Tonsillectomies
I have clear memories of having my tonsils removed at age 5 or 6 in the 1940’s. It was standard procedure for children at the time. My primary memory is being in the hospital with a very sore throat and having Granddaddy Williams bring ice cream for relief of the pain. It is interesting that the subject never came up with our sons born ~25 years later in 1966 and 1968.
Curious about the history of tonsillectomies, I Googled the word and came up with several pages of history. Here are a couple of interesting excerpts: Note the money link and the controversy that changed the practice.
A Hot Current Issue
No longer is there controversy about tonsils, but on the 6/18/23 CBS Sunday Morning show there was a segment about the currently hot transgender issue. As an introduction, three statistics were reported:
1. That 0.6% of the American population identifies as “transgender” and
2. That there are “300,000 (1.4% of ~22M total) Kids, Age 13-17 who are transgender and
3. That there are “121,882 (0.24% of ~50M total) Kids age 6-17 with Gender Dysphoria.
That third statistic has the footnote “Diagnosed from 2017 – 2021.”
CBS didn’t report the number or percent of adults (18+) who identify a transgender but the UCLA School of Law reports that it is 0.52%. The other figures reported on the show seem to match the UCLA School of Law figures.
So, one obvious question that must be asked is this: Why is the percentage of transgender for ages 13-17 almost three times that for 18 and over?
The Power of Suggestion
It is very interesting that Dr. Meredithe McNamara of Yale University said this on the CBS Sunday Morning show: “About 10 % of youth these days, we think, are identifying as gender diverse. They don’t feel quite like the gender they were assigned at birth.”
I’m not sure who the “we” is in Dr. McNamara’s “we think” quote. Could it be a group with interests similar to those of tonsillectomy advocates in the 1940’s?
The tonsillectomy issue was never discussed with little boys and girls but was left to the parents and physicians. The power of suggestion applied only to parents. Apparently, it has strangely been decided that the much more complicated and dangerous gender issue is an appropriate topic of discussion with immature children dreaming of becoming fire fighters or going to Mars. Is it possible that such inappropriate discussions and the power of suggestion are the reasons for the high number of kids identifying as gender diverse? I think so and expect that 20 years from now practices will be different and regrets will be common.
If one goal is to create revenue-generating Gender Dysphoria diagnoses followed by expensive drugs and surgery, I suggest a good way to do that is to start raising, at an early age, the possibility with your innocent little “tomboy” girl or “janegirl” boy that she or he might have been born with the wrong sex equipment. An even better way to create the problem would be to have their elementary grade teachers bring up the issue and leave the parents out of the loop. I suggest just steadfastly loving them unconditionally and helping them grow up into responsible adults.
If business building is the driver, it seems to be working. Note the following paragraph from this website.
The 1.4%, and 0.24% numbers reported above are surprising enough, but. Dr.McNamara’s 10% and the Pew Research 5% of youth identifying as transgender or nonbinary or “gender diverse,” all personal opinions having nothing to do with reality and variable over time, suggest that today’s very young people are being influenced by the power of suggestion, and that is very bad news.
As with diagnosing most major trends in the nation, just follow the money. There is an industry building up around this issue.
I hope we outlaw physical customization of our children to match their current gender opinions. Customizations of automobiles and houses can proceed since they are not based on variable opinions of the automobiles and houses about what kind of automobile or house they imagine they are and do not involve dangerous tinkering with immature humanity.
And, by the way, Europe seems to be slowly waking up to the danger.
