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Well, that was weird. Pretty much all our plans fell through due to dire weather; I was OK with that, the snow was very pretty and we were both knackered. Then like an idiot I got myself dragged into an argument with the local virtue signaller. I have been growing less patient with this lady since she started taking selfies with crutches; she's always been a bit selfie-addicted, reaching a pinnacle of melodramatic narcissism when she took a selfie of herself grimacing on the couch, entitling her work 'This is what chronic pain looks like.' She is ill. I know quite a few people who are very ill, far more ill than she is, often in chronic pain. She's the only one turning it into an online gallery.
The argument? TERF wars. She has a problem with TERFS, in fact pretty much everyone does, one way or another. If they see trans individuals as men posing as women, well, that needs to be talked about. But the lady wasn't up for reason, she was up for performing in front of wounded trans individuals who regard the phrases 'biological woman' and 'nuanced argument' as hate speech and dog whistle transphobia. The weird thing was not the disagreement, because people often disagree. It's not even the vehemence cos people get angry, fair enough. It is the readiness to proscribe language that describes an argument one doesn't like as 'hate speech.'
I grew up with the idea of hate speech as being speech that's based in slighting another person, a word like the N word for black people, something used to denote loathing and perceived inferiority. Suddenly what makes the words palatable is whether or not one agrees with them. That would be worrying enough, but a definition of 'nuanced argument' as hate speech because it implies a non-binary situation is ridiculous. The only person offended by the phrase is the person who cannot bear the thought of their case being anything other than absolute; We should not only wish to agree, we should be unable to disagree. Not having that.
The incident is over, and I'll not be dealing with her again. I don't even think this bizarre readiness to limit vocabulary can become anything more than the entitlement issues of a few nutters; the worst that will happen is that they'll meet their opposites in battle and fall on their phones, leaving an FB lineage of kicking each other in the head, entitled 'This is what stupidity looks like.'
The argument? TERF wars. She has a problem with TERFS, in fact pretty much everyone does, one way or another. If they see trans individuals as men posing as women, well, that needs to be talked about. But the lady wasn't up for reason, she was up for performing in front of wounded trans individuals who regard the phrases 'biological woman' and 'nuanced argument' as hate speech and dog whistle transphobia. The weird thing was not the disagreement, because people often disagree. It's not even the vehemence cos people get angry, fair enough. It is the readiness to proscribe language that describes an argument one doesn't like as 'hate speech.'
I grew up with the idea of hate speech as being speech that's based in slighting another person, a word like the N word for black people, something used to denote loathing and perceived inferiority. Suddenly what makes the words palatable is whether or not one agrees with them. That would be worrying enough, but a definition of 'nuanced argument' as hate speech because it implies a non-binary situation is ridiculous. The only person offended by the phrase is the person who cannot bear the thought of their case being anything other than absolute; We should not only wish to agree, we should be unable to disagree. Not having that.
The incident is over, and I'll not be dealing with her again. I don't even think this bizarre readiness to limit vocabulary can become anything more than the entitlement issues of a few nutters; the worst that will happen is that they'll meet their opposites in battle and fall on their phones, leaving an FB lineage of kicking each other in the head, entitled 'This is what stupidity looks like.'
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