lori wilbur

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

Two of my favorite things: @hamiltonmusical and animation by @theroborob Just slightly impressed by my son’s talent and drive. No idea where he gets it from! #depaul https://t.co/SWPvDVpM91

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@PodSaveAmerica Nope. This lost us the election in 2024 because the Republicans made it an issue when it shouldn't have been one. https://t.co/6jCrQrc4SV

[Mia Hughes @_CryMiaRiver]

The Tale of Two Contagions

In 2019, German psychiatrists observed a sudden surge of adolescent girls presenting to clinics with abrupt-onset Tourette-like tics. This immediately raised alarm bells. Tourette’s typically affects boys and begins in early childhood.

This was an entirely new patient population.

Researchers quickly identified the index case: Jan Zimmermann, a young Tourette sufferer, whose YouTube channel had recently exploded in popularity. The girls displayed the exact same symptoms as Jan: the same outbursts and catchphrases.

The phenomenon soon migrated to TikTok, where it spread like wildfire.

Researchers coined a new term for what they were observing: mass social media–induced illness — a modern iteration of the long-recognized phenomenon of mass sociogenic illness.

Yet, in 2014, when paediatric gender clinics across the Western world began to fill with adolescent girls — another entirely new patient population — “gender-affirming” clinicians didn’t even bother to look for the trigger.

And it wouldn’t have taken much effort to find. All it required was a glance at the cultural messaging of the time.

Because 2014 was the year Time magazine put Laverne Cox on its cover with the headline: The Transgender Tipping Point: America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier.

And with that, the modern trans rights movement launched.

Trans-identified celebrities were everywhere, trans characters appeared in children’s books and television shows, trans influencers proliferated with astonishing speed online, and schools began teaching gender identity ideology as if it were scientific fact.

And in a perfect-storm scenario, smartphones and social media exploded in popularity, creating the ideal super-spreading environment for this seductive idea to go viral.

The message adolescents received was simple: If you hate your body, that could mean you’re trans.

And right on cue, legions of confused adolescents who hated their developing bodies began showing up at gender clinics believing themselves to be trans.

Just like the TikTok tics. A mass social media–induced illness.

Except on this occasion, instead of scrambling to contain the epidemic, doctors picked up their syringes and scalpels and set about permanently medicalising the innocent youth caught up in this powerful cultural storm.

And activists marched in the streets demanding that these young people be allowed to sacrifice their health, fertility, and body parts — while swiftly demonising anyone who dared point out the obvious parallels to social contagions of the past.

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

I made my first Substack post. Trying to clarify my beliefs so I'm not just parroting talking points or being a "useful idiot." https://t.co/2wuzOdCQV2

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@SenFettermanPA @JohnFetterman I strongly encourage you to check out @DIAGdemocrats There is much more to this issue than a handful of athletes competing in sports. Fully agree cruelty is not the solution.

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@sciencebamf @jonfavs https://t.co/lLAdGorLWJ

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@TheIdDM @jonfavs https://t.co/lLAdGorLWJ

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@Hilltowner21 @Timodc Why do you think we lost?

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@Timodc Great pod!

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@alextvalencic @Timodc https://t.co/KhWD9RwPh3

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@Isolde789 @alextvalencic @Timodc https://t.co/KhWD9RwPh3

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@Caspar9994 @sherlockmichael @jk_rowling @salltweets Man, it would have been so interesting to read Hitchens’ thoughts on this issue 😢

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@PodSaveAmerica @Lis_Smith ❤️ PSA but y’all need to research
@LGBAlliance_USA, PITT on Substack, DIAG (https://t.co/fzdIk8Cfwj), The Cass Review and how European countries are changing course before commenting on GAC for minors again. This is a bipartisan concern.
@

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@jrpsaki Please, see @LGBAlliance_USA, PITT on Substack, DIAG (https://t.co/Squ1DyE5X1), and The Cass Review (there are many more) and how European countries are changing course before commenting on GAC for minors again. This is a bipartisan concern. @Timodc

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@entzion @Timodc @JVLast @SarahLongwell25 Reminds me of the portion where they talked about the 2 tax-payer funded GAC surgeries in prison. They are missing that many Dems are concerned about the alternate reality causing children to get gender affirming surgery. It’s a lot more than 2

[Liz Cheney @Liz_Cheney]

Our nation’s democratic system functioned last night and we have a new President-elect.  All Americans are bound, whether we like the outcome or not, to accept the results of our elections. We now have a special responsibility, as citizens of the greatest nation on earth, to do everything we can to support and defend our Constitution, preserve the rule of law, and ensure that our institutions hold over these coming four years. Citizens across this country, our courts, members of the press and those serving in our federal, state and local governments must now be the guardrails of democracy.

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@chester_fence I read the study. What isn’t clear to me was what happened to suicide rates of trans youth in the states that didn’t enact laws. They were surveyed, but I didn’t see a comparison. Did rates go down? Up? Stay the same?

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@IndiaWilloughby @wesstreeting @thefabians I read the study. 7-72% across the board. But even one is too many. However, what isn’t clear to me was what happened to suicide rates of trans youth in the states that didn’t enact laws. They were surveyed, but I didn’t see a comparison. Did rates go down? Up?

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@LizSzabo @TrevorProject I read the study. What isn’t clear to me was what happened to suicide rates of trans youth in the states that didn’t enact laws. They were surveyed, but I didn’t see a comparison. Did rates go down? Up? Stay the same? Explain it to me like I’m five please.

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@Kasparov63 The problem is, the average American doesn’t know who Orban is

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@keithedwards As a woman, I love seeing her make the same faces I am!

[lori wilbur @lnjwilbur]

@PodSaveAmerica Trans care for minors might be less popular with voters than you may think. Many countries who were leaders are pulling back on GAC. Might not want to lump that in to reproductive freedom without more info on effects of cross-sex hormones on children and teens.