LifestyleDoes anyone have any suggestions for how to not feel so depressed about all this?

submitted by reluctant_commenter from (self.LGBDropTheT)

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[–]soundsituationI myself was once a gay 26 insightful - 1 fun26 insightful - 0 fun27 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

-Realize that in a culture of fear and censorship you don't actually know how isolated you are. I don't say this to dismiss the isolation you feel; I feel it sometimes too. But what is more likely? That everyone you know believes men can be women, or that people fear the repercussions of speaking out? Related to that, I don't know if you're following the Lia Thomas situation but it seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back regarding men in women's sports. And that's only because someone had the courage to protest, inspiring many others to do the same. Courage begets courage.

-Familiarize yourself with other forums that are critical of trans dogma. I love saidit, but if we lost it, even if only to infiltration, we'd need a new oasis of sanity. I really believe in cultivating decentralization for exactly this reason. Additionally, learn to recognize the common shill tactics that bad actors use to divide communities and drive users away from forums. (This is what I believe happened to s/Lesbians btw)

-Check out James Lindsay's New Discourses podcast (as well as the book he co-authored with the amazing Helen Pluckrose, Cynical Theories). He covers the history and philosophy that got us to where we are today, and for me, just having an understanding of that is comforting.

-Make friends with older people. Reach out to/reconnect with your favorite aunts/uncles/teachers if possible. If you need mental health counseling, seek out older therapists. They will help tether you to reality.

-Watch LGB movies/shows that ignore the trans. There's actually tons of it. Letterboxd is a good resource.

-At the risk of veering off topic, I'll close by saying that we are in a crisis that encompasses much more than the gender insanity. That's some shit luck for us but it also gives us the opportunity to act heroically in whatever ways we can. Every crisis produces heroes. Take pride in that.

[–]emptiedriver 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Courage begets courage.

I do think this is the key thing. There are probably more people who don't believe this crap than who do, but the ones who do are more fervent. They have scared a portion of those who disagree from speaking up, and then another percentage of people think it's a side issue that doesn't matter much. It's sort of a scale from those who feel frustrated by a fear of social ostracism to those who are just trying to avoid conflict - who cares if it's true, let's not fight over it, kinda thing.

So what matters now is to make it clear that both a) it is important and does have serious consequences especially for women's and LGB rights, as well as many individuals' health and well-being; and b) there are plenty of people who agree on the basic facts at hand here, and we should all be speaking up more often in more places so that it's more evident to those nearby that it's a common, established, politically variable, simply fundamental position to hold. Anyone can say "there are two sexes" and "men cannot be women" - we've got to remind people those are ordinary things to be stating, and that we are not taking the nonsense seriously, by being clear about it whenever there's a chance.