Fuck every single anti-trans defender, enabler, and hater. Parker, you are loved and needed and very much appreciated.
Of the many meaningful points you make, I'm holding onto this one particularly: "[Y]ou can think, "Oh wow, think these people are totally deluded!" and still understand that trans people, like all people, deserve legal protections and the ability to participate in the world for who they are."
Daily I am "forced" to interact, tolerate, and even humor the vast swath of humanity who are convinced that an all-loving, all-powerful deity not only exists, but is intimately concerned with where one's car keys got off to. They deserve legal protections (and even enjoy extra ones). But if I were to start advocating for the end of xtianism, it would rightly be construed as bigotry.
Trans people have the right to exist. You have the right to exist in peace.
Thanks for writing this Parker 💜 I’m so so sorry this is the way things are right now, that identities are being labeled an “ideology” how sickening that it seems to be taking root. My ideology is "I love and accept my kids" my activism is "please stop bullying my kids" that's it. They're the radical activist ideologues with a regressive agenda, I just want them to leave us alone. Please. Feel free to think in your heart of hearts that I am a “child abuser” who is taking advantage of my child’s “mental illness” to what win the woke awards or some shit?? But please stop leveraging the power of the state to make my child and my community less safe. The past year ramping up it doesn’t feel like genocide is an exaggeration, and Knowles has clinched it with the quiet part out loud.
I'm 60. I've had transgender friends and colleagues for _half of my life_ at this point! This B.S. that trans people are somehow a "recent" phenomena... it makes my blood boil. We can only hope that this is the desperate "last gasp" of these bigots as they increasingly find themselves in a minority and history rolls over and crushes them. The pendulum has to switch back to justice, and soon.
Reading this after reading yesterday's article by Dahlia Lithwick in Slate, "Which Religion Counts in America," it is really scary how many right wing arguments are that some people don't deserve full rights because they are invalid as human beings. It is the evolution of the "I represent Real Americans" logic to the extreme.
I think I have a better understanding of the outright bigots than I do of the "reasonable" commenters at the NY Times who are just really, really concerned about the effect of puberty blockers on bone density in teen girls like it's some kind of creepy hobby.
I think their lives must be going pretty OK if they've got time and mental bandwidth available for such an intense interest in purely imaginary "problems." What's the matter, do you really have no real problems to take your mind off the latest moral panic? Access to health care not a concern? Can afford to send the kids to college without worrying too much about the debt load? Secure job, no worries about making the mortgage payments on time? Must be nice.
Joe Nocera's tweet brings Karl Popper's "Paradox of Intolerance" to mind:
Karl Popper's "Open society and its enemies" (1945). The paradox of tolerance: societies with unlimited tolerance are eventually seized/destroyed by the intolerant. In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.
Joe Nocera, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, etc need to take a long walk off a short pier.
American conservatism (and in fact conservatism throughout the world) is simply "I don't like people who are different than me, and I want to hurt them." That's it. Nothing more. And it is not ignorance, which would imply a knowledge deficit that could be resolved through education. It is hate.
I have the right to exist whether or not Michael Knowles's imaginary friend, White Jesus, says so.
I'm not foolish enough to think that Michael Knowles is speaking in good faith, but I would like to hear what his requirements for a "real ontological category" are and why. Bonus points(to me) if he says "post-modern" while laying those out.
Fuck every single anti-trans defender, enabler, and hater. Parker, you are loved and needed and very much appreciated.
Of the many meaningful points you make, I'm holding onto this one particularly: "[Y]ou can think, "Oh wow, think these people are totally deluded!" and still understand that trans people, like all people, deserve legal protections and the ability to participate in the world for who they are."
Daily I am "forced" to interact, tolerate, and even humor the vast swath of humanity who are convinced that an all-loving, all-powerful deity not only exists, but is intimately concerned with where one's car keys got off to. They deserve legal protections (and even enjoy extra ones). But if I were to start advocating for the end of xtianism, it would rightly be construed as bigotry.
Trans people have the right to exist. You have the right to exist in peace.
Thanks for writing this Parker 💜 I’m so so sorry this is the way things are right now, that identities are being labeled an “ideology” how sickening that it seems to be taking root. My ideology is "I love and accept my kids" my activism is "please stop bullying my kids" that's it. They're the radical activist ideologues with a regressive agenda, I just want them to leave us alone. Please. Feel free to think in your heart of hearts that I am a “child abuser” who is taking advantage of my child’s “mental illness” to what win the woke awards or some shit?? But please stop leveraging the power of the state to make my child and my community less safe. The past year ramping up it doesn’t feel like genocide is an exaggeration, and Knowles has clinched it with the quiet part out loud.
I'm 60. I've had transgender friends and colleagues for _half of my life_ at this point! This B.S. that trans people are somehow a "recent" phenomena... it makes my blood boil. We can only hope that this is the desperate "last gasp" of these bigots as they increasingly find themselves in a minority and history rolls over and crushes them. The pendulum has to switch back to justice, and soon.
Reading this after reading yesterday's article by Dahlia Lithwick in Slate, "Which Religion Counts in America," it is really scary how many right wing arguments are that some people don't deserve full rights because they are invalid as human beings. It is the evolution of the "I represent Real Americans" logic to the extreme.
Thanks Parker, we can't let this shit continue.
Very, very, very well-said, Parker. You’re appreciated. Please keep using your voice.
I think I have a better understanding of the outright bigots than I do of the "reasonable" commenters at the NY Times who are just really, really concerned about the effect of puberty blockers on bone density in teen girls like it's some kind of creepy hobby.
I think their lives must be going pretty OK if they've got time and mental bandwidth available for such an intense interest in purely imaginary "problems." What's the matter, do you really have no real problems to take your mind off the latest moral panic? Access to health care not a concern? Can afford to send the kids to college without worrying too much about the debt load? Secure job, no worries about making the mortgage payments on time? Must be nice.
Joe Nocera's tweet brings Karl Popper's "Paradox of Intolerance" to mind:
Karl Popper's "Open society and its enemies" (1945). The paradox of tolerance: societies with unlimited tolerance are eventually seized/destroyed by the intolerant. In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance.
Joe Nocera, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, etc need to take a long walk off a short pier.
American conservatism (and in fact conservatism throughout the world) is simply "I don't like people who are different than me, and I want to hurt them." That's it. Nothing more. And it is not ignorance, which would imply a knowledge deficit that could be resolved through education. It is hate.
I have the right to exist whether or not Michael Knowles's imaginary friend, White Jesus, says so.
I'm not foolish enough to think that Michael Knowles is speaking in good faith, but I would like to hear what his requirements for a "real ontological category" are and why. Bonus points(to me) if he says "post-modern" while laying those out.
Eradicate Michael Knowles. He's not an ontological category.