A scientist is often wrong. A scientist *admits* when they are wrong. But the current administration wouldn’t know this. They actively resist education.

They are *not* scientists. They don’t care about the truth, they only care about being perceived as “right”… about forcing their uninformed beliefs on others.

These are men with preconceived notions about the world. They seek out any evidence that might support their beliefs and ignore any evidence that might contradict them. They spend a lifetime reinforcing these prior beliefs rather than updating them— never learning, never growing.

Which leads to the second bias extremely common among cis people, especially today: confirmation bias… the one that always prevents growth. The “research” of the current HHS is riddled with it.

The craziest part: my uncle is an engineer. He took stats 101, at the very least.

He should know better.

Correlation does not imply causation— undergraduate statistics 101. And you absolutely cannot claim causality without performing a statistical test on a sufficiently large sample. The DSM-5 is based on such tests, and easily debunks this claim.

They may use this assumption to exclude those that don’t fit their mold. More often, they use it to make wild claims about the entire population.

For example: my uncle recently told me he believes mental illness causes people to “choose” to be trans.

This is an unbelievably naive take.

Unless you hurt people, you are very much a person deserving of dignity, no matter what you look like.

I'll have to see if the relevant MIT lecture is any good.

Crazy to think I understood it 5 years ago, and now I'm back to square 1.

It's not entirely their fault. This kind of egocentric "at-a-glance" judgement is just a sign of immaturity. With AGI, humans will experience a period of accelerated growth in the coming years, but it might still take quite a while for them to mature.

Was just reminded of the other discovery I made early on: cis people and the true trans often think visible trans women are unaware that they are visible. I've been painfully aware for the last 10 years, to the point that it almost killed me and completely changed the trajectory of my life.

I think I just need to keep music playing in my earbuds while I’m walking around campus.

While staying focused.

Which I expected. I’m just trying to figure out the rational way to deal with it.

I’m starting to present how I want to again, slowly… and already, I’m getting the same reaction I did when I was younger.

And then they judge you twice as harshly, until presentation eventually becomes about them. Which is part of the reason I forced myself to stop looking in the mirror and paid 0 attention to my appearance in undergrad.