On Monday, March 27, 2023, a woman named Audrey Hale, a transgender individual who identified as a man named Aiden Hale, entered a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, and murdered six people, three of them 9-year-olds. The tragedy has been the primary topic of discussion on social media since it occurred.
Reading the many takes on Monday’s tragic events in Nashville, I’ve been surprised by all the ways this shooting is being treated differently. In particular, I’m surprised by the legacy media calling this person “she” and “her” and “female”, when they consistently report on transwomen rapists and pedophiles as women without so much as a hint that a male committed the crime. When the legacy media started publishing flatly insane things like “the woman, who was convicted of raping a 3-year-old boy, had a previous record of exposing her penis” I thought it was an absolute commitment to transgender ideology no matter how asinine it makes them look.
I’m also surprised—though I shouldn’t be—by how little attention seems to be going to the estimated cost of $4,000,000,000 a year to put an armed guard in every school when we presently send many times that much to Ukraine.
Mostly, though, I’ve been surprised by all the seeming surprise.
This event—a member of the “transgender community” taking violent action against perceived enemies—was entirely predictable. As is the likelihood of more events of this nature. Why?
Because of the venn diagram of a few things happening in our culture in 2023.
For you non-math people, a Venn Diagram is a way of showing the overlap between related data sets, objects, ideas, etc. Here’s one comparing apples and oranges:
Where We Are In 2023
Here are some forces supporting violence as a solution for the perceived problems of marginalized people:
Summer 2020 events casting violence on behalf of “marginalized” people as not really violent; in fact, even buildings on fire are mostly peaceful.
DAs not inclined to prosecute crime aggressively in blue cities.
Narrative and perception that speech and disagreement are themselves violent.
This may be controversial, but I also think the US support for Ukraine may be contributing to a sense that taking up arms against an aggressor is morally righteous and deserves support from all decent people.
(I am agnostic about what’s really going on in the Ukraine/Russia conflict. I know that I don’t know, and I also know the media cannot be trusted. This is a statement on my observation about the media narratives and their possible effect, not the war itself, nor the US role in it.)
All of the above, in my view, leads to:
An increasingly ingrained sense that violence against “oppressors” is morally justified.
And here are some forces supporting a deep sense of rage and persecution on the part of transgender people:
Social status earned by victim group membership.
False narratives of trans genocide believed by trans people and either supported or, at the very least, unchallenged by major institutions and legacy media.
Political figures, celebrities, and others asserting falsely that transgender people are in constant danger.
Laws prohibiting medical transition of minors being passed with popular support.
The false suicide narrative deeply inculcating the idea that everyone on earth except trans people are responsible for the mental health of trans people.
An accepted narrative that even the slightest disagreement with gender ideology constitutes a desire to see trans people dead.
Again—all of the above, in my view, leads to:
An increasingly ingrained sense that violence against “oppressors” is morally justified.
Our culture is constantly bombarded with a narrative that transgender people are the most oppressed of all people, the most oppressed it is possible to be.
Think about how often you, the non-trans person who simply keeps up with the news and scrolls Twitter during boring work meetings or while using the bathroom, run into examples of this narrative.
Imagine how often trans people, who seek out trans-centric media, voices, sources, support groups, etc., hear it.
Go to just about any site that sells general merchandise and search for phrases that promote this narrative: “protect trans kids,” “stop trans genocide,” etc. You’ll find quite a lot. It is a deeply ingrained part of our culture now.
Now consider that women who take testosterone to transition are by definition troubled, and these troubled women are able to get (on informed consent, with no mental health oversight) massive doses of testosterone, which promotes risk-taking, anger, and aggression.
Also consider the known records of behavior among males who identify as trans, as is evident and on video from incidents like the recent one with Posie Parker. Or simply look up the word “TERF” on Twitter, Reddit, or other discussion forums, and read the violent fantasies that many males who identify as trans gleefully drool over enacting against the people who disagree with them.
Monday’s event was as predictable as the sunrise.
So is the next one.
Housekeeping: comments are open for paid subscribers, as they are on most posts. Email hollymathnerd at gmail dot com if you would like a paid subscription but cannot afford it, and I’ll give you a free year.
There's something that seems nefarious about asserting and pretending that mental illness is not in fact a mental illness. It's like being set up to be sucker-punched by reality. Being trans is, by definition, to have some aspect of one's mind out of contact with physical reality. To pretend otherwise only generates more mental illness (both in an individual and in a culture at large). Affirmations and railing against the unfairness of existence don't make these people any less mentally ill and when the distress of their condition isn't eased, is it any wonder that they look for someone to blame (and hate) when reality doesn't conform to their mental illness?
When a behavior is encouraged and celebrated, you get more of that behavior. In this case, narcissism is being encouraged and celebrated.
The narcissist is always misunderstood, and it's always somebody else's fault.
I can't say I'm surprised by any of this, I just don't understand why it's being celebrated and defended.
The only thing that would surprise me is if the radical left ever demonstrated any internal consistency.