There’s a growing whisper rippling across America’s red-blooded backchannel forums and punk-rock kitchen tables:
“This trans trend will cool off in five years.”
Not because people suddenly grew cruel or cold-hearted—but because the house of cards it was built on is finally catching a strong wind.
And spoiler alert: it’s not hate to question a trend. Especially when that trend is being pumped into schools, armies, and algorithm-driven dopamine dens like TikTok faster than you can say “puberty blockers.”
Let me be real clear. I’m not talking about the handful of people who genuinely suffer from gender dysphoria and find relief through transition. Those folks exist and deserve compassion—real compassion. But the wave we’re riding now? This isn’t about empathy or medicine. It’s about politics, profits, and power. It’s a wave generated not by nature but by the industrial-sized fans of media hype, government subsidies, and social engineering.
So let’s break it down. Why do I, a crusty libertarian with a beard full of salt and an internet radio station, think this gender gold rush is heading for a correction?
1. Government-Funded Identity Theater Is Losing Its Budget
Under the previous administration (you know, the one where press secretaries couldn’t define “woman”), the feds were dishing out cash like it was a TikTok giveaway. DEI programs, LGBT influencer sponsorships, school curriculum grants—you name it. Washington was subsidizing the heck out of social identity activism. If you could add a new pronoun to your email signature, you had a shot at landing a six-figure consulting gig with the Pentagon or Spotify’s HR department.
But under the returning Trump administration, that gravy train is being brought to a screeching halt. The federal funding faucet is being shut off.
No more rainbow washing every federal form. No more influencer welfare programs. And once the money dries up, so does the illusion of mass participation. Watch what happens when TikTokers aren’t getting paid to push “gender journeys.” Suddenly, they discover the gym, or Bitcoin, or whatever the next grift is.
This isn’t about banning people. It’s about stopping the artificial inflation of an ideology that never had roots deep enough to justify the societal overhaul we’ve been forced to swallow.
2. Social Media Trends Die—This One Just Took Longer
Let me remind you of a few social phenomena that once had the kids in a frenzy:
- Tide Pod Challenge – Eat laundry detergent for likes.
- Benadryl Challenge – Induce hallucinations and ER visits.
- NyQuil Chicken – Marinate poultry in cold meds.
- Choking Game – Oxygen deprivation for clout.
Now I ask you—do those seem like well-reasoned decisions by people of sound mind? Of course not. They’re cautionary tales of what happens when the adolescent brain meets the virality algorithm.
So what happens when gender identity becomes the next viral trend? When you have thousands—maybe millions—of confused teens, many of them on the autism spectrum or wrestling with trauma, being told that changing their pronouns and mutilating their bodies will bring peace?
That’s not compassion. That’s cultural malpractice.
And trends? Trends fade. This one might take five years, but mark my words: it’ll happen. The media will gaslight you, of course—they’ll pretend they were always “concerned” about the medicalization of kids. But just like bell bottoms and Beanie Babies, this too shall pass.
3. The Backlash Is Building—From All Sides
You know who’s waking up now?
- Mothers of female athletes, whose daughters lost scholarships to biological males with beards and testosterone-fueled lung capacity.
- Military vets, who’ve watched the Pentagon prioritize gender workshops over combat readiness.
- Gay and lesbian communities, who’ve seen their spaces erased by a movement that can’t define what a woman is.
- Parents of detransitioners, attending funerals and hospital visits for kids who were railroaded through hormone therapy with less oversight than a tattoo parlor.
People are pushing back. It’s not coming from the “alt-right.” It’s coming from everyday Americans who are tired of the gaslighting. Tired of the forced speech. Tired of watching mental illness get celebrated while basic truth is criminalized.
4. From 20% Identifying as LGBT to Reality’s Return
Gallup data doesn’t lie: Gen Z reportedly clocks in at 20%+ identifying as LGBTQ. Now look me in the eye and tell me that’s all organic.
Four years ago, the total LGBT population hovered around 4.5%. That’s not prejudice—that’s just a historical norm. So either we suddenly evolved into an entirely new species… or this is a social contagion, and we’re all just too polite to say it.
If you’ve got a kid in public school, you’ve seen this happen. Suddenly half the classroom “comes out” within one semester. Peer pressure, online clout, and TikTok therapy sessions combine into an identity carousel that never stops spinning.
Here’s what I predict: without paid influencers, without algorithmic hand-holding, and without state-backed propaganda, we will return to the baseline. Not out of hate. But because truth has gravity. And eventually, it pulls everything back to the ground.
5. Free Speech Is Back—And That Changes Everything
Elon Musk wasn’t kidding when he said “the bird is free.” Since taking over Twitter (now X), we’ve seen the first cracks in the censorship dam. No longer can activists silence dissent with a single report. No more “misgendering = violence” nonsense being enforced like digital blasphemy law.
And that’s dangerous—to those who built their ideology on insulation. Open debate kills bad ideas faster than any legislation. When people start asking simple questions—”What is a woman?” or “Why is my 11-year-old talking about chest binders in class?”—the whole house of cards starts to tremble.
And that’s what terrifies them. Because without silence, they can’t control the narrative.
The Punk Rock Prognosis
So here’s where I land, as a man who’s lived long enough to watch the pendulum swing both ways:
This movement has peaked. It’s on the downhill slope, whether it knows it or not.
And five years from now?
- DEI departments will shrink or disappear.
- Trans identification will level off to historical norms.
- Schools will quietly pull the rainbow flags from classrooms.
- Media outlets will issue non-apologies.
- And society—if we’re lucky—will remember this era as a well-intended but reckless chapter fueled by tech, trauma, and tyrants.
Final Thought
You can’t buy truth with hashtags. You can’t mandate sanity through policy. And you can’t build a stable society on a foundation of confused kids and corporate virtue signaling.
The wave is crashing. And I, for one, will be here to mop up the wreckage, tell the stories, and keep blasting punk rock truth into the void.
The trans movement? It won’t vanish. But it will cool. It has to. Because reality is undefeated.
And if I’m wrong?
Well, at least I had the balls to say it before the rest of you did.
—
Ryan “Dickie” Thompson
Disruptarian.com | The Punk Rock Libertarian | Cultural Heretic & Truth-Teller
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