Good read thanks. Transgenderism is cultish but is it a cult? That is who is the narcissistic personality by name leading dependent souls like a latter day Pied Piper? Also why do critics of identity politics refer to critical theory as a basis for the latter? Only Honneth approximates to a legitimising intellectual authority in this regard. Habermas and his predecessors including Adorno give no comfort to the current madness of IP. American individualism and the postmodern turn have been the main sources of this ideological shift which is anti realist, anti democratic and anti science. I explore these points more in my recent book Identity Politics: Where Did It All Go Wrong? Thanks for keeping this needed discussion rolling.
All religions begin as cults. Not every cult is a religion. I conceive of the transgender faith movement as a "brand cult," not a religion. This is an advantage to the cult because it is able to glom on to your religion. If there are souls, then why cannot they have "gender"? Bear in mind that Diane Ehrensaft actually propagates the idea that "gender angels" exist and that any doubts a child might have are simply the "gender ghosts" talking. This has been explicitly sacralized for a long time, and you can probably witness a pronoun ceremony for a child going on puberty blockers if you visit a Unitarian Universalist congregation.
Thanks so is Dylan like Jesus or Charlie Manson? My doubt about your thesis is that a religious descriptive framework is posited as a singular explanation of transgender ideology. Surely other causal antecedents might include the pornificationof of our culture, the endurance of patriarchy, medical technology, funding, interest work of healthcare professionals and the shift from second to third wave feminism during the postmodern turn
What I propose does not exclude any of those elements. Transgenderism has served many different purposes. Caitlyn Jenner and Jazz Jennings are two very different people with very different issues. Jennifer Bilek has made a whole career out of tracking the money, explaining how the transgender phenomenon has funded itself. At The Distance, we follow the literary traces of how transgenderism has explained itself, to itself, and to us. It is not as simple as saying "the prophet led the masses." Acknowledged.
What I propose is that we see the proverbial forest, instead of dwelling on each species of tree, to see the phenomenon as a faith movement.
Watch a teenage girl, post-mastectomy, having her first day topless at the beach or pool. This is a ritual that *all* trans-Identified females (TiFs) on social media do. Watch their beatific rapture. Hear them use spiritual terms to describe it through their tears. Then continue through their videos as the side effects and infections begin, the surgeons ghost them, and their followers love-bomb them with reinforcement: you just have to believe, and it will happen. Believe. So they recover, and the T symptoms get worse, and they ruminate on phalloplasty, and all the while they have that chorus telling them to have faith.
Then watch a detransitioner talk. If they talk long enough, the word "cult" will slip past their lips. They will talk about how their "community" shunned them for turning apostate. How the medicalized gender system locks them in, required many greater hurdles and barriers to detransition than transition.
What else am I supposed to call that? Not only is it a church, it follows strict church theory.
Good read thanks. Transgenderism is cultish but is it a cult? That is who is the narcissistic personality by name leading dependent souls like a latter day Pied Piper? Also why do critics of identity politics refer to critical theory as a basis for the latter? Only Honneth approximates to a legitimising intellectual authority in this regard. Habermas and his predecessors including Adorno give no comfort to the current madness of IP. American individualism and the postmodern turn have been the main sources of this ideological shift which is anti realist, anti democratic and anti science. I explore these points more in my recent book Identity Politics: Where Did It All Go Wrong? Thanks for keeping this needed discussion rolling.
All religions begin as cults. Not every cult is a religion. I conceive of the transgender faith movement as a "brand cult," not a religion. This is an advantage to the cult because it is able to glom on to your religion. If there are souls, then why cannot they have "gender"? Bear in mind that Diane Ehrensaft actually propagates the idea that "gender angels" exist and that any doubts a child might have are simply the "gender ghosts" talking. This has been explicitly sacralized for a long time, and you can probably witness a pronoun ceremony for a child going on puberty blockers if you visit a Unitarian Universalist congregation.
Thanks Matt but who is the charismatic leader of the trans cult?
Dylan Mulvaney. The pulpit is TikTok (and before that, Tumblr).
Thanks so is Dylan like Jesus or Charlie Manson? My doubt about your thesis is that a religious descriptive framework is posited as a singular explanation of transgender ideology. Surely other causal antecedents might include the pornificationof of our culture, the endurance of patriarchy, medical technology, funding, interest work of healthcare professionals and the shift from second to third wave feminism during the postmodern turn
What I propose does not exclude any of those elements. Transgenderism has served many different purposes. Caitlyn Jenner and Jazz Jennings are two very different people with very different issues. Jennifer Bilek has made a whole career out of tracking the money, explaining how the transgender phenomenon has funded itself. At The Distance, we follow the literary traces of how transgenderism has explained itself, to itself, and to us. It is not as simple as saying "the prophet led the masses." Acknowledged.
What I propose is that we see the proverbial forest, instead of dwelling on each species of tree, to see the phenomenon as a faith movement.
Watch a teenage girl, post-mastectomy, having her first day topless at the beach or pool. This is a ritual that *all* trans-Identified females (TiFs) on social media do. Watch their beatific rapture. Hear them use spiritual terms to describe it through their tears. Then continue through their videos as the side effects and infections begin, the surgeons ghost them, and their followers love-bomb them with reinforcement: you just have to believe, and it will happen. Believe. So they recover, and the T symptoms get worse, and they ruminate on phalloplasty, and all the while they have that chorus telling them to have faith.
Then watch a detransitioner talk. If they talk long enough, the word "cult" will slip past their lips. They will talk about how their "community" shunned them for turning apostate. How the medicalized gender system locks them in, required many greater hurdles and barriers to detransition than transition.
What else am I supposed to call that? Not only is it a church, it follows strict church theory.
Thanks Matt for the clarification
Good questions, thank you