Once it's gone

Neil deGrasse Tyson warns of the brain drain currently happening in the US which has seen scientists and academics leaving the country in droves due to the current political climate. 

Many academics are accepting positions in other countries where science isn't considered a dirty word. They are being enticed by more stable and welcoming environments where laboratories and universities are ready to receive them. 

The US used to be the place many scientists escaped to in the early to mid 20th century, but now it is openly bleeding talent. Thanks to the country's penchant for fascistic policies and Christian nationalism cultism, it's become a bad time to work on science projects which don't align with official government policy. 

All this is part of an anti-intellectualism which has been building for years. A pro-business environment where climate change warnings and EPA regulations are a regular thing, is not a good homestead for science expertise which acts as a deterrent for making big profits. 

The problem is that once you lose the expertise it won't be easy to get it back which means you end up not being in the forefront of new developments in science and technology. 

When many of the people running your country don't think the planet is particularly old, climate change is a hoax and the Rapture is right around the corner, you aren't going to get their friendly ear when it comes time for science funding.

The Anthony Fauci witch hunt is yet another telltale sign that scientists would do well to practice their business elsewhere.

No shit Sherlock

Zagria's recent article on quack science prompted this post. 

Toxic theories about transgender and gender variant people tended to focus on phenomena rather than looking deeply behind it. 

In other words, "look there is arousal present. Full stop". 

The problem is that this is like making no distinction among the general population between one person getting aroused by feet, the other by having threesomes and someone else by looking at pictures of little kids. 

Not only is there unique psychology going on, but some of these cases might be problematic and need to be examined deeply. 

Instead, people were happy to identify dysfunction and ran with the ball. They weren't interested in looking further. 

"These people aren't normal!" No shit Sherlock. For their part, transgender people represent roughly 1% of the population and the gender variant population (gender non-conforming, non-binary, etc) is a bit larger. So technically you are correct that you are dealing with a minority; now how are you going to help them. 

As it turns out, not at all. Eradication is the way instead.

The hard work is always looking beyond the surface level of anything to determine what is going on and then decide on a course of action or, conversely, to do nothing at all.

The thing we need to eradicate most is stupidity and I don't hold out any hope whatsoever for that.

Three criteria

Dietrich Bonhoeffer used three criteria for identifying stupidity in humans which were: 

- Outsourcing of critical thinking 

- Willful ignorance

- Conformity 

All three of these we are able to witness today and it will be futile to argue with anyone who espouses some or all of them. 

Humans aren't more or less stupid than we've ever been, except today everything is more visible thanks to the internet and social media. 

Our desire to belong to tribes rather than risk being alienated means we will more readily abandon critical thought. 

Higher education doesn't necessarily solve the problem of stupidity because people who may be experts in one very particular area may be just as willing to have cult ideas about a whole range of topics outside their field. 

Stupidity isn't the lack of knowledge but instead the refusal to undertake the process of looking into things. It is the lazy embracing of ideas or concepts passed on to us second hand. 

People are less afraid to openly display ignorance today because they see others do it. It has propagated the idea of personal truth over objective truth. Interestingly some replace one for the other and sell their ideas as if they had already passed critical thinking inspection.

Pseudoscience has sometimes been created to give the appearance of critical thinking rigor.  It was then accepted by dogmatic warriors who wanted its conclusions to be true. 

We may yet return to an era where critical thinking is praised and prioritized but for the time being we will need to suffer the wrath of social media experts a little while longer.

Loren

Most people aren't nearly as challenged as Loren is. It's a reminder for all of us when we think our life is hard...

There I got it out!

It took me a while to pinpoint exactly why the "crossdresser" subculture increasingly irritated the shit out of me over the years. It started to feel more and more creepy, secretive and petrified as if trapped in a timeloop. 

The big challenge for some of walking in the mall made me want to scream "for f*ck's sake just do it already it's not 1985 anymore!" 

I wasn't mad at them but more mad for them that so much hand wringing had to happen for something as bloody boring and tame as that. A big production number was made over outings that no one else cares about. 

Is the world full of prejudiced idiots? Yes but we don't let them win.

I understand the fear completely in my bones because as an almost 64 year old, older people grew up with gender policing engraved into their brains such that any contravention could potentially get you beat up. For some it could mean the end of a marriage which ultimately happened to me even if this wasn't the true reason for it. 

Seeing people make videos strolling around at night or in motel rooms also looked creepy and weird and I wanted nothing to do with that. I also didn't like clubs or events and I met a few people over the years who plain weirded me out. I found out one was a dominatrix on the side which made me say sayonara. 

All this helped me discover I was more on the transsexual side of things.

In the end what I truly want is for people to feel free to be themselves. Transition or don't transition that's your business but move out of the shadows and flesh out who you are in the bloody daylight. Stop overthinking everything. 

Young people are running around everyday wearing what they like and no one cares because their expression and body language challenges you make a face at them. They don't give a shit what you think of them and it shows. 

It's what I love about them and yes they had it easier than us. 

However, the world of gender variance is extremely broad and includes all kinds of characters and motivations which is why I really don't like to put everyone into the same soup bowl. I go on a case by case basis.

There I got it out!

We all are

As we begin to get our house in order moving about society as transgender people, we begin to observe others much more carefully instead of worrying about being observed. 

We notice the idiosyncrasies and sense of entitlement many people have which we find strangely and oddly reassuring. 

This relaxes our body language which increasingly enters us into more calm. 

In case you hadn't noticed it before, people are strange. 

We all are.

Every bit helps

Zohran Mamdani is putting his money where his mouth is. 

His latest announcement is about municipal grocery stores in NYC. His campaign against hunger is about helping the people in most need, which is turning him into a pariah with the right wing. 

A Muslim making them look bad is a slap in the face, which is why FOX News is working overtime to turn him into a villain and Stephen Miller must be grinding his teeth at night at the sheer chutzpah.

Mamdani's city-run grocery stores will have basic food staples set at prices 30% below the cost of what other grocery stores charge. This will help people who are struggling with feeding themselves every month. 

Maybe it's a small drop in the bucket compared of the problems of the world, but it is an example of how government can be charged with helping people improve their lives rather than tell them why it can't.

Protect this man.

Myth

 

Vulnerable

I've had to work on reducing my intensity. For years I developed a life script based on duty, performance and keeping things under control. 

Life doesn't take kindly to being controlled. 

Vulnerability wasn't really something I could indulge in because it meant dropping my guard and divulging who I was afraid to be. As a result I played the social game so perfectly that I fooled even myself. 

People of my generation and older didn't have much elbow room to maneuver. We were raised by parents who knew hardship and who adhered to social norms like they rules never to be broken. Many of those rules came with religious damnation attached to them. 

Performance for society is no longer in my playbook and vulnerability towards the right people is something I work on because it's good for all of us. 

A good friend of mine before she died of cancer at age 63 told me how she had benefitted from dropping her defenses and allowing people to help her. 

She embraced vulnerability completely and her message has stayed with me ever since. 

Today I take up much more space within my surroundings than ever both metaphorically and physically, except that "look at me the wrong way and I'll smack you" as a primary reflex isn't the correct way to be.

I work on that.

End goal

No matter the type of gender variance involved, the deeper questions need to be answered: Is this more about expression or identity? Is this something I should want to control and why? Is this something which has always been intrinsic to me since the beginning or am I just experimenting and having fun with it? 

Without answers to these and other similar questions we cannot build a road map towards action. We will not understand the end goal or whether one should even exist. 

Some people say "I just like to feel pretty sometimes" which is innocuous enough but then it could increasingly become life occupying. That statement can also be an underestimating of how deep our sentiments run. 

When we are proceeding in the right direction we should be increasing life balance and a sense of calm. That doesn't mean that achieving authenticity won't come with tempestuous times because divulging something can imply risk and risk is something older people are less willing to undertake. 

Our lives are our own and living them in fear of judgement isn't the right way. Secrecy also has impacts for the psyche that can be quite harmful which I myself experienced. 

So we ask the deeper questions to establish our motives and our end goals to better understand ourselves and what we must do (or not do) going forward. 

What we don't want to have is stagnation which means we've stopped growing and maturing. This can lead to frustration and resignation that our lives are stuck. 

Instead we work towards self-knowledge until some sort of balance point is reached.

Gender variance has always been a normal part of the human mosaic. The tricky part is knowing where we reside and what we do about it.

It means answering the question "who are you?"

Logjam

We have hit a perfect logjam which was a long time in coming and yet entirely foreseeable. 

Climate change, the loss of jobs to automation (AI), income inequality and the nature of human relationships and family structures have all met at a crisis point which threatens to derail many societies. 

The change in the old world order has scared the living daylights out of stupid conservatives who are in panic mode. Their antidote has been to bear down even more by refuting science and generally being all around bad eggs. 

The revenge of the white boomer has been to stall as much as possible what was inevitably coming. 

The diversification of the world has hit hard. Immigration patterns and changes in family dynamics has meant a loss of power for white men who thought they owned everything. With that order threatened it was time to elect more right leaning politicians who would restore social order. 

It didn't work. 

Trumpism has been an abject failure largely thanks to the deception of the working class and the flow of capital moving upwards towards the already wealthy. 

The experiments tried in Brazil and Hungary didn't work either because culture war smoke screens ultimately don't work when working people's lives grow progressively worse in the process. 

Thus we are facing a multi-faceted problem which needs addressing before the world can begin a new era of relative prosperity. 

Making villains out of visible minorities hasn't worked and people who can't afford basic necessities are tired of hearing the term "woke" from idiot online influencers being paid handsomely by billionaire capitalists.

Time has run out for people who thought this plan would work and the next few years will be very chaotic. 

Just ask the people living next door to data centers. But you'll need to speak loudly if you want them to hear you.