philosopherking1887:

thepavi:

thepavi:

thepavi:

Boutta say smthn mean but afabs makin posts about how they don’t read theory or literature or engage with reading complex topics cuz “it’s all just common sense to care about people” is absolutely tied directly to the way that they then get indoctrinated by TERFs by like. hatereading 1 fucking radfem blog for too long. because TERFs have done their research and have their sources and statistics and their journals and their historic documents on hand (partly because trans people are an entire category of humans simply living our lives while TERFs are a specific culty fascist political hate group with a specific set of goals and beliefs, so you might follow 20 trans people and see very little in the way of loud trans rights activism because we simply don’t devote our entire life to fighting for our rights whereas a TERF blog is going to be devoted fulltime to the political stances of trans exclusionary radical feminism, and even cryptos will have the dog whistles EVERYWHERE if you are educated enough to catch them), and it’s all hateful skewed bullshit meant to manipulate people into furthering the marginalization of a vulnerable oppressed group, but it’s unironically the first actual theory on privilege and oppression that 75% of these people have read and they have not actually put tangible thought into the oppression that trans people face so suddenly that radfem article about The Scientific Proof Of Sex Based Oppression, Medical Transition As A Tool For Misogyny, And How Trans Women Are Behind It All sounds real impressive.

The reality is that a lot of people end up in this area of the internet where being a leftist is like, the default and they have this weird mindset that’s like “I don’t need to engage in in-depth conversations or critically analyze myself or research statistics or read about experiences that arent my own because of COURSE I support minorities!” but the thing is, when a group of people are actively being marginalized and oppressed supporting them is not some easy neutral default. There is going to be opposition from every side and the scary thing with TERFs in particular is that, unlike the open cruelty of conservative republican types that make it EASY to disagree with them, most TERFs also wrap up their language in leftist rhetoric so they are very good at breaking down walls you’ve built by using the same rhetoric as you and finding “common ground“ with you. And quite frankly if you are not directly impacted by TERFs and have not actually spent the time building up empathy and understanding and actual knowledge about trans people and WHY their opposition is so vile and evil then you are going to be susceptible to falling for their sweet talk.

Also it is not to be ignored and is in fact very relevant that I have seen a million times over trans women (especially TWOC) get ignored or yelled at for speaking up on social media because the same exact type of afabs that would eventually get indoctrinated by 1 eloquent radfem with half a dozen skewed statistics bitched at them for being “too wordy” and not dumbing down what they were saying to make it more accessible or for wording things “nicer” in their posts lol.

I’m just sooo pissed off at how often I see people (always tme people) go “hmm actually I used to hate TERFs but now I see they make good points” when those same people spent years going “lol punch TERFs they’re smelly! Of course transphobia is bad!!” but you can just fucking tell that these people have not critically engaged with ANYTHING regarding trans rights or transmisogyny or why TERFs are actually damaging. They treated supporting trans people as a default that they didn’t have to be critical or thoughtful about and the second it was questioned by people with more power than any trans person they buckled. And TERF rhetoric is soooo good at convincing cis girls and to some extent really all afabs that they should care more about their own victim complex than other marginalized people (namely trans women, especially nonwhite trans women), and it feels really good to feel sorry for yourself while punching down at people with less than you. It’s much easier and more immediately gratifying than actually making an effort to care about other people.

The reality is that a lot of people end up in this area of the internet where being a leftist is like, the default and they have this weird mindset that’s like “I don’t need to engage in in-depth conversations or critically analyze myself or research statistics or read about experiences that aren’t my own because of COURSE I support minorities!”

This point also applies to Leftists’ attitudes about Jews and understanding of antisemitism (which is frequently nonexistent). It’s easy to get sold conspiracy theories that seem to make sense of an unjust, hostile world if you don’t understand that that’s the mechanism by which this particular form of hate operates.