My Blog Week: October 17 to October 23

A Word on the Week

What Comes After Awareness? (2)

One bit of news this week involved a new social media platform, a money-soliciting venture by ex-president Trump. It seems to me a site meant to draw users of a single ilk would have trouble generating traffic, if only because so much traffic is fueled by troll farms, and the troll farm’s job is to target criticism of customers or client states. If everyone on the far-right site is talking positively about their material to others talking positively back to them, trolls can only stir internecine controversies over fascist minutiae at best, and for a small audience. Liberal influencers won’t be on this site to be “responded” to.

Often, raising emotions over a contention that has not been made is the opening salvo in a campaign of divisiveness. This week’s news that Rachel Levine (assistant secretary for health, US Department of Health and Human Services) was sworn in as a four-star admiral, led to “backlash”, which seems, in the wake of comedian Dave Chappelle’s anti-trans comments in his Netflix special, to feed into a trend. 

The internet lends itself to the technique of entering an argument seemingly long begun; a veneer of sourcing invites acceptance, without the tedium of having to self-educate on a topic. Other sure signs of propaganda are the use of magic: the terrible thing is always offstage, in the future, theoretically possible, etc.; and the constant shift of ideology, avoiding deconstruction. 

The first cause of any rights group should be humanitarianism. Privilege is an entitlement available to some and not others. A victory for one minority is not a zero-sum game, that has to cost another. Signs of cultural relaxation should be everyone’s victory. But respect doesn’t exist unless everyone gets theirs. I can ask you to honor my preference; you can ask me to honor yours. I can’t say show me respect by substituting my usage for yours. I can’t dictate your feelings to you, which, even if I only want to ignore your unhappiness, I would be attempting to do. Respect is not in the equation if I am the only one entitled to it. And “you’ll get used to it” is a fascist statement.

Radicalism on both sides (pardon the expression) will always fall into these behaviors. In real terms, there aren’t enough trans people [World Population Review] to be a threat to traditional women’s rights; no one (to my knowledge) has issued a statement saying he will hire trans women by preference over “born women”; no one appears to be trying to substitute trans rights for women’s progress. Unisex restrooms as a flash point has never made sense…because public restrooms can be entered by anyone. They don’t have armed guards. A man (dressed however) could at any point in the 20th and 21st centuries have gone into a woman’s space. How does having a law make breaking one more desirable?

Levine is no doubt celebrating personal achievement, and has the right; she can be, and probably is, pleased and gratified to be an inspiration. Who is inspired and how they’re inspired, is inherently individual.

Below, a link to an article worth reading. And I’ll cut to the chase by giving you a quote:

Vox: TERFs: the rise of “trans-exclusive…”

TERF ideology has become the de facto face of feminism in the UK, helped along by media leadership from Rupert Murdoch and the Times of London. Any vague opposition to gender-critical thought in the UK brings along accusations of “silencing women” and a splashy feature or op-ed in a British national newspaper. Australian radical feminist Sheila Jeffreys went before the UK Parliament in March 2018 and declared that trans women are “parasites,” language that sounds an awful lot like Trump speaking about immigrants.

Dave Chapelle may at least want to think about the Murdoch machine, and whether he truly aligns with Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, two hosts who go close to open white supremacy.