I used to have the same kind of hope in people but reality and my personal experiences have proven it wrong times and again. Some people won’t able to sympathy unless they’re on the receiving end of the mistreatment, racism, and discrimination. And even then, it’s mostly about self-pity than actual sympathy. You can see this with all those trans people supporting Nazis then acting surprised that the Nazis didn’t think them as “friends”.
Also, given if what you said is true, it only took Biff 7yrs to rollback all those decades of progress and some more. You’re asking for time to “changes” magically happen. I get your intention but sorry, we don’t have that luxury. The raise of Fascism in recent years together with looming climate change crisis, which the Nazis will definitely use to their advantage to amplify their hatred and tools for power grab.
If anything, COVID was literally a mini trial run of how climate crisis will play out. We are doomed if we keep coddling the riches and their “brown shirt”. We don’t have time to “understand, persuade, or waiting” for the hateful minority to meet us “half way”. They already showed us who they’re. If you give those people an inch, they will ask for a mile. Compromise and trade off are not in their dictionary. It way long passed the point of conciliation where one side keeps acting in bad-faith, malicious even. We can be done wasting time, dragging our feet because the illusion of trying to get “everyone” to agree.
I know some groups that like to mock people for being triggered you could join too. But I guess I will let a fellow Brit clue you in on that, since you don’t listen to Americans (and apparently think those are the only possibilities for who you might be talking to, too).
Terrorism is a word that has been misused so hard and so often that it has lost it’s meaning, but yes this is literal terrorism (acts or threats of violence intended to achieve political ends by instilling fear).
Except IT IS NOT FARCICAL OVER HERE. We have assholes from the streets all the way up to the upper echelons of government who are publicly calling for the ELIMINATION of transgender people. They have been documented saying and trying to kill trans folks through violence and/or “legal action”.
The problem is that the point of right-wing media is to ensure they misunderstand. Misinformation is what they play on a loop, 24/7. This is why many people write off the folks who choose to soak in that on a daily basis. There are other places to get news and information, and other ways to live without embracing hatred, fear, and “othering” groups based on differences (real or imaginary).
Most of the stories about folks who turned away from the haterade involved personal contact or relationship with someone from a marginalized group. It seems to be easier to manipulate people who don’t personally know anyone being targeted. However, as @Brainspore pointed out above, those being attacked shouldn’t have to do the heavy lifting here.
Nobody attacked you for being British, and in fact if you read the responses you’d see one was from someone else who is too. But if you can’t see past trying to make yourself the victim here, well, best of luck wherever else.
The thing that bums me out about exchanges like this is how all the pertinent and valid information in the responses gets deleted when someone’s post is flagged and they’re eventually banned from the site.
Multiple people understood your post to say that the drag bans and Nazi attacks on drag are something to laugh about in Britain. That actual Nazis from a known violent extremist group threatening and harassing a group of children is “making a fuss.”
Multiple people. Including me. When you are misunderstood by multiple people it is time to take a step back and realize maybe you didn’t say what you thought you said. Maybe even time to say “that’s not how I meant that. I do not think the elimination of transgender and queer people is something to laugh at.” Not play the victim.
In the reporter’s words, “Police say there was a demonstration out here…”
This is how police are dealing with Proud Boys showing up with knives and batons as they turn their backs while the PB’s are beating and stabbing people. They are helping the nazi narrative. “Demonstrating on both sides” kinda thing.
There’s nothing more courageous than standing around in duplicate outfits and identity-hiding facemasks with twelve angry man-children who can’t face up to the idea that the church-serving narrative of their childhood might have been a myth.
We have our own similar traditions as well in the States. This is the latest outbreak of fascism here, and other countries are also experiencing such problems, including the U.K. The fascists are using drag as an excuse, that’s all.
I know many of us were watching that unfold live, as it happened. It was already pretty clear we were fucked, but when that guy talked to reporters about how he’d just seen a woman shot and bleeding (turned out to be Babbit), and he was all shaken up, and the reporters asked how he’d gotten out, and he said he’d been escorted out by the police , well, if anyone didn’t already know there are 2 systems of justice in this country, that would’ve been the “come to god” moment.
