loveoverhate

[loveoverhate]

Check your conspiracy theory. Does it sound anything like this?

There is an ancient global conspiracy plotting to create a one world government.

The one world government will be headed by a single leader.

The conspiracy intends to make everyone follow a religion it created.

The conspiracy is trying to destroy all true religion/spirituality.

The conspiracy deliberately stirs up conflict and starts wars.

The conspiracy deliberately does whatever it can to confuse, exhaust, and demoralize the people.

The conspiracy creates and/or manipulates art and entertainment to control and brainwash the masses.

Liberal politics (EG, religious tolerance, equality) are part of the conspiracy.

Communism and collectivism are part of the conspiracy.

The conspiracy manipulates the economy to our detriment.

The conspiracy wants to do away with the gold standard.

The conspiracy wants to do away with the free market.

The conspiracy intends to tax the rich, which is bad because taxes are just legal theft.

Teaching people about the mistakes and atrocities committed by governments is part of the conspiracy.

The conspiracy creates new religions and spiritual movements to further their agendas.

All secret societies (EG, Freemasonry) are part of the conspiracy.

Presidents are manipulated puppets of the conspiracy.

The conspiracy manipulates anyone with a high political position.

The conspiracy grooms world leaders.

Agents of the conspiracy are planted everywhere, in all levels of society.

The conspiracy kills anyone who might expose their plans in ways that no one would suspect are actually murder.

The conspiracy follows/uses the Kabbalah.

Literally all of these were claimed in The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, an antisemitic hoax created by the Okhrana. It was used by Nazi Germany to justify the Holocaust, and today it still serves as the blueprint for most conspiracy theories - even if modern conspiracy theorists try to hide it, downplay it, or rationalize it with another, equally absurd conspiracy theory.

[loveoverhate]

Right, I understand that you keep track of reactionary/conspiracy communities on the internet. My question is why do you care so much about what the nazis are saying if you aren’t one of them?? It’s just a tiny bit weird especially since even being aware of what terf rhetoric is can often be enough to get indoctrinated by it (I’ve seen this happen irl with my family and friends) no hate to you whatsoever, I just don’t understand why you would open yourself up to keeping tabs on a group of people who are hell-bent on genociding millions of trans folks. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

If someone is trying to kill me, I think it's good practice to keep an eye on what they're up to.

[loveoverhate]

It is deeply, deeply beneficial to TERFs if the only characteristic of TERF ideology you will recognize as wrong, harmful, or problematic is “they hate trans women”.

TERF ideology is an expansive network of extremely toxic ideas, and the more of them we accept and normalize, the easier it becomes for them to fly under the radar and recruit new TERFs. The closer they get to turning the tide against all trans people, trans women included.

Case in point: In 2014-2015, I fell headlong into radical feminism. I did not know it was called radical feminism at the time, but I also didn’t know what was wrong with radical feminism in the first place. I didn’t see a problem with it.

I was a year deep into this shit when people I had been following, listening to, and looking up to finally said they didn’t think trans women were women. It was only then that I unfollowed those people, specifically; but I continued to follow other TERFs-who-didn’t-say-they-were-TERFs. I continued ingesting and spreading their ideas- for years after.

If TERFs “only target trans women” and “only want trans women gone”, if that’s the one and only problem with their ideology and if that’s the only way we’ll define them, we will inevitably miss a vast majority of the quiet beliefs that support their much louder hatred of trans women.

As another example: the trans community stood relatively united when TERFs and conservatives targeted our right to use the correct restroom, citing the “dangers” of trans women sharing space with cis women. But when they began targeting Lost Little Girls and Confused Lesbians and trotting detransitioners out to raise a panic about trans men, virtually the only people speaking up about it were other transmascs. Now we see a rash of anti-trans healthcare bills being passed in the US, and they’re hurting every single one of us.

When you refuse to call a TERF a TERF just because they didn’t specifically say they hate trans women, when you refuse to think critically about a TERF belief just because it’s not directly related to trans women, you are actively helping TERFs spread their influence and build credibility.

[loveoverhate]

reminder that terf rhetoric at its core is just straight up fascism. i'm not even kidding or exaggerating.

dehumanising, caricaturing us as perverts and groomers, spreading conspiracy theories about a "social contagion", reducing our identities to "dangerous ideology that will lead to the downfall of society", calling us inherently unnatural and predatory, spreading fear, all of these were tactics that led to thousands of queer people being murdered by the nazis.

the rights the lgbt community fought so hard for are fragile. they can be taken away in an instance. if we let fascism happen right under our noses, all progress people have risked their lives for can be undone. this goes for all marginalised communities. never underestimate fascists. trans people are just step one. they are the current wedge issue used to radicalise people. dont fuckin fall for it.

at best terfs alienate trans people out of sheer misinformation, at worst they actively cause physical harm by fighting for restricted healthcare, ridiculing, harassing and doxxing out of hatred and disgust. you can dress the movement up as progressive as you want but if the literal alt right is fighting by your side for the same cause then you seriously need to revaluate your values. your views are directly responsible for anti trans violence.

i do not think all "gender critical" people have malicious intentions. trans people have been instrumentalised by the right for their propaganda by fearmongering, but its never too late to unlearn these biases. this is why i believe we should treat the terf pipeline like any other harmful pipeline such as the alt right or incel pipeline. its a gradual development which can be countered at each step. still, we should treat these people with compassion, as long as it is returned to us.

not all people with bigoted ideals are inherently bad people. sometimes they are simply misguided and just need to be educated about certain topics. information and respectful conversations are key here. in this case, they should be reminded that trans people are not the monsters they get potrayed as in the media. we are human beings, capable and worthy of so much love, full of passion and beautiful inside and out.

[loveoverhate]

Not that anyone should need to feel in danger to empathize with another human being, but this serves as one of many reminders that anti trans rhetoric and laws ultimately harm more than just trans people

How is beating up cisgender women protecting cisgender women again?

Transphobia is so bad, it's hurting cis people "just in case they're trans." It's sick. They're sick in the head.

[loveoverhate]

Hello, welcome to my blog. I am a trans woman, for safety purposes I will not give out my name but if a name is required you can call me Vi.

The purpose of this blog is to provide information to people who are trying to leave hateful groups, or are questioning a hateful ideology. Most of the hateful rhetoric I see on this website is terf or "gender critical" rhetoric so I will be primarily focused on those talking points however I am always willing to answer questions to the best of my ability on other topics. I am not an expert, so there are going to be many things I do not know about. If I get something wrong I will correct myself to the best of my ability. I may not be very active on this blog as to avoid getting into arguments with people, so please excuse inactivity. I may occasionally interact with other people's posts.

With that out of the way, let's move on to some common questions/concerns that I've noticed around Tumblr, this list may grow with time.

• I've had negative interactions with trans people before.

Maybe a trans person was rude to you at a coffee shop, maybe a trans person harassed you, maybe you are detrans and there are trans people who pushed you into an identity that was not your own. Whatever the reason, I am sorry that happened to you. Not every trans person is going to be a perfect person, not every trans person is going to be a good person, this is true for other groups of people as well. If a black person makes you angry, are you going to assume that all black people must be terrible? If someone in a wheelchair catcalls you, do you assume every disabled person is a pervert? If you grew up around a homosexual person who abused you, do you view every gay person as abusive? If your answer to any of those questions is "yes", I suggest you take some time to examine your own internal biases.

• Aren't trans people just perpetuating gender stereotypes, therefore perpetuating patriarchy?

For this statement to be true one would have to ignore the existence of trans women who present masculine because they like presenting that way, trans men who present feminine because they enjoy it, and people of various genders who express themselves in ways that are not traditionally masculine and feminine, and thinking like that is simply not realistic. Often trans/queer spaces are the most accepting of GNC (gender non-conforming) people. Just as with cis women and men, trans women and men can often present in a way that you deem "traditional" because that's how they feel most comfortable, because they are reclaiming the presentation, or because they just like whatever they are wearing, also not every trans person (or cis person for that matter) is going to present themselves the same way every day. All of this also applies to interests as well.

• My religion says ___

Look, I really don't think I'm going to convince you your religious views are wrong, all I can say is to think critically about who is giving you that information, and what ulterior motives they may have in doing so. Who is telling you these things? A man or a god? Who wrote the scripture on paper? Could that scripture have been changed by bad actors in the countless years since it's creation?

•Trans people are pedophiles/groomers/trying to trans your kids

In a very similar way to the religious arguments I don't think there's anything I could say or any evidence I could give you that would convince you this isn't true if you truly believe it, however I can say that this is just a recycled anti-gay talking point that most of us have heard before. The amount of trans people who are sex offenders is very small, however that is likely irrelevant to people who believe the claim that trans people are pedophiles as they tend to believe trans people simply not hiding themselves away is a sexual offense, quite honestly it's just old fashioned objectification. Trans people are also not trying to make your children trans, however a wave of laws in various US states are attempting to make trans children cisgender.

• If trans people have rights, that doesn't take away your rights

I've not heard many people claim otherwise, but a lot of people seem to think that trans people having rights means they will have less rights, as though rights are a commodity. To other marginalized groups all I can say is this: trans people are willing to fight along side you for rights, and often have throughout history.

• I've done bad things/ said bad things/ been generally hateful, can I change/ do I deserve redemption?

Now this may be a controversial opinion, but I don't believe in bad and good people, just good and bad actions. I think you can change if you are willing to stop doing bad/hateful things. This does not mean that the people you hurt should forgive or trust you, they have every right not to and ultimately you should change because you want to do good in the world, not because you expect forgiveness. I have talked mostly about transphobia, but this applies widely to other areas. It is never too late to start doing good, but you must also be willing to accept consequences for things you may have done.

•I am [insert sexual orientation] and I don't include trans people in that, am I transphobic?

This is actually a pretty complex question. Is it transphobic to have a genital preference? Not on it's own no, but if you are attracted exclusively to men and exclusively to penises AND you include trans women in that you are just saying you view trans women as men, and that is pretty transphobic. Are you not attracted to trans people in general regardless of a genitals? That's kinda transphobic. Are you attracted to women and solely attracted to vaginas and also constantly talk about how you aren't attracted to trans people? Yeah that's pretty transphobic. Are you assuming you know what genitals someone has based on their status as trans or intersex? Transphobic. Regardless, if you are the kind of person that obsesses over this question it's likely trans people in general are not attracted to you.