We Hunted The Mammoth
The other day, a fan of Jordan Peterson went to check out the subreddit devoted to the fusspot psychologist and right-wing culture warrior. The fan was a little confused when he discovered that the subreddit was filled, not so much with discussions of Peterson and his works, but with endless posts about trans people. So he asked why.
Pop quiz!
Some of the quotes below are from a discussion of Drag Queen Story Hour on the “GenderCritical” forum on Ovarit. The rest are from literal Nazis, either posting on Stormfront or on AltRight.com. Can you tell the difference?
Some of you might have noticed that I’ve changed the tag line for this site to ‘Bucking the Backlash,” replacing the old tag “Misogyny, Tracked and Mocked.” This is both a reflection of what’s been going on with the blog already and where I see it going in the future.
Today, three unsettling news stories that have sort of fallen through the cracks in recent days.
“Gender Critical” transphobes like to associate their trans enemies with terrible things. They call trans folks and their allies “Men’s Rights Activists” — because, you see, trans women are really men, so if you support trans people you’re fighting for men’s rights. (I guess trans men, whom transphobes think are women, don’t count.)
From the TumblrInAction subreddit, which has become Reddit’s unofficial TERF hangout since the banning of the Gender Critical subreddit.
Contemporary conservatism is awash in irrationality. Right-wingers have eagerly embraced conspiracy theories of all sorts, from QAnonymish stories of pedophile illuminati to vaccine “skepticism.” Instead of worrying about real crises like COVID and climate change, they denounce imaginary “cultural Marxism” and innocuous Drag Queen Story Hours, convinced that both are literally demonic attacks on middle American children.
Whenever news breaks about a new school shooter, an unhealthy alliance of trolls and true believers takes to social media to flood the zone with bullshit.
Parents watch out! Evil Cultural Marxists are coming for your children! At least that’s what writer and anti-“woke” crusader James Lindsay is saying.
It’s the International Trans Day of Visibility today and the TERFs are trying their best to avert their eyes. Over on Ovarit, the Reddit clone many of Reddit’s TERFs decamped to after their subreddit was banned, there are no fewer than five threads devoted to the subject on the front page of the so-called “Gender Critical” forum. Seems the regulars are feeling pretty gloomy.
