Overstatement everywhere
Even The Economist can’t get it right.
For many Americans, the great tragedy of trans rights is the story of how Republican governors and state legislatures are stigmatising some of society’s most put-upon people—all too often in a cynical search for votes. This newspaper shares their dismay at these vicious tactics. In a free society it is not the government’s place to tell adults how to live and dress, which pronouns to use, or what to do with their bodies.
Or what to do with their bodies? Of course it’s the government’s place to tell adults that in many circumstances. It can tell us not to use our bodies to rape or assault or strangle. It can tell us not to use our bodies to force our way past police barriers and into the Capitol in an attempt to overturn an election. It can tell us not to use our bodies to cheat in sports. It can tell us not to use our bodies to break into other people’s houses.
Yes there should be limits. Yes the government shouldn’t interfere with our private lives without a very good reason (violence, abuse, that kind of thing). Yes our bodies are mostly ours to dress or undress as we choose…but there are exceptions.
Journalists really should know how to avoid this kind of overstatement.
I sort of like the phrase ‘put-upon’ used here. When my mother used it, she didn’t mean it as someone who is marginalized, she meant it as someone who claims to be overworked or victimized without really being so. Of course, I’m sure that isn’t a common understanding.
Huh. This was also published by the Economist:
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/04/05/the-evidence-to-support-medicalised-gender-transitions-in-adolescents-is-worryingly-weak
And just yesterday at that. Thanks for the link.
It’s not the government’s place to tell us which pronouns to use? Then that takes care of the issue of forcing public schoolteachers to use the child’s “preferred pronouns” or face sanctions, doesn’t it?
Well…no…we meant…erm…
Ophelia, I believe the phrase you’re looking for is, “Shut the fuck up, terf,” accompanied by an image macro of some kind with a kawaii anime girl.
Amusingly, my keyboard’s predictive text did the while STFUT phrase. It even suggested the F-bomb, even though it normally replaces any occurrences of vulgarity with innocuous words like “duck” and “heck”. That’s … weird.