Like the anti-trans former collegiate athlete Riley Gaines, Cole is a professional, one of many in a sprawling and well-funded apparatus furthering Christian nationalism and authoritarian control.
Everything Chloe Cole says about her own experience can be 100% accurate . . .
. . . and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the 99+ happily transitioned people who so completely outnumber her. There is no such thing as Cole getting anything of what she says and implies she wants without hurting those 99 every bit as much as Cole claims she was.
"Cole is a superspreader of that rhetoric, a part of a swelling anti-trans industrial complex."
I feel I have no resources to shine the light on that it deserves. I would love to play a role, I would give my utmost. The open conspiracy that "anti-trans industrial complex" is should see 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 18 U.S.C. § 241, & 18 U.S.C. § 242 prosecution.
Needs to be added that even the transphobic rag the New York Post admits the SoCons only have 28 "detransitioner"* lawsuits . . . and If I recall they have spent over $100mn dollars and more than a decade in the infamously litigious US and only have 28 to show for it. The definitions underlying differing statistics are difficult to nail down, but there are at least 270,000 medically "fully" transitioned Americans, so that <1% regret rate is abjectly proven just by that count of 28. it would be wonderful info as to what effort the SoCons have made about that to be found and published.
*When they say detransitioner, SoCons mean someone who claims they are a false positive for endorsed medical transition and generally that they are in no way responsible for that, which is not the usage most people involved employ.
I think you're being unduly harsh on Kaine. Rather than falling for the BS, I think he was doing what you suggested in passing: making a political calculation, one consisting of expressing great sympathy for the witness and then describing it as an individual case that should be addressed as an individual case.
That is, don't argue with her, don't get into any debate, don't possibly generate sympathy by going after a seeming victim, but drain the emotional impact by emphasizing it's one case and we already have a system for situations like that.
So while I think he could have been a *little* sharper, perhaps by saying that despite her personal tragedy it represents a tiny fraction of those who have transitioned, no, I don't think he fell for the propaganda, even briefly. I think he de-fanged her.
I would like to have seen the contents of the letter he read.
Make no mistake. When democrats do this sort of thing they aren’t falling for anything. Substantial portions of the DNC have no backbone and only want to operate based on how polls tell them to operate. We wouldn’t be where we were if the democrats had an actual backbone and actually bothered to try to craft a narrative to counter the republicans.
I can’t comment so much on Tim kaine, since I’ve seen him be a vocal ally even as of recent. But the dnc over all has a serious issue. They know what the moral and just answers are to all this. They just largely dont have a backbone with which to make a stand.
"Kaine then pivoted to talking about the careful, methodical considerations of gender-affirming care providers and parents, and he emphasized the extremist rhetoric deployed by the right to vilify trans people."
I think the senator did a good job. Based only on your excerpt, his subtle point seemed to be that the courts can already handle this so we do not need national laws favoring destransitioners. And there ARE doctors who fail to follow the standards of care. That is malpractice whether it is about gender affirming care or heart ailments. WPATH provides the standards and patients should be able to rely on their doctors to follow them. There ARE some bad doctors out there. I do not support Cole's advocacy but she is entitled to her day in court.
Once again, we see an intelligent person being misled by individuals who have built careers on promoting controversial and often disputed claims about the transgender community. Like Donald Trump and many of his allies, they rely on repeating the same talking points, selective studies, and misleading interpretations over and over until they begin to sound like established fact.
The problem is that repetition is not evidence. Many of the claims being promoted are based on cherry-picked data, outlier studies, or conclusions that do not reflect the broader medical and scientific consensus. When information is stripped of context and repeated endlessly, it can create a false impression of certainty where significant evidence points in another direction.
At some point, medical professionals have an obligation to present complete and accurate information to patients and the public. Repeatedly promoting only one side of the evidence while ignoring contradictory research is not sound medical practice and undermines trust in the profession. Whether driven by ideology, politics, or personal beliefs, physicians should be guided by facts, not narratives.
People who should know better have a responsibility to examine the full body of research, not just the studies that support a predetermined conclusion. Public debate should be driven by facts, transparency, and honest analysis—not by misinformation repeated so often that it becomes accepted without scrutiny.
Of course Sen. Kaine might have accepted her word naively, but I personally have a hard time believing that anyone does it naively at this point in the decade-long anti-trans campaign. On a gut level, and speaking from my own biases, it just feels to me like anyone who echoes Chloe Cole is colluding intentionally.
We’re simply an easy target to get through the economic policies the ruling class really wants. Some of the funders may be true believers while others are just peddling to rubes, but the damage is the same regardless of motivations
Goddamnit!
Everything Chloe Cole says about her own experience can be 100% accurate . . .
. . . and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the 99+ happily transitioned people who so completely outnumber her. There is no such thing as Cole getting anything of what she says and implies she wants without hurting those 99 every bit as much as Cole claims she was.
"Cole is a superspreader of that rhetoric, a part of a swelling anti-trans industrial complex."
I feel I have no resources to shine the light on that it deserves. I would love to play a role, I would give my utmost. The open conspiracy that "anti-trans industrial complex" is should see 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 18 U.S.C. § 241, & 18 U.S.C. § 242 prosecution.
Needs to be added that even the transphobic rag the New York Post admits the SoCons only have 28 "detransitioner"* lawsuits . . . and If I recall they have spent over $100mn dollars and more than a decade in the infamously litigious US and only have 28 to show for it. The definitions underlying differing statistics are difficult to nail down, but there are at least 270,000 medically "fully" transitioned Americans, so that <1% regret rate is abjectly proven just by that count of 28. it would be wonderful info as to what effort the SoCons have made about that to be found and published.
*When they say detransitioner, SoCons mean someone who claims they are a false positive for endorsed medical transition and generally that they are in no way responsible for that, which is not the usage most people involved employ.
Thank you, Baum.
I think you're being unduly harsh on Kaine. Rather than falling for the BS, I think he was doing what you suggested in passing: making a political calculation, one consisting of expressing great sympathy for the witness and then describing it as an individual case that should be addressed as an individual case.
That is, don't argue with her, don't get into any debate, don't possibly generate sympathy by going after a seeming victim, but drain the emotional impact by emphasizing it's one case and we already have a system for situations like that.
So while I think he could have been a *little* sharper, perhaps by saying that despite her personal tragedy it represents a tiny fraction of those who have transitioned, no, I don't think he fell for the propaganda, even briefly. I think he de-fanged her.
I would like to have seen the contents of the letter he read.
Make no mistake. When democrats do this sort of thing they aren’t falling for anything. Substantial portions of the DNC have no backbone and only want to operate based on how polls tell them to operate. We wouldn’t be where we were if the democrats had an actual backbone and actually bothered to try to craft a narrative to counter the republicans.
I can’t comment so much on Tim kaine, since I’ve seen him be a vocal ally even as of recent. But the dnc over all has a serious issue. They know what the moral and just answers are to all this. They just largely dont have a backbone with which to make a stand.
Is something missing in this graph?
"Kaine then pivoted to talking about the careful, methodical considerations of gender-affirming care providers and parents, and he emphasized the extremist rhetoric deployed by the right to vilify trans people."
I think the senator did a good job. Based only on your excerpt, his subtle point seemed to be that the courts can already handle this so we do not need national laws favoring destransitioners. And there ARE doctors who fail to follow the standards of care. That is malpractice whether it is about gender affirming care or heart ailments. WPATH provides the standards and patients should be able to rely on their doctors to follow them. There ARE some bad doctors out there. I do not support Cole's advocacy but she is entitled to her day in court.
Once again, we see an intelligent person being misled by individuals who have built careers on promoting controversial and often disputed claims about the transgender community. Like Donald Trump and many of his allies, they rely on repeating the same talking points, selective studies, and misleading interpretations over and over until they begin to sound like established fact.
The problem is that repetition is not evidence. Many of the claims being promoted are based on cherry-picked data, outlier studies, or conclusions that do not reflect the broader medical and scientific consensus. When information is stripped of context and repeated endlessly, it can create a false impression of certainty where significant evidence points in another direction.
At some point, medical professionals have an obligation to present complete and accurate information to patients and the public. Repeatedly promoting only one side of the evidence while ignoring contradictory research is not sound medical practice and undermines trust in the profession. Whether driven by ideology, politics, or personal beliefs, physicians should be guided by facts, not narratives.
People who should know better have a responsibility to examine the full body of research, not just the studies that support a predetermined conclusion. Public debate should be driven by facts, transparency, and honest analysis—not by misinformation repeated so often that it becomes accepted without scrutiny.
Chloe Cole has to be one of the worst people on the planet. She makes money off of hurting trans people because she made a mistake.
I wonder what motivates rich people to pay for this?
Of course Sen. Kaine might have accepted her word naively, but I personally have a hard time believing that anyone does it naively at this point in the decade-long anti-trans campaign. On a gut level, and speaking from my own biases, it just feels to me like anyone who echoes Chloe Cole is colluding intentionally.
We’re simply an easy target to get through the economic policies the ruling class really wants. Some of the funders may be true believers while others are just peddling to rubes, but the damage is the same regardless of motivations
https://moldingminds.substack.com/p/the-manufacture-of-the-anti-trans?r=9zecz&utm_medium=ios