My optimistic hope is that we will reach some sort of settlement where transgenderism is treated with compassion and, in the relatively small number of cases where people would be genuinely happier living as the opposite sex, tolerated and accepted. I don’t think we will return to a situation where, for example, it’s acceptable for trans people to be abused on the street, or callously mocked. But the excesses of the 2010s and 2020s will prove to be on the wrong side of history — and I think much of what happened will stun people reading about it in decades to come.
Not that it will be remembered, since failed progressive movements tend to disappear in the public memory.
“It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.” I don’t think people are overall any crazier now than they’ve ever been at any point in history, but I do think the whole transgender thing will be the characteristic craziness of the past decade. Why did we suddenly decide that biology itself was oppressive and conformity to gender stereotypes was liberating? Who knows. Why did we become enthusiastic for giving children hormones and surgery to help them conform to said stereotypes? For fear of not looking sufficiently progressive. Will today’s cowards learn any chastening lessons from their enthusiasm for such a deranged trend, or will they quietly slink away and hope no one ever decides to scrutinize their old social media? I think you already know the answer to that one.