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I think there’s some subset of people who at least unconsciously want these bizarre nightmare 1984 and literally Hitler and handmaid fantasies to be real. I say that because most of the people doing this seem to have similar profiles: almost invariably white, upper middle class, professional, college educated, and highly likely to be female as well. Which if you’re keeping track, is the one demographic, that even if the absolute worst nightmare scenario happens is going to be affected the least. It just doesn’t make sense that the people worried about an illegals roundup are the richest, whitest, best educated people in the country and who live in a bright blue state to boot.
Further, the “resistance” thus far, is the opposite of serious. The protesters in Hong Kong were seriously trying to protest the Chinese government crackdown. They weren’t doing things to make themselves easily identifiable, they weren’t posting about it on social media, they weren’t making videos of themselves #protesting. They did things like wear masks, carry cash and leave phones at home so as not to be tracked. They did things like black bloc does. Our #resistance is doing things like shaving their heads and wearing cute little blue bracelets they bought for $25 on Etsy. These actions as well as the constant posts, videos, selfies, etc., are absolutely not the actions of a people actually afraid that the government is going to go after them. I say that because if you’re afraid of being singled out, you’re probably going to try to blend in, and while they might protest, they’re not going to do so in ways they know can identify them.
This would be pretty parallel to the (extremely) male fantasy of the zombie apocalypse, Red Dawn, preppers, etc. Disproportionately fantasies held by men who are wealthy and/or secure.
The fantasy in both cases being the suspension of ordinary life and moral responsibilities. I have friends who are panicking about Trump and "how can I bring a child into a world like this?" This neatly solves all the doubts or fears one might have about having or not having children. Similarly, "I have to kill everyone else before they kill me" solves the problem of one's inability to get along with others, and the sudden disappearance of existing hierarchies solves the problem of why one finds oneself at the bottom of them.
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A partial explanation that is boring and, therefore, higher in explanatory value;
Some of these PMC white women simply enjoying politicizing their sexual fetishes. Remember when Fifty Shades of Grey was crowned the king of "Mommy Porn?" The oft cited statistic (maybe internet levels of quality, however) is that 80% of women have entertained some sort of submissive sexual fantasy. If you get to transform this into a publicly acceptable display of political "outrage" it's like getting to partially entertain your fantasy every day and get positive feedback for it.
I know this is flows to/from the deeper waters of The Last Psychiatrist, but I am earnest in my belief that it explains some of the hyperbolic emotional broadcasting. I'll emphasize, however, that it's partial at best. Not everything derives from our naughty thoughts and childhood experience (fuck you, Freud).
I’m not sure it’s naughty thoughts so much as a deep need for a cause to fight for. For most people the dominant issue is boredom in some sense. There’s no greater thing in most people’s lives than going to work and coming home. It’s a bit empty and quite boring. At the same time our culture has been heavily promoting the idea of heroes saving the world. We’re part of the culture of the spectacle and our dominant way of interacting with the outside world is screens. We’re seeing a movie and want to be the heroes of the movie.
I think there is a rather large dose of narcissism involved here. They’re hoping for disaster so they can be a hero or heroine. I just don’t under the need to put yourself in the center of historic events. I’m hoping for a nice quiet, boring life. I can’t imagine that it’s going to even be helpful to anyone caught in the crosshairs to have the fight taken up by people doing it out of boredom.
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Especially, it's trans people, or people with lots of trans relatives/friends, who are severely decompensating online and losing contact with reality (i.e., acting as if Trump's first act upon being inaugurated will be to round up all trans people and herd them into the gas chambers).
Does Trump even care about trans people as long as they (or more likely their allies) don't make a huge amount of noise?
During his 2016 campaign he explicitly stated that Caitlyn Jenner can use any bathroom in the Trump Tower that she pleases.
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No, but he depends on people who do and he’s smart enough to realize that.
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Trans people I’d kinda get, there’s a plausible explanation n the fact that the far right wants to delay transition until adulthood, as well as remove trans people from opposite sex changing areas, restrooms and women’s sports. That’s at least a cause. The women crying in their cars are none of that. Even if abortion were illegal, most women making cry TikTok’s could afford to fly to Toronto to get an abortion as needed.
Isn't it ironic how Democrats are constantly singing the praises of the European (specifically Scandinavian) ways of doing things? But when progressive European countries across the board are hitting pause on youth gender transition, Democrats stick their fingers in the ear and say that only the far-right wants to do that?
In my experience, that's often because they don't actually know that much about Europe, they just have a vague impression of it being more "enlightened" and left-wing than us. I've actually had fun bursting their bubbles on occasion by introducing them to things like European abortion laws, or how many still have established churches (or only just separated their "national church" from the government in the past couple of decades), or corporate tax rates, or how their unions differ from ours, or any number of cases where Europe differs from their idealized picture.
(The fallback position as to Europe's superiority over America usually ends up being socialized medicine, and fewer cars and guns — and don't bring up San Marino or Switzerland.)
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No, the far right wants to ban transgenderism in adults. Centrists want to go delay transition to adulthood and remove trannies from women’s sports.
Not just adults, kids too. I'd also like to ban cancer in adults, or treat transgenderism as we do cancer.
Um. I think I might be misunderstanding your last clause there.
We treat cancer by cutting the diseased organ out, or killing it with radiation/toxins. This certainly describes the gender-transition model of dealing with gender dysphoria (with their conception of the diseased organ being the unwanted reproductive organs), but you appear to hold the other conception of the diseased organ (i.e. the brain), which would seem to suggest lobotomies or neurotoxins.
As noted, this seems kind of absurd, so if I'm misconstruing something please tell me what it is. I'd prefer not to bark up the wrong tree and unnecessarily accuse anyone of moral turpitude.
I would think that applying the gender-transition model to cancer would be for cancer patients to identify as a Cancer-person and advocating for Cancer-person pride.
In my mind applying the cancer model to gender dysphoria would be targeted treatment to realign the misperception of their gender with their anatomy. Restoring their natural anatomy to health.
Well, okay then. Sorry for the confusion.
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I don't think that's specific to the far right.
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These can both be explained by the same thing: the vocal anti-Trump "resistance" folks are part of a social group where people who fight oppressors on behalf of the little guy have a ton of status. Everyone loves a David vs Goliath story, but for this subculture that tendency is way stronger than it is for other groups. That means that these people are more likely to be overzealous in identifying tyranny (because they subconsciously want the chance to fight for freedom like the stories they were raised on), and more likely to be very conspicuous in their efforts (so that they can get the approval of their peers). If they were fighting an actual tyrant they would need to be more circumspect (as you point out), but anyone who has grown up in America is so far removed from actual tyranny that they don't even recognize how good they have it.
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