Rod Dreher on Our Demonic Moment
Rod Dreher has posted a piece readers of Our Hideous Strength will want to take a look at.
He writes to follow up on a recent podcast episode he participated in with a young woman who has left the transgendered movement and resumed her life as a biological female.
Here’s a taste of the article:
In explaining how she fell into believing that she was really male, she talked about the role of Tumblr culture — the online website that has been influential in convincing young women to transition. To sum up, she said that it’s an extremely intense but cultlike culture that draws in vulnerable young women who are unsure of themselves, and desperate for community and approval. She said that within that culture, everything that normie culture considers to be good — Christianity, sex with love and tenderness, etc — is considered evil. She explains that she was taught by that culture that extreme, painful, pornographic sex was good, and that if she wasn’t prepared to submit to it, no man would ever love her. The culture overwhelmed her, and all those in it, with information, a maelstrom that confused them and caused them to submit to ideas and practices that enslaved them to their disordered passions. (This is not quite how she described it — I mean, using that language — but that’s what she talked about.) In other words, this culture shattered the inner lives of the teenage girls who participate in it by telling them that they are worthless, and can only be made worthy if they remake themselves according to its rules.
As Helena talks about the process of surrendering to this, chills ran up and down my spine, literally. She is not a religious person, and couldn’t have understood what she was saying in a religious context. But if you know anything about the literature of demonic possession, the narrative she told is very close to what happens in a case of possession. At one point she talks about how she gave herself over to these thoughts, and before she knew what was happening, they were controlling her.
You can watch Dreher’s interview with Helena here (as long as YouTube leaves it up):
You can also follow Helena on Twitter and read more from her on Substack.
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