I don’t know, sometimes the though of “what if all my leftist ideas are false? What if trans people are just mentally ill? What if gay people are just deviants?”
I honestly really don’t like it…
It’s good to question your beliefs I guess, it’s how you grow, but it sometimes makes me really uncomfortable. Why does this happen? Can I stop it? Should I?
Great, go with that, what if?
What if trans people are just mentally ill? Well, if they’re mentally ill then that implies that there’s a cure, we don’t know what that cure is, therefore treating it like an illness is pointless. Instead we should treat it like a condition, i.e. something that the person has to live with. Other examples of conditions are ADHD or Autism, and how do we deal with those? Well, the first step is always for the person to accept that they have that condition and make arrangements so that they can live a “normal” life, these might include taking prescription drugs to normalize their brain chemistry but also behavioral and environmental changes to make their situation more comfortable, including asking people to have leniency on stuff like tardiness which is difficult for them to control. And how is that any different from a trans person taking hormones and asking people to use different pronouns? Why does it matter to me if the person wants to transition? It’s their body, I don’t care if someone does plastic surgery to change their nose, why should I care about their genitalia?. So what if being trans was a mental illness? Until a cure is found nothing changes, whenever a cure gets found then we can reopen the discussion, but unless a person is being a menace to others I oppose the idea of mandatory treatment, so it would be up to trans people whether they wanted to change their body or their minds, and I know what I would choose 100% (I’m a mind, I have a body, changing my body doesn’t change who I am, so that’s an easy choice for me).
What of gay people are just deviants? First you would have to define deviant, but in any sense of that word it honestly doesn’t matter, because what two consenting adults decide to do, deviant or not, is their own business. So why should you care?. The only “valid” answer here that I can think of involves religion, but we live in a secular society, where we recognize freedom of religion, therefore your religious ideas can’t be imposed onto others, so it’s not a valid argument in our society either.
So long story short, what if trans are mentally ill? Nothing changes, they should still be able to choose the sort of treatment they would prefer for their “illness”, and hormonal therapy, surgery and asking people to use different pronouns is a valid treatment. What if gays were deviant? Nothing changes, any group of people where all of them are consenting adults should be able to do whatever the hell they want to. So what if you’re wrong? You still should behave the way you already do, so nothing changes.
If you feel crazy because you don’t fit in, it’s entirely possible you’re not the crazy one. It’s entirely possible a large portion of society is on another bender.
I found the book, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” by Charles Mackay helpful.
It was first published in 1841, so it’s in the public domain and available online. I found my copy in a used bookstore for a $1.
Mackay documents many of the public manias that overtook society up to that point. He describes dozens of them and remember, his list stops in the mid-1800’s.
Being aware of this pattern helps me to realize that a large number of humans are highly illogical. It helps me to understand that yes, a large number of people can all go off the deep end. It’s not me, it’s them. Notably, I can’t do anything about it. All I can do is lie low and ride it out.
I always look at it this way. So what?
What if I’m wrong and gay people are deviants? Well if I’m wrong, they get to live life like they want to. No problem there.
What if trans people are mentally ill? Well, we don’t stop boob jobs or tattoos, and if we’re claiming trans is ill then those are too. So no problem with that either.
Think of the consequences of your actions, and if those consequences are OK even if you’re wrong, then you can stop worrying.
You should always Question everything, If someone tells you not to question it, question it Harder.
If it is the Truth then it doesn’t matter if you Question it or not, and nobody should care if you question it
If it’s a Lie, then You need to know why you’re being lied to, you need to know who benefits from it, you need to know if the Lie was worth suppression of the Truth.
If your life is truly better with the Lie it is always better to know and make that decision for yourself, never let others dictate what you believe because it is better for them, If you are going to follow a Lie make sure it is in your best interest. Because anyone will tell you a lie to help themselves but no one will willingly work against their own self interest.
