Is everything falling apart?

First, I’d want to say that we as humans love to simplify complex things. There are large macroeconomic trends at play that are boring or hard to explain, and it’s easier to blame immigrants, social media, or blame because that gives us an outlet to make sense out of complexity. For politicians, depending on their political leanings, it gives them a way to avoid any form of accountability or responsibility. Regardless of party affiliations, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi - some of the leaders across both parties have been in power longer than I’ve been alive. They can blame Facebook or Twitter for what’s happening in the country, but in my mind, these “excuses” are an indictment of out of touch, entitled “leadership”.

America is facing a reality where the rest of the world is catching up. In chase of endless profits, we stopped producing things at home. And frankly, our standards of living or at least the expectations have risen - everyone wants now, without patience, and they need it delivered now or within two days. They want a standard of living that requires competitiveness globally, but in this country, we no longer want to work for it. On one hand, we have homelessness, housing shortages, issues with getting access to healthcare. On the other hand, we’ve sold the promise of America and glamorized it so strongly that so many people want to come here, when we cannot even take care of folks that are already here.

We’re getting lazier, more entitled, and under delusions of a God complex. In every Hollywood film, we continue to be the good guys that save the world. On one hand, we have zero trust in our politicians. On the other hand, the notion that perhaps we’re not really “good” guys in some international conflict - that it’s not so black and white - is simply incomprehensible.

The last part of my rant is on the rising intolerance. There is now only one opinion, it is the truth, and anyone willing to step outside this narrow circle is a racist, bigot, etc. Worst of all, the people pushing this narrative are the loudest voices in the room, and our corporate interests are happy to assist and provide these people the megaphones they need, on their quest for endless profits and infinite growth.

What do you think my reaction was, when I first heard of trans-people as a young teenager? Of course I laughed a bit and wondered why people think that genders are fictional and why a man would ever be able to be a woman.

But with time I got more curious, educated myself, thought about it, and I think I understand it pretty well now. Others just seem to hop on a bigoted bandwagon and don't even try to understand.

I think the most important part is educating others, discussing this topic. But this also requires the uninformed person the be open to change their mind. I've had 2 discussions I can remember, one with my SO and the other with my best friend. Both in a way used the same arguments as a bigot would use, just in a curious and innocent way, if you know what I mean. After talking to them they seemed to get what it's about.

I have yet to talk to a trans-person in real life about this topic, but so far I think I understand it well enough in a way that I can talk about it to others.

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> I frequently wonder where I can move -- if anywhere -- where my existence will not be questioned regularly

As sad as it is to admit, I think that's not possible. That's not even a specific issue for you I guess, lots of people get questioned about their race, sexuality, class, even if they're generally somewhere with more acceptance. Focus on people who accept you, don't get pulled down too much by haters and be proud of yourself.

> If anything, it seems like the world is becoming less tolerant

I think a large part is that trans seems to be the new topic. Race and homosexuality has been talked about, of course still not everyone is on board or agrees, but everyone knows these topics and has probably made up their opinion. With transexuality I feel that lots of people just don't know what it really is, which doesn't mean that they wouldn't accept it if they knew it. That doesn't help you at all of course, and I hope that you will once feel like you've been accepted for who you are by our societies. But I think there's still a long way to go. Stick to good people, try to educate neutral people, ignore bad people as long as you can.

All of this is coming from a white cis-male, so all I can do is try to be empathic. I wish you all the strength you need, don't give up!