I was sent this article recently. If you can zoom in, by all means take a look. My apologies for the poor quality.
There’s a lot to say here, but let’s start at the end.
I’m sorry, aging conservatives, but you are not the little boy stating the dangerous and frowned-upon obvious here. For that to be the case, the social justice warriors and liberal yahoos would have to be the Emperor and his establishment cronies.
You … you know that’s not the case, right?
The little boy saying what is true despite the massed pressure of sociocultural impetus and tradition … is literally the little boy saying he’s a boy despite the fact that he was born with a hoo hah. The child, disagreeing with the established “facts” and voicing what is inherently obvious to his innocent and unprejudiced eyes, free of agenda and investment. That is what “the Emperor has no clothes” means.
Stop trying to cast yourselves as the rational and downtrodden minority. You are the Emperor, being told his outfit is amazing. You are the Vizier, agreeing that the Emperor looks smart. You are the courtiers and functionaries and businessmen. You are the throngs of adults in the streets, gauging the way the wind is blowing and then blindly following along with the “majority view” because it is safe.
That’s you.
Okay, so now we’ve sorted that little bit of subtext out and revealed it for the clumsy sympathy-grab it is, let’s look at the rest.
Look, I’m pretty sceptical too. I get it, it sounds silly. I had a hard time believing that a university would make such a wild statement. When my research revealed (mostly from strident articles in conservative and other right-wing publications[1]) aspects of the issue like Anthony Lennon winning Arts Council funding due to his self-identity, it made me wonder who was being harmed and who was being helped.
Then I realised it’s not really any of my business.
And then I realised that it’s places of education that are making these claims. The so-called twaddle of numerous spectrum-based biological genders, and the vast range of psychological identities and orientations that come along for the ride? It’s all backed up by the science, baby. And as you antitheists and other cold hard rationalists love to say, science doesn’t care what you believe. Is it uncomfortable? Oh dear! That’s science. Wear a goddamn helmet. You don’t get to pick and choose what is true and what is dangerous liberal nonsense just because it makes you feel icky.
You know who is mostly helped by the phenomenon of self-identity? Gay and trans kids who are finally being encouraged to speak up about the person they feel like they are, and tearing down the impossible wall between that person and the person the Emperor’s cronies insist is the real person. You know what normalisation of self-identity has done to child and teen suicide rates in these demographics? It’s fucking decimated it is what it’s done.
How are you, aging conservatives, affected by the politics of self-identity and the destruction of racial and gender definitions? I’ll let you in on a little secret, it’s not the scary spectre of a man self-identifying as a woman and molesting little girls in public toilets that really scares you (that’s actually a fantasy you’re having).
No. It’s the idea that the social and cultural structures that have kept you in power are being undermined.
I can’t predict how I’m going to react if my children experience this sort of – in the original opinion piece’s words – “confusion”. If I’m lucky, I will be one of the majority of people whose loved ones continue to live and thrive in the identities they were assigned at birth. I can tell you this for nothing, though: Anyone tries to send my daughter to a gay conversion camp to convince her she’s the person society decided she was at birth, I will round up my gun-toting right-wing friends and I will do violence.
You’re not the hero of this story. You’re the fat old bastard standing in front of a crowd of people with your withered old cock out.
Hatboy's Hatstand 
[1] There’s a certain amount of caution from progressives, mainly about the idea of cultural appropriation and invasion. But it’s such a tiny risk, weighed against such a huge reward, by and large the intellectuals aren’t worrying about it. We’re really more worried about, you know, the fucking planet trying to kill us at the moment.
For some reason I’m reminded of the “danger” of voter fraud, vs. the actual voter disenfranchisement of huge segments of minority communities that was enabled on the coat-tails of that scare tactic.
One dorky Irishman getting funding for a project, or one make-believe paedophile in a public toilet insisting he’s a lady, is enough to get the entire bleating flock baa’ing TWO GENDERS GOOD, NON-BINARY GENDERS BAAD.
OH JESUS FUCK NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN. I only skimmed what YOU wrote, before guessing what the article was about. I thought to myself, “gee, is this another article about the ‘science’ telling us there are only two genders and therefore anyone who feels excluded by this binary view should STFU and listen to the ‘science’???”
Wow. It’s as if I already read the article. Because they really are beating this shit to death. They really do think they have us “libs” pegged on this one. They’re sick and tired of being called science-deniers for risking THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE in their stance on global warming (or whatever you want to call it, I refuse to shift labels based on conservative BS…the GLOBE…is getting WARMER.). So now they think they have a “gotcha” moment on gender/sex/whatever[1]. Don’t even get me started on a “contention” by one group about the ability to “choose” one’s race. Fuck right off with that entire sentence, really. Stop making Big Red representative of all feminists, to make an analogy.
[1] OK here let me apologize for using “whatever” in case that seems offensive. I’m just really pissed off at conservatives.
But never mind that Psychology is ALSO “science”, so if Psychology validates the concept of additional genders, orientations, etc., ok never mind THAT. Caring about the mental well being of someone who is telling you they TRULY do not fit into the binary system, and can you please stop being a dickhead and telling them they must, is not the same as wiping us all out by being stupid on global warming.
Letting them/xir/whatever be who they say they are doesn’t cost you anything. Stop pretending like it does. It’s no different than worrying if people are having blowjobs or anal sex in their bedrooms. It’s not about you, it doesn’t affect you. You’re just being a right-wing shithead who cares more about your right to be an asshole and try (yes you ARE trying) to hurt others emotionally and psychologically, than you care about others.
Now, I’ll read the blog, but I will be pulled away, I’m sure, by work or life or both. I’ll try to respond to what you wrote eventually though. Good thoughts, so far as I skimmed them.
Holy shit he’s literally the author of a book about how fear works? And here he is, using it to great effect. SMH. Good thing he studied it closely first eh?
Ok really going to respond to your words now, sorry, sorry.
So… I have nothing to add to your excellent commentary, turns out. VERY well said.
Jesus wept, the whole “we have to speak out” whinging at the end though, eh? Yes, we know you “have” to speak out. That’s the problem. You just can’t fucking shut up and let people live. Goddamn conservatives.
Not to mention the sloppy writing. “We have to speak out” means it is required. “We must speak out” means the same but is better grammar. And “We need to speak out” is the actual truth. You don’t gotta do shit, idiot. You could just fuck right off.