A series of replies from a long and unfortunate conversation (1)

[solarbird]

I got into a fight with someone I thought of as a friend – an asshole, but also a friend, in that way that a lot of people have at least one asshole friend in their friend group. I’m not saying everyone has that, but… it’s kind of a thing.

And the thing is, this person is more of an anglophile than they want to admit, and they have a lot of connections to what is frankly described as English TERFdom. And I was hoping by throwing so much of my writing over to this other social network (not Twitter, not a blogsite) that I’d be able to keep nudging them away from all that.

But then, it seems, not as much. I suppose I’ve already posted about that already. Trying to have this discussion was pretty emotionally gruelling and in the end we got to a point where I just wasn’t willing to do it. But I’m keeping it some of here, mostly for a post I’m going to reference in the next Fascism Watch.

First reply under the break. More in the next few posts.

Ah, so this is where and when this happens. I haven’t been looking forward to this, let me tell you. The timing is unfortunate – there are so many other crises in play, but… It is what it is, and that’s not something that’s in my hands.

Hoo boy.

Well.

There is a lot – a tremendous amount – to unpack here, and honestly, I don’t know if it’s a collection I’m entirely capable of unpacking at this point. Which doesn’t mean I won’t try, just that I don’t know if it’s something I can do. This is a lot of heavy lifting.

But before I try, I’m hoping and wondering if you remember all those sorts of things I used to talk about in the 90s, the kinds of fake-science factories the fundamentalist movement had set up to make propaganda against gays and lesbians? I documented it for years on places like mscenter and RvL, and of course both before and after that. You were there, hopefully you remember.

I talked a great deal bout how they had entire systems set up to launder propaganda into something that looked like but was not actually science. Do you remember any of that? Much of my research at that time you found quite tedious and boring. But I’d like to hope you do remember it, because, well, literally nothing is changed, except since then they’ve taken over the culture of the Republican Party, so the whole GOP are all-in on this sort of thing now.

That takeover of method and practice are why literally everything they’re saying against trans people is a direct copy of everything they used to say about lesbians and gay men. It’s all the same propaganda, only the targets have shifted, and that’s because they aren’t relying on actual data – as always, they have their conclusions and will edit “science” until it fits their needs and demands. Same systems, same approach to truth (“does it serve the cause” vs. “is it empirically true”), same kinds of organisations and same kinds of people.

Having all that background and knowledge is why when I saw an anti-trans hate ad a few years ago I recognised it as a shot-per-shot remake of an old anti-gay ad from the 90s. It was almost funny, because it was literally shot-per-shot identical. The only changes were 1) hi-def widescreen instead standard 4:3 ratio, and 2) instead of the Scary Faggot Rapist Pedo following a little boy into a bathroom, it was a Scary Faggot Rapist Pedo in a Dress following a little girl into a bathroom. Same everything – including, unfortunately, the same kind of media credulousness as well.

(If we get that far, we’ll talk a little about that Atlantic article. I mean, I already have, a bit, and linked to people who have talked about it a great deal more. But that’s just an example. We can also talk about the New York Times, also. And we definitely need to talk about the explicitly international neofascist/authoritarian/”illiberal democracy” movement. It’s all right there on the surface if you look.)

But I digress.

If you remember all their old tricks, it will be a lot easier for me to start to break all this down into its component parts. It won’t be a short or easy conversation under any circumstances, though. But I’m willing to give it a try because I’ve known you for so long.

And since it appears that this is when and where this happens, we may as well get started.

So. Do you remember any of that? And do you want to have a talk?

Or do you just want to yell at me until I change my mind?

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.