A few recent articles might be characterized as culture war fodder. For that reason, I think, I’ve lost a few subscribers!
There are plenty of blogs spouting rhetoric from the right and the left. My only intent for us as tsunami surfers is to see what forces are creating the waves so we don’t land on our faces.
A common question regarding Wokeism as it relates to trans ideology is why the United States isn’t following the lead of other nations.
Finland, Sweden, the UK, and to some degree France have all changed course on gender affirming care. Early proponents initially put forward that puberty blockers, hormonal treatments, and eventual surgeries would lower the distress of teens and prevent suicide. That claim was trumpeted by ideologues as they pointed to a small study from the Netherlands known as the Dutch Protocol—findings that have since been thoroughly disproven.
After observing the damaging and permanent effects of such treatment, and noticing the growing number of teens with horrifying regret, the dominoes of European nations began to tumble.
But the madness continues in the United States with no sign of stopping.
To defend the use of puberty blockers and hormones for distressed youth, Dr. Stephen Hammes, the current president of the Endocrine Society, recently issued a letter of emphatic support, insisting that all the research proves its efficacy.
In response, 21 endocrinologists from nine different countries published an open letter in the Wall Street Journal, refuting Hammes’ claims. Decrying the effect this malpractice has on ruining young lives, they wrote . . .
Every systematic review of evidence to date, including one published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, has found the evidence for mental-health benefits of hormonal interventions for minors to be of low or very low certainty. . . . For this reason, more and more European countries and international professional organizations now recommend psychotherapy rather than hormones and surgeries as the first line of treatment for gender-dysphoric youth.
So the question remains, Why doesn’t the US wake up and reverse course? In part, it is because the forces of identity politics have infected many facets of medical research.
Take autism as an example. The Free Press last month published an article titled “The Autism Surge: Lies, Conspiracies, and My Own Kids.” Written by Jill Escher, a former lawyer now turned advocate for her two autistic children, she describes how identity politics has squashed autism research despite the skyrocketing rates in recent decades. Citing statistics from her home state of California, the caseload for the Department of Developmental Services has increased 50 fold in 33 years. She writes:
The recent rise of the “neurodiversity” identity movement, where autism is reinvented as a natural difference to be celebrated, not investigated, prevented, or treated, has helped spread a fairy dust of complacency over the autism world. While rates continue to climb—to 1 in 36, or nearly 3 percent, of all eight-year-olds by the latest count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—the world, except of course for parents like me, seems to be waving a white flag of surrender. It’s become de rigueur to normalize autism rather than treat it as the national emergency it most certainly is.
The mesmerizing influence of wokeism and, in this case, identity politics in general, is hindering research on autism, squashing debate on trans ideology, and promoting the racist notion that all white people are inherently evil. It is a cultural social contagion.
“Social contagion” is the phrase you often hear in reference to the surge in teens identifying as trans. Constant use of the internet, the influence of peers, and the aggressive agenda promoted in some schools, have created an atmosphere of confusion. Like a virus, the delusion is contracted by distraught teens looking for a sense of belonging.
In a recent article, I encouraged you to purchase Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness by Miriam Grossman. In the next article, I’ll include some insights from the the Foreword. There Jordan Peterson sheds more light on social contagion in general, applying it not simply to its spread among teens, but two other types of contagion rampant in our culture. As alarming as his thoughts may be, it gives us some clues as to why the United States and Canada have distanced themselves beyond the reach of the European domino train.
Again, our aim is not to spend our days observing the shifting tectonic plates at the ocean floor, but to minister wisely to the very ones caught up in this destructive Tsunami. Understanding the cultural shifts helps us to know what lies ahead for ministry to the sexually broken.
Thank you for your ongoing readership and support!
The ignoring of research that does not support what we believe is selective science. Ideology over any contradictory thought or truth.
I think that the ship of culture lists right and left in a sort of autocorrect mode. I understand the concern about Autism not being taken seriously, but I have found that some of the people I know who are on the spectrum have been helped by this new way of framing it. One of my friends always says, "No big deal. It's just the tism (Autism)." I suppose the reason why these debates persist is because different people have different experiences with these issues.