Pass on it
How we do political persuasion now.
That’s it! That’s all it takes. Just say these four words, and tell everyone else to say them too. Paradise on earth will ensue!
Tip Jar
How we do political persuasion now.
That’s it! That’s all it takes. Just say these four words, and tell everyone else to say them too. Paradise on earth will ensue!
Trans women are women?
I’ll pass.
Hence the title. GEDDIT??
I see what you there did.
Less humorously, it’s a funny (read dystopian) sort of persuasion. It’s not rational persuasion, obviously, but neither is it moral nor emotional. It’s sectarian persuasion. That is, tweets like these function as group membership signals. By continuing the “pass it on” chain, the poster advertises his or her membership in the moral community. “I’m one of you, too,” is the literal translation. It’s a literal shibboleth.
But how does this persuade? Answer: by force of group identity. It is a natural human impulse to want to be right, especially about oneself. If I label myself a skeptic, it is natural to look for opportunities to demonstrate myself to be a good skeptic. The same goes for atheist, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, feminist, anti-racist, trans ally, and so on. It’s a sort of confirmation bias. What tweets like these do is imply that to be a good [label] requires endorsing the claim, and the number of people signing onto the claim functions as evidence that the implication is true. (Even though it actually doesn’t.)
This was actually a topic that came up in one of Meghan Murphy’s videos this week. The examples in that were atheist and feminist.
UGH! My brain read it as “Pass it on,” rather than “Pass on it.” I plead Friday. And stupid.
Let this be a warning to you all. Of what, I’m not sure, but you have been warned.
Nullius, I’m not sure that’s entirely true about labels of that type. There’s some pull to get invested in them, but there’s also some pull to remain free to change them if one changes one’s mind, and some to be cautious about ascribing them to oneself if one has reservations. I almost never call myself a “skeptic” for instance, because skeptic about what, and similar questions. Atheist is clear-cut so I can call myself that, but “skeptic” – woo peddlers call themselves that.
They know this sort of thing has no persuasive power, this is just a public display of wokeness for woke points.
“Trans women are women” has become the new “four legs good, two legs bad”. It’s not an argument. It’s barely even an assertion. It’s a declaration of faith and of one’s embrace of Correct Thought. It’s a chant to drown out objections — and any doubts within oneself.
So the place called National Center for Lesbian Rights is not for the rights of real lesbians at all? Just the rights of men who claim to be women and real women docile enough to know that “their place” is obediently parroting whatever the man want them to chant?
Guess that leaves the LGB Alliance as the one place for real lesbians.
It seems so.
Body of Christ. Blood of Christ.
A chant for the initiated to reinforce their myth.
Ophelia @ #6:
Certainly, there are those who avoid taking labels onto themselves and those who only adopt labels tentatively or provisionally. That’s probably the healthy way to go about things. However, self-verification is nonetheless a real phenomenon that influences attitudes and behaviors. Now, I’d say a lot of those behaviors are irrational, but that’s humanity for ya.
And yeah, labels like “atheist” are so clear and specific that it doesn’t even make any sense to ask what it means to be a good atheist. It’s binary: you either believe or not. Despite this, a person might think that being a “good” atheist requires being openly dismissive of religious belief whenever it’s encountered. Of course, it requires no such thing, but the desire to verify one’s self-evaluation is rather strong. Let’s not forget about atheism+, either. *shudder*
Not an argument, a shahada.