stupidpol

https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/stupidpol/comments/1qwpm0n/the_new_talking_point_among_trans_rights_activists/

There’s a new talking point I see on every lib idpol sub whenever the question of trans issues comes up. Since the 2024 election there’s been internal debate about whether the whole trans rights push by the social left has backfired and maybe it was a big mistake for Dems to allow these fringe actors to gain so much political capital.

And the talking point from the pro trans groups has now shifted to “Dems are just defending trans people against Republican hate! Republicans are the ones who are obsessed with trans people, we had no choice but to stand up for them!”. Basically “and then one day, the fire nation attacked” energy.

Obviously want to make it clear that I think Repubs are dumb assholes and their extreme level of hatred for trans people is unacceptable. But I don’t know how it’s possible to convince yourself that the right is somehow the side that fired the opening shot in this culture war.

Look back at the 2012 election. That’s not very long ago. How much attention to trans issues did Romney and Obama give? None. It wasn’t part of the discourse. Same with every election prior to that. If you had asked Bill Clinton and Bob Dole what their position on trans rights was you probably wouldn’t get an answer because they wouldn’t even understand why they were being asked that or what the question even meant. This stuff was not debated at any serious level of politics prior to 2016.

Was this because Republicans used to be super tolerant and kind to trans people? Definitely not. It was because it simply wasn’t part of standard public political discourse, so even if rightoids did hate trans people they spent very little energy expressing thar hate because it was a fringe issue that nobody cared about.

It is not debatable that the right’s current hyperfocus on trans issues is a reaction to the left’s sudden attempt to push it directly into the mainstream political realm. That’s why we call them reactionaries. None of the trans bathroom laws would even exist if the left hadn’t basically baited the right into creating them. Even if you’re the most pro trans person in existence you should be willing to acknowledge this basic truth about recent history.

And yes, this absolutely is a recent shift in discourse as far as I can tell. Go back in time 10 years to when the trans stuff was really starting to gain traction and you’d never hear anyone regurgitating this talking point.