Transphobia tweets, Fall 2023

I'm finally killing off my Twitter account. That means cleaning out my bookmarks. Here are the remaining transphobia tweets I bookmarked — not the original transphobia, but the criticism thereof — and have wanted to look at. Sharing with you.

Detransition
ErinInTheMorn
ZJemptv
ErinInTheMorn
ErinInTheMorn
assignedmedia

Transvestigation
UglaStefania

Shakespeare wrote drag
setoacnna

Matt Walsh
Esqueer_

Linehan
AidanCTweets

Sports
Chican3ry
Esqueer_

Bathroom
natachakennedy

Gays Against Groomers
ErinInTheMorn

Nonexistent trans nurse
oolon

Joyce
KateOsborneMP

All medicine costs money
AriDrennen

Also
natachakennedy
AidanCTweets
AssignedMale

natachakennedy
GBBranstetter
Tigfore
AriDrennen
AriDrennen
GBBranstetter
EladNehorai
oldenoughtosay
UglaStefania
cmclymer
neilshyminsky
AriDrennen
AriDrennen
Chican3ry
kaleideros
ButNotTheCity
natachakennedy
ZJemptv
jamie_wareham
Esqueer_
elmitskibot
IndiaWilloughby
PinkWug
Chican3ry
scattermoon
Esqueer_
RhetoricalHype
AriDrennen

AriDrennen
GBBranstetter
ZJemptv
AriDrennen
ZJemptv
Gennerveevy
Chican3ry
AriDrennen
TylerAlbertario
ButNotTheCity
AriDrennen

AthleteAlly
PplsCityCouncil
Chican3ry
wgsaraband
Chican3ry
GBBranstetter
dynamicsymmetry
Esqueer_
scattermoon
Riotswimbananas
Esqueer_
FaeJohnstone
dynamicsymmetry
tonygoldmark
BellaRizinti
Chican3ry
ButNotTheCity
AriDrennen
Chican3ry
AriDrennen
Esqueer_
RottenInDenmark
RottenInDenmark
RottenInDenmark
scumbelievable
maidensblade
Chican3ry
RadFemme74
KarSugrue
ZoAndBehold
ErinInTheMorn


Esqueer_

The word "cis"

redlianak
trekkiebill
tonygoldmark
midnight_pals
ZJemptv
tomcoates
Chican3ry

Climate tweets, Fall 2023

I'm finally killing off my Twitter account. That means cleaning out my bookmarks. Here are the remaining climate tweets I bookmarked and have wanted to look at. Sharing with you.

Most recent first.

ClimateBen
billmckibben
EliotJacobson
FrediOtto
SteB777
ClimateBen
AlexSteffen
davabel
ClimateBen
MrMatthewTodd
KHayhoe
HakonNordhagen
howarth_cornell
Greenpeace
MrMatthewTodd
Greenpeace
GlobalEcoGuy
MichaelEMann
ClimateBen
ProfBillMcGuire
ClimateBen
EricHolthaus
ACasadevall1
emorwee
oneunderscore__
MichaelGerrard
newbooksplease
howarth_cornell
simondonner
PGDynes
umairh
_david_ho_
_david_ho_
JKSteinberger
_david_ho_
EliotJacobson
PGDynes
MrMatthewTodd
PGDynes
EliotJacobson
ClimateBen
PGDynes
billmckibben
umairh
EliotJacobson
EliotJacobson
umairh
DrSimEvans
JaredPovanda
Jumpsteady
EliotJacobson
BarnardPhoebe
Brae3905B
PCarterClimate
JKSteinberger
MisterIPCC
billmckibben
JKSteinberger
SteB777
EliotJacobson
ClimateBen
NateB_Panic
umairh
rahmstorf
ClimateBen
_david_ho_
ClimateBen
EliotJacobson
ClimateBen

Big Oil intends to perpetuate itself

From CNN last week:

"Oil and gas producers must confront a 'pivotal' choice: continue to accelerate the climate crisis or become part of the solution, the International Energy Agency said in a report Thursday [November 23].

The industry currently accounts for only 1% of global investment in clean energy, and continues to pump out disastrous quantities of planet-heating gases, including methane, which is roughly 80 times more potent than CO2 in the near term. If the world is to stand any chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, drastic action is needed on both fronts, and fast, the IEA said.

The warning comes ahead of COP28, a United Nations climate summit starting next week, and as a recent UN analysis shows that the planet is set to heat up by nearly 3 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. Scientists predict that warming of that scale could push the world over a number of catastrophic and potentially irreversible tipping points, such as the collapse of the polar ice sheets."

— "‘Moment of truth’ for oil industry: Deepen the climate crisis or help fix it," Olesya Dmitracova, CNN, November 23, 2023

---

From Bill McKibben today. The Oil Development Sustainability Programme (ODSP) is deliberately trying to increase the use of fossil fuels:

"...another set of Center for Climate Research documents emerged that were even more shocking. They showed that the UAE’s close ally, Saudi Arabia, hard at work on an Oil Development Sustainability Programme which involved hooking African and Asian nations on fossil fuels. It is almost cartoonishly villainous...

* * *

The new documents, which really must be read to be believed, perform the same essential task as the revelations almost a decade ago about Exxon’s climate lies. They end any pretense that these countries are engaged in good-faith efforts to wind down the industry—instead they’re hooking up with car manufacturers to make cheap vehicles that would keep demand for their crude pumping on."

— A Corrupted COP: New revelations show just how bad the oil countries really are. Bill McKibben. The Crucial Years (Substack). November 28, 2023.

Meet The Secretive ‘Mastermind’ Behind Utah's Oil Boom: Production in Utah's oil-rich Uinta Basin is at an all-time high. Texas oilman Jim Finley is credited with opening the floodgates. Chris D'Angelo, HuffPost, Jan 31, 2024.

Cleaning Up California’s Oil Graveyards Santa Barbara Assemblymember Gregg Hart Announces Bill to Make Oil Operators Plug Their Idle Wells. Callie Fausey, Santa Barbara's Independent, Mar 18, 2024

Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions since 2016: Analysis reveals many big producers increased output of fossil fuels and related emissions in seven years after Paris climate deal, Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, 4 Apr 2024

Brooke Binkowski calls them "climate warlords"; David Roberts says they're driven by "petro-masculinity" (New Republic, Mother Jones)

Petrang Kabayo: A queer horse goddess classic film, free on YouTube

I'm reading a memoir called Horse Barbie by Geena Rocero. She writes: "We loved the campy 1989 Filipino queer classic Petrang Kabayo, a film in which a horse goddess has the power to cast and reverse curses, punishing people who are unkind to their steeds and rewarding others for their courage."

Hey, it's on YouTube! If you have a couple hours...

Related: An alchemist wants to ascend the The Holy Mountain (directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mexico, 1973) to replace the gods. The film doesn't seem to be on YouTube, but YouTubers have opinions about it.
A podcast about the director.

If you worry about sex development, please look at environmental inputs

Climate change and pollution affects the sex of sea turtles.

"Green sea turtles are producing more females in response to a warming climate — and human-caused pollution is helping fuel the surge, a recent analysis suggests.

Writing in Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers say ocean contaminants are contributing to a surge of female green sea turtles.

Like many other reptiles, sea turtles’ sex development is influenced by the temperature of their nests. Green sea turtles incubate in large clutches of eggs their migratory mothers bury in the sand on nesting beaches. Over the course of about two months, they develop from embryos into tiny turtles, with warmer sands producing more females and cooler sands producing more males.

* * *

Turtles born with higher concentrations of ... metals such as chromium, lead and cadmium and industrial byproducts like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — were likelier to be female."

— Pollution fueling a sex imbalance among endangered green sea turtles (subscriber gift link). Erin Blakemore. Washington Post. November 26, 2023.

Many people who claim to be "concerned" about the sex development of children are working to make transgender life illegal, inaccessible, or generally unworkable or untenable. If they are truly concerned about children's bodies, and if they think of themselves as so grounded in "biology" and "reality," they should think more about climate change and pollution. That would be good work they could do.

Or they could think about other environmental inputs and health effects, like:
New Cancer Cases Are Expected to Pass 2 Million This Year. What Does That Mean for All of Us?: An American Cancer Society report predicts a record-breaking number of cases in the US. BU oncologist Naomi Y. Ko discusses why cases are going up, particularly among younger people, and how to reduce your cancer risk. Alene Bouranova. Boston University. January 30, 2024.

What affects sea turtles could indicate something that might affect humans too.

This book argues that chemical exposures affect sperm counts: Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race. Shanna H. Swan. Simon & Schuster, 2021.

Oh, and by the way: "On the podcast this week [March 2024], we talk about how hackers are exploiting electronic prescription systems to order mountains of drugs..." (404 Media) if you're worried about exploitation of prescription drugs, you should be worried about large-scale fraud, theft, and addiction — not a trans kid.

"Toxic plastic chemicals number in the thousands, most are unregulated, report finds," Sandee LaMotte, CNN, March 14, 2024

"Sex is real. So is global warming. To believe in their reality is an indispensable precondition for making normative claims about them... the belief that we have a moral duty to accept reality just because it is real is, I think, a fine definition of nihilism. ...[This right comes] from a broader ideal of biological justice, from which there also flows the right to abortion, the right to nutritious food and clean water, and, crucially, the right to health care." — Andrea Long Chu, "Freedom of Sex: The moral case for letting trans kids change their bodies," New York Intelligencer, March 11, 2024

"Why do we trust the scientists who predict eclipses but doubt those who warn us about climate change? ... Perhaps the answer lies not in the science but in ourselves. Embracing the full spectrum of scientific discoveries requires intellectual acceptance and emotional and practical engagement. It demands that we move beyond viewing science as a series of disconnected events and see it as a narrative of life history—a narrative that we are not merely observing but actively shaping." — The Paradox of Selective Scientific Trust, Dr. Pine, The New Climate, April 18, 2024

If you're skipping over this article about the effect that environmental inputs like pollution have on children's sex development, maybe you're not really worried about children's sex development after all. Maybe you're just worried about trans people existing.

Transphobes who believe in gender identity

You'll often hear transphobes claim that there's no such thing as a "gender identity" — that it's a mythical feeling that can't be proven, so it's essentially a religious belief.

However, other transphobes will insist that you can have a gender identity, and you need to have the right one.

Here's a YouTube short with an example. The YouTube channel is @TheologyoftheBodyInstitute.

First, the clip begins with the assumption that there's such a thing as a "healthy gender identity."

The speaker uses the metaphor of a train that runs on two tracks: gender identification and gender complementarity.

Because the speaker is a man, he says he ought to identify with his father and complement his mother.

See, he's a man — in his view, not necessarily because he has a "sense of myself as a man" (this brief clip doesn't explore whether the sense of being a man is identical with being a man) but at least he does have such a sense (be it a standalone it is what it is or be it true or false, corresponding or mismatched, right or wrong, good or bad).

So when transphobes say there is no such thing as gender identity, I wonder what they'd make of this other homo/transphobe who says there is.

Some context

Thomas Zimmer says:

"Rightwing leaders could not possibly be clearer about the reactionary vision they want to impose on the country. They are telling us that they do not accept this egalitarian, pluralistic idea of a society in which the individual’s status is no longer determined by race, gender, religion, and wealth. They feel justified in taking truly radical, extreme measures to prevent that society from ever becoming a reality because they believe they are defending 'real America' in service of a higher purpose: To restore and entrench what they see as the natural order and divine will, as it manifests in strict, discriminatory hierarchies."

— "What Makes 'Project 2025' So Dangerous: Will the Right be able to implement these radical plans? Is Trump on board? What happened to traditional conservatism? Let’s tackle some of the key questions surrounding 'Project 2025'." Thomas Zimmer. Democracy Americana (Substack). March 21, 2024

Right-wing reactionaries do have to believe in, and essentialize, gender so they can continue to determine people's social status based on it. "Real" gender is part of the "real America," and they won't allow real gender to be the gender one really lives in. They seek some other basis of realness.

Helen Joyce explains why she believes she's been 'cancelled'

This month, in "The Critic" (UK), Helen Joyce published a column: "Playing nice hasn’t worked: Even when I keep quiet about being cancelled, the censors don’t invite me back."

If you want to know what other sort of stuff The Critic publishes, here's what's on the front page today:

(I've written on Rod Dreher before. See "15 transphobias in ‘Trans Totalitarianism’" and "A bigoted premise sparks an ideology".)

Joyce's claim is that she actually is being canceled ("it becomes harder to get a hearing about anything") and that "if you do manage to say anything publicly — especially if you talk about the silencing — it will be taken as proof that you have not been silenced."

At this point, I notice a term that has not yet been defined carefully. Does "cancellation" mean the rejection, disinvitation, or non-publication of a particular essay, interview, or other media appearance (which every writer experiences at some point), or does it mean the overall and thoroughgoing of oneself as a person from public life and scholarship? Because if Joyce intends it to mean the latter, it certainly does matter that she "do[es] manage to say anything publicly" — for example, that she has a Sunday Times bestseller and many newspaper columns and podcast appearances related to it.

She then says:

"This is the logic of witch-ducking. If a woman drowns, she isn’t a witch; if she floats, she is, and must be dispatched some other way. Either way, she ends up dead."

(Reminds me of J.K. Rowling doing a whole podcast series called "The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling" to complain about how she's been canceled for complaining that trans people exist, and then trolling on Twitter: "Show me where I said I'm the victim of a witch hunt by trans people... [On the podcast 'The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling'] I never once say I'm a victim of a witch hunt by trans people...")

Another reason I mention Rowling specifically is that Rowling shared Joyce's article and is thus aware that Joyce made the "witch-ducking" comparison at the beginning. (I shaded out the photo of the person who is most probably nonconsensually depicted.)

Let us not neglect to point out that Joyce is drawing a parallel between the observation that someone has not been excluded from public life or has not been thoroughgoingly silenced with the claim that the person is a witch. In other words, she is trying to make an equivalence (in a subtle, under-the-surface sort of way) between the observation that someone is not persecuted and the claim that she should be persecuted. This is nonsense.

Joyce goes on:

"The only counter to this [claim that I haven't actually been canceled] is specific examples. But censorship is usually covert: when you’re passed over to speak at a conference, exhibit in a gallery or apply for a visiting fellowship, you rarely find out."

Ah, so "cancellation" or "censorship" is defined as not being invited to speak somewhere, even if you never find out about the non-invitation.

She's Been Canceled So Many Times

First, Joyce says, was before her 2021 book launch: "I know I was censored". The podcast Intelligence Squared scheduled her to talk about it, but then disinvited her. "When I asked why," she says, "the response was surprisingly frank: fear of a social-media pile-on, sponsors getting cold feet and younger staff causing grief. ...[The CEO's] courage apparently ran out." She doesn't acknowledge any rational or substantive complaint anyone may have put forth. See her language: "pile-on" (mob behavior), "cold feet" (a physical symptom of anxiety), "younger staff causing grief" (a phrase that here serves to infantilize employees and to say that they're being extremely annoying), and "courage...ran out" (the absence of virtue). Nowhere does she admit or consider that anyone may have given a reason for the disinvitation.

Second: "the Irish Times, my home country’s paper of record." She was interviewed, but the journalist later told her that the editor had rejected the piece.

Third, another supposed cancellation: "I've still never been on the BBC to discuss trans issues," Joyce says. Neither have I, so what makes this a cancellation? Well, according to Joyce, "a presenter from a flagship news programme...had told a researcher to invite me on, but the researcher hadn't, instead simply lying [to the presenter] that I wasn’t available." If the resistance to inviting Joyce had truly come only from "a researcher" and not from the presenter or the BBC leadership, I guess this could have been cleared up. However, it seems that the BBC doesn't want to have her, since the invitation hasn't come. This isn't a cancellation. The network oes not care to speak to her (as they do not care to speak to me). Maybe the originally interested "presenter from a flagship news programme" has likewise changed their mind.

Fourth: Australian state broadcaster ABC interviewed her, then claimed the recording had failed — and, she says, "they’ve never been back in touch."

Fifth: "I recorded an hour-long episode of Common Ground, a short-lived show on Sky News hosted by Trevor Phillips." She was arguing that there is a "male sporting advantage," and she believed it was inherent to her argument "to say that transwomen were male." According to Joyce, everyone on the show agreed it was OK if she entirely avoided the words "man" or "woman," or the pronouns "he" or "she," when referring to trans women. But she insisted on being able to say that trans women are male. Then, according to her narrative, just before the recording started, a guest on the show objected to this use of "male"; the guest said she'd been promised that this wouldn't be used. The show "never aired, and I don’t know why." They blamed their own "production standards" and claimed they were interested in inviting her back. "They haven't," she said — although she also admitted that the show doesn't exist anymore.

Not sure if these are cancellations, really

She tells another anecdote, which she admits is not a "striking story" (read: not at all an example of cancellation). The situation was that, in early 2022, BBC Woman's Hour invited a trans woman to speak and didn't invite Joyce to speak. The show can't "possibly think this is what its audience wants," she complains. After all, she says, people on Twitter are cheering for her, not for some trans woman. Whatever we may take away from this, it surely isn't an example of cancellation. I haven't been invited to speak on BBC Woman's Hour either, and I don't say BBC Woman's Hour canceled me.

She also says that "a well-known journalist...told me that in several decades she had had precisely one column spiked: the one she wrote about my book."

She also says that "an army surgeon...shared a quote from me on his personal Facebook page" and "was reported by a junior colleague for misconduct," after which he chose to leave the army ("though he’s recently been cleared of wrongdoing"). Well, that's about an army surgeon's speech choices. The military may have its own strict communication rules. This is not a cancellation of Helen Joyce — nor even of the army surgeon, who was, again, "cleared."

"It’s unfair to me," she says — adding that she cares more about her beliefs that "women’s rights are being destroyed," "politics and policymaking" aren't evidence-based, and there's a "socio-medical scandal."

She concludes: "I’ve decided I’m no longer playing this game....playing nice has got me nowhere." What game? How will she play now? "Even when I keep quiet about being cancelled, the censors don’t invite me back. So I might as well tell the truth about that too." (emphasis mine) The "too" appended here implies this is the second of two actions. The original mention of "playing nice" had to refer to doing something else. To what? What is it that she plans to do next, that she won't do nicely?

Liz Wheeler: Trans people's genders are fake

Young America's Foundation (link: Wikipedia) put up a YouTube short titled "Liz Wheeler DEBUNKS Gender Ideology In Under 60 Seconds."

There is no such thing as gender ideology, but anyway, this video short is not a debunking of anything. In this video, Liz Wheeler makes declares that a statement she calls "gender ideology" is actually wrong because she has the right to question it and also because she already knows it's wrong. The end. Those two reasons contradict each other, and neither constitutes a debunking.

Thesis

Here's how she defines the claim of "gender ideology":

She wants to ask a question, please

(Because asking a question isn't bad, she says)

It's not bigoted, harmful or hateful to ask a question, she says:

No, wait, she already knows the answer to her 'question', so — antithesis

"...and we know what that is."

OK, so she wasn't asking a question.

The debunking was not a debunking

This was just stating a proposition — A person can switch genders "if they want to" or "if they choose" — and then making a competing statement: "It can't simply be by someone's feelings. There has to be something tangible and concrete and we know what that is."

The question "By what standard..." is not a real question if you already "know what that [standard] is".

More, simply contradicting a statement is not a debunking of the statement.

X sues Media Matters

X has sued Media Matters.

The article that started it

Media Matters published this article: "As Musk endorses antisemitic conspiracy theory, X has been placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content." CEO Linda Yaccarino previously claimed that brands are “protected from the risk of being next to” toxic posts. Eric Hananoki. November 16, 2023.

Advertisers pulled out of X

In immediate response, some advertisers pulled their ads.

Apple, "the platform’s largest advertiser, accounting for nearly $50 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2022," pulled out, as did "Disney, Comcast, Lionsgate and Paramount Global."

Judd Legum ("Free speech does not require subsidizing bigotry," Popular Information, November 20) wrote:

"Media Matters reported that X has been placing ads for major brands alongside pro-Nazi content. Ads for corporations also appeared alongside white nationalist hashtags. This was exactly what Linda Yaccarino, X'sCEO, said would not happen. In an August interview on CNBC, Yaccarino said that 'lawful but awful' content is 'demonetized.' In that way, brands 'are protected from the risk of being next to that content.'"

Elon Musk, head of X, is mad, but does not have a real argument

Judd Legum again on Popular Information (November 21): "...according to X's own statement, all Media Matters did was create an account, follow some users, and observe what ads were displayed. ... the idea that Media Matters' conduct is legally actionable is absurd, especially since X has already admitted that ads were displayed next to the posts identified by Media Matters."

And yet Trump advisor Stephen Miller made noise, after which Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (a Republican) told the right-wing channel Newsmax: "And so," Legum says, "if we have an instance where there was a deceptive or fraudulent business practice where Media Matters was using some sort of coercive or fraudulent algorithms or advertising, that's going to be problematic on the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act." However, he points out: "Media Matters’ conduct did not involve 'fraudulent algorithms' or 'advertising.' And the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act only applies to 'the sale or advertisement of any merchandise in trade or commerce.' Media Matters was not selling anything."

Bluesky

Parker Molloy writes: "Last week, the richest man on the planet declared war on Media Matters for America, one of my former employers, repeatedly calling them 'pure evil'...The tl;dr about that lawsuit is that Elon Musk is angry that Media Matters has been publishing stories about the spread of hateful content on Twitter; Musk’s own racist, antisemitic, and transphobic tweets; and why major advertisers have been rushing to the exits." Molloy adds: "1. Musk absolutely does not believe in complete and total 'free speech' on Twitter," and "2. Advertisers are not obligated to continue advertising on a platform that went from being a low-simmering cesspool of hate to a full-on 4chan replica."

Furthermore, Molloy writes:

"I also can’t quite get over the double standard here. Musk’s far-right friends have turned 'Bud Light' into a verb that roughly translates to 'We’re going to destroy any brand that acknowledges the existence of people we hate' after losing their minds about the brand advertising one (1) time on trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s Instagram account and terrorizing Target stores across the country in sudden outrage over the chain’s truly inoffensive Pride section. Those tactics are far, far more extreme than simply being like, 'Hey brands, you know that you’re advertising next to stuff like this?'"

— "The Richest Man in the World Sued My Former Employer." It's a bit surreal to be watching this from the outside. Parker Molloy, The Present Age, November 27, 2023.

Re: Bud Light, see my post on that: Transphobes are boycotting beer because of the spokesperson.

Also: Really easy to find ads displaying next to bad content. Just search for bad content, then see if an ad displays. Voila.
Elon’s Censorial Lawsuit Against Media Matters Inspiring Many More People To Find ExTwitter Ads On Awful Content, Mike Masnick, techdirt, November 27

Thing is, X's self-punishment has an endpoint. If Musk drives his platform into the ground, antisemites and transphobes will have nowhere to congregate. So here you have one of the key transphobes, Chaya Raichik behind Libs of TikTok — yes, she's an Orthodox Jew; yes, that's confusing — begging Walmart to bring its ad dollars back to the antisemitic platform so she can keep doing her transphobia.

January 2024

By the way, here's more context about antisemitism on 4chan. Yair Rosenberg points out on Bluesky (Jan 10, 2024): "4 million views, 31,000 likes for an insane 4chan post about how New York Jews are snatching unsuspecting gentiles into their secret child trafficking tunnels."

What's left of the 1.5°C climate goal

See the article: Is it too late to keep global warming below 1.5 °C? The challenge in 7 charts. Chances are rapidly disappearing to limit Earth’s temperature rise to the globally agreed mark, but researchers say there are some positive signs of progress. Jeff Tollefson, Nature, 21 November 2023

See also: "Who are the polluter elite and how can we tackle carbon inequality?," Fiona Harvey, The Guardian, November 22, 2023:

"The richest 1% of people are responsible for as much carbon output as the poorest 66%, research from Oxfam shows. Luxury lifestyles including frequent flying, driving large cars, owning many houses, and a rich diet, are among the reasons for the huge imbalance.

Jason Hickel, an economist, argues: '...Right now, millionaires alone are on track to burn 72% of the remaining carbon budget for 1.5C. The purchasing power of the very rich needs to be curtailed. We are devoting huge amounts of energy to facilitate the excess consumption of the ruling class...'"

'Vermin,' Trump says — He's telling you who he wants to exterminate

In September, seeking the presidency again, Trump said: "We will immediately stop all the pillaging and theft. Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store."

In November, it continued. Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post:

"Four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump declared on Truth Social (on Veterans Day weekend, no less) that 'the radical left thugs ... live like vermin within the confines of our country.' He repeated the invective during an appearance in New Hampshire. As Forbes pointed out, 'The former president’s incendiary rhetoric invokes a term frequently used by Nazis to dehumanize Jews, including a 1939 quote attributed to Hitler: ‘This vermin must be destroyed. The Jews are our sworn enemies.’'"

In response to people who pointed out the comparison with Hitler’s rhetoric, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said: "Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome...their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House."

Our sad, miserable existence will be crushed? That rhetoric is also supposed to demonstrate how Trump's not a Nazi?

This too is what I hear when the MAGA folk refer to "trans activists," "trans extremists," or "radical trans." There is no such thing. It's a synonym for "radical left," "thugs," and "vermin," which is to say it attaches to nothing whatsoever in the real world. It is a language hammer of dehumanization. The more specific the speaker gets, the more precisely they're telling you exactly who they want to kill.

This is explicit. Below, "globalists," "Communists," and "Marxists" mean Jews. Donald Trump and Elon Musk embolden each other.

(on Bluesky)

Here's another place to see Trump's November 19 post (quoted in Salon.com): “2024 is our final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the Deep State, we will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and Fascists, we will throw off the sick political class that hates our Country, we will rout the Fake News Media, we will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will FINISH THE JOB ONCE AND FOR ALL!”

"We have a political party that sees value in division and hatred, even when it is unjustified or ridiculous, like Trump’s description of anyone who disagrees with him as vermin." — Martin Edic, The Witness Chronicles (Substack), November 22, 2023

No one is actually vermin. Vermin is how people are treated when they're stomped on. MAGA tells you whom they plan to stomp.

---

In November 2023, at a Florida rally, "Trump painted a picture of a hellish (predominantly white) America overrun by serial killers and other human monsters frlm foreign (and predominantly nonwhite) countries, insisting that only he could save (white) America from the death and contamination caused by Democrats and 'the left.'" (Salon)

Under the Insurrection Act, U.S. presidents have authority to use the military to stop civilian protests, and the courts can't interfere. Trump has said he will call the military if he wants.

On December 5, 2023, at a Fox News town hall, Sean Hannity asked Trump: "Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?" Trump responded: "I’m going to be, you know he keeps, we love this guy, he says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said, ‘No, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling.’ After that I’m not a dictator." (emphasis mine)

The same day, Kash Patel said on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast:

“We will follow the facts and the law. We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.

We’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we’re tyrannical. This is why we’re dictators.”

Here's someone who believes "dictator" means benevolent paternalist and that Trump would only briefly use his power to make the nation more beautiful and liveable:

“I love it,” said a woman in her 50s from northwest Iowa who spoke on the condition that she be identified only as Sue. “My kids call me a dictator, I thought my parents were dictators … He said he was only going to do it for a day. Like if you had a home that was in disrepair and your parents came in and they were firm and they wanted to get it done, and when you got done you had this beautiful home, how could you be mad?”
— Trump backers laugh off, cheer ‘dictator’ comments, as scholars voice alarm, Marianne LeVine and Isaac Arnsdorf, Washington Post, December 13, 2023

[Update: In January 2024, a YouGov poll asked whether Trump being "a dictator only on the first day of his second term" sounds like "a good or bad idea for the country." Three-quarters of Republicans said it was "definitely" or "probably" good.]

On December 16, 2023, Trump "approvingly quoted autocrats Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Orban of Hungary," once again used "dehumanizing language targeting immigrants that historians have likened to past authoritarians, including a reference that some civil rights advocates and experts in extremism have compared to Adolf Hitler’s fixation on blood purity," and referred to Capitol rioters (who are facing criminal proceedings for their violent crime) as "hostages." (Washington Post, December 16, 2023)

Jason Lyall on Bluesky, @jaylyall.bsky.social:

"You can literally see CNN bending over backwards to avoid saying "fascism" when they describe Trump's speech as using 'language condemned for its ties to White supremacist rhetoric'

FFS, he said immigrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country.' That's the center square on the Fascist bingo card"

Ruth Ben-Ghiat explained on CNN on December 16:

"'...they’re not going to stop with immigrants,' she said. 'I’m quite concerned that he is mentioning what he calls mental institutions and prisons so often. In another speech he actually talked about the need to expand psychiatric institutions to confine people and he mentioned special prosecutor Jack Smith as someone who should end up in a ‘mental institution.’'

'This is what fascists and especially communists used to do to critics,' Ben-Ghiat added. 'They used to put people who didn’t believe in the propaganda of the state or who were troublemakers into psychiatric institutions.'"

The next day, December 17, Kristen Welker on Meet the Press asked Sen. Lindsey Graham: “Are the president’s comments representative of how you and other Republicans feel? ... Just on the language, though. ... You have endorsed former President Trump. Are you comfortable with him using words like that?” Graham replied: "You know, we’re talking about language? I could care less what language people use as long as we get it [immigration policy] right."

A.R. Moxon on this (No Beliefs, Just Intentions, The Reframe (Substack), Dec 17, 2023):

"Trump has openly announced his intention to become a fascist dictator if he re-achieves the presidency, promising to use the military to crush dissent, vowing to use his standing army of fascist judges and police to seize power and disband large swaths of the government, and swearing to purge the courts and the government and the nation of undesirable elements. Last night he literally quoted Adolf Hitler, telling his pink-faced crowd that immigrants were poisoning the nation’s blood. The language he’s used to marshal his support among mostly white, mostly Christian Americans can only be described as dehumanizing and eliminationist, the sort of talk that usually precedes mass killings."

As per this CNN analyst, on December 17, "in Reno, Nevada — the third GOP-nominating state — Trump claimed, without evidence, that migrants are largely coming from prisons and mental institutions." Trump proposed that Chinese immigrants are militarized invaders, and he furthermore

"promised to reorient the US government to purge migrants. Claiming the US is now a 'haven for bloodthirsty criminals,' he said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law, to remove migrants from the country. The former president also promised to divert the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration to border actions."

On December 19, Sen. Tommy Tuberville egged on other Republicans to be yet more racist: "I’m mad he wasn’t even tougher than that."

In December, CNN reviewed the history of a few of Trump's related comments. According to WSJ reporter Michael Bender in his 2021 book Frankly, We Did Win This Election, Trump told John Kelly, regarding Hitler's economic policies: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.” According to Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s 2022 book The Divider: Trump in the White House, Trump said to Kelly: “Why can’t you be like the German generals?...The German generals in World War II.” In 1990, Vanity Fair reported that Ivana Trump “told her lawyer that Donald Trump occasionally read from a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he supposedly kept in a cabinet by his bed. And a friend of Trump told the magazine on the record that he had given Trump the book, saying he thought Trump would find it interesting.” (See VIDEO: "1990 report: Ivana Trump told her lawyer Donald Trump kept Hitler speeches beside bed," CNN, December 18, 2023)

On December 19, Trump continued, saying that immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally are "destroying the blood of our country, they’re destroying the fabric of our country." (CNN)

On December 20, CNN anchor Jake Tapper "cited a 'shocking' Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll that shows 42% of the state’s likely Republican caucusgoers saying the GOP presidential frontrunner’s comment makes them 'more likely' to support him..." — HuffPost

He just makes stuff up

On February 5, Trump appeared on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures show, speaking to Maria Bartiromo:

"'We’re letting 18 million people in,' Trump said at one point, offering a wildly inflated estimate of the number of immigrants allowed to stay in the United States under President Biden. 'I think the number is going to be 18 million people by the time he gets out.'
'Wow,' said Bartiromo."
— "One of Trump’s biggest political assets is his mundanity," Philip Bump, Washington Post, February 5, 2024

Please raise the bar

Bluesky

Prepare

We must prepare for possible outcomes:

‘Dictator’ Trump Plans to Deploy Massive Number of Troops on U.S. Soil: In his first term, Trump’s plans to send troops to “war” on the southern border were thwarted. This time, he’s talking about sending up to 300,000 there. Adam Rawnsley & Asawin Suebsaeng, Rolling Stone, December 14, 2023

"National news media are sanitizing Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan: Broadcast news shows and top national newspapers have largely ignored the Republican front-runner's extreme policy proposal. Harrison Ray. Media Matters. Feb. 26, 2024.

Riley Gaines: Transphobe is also a homophobe and a racist

Why you probably recognize the name Riley Gaines

As A.R. Moxon in The Reframe (Substack) tells the story ("Channels of Rage," November 19, 2023):

"Gaines tied with Thomas for fifth in the [March 2022] event, which means that without Thomas’ presence, she would have come in...fourth, I suppose, so I suppose Gaines missed out on all the accolades and prizes that are typically lavished upon fourth place finishers in athletic competitions. The loss of these gains got Riley Gaines riled, it seems, and now she goes around and tells her story, making it clear that she believes the existence of trans people represents unacceptable aggression and implied violence against her, suggesting that because of her victimization, trans people probably should not be permitted to exist quite so much. The various outlets who host her, who also want to make the case that trans people shouldn’t exist quite so much, find that Gaines really helps them make that case while letting them look as if they’re just disinterested parties asking questions, so they invite her back again and again, and this arrangement seems to work out well for both parties."

But but but, she would have ranked fourth (as seen on YouTube), had the trans woman not competed against her?

Right, and she would have ranked first had the first, second, and third place finishers also not competed against her, and none of this is an excuse for her to be racist, homophobic, or transphobic.

Anyway, A.R. Moxon wrote about Gaines because she went on Fox this week to complain about a small toy figurine of a dark-skinned Santa Claus in a wheelchair. Gaines's agenda, as Moxon put it, was to be a "freedom fighter for the rights of people who already have rights" and to oppose "the existence of all sorts of people."

"You have to ask yourself, you know, 'Why do they keep pushing this? Who are they trying to appeal to?'" Gaines complained about the toy.

"Gaines framed the existence of these types of people, who do exist, as something malicious and sinister and unnatural, that they are pushing on the normal people," Moxon says, adding: "supremacy believes that it owns the exclusive right to decide to what degree other people exist" and "will always cast the people they’re threatening and victimizing as a threat that is victimizing them" and "never chooses just one target; like any bully, it always seeks to expand the margins of acceptable violence." Therefore, "even though she lost out on all that sweet money that comes with fourth-place finishes, she should be able to go on make a pretty good living saying cruel things about other people for the entertainment of people who like to hear cruel things said. A lot of people do."

What else she's been up to in 2023

In March

Arguing with 37-year-old cisgender lesbian soccer star Megan Rapinoe about whether trans women can play sports against cis women. Rapinoe says sure.

However will Riley Gaines, who is 14 years younger and whose athletic career may already be over, find herself positioned to counter Rapinoe's standpoint?

Gaines says Rapinoe isn't qualified to give an opinion because — get this — she was likely to retire from sports soon (Rapinoe did announce her retirement three months later) and is a lesbian who probably won't ever have a daughter, so she can't possibly care about women's sports. "You have nothing to personally lose," Gaines told Rapinoe.

Never mind that Gaines's significantly less notable athletic career also appears to be over and that Gaines does not have a daughter either. What matters, you see, is that Gaines is "sexually attracted to men"; this is why she believes she has license to talk about sports on Fox News.

For context: This transphobe compares sterile humans to sterile livestock who are treated as expendable by their owners. Why can't humans own other humans, judge their worth by their fertility and productivity, and treat them as animals? is indeed a question. Also note that the word "trans" is swapped out for "infertile" here.

(By the way: If they truly cared about maximizing reproduction, they'd worry about something relevant, like involuntary or unavoidable exposures to plastics and other chemicals that may reduce sperm count. But no. They just want to laugh at gender and sexual diversity.)

An account that X later suspended (@keguro_) tweeted on April 14, 2023: "I hope people begin to realize that any motion that declares procreation a duty is effectively 1. stripping away rights from girls and women and all birthing people; 2. nullifying many laws about sexual violence; 3. reducing workplace protections for women. In the name of protecting Kenya against homosexuality, it takes away many things women have fought for, and are still fighting for. Because, well, that’s how patriarchy operates."

In April

On April 6, 2023, there was an incident at San Francisco State University where Gaines was supposed to speak. Protesters showed up. Pen America said in a press release the next day: "She remained in a secure classroom for over three hours after the event while police determined how to safely escort her out." The organization called it a "disaster." ("Disruption and Harassment at Riley Gaines speaking event made a 'mockery' of free speech." April 7, 2023.)

This person adds context: Riley Gaines was making arguments that cause trans people to be harassed and run out of public accommodations in roughly the same way that she was run off her speaking platform. Thus, while it is generally bad to chase people so that they have to hide in a room for three hours, it is also hypocritical to say that it is only bad when it happens to you and to encourage people to do it to others.

In September

Two minors at an Oregon school had a physical altercation. Riley Gaines posted a 23-second video clip without permission of the people involved. Rand Paul explains: "...purely on the basis of rumor, and because that rumor was convenient and useful to her despicable cause, Ms. Gaines took it upon herself to call the aggressor a “trans male”..." The result? "This flurry of speculation regarding the gender identity of one middle school student led to multiple threats against the school, its administration, and the school district. In turn, heeding one such threat — which warned of a bombing — necessitated the closure of Hazelbrook Middle School on Friday, September 29, and then again Monday, October 2."
— Anti-Trans Posts Inspire Bomb Threats, Close Oregon Middle School: Riley Gaines is at it again, spreading innuendo, intolerance, and hatred. Rand Bishop, Prism & Pen, October 6, 2023.

What flavor of transphobia this is

Insofar as Riley Gaines is transphobic, homophobic, and racist, she's aligned with Matt Walsh.

Oh, now it's darts

Anti-Trans Activists Now Claim Trans Women Have An Advantage At Darts
Victoria Monaghan became the first trans woman to ever compete in the WDF World Darts Championship. Despite losing in the first round, anti-trans activists claimed she had a "biological advantage." Erin Reed. December 5, 2023

Despite her stochastic terrorism, Maine becomes a sanctuary state.

"On Tuesday [April 23, 2024], Gov. Janet Mills of Maine signed LD 227, a sanctuary bill that protects transgender and abortion providers and patients from out-of-state prosecution, into law. With this action, Maine becomes the 16th state to explicitly protect transgender and abortion care in state law from prosecution. This follows several bomb threats targeting state legislators after social media attacks from far-right anti-trans influencers such as Riley Gaines and Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok. An earlier version of the bill failed in committee after similar attacks in January. Undeterred, Democrats reconvened and added additional protections to the bill before it was passed into law."
— Maine Signs Trans And Abortion Sanctuary Bill Into Law, Despite Violent Threats: Despite a series of bomb threats against legislators in the state, Maine's Governor Janet Mills has signed a transgender and abortion sanctuary bill into law. Erin Reed, April 23, 2024.

If you want to hear me explain more about transphobia

A lot of my essays are on Medium. Paying subscribers to the Medium platform (sign up) can read them all.