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“And i would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling…activists!”
Mainstream media are very keen to parcel the world up into “concerned people” (good) and activists (very bad). This is a not too subtle attempt to divide and dismiss genuine objections to systemic oppressions. Don’t fall for it!
Are you now or have you ever been…an activist? Have you been standing up for your rights or the rights of your community? Well, stop it at once! You are a bad person. At least, that’s what the massed ranks of Keir Starmer, Donald Trump and the Daily Mail (and Times and Telegraph) reckon.
Regarding trans people, the trope is now reflex for some journalists. As reflex — or perhaps reflux — as vomiting on the pavement after a particularly hard working lunch. Or selling your principles for a by-line in one of the racier broadsheets.
Those darn activists!
Just last week, for instance, Gillian Phillip kicked off in the Mail about the “violent, hate-filled language that has become chillingly familiar to anyone who has had the temerity to question the prevailing orthodoxy of the transgender activist brigade”. Meanwhile, over in the Times, James Kirkup contributed a piece that…
