this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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Ya know… I may not fully understand what it is to be trans, but my reaction to that is curiosity, a desire to learn. To understand.
How this can motivate a person to think this, to do this… I just don’t get it.
Why are they this way? What makes a person so bigoted that their answer is “executions”?
Christian Fundamentalism.
There's your answer.
Ya'll Qaeda.
We are really going to have to confront the fact that about a third of the country are hardcore religious extremist theocrats who want a brutal theocracy and do not give a single fuck about ideas like democracy, human rights, and an impartial legal system, beyond cosplaying like they care about them for the sake of appealing to normies.
You don't understand how people can think this way because you weren't raised, indoctrinated, in this way of thinking.
I was, and I am telling you at least 1/3rd of the population of the country is like this.
I'm not anti religion broadly, but we do need to start putting restrictions on what religion is acceptable. You worship the local river spirit that asks for a festival every spring? Super cool. Your fertility god needs you to have an orgy? Awesome. You evil war god demands you kill or enslave everyone unlike yourself? No, that religion should not be allowed to continue existing.
Exactly your "one true god" demands I follow its rules? Go fuck yourself. My gods get a say in how I live my life, yours don't
Why do Muslim fundamentalists throw acid into children's faces?
Same reason Christians want to kill gays and trans people.
God's love ♥️
The truth is, Evangelical Christians are Devil worshipers. If your religion preaches hate, you're worshiping Satan, not God.
Mysterious ways indeed.
because they think people are good or evil.
and evil ones must be punished and killed.
it's that simple.
lots of people think this way. it's far more common than not.
the question is what your criteria for good and evil are.
I don’t know… I used to believe this, but today I’m feeling that this sort of assessment is more than a bit reductive. If we are supposed to be fighting this, then we need to understand it better and dismiss it less.
Nothing about this is simple, and falling into that mindset is, I believe, a major problem with how the other side thinks. We can’t be better than them, and we especially can’t beat them, if we’re just the same as them. (in this context.)
Except this is simple; You are either in the in group and mostly a good person who occasionally makes mistakes that should be forgiven or you are in the out group and are a bad person who does bad things and cannot do redeemable things.
That’s it. That’s the entire right wing ethos.
Yeah. This was just an oopsiedoodles and it can easily be forgiven.
Unfortunately it can. See Matt Gates vs Al Franken.
Reactionary ideology is about loss and blame.
The current reactionary stripe in the US is focused on White Evangelical Supremacy, so everyone who is not in that group is a prime target.
White Evangelicalism has lost a heap of prestige in the last 30 years, while LGBTQ+ rights have been ascendant. This is the reason why trans people have long been taegeted by the reactionary right: they want to roll back all of the gains made to sexual minorities, and trans people make the easiest targets.
They also target immigrants for largely the same reason: they're a highly visible population who doesn't conform to their ideal White Evangelical model, so they use terror tactics to oppress them.
The goal is to make life intolerable for the people they hate so that they don't have to compete against ideas that make the world a more equitable place. It's no coincidence that the reactionary right rallied around fighting diversity, equity and inclusion: they are an evangelical white supremacist coalition.
see... yes, you're correct about all of what you're saying... but this is the understanding we had... 10-15 years ago. It was that simple then. But the reasons people tell themselves to be on this side and the means by which they fight (tactics, strategy, etc.) really has evolved in the 25+ years I, myself, have been part of the fight. What I'm saying is that: the other side has massively-upgraded its fighting ability and the complex/advanced nature of its attacks over the last 10 years, and we have repeatedly faltered in trying to counter it. Once in a while, we have a standout moment, but, currently, we're on our back foot and without a clear strategy - or even the basic tactics - we need in oder to actually fight.
Yes, the reactionary right is often derided as stupid, but they're very effective at stealing the language of liberation from the left and repurposing it to defend the people in power.
While many of the base are indeed ignorant and misinformed, the people driving the message are meticulous and creative about finding ways to make White Evangelical Supremacy more palatable. Tucker Carlson is especially effective at laundering neo-nazi talking points for them; his constant scaremongering around the racist "great replacement" conspiracy theory and his open hatred and lies about trans people are some of the most egregious.
But it's also people like Joe Rogan who make this reactionary funnel really work: he acts like a middle-of-the-road centrist, but also sells a gentler version of the same great replacement and "gender ideology" bullshit while introducing his audience to a whole bunch of radical right-wing freaks like they're just normal people.
I hate to say this, but, as correct as I think your assessment is… I think it’s about 5 to 10 years out of date. Things have gotten much more complicated, complex, and dire since then, and this old world understanding of why it is this way just isn’t gonna cut it anymore.
As you’ve pointed out, the right wing has seized on digital and independent media and forced those crazy views into the mainstream. This is something that was not only pioneer by leftists, but dominated by the left for decades until just very recently. What the fuck happened? We need to figure that out and figure out how to fight back. Especially if the truth requires us, collectively, facing a bunch of stuff, we don’t want to admit about ourselves, growing, and moving on.
I guess I don't understand what you think I'm missing. I think the rise of an explicitly fascist party and the propaganda arm to support it is pretty dire.
And historically, the right has been at the forefront of new media. Talk radio has been almost exclusively reactionary since its inception, and that provided a model for new media as well. We've had nearly a century of radical right-wing radio content to hone the message and tactics. Father Caughlin was doing his radio show in 1933, wherein he took his "America First" message to the nation.
There have been more leftist new-media shows than previously, but they are still playing catch-up with the well-funded reactionaries.
The right-wing rage machine has recently been fueled by a number of things, but mainly loss in prestige due to acceptance of LGBTQ+ people & the US hiring a black president. They got a candidate in Donald Trump who swore to be their retribution, and they rallied around him because he hates all the same people, but (perhaps most importantly) also spoke to their loss in a way that other Republicans and Democrats would not.
I don't think you're missing anything.
it's a lot to think about
Thanks. I feel a lot less alone in my... despair.
Tbh I don't really care much about trans people, in the same way I don't give a fuck about the person living 3 streets away that I don't know. I don't understand why people give a shit what someone else wants to be called, or wether they want a dick, vagina, tits or a funky mix. It doesn't negatively affect anyone's life in any way, so I see no reason to negatively affect theirs.
Religious nutjobs and authoritarian cunts are the people negatively affecting other people's lives. And so their lives needs to be equally negatively affected for true balance in the world.
I guess like a kind of karma, only I don't believe any force of nature will take care of it, so people must do it instead.
I'm 46. I've lived in a lot of places, and I have met a lot of people-- people of all shapes, sizes, flavors, etc.
Of all of the people who hold some sort of bigotry (especially the actual bigoted assholes) I ever met, not a single one of them arrived at that opinion by themselves. Most everyone holds some sort of biases and bigotries, even those who actively try not to. It's human failing... we all have them. But there's a difference between a minor, subconscious bias and "I don't want X people in my church." One of those can, very easily, be addressed with education, social exposure, etc. Generationally, one of those things was going away because it was being addressed. The second issue, the outright bigotry, on the other hand, I believe is a much more complicated issue requiring a more complicated solution. It appears, outright, to be much more simple, but that's just what it look like. u under the surface, I suspect that there is much more that contributes to this attitude... and that understanding that is critical to combating it.
Their worldview:
There only exists good and evil
They are on the side of good
LGBTQ, abortions, homeless, immigrants, atheists, non-Christians, and anyone not on their side are on the side of evil
Anything that is not on our side is disgusting, and there's nothing in the world worse that being disgusting.
They're trained from birth on to accept this, they fight the schools to not break this worldview.
Yet:
We have pedos in power, Billionaires draining the blue and white collar working classes dry. They don't see that as disgusting. They're powerful and on their side.
When they're trained from birth that people X are the problem and it's socially reinforced by their church and circle of friends and yet those people that are 'the problem' aren't being punished, it becomes their goal, their duty, to be the change they want to see in the world. We know how to program humans. Extremists have been doing it for thousands of years. They are programed to be this way and it's not so easy to stop it from happening. They don't change their worldview one bit, until it affects them directly, and even then, many would cut off their own family rather than accept that they've been programmed.
They are an extremely small amount of people, so it's very easy to target them for hate messaging.
Hate is the opiate of the masses. Many say it's religion, but I'd say religion is merely the syringe of choice.
sorry, in my deleted comment, I misunderstood what you said.
as for trans people being easy to target because there are so few of them: although that very true, I think that's just a matter of convenience at the moment. The root issue that some people take issue with is the "otherness" of being trans. LGBTQ people have, over the last 25+ years, come a very long towards mainstream acceptance, but there have been some very notable backlashes/regressions in that regard as well. I'm trying to figure out a newer, more contemporaneous way to address and combat that.
I had it explained to me once by a really really good friend, so I'll try to pass it on as best I can. The way I had it explained to me was:
Imagine the thing you will leave behind that will last the longest.
Is it a photo?
No. Photographs fade and decay.
Is it a scientific discovery?
Probably not
Is it an achievement?
Not really unless you're up there like Neil Armstrong.
Is it the memory others have of you?
No because eventually they'll pass on too.
After a few generations, all reference and remembrance of you will have faded into the background but for one thing: your tomb stone. Not much of anything, but it'll stand the test of time better than anything else really. I mean the Egyptians built the pyramids, and they're the oldest thing we have. What are they made of? Stone.
Now, imagine that your tomb stone had the wrong gender marker and someone else's name. It's a pretty crappy thing isn't it?
Now, imagine you could, if just for a moment, come back to fix it and set it right. Not much of anything, but it'll set right the mark that you [whatever your name is] were here as male/female/whatever.
That's basically a gender transition, but while you're alive.
Maybe they'll dead name you on your marker anyway. Maybe they'll have the wrong gender marker on that stone anyway too. It's not like you'll notice. But at least you'll have tried, and maybe that'll have to do. After all, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and transitioning while you're alive is the best shot you can take to get that tombstone set right. Also, maybe have a shot at a happier life along the way.
And, that's pretty much how it was explained to me. Kinda sad, but it really made it clear and understandable to me. Hope it helps you like it did me.
Your friend needs to write books. Poetry, fanfiction, something.
I'll be sure to pass that along.
I appreciate your candor and perspective.
It's a lot to think about. ;)
Glad it helps.
They have a fixed mindset, while you described a growth mindset. They’re afraid of anyone different from them because it disrupts their hierarchy and their belief system. They’re afraid to question their beliefs too.