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[–]JulienMayfair 30 insightful - 1 fun30 insightful - 0 fun31 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Reality check: Just remember that no one had heard of this nonsense just 10 years ago.

I was teaching at colleges until 2009, and I never heard anyone mention special pronouns. Nothing. Nada. Not a word. I sometimes had as many as 120 students per semester and never had a single student who identified themselves as trans. The whole issue of gender identity might as well not have existed.

Can you think of any phenomenon that's taken this seriously by so many people that basically came out of nowhere to become such a contentious issue in such a short span of time???

[–]ChunkeeguyTeam T*RF Fuck Yeah[S] 18 insightful - 9 fun18 insightful - 8 fun19 insightful - 9 fun -  (0 children)

Unfortunately people have short memories and their genuine memories are easily overwritten by false ones. Malcolm Michael’s was always a transwoman of colour who started the Stonewall riots and gave LGB people their rights. Always. Since about 5 years ago always.

[–]bopomofodojo 20 insightful - 3 fun20 insightful - 2 fun21 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Can you think of any phenomenon

Not one that doesn't have massive, institutional backing somehow. Which definitely fits this one.

It's definitely a form of mass hysteria being pushed by a small group to get rich (https://thefederalist.com/2018/02/20/rich-white-men-institutionalizing-transgender-ideology/) while also becoming immensely popular with the large swaths of alienated, downtrodden, and pornsick Millennials and Gen-Zers for whom it is simultaneously a large embracing community but also the epitome of disadvantage and oppression, which for wokesters is absolutely critical for social clout. It's a modern secular religion who's appeal is like that of any other trendy phenomenon ("the goths are now the trans kids") and also has social and parasocial benefits for those involved. A perfect storm of profit motive, late capitalist hellscape, and (para)social factors coming together to produce society-wide madness.

I take solace in that, like all such fads, it will die out eventually. But not before destroying thousands of lives.

[–]strawberrycake 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I graduated college in the mid-2010s. A pronoun was just a grammatical term when I was there. I was never asked my pronouns. The LGBT organization had like one trans person and actual gay/bi people. I didn’t even know the concept or know anyone who identified as such until the early 2010s. In fact, I remember seeing a guy wearing a skirt on campus and everyone thought that was progressive. We were this close to a movement abolishing gender roles…

[–]wafflegaffWoman. SuperBi. 9 insightful - 3 fun9 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Pokemon, perhaps. Which was equally possessed of meaningful substance.

Also I'm glad you got out before the gender cult showed up on campus. Yikes.

[–]julesburm1891 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I went to a small university in the early 2010s. There were two trans people on a campus of 5,000. Both were lesbians. There wasn’t a single non-binary person.

[–]JulienMayfair 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I was 26 before I even met a trans person. As far as I can remember, the topic was never even mentioned during my entire college education.