Guest post: The simple accusation of “bigotry”
Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on None of the above.
It is a movement full of people who think that because bigots accuse the group of various misbehaviors, anybody accusing them as individuals of that behavior can be dismissed as a bigot, thus giving them some cover to act according to the stereotype.
One of Jason Stanley’s twitter-troll defenders has pointed out, in reference to Jane Clare Jones that “most scholars don’t have PowerPoints on hand to explain why they aren’t Nazis.”
So one is supposed to stay silent in the face of baseless accusations? Because no genderist has EVER made unfounded claims of hatred, violence and trans-genocide. They would NEVER do that. Never ever. But “misgender” them and they’ll fucking bury you.
The simple accusation of “bigotry” allows any critique or comment from the accused to be ignored, with no need to provide any evidence for the validity of said accusation. At all. In fact, ignoring the points made by people accused of being “Nazis” or “Fascists” or “TERFs” becomes a moral duty. “NO DEBATE!” Blanket, pre-emptive accusations of ultra-right association saves trans activists a lot of work, in the short term, but it keeps them from having to sharpen their debating skills. Maybe not the best strategy in the long run, though. Somehow, somewhere along the line, you’re actually going to have to argue your case to someone and convince them.* Use it or lose it. Some people have been lulled into a false sense of unanswerable moral superiority while they’ve let their debate muscles go soft and flabby, as evidenced by how well Mr. 200 Years has been faring.
*Though the degree of success the movement has achieved through institutional capture and backroom dealing has been extraordinary. But someone was bound to complain, and complain publicly. Women. They forgot about women.Trans activists sought to do a quiet end run around the rights of women. Turns out that was the easy part. They thought that once their fait was accomplied, that would be the end of it, they would have their way unopposed. They completely underestimated the anger and organizational skills of women, who’ve had centuries of practice dealing with being fucked over, figuratively and literally.
Whatever success you’ve had in secret, once the doors are opened and lights are turned on, you’ve got to make your case. If you have no case to make, then the jig is up, and you’re left with nothing but brute power and emotional blackmail to hold onto whatever gains you’ve made. I believe we are, in some jurisdictions at least, well into the beginning of this phase. I believe the tide is turning, with women in the UK in the vanguard.
“The very common trope of producing pictures of trans women in arguments to restrict trans rights is intended to marshal the sentiment of disgust as a kind of premise. Disgust is one foundation of a politics of hate.” — Jason Stanley.
If pointing out the sociopathic, narcissistic misogyny of the trans cult makes me a bigot, then hell yeah “professor,” I’m your Huckleberry.
Good one, not Bruce.
Ah yes, because disgust is never an appropriate response and never a legitimate impetus to action. Nope, because fascist propaganda often evokes disgust, anything that evokes disgust is fascist propaganda.
Dafuq does this guy call himself a philosopher with this constant guilt by association BS?
@2 He’s no philosopher, at least not how I understand the title. If I was in a position of power at Yale, he’d be out on his ear, like last week.
Trans rights advocates caught off guard and unaware by the requirement that they prove their case resemble theists stepping outside their long-standing cocoon of faith and meeting up with atheists.
“But everyone knows there’s a God! You just hate Him!”
“But everyone knows there’s a Gender Identity! You just hate trans ppl!”
And, of course, the popular “Look, nobody’s forcing you to believe. Go through the motions.”
The point is that they look like men, not that they look disgusting.
But Sastra, but we can’t believe what our own eyes have seen, or what our own reasoning tells us, that’s hateful. :P
I can imagine quite a bit of disgust directed at institutions and authorities who have promulgated this officially sanctioned, blanket violation of women’s rights, occuring at all levels of government and society. Disgust at the scapegoating and criminalization of women forced to fight a rearguard action against their own governments, employers, and forganizations, as women’s boundaries are eroded and given away to men, all while facing accusations of being genocidal, Nazi bigots if they question or complain about what’s happening. That’s prime grounds for disgust if you ask me.