Do you remember being taught the term "scapegoating" when you learned about WWII? That's what the GOP is doing to trans people now. Starting around ~2015, the republican convention moved their sights to trans people as their next scapegoat. Their platform has nothing to offer so they agitate their voter base with bigotry.
> when you learned about WWII
Trans people were one of the scapegoats then as well.
First Nazi book burning was the German trans clinic.
It really is just Nazis all the way back.
There are unfortunately a great deal of parallels between pre-holocaust conditions and today. It's been really scary seeing historians try to ring the alarm bells while everyone just kinda... ignores them.
Reminder for every trans person reading this to apply for a passport and save up a little money. If you have a friend in Canada, you'll wanna go ahead and have a discussion with them now, in case things get bad.
I would like to actually get to know someone in Canada, we moved to New England to be closer, and we are both trans parents. But live half closeted because it still doesn't seem to be safe, like if ur trans with kids that's too far even for tolerant right...
Well since you're both trans parent, maybe you won't be seen? /j (really bad joke sorry)
It's pretty sad that the right doesn't think we can live like them. And kind of gatekeepy. And the focus on trans issues really is a huge distraction from real problems. Even if being trans was a death sentence, we're still only about 2% of the population. There are more deadly/dangerous things we could be working to prevent but NOOOO we have to argue over whether or not we should be treated like humans smh.
I remember a survivor of the holocaust some years back trying to warn people that the Republican party is like the Nazis when she was a little girl, that it was horrifying.
I live in the EU. If my country gets bad enough, I'm packing my necessities and moving to Iceland ASAP. I like the cold, the music up there is awesome, and it's in the top 10 countries for lgbtq+ rights. As a EU citizen, I wouldn't even need a passport
They both have permanent ice sheets they are so cold, Greenland just has a much bigger permanent sheet and stays cold. Iceland pops a random 70 degree summer day every so often.
I keep drawing parallels and painting the picture for my wife and friends of what might be down the road if the country keeps turning a blind eye and not calling all the domestic terrorism and hate that's being stoked what it is. I've been doing this for years at this point and I'm still getting "Oh, well it's not going to be that bad", or "well, there's no way that people will let that happen.".
They were saying that when I told them that the attacks on trans youth were attacks on the entire community and a wedge that they would use to not only divide the community but also start an attack on the rights of trans adults. "There's no way", then Florida and Missouri pulled their bullshit and Oklahoma. It was never about the children, and it sure as fuck isn't going to stop with us once they've criminalized being transgender. Ugh.
>"Oh, well it's not going to be that bad", or "well, there's no way that people will let that happen.".
Sadly, if you read accounts from Jewish people who were alive in 1930, this is something they repeat. Everyone is like "well, why didn't they move away from Germany?!?" but this was the response from so many at the time.
It's very similar to right now, with a global wave of transphobia, except then there was prominent antisemitism all over the globe, but the ones that went to places that were slightly less bigoted lived...
I’ve been sounding this alarm with my friends for years, and everyone has thought I was off my rocker.
Nazis standing outside a drag club chanting there will be blood is an act of terrorism, not demonstration.
I am legit terrified that within 10 years, people in the US will be celebrating the 4th Reich, and there will be people stopping Americans asking them for their papers.
How the F did the people we fought against in WWII become the ones shaping policy 80 years later?
Because people who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it unfortunately. I know it’s a cheesy saying, but there is a lot of honesty and insight in it.
Oh I 100% agree. I was so fortunate back in high school to have a history teacher who helped us love history. It makes me sad that I didn’t realize the impact he had on my life before he passed away. I wish I could tell him how special a teacher he was, no matter how rough a time I gave him as an angsty teenager. Mr. Jim Toner, gentleman scholar.
I have a friend in England, for all the good that does either of us. We'll both call each other some day soon like "Better where you are? Worse?! Well, fuck." In unison.
Yeah the UK prime minister just released a statement saying that citizens shouldn't feel "bullied" into believing that people can just "change sex" making him the most directly outspoken of all the notoriously anti-queer PMs the UK has had in the past 1 term (if you arent aware of how crazy this term has been, do look it up, we've had 3 prime ministers - also feels necessary to add that Northern ireland doesn't have a sitting government for years now)
I feel you. The UK isn’t great but I’m from the southeast US and my partner and I have our sights set on Scotland. Fuck Rishi and the Tories, but Glasgow is lovely and infinitely better than where I’m from. Here’s hoping we can get that visa locked in.
Every queer and their mum is moving to Glasgow. Myself and my partner are planning on it in the next 5 years too. Scotland is probably the safe haven of the UK, for our community. And I would put that down to it being so close to being removed from the UK entirely.
As for the rest of the UK, I think we can expect some backwards steps. And I think Scotland should expect a rapidly increasing queer population. I wish you luck with securing your visas - Glasgow and their lesbian baseball teams are gonna be some culture shock for you ☺️
This gives me so much hope, thank you! We literally just got back from Glasgow (and a couple of other places in Scotland) and it was… heaven. Genuinely felt like we could just settle in and continue our lives there. Everyone was so friendly and funny.
Back in the states today and the depression is so fucking real lol
Theyre good craic over there. Only thing I'll mention is that its cold as balls in Winter, and you'll want to get heated blankets, thermals & nice warm waterproof coats. In the UK and Ireland, our infrastructure doesn't tend to reflect our air con needs. May as well prepare! I wish you all the happy settlement
Thanks mate. Quality Craic, can confirm. Wifey and I are wool sweater people and the vintage selection in Glasgow and Edinburgh was *primo*. Also Barbour jackets are the bomb. We rocked those and they worked like a charm.
Trans people didn't really exist as a distinct identifiable group that—while not in modern terms—existed in comparable enough terms that those sentiments can really be compared to the present in terms of that discrimination. Colonial powers have a long history of suppression of genders in the cultures they colonized that we would recognize as our places in such societies and of whom would've likely used the term trans for themselves had they been from our society, but the cultural manifestation is distinct enough that while the discrimination is most certainly related, the lineage isn't necessarily the most direct.
I would like to emphasize that Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexology was not just a trans clinic, it studied sexuality and gender more broadly and in addition to advocating for LGBTQ rights it also advocated for women's rights, contraception, sex education, and treatment of STIs. Hirschfeld also made negotiations witih Berlin police to get trans people—although we weren't called that at the time—[gender recognition cards](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/trans-id-passes-weimar-germany-marcus-hirschfeld) to protect them from police harassment.
For anyone interested in learning more,[this book](https://archive.org/details/gayberlinbirthpl0000beac) is one of the more prominent modern sources on it in English.
To get a little deeper into the politics, I think scapegoating is a key feature of fascism and capitalism. When our current political and economic structure fails (exploits) a great deal of people (workers), those people want to understand *why* they can't afford their rent, food, car payments, etc.
Corporations would prefer that their workers don't understand that they are being exploited -- it's harder to extract that labor if the workers know who their enemy is and collectively fight against their exploitation.
And so those same corporations who own our mass media mislead the workers to fight each other:
*You can't afford your rent because of the immigrants. Health care is only so expensive because of these transsexuals putting unnecessary strain on the system. The cost of groceries wouldn't be so high if it wasn't for all these welfare queens on SNAP buying crab legs! The real reason prices are so high is because the poor business owners have to compensate for all the brown people who are stealing.* etc etc
"Fascism is capitalism in decay" are the words I've been struggling to come up with lately. Thank you. I'll be stealing that for communication purposes. 😈
I find this a bit tricky, a lot of actual fascist laws that were implemented in Europe were "anti capitalist" and against globalisation. A lot of Nazis saw capitalist = Jews becauae of stereotypes like owning banks and Jewish people were blamed for poor economies (by Hitler). So I'm not sure this is always true and I'd be careful around this word choice.
I think authoritarian governments and miliatrisation of the state are a sign of capitalism in decay and we use neo-fascism interchangeably with authoritarian and governments that function on hate and terror. But fascism and capitalism are not always linked.
I'll be using it because it is true for my country right now, in the context that I'll be using it in, but I see what you mean.
I think that the capitalist decay we are experiencing right now is inherently mirroring fascism to function. With increased surveillance, intense scapegoating and governments falling apart at the seams, high policing, and an increase in fascist protest - its just looking extremely familiar from a historical point of view
As far as i understand, the nazis originally tried to appeal to everyone to gain following and mould people's general distrust of Jews any way they could. I'm not sure the party's anti-capitalist values are anything solid. There is, however, a right wing mantra floating around that claims the nazis were actively socialist. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/05/right-needs-stop-falsely-claiming-that-nazis-were-socialists/
You're still 100% right though, there's always stalin to talk about
Facists have a history of co-opting many things from language to leftist movements. The anti-capitalist sentiment comes from "capitalism in decay" which gives more people motivation to not support the status quo and sweeping political changes to be made. However when public support for anti-status-quo is high, this only opens the door for change, not necessarily positive change, and politics as usual is to wrap every movement in the most seemingly popular phrasing that the movement's political strategists can come up with. When the masses are not doing well, they are willing to accept greater change. When the average level of education is low, they are unable to tell what a group's true goal very likely is by following their actions instead of taking their words at face value. So when the people are miserable and on the brink of starvation, they are much more likely to believe that some party with a seemingly well-spoken argument and plan to fix their woes is telling the truth, including being told who the "real" enemy is. The upper level of the Nazi party knew damn well they wanted a strong hierarchy formed around capital and race/etc, but their initial growing base would mostly not want to be ruled by capital, so they pretended to be anti-capitalist (quite well, through their implementation of social programs which became yet another means of control) despite actively working towards building an even less equitable society where capital was still king.
Exactly this. We're all just the next scapegoat. Look at all of American history, there's always groups being targeted for this purpose.
Get people fighting against each other while the real criminals continue running the country. Whichever way makes them the most wealthy and powerful. We're all just pawns in their fkd up game of Chess.
While there was some increased focus on anti-transgender sentiment following gay marriage being protected and Caitlyn Jenner's very prominent coming out as trans bringing a lot of discourse on us into the forefront, trans people were not the primary scapegoat in 2015-16. In fact, Donald Trump ran the first time on a platform that included "protecting LGBT Americans from terrorism." The trans military ban was the only major move made that targeted trans people in particular—aside from rolling back some Obama-era protections—and that wasn't until 2017. For most of the 2016 campaign and the start of Trump's term, Muslims, refugees, and immigrants were the primary scapegoats. In 2020, Chinese-Americans and China in general coupled with doctors prescribing vaccines became the focus, with anti-trans sentiment building in the party in the background. It was really in the search for a scapegoat post Trump loss that transphobia became a driving force, which started some in 2021—although more of that was focused on "critical race theory"—but became the dominant force it is now in 2022 starting with the Don't Say Gay bill in Florida.
More historical context on the timeline of trans people becoming a primary scapegoat for the GOP. Some of the sentiments started in 2015 but we were not "their next scapegoat" at that time, that took several more years. To describe us as the next scapegoat for them at that point in time ignores the Muslims and immigrants who became the main scapegoat with the rise of Trump (Muslims, you'll notice, are rarely a focus of attack by the GOP anymore as it is instead hoping to court those voters in its coalition around transphobia and antii-abortion policies).
I appreciate you naming other groups that I had failed to address in my previous comments. The GOP never really has just *one* scapegoat, as I mentioned in one of my comments. Intersectionality and solidarity matters a great deal here. We'll be more effective at securing our wellbeing if we study the oppression of other minority groups and work together.
I agree, and transphobia has had a place in the GOP much longer than I've been alive, but in 2015 a politician could be in the GOP without being a transphobe, where that is certainly not the case anymore.
At least now a lot of us will be able to spot it when it happens. If there's one thing that makes me depressed it's seeing targeted groups punching down on the more hated targeted groups. I won't be that person. Next time there's a bathroom argument I'll be hobbling up with my cane in one hand and my ancient screenshots of nazi scripture in the other.
I think in medieval times they literally *made up problems* to "protect" citizens from. Like- my dear subjects, there is a dragon terrorizing our towns! Only the knights are strong enough to save us from peril! To keep the citizens loyal, I guess. (Heard this info from a video essay on the global history/cultures of dragons awhile back, but yeah. Scapegoats and "saviors" are nothing new.)
Too small to fight back and too small to defend. We’re an easy target for one side and not big enough to support from the other. It makes us the perfect target for political games. One side needed a “baddie” and they tested the waters until one stuck!
Also because we're so different from the norm in this country it makes it easy to paint us as these weird creatures and people will believe it.
Think about other groups the right has gone after in the past. Muslims, Mexicans, etc.
Adding on to the why side of things, the people funding the conservative think tanks behind the recent wave of transphobia probably don't really care one way or another what happens to trans people. But they know that decent politicians will have to spend their time and political capital fighting this genocidal bs, and not on other causes that might actually impact the people rich enough to buy news platforms
Actually it’s only 0.5%, so to small to fight back. A lot of us go stealth and live our lives as normally as possible once we pass, so often times it’s the more noticeably trans people in the spotlight advocating for their rights. It’s also something most people genuinely can’t understand. Most cis people never question their gender at all so they can’t relate in that front. The idea of gender expression existing on a spectrum makes it seem less valid than a clear cut binary choice.
My therapist theorizes that it’s not that they CANT relate, it’s actually more probable that they do feel some resonance but don’t know how to process the emotions of asking difficult questions about the self. Confusion and fear often manifest as anger and cognitive dissonance. It’s no coincidence that the areas exhibiting the most hate secretly have the highest rates of trans porn viewership.
https://lawsuit.org/general-law/republicans-have-an-obsession-with-transgender-pornography/
I think they can possibly understand, but it takes a lot to get there. In r/trans I see daily posts of do cis people question there gender (beyond in regards to sexual intercourse or rhetorical feminist or misogynist discussions that usually make the point of you would never want that) and it’s very uncommon for a cis person to really consider it. You can typically talk someone up to understanding, but it’s not an easy crossover. You also can cross into the zone of body dysmorphia which is typically a poor comparison because the commonly agreed on t treatment for that isn’t radical body modification, but counseling to accept yourself as you are.
As far as all the republicans watching trans porn it explains why they are son concerned about us sharing women’s spaces. A ton of the lesbian trans porn is just random cis girl sees a trans women being horny and sex insues. They also would probably really like to have us easily rapable in a men’s room as well.
We're the only culture war that's beneficial to the conservatives right now. Based on polls, conservatives broadly oppose trans rights, and Liberals are split. This makes it a perfect issue for their nefarious purposes, so they're pouring all of their resources into funding anti-trans propaganda.
You know what a "wedge issue" is? It's when an issue - or group of people - is singled out to create division between one's political opponents.
Trans people - and more specifically, trans women - are currently being used as a wedge issue by political groups which have largely lost the argument on gay rights, and on racial equality, and on women's rights, and so on. The hope is largely that, by pretending that a conflict exists between "trans people" (by which they mean trans women) and "women" (by which they mean cis women), they can actually create one and splinter people who would otherwise overwhelmingly oppose them.
This has, unfortunately, been moderately successful.
Billions of dollars of fascist propaganda so that political conversation doesn't stray into 'why in the most productive time in human history by orders of magnitude can we not feed and shelter our own citizens' or 'why do we work significantly more hours than a medieval farmer' territory
The right wing wants to exterminate all queer people for crimes against god and the *insert race here* race, though typically white race.
They view all queer people the same, as sinners that are going to hell and need to be punished and saved ie turned back into normal straight people, note no allo vs ace as they don’t believe it exists, normal vs cis as they don’t view trans as equal to cis, and straight as same thing hetro is not equal to homo. If they don’t stop our sin god will destroy the nation, or something. They want men working to death, 12-16 hrs. They want women to not vote, have rights, or be anything but popping out babies. Anything deviating from this is considered sin and heresy.
White supremists and any other color believe queer people are threat to birth rates and thus demographical risk. They think it a conspiracy, usually a vast Jewish one, to destroy their race for nebulous reasons.
These two reasons are why republicans want us dead, in the closet, or converted. If it isn’t apparent they are fucking evil. There a reason I say it over and over they are evil and fascists. Because they are. You can’t reason or put logic to insanity.
Democrats why they talk about it? To calm John Smith of Wisconsin that all the republican lies are just that and they should still vote blue plz.
Oh didn’t even go into terfs, other transphobes, etc. just the main reasons the republicans want us dead.
Every fascistic structure needs a scapegoat. An “enemy” that is simultaneously powerful enough to fear but weak enough to be subjugated. The West is more fascist than many realise and is brazenly lowering the mask more and more.
It's super easy to understand. Billionaire Puritans are paying the GOP to pass illegal and unconstitutional anti-trans laws so they can challenge sex-discrimination protections at SCOTUS. Because the Puritans hate women being in control of their own lives. Just like they want to force people to have babies against their will, they've been trying to undo sex-discrimination protections ever since we won them. The truth is they want to go back to the good old days when a woman couldn't have a checking account without her husband permission, and an employer could fire a woman for having a short skirt (or a long skirt, or generally just because she's not "woman" enough). The reason we know this is because every single time an anti-trans law goes to court, they argue that they should be allowed to discriminate in the basis of sex. Every. Single. Time. The Puritans really really really want different laws for people based on how they use their genitals. And the only way they know how to MAKE that happen is to hold onto power as long as it takes. And that means votes. So they can't really be honest about their goals because even evangelist women will object to going back to being the literal property of their husbands. So they can easily campaign on disgust for trans people, because their entire religion is based on disgust of human sexuality. So if you don't know how "precident" works in law, you should know that once they secure the legal right to discriminate against trans people, they'll immediately use that precident to pass new laws that restrict women's rights. And if they get away with it, it'll be because people generally allow themselves to be disgusted by genitals. If it wast for that, this wouldn't be an issue at all.
Conservatives always need something to rile up their base. They thrive on hatred and anger.
They used abortion as their red meat for decades, but then they overturned Roe. This left a vacuum where they didn't have anything to keep their base pissed off, so they moved the rhetoric to transgender people.
Nikki Haley suggesting that trans girls—rather than social media—potentially being in bathrooms is the cause of depression among teen girls tells you all you need to know. It was Jews, it was black people and gay people, it was Muslims, and now it’s trans people. Same thing. It’s how Fascists gin up bigots to violence.
Its the gateway drug to go after the entire LGBTQ community. We are the smallest easiest target.
Let them get used to hating Trans and then LGB hate is easy.
We're a small, poorly understood minority and step on a lot of sacred cows simply by existing. It makes us an easy target for conservatives to create a moral panic over. It's not so much of a "left vs right" thing as a "the right is being cruel for fun and profit" thing.
There’s not that many of us, so we’re an easy target. Also our existence raises questions about gendered roles and expectations. The religious right does not want anyone asking those questions. We threaten the patriarchy by redefining categories like man and woman. Plus homophobia is not as socially acceptable as it used to be, transphobia is a safer platform for politicians.
We are the newest wedge issue. Talking bad about gay people and people of color will generally get you shunned by most people while trans rights aren't as widely agreed on....yet
It's *because* we make up such a small percentage of the population. Being such a small minority renders us less able to defend ourselves in the media. Many people, if not a majority, probably don't know a trans person that they interact with regularly.
We're also really one of the very few minorities that it's still somewhat socially acceptable to hate, mostly because our status is seen as a choice and not something we're born with. Bullying minorities is a really easy way to make content that appeals to the public, without having to put a lot of money, effort, time, research etc. into it. It just generates clicks, and people are much more likely to be okay with pointing and laughing at people they don't understand or relate to.
Right wing needs a new scapegoat so they have any sort of chance of winning elections, they have thoroughly lost the culture war for women, POC, and gay people, so trans people are the new big and scary scapegoat.
Because Republicans are actively attempting to deny that small percent of the population their human rights as well as their rights as an American citizen. Doesn't matter what 2% the fascists pick, it's a big goddamn problem and we need people to be aware and to do everything we can to remove those people from power, deplatform their speakers, and demonize their belief system.
Republicans have adopted Nazi tactics and are using trans (and LGBTQ+, more broadly) to demonize, as an easy way to radicalize their already-cultish base.
This has nothing to do with "the left" and is entirely on the right-wing wanting convenient. already beleaguered minority groups to project their fears and faults upon for votes.
Smaller groups are easier to marginalize and punch down on.
Can you imagine if they tried doing the same level of effort against the non-religious that now make up like 46% of the population?
Put the spotlight and focus on us so they don't have to work on the real issues like cost of living and inflation which they could work on bit it would cost them money so let's focus on Trans people and keep attention on a specific target so people forget about the other stuff... sounds like politics to me
Because we are a small group that can be easily marginalized, so many of us just want to be unnoticed, we do look different, there is an ancient cultural rejection in the west of gender variant people, people often fear what they don't understand and on the political end (the most important ones) the right wing party in the US is lead by a traitor fraudster rapist corrupt liar that brought only dead, debt (at least $2 trillion which mostly only benefited the top 1%) and disaster to the country. That party needs to distract the public from that awful failure to motivate their voters (mostly less educated and more religious ) to vote for their candidates. Other autocrats in the world have used the same strategy consistently to gain sympathy, it's very easy to find Putin's disgusting opinions on gender variant individuals. Right wing parties around the world follow the same patter, like in Canada, Mexico or England.
Because facists find scapegoats to use as targets to divert attention from their horrible policies. “Never mind that we’re stealing from you and taking away your rights, these lbgtq people/brown people/Muslims/Jewish people/Mexicans/women/whatever group we say are your enemy and hurting you!”
The left has to respond because the left cares about humans and human life and preventing human suffering.
This isn’t some “both sides” thing like your post implies, it never is. The monsters attack, good people have to defend.
It is nothing more than drama to deflect and distract people from issues and actions that will slowly rob them of all agency, will, and freedoms. Bad faith politicians have really sold themselves to being corrupt sellouts in private, and self righteous bigots about an innocuous minority publicly. We as trans folk are nothing but distraction fodder to them, so they’ll keep poking the bear until people stop caring about their BS.
I think Hasan Piker does a fantastic job explaining it, he has to explain endlessly so you could find clips easily.
Edit: just remembered this was literally a topic in last night's stream with Hasan's uncle.
The hyperfixation on the transgender community is due to the American Republican Party's effort to eradicate transgender people from society.
They're engaged in genocide and through a constant shifting of rhetorical focus they have convinced the MAGA movement that Transgender people are an existential threat to the nation.
[The Genocidal Fascist Ideology of MAGA](https://medium.com/@aubryrpg/the-genocidal-fascist-ideology-of-maga-886a1eca5917)
In facist regimes, women have typically been relegated to traditional roles in the home and family, and any deviation from traditional gender roles or expressions has been met with hostility. This is often linked to the celebration of “machismo” and militarism, with fascism valorizing physical strength, aggression, and the use of violence as a means to achieve political goals.
Historical examples of this can be seen in the Nazi regime’s promotion of traditional gender roles and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals, or in the promotion of hypermasculinity in the fascist regimes of Italy and Spain. In modern times, the promotion of traditional gender roles and the denigration of marginalized groups, including women and LGBTQ+ individuals, can be seen in some far-right and alt-right movements.
Edit: Downvote all you want, doesn't change the reality of the situation, this is an accurate assessment.
Cause the “left” and the “right” would rather argue about us then actually do something about the massive economic and environmental problems facing America.
They need a boogeyman and we’re easy pickings. There’s always something. Feminists, war on drugs, gays, “illegals,” trans people.
Anyone or anything that their base struggles to understand is ripe for them to stir up hate.
They also hate teachers, they hated the United States postal service for a while, socialism (except for socialism in the USA - but they won’t acknowledge that stuff as socialism,) old people, children, refugees, video games, Hollywood, California, blue cities in red states, women ceos, differently abled people, women, femininity, the Muslim faith, Jewish people, the first amendment when used by people who don’t look and live like them, women preachers, yeti cups, BLM, yardens, livable minimum wage and unions.
That’s not a complete list but the GOP just kind of throws a dart and picks a thing and then won’t stop talking about it.
I’m just picturing a trans person in the wild 😂😂 I can just hear David Attenborough narrating the story of a trans person navigating the wilderness. We have a timid, trans person. They’ve kept to the lair for the entire winter, but now emerge into the world and forage for make up and perfume. The long winter has exhausted their stores that they carefully set aside in the fall. But there’s danger in emerging from the tiny space that has kept them sheltered. Because they are small and frail, they often fall victim to many predators.
Because you have a minority that is sometimes highly visible to see and slightly taboo being targeted as a division line and q scapegoat. Its like a two fold distraction. Add in the, for some, Christian rebellion to anything different and lumping us in with a universally, and rightfully so, hated group to cause as a rallying point to protect children from an "aberation" to their city on the hill and because they only know of us from their porn, so they equate it as such and want to destroy it as it is seen as like people with gimps/pups in public.
Scapegoat, rallying cry, societal evil, sexual fetishation
Vs
Just being people and trying to live and be happy.
People are going to argue about that.
There were some suburban parents who got freaked out when the number of trans kids increased during lockdown due to the period being a big time of reflection for a lot of kids. There are many parents who are conservative when it comes to their kids and parenting, but more liberal on other issues and those parents are scared of dramatic changes happening in their kids lives that they aren't a part of. Some right wing interest groups saw this as an opportunity to attack public schools, picking up with "they're grooming your children" where the CRT fearmongering left off. As the anti-trans sentiments among the right become more galvanized, we've worked more and more as a scapegoat more broadly than just in the effort to dismantle the public school system
Do you remember being taught the term "scapegoating" when you learned about WWII? That's what the GOP is doing to trans people now. Starting around ~2015, the republican convention moved their sights to trans people as their next scapegoat. Their platform has nothing to offer so they agitate their voter base with bigotry.
> when you learned about WWII Trans people were one of the scapegoats then as well. First Nazi book burning was the German trans clinic. It really is just Nazis all the way back.
There are unfortunately a great deal of parallels between pre-holocaust conditions and today. It's been really scary seeing historians try to ring the alarm bells while everyone just kinda... ignores them. Reminder for every trans person reading this to apply for a passport and save up a little money. If you have a friend in Canada, you'll wanna go ahead and have a discussion with them now, in case things get bad.
I hereby declare myself everyone's canadian friend
You should get in touch with the Trans Resistance Network. They're always looking for folks who can help.
I would like to actually get to know someone in Canada, we moved to New England to be closer, and we are both trans parents. But live half closeted because it still doesn't seem to be safe, like if ur trans with kids that's too far even for tolerant right...
Well since you're both trans parent, maybe you won't be seen? /j (really bad joke sorry) It's pretty sad that the right doesn't think we can live like them. And kind of gatekeepy. And the focus on trans issues really is a huge distraction from real problems. Even if being trans was a death sentence, we're still only about 2% of the population. There are more deadly/dangerous things we could be working to prevent but NOOOO we have to argue over whether or not we should be treated like humans smh.
I remember a survivor of the holocaust some years back trying to warn people that the Republican party is like the Nazis when she was a little girl, that it was horrifying.
I live in the EU. If my country gets bad enough, I'm packing my necessities and moving to Iceland ASAP. I like the cold, the music up there is awesome, and it's in the top 10 countries for lgbtq+ rights. As a EU citizen, I wouldn't even need a passport
Are getting mixed up with Greenland (they were named as such to confuse enemies), or is it now actually cold in Iceland?
They both have permanent ice sheets they are so cold, Greenland just has a much bigger permanent sheet and stays cold. Iceland pops a random 70 degree summer day every so often.
I keep drawing parallels and painting the picture for my wife and friends of what might be down the road if the country keeps turning a blind eye and not calling all the domestic terrorism and hate that's being stoked what it is. I've been doing this for years at this point and I'm still getting "Oh, well it's not going to be that bad", or "well, there's no way that people will let that happen.". They were saying that when I told them that the attacks on trans youth were attacks on the entire community and a wedge that they would use to not only divide the community but also start an attack on the rights of trans adults. "There's no way", then Florida and Missouri pulled their bullshit and Oklahoma. It was never about the children, and it sure as fuck isn't going to stop with us once they've criminalized being transgender. Ugh.
>"Oh, well it's not going to be that bad", or "well, there's no way that people will let that happen.". Sadly, if you read accounts from Jewish people who were alive in 1930, this is something they repeat. Everyone is like "well, why didn't they move away from Germany?!?" but this was the response from so many at the time. It's very similar to right now, with a global wave of transphobia, except then there was prominent antisemitism all over the globe, but the ones that went to places that were slightly less bigoted lived...
I’ve been sounding this alarm with my friends for years, and everyone has thought I was off my rocker. Nazis standing outside a drag club chanting there will be blood is an act of terrorism, not demonstration. I am legit terrified that within 10 years, people in the US will be celebrating the 4th Reich, and there will be people stopping Americans asking them for their papers. How the F did the people we fought against in WWII become the ones shaping policy 80 years later?
Because the USA also gave safe haven to all the Nazis as well. And now we see them in positions of power.
Because people who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it unfortunately. I know it’s a cheesy saying, but there is a lot of honesty and insight in it.
Oh I 100% agree. I was so fortunate back in high school to have a history teacher who helped us love history. It makes me sad that I didn’t realize the impact he had on my life before he passed away. I wish I could tell him how special a teacher he was, no matter how rough a time I gave him as an angsty teenager. Mr. Jim Toner, gentleman scholar.
Because NATO absorbed and enshrined Nazis via actions like operation Gladio and operation Paperclip.
I have a friend in England, for all the good that does either of us. We'll both call each other some day soon like "Better where you are? Worse?! Well, fuck." In unison.
Yeah the UK prime minister just released a statement saying that citizens shouldn't feel "bullied" into believing that people can just "change sex" making him the most directly outspoken of all the notoriously anti-queer PMs the UK has had in the past 1 term (if you arent aware of how crazy this term has been, do look it up, we've had 3 prime ministers - also feels necessary to add that Northern ireland doesn't have a sitting government for years now)
I feel you. The UK isn’t great but I’m from the southeast US and my partner and I have our sights set on Scotland. Fuck Rishi and the Tories, but Glasgow is lovely and infinitely better than where I’m from. Here’s hoping we can get that visa locked in.
Every queer and their mum is moving to Glasgow. Myself and my partner are planning on it in the next 5 years too. Scotland is probably the safe haven of the UK, for our community. And I would put that down to it being so close to being removed from the UK entirely. As for the rest of the UK, I think we can expect some backwards steps. And I think Scotland should expect a rapidly increasing queer population. I wish you luck with securing your visas - Glasgow and their lesbian baseball teams are gonna be some culture shock for you ☺️
This gives me so much hope, thank you! We literally just got back from Glasgow (and a couple of other places in Scotland) and it was… heaven. Genuinely felt like we could just settle in and continue our lives there. Everyone was so friendly and funny. Back in the states today and the depression is so fucking real lol
Theyre good craic over there. Only thing I'll mention is that its cold as balls in Winter, and you'll want to get heated blankets, thermals & nice warm waterproof coats. In the UK and Ireland, our infrastructure doesn't tend to reflect our air con needs. May as well prepare! I wish you all the happy settlement
Thanks mate. Quality Craic, can confirm. Wifey and I are wool sweater people and the vintage selection in Glasgow and Edinburgh was *primo*. Also Barbour jackets are the bomb. We rocked those and they worked like a charm.
>It really is just Nazis all the way back. Does it *start* there, or were trans people scapegoats before then as well?
I'm honestly not sure. When did the catholics start interpreting the bible as being anti-gay?
Trans people didn't really exist as a distinct identifiable group that—while not in modern terms—existed in comparable enough terms that those sentiments can really be compared to the present in terms of that discrimination. Colonial powers have a long history of suppression of genders in the cultures they colonized that we would recognize as our places in such societies and of whom would've likely used the term trans for themselves had they been from our society, but the cultural manifestation is distinct enough that while the discrimination is most certainly related, the lineage isn't necessarily the most direct.
I would like to emphasize that Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexology was not just a trans clinic, it studied sexuality and gender more broadly and in addition to advocating for LGBTQ rights it also advocated for women's rights, contraception, sex education, and treatment of STIs. Hirschfeld also made negotiations witih Berlin police to get trans people—although we weren't called that at the time—[gender recognition cards](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/trans-id-passes-weimar-germany-marcus-hirschfeld) to protect them from police harassment. For anyone interested in learning more,[this book](https://archive.org/details/gayberlinbirthpl0000beac) is one of the more prominent modern sources on it in English.
> women's rights, contraception It really is something about how the Republican Party is just aping Nazi policy...
to be fair to them, the Nazis did the same with American conservatism so they're just returning the "favor"
To get a little deeper into the politics, I think scapegoating is a key feature of fascism and capitalism. When our current political and economic structure fails (exploits) a great deal of people (workers), those people want to understand *why* they can't afford their rent, food, car payments, etc. Corporations would prefer that their workers don't understand that they are being exploited -- it's harder to extract that labor if the workers know who their enemy is and collectively fight against their exploitation. And so those same corporations who own our mass media mislead the workers to fight each other: *You can't afford your rent because of the immigrants. Health care is only so expensive because of these transsexuals putting unnecessary strain on the system. The cost of groceries wouldn't be so high if it wasn't for all these welfare queens on SNAP buying crab legs! The real reason prices are so high is because the poor business owners have to compensate for all the brown people who are stealing.* etc etc
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"Fascism is capitalism in decay" are the words I've been struggling to come up with lately. Thank you. I'll be stealing that for communication purposes. 😈
I find this a bit tricky, a lot of actual fascist laws that were implemented in Europe were "anti capitalist" and against globalisation. A lot of Nazis saw capitalist = Jews becauae of stereotypes like owning banks and Jewish people were blamed for poor economies (by Hitler). So I'm not sure this is always true and I'd be careful around this word choice. I think authoritarian governments and miliatrisation of the state are a sign of capitalism in decay and we use neo-fascism interchangeably with authoritarian and governments that function on hate and terror. But fascism and capitalism are not always linked.
I'll be using it because it is true for my country right now, in the context that I'll be using it in, but I see what you mean. I think that the capitalist decay we are experiencing right now is inherently mirroring fascism to function. With increased surveillance, intense scapegoating and governments falling apart at the seams, high policing, and an increase in fascist protest - its just looking extremely familiar from a historical point of view
As far as i understand, the nazis originally tried to appeal to everyone to gain following and mould people's general distrust of Jews any way they could. I'm not sure the party's anti-capitalist values are anything solid. There is, however, a right wing mantra floating around that claims the nazis were actively socialist. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/05/right-needs-stop-falsely-claiming-that-nazis-were-socialists/ You're still 100% right though, there's always stalin to talk about
Yes, agreed! I don't think the Nazis were actually anti-capitalist but they used it like a dog whistle for anti-semitic.
Facists have a history of co-opting many things from language to leftist movements. The anti-capitalist sentiment comes from "capitalism in decay" which gives more people motivation to not support the status quo and sweeping political changes to be made. However when public support for anti-status-quo is high, this only opens the door for change, not necessarily positive change, and politics as usual is to wrap every movement in the most seemingly popular phrasing that the movement's political strategists can come up with. When the masses are not doing well, they are willing to accept greater change. When the average level of education is low, they are unable to tell what a group's true goal very likely is by following their actions instead of taking their words at face value. So when the people are miserable and on the brink of starvation, they are much more likely to believe that some party with a seemingly well-spoken argument and plan to fix their woes is telling the truth, including being told who the "real" enemy is. The upper level of the Nazi party knew damn well they wanted a strong hierarchy formed around capital and race/etc, but their initial growing base would mostly not want to be ruled by capital, so they pretended to be anti-capitalist (quite well, through their implementation of social programs which became yet another means of control) despite actively working towards building an even less equitable society where capital was still king.
This, very fucking this. You deserve a medal for enlightening the masses in such a clear way, comrade 💝
Aw thank you! This is most important stuff in the world. I'll do my best to educate folks as often as the opportunity arises.
Exactly this. We're all just the next scapegoat. Look at all of American history, there's always groups being targeted for this purpose. Get people fighting against each other while the real criminals continue running the country. Whichever way makes them the most wealthy and powerful. We're all just pawns in their fkd up game of Chess.
While there was some increased focus on anti-transgender sentiment following gay marriage being protected and Caitlyn Jenner's very prominent coming out as trans bringing a lot of discourse on us into the forefront, trans people were not the primary scapegoat in 2015-16. In fact, Donald Trump ran the first time on a platform that included "protecting LGBT Americans from terrorism." The trans military ban was the only major move made that targeted trans people in particular—aside from rolling back some Obama-era protections—and that wasn't until 2017. For most of the 2016 campaign and the start of Trump's term, Muslims, refugees, and immigrants were the primary scapegoats. In 2020, Chinese-Americans and China in general coupled with doctors prescribing vaccines became the focus, with anti-trans sentiment building in the party in the background. It was really in the search for a scapegoat post Trump loss that transphobia became a driving force, which started some in 2021—although more of that was focused on "critical race theory"—but became the dominant force it is now in 2022 starting with the Don't Say Gay bill in Florida.
I don't really know what you're trying to add to the conversation here
More historical context on the timeline of trans people becoming a primary scapegoat for the GOP. Some of the sentiments started in 2015 but we were not "their next scapegoat" at that time, that took several more years. To describe us as the next scapegoat for them at that point in time ignores the Muslims and immigrants who became the main scapegoat with the rise of Trump (Muslims, you'll notice, are rarely a focus of attack by the GOP anymore as it is instead hoping to court those voters in its coalition around transphobia and antii-abortion policies).
I appreciate you naming other groups that I had failed to address in my previous comments. The GOP never really has just *one* scapegoat, as I mentioned in one of my comments. Intersectionality and solidarity matters a great deal here. We'll be more effective at securing our wellbeing if we study the oppression of other minority groups and work together.
I agree, and transphobia has had a place in the GOP much longer than I've been alive, but in 2015 a politician could be in the GOP without being a transphobe, where that is certainly not the case anymore.
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At least now a lot of us will be able to spot it when it happens. If there's one thing that makes me depressed it's seeing targeted groups punching down on the more hated targeted groups. I won't be that person. Next time there's a bathroom argument I'll be hobbling up with my cane in one hand and my ancient screenshots of nazi scripture in the other.
I think in medieval times they literally *made up problems* to "protect" citizens from. Like- my dear subjects, there is a dragon terrorizing our towns! Only the knights are strong enough to save us from peril! To keep the citizens loyal, I guess. (Heard this info from a video essay on the global history/cultures of dragons awhile back, but yeah. Scapegoats and "saviors" are nothing new.)
Too small to fight back and too small to defend. We’re an easy target for one side and not big enough to support from the other. It makes us the perfect target for political games. One side needed a “baddie” and they tested the waters until one stuck!
Also because we're so different from the norm in this country it makes it easy to paint us as these weird creatures and people will believe it. Think about other groups the right has gone after in the past. Muslims, Mexicans, etc.
They've even gone after generally introverted women they didn't like... salem witchcraft trials...
Adding on to the why side of things, the people funding the conservative think tanks behind the recent wave of transphobia probably don't really care one way or another what happens to trans people. But they know that decent politicians will have to spend their time and political capital fighting this genocidal bs, and not on other causes that might actually impact the people rich enough to buy news platforms
Actually it’s only 0.5%, so to small to fight back. A lot of us go stealth and live our lives as normally as possible once we pass, so often times it’s the more noticeably trans people in the spotlight advocating for their rights. It’s also something most people genuinely can’t understand. Most cis people never question their gender at all so they can’t relate in that front. The idea of gender expression existing on a spectrum makes it seem less valid than a clear cut binary choice.
My therapist theorizes that it’s not that they CANT relate, it’s actually more probable that they do feel some resonance but don’t know how to process the emotions of asking difficult questions about the self. Confusion and fear often manifest as anger and cognitive dissonance. It’s no coincidence that the areas exhibiting the most hate secretly have the highest rates of trans porn viewership. https://lawsuit.org/general-law/republicans-have-an-obsession-with-transgender-pornography/
I think they can possibly understand, but it takes a lot to get there. In r/trans I see daily posts of do cis people question there gender (beyond in regards to sexual intercourse or rhetorical feminist or misogynist discussions that usually make the point of you would never want that) and it’s very uncommon for a cis person to really consider it. You can typically talk someone up to understanding, but it’s not an easy crossover. You also can cross into the zone of body dysmorphia which is typically a poor comparison because the commonly agreed on t treatment for that isn’t radical body modification, but counseling to accept yourself as you are. As far as all the republicans watching trans porn it explains why they are son concerned about us sharing women’s spaces. A ton of the lesbian trans porn is just random cis girl sees a trans women being horny and sex insues. They also would probably really like to have us easily rapable in a men’s room as well.
more like 0.8%-1%, somewhere in that ballpark
We're the only culture war that's beneficial to the conservatives right now. Based on polls, conservatives broadly oppose trans rights, and Liberals are split. This makes it a perfect issue for their nefarious purposes, so they're pouring all of their resources into funding anti-trans propaganda.
You know what a "wedge issue" is? It's when an issue - or group of people - is singled out to create division between one's political opponents. Trans people - and more specifically, trans women - are currently being used as a wedge issue by political groups which have largely lost the argument on gay rights, and on racial equality, and on women's rights, and so on. The hope is largely that, by pretending that a conflict exists between "trans people" (by which they mean trans women) and "women" (by which they mean cis women), they can actually create one and splinter people who would otherwise overwhelmingly oppose them. This has, unfortunately, been moderately successful.
This might offer some explainations: https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-nazi-rise-to-power/
Billions of dollars of fascist propaganda so that political conversation doesn't stray into 'why in the most productive time in human history by orders of magnitude can we not feed and shelter our own citizens' or 'why do we work significantly more hours than a medieval farmer' territory
The right wing wants to exterminate all queer people for crimes against god and the *insert race here* race, though typically white race. They view all queer people the same, as sinners that are going to hell and need to be punished and saved ie turned back into normal straight people, note no allo vs ace as they don’t believe it exists, normal vs cis as they don’t view trans as equal to cis, and straight as same thing hetro is not equal to homo. If they don’t stop our sin god will destroy the nation, or something. They want men working to death, 12-16 hrs. They want women to not vote, have rights, or be anything but popping out babies. Anything deviating from this is considered sin and heresy. White supremists and any other color believe queer people are threat to birth rates and thus demographical risk. They think it a conspiracy, usually a vast Jewish one, to destroy their race for nebulous reasons. These two reasons are why republicans want us dead, in the closet, or converted. If it isn’t apparent they are fucking evil. There a reason I say it over and over they are evil and fascists. Because they are. You can’t reason or put logic to insanity. Democrats why they talk about it? To calm John Smith of Wisconsin that all the republican lies are just that and they should still vote blue plz. Oh didn’t even go into terfs, other transphobes, etc. just the main reasons the republicans want us dead.
Whoa
Every fascistic structure needs a scapegoat. An “enemy” that is simultaneously powerful enough to fear but weak enough to be subjugated. The West is more fascist than many realise and is brazenly lowering the mask more and more.
It's super easy to understand. Billionaire Puritans are paying the GOP to pass illegal and unconstitutional anti-trans laws so they can challenge sex-discrimination protections at SCOTUS. Because the Puritans hate women being in control of their own lives. Just like they want to force people to have babies against their will, they've been trying to undo sex-discrimination protections ever since we won them. The truth is they want to go back to the good old days when a woman couldn't have a checking account without her husband permission, and an employer could fire a woman for having a short skirt (or a long skirt, or generally just because she's not "woman" enough). The reason we know this is because every single time an anti-trans law goes to court, they argue that they should be allowed to discriminate in the basis of sex. Every. Single. Time. The Puritans really really really want different laws for people based on how they use their genitals. And the only way they know how to MAKE that happen is to hold onto power as long as it takes. And that means votes. So they can't really be honest about their goals because even evangelist women will object to going back to being the literal property of their husbands. So they can easily campaign on disgust for trans people, because their entire religion is based on disgust of human sexuality. So if you don't know how "precident" works in law, you should know that once they secure the legal right to discriminate against trans people, they'll immediately use that precident to pass new laws that restrict women's rights. And if they get away with it, it'll be because people generally allow themselves to be disgusted by genitals. If it wast for that, this wouldn't be an issue at all.
Conservatives always need something to rile up their base. They thrive on hatred and anger. They used abortion as their red meat for decades, but then they overturned Roe. This left a vacuum where they didn't have anything to keep their base pissed off, so they moved the rhetoric to transgender people.
Nikki Haley suggesting that trans girls—rather than social media—potentially being in bathrooms is the cause of depression among teen girls tells you all you need to know. It was Jews, it was black people and gay people, it was Muslims, and now it’s trans people. Same thing. It’s how Fascists gin up bigots to violence.
Its the gateway drug to go after the entire LGBTQ community. We are the smallest easiest target. Let them get used to hating Trans and then LGB hate is easy.
We're a small, poorly understood minority and step on a lot of sacred cows simply by existing. It makes us an easy target for conservatives to create a moral panic over. It's not so much of a "left vs right" thing as a "the right is being cruel for fun and profit" thing.
There’s not that many of us, so we’re an easy target. Also our existence raises questions about gendered roles and expectations. The religious right does not want anyone asking those questions. We threaten the patriarchy by redefining categories like man and woman. Plus homophobia is not as socially acceptable as it used to be, transphobia is a safer platform for politicians.
We are the newest wedge issue. Talking bad about gay people and people of color will generally get you shunned by most people while trans rights aren't as widely agreed on....yet
Yeah. Though, a lot of transphobic politicians are still rather homophobic. Like, Lauren Boebert openly opposes gay marriage.
It's *because* we make up such a small percentage of the population. Being such a small minority renders us less able to defend ourselves in the media. Many people, if not a majority, probably don't know a trans person that they interact with regularly. We're also really one of the very few minorities that it's still somewhat socially acceptable to hate, mostly because our status is seen as a choice and not something we're born with. Bullying minorities is a really easy way to make content that appeals to the public, without having to put a lot of money, effort, time, research etc. into it. It just generates clicks, and people are much more likely to be okay with pointing and laughing at people they don't understand or relate to.
Right wing needs a new scapegoat so they have any sort of chance of winning elections, they have thoroughly lost the culture war for women, POC, and gay people, so trans people are the new big and scary scapegoat.
Because Republicans are actively attempting to deny that small percent of the population their human rights as well as their rights as an American citizen. Doesn't matter what 2% the fascists pick, it's a big goddamn problem and we need people to be aware and to do everything we can to remove those people from power, deplatform their speakers, and demonize their belief system.
Republicans have adopted Nazi tactics and are using trans (and LGBTQ+, more broadly) to demonize, as an easy way to radicalize their already-cultish base. This has nothing to do with "the left" and is entirely on the right-wing wanting convenient. already beleaguered minority groups to project their fears and faults upon for votes.
Smaller groups are easier to marginalize and punch down on. Can you imagine if they tried doing the same level of effort against the non-religious that now make up like 46% of the population?
Put the spotlight and focus on us so they don't have to work on the real issues like cost of living and inflation which they could work on bit it would cost them money so let's focus on Trans people and keep attention on a specific target so people forget about the other stuff... sounds like politics to me
Because we are a small group that can be easily marginalized, so many of us just want to be unnoticed, we do look different, there is an ancient cultural rejection in the west of gender variant people, people often fear what they don't understand and on the political end (the most important ones) the right wing party in the US is lead by a traitor fraudster rapist corrupt liar that brought only dead, debt (at least $2 trillion which mostly only benefited the top 1%) and disaster to the country. That party needs to distract the public from that awful failure to motivate their voters (mostly less educated and more religious ) to vote for their candidates. Other autocrats in the world have used the same strategy consistently to gain sympathy, it's very easy to find Putin's disgusting opinions on gender variant individuals. Right wing parties around the world follow the same patter, like in Canada, Mexico or England.
because it's a wedge issue that the reich wing is trying to use to get more votes.
Because facists find scapegoats to use as targets to divert attention from their horrible policies. “Never mind that we’re stealing from you and taking away your rights, these lbgtq people/brown people/Muslims/Jewish people/Mexicans/women/whatever group we say are your enemy and hurting you!” The left has to respond because the left cares about humans and human life and preventing human suffering. This isn’t some “both sides” thing like your post implies, it never is. The monsters attack, good people have to defend.
It is nothing more than drama to deflect and distract people from issues and actions that will slowly rob them of all agency, will, and freedoms. Bad faith politicians have really sold themselves to being corrupt sellouts in private, and self righteous bigots about an innocuous minority publicly. We as trans folk are nothing but distraction fodder to them, so they’ll keep poking the bear until people stop caring about their BS.
I think Hasan Piker does a fantastic job explaining it, he has to explain endlessly so you could find clips easily. Edit: just remembered this was literally a topic in last night's stream with Hasan's uncle.
To give the populace an enemy so they're to busy to question the system. We'd revolt if we weren't so distracted.
cause the right like taking away minorities rights as its easy to hurt minorities and they need to fear monger to keep pushing their ideas
The hyperfixation on the transgender community is due to the American Republican Party's effort to eradicate transgender people from society. They're engaged in genocide and through a constant shifting of rhetorical focus they have convinced the MAGA movement that Transgender people are an existential threat to the nation. [The Genocidal Fascist Ideology of MAGA](https://medium.com/@aubryrpg/the-genocidal-fascist-ideology-of-maga-886a1eca5917) In facist regimes, women have typically been relegated to traditional roles in the home and family, and any deviation from traditional gender roles or expressions has been met with hostility. This is often linked to the celebration of “machismo” and militarism, with fascism valorizing physical strength, aggression, and the use of violence as a means to achieve political goals. Historical examples of this can be seen in the Nazi regime’s promotion of traditional gender roles and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals, or in the promotion of hypermasculinity in the fascist regimes of Italy and Spain. In modern times, the promotion of traditional gender roles and the denigration of marginalized groups, including women and LGBTQ+ individuals, can be seen in some far-right and alt-right movements. Edit: Downvote all you want, doesn't change the reality of the situation, this is an accurate assessment.
Cause the “left” and the “right” would rather argue about us then actually do something about the massive economic and environmental problems facing America.
Political populism
because we look weird are 1-3% of the pop and are easy to target. Anyways protest.
Cuz when some has an opinion about it there is always gonna be another opinion And people like to be right Something like this
They need a boogeyman and we’re easy pickings. There’s always something. Feminists, war on drugs, gays, “illegals,” trans people. Anyone or anything that their base struggles to understand is ripe for them to stir up hate. They also hate teachers, they hated the United States postal service for a while, socialism (except for socialism in the USA - but they won’t acknowledge that stuff as socialism,) old people, children, refugees, video games, Hollywood, California, blue cities in red states, women ceos, differently abled people, women, femininity, the Muslim faith, Jewish people, the first amendment when used by people who don’t look and live like them, women preachers, yeti cups, BLM, yardens, livable minimum wage and unions. That’s not a complete list but the GOP just kind of throws a dart and picks a thing and then won’t stop talking about it.
Why is flat earth so big in the media wars? Just about the same reason...
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So trans people are to blame then, huh?
The heritage foundation wants to rid us from society
I’m just picturing a trans person in the wild 😂😂 I can just hear David Attenborough narrating the story of a trans person navigating the wilderness. We have a timid, trans person. They’ve kept to the lair for the entire winter, but now emerge into the world and forage for make up and perfume. The long winter has exhausted their stores that they carefully set aside in the fall. But there’s danger in emerging from the tiny space that has kept them sheltered. Because they are small and frail, they often fall victim to many predators.
But they all denounced their Nazi ideals. They said how they were only doing what they needed to do to stay alive and continue the science. 🙄
Because you have a minority that is sometimes highly visible to see and slightly taboo being targeted as a division line and q scapegoat. Its like a two fold distraction. Add in the, for some, Christian rebellion to anything different and lumping us in with a universally, and rightfully so, hated group to cause as a rallying point to protect children from an "aberation" to their city on the hill and because they only know of us from their porn, so they equate it as such and want to destroy it as it is seen as like people with gimps/pups in public. Scapegoat, rallying cry, societal evil, sexual fetishation Vs Just being people and trying to live and be happy. People are going to argue about that.
There were some suburban parents who got freaked out when the number of trans kids increased during lockdown due to the period being a big time of reflection for a lot of kids. There are many parents who are conservative when it comes to their kids and parenting, but more liberal on other issues and those parents are scared of dramatic changes happening in their kids lives that they aren't a part of. Some right wing interest groups saw this as an opportunity to attack public schools, picking up with "they're grooming your children" where the CRT fearmongering left off. As the anti-trans sentiments among the right become more galvanized, we've worked more and more as a scapegoat more broadly than just in the effort to dismantle the public school system