cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/258745

There are a lot of self proclaimed ML’s online who have mostly agreeable politics but are also very socially reactionary. They often post something decent like ‘NATO provoked the conflict in Ukraine’ and at the end randomly say ‘this is similar to when liberals pretend trans identities are valid’ they talk about trans identities as part of western societal decay etc. (One thing I have noticed is that they praise tomboys but condemn trans women or even cis men in dresses). How does one expose their lack of materialism around this issue? I honestly think some could be swayed.

  • ☭ 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 ☭MA
    10•2 years ago

    (Are they equating gender identity to blackface?)

    To play devil’s advocate, many of these people probably think that acknowledging transgender people’s experiences means ignoring biology, since they very likely don’t understand that “sex” and “gender” are not equivalent (not to mention that there are more than two possible sexes for humans)

    W.r.t. arguments, maybe mention that not all cultures had/have gender roles corresponding to the biological sex, so there’s nothing inherently “correct” about the “traditional” Western concept of gender (unless they’re also racist and think Western culture is inherently superior)

    • QueerCommieOP
      9•2 years ago

      I’ve done that before and it went ok

    • @pinkeston
      6•2 years ago

      I like this path

      Another thing to try would be to ask them why they care about denying transgender people’s identity

      Even if they don’t understand it, being trans doesn’t hurt anybody and there’s literally no downside (at least as far as I can tell, who knows what transphobic people think) to just going along with it and respecting their gender identity

      • @panic
        9•2 years ago

        Reactionaries believe that being trans is harmful. To women, to children, to society. The same way homophobes believe being not-straight is harmful.