It’s not a belief system
Ohhhhhhh yes it is.
Of course it’s a belief system. What else would it be? There is no physical test for it or physical symptom of it. It’s an idea. It’s a feeling, an interpretation, a story, an (attempted) explanation.
Also, yet another of those “reminders” that aren’t reminders because they’re not true. “Reminder that the sun is smaller than the earth.”
Also people don’t “just happen” to be trans. It’s about the least “just happen” way to be you can imagine. It’s something people decide to call themselves. They don’t “just happen” to make that decision; they make it because they’re alive now as opposed to a century ago or a century in the future, so they have absorbed the contemporary delusion that people can change sex by the power of thought.
Reminder that “Cis” and “TERF” are used almost exclusively by trans activists to obscure that non-trans people are simply people who happen to be non-trans. It’s a belief system.
Oh good one. Exactly so.
It gets worse.
The only people I’ve seen talk “eliminationist nonsense” are trans activists themselves.
“Anti-trans activists” is a fabrication as well. Advocating for, and defending women’s rights is known as feminism. The fact that feminists have been required to defend those rights against some trans people, and some trans activists, doesn’t make it it’s own “activism.”
IMO, 20th century advances in plastic surgery along with advances in endocrinology are what have enabled the development of transgenderism, by simply making it possible for fantasies to be indulged. That medicine along with the mental health profession has gone along with this movement uncritically is hard to believe, but hopefully with developments like the Cass Report in the U.K. and the slow but growing number of those who have detransitioned having their stories made public there will be a reckoning about transgenderism.
That simply stating a defence of women’s rights to single-sex spaces, facilities and organizations is branded as “anti-trans” is very informative, given the fact we are reminded, constantly, that there is “no conflict” between women’s rights and trans “rights.” Because there’s “no conflict,” those who insist there is one can only be acting in bad faith and are only interested in harming trans folk. They’re fascist bigots organizing genocide. The accusation isn’t the start of any process to uncover the proof and evidence for guilt, but the sole point. Start with the verdict and you don’t need a trial. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Then they top it all off with “NO DEBATE!”
I don’t think “anti-trans activists” is quite accurate, either, but there are organizations explicitly devoted to fighting the gender industry on behalf of women or children or LGB people or freedom of speech. Not all of them are fighting principally for group rights and the genderists are getting in the way. I don’t think these groups are “anti-trans”, but the gender industry is their primary focus.
This is almost certainly in response to a recent speech by Michael Knowles of the Conservative Political Action Coalition. Knowles made the deliberately inflammatory statement that “for the good of society, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely—the whole preposterous ideology.” I’ll give Knowles the benefit of the doubt and assume that he doesn’t truly believe that trans people should be eradicated in the sense of being sent to death camps or what have you, but he’s waving a red flag rather than making a measured argument consistent with radical feminist principles.
Knowles probably has the same contempt for feminism that he does for transgenderism. The trans cult would love to lump conservative xenophobes with radfems.
Psychic people are simply people who just happen to have ESP. ESP is not a belief system.
Reincarnated people are simply people who just happen to be reincarnated. Reincarnation is not a belief system.
Alien abductees are simply people who just happen to have been abducted by aliens. Alien abduction is not a belief system.
Holy people are simply people who just happen to have been touched by God. Religion isn’t a belief system.
Let’s fold people’s beliefs about how they are living examples of their belief system right into their existence as people. It just happens to be more simple.
What a coincidence.
Must be nice to be an ideologue, with that warm fuzzy sense of belonging and all.
YNnB? #3
So, what was it this time? A suffragette ribbon? Someone pointing to the dictionary definition of “woman”? Saying that biological sex is real? Referring to someone by the correct pronouns? Of course whenever feminists have offered “coherent arguments” about “safety and fairness”, TRAs have invariably portrayed that as “eliminationist nonsense” as well. Never mind crying wolf, these people are more like the boy who cried “cubic spherical dragon!”
#7 Sackbut
Sure, but that’s like saying advocacy of secularism in government is anti-[specific religion]. A Christian group trying to obtain special privileges will cry “anti-Christian”, an Islamic group would cry “anti-Islam”, and so on. It’s still just the framing of the people being opposed regardless of the reason for the opposition – they tend to take it personally. Narcissism being a common thread between them all.
Many trans activists I talk to are desperate to avoid gender ideology being correctly described as an ideology. Absolutely desperate. So much so, and so consistently that I think there must have been some sort of rallying cry, a “deny everything, Baldric”.
You can describe what an ideology is and show that even using the most generous interpretation possible, gender ideology fits neatly into it. You can ask in the friendliest and most open of ways whether “TWAW”, regardless of whether it’s true or not, is a shared belief or principle among trans activists. You can explain that ideological positions can be based on fact and that something being an ideology doesn’t mean its core principles aren’t true. You can give examples of nice, science-friendly ideologies.
But it makes no difference. All I ever get is a flat out denial that it’s an ideology without any engagement to explain why. It looks very much like desperate painting over the cracks, to me. They’re aware to some degree that the edifice wont stand up to a good poking of the foundations.
Holm’s @ 14
No disagreement. I was challenging the idea that all these so-called “anti-trans” groups are really fighting for the rights of women. If trans ideology disappeared overnight, those groups fighting more generally for women’s rights would continue going, while those specifically working against the gender industry might consider disbanding.
ATSUR@8 & twiliter@9: Yeah, that’s why I constantly feel the need to interject when folks around here talk uncritically about GOP-originated bill proposals. They are almost always coming from a completely different place than legit GC concerns, and invariably have language meant to allow a much broader application.
Do we do that?
I’d need to do an archive trawl, Ophelia, but I’ve certainly gotten a sense from a few of your posts that you’re reacting to what the TRAs are saying about a piece of legislation (which, of course, makes it all about them), rather than doing a bit more research into the substance of the bills. And I know you’re aware that the GOP are utter assholes, but my perpetual concern is a maliciously quoted segment that doesn’t include such analysis is going to feed the trolls, by letting them push the claim that “TERFs are all just conservatives posing as feminists”. Bullshit, of course–you know it, I know it, and most leading TRAs likely know it–but it’s a very useful lie for them.
As a side-note, I genuinely appreciate that you don’t just shut me down on this point, even if you think I’m wrong about what you’ve posted, or that my concerns are overblown. I doubt I’d get the same courtesy at FTB in general, or Pharyngula in particular. I KNOW I’ve gotten shadow-banned over at Imgur, of all places, for suggesting in one comment that penises have no business in a women’s prison.
Well I’m aware that the GOP are utter assholes but I’m also aware that people in general – including me, including the GOP – agree on a hell of a lot more than we disagree on. There are plenty of basics and plenty of non-political non-contentious areas where the vast majority of humans see things the same way.
Thus I’m not all that freaked out that I overlap with the GOP somewhat on whether or not men become women by saying so, though it’s very much somewhat, since the GOP isn’t very feminist.