So no one thinks I'm a troll, I completely support trans people doing whatever the fuck they want with their bodies. And I don't mind seeing trans stuff. But with that said, I feel like the hundreds and hundreds of posts I see about trans people is not helping. Going off like this site and a few others I browse you'd think trans people are like 40% of people instead of more like 2%.
I feel like constantly putting them in the spotlight, even to say you support them is just contributing to this "trans awareness burnout" I hear about in a lot of my non-leftist conversations. I mean i almost never see posts saying stuff like "I support indigenous Americans/homeless people/etc". And not because we don't, but because it's so obvious we don't feel the need to talk about it. Shouldn't trans people be the same way?
Anywho I'd love to hear thoughts, change my mind or kneel to my clearly superior intellect and dialectical understanding. :kubrick-stare:
Bruh wtf is “trans awareness burnout." Anybody who gets" burned out" by seeing "I love my trans comrades" is never going to be a comrade. The very existence of trans people is under attack in the United States; the internet by and large is hostile to the mere presence of trans people. Pretending that that's not the case, simply not speaking, not forcefully making space, that's not what we're about here. This post has a big "All Lives Matter" energy to it. Should we not say Black Lives Matter even though in the US they're a minority? What would you think about somebody who has "Black Lives Matter burnout"? Apply that same lense to trans awareness and you'll understand why we're so vocal here.
Culture war shit is theoretical for the right wing because they've already won, but it's very real for trans folks. Try telling a trans kid in Florida who's been ripped away from their parents that it's all just "culture war shit." Trans people are currently under attack; there is no context when "I love my trans comrades" is not in response to an attack because the attack rn is endless, ever present, it's in the very air we breathe. Our very society is predicted on trans oppression, and until that changes we will not shut up.
Hmm... So good points I suppose, I see where you're coming from. My only caveat to that would be the constant reassuring that we support you had an implicit backing of "I'm only saying this because a lot of people don't". And I do think there's something to normalizing things by not spotlighting it. Call it lib trash, but as a bisexual guy I loved the way they treated David's sexuality in Schitt's Creek. They never had any characters have a problem with it or make it some struggle he had to deal with which was just really refreshing.
But that said I can also clearly see were not there yet in terms of trans acceptance in the world, so I'm sure they already know plenty of people don't support them so it's just nice to come to a place that is so outwardly supportive.
Which is to say, you're right I guess, I retract my original post.
Yeah most trans people I know want the same, just to be accepted for who they are without making a big deal of it. That's what most people want; "being perceived" is horror enough. The internet is a dark place, and to have a space where trans people can just be themselves without having to see heinous shit about how they shouldn't exist or whatever is priceless. We gotta do everything we can for our comrades. It's all love friend :stalin-heart:
On this site trans issues are not predominantly brought up by the right wing, they're brought up by trans people just trying to exist, for example expressing solidarity with each other or anger at very real attacks on them like the latest slew of anti-trans legislation across the US
There's also no competition here between trans positive posts and posts about "meaningful change" - one fewer trans posts will not bring about the revolution, we can and do talk about both trans issues and other problems brought on by capitalism
Trans awareness burnout
As a straight cis male, I for one appreciate our trans comrades' efforts to combat straight cis male awareness burnout.
I'm pretty sure 40% is only a slight overestimate for this site's demographics.
The right has identified a punching bag. It doesn't matter to fascist state legislators that trans people are only 2% of the population, they'll keep wailing on them. Mass ignorance is one of the things that allows them to do so without any consequences. As with homophobia, racism, and misogyny, we can't simply cover our eyes and pretend they don't exist to make them disappear. No easy targets, no separate struggles, no one gets left behind.
No easy targets, no separate struggles, no one left behind.
This goes hard
Going off like this site and a few others I browse you’d think trans people are like 40% of people instead of more like 2%.
While it may not be 40%, the trans population of niche leftist web-forums will be higher than 2%.
Trans people are more online, for a lot of reasons. Introversion due to social stigma or dysphoria (consciously or unconsciously) from a young age, higher rates of autism (which has its own pile of reasons for autistic people of all sorts to be 'more online'), and just, being a minority and wanting to connect with 'people like you' in a way that physical geography makes difficult. Trans people are both pushed out of 'normal spaces', and drawn towards 'niche spaces' for these reasons. Obviously, a generalization that won't apply to everyone, but it'll skew the statistics.
On top of that, trans people are much more likely to be leftist. Again, partially from being 'drawn towards' leftism for a variety of reasons, but also being 'pushed out of' the right and center.
So it really shouldn't be a surprise that niche online left spaces have a large trans contingent.
And, of course, while much of the 'culture war' around trans issues are right wing loser whinging online, there's very real threats, political and personal, to being a trans person specifically. And, lots of online spaces, "leftist" ones included, can attract transphobes, and being loud about "I love my trans comrades!!!!!" not only affirms trans users that this is a space that isn't afraid to kick out shitheels, it also honeypots shitheels into 'debating' if loving trans comrades is 'valid' (letting mods promptly kick them).
https://forward.com/culture/549587/trans-book-burning-library-gay-pride/
Fascism will eventually come for everyone, but they always start with the most 'acceptable' targets. In Germany that was trans folks, as it is today in the USA/UK. The small numbers of trans people is an element of this strategy. If you want to see other marginalized folks get more attention here, then be the change you want to see. But DO NOT tell folks to 'tone it down' or whatever other libshit.
No, I don't think so. We're a very useful scapegoat for reactionaries, I don't think that changes if there was less "I love my trans comrades" posts on hexbear or even on twitter
No.
The hatred of trans people is being fueled by right wing and liberal media projects manufacturing outrage. Some lefties expressing solidarity to trans people in forum spaces that the right only wind up in to ridicule is not contributing to anti-queer sentiment.
The long and short of this subject is that reactionaries' fears are entirely ungrounded from reality - nothing you can do can make them worse, because they're already doing it as fast as they can
Oh sure, they'll cite whatever their targets might have said recently, but never in a way that comprehends it, much less references anything real about it. You can bet they'll pretend to misunderstand you, and they'll make accounts pretending to be [target] to try to guilt you as being responsible for your enemies' bigotry, and if you have any sense you'll slap them the fuck down about it
Trans liberation, like other sites in the so-called 'culture war', is a concrete battlefield of the class war.
Trans issues, women's issues, racialised people's issues, homeless people's issues are the issues of trans, female, racialised and homeless workers. Each line is a front that MUST be fought on, and the class war is not some higher, more abstract thing that can be fought independently but is the sum of the concrete battles face by each section of the working class. Now, I'm not accusing you of this, but failing to understand that is the basis of the "socially conservative" patsocs, vulgar materialists and other pseudo-left thought trap movements.
The capitalists want to carve up the working class into a hierarchy that they can control through a tiered scale of patronage, with white, cis men at the top, and their success at doing so is the cornerstone of capitalism's current longevity. Only complete solidarity between EVERY section of the working class will lead to a successful revolution, and the section of the working class currently under the heaviest fire is our trans comrades. So, here in our secret bunker, they get the most support.
Probably you hear trans people more here because they aren't being crushed to death like they would be in an MSM space.
People who don't find societal acceptable in general society seek it out in online forums. Trans is a phenomenon as old as time, but the idea of a trans community is incredibly recent.
For this forum specifically, it literally would not exist without the effort and work put in by our trans comrades. Imo, communism ideology in America would not exist without the dedicated posting of our trans comrades.
Positive attention is necessary otherwise ALL the coverage of trans people would be fundamentalists, TERFs, and other psychos.
You raise a valid point that we don't have the same energy to support the plights of indigenous people, the homeless, or other groups that are similarly being attacked by the state, but I think that can be explained because those groups aren't as present in our spaces like trans people are. We do have some indigenous and homeless comrades in this site who post about their experiences, but if I had to guess I'd say we don't have a representative sample; yet with trans comrades it's the opposite where I'm pretty sure we might have more trans voices here than the general population proportionally.
I mean I'm thankfully not homeless anymore but I was homeless for 6 months in 2022 and a few months back in 2017.
So maybe you should post about it then. That would be a more constructive way to bring forward other marginalized people than complaining about trans people being too loud or something.
I'm happy to hear you aren't anymore. I've seen some other posts here from people that were homeless, sometimes in the mutual aid comm for example.
doing transphobia "as a bit" is still transphobia, go fuck yourself you liberal wanker
I’m not being transphobic as a bit or even being transphobic.
That's not up to you to decide.
The point of this post was to talk about the strategy of how best to support trans people
Yeah, by telling us to shut up and tone it down in our safe space, you ignorant twat. Go fuck yourself.
I don’t think it should be seen as bad to raise these types of questions.
:PIGPOOPBALLS:
I don't get why people on here have to be so rude sometimes, it's honestly very disheartening.
:pain:
You'd be annoyed too if people were constantly debating your right to exist. Not trying to do an own, just saying
I haven't debated anyone's right to exist though, like I said I'm literally trying to see how best to help trans people and I get told to kill myself. Honestly just really depressing and makes me wanna cry.
I didn't say you, I don't know you. But plenty of people use rhetoric just like yours to "just ask questions" about these things, and it poisons the well
Well maybe treating everyone like an enemy at the gate or bad faith actor is really toxic though. It's exhausting trying to stay on this website sometimes when so many people purposefully misinterpret what you say and your intentions when you go out of your way to be deliberate in your word choices.
Idk I'm a soft guy and I just wish this site would be softer sometimes, the world's hard enough.
doing transphobia “as a bit” is still transphobia
r/transgendercirclejerk is truly the most vile hate group on :reddit-logo:
i honestly have no idea what you're talking about, i just think OP is a condescending piece of shit who needs to learn when to STFU.
