I know I said I was going to wait until tomorrow to respond but I started reading and it pulled me in! : ) I'll start by saying that I consider myself a, "live and let live" kind of guy. I used to consider myself as liberal as they come my stance has changed in the last few years.

I'm a student of history and like to take the long view on these kinds of issues, it tends to provide more layers of context. What I've noticed are societies tend to become hyper-focused on gender and become more extreme in that regard just before the society's collapse. It also seems to happen when citizens feel as though they have no control in any other aspect of their lives (pandemic -- hint, hint). One thing they can often control is their sexuality and gender-identity.

I empathize with the people who really feel like they're a man born in a female body and/or vice versa. I think some people are truly born this way. But the way this issue is making headlines consistently and is being drilled into children's heads in schools seems to me like coercion. The explosion of children saying they want to become the opposite sex or they identify as a cat or a dog or whatever else seems more like a mind-virus, the power of suggestion to a certain degree. If you think about it when did you hear about a child identifying as an animal when we were kids? Also, is this really happening on this scale or is the media blowing it up to be much larger than it really is? This could be the case too. Anything to divide, distract. Make the masses focus on their differences instead of coming together and recognizing their similarities.

The political landscape is also getting more extreme on both sides every day....liberals need to prove that they're ultra liberal to get elected, conservatives need to prove they're ultra conservative to get elected. I believe what we're seeing from politicians and others who hold public offices is a race to see who can be more extreme to win approval. This is filtering to regular citizens, the result is more extreme views in all things and events like January 6th. I believe this will, ultimately, be the undoing of this nation (as we know it) if it's not stopped and we find some kind of common middle ground again.

Great post, @dreemit! It took courage to post this. We need more open and honest discussions about this and many other things!