Aka obstinacy
Meet “belief perseverance”:
And in conclusion:
There will be more denial and obfuscation. Mermaids and similar groups will continue to claim they’re the victims of “anti-trans” campaigns, and dismiss legitimate concerns as “hate”. These ideologues have invested too much in their fantasies to give up without a fight.
It’s probably going to be a different sort of fight now, though. It probably won’t be quite as easy to shut people up by shouting “TERF!!!” at them. I mean us.
Don’t normally agree with Andrew Doyle, (and I never found Titania McGrath funny) but he makes some good points here.
As a left-winger, I find it depressing how the right-wing publications and journalists have been so right about the Mermaids disaster.
I know I’m probably in a minority here, but I supported Jeremy Corbyn, and still think he would have been a much better PM than Boris Johnson.
Discovering Corbyn palling around with Mermaids members was heartbreaking for this old-fashioned social democrat.
https://twitter.com/millermccaffrey/status/826901300109570052
This is what I’m always on about. Public affirmation of a falsehood is binding in a way that stating the truth just isn’t. Professing a contradiction incurs a social cost, so it works as a demonstration of loyalty. It is a sacrifice, not of life or material possession, but of current or future credibility. Affirming a group’s false dogma ties your interests to those of the group, for if the group’s dogma is revealed as false, your personal credibility and status suffer. Not only will you work to assure that dogma isn’t shown false, you’ll work to convince others that it’s true. And to resolve the cognitive dissonance your professing and evangelizing create in your own mind, you’ll convince yourself that war is peace, ignorance is strength, and the false dogma is self-evident truth.
We’ve seen the phenomenon in the religious forever, and it poses the same problem: How do we make it easier for believers to admit, at first even only to themselves, that they’ve been backing something false? How do we make the road back to reality less horrifying and more attractive than the pathway they’re on?
“We’ve seen the phenomenon in the religious forever, and it poses the same problem: How do we make it easier for believers to admit, at first even only to themselves, that they’ve been backing something false? How do we make the road back to reality less horrifying and more attractive than the pathway they’re on?”
All good points.
Speaking of the “road back to reality”, I suspected a fair few people have been “peaked” by the Mermaids scandal.
For such people, this is a good website serves as an Introduction to Gender-Critical Ideas. I read it when I first became GC, two years ago:
https://gcritical.org/
Nullius, I’m seeing some of that happening in religious circles. Some of the freethought groups are welcoming people who leave religion, and putting them up as positive examples. Of course, that isn’t enough to combat the societal preference for religion, but it is a start. Would that work, I wonder? If GC groups offered warm, welcoming spaces for former TAs who woke up to the bullshit they swallowed? I don’t know, but it might be worth a try.
Absolutely. I find it very depressing that on this issue I so often find myself agreeing with contemptible people that I disagree with about just about everything else.
I’ve seen the phenomenon referred to as the Backfire Effect: in the face of contrary evidence, people not only retain their mistaken beliefs but cling to them more strongly. This effect is mentioned as a reason that people cannot be convinced by presenting facts alone.
iknklast has a very good idea. It worked for me, after all; this space that Ophelia created allowed me to explore my feelings about the ‘trans’ issue without judgement, enabling me to escape the cult and become an outspoken GC feminist.
Thank you all!
That’s very good to know.
As angry as I can get with trans boosters, I have to remember that many of them have been groomed by the cult. They have lives and jobs and things to do and probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about this issue. They are mostly solid left-wingers and when the trans say that anybody who opposes their behavior is right wing, that settles it for them. Right wing BAD! Makes it all very easy for them to just go along with the herd.
Then there are all the people who just don’t ever get exposed to anything that makes them doubt the “be kind to trans cause they so oppwessed” tales told by the mainstream media. The things that Reduxx and Meghan Murphy and Ophelia and all the GCs cover — just don’t get told by the mainstream outlets.
Then there are the people who actually believe that giving hormones to people really does change them into the sex they are not — like some super serum in a Family Guy or American Dad cartoon. I thought most of the people who think this were messing with me, but they get told that Joe transitioned to Jane by the media, and it must be somehow true because hormones are magic. Don’t discount total ignorance of biology here.
If we can point out how these groups have been lied to and groomed, they might be willing to look into their views and into the activity of orgs like Mermaids a bit closer. People know that other people lie to get compliance and money all the time. We need to show them how they have been groomed and deceived. Some of them will come around once they see the big scam and snake oil exposed.
I have had a little success with telling the “where are the feminists fighting this?” crowd the truth. Yes, some of the “where are the feminists” right wingers are basically saying that as a cheap shot — hurr hurr dur, look, we got something to smear them uppity women with now.
There are centrists and right-wingers, however, who are really wondering why the “feminists” seem to be supporting trans. When I point out that the mainstream media only shows them the libfems who support the trans and ignores the real feminists (I usually list a few examples) who are fighting for women and truth, they get it. They KNOW the mainstream media lies to them and about them all the time – finding out that they are being lied to about one more thing is not surprising.
So, sorry this ran on, but there is a path for good people to leave off supporting a movement of lies — they need to see what has been hidden and how they have been lied to.
“there is a path for good people to leave off supporting a movement of lies — they need to see what has been hidden and how they have been lied to.”
Anyone here got tips for speaking to someone sunk in the gender-woo?
Mostly Cloudy, I’ve done it with some success.
By “success” I mean, I’ve had discussions online (Facebook) with people (most recently, the father of a trans-identified child,) that wound up civil and thoughtful, even when they didn’t start out that way. My first tip is to judge success by that. Don’t expect to change anyone’s mind after one interaction–human minds don’t work that way. The goal is to get the other person to see that there’s another way of looking at these issues.
Further tips:
Make it clear that you SUPPORT gender non-conformity. The gender movement has successfully framed their critics as haters who think we should all be gender conformists. Even when it’s not stated explicitly, this is often assumed by supporters of “gender identity.”
Once you make it clear that you not only don’t hate trans-identified people for being trans, but actually are sympathetic to gender non-conformity (and maybe noticeably gnc yourself, if you are), one defensive barrier will fall.
Stay calm and focus on the argument. I’m not above being snarky or doing a little butt-kicking when someone’s being nasty, but even then I’m willing to leave that behind and go on to more constructive argument at the slightest opening.
Be aware who’s worth arguing with and who isn’t. But you can’t always tell, at first. Some people start out sounding reasonable, then at the point where they start losing an argument they start repeating dogma and telling you what a hateful, terrible person you are. Those are the worst, because they disappoint you.
Thanks. That’s very helpful, Lady Mondegreen.