I guess the best defense against this is that being a locker room pervert is still illegal, and anybody who tries that is probably gonna get reported to the authorities. Trans people are a very small minority, and the kind of masculine-presenting non-medically-transitioning trans woman you describe is a vanishingly…

A quick search reveals that AGP stands for “autogynephile”, which is an long-discredited archaic term mostly used by TERFs and other anti-trans folks. The idea is that there are “true transsexuals” who transition young, and “autogynephiles” who transition older and who are not really trans, but rather transition as…

I’m not sure what AGP stand for. The reason I mentioned Contrapoints is she has been talked about alot by people that were caught in right wing echo chambers. Kat Black and Philosophy Tube has been mentioned a lot as well by former right wing rabbit holers.

Thanks for this, and yes, this pivot began during a depressive time for him, with life changing events. And, sorry about your uncle, it’s hard to see people struggle though their issues, especially when they turn not to their family, but to strangers

My 2¢ FWIW, feel free to dismiss:

I mean sure, possibly. But then my questions would be:

ContraPoints is GREAT GREAT GREAT at challenging Gender Critical views. Really brings it all down to earth.

I think a lot of bigoted Gender Critical dogma isn’t even registered as dogmatic/essentialist by the people consuming it. It stokes the fires of some fear and then starts to make a little sense, and then a little more, etc...I have read a lot of it and could see how easy you could get sucked in . (I’m very much a…

This is insightful, and compassionate (perhaps more than she deserves but at least you’re offering the chance). 

Yep. I read a lot of these TERF screeds as kind of “they’re choosing to be women now so they can reap what we’ve sown.” Like, a cisgendered man would suddenly decide to give up his entire identity in order to “take” what feminists have labored to achieve.

Yes, it sounds like the letter writer might have just assumed the friend was on the same page as her regarding transgender rights without actually having a conversation about it.

It is nearly impossible to convince some people that others aren’t looking for “special treatment” they just want the SAME treatment.

That zero sum mentality is honestly such a challenge. It’s how we end up with this All Lives Matter bullshit, because people are so worried that someone saying Black Lives Matter must imply that their own life matters less in that moment.

Instagram progressives. Progressive for the likes.

To the letter writer you could sign your friend up for lefty/progressive/pro-trans newsletters. Maybe ask her to watch videos from Contra Points or Philosophy tube. You might want to looks up street epistemology to try to find out why she is holding these beliefs. It seem to me that the friend is going through…

I would like to gently push back on the idea that the writer’s friend was necessarily all that progressive. Some “liberals” are people who are more enamored with an inner narrative where they are persecuted, brave truth-tellers who stand against the idiot mob, than they are of really walking the talk of progressive…

This:

One of the nails in the coffin of my 20 year relationship with my soon to.be ex-husband was his transition from a moderate liberal into a homophobic racist, paranoid, conspiracy theorist, alien hunting, human being with zero patience for intellectual discussion. I’ve been struggling with a lot of regret around this…

Some resources that might be useful in helping your friend reject the gender essentialist dogma of the socalled “Gender Critical” bigots

“Instead, point out how boring it is to think people should be punished if they don’t conform. How tedious it is to think that the contours of your own thought enclose all that is worth knowing. How embarrassing it is to be cruel.”