I read this response pretty late. I'm definitely not denying the possibility of me being an asshole here, and I'd like you to explore that, if you could. I might have said some offensive shit in the OP but I am a person and I'm perfectly willing to examine my flaws and make improvements. First, though, I will respond to your points. As you read this, please remember-- it's not the literal idea of transgenderism that gets me. It is the sudden expansive proliferation of it that I find suspect. And so:
On the idea of being an asshole: I would agree that the points made above are, yes, inherently assholic. Even though I agree with myself still. It's assholic because I'm saying, "Here's my identity issue, boohoo" right after I'm saying, "And these people's identity issues...? Fuckum." I'm certainly not being the change I wish to see in the world, not treating others how I want to be treated. True, true, true. I do contend that assholism is subjective but that ties into a later point.
You would be incorrect to assume that I have not researched gender identity. Perhaps correct to assume that I don't perfectly understand it, but not that I haven't researched it. The sympathy isn't automatic, after all, there are a lot of phenomena I understand quite well but still have absolutely no sympathy for. You'll be wondering why I can be so callous, and now we come back to our asshole point.
As I said above, the idea of asshole-ism is subjective. That's no excuse for me, in this case. But in a general sense, very subjective. Is someone an asshole, for example, because they make you uncomfortable? Does refusing to acknowledge your needs and feelings make them an asshole? Seemingly, yes. But what if your needs and feelings expand into their needs and feelings, and treating you like you want is more than they're willing to offer? What if it takes something out of them to appease you? Now are they still an asshole? When are you officially asking too much?
I'll tie these ideas together with the root of the matter: I think that are fishy things about the social climate as it stands and I oppose this climate (as it exists when perceived by me.) Transgenderism, yes. Real. Psychological. Legitimate. Nothing to scoff at any more than any other quirk of the brain. But now it's in vogue, right? And now there are massive amounts of transgendered people. Coincidentally, with large amounts of them being teenagers and/or otherwise under-utilized affluent people.
Now I also believe that we live in a narcissistic generation. Technology, particularly social media, has caused a wealth of disruptions in our normal thinking. I think that people are more prone than ever to disorders and I believe that it is partially due to the way that social media warps the sense of self. Why is it that all the transgendered people I know are people who are absolutely inseparable from social media? Whose first response to conflict is to take to the phone for immediate sympathy? Yeah, that's a dickhead thing for me to say. But it's not fair to ask me to disregard the observation. An obvious correlation, I'd think. People are narcissistic. People love attention. People love sympathy. On a subconscious level, people are willing to endure unfortunate circumstances in return for these things.
I think that the mass spread of transgenderism is a nocebic meme, I distrust it on the basic level due to convenient timing of its emergence. Hey guys, we need to accept trans without mockery, and... Oh well look, hundreds of thousands of people with identity issues have suddenly made deep revelations about the nature of themselves! Humans never feel out of place or misunderstood, nope, this is definitely something that you should believe on the basic level whenever someone identifies with it. The narcissism generation has come to think that this is a pick-and-choose topic, a label to affix and demands to make after doing so.
Alright. So I've reread what I had to say and my level of diplomacy was definitely dropping the more I went on. By this point, you are surely confident that I am an asshole. But I haven't lied, I've been entirely truthful about the world as I see it and I'm not running away from how bad that might make me look.
Am I just a bitter ponce? Yeah dude. I'm balding, I can't afford food, I can't afford a phone, my life circumstances prevent me from getting help, and nobody gives half a shit about it. But I live in a world where I'm an asshole if I don't respect that people are rejecting their physical nature in favor of a perceived reality. Yeah, I'm bitter. Shit's unfair as fuck. Transgenderism is a movement because we officially have enough people who don't need to worry about real tangible problems (where is my next meal coming from? do I fix my car to get to work or buy my mom's medicine?) to worry instead about problems like these, who think that being treated like a girl because they have a vagina but they feel like they wouldn't if given the choice, is at the screaming heights of injustice. Hunger is injustice. No running water is injustice. I have serious fucking problems and I'm absolutely going to stand up for my selfish interests in the face of a social movement that's so gratuitous as to think that someone in my position owes something to a portion of society more indulged and privileged than I ever was or will be.
So there it is, that's my whole life's perspective as relating to this issue, and I am 100% about hearing your response to it. Again-- I really didn't type this up to inflame you, it was a true to life dump of all my unsorted feelings on the matter.