Treating children who identify as trans
This is a Canadian story, but it’s often the case that the US follows close on Canada’s heels with PC legal rulings. So here’s what it’s about:
For the past 11 months, Robert Hoogland, a father in Surrey, British Columbia, has been forced to watch as his 14 year-old daughter was “destroyed and sterilized” by court-ordered testosterone injections. After losing his legal appeal to stop the process in January, Rob (previously anonymized as “Clark” or “CD”) is making a desperate attempt to bring his case into the courts of public opinion, even though it breaks a court order demanding his silence about the case.
“I had a perfectly healthy child a year ago, and that perfectly healthy child has been altered and destroyed for absolutely no good reason,” Rob said in an exclusive interview. “She can never go back to being a girl in the healthy body that she should have had. She’s going to forever have a lower voice. She’ll forever have to shave because of facial hair. She won’t be able to have children…”
Rob felt that at the age of 14—when the courts judged his daughter competent to take testosterone without parental consent—she simply did not have the foresight necessary to understand such consequences. Over the course of the past year, Rob has heard his daughter’s voice deepen and crack and watched her begin to grow facial hair.
“Sometimes I just want to scream so that other parents and people will… jump in, understand what’s going on,” Rob said. “There’s a child—and not only mine, but in my case, my child out there having her life ruined,” and yet, Rob felt, “people don’t [even] know.”
The evidence is that the vast majority of children who identify as transgender change their minds later if left alone medically and allowed to mature. Many end up identifying as gay. But in adolescence, they think a solution is to change sexes.
There are plenty of articles that discuss these facts, but I’ll quote just one:
“Desistance,” in this context, means the tendency for gender dysphoria to resolve itself as a child gets older and older. All else being equal, this research suggests that the most likely outcome for a child with gender dysphoria is that they will grow up to be cisgender and gay or bisexual. Researchers don’t know why that is, but it appears that in some kids, nascent homo- or bisexuality manifests itself as gender dysphoria. In others, gender dysphoria can arise as a result of some sort of trauma or other unresolved psychological issue, and goes away either with time or counseling. And in still others, of course, it is a sign that the child will identify as transgender for their whole adult life. While the actual percentages vary from study to study, overall, it appears that about 80 percent of kids with gender dysphoria end up feeling okay, in the long run, with the bodies they were born into….
The Amsterdam study reported on 127 adolescents, 79 of them boys, and found that 80 of those adolescents, or about two-thirds, had desisted — that is, now identified as cisgender — at the time of followup. Singh, meanwhile, found that of the 139 former GIC patients she got in touch with, all of them natal males (that is, born with a penis), 122, or 88 percent, had desisted.
And when you combine these two studies with the other, admittedly earlier and smaller ones Cantor lists, all of which find the same thing, the case grows even stronger. While the numbers vary from study to study, as you would expect to between research conducted at different times in different places, the basic storyline is always the same: If a kid has gender dysphoria, the most likely outcome is that he or she will grow up to be a cisgender, gay or bisexual adult.
But the push these days is nevertheless to treat children medically. There are two general ways this is done, both of which reduce the percentage that ever go back. One is through the use of puberty-blocking hormones and the other is to administer hormones of the opposite sex. Often this is done in succession, in that order. Hoogland’s daughter has been given the latter, and he is correct about the irreversibility of the effects, particularly for women who can never undo the change in voice, which is profound and disconcerting if that person ever de-transitions.
The following example will give you a very good idea of what I’m talking about. The person in the hat was born a woman and then took male hormones as a teen but has since stopped taking them and detransitioned back to a female identity, whereas the interviewer with the long dark hair is a person born male who is happy with having transitioned to female:
Just to set a baseline here: I am all for protecting the rights of trans people not to be discriminated against in the classic sense of discrimination. But not for medically treating children. Minors are not equipped to make these decisions. And I am not for allowing men identifying as women to compete in women’s sports, nor am I for schools to allow boys who identify as girls to use girls’ bathrooms or locker rooms.
I also have noticed that social media strongly promotes transgenderism for teens in particular. There are an enormous number of YouTube videos in which people post, with visuals, about their transitions, and commenters tell them how great they look. It goes far beyond not bullying or hating; transition has become a popular thing and a way to get a lot of positive attention. Reddit is another venue for this.
And many school systems seem to be actively educating even very young children about transgenderism in a way that almost seems to be advocacy for the practice, as well (see this).
But back to the medical aspects of treating children. Hoogland is correct on the sterility risks of hormones and even at times of puberty-blocking drugs. To understand the following quote from research on how such treatment may affect fertility you have to understand the language. “Transgender men” are people who were born as female and who transition to a male appearance and identity. “Transgender women” are people born as male who transition to a female appearance and identity, although in social terms it’s a no-no to point out this history. And the surgery is no longer called gender transition surgery. It is now called “gender-affirming surgery,” in an attempt to mask the history of the person and preserve the now-required idea that the person has always been the sex he or she is trying to become and that the treatment and/or surgery is merely underlining that original identity:
Transgender individuals who undergo gender-affirming medical or surgical therapies are at risk for infertility. Suppression of puberty with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist analogs (GnRHa) [puberty-delaying drugs] in the pediatric transgender patient can pause the maturation of germ cells, and thus, affect fertility potential. Testosterone therapy in transgender men can suppress ovulation and alter ovarian histology, while estrogen therapy in transgender women can lead to impaired spermatogenesis and testicular atrophy. The effect of hormone therapy on fertility is potentially reversible, but the extent is unclear. Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) that includes hysterectomy and oophorectomy in transmen or orchiectomy in transwomen results in permanent sterility. It is recommended that clinicians counsel transgender patients on fertility preservation (FP) options prior to initiation of gender-affirming therapy. Transmen can choose to undergo cryopreservation of oocytes or embryos, which requires hormonal stimulation for egg retrieval. Uterus preservation allows transmen to gestate if desired. For transwomen, the option for FP is cryopreservation of sperm either through masturbation or testicular sperm extraction.
Much more at the link.
Just a few short years ago, medical treatment of trans people was limited to adults. Now it’s not only allowed for children, but pushed for them (and enforced by courts), as are books and discussions in the school system at the earliest and most formative ages. All of this appears to have increased the incidence of the phenomenon immensely among impressionable children, and among teenagers (especially girls) who are unhappy at the physical changes of puberty and their roles as women. In them, there appears to be a marked “social contagion” effect. Trans identity is particularly rampant among teens who would otherwise have identified as gay, and many gay groups are against the treatment of children, for obvious reasons.
[NOTE: One of the arguments sometimes used is that many of these children are depressed and/or suicidal. Then treat that, not their bodies. It is complex and difficult, but suicide and/or mental health issues are all too common even after medical treatment, by the way. See this as well as this.]
See Paul McHugh, MD on ‘transgenderism’. Dr. McHugh was able to persuade Johns Hopkins to shut down John Money’s clinic back in the day.
Every participant in these exercises – the attorneys, the clinical psychologists, the psychiatrists, the social workers, the educrats, the ‘advocates’, the endocrinologists, the surgeons – deserves to be run out of business and quite a number of them deserve prison time.
One of the arguments sometimes used is that many of these children are depressed and/or suicidal. Then treat that, not their bodies.
Yes, treat that, so they can add iatrogenic problems to the troubles they already have.
Art Deco:
What in blazes are you talking about?
You think suicidal children should be left alone?
There are many ways to treat suicidal children other than with surgery and/or hormones, or even antidepressants. There’s something called family therapy, for example. Nothing is perfect. But leaving suicidal children to their own devices is NOT a better solution.
And if you’re talking about anti-depressants, not only are there other ways than anti-depressants to treat and/or deal with suicidal thoughts in children, but in addition, there’s the following about using antidepressants in children:
I repeat: there are other ways to treat children with suicidal impulses than hormones or surgery or medication.
Art Deco:
By the way, that last article I linked in the “NOTE” to the post talks about McHugh.
You think suicidal children should be left alone?
You said ‘depressed or suicidal’. And the answer is, most of the time you should leave them be.
The “social contagion” factor makes it even more important to NOT just “let them be.” But counseling and a thorough review of medical records, diet, and exercise should probably be tried before SSRIs except in severe cases.
And hormones and surgery should not be administered to those under eighteen.
First do no harm carries no weight today? Seems like, anyhow.
I have to wonder…who’s pushing for these surgeries? parents? children? doctors? I think if it were my child and I had no voice in the decision, I’d disown the child. That might be harsh, but if the state takes away my rights as a parent, they can assume the responsibility for the child.
There is, of course, the possibility that a parent is the influencing factor. I don’t think there is a remedy for that.
I remember being what was called a “tomboy”. I liked to do the things that boys my age did. I _don’t_ recall every wanting to _be_ a boy. I have to say I simply don’t understand it. “Male and female He made them”… considering the difference in frequency of this sort of thing through the ages (how often would your grandparents say this happened) I have to believe that it’s more of a cultural phenomenon than a physical one. And…considering the world population pressures, I also think that government forces are more than willing to encourage it.
A long time ago, I learned about an experiment done with rats. They were in an enclosed set up, and it seems to me they started with one pair of rats. Eventually, they populated the set up to an extent of overpopulation with resulted in all sorts of abnormal stuff…including homosexuality, physical attacks on other rats, destruction of new borns…I don’t remember all the stuff, but when I read about much that is happening in cities today, it brings back the memory of that experiment. I wish I could remember more clearly who did the experiment and more about the results, but sadly…it’s been too long.
Found it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
And in less than 5 minutes!
The eons-long medical tradition of “First, do no harm” has been replaced by leftist storm-troopers, which includes Canadian judges. They are all secular hedonists, every man-jack of them, dancing to the tune of “If it feels good, do it even if you’re not sure”, despite the outrageous immorality and Godlessness of it all.
XX is XX and XY is XY in every cell of a person’s body, period. Castrating XY males and XX females to “make” them into something else is a biological obscenity, particularly when accompanied by big doses of testosterone for the XX and estrogen for the XY. We will in future hear of cancers arising in the estrogen-stimulated breasts, and other bad stuff. As you sow, so shall you also reap.
There is an alternative: secular monks (and nuns), people who voluntarily have abandoned the path of lust so widely promoted by our culture. You can read about this in the current ( March) issue of First Things magazine, http://www.firstthings.com: “Secular Monks”, by Andrew Taggart, p. 16. But of course one must first reach adulthood instead of being declared wise and competent and independent by the courts at age 14.
Darn. That’ll teach me! 5 minutes indeed! I should have read the article but I was overconfident…I should have known that there was more than one experiment done!
This is the one I should have linked to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
To have done this to a minor is bad enough. But to have done this to a minor against the explicit wishes of the parents is an abomination.
“Trans identity is particularly rampant among teens who would otherwise have identified as gay, and many gay groups are against the treatment of children, for obvious reasons.” — Neo
Feminists are also protesting the inclusion of transgender woman in women’s sports competitions, for obvious reasons.
The Left always seem surprised when the causes they have championed boomerang on them, but never makes the connection with their prior actions in supporting those causes.
Other glaring examples from the economic sphere, where a lot of people who almost certainly have been voting for California’s insane policies for decades are discovering that the politicos have now come for them.
https://fee.org/articles/why-the-movie-industry-is-fleeing-california/?utm_source=ntnlrvw&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=nationalreview_partnership
https://www.ab5facts.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-ca-government-democrats-what-were-you-thinking
“Every participant in these exercises – the attorneys, the clinical psychologists, the psychiatrists, the social workers, the educrats, the ‘advocates’, the endocrinologists, the surgeons – deserves to be run out of business and quite a number of them deserve prison time.” Art Deco
I can think of no better way to earn a ticket to hell than to destroy a child.
“But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” Luke 18:16 KJV
SueK – both of those articles were interesting, especially this note in the second one.
Calhoun’s early experiments with rats were carried out on farmland at Rockville, Maryland, starting in 1947.[7]
So “The Secret of NIMH” rodents really existed!
Sort of.
Geoffrey – If Dante were to come back today (via Time Machine?), he would have to add a few more circles to his Inferno.
Along the same lines of normalizing deeply disturbing behavior:
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/02/19/michelle-malkin-parents-anti-drag-queen-hour-resistance-rises-888597
In twenty years or so people will look back on this the way we now view lobotomies: “What were they thinking?”
The “social contagion” factor makes it even more important to NOT just “let them be.” But counseling and a thorough review of medical records, diet, and exercise should probably be tried before SSRIs except in severe cases.
My remarks were not esoteric, but their meaning has flown completely over your head.
“My remarks were not esoteric, but their meaning has flown completely over your head.” Art Deco
Perhaps you could dumb it down for her? Or perhaps you weren’t as clear as you imagine?
Just to be clear, the behavior I’m most deeply disturbed about is that of the people scheduling these events; the drag queens are doing what they have always done, but not in the middle of libraries and schools.
Fifty years ago (!), one of our theater groups in college did a production of “The Boys in the Band,” only a few years after its off-Broadway debut.
I remember being quite sympathetic to some of the concerns of the scripted characters.
Not any more.
https://www.enotes.com/topics/boys-band
I’m a woman in my mid-20s. I struggled enough with gender, growing up, that I can easily see myself getting sucked into the transgender movement and/or the LGBT movement, had I been raised any differently or with a softer moral foundation. I can see the appeal of trying to eschew femininity and all its pitfalls entirely. Thankfully, my upbringing gave me the space and worldview I needed to work through my issues and come out the other side more settled with my identity.
I think it’s heinous that these kids are being given what amounts to self-harm options instead of actual, logic-based help and counseling, as well as time and space to just plain grow up before making these decisions. They are very vulnerable, and they’re being used as ideological props.
The ‘trans’ movement is largely targetted at very young people being coached to believe XX and XY is not binary. Yes, there are young people confused by doubts about their ‘real gender’. They need therapy, not hormones or mutilation surgery.
Tara, glad you escaped.
This is so very sad.
They need therapy, not hormones or mutilation surgery.
They’d be more likely to benefit from people paying less attention to their whims.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/gender-dysphoria-diagnoses-up-1500-among-swedish-teenage-girls/
What do you think is going on here?
SueK said:
“I have to wonder…who’s pushing for these surgeries? parents? children? doctors?”
A little bit from each category.
At the elementary school my children used to attend, 4 children in one 3rd grade class are now “transitioning”. And it’s not a big school. (60+ kids in the 3rd Grade)
One child was a friend of my daughter at one time. We cut ties with the family before they decided to commit physical, emotional and sexual abuse on their son (at least publicly) because they were one of those totalitarian families where All is Politics: They warned us before a sleepover that, in case anyone was offended by prayer, they said a prayer every night to Gaia for Trump’s demise.
We cut ties as soon as the affliction showed.
And there’s definitely a social contagion aspect to all this. The parents in this one case, especially the mom, crow and crow about their progressive home, where children are free to be what they were meant to be. There is a local doctor who supports and encourages it all in our area. She’s nominally a Pediatrician. The school went all in too. The teachers think its just wonderful and they can’t wait to pat themselves on the back for what is happening.
Evil. Evil people. And after their kid started, the other 3 children started. Their parents very much the same.
Parents need to quarantine that crap like its the Black Death.
Evil. Evil people. And after their kid started, the other 3 children started. Their parents very much the same.
Child protective will do nothing because this nation’s social workers are just as bad. Wouldn’t assume family court judges are any better.
Maybe it’s boredom?
Increasing infantilization? (In advanced societies, we’ve been worshipping youth for at least since the 60s; and all too many parents have been “transitioning” to children for some time now. I think the clinical term—though I might not be entirely fair here—is “self-actualization”.)
Maybe, since the zeitgeist tells us—in this age of general abundance and vast opportunity—that we have to satisfy ourselves to the limit; AND since there’s no enemy at the gates to make one think of other things (such as survival), people can be generally free to pursue their desires, whatever they might be (within, it must be admitted, certain constraints).
This would include being as self destructive as one might wish while cleverly(?) calling it “self-actualization” or perhaps “life enhancing”—for themselves as well as for those whom they wish to destroy (though they would most likely label the latter case, “assistance” or “helping the other”).
To be sure, there are tons of very helpful, altruistic, philanthropic people as well. It would be interesting to chart the motivations and especially the backgrounds (cultural, religious, etc.) of these people.
In days of yore, WWI and WWII, the “dirty thirties” and other significant hardships forced people to grow up. Who knows what will do it these days….
File under: Fetal mania?
Tara, yes to all you said.
There is without doubt a wide spectrum for both sexes on what sorts of interests and enthusiasms individuals have. Some are labeled “male” and some “female.” There needs to be lots of room for individuals to pursue their talents and passions without regard to conventional stereotypes on who should be doing what.
In twenty years or so people will look back on this the way we now view lobotomies: “What were they thinking?”
Psychosurgery wasn’t practiced prior to about 1935 and hardly practiced after 1955. The pioneer was a man named Walter Freeman who spent his last years traveling the country collecting testimonials to attempt to demonstrate that lobotomy wasn’t the public health disaster people were saying. He died in 1972. The sex-change horror has been a phenomenon 2.5x as long as lobotomy was practiced, and people who object are now being subject to institutional coercion. NB, Freeman’s victims were generally asylum patients and commonly hopeless. (Not all, to be sure). They’re doing this to people who are suffering nothing but general dissatisfaction with life.
There needs to be lots of room for individuals to pursue their talents and passions without regard to conventional stereotypes on who should be doing what.
Why?
Marisa said:
“In twenty years or so people will look back on this the way we now view lobotomies: “What were they thinking?””
Maybe. But I think in a couple hundred years, if we’re still here, between this transgender crap and abortions and assisted suicide slippery slope, the people of the future are going to look at us the way we look at the Aztecs.
The history of pre-frontal lobotomy is fascinating. It was developed by a Portuguese neurologist, Moniz, who returned to medicine after a career in politics at age 51! He persuaded a neurosurgeon, Lima, to do the procedure, starting in 1935. Moniz published glowing (but dubious) results. In 1949 he got the Nobel in medicine for this. By 1960 it had essentially ceased to be done.
Sic transit gloria.
But he did pioneer cerebral angiography in a few patients (scary back then!). Unfortunately he also used Thorotrast as an X-ray contrast agent, an alpha emitter, which proved to be highly carcinogenic.
He could not do much manually because of crippling gout joint deformities. Not the hands that I would choose to inject contrast into my carotid artery.
It may be said that he might have killed and harmed fewer people had he stayed in politics.
Sounds like Freeman should have been lobotomized himself. He seems to have been a sociopath.
Art Deco: “Why?”
Because otherwise, girls who like trucks and boys who like flowers start to think that maybe they should be part of the gender that’s “supposed” to like those things.
That’s only one facet of the problem, but it is a facet.
Also, “counseling” and “therapy” span a vast range of practices. If we’re talking the type of self-centered secular counseling that focuses on self-affirmation and feelings and following your heart and all that, then yeah, it’s going to do more harm than good and it’s better to just leave the kids alone. Ideally, though, counseling would mean talking to people who are older and wiser and getting plain, reality-based, compassionate advice, regardless of whether it feels good to hear it. (There’s also real value in just having a neutral sounding board who will listen to your woes without having a personal relationship with you to make things complicated.)
This is a horrible society to grow up in, and I really do wish more young people had access to good mentors to fill in where their parents and schools are failing them.
Sounds like Freeman should have been lobotomized himself. He seems to have been a sociopath.
I gather one of the conduits which allowed him to do as much damage as he did was the guild mentality of physicians and surgeons, which inhibited them from offering criticism and rebuke outside of guild fora. I wouldn’t know if his sensibility was any more damaged than it typically is among physicians and surgeons, but he appears imprudent to a degree I suspect is unusual therein.
Because otherwise, girls who like trucks and boys who like flowers start to think that maybe they should be part of the gender that’s “supposed” to like those things.
No, they don’t, unless they live in a crazy world. Guess where they live?
I’m thinking of this from a different perspective – not that of parents, society, social media encouraging the transformation, but from a view of a teenager’s struggle.
When I was 15 I knew everything. I knew what I wanted and how I wanted to do it. Any advice was ignored for how could they know? So it’s with some sympathy that I view a teenage transgender. It’s a tough situation for that teenager who doesn’t think anyone else can understand or could know any better or that he could be making a mistake, and it’s a tough situation for the parents trying to prevent what they think is a mistake (but may not be). I can only hope that those caught up in this situation will have everything resolved for the best.
It’s interesting that the interviewer in the clip above, Blair White, holds right-wing view as does another trans woman on YouTube, Ella Grant (who started transitioning when she was 15 I believe). I wish both all the best and that they’ll stay on their political/philosophical course.
Tara:
I couldn’t agree more that way too many therapists aren’t competent. Unfortunately.
But when there’s a suicidal child, the situation is such that help is sorely needed
I have also read that certain trans activists advise trans teens to pretend to be suicidal in order to force medical transition treatment.
For the Left I believe it’s about this…
“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is…in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
Theodore Dalrymple
Based on my recent experiences, I have come to the conclusion that there were two main purposes for the transgender fad as we see it today.
First, it gives broken, immature people, who are mostly among the most privileged and entitled people to ever walk the planet, something that they can rage and feel victimized about; something that they can force other people to jump through hoops for them over. The teen I had to deal with had not the slightest interest in being, or living as, the declared gender; this person just wanted to make the rest of the world pretend something that was obviously not true. Since no one with functioning ears or eyes would mistake this person for their declared gender – not a surprise since they didn’t spend 60 seconds in any given day attempting to resemble or act as a person of that gender – they had a constant excuse to tantrum, to scream, to cry, to force anyone who would be in their world to play this game of pretend and to force those people to shun anyone who wouldn’t. Instead of getting legitimate therapy, a broken child became a tyrannical brat, with the full power and support of social media and leftist identity ideology. I found that this was not limited to my teen; I found that you are now an “ist” of some sort for expecting someone to “pass” as their declared gender. Declaring it is all that matters, and that declaration must be obeyed without misstep until they imperiously make the next declaration. There are actual slurs now for real transgenders, who have quaint ideas about actually living as their declared gender and trying so hard to “pass” as it.
The second purpose, as Robert notes above, is that it normalizes and mainstreams making people accept and say things that are obviously and demonstrably untrue.
Other “trans” issues currently kicking up a storm: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6DaPGj56pmk&feature=youtu.be
Tim Pool hosts fed up lesbian leftist Arielle Scarcella who announces she’s quitting the left over trans harrassment and pc oppression. It’s a bonkers business bugout.
Arielle’s announcement video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzYHBPTfXCI
For all the PC Leftists who seem surprised at the extremes to which people have now taken their examples of manipulative outrage (“but we just wanted people to jump through our hoops; we shouldn’t have to jump through yours!”) — and a nod to Dalrymple and Orwell —
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
Trans: state or process. Is she trans/homo or trans/bi? While physical corruption (e.g. simulated attributes) is a visible dysfunction, mental corruption has a more insidious effect, and both are likely a progressive condition. However, with an established Pro-Choice religion, the significance, and collateral damage, are lost with normalization.
sdferr – for Twitterphobes, here’s an article on Arielle at Hot Air.
https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2020/02/24/lesbian-activist-im-coming-insane-progressive-left/
Watch the second video, not the Tweety one.
Go to the 1:50 mark to get the bottom line.
“How did we not see this coming?”
We did.
AesopFan, I’m a bit puzzled how come twitter comes into it for you, since when I click on the link(s) above they both go to new windows on youtube. The first link did come initially by way of twitter though, so maybe it’s disregarded for me, but not for initial clickers? I don’t know, don’t get it.
Still, another residual curiosity too: what’s your beef with twitter viewing? I’m not enrolled with them, though generally have no difficulty viewing stuff there. But anyhow, just curious what’s up?
Art Deco’s “the guild mentality of physicians and surgeons, which inhibited them from offering criticism and rebuke outside of guild fora” is a rebuke which is an error. Falsified data are everywhere in the sciences, not just the medical sciences, and it is only getting worse. The lobotomy case reports were false from the start. Observer bias, seeking good outcomes. The psychiatric field is littered with quacks, Freud being the most prominent. Not a guild thing!
Your guild notion is from the Middle Ages, which we left behind some time ago. Perhaps you just don’t like medicos, for whatever reason.
Art Deco’s “the guild mentality of physicians and surgeons, which inhibited them from offering criticism and rebuke outside of guild fora” is a rebuke which is an error.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178694/
I’d take it up with the producers. They were quite explicit that Dr. Freeman’s peers refrained from saying anything to a lay audience because that would have been (in that era) deemed a breach of professional courtesy. Freeman may have falsified his case reports as well.
sdferr – my mistake; they were all YouTube videos. I’ve gotten used to seeing Tweets in the boxed inserts and didn’t pay attention.
I dislike reading Twitter threads embedded in blog articles because of the mind-numbing repetition, especially when writers not only copy the Tweets into their post, but then repeat their content in the text. Also, they are often copied very sloppily, and sometimes you have to read them bottom to top, other times top to bottom. It’s a lousy way to write an essay (see the long streams notated 1/, 2/, 3/ etc), especially when not all of the segments are reproduced.
As for the original Twitter threads, they are often full of extraneous and, again, repetitive commentary.
I don’t mind reading Unrolled Twitter threads, which is where I go to access Doc Zero’s illuminatingly snarky essays. I just really hate the format when it’s used for anything other than one-liners, and a lot of posts (and all of Twitchy’s) just pull in a sequence of variously amusing and lame one-liners, some by “famous people” and some by just random commenters.
And get off my pixels.
😉
Ah, thanks AesopFan. Agreed as to much of your distaste for the forms. Twitchy for instance I avoid like a plague (which, plague, unfortunately is also out there nowadays in nCov — blech). On Twitter in general I find I self-confine to certain trustworthy and hence somewhat narrow lanes, discovering only now and then a surprise of which I had been ignorant prior. Maybe that’s good though, as rarer delights are more intense on account of their rarity?
“Maybe that’s good though, as rarer delights are more intense on account of their rarity?” – sdferr
Likely so.
I get the same “kick” out of selected comment threads on a few blogs.
PLB readers often post very nice (well, snarky) meme-pix or useful background information, and CTH is the same.
But I still plan to avoid Twitter.
Bottom line: “East, West: Neo’s best.”