Hi everyone, welcome again to the special LGBT season of the TaraElla Report. This is where we talk about the diversity of views around the issues, and hope to come together to resolve our differences. Subscribe if you are interested. This show is brought to you by my new book, Postmodernism, Skeptics & Transmedicalists, which is partially about how trans people got entangled in the latest culture wars and got misunderstood by the world. Link is in the description.
In fact, I think I have been talking about the issues, and possible solutions to accomodate the concerns of all sides, for nearly two years now. We've talked about everything ranging from the clinical science of gender dysphoria, to the ways the needs of trans people can be accomodated while considering the concerns of other parties, to the way a rational discussion can be had on these issues. Yet I think most people out there aren't truly listening. Of all the trans related videos I've made, the ones that got the most views so far are one about a particularly hated ContraPoints character, and one about a particularly controversial Canadian personality who I shall not name here. People are more interested in conflict than rational discussion, it seems. This is reflected in the state of online trans-related discussion, where one side simply screams empty slogans like 'trans rights' or 'trans women are women', and the other side simply screams some stuff about biology deniers, SJW snowflakes, and probably some Ben Shapiro quotes in return. Meanwhile, no intellectual dialogue is ever made, and people retreat to their respective echo chambers after the screaming. It seems that people just want to be angry for the sake of being angry all the time. Honestly, I've had enough!
The cultural and political environment we're operating in right now is really difficult. Really, really frustrating. And I blame it on all the anger and negativity, coming from both sides of politics. A subset of the left is ideologically wedded to anger, because it is driven by conflict theory. A subset of the right practically thrives on getting outraged, because they don't have a more meaningful politics. It's the old SJW vs anti-SJW thing, but now dumbed down to an even more ridiculous level. Normally, I would just say that these people deserve each other, and they should leave the rest of us alone. However, for some reason, both sides seem to have a massive obsession about trans people, while not even trying to understand the issues at all. I personally think any political movement that keeps talking about trans people has essentially lost the plot, since we make up only 0.2% of the population, but leaving this aside, the quality of the discussion is also very bad. At this point, it's just 'politics as identity', the even more problematic cousin of OG identity politics.
I guess the only way out of this is to destroy the anger and negativity, by making it look bad, and by making the opposite look good. Looking back, it seems that people were trying to do this, but they picked the wrong targets. Firstly, it was the SJWs who were angry and negative, so they went anti-SJW. Then, the anti-SJWs became even more angry and negative, so they went anti-anti-SJW. But that's really missing the point. The problem isn't even in what people believe, it's that they are angry and negative. Anger and negativity is the real enemy. It's what I will be focusing on going forward.
