Saturday, August 10, 2019

Reactionary Left Groupthink Smells Like 1984


Doublethink

The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.


The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, credited to the character Emmanuel Goldstein, is the fictional book that is a thematic and plot element in Part 2, Chapter 9 of the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), by George Orwell. 

When applied to the TRA madness, men are women, women have penises, biological sex is a social construct rather than physical reality, and if you believe otherwise, you will be branded a TERF and ostracized. Never mind that in a medical setting, denial of biological reality can be harmful and even deadly.
Further, women who do not want to have sex with people who have penises (lesbians) are transphobes and should be bullied and made to feel bad for their sexual preference according to the TRA screed, and the reactionary left does not seem at all bothered by the severe homophobia inherent in this assertion. 
Ten years ago, nobody claimed that trans women were literally biological women. Everyone knew that they were biologically male, but it was understood that their dysphoria regarding their sex was so severe that the only way they could overcome it was to have surgical procedures and hormone treatments to make their bodies resemble female bodies. Liberal-minded people felt that tolerance and inclusion was the best option with regard to transgender people. 
Ten years ago, no-one used idiotic and dehumanizing terms like "menstruators" in reference to women. It also astounds me that very few people have caught on to the fact that no such dehumanizing terms are applied to biological men. You never hear anyone insisting on terms like "sperm producers." The reactionary left never questions why erasure of women is okay, but no-one is insisting on similar erasure of men.
There is plenty of insistence that "trans women are women" and should, therefore, be allowed to co-opt feminism and any woman who is resistant to this notion is a TERF and deserves to be bullied.
I have never seen a "trans men are men" sign. In fact, trans men tend to only be mentioned when doing so somehow benefits certain pushy TRA women.
Not supporting the insane TRA groupthink agenda is not transphobia. It is a refusal to be drawn into a very frightening, McCarthyist level of forced conformity to harmful ideals. One can be both supportive of the very real struggles of trans people and opposed to the current TRA culture which does far more harm than good, particularly where vulnerable young people who may be questioning their sexuality are concerned.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

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