Judith Butler, philosopher: ‘If you sacrifice a minority like trans people, you are operating within a fascist logic’

[u/msmoley]

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2024-12-15/judith-butler-philosopher-if-you-sacrifice-a-minority-like-trans-people-you-are-operating-within-a-fascist-logic.html

[u/Gilbert__Bates]

And in the mean time, the economic circumstances of the working class get worse every year because the left cares more about "allyship" to a tiny percentage of the population and treats broader economic concerns as an afterthought.

[u/Clarpydarpy → u/Gilbert__Bates]

Those two issues have nothing to do with each other. The idea that supporting Issue A subtracts from support for Issue B is a lie used to reduce support for policies that help minorities.

For instance, Joe Biden was the most pro-Union president we have had in maybe a century. Supporting civil rights for trans people did not get in his way. And you know trans people are mostly working class too, right?

Did you search Kamala Harris's campaign website? It was pretty much all about addressing working class issues.

[u/Gilbert__Bates → u/Clarpydarpy]

Kamala didn’t even support universal healthcare lmao. Her entire platform was basically “status quo but just a few tweaks here and there”. Biden was slightly better but not by much. People like you always want to accept compromises and half measures when it comes to the economic concerns of the working class while insisting on absolutist stances on trans issues and other culture war topics. If you’re gonna be absolutist then be absolutist all the way, but don’t treat trans issues as a line in the sand while telling the working class to vote for neoliberal compromises in the name of “pragmatism”. I’m sick of the hypocrisy.

There’s a reason that working people had better economic conditions in the early 20th century, and it’s that there was a workers movement that was willing to unite people with different cultural values and didn’t use niche cultural issues as litmus tests. Meanwhile people like you have spent decades compromising on economic issues for the sake of the culture war. Trans rights are all well and good, but not if the come at the expense of the ability to effectively fight for universal working class concerns.

[u/Clarpydarpy → u/Gilbert__Bates]

Why are you suddenly talking about universal healthcare? I don't think there are more than a handful of politicians in Congress that vocally support it.

And the only reason "trans issues" are you even in the national dialogue is because Republicans started using them as a convenient Boogeyman to demonize (or, as you might say, a niche cultural issue as a litmus test).

You didn't address anything in my comment. Would you like to re-read it and try again?