The Legendary Dragon Alephwyr, named Alephwyr, BA

when people define “trans” as simply a mental illness, is that a denial of existence?https://twitter.com/zephariouself/status/1247574647543037955 …

That's like asking if a false construct can be part of a valid logical derivation. Like if the statement "dragons are greedy, greed is bad, therefore dragons are bad" can be construed as meaningfully referring to something, let alone logically valid.

i mean, i agree there’s a bunch of flaws in the idea, but it was *really* a leading, socratic question i don’t have to demonstrate the special pleading built into their identity to *you*

It seems probable that it would be considered a mental illness even if the underlying gender materialism/essentialism were proven beyond any doubt, simply because mental illness is a construct that preceded materialism and comes mostly from social observations and such.

Here's a riddle for you: given what we're able to define about the construct of mental illness in general, were political dissidents who supported capitalism and were diagnosed with mental illness under communist regimes actually mentally ill?

Special pleading is ubiquitous in psychology. A Masai warrior who hears voices but is socially functional in their tribe is not considered schizoaffective or psychotic, while identical presentation that results in social dysfunction in the west, is.

i agree with some of foucault’s historical criticisms of the institution of “mental illness”, and many of the ideas of thomas szasz (both of whom i assume you agree with) my problem with self-asserted identity doesn’t actually intersect those ideas

I don't consider transsexualism or even gender to be an identity or a reasonable component of identity and think that's a bewildering confusion.