Leftists long ago abandoned truth in favor of their own created mythology. Like so many false religions, they perceive the world solely through this lens. Birthed out of the liberal political movement, the modern Left adopted much of the liberals’ idealism regarding expressions of sexuality and identity. Yet, unlike their predecessors, the modern Left rejected the classical Western values of tolerance and equality, and has instead embraced a self-righteous zealotry for “social justice.” Ironically, this has produced a leftist culture of illiberalism, an intolerant cancel culture.

Nowhere is this reality more evident than when it comes to the Left’s mythology surrounding “transgenderism.” It has become the sacred cow of the Left’s identity hierarchy, where no questioning or criticism of the issue will be tolerated.

A case in point surrounds a book written by Abigail Shrier: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Shrier, who is by no means a conservative when it comes to the issue of sexual identity, has been attacked by the “woke” LGBTQ activist mob for daring to point out solid research that demonstrably shows that prepubescent children and teenagers, specifically girls, don’t have the emotional or intellectual capacity to make the profound and permanent life-altering decision to “sexually transition.”

As Shrier explains, “I fully support medical transition for mature adults. My book specifically looked at a sudden and alarming spike among teenage girls and took a hard look at why.” But that significant factoid doesn’t matter to the Rainbow Mafia. Shrier is now the enemy for failing to toe the “transgender” absolutist line, ergo she must be canceled.

Last week, Target pulled her book from its stores after a gender-dysphoric individual issued a compliant via social media: “I think the trans community deserves a response from [Target] as to why they are selling this book about the ‘transgender epidemic sweeping the country.’ Trigger Warning: Transphobia.”

Shrier observed, “[Target] just made my book disappear. Does it bother anyone that Woke activists and spineless corporations now determine what Americans are allowed to read?” And it’s not as if Shrier’s book is some bottom-shelf slow seller; it’s a number-one bestseller on Amazon’s category for LGBT Demographics Studies.

What motivated Shrier to research and write the book was the sudden spiking number of youth claiming gender dysphoria. “We’re seeing a spike in teenage girls who claim to have this and they have no childhood history at all,” Shrier states, “so we know that this is very strange. And even stranger, it’s clustered in friend groups. Teenage girls are coming out with their friends. So we know this is socially driven.”

The message of the “transgender” activists has been one of unquestioningly promoting the dogma, claiming that any objection is indicative of “anti-trans” bigotry. Furthermore, state governments and courts across the country have also cleared away the legal obstacles — even parents — to a child seeking to medically “transition.” For example, Shrier argued, “The age of medical consent varies by state. In Oregon, it is 15. So, a 15-year-old without her parents’ permission and without so much as a therapist’s note can walk into a gender clinic and walk out that day with a course of testosterone.”

But beyond addressing the topic of the spiking number of “transitioning” youth, what Shrier finds even more chilling is the wanton censorship from Big Tech, and many people’s indifference to it. She notes that many people’s response to news of her censorship is like that of her parents’ real-estate agent, who quipped, “Well, you had to expect that, right? When you write a book like that, that’s what you’re expecting.”

Shrier pointedly notes that she is not the real victim here. Instead, she says, “There is a victim here — the public. A network of activists and their journalistic enablers have largely succeeded in suppressing a real discussion of the over-diagnosis of gender dysphoria among vulnerable girls. As you read this, there are parents everywhere being lectured to by authority figures about how they have to affirm their daughter’s sudden interest in becoming a boy — no questions asked. From Amazon to I Am Jazz, everyone is telling them that transition is the path to happiness, and those who question this narrative are bigots. So they stare at their shoes and let the conversion therapy take its toll.”

Thus, the problem isn’t just that teenage girls are making terribly consequential and destructive decisions but that those trying to help them are being suppressed and silenced by the woke mob. If people are not allowed to learn, not allowed the freedom to access information that some dogmatic group labels “dangerous,” then truth will be hidden and the wider public will suffer. Shrier poignantly observes, “This is what censorship looks like in 21st-century America. It isn’t the government sending police to your home. It’s Silicon Valley oligopolists implementing blackouts and appeasing social-justice mobs, while sending disfavored ideas down memory holes. And the forces of censorship are winning … [because] most Americans have been content to surrender virtually every liberty in exchange for the luxury of having products delivered to their door. Most would happily submit to the rule of Big Tech, so long as their Netflix isn’t disrupted.”

Sadly, she may be right.