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.

  • Seanchaí (she/her)M
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    132 years ago

    I wouldn’t particularly spend time trying to convince people like that that my existence matters and would hardly consider them comrades. However, if you do want to, then I guess the first step would be to point out that rather than a sign of western societal decay, trans identities supercede western society, and, in fact, cisheteronormativity is a western construct created to allow the capitalist accrual of wealth and power by a very select few (cis het white men). The destruction of more nuanced understanding of gender (and the elimination of third and other genders) is a colonial effort. The main problem with people who don’t “believe in trans identities” is that they clearly also don’t believe in reading about non-european cultures or history. Another thing to mention would be the the provision of gender affirmation care in actually socialist countries. For instance, before the fall of the anti-fascist barricade in Berlin, East Germany provided gender affirmation surgery. Cuba also currently provides gender affirmation medical care. You might also mention that one of the things the Nazis were very keen on was the destruction of the libraries of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, where they eradicated a lot of research into queer identities and sexuality before slapping pink badges on trans people and throwing them into concentration camps alongside the Jews and the commies. You might then question why a supposed comrade would be so happy to side with fascists on their head-empty opinions of queer identity.