Wondering about the Trans Stampede
There is no reason to be rude or impolite to people who
dress as and pretend to be members of the opposite sex, but there also is no
more reason to accept their pretense as valid than for accepting someone’s
statement that he is Napoleon. Yet at present there is a lot of social and
sometimes governmental pressure from leftists to make people do it. It is interesting to
think about why this is so.
There is not a question of injustice. People have a right to say, pretend, or believe anything they like
about themselves, but no right to require anyone else to agree with them. If I
claim to be a better basketball player than LeBron James, others do me no harm
and commit no injustice in deciding I am wrong.
Neither on the surface does it appear to be about political opportunism.
The number of transsexuals is vanishingly small as a percentage of the
population. They are not likely to be significant either as donors or decisive
swing voters.
Still it is often useful in wondering about reasons for
something to consider again who benefits from it and how. Doing so with this leads to possible answers from George
Orwell. If one is seeking to maintain
and increase one’s power in the name of false and indefensible beliefs, it is useful
to have a category of thought crimes,
and it can be good to make people say
and even better to make them believe that two and two are five. If one can get people to accept a denial of the obvious fact that throughout most of the
animal kingdom and among all species of primates there are exactly two genetically determined sexes, it could become easier to gain similar acceptance
for notions of a more pragmatic interest.
Labels: Orwell, politics, trans issues
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