Progressive and kind
But trans people are the most marginalized.
Why is the rhetoric of the trans movement so violent? I’ve never understood that. Is it just because the trans movement is mostly about trans women aka men, and the opposition to trans women taking what belongs to women is mostly from women? In other words just men being misogynist?
I don’t know. See, I would think a movement that purports to be lefty and progressive would not want that kind of threatening violent imagery and talk, if only because it doesn’t look progressive…but it seems they do want it, the more the better. Decapitate feminist women, rah rah, solidarity forever.
Competition for social status in an environment lacking mechanisms that limit intensification? We’ve gotten to the point that expressing anything other than full, enthusiastic agreement with in-group beliefs is considered evidence of being a member of the out-group. In such an environment, escalation of endorsement is kind of the natural outcome.
They’re aping more legitimate movements–in particular, anti-fascism and economic equity movements–where “Punch a Nazi” and “Eat the Rich” are considered fully acceptable discourse. Heck, even feminism has had “Boys are dumb, throw rocks at them”. Of course, all of those are from movements that are genuinely being threatened with violence in the first place. While there IS anti-trans violence, it’s not coming from feminists, but rather the same people who have always hated women, so this would be like anti-Fascists carrying signs saying, “Punch a Jew.” Still, it’s all part of the TRA habit of mimicking other SJ movements in order to gain street cred.
The ones that are even less explicable are the rape threats and other violent sexual imagery, like “Suck my lady-dick”. These don’t appear in any of the other, more legit SJ movements, yet are quite common in Trans protest signage. And of course, if there’s any single thing that disproves TWAW as a concept, it’s using and tolerating rape threats.
What NIV said.
There might also be an element of established convention. A while back I read Alice Dreger’s Galileo’s Middle Finger which detailed some very early trans backlash against a psychologist who wrote about autogynophilia. The attacks were so disproportionate, vicious, and obsessive they either coined or invoked the term “narcissistic rage.” Narcissists overreact to anything which seems to diminish their inflated sense of self-worth.
If narcissistic rage set the original standard of expected level of outrage, it might help explain why the rhetoric of the trans movement is so violent. That’s where it started.
Isn’t there any law under which these ghastly people can be prosecuted? Or does hate speech only cover truly awful things like saying that men cannot be women?
Some of my friends who identify as leftist are fond of invoking the French Revolution and displaying pictures of guillotines. Thus burnishing their leftist credentials, apparently.
Good point. The “movement” itself is inherently narcissistic, because its only basis is self-obsession.
Police are looking into this one. Perhaps decapitation is a little too specific to ignore.
There is an article in The Guardian today that is relevant to this:
Stoking a culture war? No, Nicola Sturgeon, this is about balancing conflicting rights
by Sonia Sodha
I remember seeing mock guillotines during the 2020 protests/riots, which was both horrifying and offensive. You think I can follow the woke rules and get people cancelled for that?