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feministdragon · 5 years

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The conclusion to 'Inauthentic Selves'

“I was inspired to investigate the election funding behind the Anchorage ‘bathroom bill’ municipal ordinance, not by anything relating to transgenderism, but researching how philanthropy empowers other causes into the stratosphere. I wondered — how much of this is also happening with identity politics? I wanted to follow the money. And thus, that set off months of investigating funding, causes and lobby groups. The totality of my research was impossible to fit into a single article. But the evidence is clear: transgenderism isn’t a real civil rights movement.

Let us think about it: what every group in the transgender lobby is demanding is essentially guaranteed access to medication for off-label purposes. None of these drugs are approved for transgender uses. Given the data we do have and the state of the science behind that data, accompanied by the side effects up to and including death, it is unlikely to ever be approved by the FDA in a clinical trial. Unless, of course, the side effects were better than the outcome. Hence, the creation of a perception that transgender people are murdered a at higher rates than the general population, even though that isn’t true. Saying that the side effects are better than the suicide of the patient probably wouldn’t pass muster either, given that medical intervention did not change the fact that transgender people have elevated suicide rates compared to the general population.

Hence our endless bad statistics and fake news. A survey with methodological flaws and some good messaging can cover for the actual reality, at least to the general public. Because the one way these ‘treatments’ could get approved is if the problem is worse than the side effects and the solution — this poor, gender dysphoric wilting flower of a person will kill themselves or be murdered unless they can access ‘gender-affirming healthcare’. Dangerous drugs that have failed clinical trials before could be issued on-label for this process, and protected by civil rights legislation. That the ideology that is built around these demands is incoherent, serves only to foist drugs on to vulnerable people, and is fundamentally homophobic is of little consequence to those who see the dollar signs. Transition could be a big business, which over a 50-year period of ‘transition’ could create a market worth trillions of dollars, if not more. Think of the potential markets! Surgeries that run into the six-figures. Body modifications that have not yet been invented outside of science fiction. And some of the 90’s best-selling-drugs, drugs that could be best-sellers again if only they had blanket approval to be used on a class of people once again.

Almost every philanthropist I investigated had financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry — George Soros and his connections to Pfizer and chemical company Monsanto, Jon Stryker, who is an heir to the Stryker Corporation, which makes medical and surgical supplies. The lone exception was Jennifer Pritzker, who appears to be ideologically motivated, particularly given their transition. Pritzker is extremely-right wing. Perhaps homophobia is their reason, or perhaps they truly believe. Maybe it really is about being ‘validated’ as a ‘woman’. If so, Pritzker is being taken for as much a ride as any other activist, they simply have more fiscal ability to promulgate the ideology. The ideology is a byproduct of the main goal — which is guaranteeing access to expensive, off-label drugs for a group of people, with civil protections. That the ideology has morphed into one that demands lesbians make themselves sexually available to male bodies, where ‘sexual fluidity’ is considered the ideal, and had its language appropriated and used by Christian conversion therapy groups promising a ‘cure’ to homosexuality seems to matter little.

To do this, they have hijacked the once powerful and grassroots gay lobby with large amounts of philanthropic and corporate funding, to the point these organizations have changed their names in order to be ‘inclusive’. Ordinary gays and lesbians, especially the lesbians and their concerns, have been pushed out of their organizations, even as almost every lesbian bar in the US has closed and gay loneliness is on the rise, and as both groups have no federal civil rights protections.

While transgenderism will fall over — because it must, because it cannot be sold to the general public without threats, and because ultimately, it is a corporate initiative using shady if not outright-illegal methods, it won’t happen very fast without people speaking up about it. Ultimately, my concern is for the homosexuals who have lost control of their movement and now face a group of people that believes that their gender non-conformity requires surgery, even if they are children. And if transgenderism does not fall over because of these things, it will fall over because of the lawsuits those children will make. And things like ‘Limited outcome data’ and sterilizing a child for little demonstrated medical benefit look like dollar signs to personal injury and medical malpractice lawyers.

But what this demonstrates the most is that a rich man with an ideology should have no greater voice than the ordinary citizen. We all live in nation-states: we should all contribute equally and proportionally to the pool of funds that run that state and have an equal voice on how those funds are distributed. The ability of the very rich to divert their funds into services and organizations they believe is optimal without any democratic consent is fundamentally anti-democratic, no matter how much you may agree with their aims. Had the billions poured into philanthropy gone to the state, many of these problems could have been solved. Had our nation’s political discourse been one where each voice is equal, would we have the disaffection that creates populist monsters?

As it stands, politics is a battle of oligarchs that wield their ideologies in a great war of money. Their soldiers are professional activists invested in the permanent war between either end of the political spectrum. Their cheerleaders are media outlets that report on these wars, treat them like football games, and take the claims of these organizations to be unassailable fact, it is easy for the average person to disengage and become disaffected. Ultimately, their voice and vote does not matter. This creates a situation where ideologies such as transgenderism, an ideology that is fundamentally incoherent and experimenting on children can be accepted on the left. A situation where the punishment for not going along with the party line is a violently enforced exile.

The influence these large foundations and their funders have on our politics cannot be underestimated, and it needs to be questioned. The transgender civil rights movement consists of (i) large numbers of astroturf organizations funded by billionaires with financial interest in its success, (ii) medical professionals who stand to gain from ‘selling’ transgenderism to the public (and who are happy to lie to the public about their treatments) and (iii) pharmaceutical companies that appear to be engaging in illegal off-label marketing with said medical professionals. The question of what came first-the foundations, the pharmaceutical companies, or the medical professionals -is like asking whether the chicken or the egg came first. But the fact of the matter is, all three groups stand to benefit from the transgender civil rights movement. No transgender person does. With no unbiased research, they cannot get the answers they need to treat their condition effectively. They are left stranded and marooned, with an entire movement dedicated to foisting drugs upon them, instead of finding an actual cure or treatment for gender dysphoria. When ‘transition’ is complete and they are left a castrated eunuch, with no more steps up the Bridge To Total Freedom, their suicidality does not decrease. With an incomplete path to salvation, they are told they can chase after something they can never realize. They are obliterated as a distinct legal class of people by self-identification legislation — the legal ramifications of which could set trans rights back years, which has been raised by gender critical trans activists such as Miranda Yardley.

The modern transgender movement is an astroturf tiger. It is not grassroots, it is not organic, and it serves the purposes of no one beyond homophobes and pharmaceutical companies. It is a menace, it has hollowed out the LGBT community, it threatens women’s legal gains for the past hundred years, and it is going to destroy people’s lives. An entire generation of gender non-conforming children that may have otherwise grown up gay are going to grow up to be brain damaged, weakened eunuchs with a medical malpractice lawyer on retainer. This ‘movement’ needs to end before that happens. The LGBT community needs to wake up and start talking back to the fox in the hen house.”

https://medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

#wow #much words so information #only took me three days to read #complete and perfect

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getoffthesoapbox · 6 years

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[VK/VKM] Meaningful Deaths Spring From Meaningful Lives

I’ve been pondering for a while now about the “pureblood dilemma” of the despair spiral. Purebloods all seem to fixate on death and the idea of death and finding a meaningful death, to the point where they become dangerously destructive toward the wider community around them. I had the opportunity to tackle this topic a bit via an anon ask I received some time ago, but I have more to say on the topic and I want to approach it differently in an official post.

This post isn’t a speculation per se; rather, it’s probably more accurate to call it a collection of my own chaotic thoughts on the matter.

What is a Meaningful Life?

Most people believe meaning is found in happiness, and this appears to be what the purebloods believe as well. The problem with this is that that’s not where meaning is to be found for anyone--most “meaningful” experiences aren’t necessarily happy ones. (An example would be a trying project at work that ends successfully--the experience is meaningful because it helped one grow and expand as a person, but the actual experience was harrowing and tense and full of pressure.)

Chasing happiness is ultimately a pipe dream because happiness is something that happens to you, it’s not something you can create. This is evident even in the purebloods who attain some form of happiness--Haruka and Juri get tired, Kaname admits that sometimes true loves aren’t enough to keep purebloods alive. And if you make happiness your life, what do you do when you’re not happy? Because a time will inevitably come when you are unhappy--even if you never get sick, a friend will, or you’ll lose something dear to you, or a tragedy will befall you. Suffering is an inextricable part of living. Pursuing happiness and pretending suffering away doesn’t alleviate any of the existential burden of suffering.

So how do you live a meaningful life if pursuing happiness isn’t the answer? One way is to simply live your life by trying to avoid or minimize suffering at all costs. We see this very clearly with Isaya’s way of life--he minimizes his desires and tries to stay uncommitted to anything in order to erase any attachment to things or people that might cause him to enter the despair spiral. The problem with this way of life, as we can see from Isaya’s example, is that it is ultimately (as Kaname himself would say) “colorless.” There is no passion in Isaya’s life, no joy, no light. There’s not much suffering either, other than the suffering of living through long, neverending days. He has neither light, nor darkness.

But most people can’t live such a zenlike existence, and even Isaya is searching for a way to die. This is an indication that neither pursuing happiness at all cost nor working to minimize suffering only is enough to give a life meaning.

Another option we have for gaining meaning is one that actually does leave room for both minimizing suffering and “discovering” (or receiving) happiness along the way: purpose.

Purpose, at its core, is what purebloods should be seeking. But most of them get stuck at “pursuit of happiness” or “minimization of suffering.” Only one pureblood as far as I can tell ever found “purpose.” So, let’s figure out what purpose even is. Purpose is actually really simple and it’s very personal, unique, and individual to each person. The simplest way to boil it down is this: to have a purpose is to aim for the highest good you can conceive of and work tirelessly to achieve that good in spite of the obstacles and suffering you will face. Another way to look at this is the idea of “wishing on a star”--aiming for the highest point you can see in the sky and living your life to reach that point.

Now, that may sound very similar to “pursuing happiness” but it’s actually not. Working toward “the good” isn’t necessarily something that will make you happy because it’s not easy. The way you craft a purpose actually requires being willing to bear your suffering and the suffering of others and do what you can to alleviate the suffering within your reach. Purpose begins with the simple acknowledgement of life being suffering, and that no matter which way you turn, you will suffer, so you must pick the path of suffering you think most worthwhile. And how is the worth of the path determined? By the “height” of the ultimate goal you select--and it doesn’t matter what that goal is, as long as it’s something that does the following for you: it makes you feel that all your suffering (that you’re inevitably going to go through) will be worthwhile.

In other words, “purpose” has nothing to do with happiness. Happiness happens incidentally when one is pursuing purpose. The truth of life is that even if you do nothing (as Isaya does), you will suffer. Suffering is the only true fact of life--everything is either some form of suffering, or death. (Even happiness itself or love come with suffering--the converse, the fear of loss, always accompanies happiness.) It’s incumbent upon each person to look at the paths of suffering available to them and select the option that will ultimately do the most good, not just for themselves, but for others as well. In more mythological terms, the point of purpose is the selection of the cross (weight) one will bear in the world (suffer) and WILLINGLY lifting it up and bearing it without complaint.

The longer your lifespan, the bigger your purpose needs to be to accommodate the suffering you’ll encounter (because to live is to suffer). So purebloods have it really hard, because they have to account for eternal suffering. Admittedly, that’s a pretty tough thing to wrap one’s head around, but they do have a few tools available to help them achieve a meaningful life via a purpose. The problem is, only one of them ever figured it out, and she figured it out mostly by accident.

The tools are as follows (in no particular order):

Think of what would be good for you now, 10 years from now, 100 years from now, etc.

Think of what would be good for you and good for your family now, 10 years from now, 100 years from now, etc.

Think of what would be good for you, your family, and your community now, 10 years from now, 100 years from now, etc.

Think of what would be good for you, your family, your community, and the world now, 10 years from now, 100 years from now, etc.

There are actually only a finite number of answers one can come up with using this method, because it does a few interesting things. First, it separates “you” into you, future you, eternal you. Therefore you’re not planning for just “you,” you’re planning for all the “yous” that will ever exist in the future as if they are different and distinct people. But you don’t stop there--once you’ve figured things out for yourself, you look outside yourself to your family, community, and world now, in the future, and into eternity. (Obviously humans would just do now and in the future, but purebloods need the eternity factor.) Then you orient your life around fulfilling the best possible way of living that accounts for every single one of these variables (obviously making adjustments as necessary and as you grow). If purebloods spent more time thinking about this than whining about how unfortunate they are, they’d probably be in better shape.

TL;DR - Purebloods focus on the wrong thing--happiness or minimizing suffering--in their lives. They should be focusing on finding “purpose” to their eternal suffering and steering their lives by the course of that purpose. Purpose should include more than just the pureblood’s own selfish interests--it should include the benefits to their future selves, their families, their friends, their communities, and their world. Only when they find a purpose that accounts for all these facets of their lives and strive willingly to bear the burden of their own suffering without complaint and try their best to alleviate suffering of their own and others’ will they find the meaningful lives they truly seek.

When one has a meaningful life, one does not need a meaningful death nor does one fear death. And when the end does come (whether by the cure, or by sacrifice, or by the sword for purebloods), the meaningful life will produce a meaningful death as a natural byproduct.

Why Purebloods Fail at Living Meaningful Lives

If humanity’s natural state is suffering, with only death to rescue us, how much worse is it for purebloods who can’t even escape the hell of living and have no death to comfort them when they are tired? Pureblood existence is by nature as hellish an existence as one could get--when they’re dissatisfied and nihilistic, they become bloodthirsty monsters like Rido or they can’t even bear the weight of living and take long naps and lose their hope in life like Ouri or Isaya.

Naturally, the purebloods’ obsession turns not to life, but to death, because it is the one thing nature has denied them. The grim reaper wants no pureblood at his side. They’ll have to go through hoops to reach him. Over time since their inception, purebloods must have doe all sorts of things to try to kill themselves--surely they fought wars over it and tried to commit suicide in all manner of ways. Eventually they found at least one option that seemed to work--turning other purebloods into humans via the sacrifice of their lives. And while this is certainly a meaningful death in some sense (giving a loved one the opportunity to live in the light), it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution for the remainder of the purebloods.

Because purebloods are so fixated on eternity and death, they become naval-gazers who can only see their own suffering and fail to see the damage they cause those around them via their destructive temper tantrums. A great example is Kaname in Yuuki’s memory from Night 51--Yuuki is a tiny child sitting with Kaname, and he’s unloading his eternal suffering onto her shoulders and naval-gazing about how sad eternity is. He’s not thinking or caring about the burden he’s placing on her, nor is he taking responsibility for his life--he’s only concerned about his own suffering. This is how purebloods pass on suffering to everyone they know--they don’t know how to serve.

Kaname’s a great example here too. During his ancestor days, he would “help” the villagers--but rather than his help being from his heart and out of a desire to serve the greater good he was looking to create for himself, what he was actually seeking was something as petty as “acceptance.” He was placing the burden of his suffering on the villagers, while at the same time stealing from them behind the scenes. When they (rightfully) became angry at his duplicity, he closed himself off from service (which he’d never truly done to begin with) and began the path of wallowing in his pain and licking his wounds that he continues throughout the remainder of his 10K+ lifespan. Not even the Hooded Woman’s clear example helps him see how he should be living his life.

Complicating the purebloods’ self-centered tendencies is another problem--their charisma. Charismamones mean nobody but other purebloods can be “trusted” because all other beings are “prey” to purebloods and thus are affected by their charismamones. Purebloods cannot have friends among other variants of vampire or human because they can’t know for sure if the bonds are manipulated by their charismamones or not. (This is compounded by master/servant bonding.) However, the reason this is a problem is not actually due to the charismamones--it’s due to the purebloods placing a higher value on themselves than on the ones who are affected by their charismamones. This, again, is something the Hooded Woman is the only one of the purebloods not to do--she never once holds any resentment toward humans or lower vampires for falling for charismamones, nor does she seem to hold any disdain for such bonds. Thus, she doesn’t suffer over it like Kaname, Sara, and the other younger purebloods seem to.

So purebloods have a double punch here on the suffering front--they’re already inclined to be myopically obsessed with themselves and their own immortality and they can’t trust the bonds they form with anyone but other purebloods. On top of this, they become insanely attached to their romantic partners at the expense of all else, which can be a problem (see Shizuka) if that partner is not also a pureblood. These factors all lead to faster despair descents and deep nosedives into nihilism, on top of placing the “burden for happiness” on the shoulders of one person (see what Kaname does to Yuuki--he expects her to fill his world with color for all eternity, a heavy burden to place on anyone).

Fundamentally, purebloods have a misunderstanding of existence and how they should interact with the world because they have so many complexes--they believe themselves superior and inferior simultaneously, they’re obsessed with death and themselves but are also afraid of life and losing their lives, they’re afraid of manufactured bonds but are unable to let go of control, and even when they do form bonds, they’re often with lower level vampires or humans who have finite lifespans and die.

It’s really strange that a philosopher never rose out of the purebloods, though maybe this is because Hino isn’t any good at philosophy. But as far as I can tell, a philosopher might have been of use to the purebloods--someone to help them reorient themselves toward living. Rather than being obsessed with death, they should have become obsessed with life--or, rather, how to live a good life for all eternity in a world full of suffering.

The Pureblood Who Got The Balance Right

The Hooded Woman is definitely the most remarkable of the purebloods. None of the others, not even Yuuki, ever surpass her. She was the first and the last, a symbol of greatness that was lost in time. I often wonder if Kaname was right--he should have been the forge, because the purebloods needed this woman far more than they needed him. Had she lived, perhaps the chaos the purebloods carried with them would have been mitigated.

Still, this is a woman who had her priorities straight. She lived with purpose and did not sit around merely trying to find personal happiness or minimize her own suffering. She chose her goals and aimed for them no matter the cost. In life, she was fearless but also compassionate and had a huge heart--not only did she love humans, but she also loved vampires! Her “high aim” was to find a way for both of them to exist in the world without bloodshed or animosity. Of course, her first solution was to merely gather all the purebloods and sequester them on an island. But this proved difficult because there were obviously purebloods who just wanted to abuse their predator abilities, and she couldn’t convince everyone to join her. The plan had to be abandoned.

But did this woman fall into despair and boo hoo over her fate? No, she merely changed directions and began fighting the purebloods abusing their power. She still continued to face suffering head on and shoulder the burden because she knew she was strong enough to bear it. I love the way she calls her parents fragile, and humans fragile. It shows how much she’s thought about the difference between herself and humans, and also how she values her own strength and ability to carry those fragile beings on her shoulders.

And when the time came to face her death (or let Kaname die), she chose to face death courageously in order to protect everyone and still allow Kaname a chance to find his own purpose in life--a purpose that couldn’t be found in death. She offers her life to the hunters and becomes a weapon for 10,000 years. A tireless, unflagging weapon burning eternally on her own. The only pureblood in history to do so. Even Kaname only burns for 1000 years, and he gets to live again. Only the Hooded Woman saw it through to the end.

Even so, she never once complains. She never once despairs. She carries on with a bold, brazen attitude and an unflagging, unwavering smile. I mean, heck, just look at that smile on her up there in the header image for this post--of all the major “deaths” in this series, only this woman truly lived and died in peace. I doubt she ever regretted a day in her life, unlike everyone else in this series. ;)

Had the purebloods followed her example, instead of burying her in time and forgetting her, how much happier would they all have been? How much better would their world and society have been, if they’d cheerfully carried the world on their shoulders as she did?

Meaningful Deaths Spring From Meaningful Lives

When the Hooded Woman died, she was smiling. When Kaname cast his heart into the forge, he was suffering and in pain. Zero and Yuuki both smile when they die, but clearly they both still have regrets as they go--Zero, because he has to leave Yuuki alone, and Yuuki because she’s lost Zero and failed Kaname.

We haven’t yet seen Kaname’s true death, but I hope he finally achieves what the Hooded Woman wanted for him--a meaningful life which leads to a meaningful death. But he’ll only find that if he can ever find a legitimate purpose for his life, and maybe as a human he can finally discover a purpose worth living 80 or so odd years for.

But even Zero and Yuuki don’t achieve what the Hooded Woman achieved. Neither of them managed to find happiness for eternity. Still, they obviously get much closer to it than Kaname did before Yuuki turned him. We don’t know the road they take yet, or how difficult the suffering is, or how they choose to bear it. All we can say for certain is that Zero and Yuuki had meaningful enough lives that they could smile at the end of them, though clearly they still had some regrets as their smiles aren’t nearly Hooded Woman quality.

Now it’s Kaname’s turn to find purpose and, through purpose, meaning. Whether Hino’s going to show that or not, I don’t know. All I can say is, it’s clear to me these characters need to stop focusing on only themselves and their significant others and start looking at a wider picture in order to find the happiness they seek--which is really just purpose to make life worth living, with happiness as an incidental perk. Only when they find this can they face death without fear--something Yuuki’s clearly still struggling with even now in VKM.

Time will tell, I suppose.

#vampire knight #vampire knight memories

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