come back to reality. Don’t make her defensive, or she’ll hang on to transition just to make sure you don’t win.
It can take 7-10 years for them to realize that their bodies weren’t the problem. Here’s hoping she beats the odds and comes to her senses earlier than that.
Stephanie:
The thing about dogs, they always want the best for you. The best bedding, the best chew toys, the best Everything. It does help when things get bleak.
I have more.
It feels somehow telling that, despite the magnitude of the drama, she doesn’t actually specify what it is, exactly, that’s making her so upset.
If you don’t already know, then she’s not going to tell you.
[ Muffled chuckling. ]
But we DO know it’s Not About The NAIL!!
“[T]hou shalt in Bedleem see one laugh at the knocking of his head against a post.”
Fox had interesting item on Dems cursing. They showed many pols saying “Fuck Musk” and “Fuck Trump” and Trump policies are bullshit. In another clip, Van Jones on CNN maybe was saying that this is not an effective strategy. Interestingly he did not say it is wrong or immature, just ineffective. They do not have a counter argument as to why reducing government is bad, just “fuck them”. Real adults in the room (remember that slogan from 2019?).