JK Rowling: ‘Transgenderism is…

 

…misogynistic and will destroy the left.’ That is the message Rowling delivers in a recent interview discussed by Ann Althouse on her blog.

This is turning into “Transgender Week” what with the terrible killings in Nashville and the Minnesota law. All I know at this writing about Nashville is: (1) the killing was carried out by a transgender (how do you distinguish between man-woman and woman-man?), (2) a manifesto was left behind the contents of which have yet to be released, (3) the transgender attended the targeted school over 10 years ago (a long time to seethe if there was a specific grievance), and (4) the Nashville law enforcement responders did a hell of a job compared to Uvalde, TX.

But back to Rowling:

It is beyond ironic that someone who clearly is a feminist and embraces what used to be fairly uncontroversial left-wing positions has been marginalized by progressives. And she is not dumb, she sees where this is going and is heart-broken. Transgender ideology will destroy the left. You cannot support equality of women with men (all persons) and have men pass as women:

Women are the only group — to my knowledge — that are being asked to embrace members of their oppressor class — unquestioningly, with no caveat.

Whether we, as men, like it or not the reality is that there are far too many men who mistreat women, who do not operate with women in a respectful way. Chivalry may be patriarchal but it had the utility of restraining the superior physical strength of men. The challenge for our society is to restore a form a chivalry that does not deny personhood.

Transgenderism is about as far from that as can be. It makes a mockery of the valid concerns of women and subordinates them to the desires a some men who claim to be women. (The Nashville case will need to be carefully examined to understand why a woman claiming to be a man would kill children as little of the transgender debate to date has examined the woman-to-man phenomena. Is it too, a form of misogyny?)

Rowling also sees the negative political impact of transgenderism for the left —

[M]any left-wing feminists in particular are sitting with their head in their hands. The right has wanted for years and years, not all of the right, but certainly the further the right and the religious right, have wanted to castigate the lesbian and gay and bisexual movement as is inherently degenerate and part of the left’s broader degeneracy.

When you defend the placing of rapists in cells with women, you are handing the right a perfect opportunity to say, you see, we told you the moral degeneracy that would result if you say homosexual relationships are okay, and I think for many leftists, for many feminists, we are despairing of the fact that people are, in our view, colluding with a deeply misogynist movement, which is benefitting, politically speaking, the far right.

And I worry very deeply that, as the left becomes increasingly puritanical and authoritarian and judgmental, we are pushing swathes of people towards not just the right, it’s pushing them to the Alt Right.

And Rowling also expresses concern for disaffected young men —

That’s what scares me, that particularly young men, when they’re being told everything in the world is their fault, and they have no right to a voice, and they are everything that is wrong with society. It is, unfortunately, a human reaction to go to the place where you will be embraced, and if the only place where you can make a joke or be accepted is a place that is full of poisonous ideas, then you’re likely to go there, particularly when you’re young.

So I think that the left is making a tremendous mistake in espousing this kind of, in my view, quasi-religious, incredibly sort of witch hunting behavior, because there will be people who will just feel when they’ve been shamed and abused, and they feel it was unfair, where are they going to go? That worries me very deeply.

Transgenderism will kill the left. And while it might seem superficially good for that to happen, the reality is that it is not a good thing. Humans need diversity of political thought. Not extremes, but a spectrum of political solutions for society’s needs. A complete victory for the “right” might create a new round of extremism. Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.

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  1. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Rodin: This is turning into “Transgender Week” what with the terrible killings in Nashville and the Minnesota law. All I know at this writing about Nashville is: (1) the killing was carried out by a transgender (how do you distinguish between man-woman and woman-man?)

    Someone I read suggested replacing trans with pretend to figure some truth. Transwoman becomes pretend woman and transman becomes pretend man.

    Rodin: Transgenderism will kill the left. And while it might seem superficially good for that to happen, the reality is that it is not a good thing. Humans need diversity of political thought. Not extremes, but a spectrum of political solutions for society’s needs. A complete victory for the “right” might create a new round of extremism. Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.

    It was interesting to see a bunch of new-to-me memes in my Twitter timeline last night, in response to the school shooting. From the memes, there is pushback building in the homosexual community against the trans community. A lot of images of all letters to the right of LGB being torn off. A good one, in my opinion, of TYRANNY having the first Y spelled with a Y chromosome and a line like, ‘you can’t always see it but it’s there.’

    It’s been an odd alliance. One side says, I was made this way and the other says, I was made wrong and must be changed. I don’t know when the T was added, but once the other side won a lot of victories, the Ts seemingly wanted their success too and became very vocal.

    • #1
  2. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    • #2
  3. Terry Mott Member
    Terry Mott
    @TerryMott

    I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: Feminists created the current trans situation by spending decades denying any inherent difference between men and women.  If all sexual differences are due strictly to socialization, as feminists have long claimed, then you have no argument against transgenderism.

    • #3
  4. Terry Mott Member
    Terry Mott
    @TerryMott

    So I think that the left is making a tremendous mistake in espousing this kind of, in my view, quasi-religious, incredibly sort of witch hunting behavior, because there will be people who will just feel when they’ve been shamed and abused, and they feel it was unfair, where are they going to go? That worries me very deeply.

    This applies to CRT just as much as sexuality.  When white boys are constantly vilified for their “whiteness”, many will turn to white supremacy to find acceptance and belonging.

    This won’t end well.

    • #4
  5. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Terry Mott (View Comment):

    I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: Feminists created the current trans situation by spending decades denying any inherent difference between men and women. If all sexual differences are due strictly to socialization, as feminists have long claimed, then you have no argument against transgenderism.

    This explains why so few feminists are willing to take on transgenderism. But in fairness, feminism was never monolithic. There were women who sought parity in voting, property ownership, etc that were not dependent on erasing biological differences. But once those disparities were removed, just like today, you justify continuing your “movement” after the purported goals were achieved. That is where the denial of natural difference and accepting limits based on those realities came from and are driving the new goals.

    • #5
  6. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    If a feminist is someone who stands up for women’s rights, they first have to be able to determine what a women is. That used to be self-explanatory. I would like to think that the people attacking Rowlings are extremists, but this is main stream think among the Democrat party.

    • #6
  7. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Rodin: This is turning into “Transgender Week” what with the terrible killings in Nashville and the Minnesota law.

    It appears this week actually is “Transgender Week,” to culminate on Saturday with a day of violence and an assault on the Untied States legal system.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/radical-groups-trans-day-of-vengeance-moves-forward-wake-nashville-school-shooting

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/03/28/trans-activists-called-for-day-of-vengeance-before-shooting-of-christian-school-n1682076

    • #7
  8. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    Rodin: This is turning into “Transgender Week” what with the terrible killings in Nashville and the Minnesota law. All I know at this writing about Nashville is: (1) the killing was carried out by a transgender (how do you distinguish between man-woman and woman-man?)

    Someone I read suggested replacing trans with pretend to figure some truth. Transwoman becomes pretend woman and transman becomes pretend man.

    Rodin: Transgenderism will kill the left. And while it might seem superficially good for that to happen, the reality is that it is not a good thing. Humans need diversity of political thought. Not extremes, but a spectrum of political solutions for society’s needs. A complete victory for the “right” might create a new round of extremism. Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.

    It was interesting to see a bunch of new-to-me memes in my Twitter timeline last night, in response to the school shooting. From the memes, there is pushback building in the homosexual community against the trans community. A lot of images of all letters to the right of LGB being torn off. A good one, in my opinion, of TYRANNY having the first Y spelled with a Y chromosome and a line like, ‘you can’t always see it but it’s there.’

    It’s been an odd alliance. One side says, I was made this way and the other says, I was made wrong and must be changed. I don’t know when the T was added, but once the other side won a lot of victories, the Ts seemingly wanted their success too and became very vocal.

    Except you’ve got people, groups, and organizations who make a mess of it by referring to the school shooter as a “trans man” where to them “trans” means “used-to-be.”

    • #8
  9. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    The quoted material is wonderful.

    But my favorite statement is yours, Rodin:

    “Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.”

    • #9
  10. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    The quoted material is wonderful.

    But my favorite statement is yours, Rodin:

    “Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.”

    Maybe the point is that centrism is unstable, and if we’re unwilling to introduce some “right-wing extremism” we’re going to get the “left-wing extremism,” good and hard.  Because they’re willing to fight for theirs.

    • #10
  11. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    kedavis (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    The quoted material is wonderful.

    But my favorite statement is yours, Rodin:

    “Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.”

    Maybe the point is that centrism is unstable, and if we’re unwilling to introduce some “right-wing extremism” we’re going to get the “left-wing extremism,” good and hard. Because they’re willing to fight for theirs.

    That’s an interesting thought, @kedavis. I tend to think that although the center point is unstable, centrism need not be. But the question is: how do you bound the middle ground so that extremes do not take over? There is enough history of extremism that it is clear that it does — all too frequently, and possibly most of the time. It makes history and the mundane does not. That’s make it difficult to determine the distribution throughout time. One could argue that the dominant form of government–strong man/dynastic rule–although tyrannical is not extreme. If so, then the centrism vs extreme analysis is limited to democratic government. It may also be population/density dependent in the sense that pressures form at certain populations/densities that do not exist at others and for which special measures are needed to limit extremism. I don’t know, but good thought.

    • #11
  12. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Rodin: Humans need diversity of political thought. Not extremes, but a spectrum of political solutions for society’s needs. A complete victory for the “right” might create a new round of extremism. Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.

    Extremism is not bad.  Violent totalitarianism is bad.  

    • #12
  13. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Rodin (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    The quoted material is wonderful.

    But my favorite statement is yours, Rodin:

    “Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.”

    Maybe the point is that centrism is unstable, and if we’re unwilling to introduce some “right-wing extremism” we’re going to get the “left-wing extremism,” good and hard. Because they’re willing to fight for theirs.

    That’s an interesting thought, @ kedavis. I tend to think that although the center point is unstable, centrism need not be. But the question is: how do you bound the middle ground so that extremes do not take over? There is enough history of extremism that it is clear that it does — all too frequently, and possibly most of the time. It makes history and the mundane does not. That’s make it difficult to determine the distribution throughout time. One could argue that the dominant form of government–strong man/dynastic rule–although tyrannical is not extreme. If so, then the centrism vs extreme analysis is limited to democratic government. It may also be population/density dependent in the sense that pressures form at certain populations/densities that do not exist at others and for which special measures are needed to limit extremism. I don’t know, but good thought.

    Given our position/situation we may believe centrism is more common and/or more likely – perhaps even more desirable – than it really is, over the whole world and over all of time.

    • #13
  14. Terry Mott Member
    Terry Mott
    @TerryMott

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Rodin (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    The quoted material is wonderful.

    But my favorite statement is yours, Rodin:

    “Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.”

    Maybe the point is that centrism is unstable, and if we’re unwilling to introduce some “right-wing extremism” we’re going to get the “left-wing extremism,” good and hard. Because they’re willing to fight for theirs.

    That’s an interesting thought, @ kedavis. I tend to think that although the center point is unstable, centrism need not be. But the question is: how do you bound the middle ground so that extremes do not take over? There is enough history of extremism that it is clear that it does — all too frequently, and possibly most of the time. It makes history and the mundane does not. That’s make it difficult to determine the distribution throughout time. One could argue that the dominant form of government–strong man/dynastic rule–although tyrannical is not extreme. If so, then the centrism vs extreme analysis is limited to democratic government. It may also be population/density dependent in the sense that pressures form at certain populations/densities that do not exist at others and for which special measures are needed to limit extremism. I don’t know, but good thought.

    Given our position/situation we may believe centrism is more common and/or more likely – perhaps even more desirable – than it really is, over the whole world and over all of time.

    O’Sullivan’s First Law suggests that the center is not stable: “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.”

    • #14
  15. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Terry Mott (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Rodin (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    The quoted material is wonderful.

    But my favorite statement is yours, Rodin:

    “Tyranny is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right; it is the end point of extremism regardless of where it starts.”

    Maybe the point is that centrism is unstable, and if we’re unwilling to introduce some “right-wing extremism” we’re going to get the “left-wing extremism,” good and hard. Because they’re willing to fight for theirs.

    That’s an interesting thought, @ kedavis. I tend to think that although the center point is unstable, centrism need not be. But the question is: how do you bound the middle ground so that extremes do not take over? There is enough history of extremism that it is clear that it does — all too frequently, and possibly most of the time. It makes history and the mundane does not. That’s make it difficult to determine the distribution throughout time. One could argue that the dominant form of government–strong man/dynastic rule–although tyrannical is not extreme. If so, then the centrism vs extreme analysis is limited to democratic government. It may also be population/density dependent in the sense that pressures form at certain populations/densities that do not exist at others and for which special measures are needed to limit extremism. I don’t know, but good thought.

    Given our position/situation we may believe centrism is more common and/or more likely – perhaps even more desirable – than it really is, over the whole world and over all of time.

    O’Sullivan’s First Law suggests that the center is not stable: “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.”

    I’m not so sure that right-wing organizations are safe either.

    • #15
  16. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    The trans stuff is the atheists giving God the middle finger salute.

    • #16
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