Out damned optimism!

Optimism. A positive outlook and a continuing belief system that it will work out and things are good.

Frustration. The desire to take the optimism out back of the woodshed and beat some sense into the thing.

(sigh).

So, posted a link to This Story and asked would people please answer the questions that author poses. The only condition posed: No quackery or as you probably know it qua- excuse me. Psychiatry. Why the embargo on quackery?

The Decline Effect. As soon as the shrinks can explain this and psychiatric drugs, they get to explain:

DSM V. In case you don't know, this is the shrink manual. It's voted on every few years. Voted. Shrinks get together and Majority Rule! vote to decide what is a psychiatric disorder and what ain't. It's exactly like ER docs gathering to vote on what constitutes a broken leg. Get the SCIENCE! in order and they get to explain:

Expert witnesses. Charged with a crime? Find an "expert" to testify you are more warped than a Mobius strip in a blender. The other side is going to find an "expert" in the same place to testify you are as sane as everyone in the courthouse. This is NOT a case of a few fringe elements with advanced degrees disputing SCIENCE! This is a case of half the room of shrinks say you are more nuts than a pecan processing plant and the other half of the room saying you are as competent as a pipe wrench in the hands of a plumber.

So the link got posted with a plea for definitive answers to the posed questions.

Got one, 1, near answer. The near answer comes from JW - "The abnormal behavior lived out by this person (someone with mental illness whom he has known for years) continues to be totally normal and defensible from that person's perspective."


Got 200 and counting extraneous comments, a few profanities and some hurled insults, which got 86'd. Got a few metric tons of defensive statements, justifications and positioning. Got some good-natured insults which I let slide because those of us making 'em don't truly mean it. And, they are funny.

Solid answers are harder to come by than ytterbium. No answers. The author even poses some excellent questions. F'r'zample, "Second, what’s the difference between someone with “gender dysphoria” (or, as it used to be called, “gender identity disorder”) and someone, say, with schizophrenia or “multiple personality disorder” or some other psychological condition?"

What about sex change regret? Don't go there. These waters are already so muddy they are starting to harden into concrete! (Ok, here's the other side of that one.)

<sound of crickets chirping is drowned out by rabid screams of entrenched sides which believes the others are the biggest gang of idiots since Congress>

Empirical evidence says getting straight answers to serious questions in social media is like voting for president. It gets ugly in a hurry and what you actually get is toxic waste that should really be shot into the sun for permanent destruction.

And yet, I posted. And yet, I hoped. And yet, reality once again came up and bitch-slapped my rose colored glasses right off my face.

And the hell of it is, I'll probably do it again. Damned optimist!

In case you don't wonder, I don't care what people do to themselves. I'd just like some reasonable answers to the questions in the article just 'cause I'm curious.