Oct 20, 2022·edited Oct 20, 2022Liked by Harrison Koehli
Reading this essay has made me reconsider my Deist beliefs. Maybe YHWH does intervene in lives and in societies. There are daily reminders of how Amerika has sunk into a swamp of perversion and self-deception. Maybe Sodom and Gomorrah actually were destroyed by a god that could not stand disgusting behavior. It is no longer a question of whether the United States will fall: the only question is when.
Oct 20, 2022·edited Oct 20, 2022Liked by Harrison Koehli
"Perhaps it’s delusion. But I’d put my money on good old-fashioned pathological egotism and suggestion of self and others. He’s trying to convince himself as much as he’s trying to coerce others."
Modeling minds is a real bastard of a chore under ordinary circumstances. It's something we are trained (and train ourselves) to do almost from birth, but it remains a messy, fuzzy process. For someone like Jamie, I think the task approaches the impossible.
My best guess is that to be a "Jamie" is to be an observer standing in a hall of cracked and shattered mirrors, simultaneously confounded and intoxicated by every shard of himself he sees. This might be one way to imagine the condition of being for a borderline narcissist, if that's what we're dealing with. But I'm not yet satisfied that's the most useful language model.
"I find it amazing how effortlessly new converts seem to adopt the exact same pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting, as if they’ve “downloaded” a program in the Matrix."
I agree. And I think there are enough people who notice this rapid-deployment "programmable" aspect of being that it's worth considering as a real possibility. That's not to say that trauma and/or inherent narcissism doesn't play a part in it. But consider for a moment that the artists who brought "The Matrix" to the screen seem to themselves be classic examples of narcissistic autogynephiliacs (and nasty characters to boot). The question of if (and how) they are literally being programmed shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, IMO.
In any case, this was a fascinating (and somewhat horrifying) topic and article, Harrison. Thanks.
Is Quillette Claire still exhibiting her Aussie government plandemic lockdown tyranny denialism? Someone should do a Twitter feed analysis of her digital expressions of Stockholm Syndrome.
"I find it amazing how effortlessly new converts seem to adopt the exact same pattern of thinking.." Joost Meerloo calls this totalitarian thinking of the mass. The Ts of the alphabet people definitely adopt it. It does seem like simply downloading mind software.
From a trauma informed perspective it is obvious these are manifestations of the trauma, e.g. being dissociated from our bodies and hatred of our own bodies go hand-in-hand. Clearly, these behaviours and affectations should not be encouraged any more than anexoria or self-harm should be encouraged. Therapists that do encourage it should be struck off.
I find it interesting that you’re reviewing the review (and not the book). I haven’t yet read the book, but I plan to. Trans topics form a large part of what I write about. I did hear Shannon’s guest appearance on “Gender: A Wider Lens” podcast.
What struck me, to hear Shannon tell it, is how normal their lives were before this idea took over Jamie’s mind. And Shannon herself sounds emotionally healthy. You can make fun of them for being college-educated liberals who experimented sexually in their youth, grew their own vegetables, and occasionally waxed philosophic (although those would be kind of cheap shots to take at people who, before this mess, were just minding their own business and living functional lives), but really, they had full productive lives, both professionally and personally, with a wide range of hobbies and interests, before this obsession took over Jamie’s life and ruined it.
Yes, surely he bears responsibility for getting deep into a paraphilia and letting that obsession take over his life.
But what I find really sad is this -- our entire society participates in encouraging _this_ particular obsessive paraphilia, _these_ particular people’s harm.
Imagine an alcoholic. Surely he bears responsibility for getting his act together and getting sober. But imagine if every media outlet, every corporation, every nonprofit, every university and K-12 system, every friend and neighbor, every doctor, nurse, psychologist and social worker, was on board with “validating” and encouraging his alcoholism, instead of trying to get the alcoholic to come to his senses and make better choices.
It doesn’t take much imagination to understand that it would be orders of magnitude harder to get out of that destructive, escalating, positive-feedback loop that was ruining your life, right?
So as much as I find people with personality disorders extremely unlikable and avoid them at all costs; and as much as I particularly loathe society’s self-righteous support of the trans delusion, as if it’s not a scourge and a behavioral addiction but rather our century’s foremost civil rights battle; I still feel compassion for Shannon and for Jamie, who has now had his genitals surgically removed, is divorced, and is alone and miserable with his unfulfilling obsessions and his online “friends” and whose life is well and truly messed up. Even if he snaps out of this and wants to get his life back, he’s never getting his penis back.
As much as society wants to portray “trans people” as being their authentic true selves and self-actualizing, that doesn’t seem to match reality.
To me this is a really sad story in which almost everyone in the West is complicit. Yet I’m reading a lot of contempt and blame here -- maybe you don’t intend that, and I’m misreading. Certainly Jamie bears responsibility for his bad choices. But these particular bad choices are cheerled and enabled by our entire culture at the moment, with no thought nor acknowledgment of the lives that are destroyed. The left and mainstream society are actively harming these people. The right seem to feel pleasure in watching these people suffer, as if they’re just wrong-thinking ignoramuses who are getting what they deserve.
But really? These are fellow humans. Who is going to help them? No one seems interested in that.
I feel sorry for the Jamies of the world, even if I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with them for five minutes.
I have been instructed that deeply disturbed people dramatize sexual "irregular practices" but I have seldom seen it spelled out as it is in this account..
Today we continue to excoriate public personalities who are caught being sexually promiscuous or abusive while celebrating the world of transgender men and women. This may one day catch up with us (if it hasn't already). These behaviors point to chronic conditions of fear or personality disorder. These conditions are also accompanied by crime or antisocial behaviors. Not only should we be cautious about letting such people into our personal, civic or business lives, but we run the risk of cultural collapse if we give such people too much power or influence. And there are individuals on this planet who yearn for such cultural collapses and actively work for them. I appreciate all efforts to make the general public more aware that such persons exist.
Kintsugi is my go-to comforting metaphor in trials & tribulations both intra- and inter- personal: if we manage to come out on the other side and heal properly, the remaining scars add rather than subtract 😊
Excellent! Your sacrifice (of drinking the poison for me and passing on the detoxified essence) reminded me of stories of how artic shaman would eat the toxic amanita and, after detoxifying to an extent, pass the magic visionary power on to their circle of initiates. Luckily for me, you were able to bestow this gift using your mind and words.
Reading this essay has made me reconsider my Deist beliefs. Maybe YHWH does intervene in lives and in societies. There are daily reminders of how Amerika has sunk into a swamp of perversion and self-deception. Maybe Sodom and Gomorrah actually were destroyed by a god that could not stand disgusting behavior. It is no longer a question of whether the United States will fall: the only question is when.
"Perhaps it’s delusion. But I’d put my money on good old-fashioned pathological egotism and suggestion of self and others. He’s trying to convince himself as much as he’s trying to coerce others."
Modeling minds is a real bastard of a chore under ordinary circumstances. It's something we are trained (and train ourselves) to do almost from birth, but it remains a messy, fuzzy process. For someone like Jamie, I think the task approaches the impossible.
My best guess is that to be a "Jamie" is to be an observer standing in a hall of cracked and shattered mirrors, simultaneously confounded and intoxicated by every shard of himself he sees. This might be one way to imagine the condition of being for a borderline narcissist, if that's what we're dealing with. But I'm not yet satisfied that's the most useful language model.
"I find it amazing how effortlessly new converts seem to adopt the exact same pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting, as if they’ve “downloaded” a program in the Matrix."
I agree. And I think there are enough people who notice this rapid-deployment "programmable" aspect of being that it's worth considering as a real possibility. That's not to say that trauma and/or inherent narcissism doesn't play a part in it. But consider for a moment that the artists who brought "The Matrix" to the screen seem to themselves be classic examples of narcissistic autogynephiliacs (and nasty characters to boot). The question of if (and how) they are literally being programmed shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, IMO.
In any case, this was a fascinating (and somewhat horrifying) topic and article, Harrison. Thanks.
Is Quillette Claire still exhibiting her Aussie government plandemic lockdown tyranny denialism? Someone should do a Twitter feed analysis of her digital expressions of Stockholm Syndrome.
"I find it amazing how effortlessly new converts seem to adopt the exact same pattern of thinking.." Joost Meerloo calls this totalitarian thinking of the mass. The Ts of the alphabet people definitely adopt it. It does seem like simply downloading mind software.
As Foucault put it half a century ago: we do not speak discourse, discourse speaks us.
This couple might have been better off to have had children. Maybe a bit of grounding in reality would have been helpful.
And I hear you about Quillette.
From a trauma informed perspective it is obvious these are manifestations of the trauma, e.g. being dissociated from our bodies and hatred of our own bodies go hand-in-hand. Clearly, these behaviours and affectations should not be encouraged any more than anexoria or self-harm should be encouraged. Therapists that do encourage it should be struck off.
I find it interesting that you’re reviewing the review (and not the book). I haven’t yet read the book, but I plan to. Trans topics form a large part of what I write about. I did hear Shannon’s guest appearance on “Gender: A Wider Lens” podcast.
What struck me, to hear Shannon tell it, is how normal their lives were before this idea took over Jamie’s mind. And Shannon herself sounds emotionally healthy. You can make fun of them for being college-educated liberals who experimented sexually in their youth, grew their own vegetables, and occasionally waxed philosophic (although those would be kind of cheap shots to take at people who, before this mess, were just minding their own business and living functional lives), but really, they had full productive lives, both professionally and personally, with a wide range of hobbies and interests, before this obsession took over Jamie’s life and ruined it.
Yes, surely he bears responsibility for getting deep into a paraphilia and letting that obsession take over his life.
But what I find really sad is this -- our entire society participates in encouraging _this_ particular obsessive paraphilia, _these_ particular people’s harm.
Imagine an alcoholic. Surely he bears responsibility for getting his act together and getting sober. But imagine if every media outlet, every corporation, every nonprofit, every university and K-12 system, every friend and neighbor, every doctor, nurse, psychologist and social worker, was on board with “validating” and encouraging his alcoholism, instead of trying to get the alcoholic to come to his senses and make better choices.
It doesn’t take much imagination to understand that it would be orders of magnitude harder to get out of that destructive, escalating, positive-feedback loop that was ruining your life, right?
So as much as I find people with personality disorders extremely unlikable and avoid them at all costs; and as much as I particularly loathe society’s self-righteous support of the trans delusion, as if it’s not a scourge and a behavioral addiction but rather our century’s foremost civil rights battle; I still feel compassion for Shannon and for Jamie, who has now had his genitals surgically removed, is divorced, and is alone and miserable with his unfulfilling obsessions and his online “friends” and whose life is well and truly messed up. Even if he snaps out of this and wants to get his life back, he’s never getting his penis back.
As much as society wants to portray “trans people” as being their authentic true selves and self-actualizing, that doesn’t seem to match reality.
To me this is a really sad story in which almost everyone in the West is complicit. Yet I’m reading a lot of contempt and blame here -- maybe you don’t intend that, and I’m misreading. Certainly Jamie bears responsibility for his bad choices. But these particular bad choices are cheerled and enabled by our entire culture at the moment, with no thought nor acknowledgment of the lives that are destroyed. The left and mainstream society are actively harming these people. The right seem to feel pleasure in watching these people suffer, as if they’re just wrong-thinking ignoramuses who are getting what they deserve.
But really? These are fellow humans. Who is going to help them? No one seems interested in that.
I feel sorry for the Jamies of the world, even if I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with them for five minutes.
Wow.
I would probably never read that book, either.
I have been instructed that deeply disturbed people dramatize sexual "irregular practices" but I have seldom seen it spelled out as it is in this account..
Today we continue to excoriate public personalities who are caught being sexually promiscuous or abusive while celebrating the world of transgender men and women. This may one day catch up with us (if it hasn't already). These behaviors point to chronic conditions of fear or personality disorder. These conditions are also accompanied by crime or antisocial behaviors. Not only should we be cautious about letting such people into our personal, civic or business lives, but we run the risk of cultural collapse if we give such people too much power or influence. And there are individuals on this planet who yearn for such cultural collapses and actively work for them. I appreciate all efforts to make the general public more aware that such persons exist.
Kintsugi is my go-to comforting metaphor in trials & tribulations both intra- and inter- personal: if we manage to come out on the other side and heal properly, the remaining scars add rather than subtract 😊
Excellent! Your sacrifice (of drinking the poison for me and passing on the detoxified essence) reminded me of stories of how artic shaman would eat the toxic amanita and, after detoxifying to an extent, pass the magic visionary power on to their circle of initiates. Luckily for me, you were able to bestow this gift using your mind and words.
Citing it today, in: https://heroesvsvillains.substack.com/p/evolution-or-devolution