The problem is that the progressive Left steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that there does indeed need to be nuance on trans policy. Their reasoning, if you can call it that, is that because Republicans have way overreacted on this culture war issue, the Left cannot concede an inch, because that would be giving support to an enemy who has to be defeated with zero compromise.
I find this very frustrating. As I have been saying for a while now, the Left is not going to win this on common sense grounds. The cases where it matters may be relatively rare and infrequent, but no way is the broader public ready to think that a man with a penis declaring himself to be a woman is being fair if he insists he compete against them as a woman. If you can't admit that, you're just pushing against unrealistic extremism with your own preferred version of unrealistic extremism.
I am pleased to see, however, that there are finally signs of pushback within Democrat supporters against the progressive tactic.
This is shown in the tweets here, where David Roberts (a pretty sensible man on most issues with a huge blindspot on this one) gets told:
This is good.
Even poor Noah Smith is suffering for his lack of ideological purity:
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Forget this bullshit Steve. I had thought we were hitting things about right in the 90’s. But you cannot go back the 90’s because that’s climbing back up the top of the slide. All mouse utopia behaviours have to be sectioned off to clubs late Saturday night or it’s Just insane sickos killing people while dressed as a woman.
ReplyDeleteYou would know that insane fat pig in public health in the US? You may laugh at that lunatic but he called the shots on the vaccine mass murder.
It does seem strange, this - that Democrats want to live and die by this issue. The Democrat Party really is a different beast to the left wing parties in the rest of the west - it wasn't created to buttress the international labour movement and (in worst cases) support international communism and socialism. It's a good deal older than those movements, and it should, in theory, be immune from the ideological trends so common to those movements. But it's not, quite the opposite. I think another point about the Democrat Party might help to explain it, that the US is full of crazy believers and many of the insane ideological trends seem to originate in the US, not due to either major party, but simply the large kook demographic in that country. They simply have so many people over there, that a sizeable crowd of them are always going to be completely stark raving bonkers. The parties have to respond to that somehow. I guess!
ReplyDeleteI think it was Helen Joyce, the Irish gender critical journalist, who identified the extreme trans ideology as originating in the United States and going on to make the rest of the western world crazy, as well.
ReplyDeleteOn general principles we should be kind to all our brothers. Even should they wish to find fulfilment or prurient release dressing up as sisters. To bring these people, afflicted as they are, to central decision making WOULD BE a suicide move. If we didn’t know it was promoted by an outside force.
ReplyDeleteThe founding fathers of this country wanted a high wage economy. Once you have that you can work out all your mouse utopian issues in your spare time and keep it away from the kids.
If we can isolate degeneracy geographically that’s a pretty good solution. A solution not contrary to a general attitude of kindness.
I quite liked hanging out in Fortitude valley when I was an all nighter crazy. I didn’t mind that the degenerates were ghettoised to express themselves there. I was there to combat my alcoholism with the 50 metre Olympic outdoor pool that was there. I watched all the Hong Kong movies. I was lucky enough to watch THE KILLERS at the cinema. That’s rare privilege.
So you had all these degenerates and you had Chinese ambience. Chinese are terrific ambience. It would be nice to get back to that perfect 90’d balance.
But it’s the top of the slide. And our goals can’t simply be to go back to the top of the slide.