Ben Shapiro is a smart person who has not yet met the right person to shut him down on trans issues. In other words -- not to put too fine a point on it -- he hasn't met someone like me. I'm not saying I'm unique; but I can definitely hit him where he lives. Regrettably, I don't see how I'll ever get the chance.
Michael Knowles is a religiously-motivated ideologue. He also seems to be a smart person; but he is handicapped by his preconceptions and his devotion to orthodoxy. I don't mind that, so long as he keeps it to his private life; but when he makes it a political issue, we have a problem. And, yes, he can be answered.
Most of the reaction to people like Shapiro and Knowles is ad hominem; it consists of attacks upon the people and their character and integrity, not their arguments. That won't work. As a political strategy, it *can* work, if you have something approaching a majority, or at least a sizeable contingent; but we are a small subset of the general population, and the inertia is against us. It is not enough to attack the people; we must deal with their arguments.
It is certainly true that these people are pushing for policies that will bring great pain, suffering and death to the trans community, in those States where they are successful. Things have gotten so bad in Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and perhaps some other States I'm not so familiar with, that it doesn't make sense for trans people to remain there. It's pointless to fight for territory where you're overwhelmed; it's better to withdraw to a safer space and fight from there. We will win the essential battles for our right to exist; but court fights are a slow process, and we need to live in the meantime.
I think the better comparison is not Nazi Germany. It’s the Spanish Civil War.
The Francoists didn’t need a single or clear collection of demographics to hate like Jews, homosexuals, etc. They created a broader category of degeneracy and deviants into which virtually anyone could be added. Yes, LGBTQ+ people and religious minorities, but also non-traditional women, professors, urbanites, entertainers, Anarchists, unionizers, etc.
This is a closer dynamic to what Republicans are building today. I, a cishet passing white Baptist minister with heritage in and commitment to the rural South, can nonetheless be thrown into the degenerate category destined for annihilation from public life.
In Nazi Germany, the greatest evil was apathy. Only 10% of the population were active Nazi Party members. You could slide through life without being a Nazi Party member. But that wasn’t possible in Francoist Spain. If you weren’t a White, then you were a Red destined for annihilation or reeducation.
You don't eradicate the -ism, like transgenderism, without eliminating those associated with it. Ask any Holocaust survivor about that time the Nazis merely wanted to eradicate Judaism. Knowles' comments have that same kind of purify-the-race energy, and all the neutral navel gazers better wake up to that fact.
Bravo. This will be bookmarked and referenced often. Thank you
Ben Shapiro is a smart person who has not yet met the right person to shut him down on trans issues. In other words -- not to put too fine a point on it -- he hasn't met someone like me. I'm not saying I'm unique; but I can definitely hit him where he lives. Regrettably, I don't see how I'll ever get the chance.
Michael Knowles is a religiously-motivated ideologue. He also seems to be a smart person; but he is handicapped by his preconceptions and his devotion to orthodoxy. I don't mind that, so long as he keeps it to his private life; but when he makes it a political issue, we have a problem. And, yes, he can be answered.
Most of the reaction to people like Shapiro and Knowles is ad hominem; it consists of attacks upon the people and their character and integrity, not their arguments. That won't work. As a political strategy, it *can* work, if you have something approaching a majority, or at least a sizeable contingent; but we are a small subset of the general population, and the inertia is against us. It is not enough to attack the people; we must deal with their arguments.
It is certainly true that these people are pushing for policies that will bring great pain, suffering and death to the trans community, in those States where they are successful. Things have gotten so bad in Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and perhaps some other States I'm not so familiar with, that it doesn't make sense for trans people to remain there. It's pointless to fight for territory where you're overwhelmed; it's better to withdraw to a safer space and fight from there. We will win the essential battles for our right to exist; but court fights are a slow process, and we need to live in the meantime.
I think the better comparison is not Nazi Germany. It’s the Spanish Civil War.
The Francoists didn’t need a single or clear collection of demographics to hate like Jews, homosexuals, etc. They created a broader category of degeneracy and deviants into which virtually anyone could be added. Yes, LGBTQ+ people and religious minorities, but also non-traditional women, professors, urbanites, entertainers, Anarchists, unionizers, etc.
This is a closer dynamic to what Republicans are building today. I, a cishet passing white Baptist minister with heritage in and commitment to the rural South, can nonetheless be thrown into the degenerate category destined for annihilation from public life.
In Nazi Germany, the greatest evil was apathy. Only 10% of the population were active Nazi Party members. You could slide through life without being a Nazi Party member. But that wasn’t possible in Francoist Spain. If you weren’t a White, then you were a Red destined for annihilation or reeducation.
You don't eradicate the -ism, like transgenderism, without eliminating those associated with it. Ask any Holocaust survivor about that time the Nazis merely wanted to eradicate Judaism. Knowles' comments have that same kind of purify-the-race energy, and all the neutral navel gazers better wake up to that fact.
Brilliant! Thank you!
After Knowles, I tried a simple “recipe”
Every time I read the word “transgender” or a variation thereof, I replace it with Christian or Christianity, depending on usage.
“Christianity is an ideology that needs to be eradicated”