Look, man, people like you are the reason this is happening.
Really, to hear Republicans tell it, your American equivalent is the reason this is happening.
To wit, on
supremacism and priority—
—complaining that a liberal argument falls into a dualistic trap is hardly innovative, and neither is the clumsy flip of narrative about a political faction that has been chomping at the bit for political violence for over fifteen years, now, nor, in discussion of political behavior—
—is your reliance on unprovable negative assertions unfamilar; thus—
—some things just aren't surprising—
—and, quite frankly, look at what it takes for Labour to satisfy pink Tories.
Furthermore, the difference between you thinking Rowling is spot-on and what the religious crackpots do is the difference between "intelligent design" and creationism. That is, sure, I get you aren't among the religious crackpots, and all, but backing the godless, celebrity, populist reiteration isn't any different. (And go ahead and remind you don't support "intelligent design", but the analogy becomes supporting a celebrity intelligent design supporter because you just don't like the people who disagree with them.)
You found your threshold, the point at which science is no longer sufficient to suit your preferred beliefs. As a personal matter, so what; as a larger political question, yes, people like you are the reason this is happening. Thing is, no part of history describes anyone selectively empowering one small part of irrationality as a matter of public policy and successfully containing its infliction to their personal aesthetics and need. And you're actually smart enough to know this. All the misery that comes with is part of the package.
†
Try it this way: A whole lotta people for whom it was about owning the libs didn't vote for what's happening when they voted to own the libs because they didn't really think it through. Their identity politic, their need to drink and bathe in liberal tears was really, really empowering until the feds came to arrest their gardener, their nurse, their wife. It was all good enough until Trump ruined
their economic circumstance with tariffs, labor-pool raids, and now the food that isn't on their table because Trump says no.
And when the damage is done, and American survivors crawl out from under their self-inflicted rubble, people like you are still going to blame liberalism. In your case, it's what, transgender and some simplistic Manichean trap; however, compared to being a pink Tory watching the Party suddenly and inexplicably run a long mile off a short rightist pier, we Americans have the records of our conservative heritage depending on supremacism, and it's not a matter of when to start, but, rather, which periods to include for which discussion. For instance, the time of the Southern Strategy, the last sixty-some years,
i.e., most of your life and more than mine, is pretty well recorded. For us, the GOP didn't so much run blindly into an abyss as achieve a long-sought goal. They fulfilled what conservatives have been working toward since McCarthyism (ca. 1950), at least.¹
There are plenty of reasons why this or that person might not know; they're young, they never studied history, they're half a world away, &c. But there are also plenty of Americans who ought to know better. The actual know-nothing parade among Congressional Republicans that is finally starting to get some attention because it has become so particular and consistent is not new.
Aldous Huxley↗, a hundred years ago:
The English have never been an oppressed nationality; they are in consequence most healthily unaware of their history. They live wholly in the much more interesting worlds of the present—in the worlds of politics and science, of business and industry.
The mainline American narrative is the same way, today. It's one of the reasons why white (Christian) men are the real victims of history, &c. And for whatever else it's worth, these are the people who are known to hide their supremacism in talk of our
"Anglo-American heritage"↗; even our racists blame it on British heritage.
At least think it through. Because all those years when you thought liberals were falling into a simplistic manichean trap, they were trying to address conservative concerns. You're a pink Tory? Yes, it's our American tories, and their emotionally insecure purple vagary, that brought this to bear.
Inasmuch as↗ the past is the past, and can't be changed, but we can leave markers for the future↗, middle-roaders need to understand what happened when we pretended to take their middle road.
Especially the part where Trump voters say this isn't what they voted for; they never really bothered to think that part through. The moral of the story, the lesson of history as tomorrow becomes today, is to stop doing that. Wait, stop doing what? Well, it's kind of a complicated discussion easily swept away as a simplistic menichean trap. Consider the idea of "just because you disagree with them"; what the middle road so stubbornly refused to acknowledge that sometimes those folks over there really are racist. Or misogynist. Or fascistic. You needed to believe in a simplistic manichean trap because you needed a way to excuse yourself: That way, the problem isn't your beliefs or conduct, but other people falling into a simplistic manichean trap.
You're definitely a terf? Yeah, look, that was
you declaring yourself a bigot. And, no, looking back at the clues, of course it wasn't surprising. And, yes, it's true, your American equivalent did this. This is happening because of people like you.
That's why, like you, they complain so particularly. He's doing the tariffs wrong; he's not handling the war correctly; they're constantly flooding the zone with shit. Well, we were told up front, so his voters can't say it's not what they voted for. That is, they support some underlying principle, but expect they shouldn't be inconvenienced along the way. And after a while, it stands out that some people easily criticize so particularly but won't address the underlying principle because it's what they actually want. This is as close as they're going to get to the dictator they want, and the only difference is that it wasn't supposed to inconvenience them.
But this is what it takes to be a terf, just like how, compared to taxes, this is always where the self-proclaimed teabaggers were going. (It's kind of why they
both need to be protected from themselves↗.) And you're not new; this has been going on your whole life.
So, yeah, it's kind of important to tell you so directly:
People like you are the reason this is happening.
And, sure, maybe it was a mistake. But that's the reason to make the point, to leave a marker for the future. People need to understand: You can't just dabble in it; what we're seeing is the rest that comes along with this or that issue.
____________________
Notes:
¹ Even earlier, but the discussion of industrialism and authoritarianism, as important as it is, just makes the moment complicated. Still, of short piers and calculated leaps, it's kind of like how nobody should be surprised about the Starmer government's position on Israel and Palestine; British philosemitism dates back before the twentieth century, and the strain running through the Plymouth Brethren remains important, today, in both our countries, but if we wish to be at least somewhat formal, the Balfour Declaration is one hundred five years old, so, no, we ought not be surprised.
Huxley, Aldous. Jesting Pilate. (1926). New York: Paragon, 1991.
