[Hold – Stub for longer piece.]
I signed-off from the GC vs TRA “debate” a couple of years ago, after 7 or 8 years of getting in quite deep, because I though the right side of history was winning. I had stoppped following many popular GC commentators to make space for attention to other issues – by sticking with a reduced few, I’d always see retweets and replies from the others if new stories emerged. GCvTRA was always an example of a wider woke/anti-woke polarisation around individual identity and class definitions – #GoodFences for me. However in that time several of those were banned from Twitter and re-instated a la Musk and several other sceptic commentators I interact with began taking an interest in the “Trans debate” (at last). So I need to dust off an update.
START
This Twitter exchange (and GC’s coming to Helen’s defence) is as good as any to lay out my position:
Missing good faith here. While this is a campaign between “GC’s” and “TRA’s” (of which you identify as one) language is used in ways that suit the current argument. No-one, least of all Helen, is denying the existence and rights of such people as people. It’s the TW as Women …
— Ian Glendinning (@psybertron) January 12, 2023
And quite independently James needs to be part of this too:
People sometimes ask me why I’m so ‘anti-woke’. Well, I’m not anti woke individuals, per say. It often starts with honest & sincere intentions. BUT, when they mass together & dictate policies anywhere, it ALWAYS escalates to utter insanity. Example… https://t.co/jmp5BA5Zrf
— James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) January 12, 2023
… [More later]