cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/258745
There are a lot of self proclaimed ML’s online who have mostly agreeable politics but are also very socially reactionary. They often post something decent like ‘NATO provoked the conflict in Ukraine’ and at the end randomly say ‘this is similar to when liberals pretend trans identities are valid’ they talk about trans identities as part of western societal decay etc. (One thing I have noticed is that they praise tomboys but condemn trans women or even cis men in dresses). How does one expose their lack of materialism around this issue? I honestly think some could be swayed.
I like this path
Another thing to try would be to ask them why they care about denying transgender people’s identity
Even if they don’t understand it, being trans doesn’t hurt anybody and there’s literally no downside (at least as far as I can tell, who knows what transphobic people think) to just going along with it and respecting their gender identity
Reactionaries believe that being trans is harmful. To women, to children, to society. The same way homophobes believe being not-straight is harmful.