Sly Fawkes Says: Wokethink is the New 1984

This is my response to a wonderful post by Carrie-Anne about the way today's SJWs and TRAs suppress real discussion and do more harm than good with their faux "woke-ness."

Goddess have mercy, I could go on quite the rant in agreement with you. I'll try to keep it mercifully brief.

I've always tried to be considerate of what other people may be going through. I've always been aware that if I haven't experienced certain things I should probably leave the "what it's like to live life as this kind of person" narratives to those who have actually experienced life as that kind of person. 

However, to say that no-one who isn't "this kind of person" can write anything involving any character who isn't a carbon copy of the author is ludicrous and, frankly, smacks of segregation.

I can't write a true account about living as an impoverished black man in the South in the 1940's, because I am a white woman who was born in the West in the 1960s. But to say I can't have a character in a story who fits that description is strange, to say the least. It would be my hope that after reading about my character, people might be inspired to learn more about segregation in the South and to try and be more inclusive of people who may be in a different age range, a different race, etc.

As far as the TRA's go, I have always been sympathetic towards transgender people. I can't say that I know what it is to live as a transgender person. I have never had any dysphoria regarding my sex. I was always fine with being a girl, but I didn't like how girls were treated in society. I wanted the same rights and options as boys. I didn't want to be a boy.

In a story I wrote last October about a Voodoo priestess who gets revenge on her niece's assailants by switching their sexes, I tried to modernize things by saying that people at the college were surprised by the sudden onslaught of gender reassignment surgeries that had taken place. My mention of gender reassignment surgery was a neutral plot point. I said nothing negative about transgender individuals. Yet almost every comment called me out on my "transphobia." I'm surprised none of them referred to me as a TERF (aka Feminazi covered in glitter.)

I've since changed the ending of the story to have the assailants waking up and, as they go for their morning pee, realizing that they now have a hoo-ha rather than a willy. I don't think the new ending is quite as strong, but better a somewhat weak ending than being chided by people afraid of upsetting the TRA's.

TRA's, in my opinion, do more harm than good for transgender people. Instead of bringing understanding to the real prejudices faced by transgender people, they shout down anyone who disagrees with any aspect of identity politics. When there is no room for discussion, people tend to say, "eff it, then I won't discuss it."

This culture of calling out Wrongthink would be enough to have George Orwell and Rod Serling quaking in their boots. It reminds me a bit of the ending of the 1979 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers where Veronica Cartwright's character encounters Donald Sutherland's character. He recognizes her as one of the unchanged people and points at her, giving a spine-chilling screech to alert the other pod people to her presence. Anyone who questions the least aspect of the Woke screed is in danger of having the Pod People sicced on them.

~Sly Has Spoken~

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