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Jenny Poyer Ackerman's avatar

This is an excellent, well-researched overview of ROGD, and I'm happy it led me to your Substack. I especially appreciate your urging readers to download the cancelled paper from Springer's site: I did, and hope many others will too, as it's an elegant way to vote 'yes' for scientific integrity.

I have one small clarification that might be helpful to some of your readers. You linked to an article I wrote for my Substack, TransMuted, that was cross-posted on Wesley Yang's Year Zero. You link to Year Zero, which is a quality publication by a celebrated author on a range of topics; but readers who want to know more about ROGD will find an archive of articles specific to it at TransMuted. All my subscriptions are free, so I hope some Unbekomers will check it out.

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Dan...'s avatar

When I was of high school age, I had a number of hobbies. All of them involved some sort of social participation, a stamp collecting club, a sports club with both trainers and people of all ages training, a military history club, or a teaching facility focused on high math and physics. Wherever I went, I would always find myself quickly making meaningful contacts with men much older than me, even up to 50 years or so. I was also often invited by these men to visit them at home and meet their families. It was always a great experience, and some friendships survived long after I dropped these activities. I met wonderful couples who had interesting things to say and made friends with their children who did not share these hobbies. For a 14-year-old boy with zero understanding of social dynamism, that was simply great. I didn’t miss other kids of my age, as they were sort of “too childish” in my view.

In spite of such an obvious attraction to a specific group of people, I was not worried, although I noticed it. Still, I never thought that there was something wrong with me, enjoying company of men 30 or more senior to me. To make it clear, I never was in any situation with these people where any form of intimacy would be suggested.

I had a random thought that experiencing the world from the feminine perspective would be interesting - after all, women perceive everything differently, communicate differently, and basically exist in a different world right next to the male world. I had this prophetic thought when I was about 15, once or twice, and it never occurred again. Just an introspective question.

Why is it a problem today? Do young people read and watch and hear too much about it? What is the share of the “doctors” in the creation of this problem? What is the share of chemicals and biologicals to which we are exposed? How do WE contribute to our kids becoming uneasy about what they are? Is it about demolition of authority in a family setting? Open access to school knowledge presented online, for free, in a way much better and more attractive than by real (older or old) teachers?

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