I’ve seen a depressing trend of Democratic politicians embracing anti trans talking points and compromising gender affirming care for young people. This is extremely concerning as states and the federal government are undermining access to care now more than ever. Democrats standing by trans people has far more dire consequences now than ever, yet we’re being treated as politically disposable by people who used to campaign on lgbtq issues like Gavin Newsom and Pete Buttigieg.
I can’t say I’m surprised. Liberal papers like the New York Times has been uncritically promoting unscientific transphobia for years that claims alternatives exist to gender affirming care. My guess is that people see a person transitioning as an unfortunate thing, desperately wishing there was another way. They ignore the fact that gender affirming care is both the best treatment for dysphoria, and one of the most successful treatments for any mental condition ever discovered.
To put it simply, making gender affirming care harder to obtain for kids will kill many of them. Kids being kept from care by their parents already drives people to suicide, and a slimy politician preventing supportive parents from helping their kids will do the same. Every time I see people claim these guys are our best shot at beating fascism, I die inside. I have no doubt that they’ll eventually axe care for all adults like everyone who was originally “worried about fairness in sports” is currently pushing for. The only way they won’t is if we make it a costly issue for them.
Giving up on trans rights is the definition of losing to fascism.
Fascism is an ideology that’s turtules all the way down. Once you exclude one group you have built the social infrastructure and mechanisms to exclude any other group. The only defense is to accept and include all groups.
This. This is how genocide operates. The number of bystanders gets lower and lower as they are carted off into the camps or turn full blown fascist. It’s always like this. Armenia. Germany. Rwanda. It’s a set script.
RFK has made no secret of wanting to take away meds from mentally ill people and putting them into farming camps.
Transphobia IS gender fascism
Trans rights are human rights. What would be the point of opposing fascism if it’s not to uphold human rights?
because it’s worse for business than neoliberalism was. The rich agreed to fascism because they needed to redirect populist sentiment, but the neoliberal model really was optimal for them.
They created a culture war to distract people from the class war they are winning.
Based on a recent video i viewed of tech CEOs practically fellating Trump on camera, I would say business sentiment regarding fascism is mixed, at least.
They wish they didn’t have to kiss the ring, but at least they aren’t seeing harsher regulation from radical communist liberals.
Mamdani needs to become mayor of New York already to show these clown democrats how to do their jobs.
They are doing their jobs. They aren’t stupid, they just don’t work for us.
And we shouldn’t be voting for anyone who won’t work for us.
The problem is that it can be difficult to tell who that is until they’re already elected. Kind of like how a driving instructor has no idea how the next person in the test car is going to perform until they actually do it.
And then once they’re elected there’s a distinct advantage for incumbents to stay elected, unless they’ve really fucked up somehow.
Republicans managed to do it. They have an entire party perfectly willing to destroy the country for the billionaire oligarchs from the very top all the way down to the town dog catcher.
That’s because the Republican base is a literal cult
Yah fuck that. Trans rights are not something I’m going to be willing to agree to disagree on. If you allow any group of people to be denied their freedom in order to stop fascism, you’re not defeating the fascists at all. You’re fucking joining them.
Honestly and in all seriousness, I don’t think trans rights matter enough to drop them. Like these people aren’t in favor of e.g. trump because of trans rights. They are in favor of trump. Why? There is no actual reason. We are talking about people who want the death penalty and a small government??? Who want to cut spending and vote for the guy who spends more money??? they are worried about the quality of life of workers and vote ice cold capitalist into power??? Trans rights don’t matter for them, it is a story that they can tell themselves. It is a “reason” because “idk i am just really frustrated and I don’t know how to deal with the mental discomfort of acknowledging that my behavior especially my political behavior supported the creation of the situation that I strongly dislike” just isn’t comfortable for them.
Trans rights are more than extremely important but politically, they just don’t matter. Dropping them will change nothing, but make us worse people.
To say it another way, even if you were to drop support for trans rights, you wouldn’t gain much of anything.
Yeah, thanks for putting it that way.
Like I said elsewhere, they already held these views and see now as the perfect time to push them. They think that because the fascists won they don’t need to try as hard, even though them not sacrificing their pet beliefs on TikTok and Palestine contributed to that result. They think Harris being a brown woman is where they failed rather than her being Biden’s VP.
You guys don’t get it. We need to concede the civil rights of a marginalized group to defeat fascism!
if the Social Democrats would just concede the Jewish Question, they could have kept the Nazis out of power!
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I get it, but conservatism has taken over by ratcheting the country to the right. They’ve been patiently putting people in positions of power from dog catcher up to the presidency for the last forty years.
Progressives aren’t satisfied with ratcheting the country to the left. It’s all or nothing.
No “buts”.
Liberation cannot be done with giving it to everyone, provided that fascists get buried 6 ft under.
It’s not liberation until it’s for everyone. But we won’t get there in one legislative fight, or even one legislative session, once and for all. It will always need to be fought for.
Conservatives won’t turn down a smaller victory for one that’s out of reach. That’s why they’re winning.
Ansolutely agree, people didn’t turn to being pro-abortion instantly. But with a long and gradual strifle.
But we should be aware to never give up that which we already have.
The country never moves towards the left or anything closely resembling egalitarianism in any meaningful way. Gay marriage has been one of the few major wins in recent history, but that’s not “ratcheting the country to the left”. You could be the most staunch supporter of capitalism and “free markets” in the world, literally the opposite of egalitarianism, and still support trans and gay rights/be socially liberal.
Progressives aren’t satisfied with ratcheting the country to the left. It’s all or nothing.
The Democrats aren’t satisfied until the country is completely to the right and they aren’t interested in winning elections or seriously fighting MAGA - their focus is firmly on suppressing the left.
Progressives do not hold significant power in elected office or in the DNC. Bernie Sanders had two primaries rigged against him, and David Hogg was recently ousted from his position as Vice Chair of the DNC
for gender diversity reasonsbecause he was pushing progressive primary challengers.Ken Martin also ensured DNC officer neutrality in future primaries this year, in order to neuter David Hogg not long after he committed to funding these challengers (which is likely why David Hogg refused to run for re-election). Democrats only have a problem with rigging primaries when progressives are the ones getting support.
Progressives are unpredictable and difficult to control, may be of the socialist variety, and disincentivize major donors - which the DNC and Democratic party rely on.
“Ending” slavery, suffrage, the New Deal, income tax, * gay rights… They were all steps to the left.
I’m not arguing that the democratic party as it stands is the vehicle to institute a just and fair society. But I did watch the Tea Party subvert and consume the republicans. It can be done to the democratic party as well. It has to be in tandem with regular wins, like how the conservatives did it.
*I can’t believe I left out Roe v Wade
“Ending” slavery
Slavery only increased under neoliberal policy. Where does our lithium come from? Slaves and child slaves. Our cocoa? In part, child slaves. Where do most of our goods come from? Sweat shops and exploited third-world countries. Our prison labor, which has absolutely exploded under neoliberal policy, is also by definition slave labor. Before Trump, over 40% of our agricultural labor force were undocumented immigrants - modern slaves.
I’m sure if you looked hard enough, you’d see how much suffering and exploitation went into every single item around you.
suffrage, the New Deal, income tax
Ancient history, and none of these things besides suffrage truly represent the left, which is commonly associated with socialism and egalitarianism - the left was historically coined to describe socialists.
Capitalism is fundamentally opposed to egalitarianism, liberal and leftist ideology, and democracy. And it’s worth mentioning Democrats are further right than most European center-right parties.
gay rights
You could even be a bigger fascist and authoritarian than Trump, including being a Christian, and be in support of gay rights. See Peter Thiel, self-proclaimed right-libertarian, who is the opposite of a libertarian in practice.
Democrats flying the rainbow flag is just as gross and meaningless as corporations doing it: it’s branding. Except now the branding requires that we sacrifice trans people to appeal to
centristsRepublicans/old-school conservatives and try to siphon voters from MAGA. Meanwhile, gay marriage is likely going to quickly be dismantled like everything else, while Democrats stand silent.But I did watch the Tea Party subvert and consume the republicans. It can be done to the democratic party as well.
Will this come in time to address the fresh water crisis? Will it come in time to address the climate crisis? How many trans people will die by suicide because it’s “too radical” to support them even a little bit? How many people will die because of preventable disease? How many people will forego higher education? How many people will be laid off and rendered homeless until we establish UBI? How many child slaves will be sacrificed in the mines so we can have new iPhones every year? I could go on and on and on.
It has to be in tandem with regular wins, like how the conservatives did it.
Progressives have been playing ball way more than you suggest. Enough. It’s become a game of dodgeball where progressives can’t throw, only take hits from the Democrats and everybody else. Shifting to the right is not an effective strategy for Democrats, not even a little bit. 1/3 of the country doesn’t vote, why the fuck is nobody looking at that group?
Saw your edit:
*I can’t believe I left out Roe v Wade
A Supreme Court decision. Which was never codified into law by Democrats…
You’re going to sit there and say you wouldn’t have voted for fucking Lincoln because he didn’t “really” end slavery?
I’d like to believe that I would be arguing for the abolition of all social, race, and class-based hierarchies, among other things, but this isn’t then and I wasn’t born in that time period.
Suppose I were born at that time, had access to a very good education, and possessed roughly the same spirit as I do now; I’d likely be politically active and influencing people like Lincoln as best I could.
Nobody is entitled to another’s vote though, and I’ll just leave it at that.
Edit - I thought on it and I feel it’s necessary to amend this for those curious why I would respond in such a way:
During the 1858 debates with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln stated that the “physical difference between the white and black races … will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality”. He added that "there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
If it came down to it, I’d likely vote for Lincoln. Regardless of some of his statements, he showed deep principles:
“I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,” he stated. “I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel.”
Very few involved with politics in the present day are even 1% as principled and vocal about what they believe to be right as Lincoln - he was so incredibly ahead of his time.
Well I would definitely 100% be supporting moderate pussy Lincoln because the Confederacy fucking sucks and I don’t want their supporter to win.
Sorry to hear you were on the fence about it.
There were historically people calling Lincoln’s abolitionist ideas not radical enough, so bite me.
You’d likely unquestionably vote for a self-proclaimed Zionist committing a genocide, and that was your point in reality - to shame me for having principles in general and in particular in regards to how I vote. You are free to push the Democratic party to the left or away from supporting genocide at any point instead of attacking me - I don’t vote for genocide and my vote must be earned through representation.
It’s basic democracy, the Democrats don’t automatically earn or own my vote because they play at being socially liberal when it suits them.
I could imagine you arguing to Lincoln that he actually should be less radical, that he should compromise on his principle of seeing slavery as being wrong. Just allow a little slavery Lincoln… c’mon man.
I get it, but
🖕
Constructive and useful. Go fuck yourself.
They make a great point, but nope. Gotta make them feel stupid for thinking about the obvious problem with idealism.
You think basic human rights are idealism?
No wonder the Democrat’s approval rating is so low. Your party is so spineless.
Nice twisting of the words as usual. Im not even american you imbecill.
I think believing that everyone can change their mind because you say so is idealism.
Fucking oneself is actually quite healthy. You should try it, you feel repressed
If every time you give in to their demands and they take a step further to the right and ask for more with the intention of surviving to fight to protect what you value another day, you will eventually lose what you value and have nothing left to defend.
Which is why the whole narrative that we either compromise or continue to do the same all-or-nothing approach is a false dichotomy spread by our enemies.
You don’t capitulate, you don’t conceded, you redirect.
We need to leverage this into a class-war, we are SO close to it, every time we get close to large-scale movements against capital, the right throws some hissy fit about bathrooms or drag queens and we all get distracted trying to uselessly butt-heads instead of pushing our whole country towards the objectively key solution of attacking money.
The conservative chuds who give Trump and his ilk so much power and political capital are dumber than boards, they can be captured, they can be used, they can be pushed towards goals mindlessly if you give them the right WWE spectacle story to follow. The things that don’t work on them are the lectures, the speeches, the appeals to empathy and other ideas they just can’t connect with if they don’t have clear-cut villains and heroes and a storyline that they think impacts them personally.
The rich elites are just SITTING there, safe in the fact that every time the nation’s liberals start to feel uncomfortable, they can pull some levers and suddenly everyone is focused on Epstein and “lol president bad” narratives. This is why we’re not getting anywhere, we’re falling for the tactics. We’re getting pulled into the endless debates that don’t go anywhere. If we could even make them twitch, if we could get them to falter and pause and worry that they’ve stretched us too thin for a moment, we can capitalize on that, we can install our own local leaders, our own judges, our own county and city board members. It’s slow, painful and takes focus on a goal I just don’t see the left in this country rising to sadly.
We dont have to give up on any single group to fight MAGA morons. Just start calling MAGA what they are, the pedo party.
They’re a party of groomers, in every sense of the word. They are heavily invested in brainwashing kids from an early age to serve their authoritarian order, while their system of unchecked power over children perpetuates child abuse both sexual and non sexual. They rely on grooming emotionally lost young men to be their foot soldiers and enforcers, encouraging them to bully and abuse women and minorities while stealing everything of value they produce. They are everything they accuse their enemies of being.
Democrats should really just embrace pro-gun politics and win over both right-wingers and left-wing gun owners.
Why in the world would anyone in his right mind buy a tool they’ll never use?
I’m always amazed at the idea that we left leaning don’t have guns. I’ve got a range a few miles away. While yes, i don’t have a basement full of guns. The number is definitely not zero. I think there are more left gun owners than is given credit.
They deliberately made things like guns and flags our contention issues so that the left remains weak and neutered. I can’t imagine more than the slimmest margin of Lemmy lefties would dare fly an American flag or open-carry and that’s one of many reasons we never succeed at policy or lasting social change.
Force and patriotism are political capital which is the currency of politics and policy and elections, and this is why Trump’s base has so much more value and are courted more than say, Bernie’s base or whatever mythical, fantasy leftist leader everyone is hoping will show up next.
Everyone here thinks we’re just a one good candidate away from some kind of absurd post-scarcity civilization with holodecks and food replicators. We are barbarians with iPhones, we have to treat our world as a much less fair and far more hostile place.
It has nothing to do with leaning right or left. The odds of having to use a gun are smaller that having to repair a 15th century submarine. There are better places to spend that kind of time and money.
Would you like me to guess your sex and race? I’ve never repaired a 15th century submarine, twice the former though. I must just be an outlier.
I bought my crappy little gun for 80 bucks.
I guess I need to find out what tools I need to repair a 15th century… ohhhhh.
Haha
I’ve had to use guns many times, never needed it for self defense in a human confrontation, so far. Like most people, I’m not trying to create confrontation, I try to live at peace with people.
But I have several outbuildings that have been invaded by destructive animals multiple times. By local law, I am not allowed to relocate them. Sure I could pay $100 a critter or more for a professional to kill them, but a bullet is a lot cheaper. Also, the 2nd amendment wasn’t written for self defense. It was written for tyranny.
liberals won’t use them, leftists would
Now that’s a good answer. And i guess the distinction gets more relevant bybthe day.
I pray I’ll never have to pull a plunger on someone. But if that day comes, I’ll be real glad I already have a plunger.
“I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”
Right wingers will never, ever, under any circuimstance shift left. Pandering to them is exactly why the turnout for Harris was millions less than Biden.
Voter turnout was at a record high in 2020, because the Covid-19 pandemic and BLM protests, made the then administration unpopular. It was a relative anomaly, and the next presidential race would have had lower turnout regardless of the candidate.
Prior to 2024, Harris had always presented herself as more left than Biden, she only claimed to tow the line in 2024 due to how unpopular she was in the 2020 DNC primary.
Guns are still, nevertheless, a good thing for antifascists. Democrats literally are trying to empower the fucking cops to arbitraily deny people of color the constitution right to own guns (via denying gun permits under so-calles “may issue” laws, ironically, were struck down by the 6 fascist-alligned judges in the supreme court)
Armed minorities are harder to oppress.
I just don’t see full auto rifles being more useful to us than semi-autos.
Unless we use it to spray crowds of people it has more drawbacks than benefits.
Oh my friend. You haven’t figured out that the Democrats are just really “right light” without a backbone?
Would’ve they been better than Trump? 100% yes. But anything can be better than Trump’s Republicans.
There is no real social left movement in the US. Maybe Bernie and AOC get close to it but still quite centrist.
So, the Democrats are the right throwing some social crumbs around but supporting regressive policies. Once people realize that, a real social movement can start.
There are left movements, though. There’s the Democratic Socialists of the USA.
I’m pretty sure even Communists. But your political system and the leaning of most of the US people means that they will never be able to have any impact.
Not without exposure, and not with that attitude. One person can have impact, for better (Nelson Mandela) or worse (Trump).
I’ve known this for years. What I’m pissed about is liberal asshats who think transphobes are the messiahs who will save their already dead rule of law.
Personally, I don’t see a difference between combating fascism, and gender rights, gender affirming care, and recognizing people as the gender that they feel most comfortable as. I also don’t see a difference between combating fascism and LGBTQIA+ rights in general.
Fascists would have all of those rights stripped away from people. So bring pro LGBTQIA+ and being against fascism, is essentially the same thing in my mind.
The thing about it is, you can be against fascism, but not pro LGBTQIA+, but it would be, in my mind, impossible to be pro LGBTQIA+ and not be anti fascist.
So anyone who wants to deny LGBTQIA+, gender affirming care, or the recognition of people’s gender, but who is self-proclaiming to be against fascism, is either under some confused notion of what fascism would entail, trying to find some “middle ground” which doesn’t really exist, or they’re still fascist, but only if their way of life is what’s being promoted under fascism, and we can it something other than fascism.
All of those people can suck my dick.
LGBTQIA+ rights are human rights.
EDIT: I want to add that I’m not LGBTQIA+. I just believe that anyone who is, should have the same rights to be just as happy, or as miserable, as everyone who isn’t. I am an ally. I am a humanist.
Not what they mean at all. It’s just that social issues are secondary to winning the war.
This means putting it off until Conservatives can no longer stop us.
(Not trans btw, just believe in trans right)
Their strategy is currently losing the war, as well as social issues
My FB feed is still littered with die-hard liberals espousing views we could afford to debate 15, 20 years ago. Pollution and gun rights. Every word they say is heard differently by the other side and they still don’t get it. Fascists are taking over the US and they want to figure out how to recycle better.
True, but we’re losing it much faster lately.
My problem isn’t how fast we’re losing, it’s that the supposed “opposition” is pretty openly not fighting.
BE
Because the wealthy ones are the ones who actually drive any actual change, regardless of politics or effort. If they want hell on Earth, there will be hell on Earth. And they want hell on Earth.
Thanks. Glad I’m here for you to sacrifice.
it’s giving Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
Except none of the assholes people have proposed actually have good strategy. None of them are populists, just pro business liberals who are simple downgrades to the Democrats of last year, worse at everything including making up for what lost them 2024.
Oh, I forgot you can’t vote anymore. Argument moot I guess.
What a weak mentality from a fitting username. The voters must change to match the party in your mind, not the other way around. To suggest otherwise means I’m an anti voter or green party Russian agent. That’s the only possible interpretation for someone unwilling tolerate criticism of their tribe; that I’m an absolute strawman who isn’t enlightened enough to polish shoes with my tongue.
You aren’t going to get everything you want right away. People could not even handle climate change ffs! We should ensure our survival and dominance first, before implementing literally anything else.
They kept latching onto climate change as if it were some made up bullshit.
Pure idealism simply gets you nowhere. Why do you have to have everything NOW? No one said we will abandon trans rights altogether.
But it does not matter now. It’s armed resistance or nothing else.
“Trans people want basic human rights?!? What kind of crazy, idealistic world do you think we live in? We have to abandon you now, but don’t worry, we’ll totally come back for you after we get ours.”
- The party of spineless cowards that stands for nothing
That’s like saying they need to give up on the mentally and intellectually handicapped in order to fight the original Nazis… it was who they killed first!
The Nazis included trans people in that initial group, btw.
