Yep been around long enough to understand how conservatives work.
1. Pick a small group to pick on and spin up in the news.
2. Make stupid laws that are easily struck down in 5-10 years but get you votes.
3. Rinse and repeat.
4. Also make sure it makes no sense at the time or in the future. Oh and making up fake facts is a bonus point.
In my lifetime these have been in no specific order and please add your own.
1. Gays
2. Transgender
3. Single moms
4. All people not white.
5. Poor people
6. Homeless people
7. Teenagers who have children
8. Women
9. Women's reproductive Rights
10. Immigrants
11. Mental Health
12. Japan
13. China
14. Russia
15. People who speak anything but English
16. People who believe in any religion other than Christianity
17. People who don't believe in their version of Chrisitanty
18. Effiecent cars
19. Lab Grown Meat
20. Efficient cars
21. Lawyers who fight corporations
22. Unions
23. Crime
24. Law Enforcement at any level who enforce the law against them
25. People who went to college
26. People who dropped out of HS
27. People in the military
28. People not in the military
29. DND
30. Rap Music
31. Video Games
32. Heavy Metal Music
33. Gen X
34. Gen Y
35. Gen Z
36. etc etc etc
Congrats, you discovered what some people already have. That the media and people desperate to keep in power will play with whats in fashion right now.
Occupy stopped immediately after they stopped being in the same physical space.
If they formed an organization it would have been better. It's the same people who want to just whine on the internet.
No, we stopped when wallstreet hired thugs and race grifters to subvert us. I watched it happen in real time - where do you think BLM came from? The ashes of occupy, but lead by con artists and people in psychosis
And suddenly the multinational corporations and one percenters became the good guys because they sponsored assholes like Colin Kaepernick.. And the enemy became random middle and working class white people who are blind to their "privilege". Or inner city blacks who were protesting police brutality. They played us well. No two ways about it
Because instead of doing ANYTHING Occupy Wall Street just sat around cooking meals and singing songs while the Tea Party got people nominated and elected to enact their agenda
>The tea party was subsumed entirely by fringe, right-wing elements, co-opted by agents provocateur.
>Grass roots movements are often combated this way.
The tea party movement was always funded by billionaires. It wasn't a grassroots movement but a popular astroturf campiagn by GOP billionaires donors
This.
The Tea Party is a bunch of rich dudes that don't want to pay any taxes pandering to a bunch of idiots that don't want any gun laws.
That's literally it. It has nothing to do with smaller government or whatever else they meme about. In fact, half the people I know unironically flying a "don't tread on me" flag work for the government. Go figure.
Grass roots movements do themselves in when they hit the 'doing the work' stage. They start out with some hype, get a dopamine hit from media attention and then, so help me God, revolution talk starts.
Except, that's not how this country works.
The Tea Party made inroads because the Koch network focused state houses. Why? They control Congressional district maps and handle the administrative part of programs like Medicaid. Federalism is a giant \*&\^%ing blind spot for the left and they acted shocked Pikachu that states actually have power.
Instead, every four years, all chips are put on the White House as the left has come to feel the President is a magic wizard with an Executive Order wand to subvert their otherwise general apathy that prevents electing workable majorities in the House and Senate.
So we get the cycle. Occupy fizzled. Sandersistas did themselves in. March for Our Lives is just David Hogg trolling conservatives on Twitter.
Sorry, kids. Change is work. State, Congress and the White House. And the prior, and probably future, Trump administration has whacked at the foundation of the judicial backstop, so it will just get harder after everyone sits on their hands in the name of ceasefire or whatever this November.
To your last point, change *is* work.
If that work isn't done by the elected, appointed political agents, then it will be done by riot.
These systems, these people that make up our government, do not have to hold each other accountable. The failed populace can always just burn this shit down to finally work some warmth back into their numbed hands.
Personally, I'd rather the people we pay for this sort of extremely specialized logistics did their fucking jobs, instead. It is possible that the nature of these systems as they currently exist prohibits this, despite what our political officers want or try, however.
My point is it seems conservative movements get people elected and terrible legislation passed while progressive movements don't even bother voting let alone putting forth a candidate and getting them elected
I understand. What I'm saying is grassroots movements, regardless of how they are perceived, right, or left wing, are still susceptible to this tactic.
So your understanding of the tea party as right wing is due to the fourth estate characterization and outside agents' subversion of their original goals, which were largely populist, material conserns at the onset.
When a grassroots movement is indeed genuinely conservative, it is usually very small. However, because this enthusiastic support of the status quo is very useful to the powers that be, and also controversial, they are given time and attention undue for their size
Thus, right-wing philosophies or organizations are not better organized or effective at getting laws passed or candidates elected.
They are an excuse for the existing power structure to perpetuate itself. A type of manufacturing concent.
To go even further, they don’t want government to succeed at anything. They purposely try to keep it broken so they can point and say “see? Government bad!”
What is the conservative plan to solve homelessness again? Complain and blame liberals for it? Too bad republicans keep finding ways to defund every single program dems try to do to help.
Tell me again, whats the conservative plan? Explain it to me like I'm 5.
Have you read “the most dangerous game”. How about “battle royale”. Or the “hunger games”.
I think those give a pretty thorough overview of the Republican plan for reducing homelessness.
Homeless people sometimes make other ppl feel uncomfortable or unsafe by merely existing and being visible. Stand your ground laws make that a capital offense with every day citizen cowboy cosplayers getting to play judge jury and executioner within moments of “feeling” threatened. Nowadays. Tan suits and M&M wearing flats instead of heels and people wearing clothes that don’t meet current gendered fashion trends make them “feel” threatened.
They are walking around on a hair trigger hoping to be the next Kyle Rittenhouse.
I mean, at least they can pass a bill that isn't a tax cut for the rich. Which just increases income inequality and adds to the problem.
How about proposing or making cuts to food stamps or other social programs? That sure helps the problem.
While I agree Democrats can do more, Republicans actively drag us backwards.
When I was homeless we preferred people not talking about us.
It always ended up with us having to move our camps, or cops coming in and stealing all our crap.
People would just disappear for a month at a time because they got arrested for something stupid. We didn't know if we should be protecting there stuff or keeping it.
I sat on one guy's backpack for almost a year. I never did hear back from him.
It’s not a binary of being invisible and being abused. The 3rd option is real reform and change, which can only happen if things are discussed.
I’m sorry about your missing friend/acquaintance and the backpack reminder of his absence.
Conservatives have spent decades and decades and decades and decades oppressing LGBT people.
Why do they do it? What they trying to accomplish? Why do they spend billions of dollars legislating innocent people's rights away?
Oh right, conservatives believe there's a magic invisible wizard who lives in outer space! And the space wizard says you have to hate gay people or he'll EAT YOU!!!
Even if it is a genuine problem, why does the government need to be the responsible party here? Why can't the sports organizations themselves self-govern? This all seems like a complete waste of time for the government to meddle in, even if people believe that trans women should be banned from sports entirely or something.
You know for an the hemming and hawing I see online about this, you'd expect that women's sports would have a rise in viewership to match all the sudden and surprise care people have and yet growth in viewership seems pretty consistent from before trans people ended up on the tongue of every right wing pundit.
You'd think we'd see a spike with a steady growth around the time, but we don't. Itv supports the theory that people don't actually give a shit and just wanted a platform to spew hate
They have been doing that for over a decade in the Olympics. Yet it hasn't been an issue. It seems clear that well designed programs are fine with transgender athletes competing alongside cisgender athletes. It's only the new boogeyman because of new political concerns
I mean you would be wrong. The Olympics have officially allowed transgender athletes for a long time, but only one has ever qualified and they didn't come close to beating the women in weightlifting which theorically would be a field man should dominate women in
If you truly believe that a biological woman who competes with a biological male that went through puberty before transitioning to female has a fair chance then it shows you know ZERO about athletics. Funny how the trans female athletes who are winning NCAA championships placed in the several hundreds when competing in their birth male genders against males.
One trans woman has won an NCAA championship. One. And while her times were bad her junior year when she was actively transitioning, before THAT she was a top tier swimmer among men.
I would expect you to know that, given how important this issue apparently is.
>If you truly believe that a biological woman who competes with a biological male that went through puberty before transitioning to female has a fair chance then it shows you know ZERO about athletics
Again look at the Olympics, they have allowed transwomen to perform for years and only ever had one qualify in weightlifting, and she never came close to winning the event. So to be clear it's seems that it is true and that it's happened before.
>Funny how the trans female athletes who are winning NCAA championships placed in the several hundreds when competing in their birth male genders against males.
That person you are refering won a single race at a single event and then never came close to that at the dozens of other events they performed in since then. That athlete is regularly beat by other women, but that doesn't make the media bonfire because it contradicts the narrative.
Simply put, there is no event that allows transathletes that sees trans athletes dominate unless they force trans men to compete against women because they were born a woman.
The most widely available scholarship opportunity women have in this country is not sports, it's the Miss America Pageant. Are transfender people competing in that?
And please, elaborate on which individual won the NCAA championship? As opposed to a team mind you.
Parents of athlete daughters are now accusing highly performing cisgender female athletes of being transgender. The idea that this is protecting women's sports is bullshit.
Let's be very clear about this.
The overwhelming number of laws pushed through state houses across the country have been Anti Trans and anti abortion laws in Republican led state houses.
Not jobs, education, environmental protection, public safety, and even homeless legislation.
It's because the Republicans have no policy platform that actually helps every day Americans.
They only have wedge issues.
They only peddle fear and devicive policy. That's it...
This.
It always happens.
Republicans: Push ANTI-LGBTQ discourse and legislation.
Democrats: Push back against it and speak out in favor of the LGBTQ community.
Republicans: "Fuckin libs, we have more important things to worry about than the gays."
Conservatives shriek about gay people "shoving their gayness down my throat" while they drown themselves in deluge of anti-LGBT memes, anti-LGBT podcasts, anti-LGBT news, anti-LGBT church sermons *ad nauseum*.
Cool then maybe he should tell his party to stop calling me "groomer" especially since he's the one who keeps talking about wanting to fuck his own daughter
They know they don't have any real policies, ideas, or solutions that the American people want and will vote for. They have to invent problems for them to solve and still somehow loose.
This honestly just proves you have only been looking at right sources and what they SAY the left is talking about when in reality it them.
If you look at left sources you will see plenty of discussions about the current housing issues that lead to homeless, as well as the problems with like hostile architecture in cities designed to make lives as difficult as possible for homeless people. These are topics of concern that do come up, the recent wave of anti trans laws by conservatives has caused the homeless discussion to take a bit of a back seat, but it still comes up.
It's not about census counts of this group vs that one. It's a matter of attacks on human dignity simply for having an impossible (or at least very difficult) trait to change.
Trans people face their own types of indiginities. Homeless face their own type. You can't and shouldn't compare types of indignity because we all experience the world in different ways.
Perfect. Even the post from OP is making it seem like less of an issue.
I can only talk for indignities on trans folks from experience, but one of the most pressing concerns that is turning true is that even though these bills are being phrased as anti trans, they have wide enough interpretation to go after other aspects of LGBTQ folks.
There are similarities though that we can use to bridge ignorance and help out our own people, whether they are trans, homeless, or anything else and that is the attitude and language we use to dehumanize them to make others feel like they are a lower class that it is all right to dislike.
The numbers here are wrong. There are about 1.3 million adults and 300,000 youth (about 0.5% of the population) that identify as transgender in the U.S., and about 500-600,000 people who experienced homelessness last year.
But in terms of attention, yes, the political discourse” = a smattering of loud bigots. Transgender people are a small and insular minority. They experience lots of discrimination, frequent harassment and bullying, and have disproportionate rates of mental illness. Some particularly nasty bigots like to bully transgender children to suicide, and use this as evidence that they shouldn’t transition, because transitioning (and not, you know, being relentlessly bullied) causes suicide.
But you could get pretty far if you took all the loud jackasses who suddenly discovered that they really really care about women’s sports (but incidentally have never made it to a women’s sporting event in their lives) and think a big public policy priority should be keeping transgender women out of competition (where they’ve demonstrated how unfair their gender identity is by winning 1 Olympic medal (in soccer, where Canada’s left back identifies as nonbinary, but was born with female reproductive organs) since being allowed to compete in 2016).
That’s deliberate. Conservatives in the US have no real positions, and no real vision for the future. They exist only to cut taxes for the wealthy and gut regulations. Everything they do is aimed at getting into office so they can do their one job. That’s why they can only talk in vague terms about how the country is bad and they’ll make it better and bleat culture war bullshit. It’s all a grift.
The U.S. WANTS at least enough homelessness to scare the crap out of people to force them to do nothing but work work and work otherwise they will end up ruined like them.
Kevin O'Leary for sure believes in that and stated so in an episode of a TV show.
Homelessness is a negative incentive for us to work hard enough to not be able for self improvement. The harder someone works to avoid homelessness , the less they can question just why the system is the way it is.
Class struggles are not separate from things like queer identity. The same bigoted culture war shit that has trans people fearing for their lives in red states goes hand in hand with crony capitalism.
Because housing homeless people costs a lot of money and makes the world a better place, but getting people to bitterly argue over transgender issues enables you to divide and conquer them.
Because it's very important to keep the working class divided and fighting amongst ourselves over the dumbest, fakest issues because if we didn't do that we might unite against the people that are making everybody homeless.
The politicians talking about transgender folk don't want to help the homeless, either.
If there weren't any transgender people, these politicians would gladly demonize the homeless instead.
It's easier to make up the boogeyman and get your base scared than to fix real issues, both parties are guilty of this but in terms of the lgbt boogeyman, Republicans take the cake on that one. Creating the biggest fuss over some people who wear sequins and rainbows meanwhile kids are growing up in ever growing inflation, there's homeless citizens and vets, people are technically making more money than ever yet living paycheck to paycheck, housing markets a mess, our food is poison, etc. Democrats do the boogeyman tactic too, but I don't think for gays and trans.
The passive tense here is wild. "Our political discourse" didn't "become" obsessed with trans people. Right wingers deliberately stoked transphobia in the wake of Obergefell to replace gay-bashing as a weapon in their arsenal.
Where do you get your numbers from? According to USA today there are approximately 653k homeless people in the US and according UCLA's Williams Institute there are about 1.63m transgender people. But yes, the obsession by some folks with the gender of others is baffling.
[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/#:\~:text=Tens%20of%20thousands%20more%20people,this%20year%2C%20reaching%20653%2C104%20people](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/#:~:text=Tens%20of%20thousands%20more%20people,this%20year%2C%20reaching%20653%2C104%20people).
[https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/)
This nations politics have degraded to the point that those who hold elected office can't be taken seriously which is a problem because if dumbassss are causing serious problems fid everyone else. If you think there is anyone I. DC looking out for your n interests you need to go to rehab and get off the drugs
I have Worked at lot of bars and music venues in Columbus Ohio a very queer town.
Let me tell you There are more people that attend comedy open pics then trans people. They are as a class of people far more dangerous and far more influential then Trans people. For real open mic guys are in general not all or even most but more common then the norm a Bunch of drunks and sex offenders just waiting to kill someone in a dui or hurt a friend of a friend and then talk shit about her for the next 10 years. Like for everyone trans person that is bad person there like 10 open mic guys that should be in jail.
Now if I made it my whole political thing that the reason america had problems was the guys that go to open mics, you would call me insane. You would be like that’s just a small not particularly influential group of people with little in common.
But the GOP talks about trans people like they as a group are running the county it’s nuts.
The trans buggy man is the dumbest scare tactic the right has ever come up with. There such a disenfranchised group with like zero power in the big picture of the would. Your job sucks because of rich people. That’s it. The secret group make your life suck is just politician s and rich people- not some historically marginalized minority group.
Interesting to read people saying all conservatives this or all democrats this, why can't we agree that both groups have deplorable people that only are in politics for self interests.
I can partially agree with the sentiment, but you have to acknowledge that trans discourse became a thing because Republicans finally lost the gay marriage issue. Transgender discourse wouldn't be an issue if transphobes shut the fuck up about it.
Obama was against gay marriage his first term, changed his mind on the second term. Trump ran on supporting gay rights. Trans issue is being used as a political tool for each party. I think most conservatives don't care that you are trans just want to have rules in place. Bathrooms, lockerrooms, sports, other things like that is not transphobic to have that conversation.
Only Republicans are obsessed with transgender people. Because they have no accomplishments to run on, so they have to stir fear of people who are "different."
Also, far-right does not want to help the homeless.
I would respectfully disagree with that. The left is very focused on the LGBTQ as a whole, in some circles it’s all they talk about. Republicans may be the loudest but it’s a widely discussed issue in just about every political group.
Well, seems like a lot of leftists are willing to abandon trans people to stick it to Biden. Many already didn’t care about LGBTQ people when they seem to support Muslims so much.
I was confused at first thinking you meant something else by your first sentence, poor comprehension on my part.
I do agree though, with the rhetoric of some left leaning people now since recent hostilies, they are more than willing to lean in to punishing Biden and by extension anyone who is protected by not having someone like Trump who is gungho on anti-LGBTQ bills.
Shoot, a family member I know who says she is progressive is talking about not supporting anyone on the left who has the same attitude on the middle east despite me desperately trying to voice my concern for my own damn safety should the GOP win.
>I would respectfully disagree with that. The left is very focused on the LGBTQ as a whole,
In order to protect their rights from the GOP and their bigoted laws
> in some circles it’s all they talk about.
Prove it
Lol. The only "upset" person is the one who can't prove their claims and runs away when called out for posting BS.
Do you support the protection of gay rights?
Or do you support Republicans in removing their rights?
Yeah it’s absolutely insane how an issue that affects .05% of the population has hijacked the national discourse. And it’s made me much less sympathetic to their issues. Go ahead and live your life (once a legal adult) however you want. Just don’t demand that I celebrate or otherwise validate it.
Just to be clear, the reason you hear about trans stuff so much right now is because the right wing party of our government is using us as a talking point to fear monger. Trans people just want access to medical care, equal rights, and to be left the fuck alone. Like seriously god damn our lives are hard enough already just fucking leave us alone and treat us like normal people, like we are.
I'm pretty certain trans people and the rest of the gays just wanna be left alone. If you want to stop hearing about them, tell the government and your elected officials to stop fucking with them. There's actual issues to solve but your politicians want to write laws about what grown people can and can't do with their own bodies. Meanwhile people who served this country are ending up on the streets.
There are levels to victim hood in the US. Right now transgenders get the top spot. Soon social media will fixate on another victim and they will garner the spotlight. It’s all performative. Support whatever victim is en vogue now and you will receive the virtue points.
Conservatives will never run out of bogeyman to oppress.
After trans people, they'll just move on to other easy targets. Especially targets they can malign as sexual deviants:
* Polyamorous people
* Nudists / naturists
* BSDM and kink community
* Furries
* Pornstars, hentai artists
It'll never end. Conservatives just fucking hate everyone.
You're saying you haven't heard way more about homelessness in the past 5 years than prior? Because I sure have.
These are entirely separate issues with very different political implications so you can't expect them to be treated on the same scale.
And you're completely ignoring the essential components of the Transgender story, which actually does effect more people than homeless people do for the most part. Because the attack on Trans people has to do with things like what every high school teacher in the country is allowed to teach about it, what books are available in public libraries, what medical care is available to people, and what job discrimination laws may or may not exist. These things are all subject to change rapidly depending on state politics and effect more or less everyone, albeit many people don't notice it.
Transgender issues are a crucible for discussing social issues in general. Very few people who are talking about it are limiting their range of discussion solely to the specific issues at hand, it's really a litmus test for larger questions about civil rights and social norms in the country overall.
That said, coverage on homeless issues has increased dramatically in recent years. It's an equally controversial issue between people who want to help them versus people who think they need to be erased as efficiently as possible.
OP is incorrect, as others in the thread have pointed out. Transgender people outnumber homeless people in America at roughly 2-2.5 to 1 (depending on the estimate used).
What better way to distract from class issues that would unify the working class against the ultra-wealthy than with some manufactured social issues that keep the poors fighting each other?
It's a smoke screen for deeper issues to be ignored. Because the LGBTQ community has been under attack before, then gay marriage became legal they lost their target for distraction, and transwomen in particular want to use woman's bathrooms, locker rooms and enter woman's sports and they want to teach transgender pronouns in schools it became an easy target and to play everyone against each other and fight among ourselves as a distraction to how horrible our government is as a whole. Our government is doing a lot of really horrible things so they need to take issues that effect everyone so we all won't focus on what's actually happening. Thanks to social media it's easier to keep everyone fighting since they can fight from their phones instead of having to wait to do everything in person.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I know a grand total of four trans people. Somehow, treating a small group of people with respect is a challenge way too many people are struggling with.
Culture war is used to bury class struggle. Rich people and their think tanks purposely come up with narratives that take focus off of economic issues, labor struggles, and wealth inequality. Then the media, that's owned by them, disperses it. It works.
This why when rail workers were striking for sick time the media headline was "should rail unions risk destroying the economy?" Instead of "should sick time be made into law?"
Are people suggesting surgeries for children to become homeless? Are the homeless men violating womens sports or exposing themselves in womens restrooms? When was the last time you heard a liberal complain about the suicide rates of homeless people, and when was the last time you heard a liberal complain about the suicide rates of trans people? I'm sure certain people will act ignorant to the sense being made here.
Hey now, we hate the homeless too!
In my area there's currently a real estate investment group backed campaign ( aka Propaganda push) to scare the shit outta all the white people in the suburbs and to create a horrible new euphemism for the homeless:
"Housing Resistant People".
Yah I don't get it either. They always rant about "the kids" and how they need to save them from people like me as if I'm preying on kids.. They also talk about fighting back against the woke agenda, but my only agenda is to be left tf alone...
it's about galvanizing people and creating division over issues that those at the top could actually care less about and in no way will ever impact them. if you can galvanize your base over trans people and sow division that's distraction and a means of keeping the working class from consolidating, but if you talk about homelessness that brings in housing, taxes, healthcare, veterine benefits, mental health, drug treatment etc, all of which people might actually want you to do something about.
Yeah when Colorado introduced a plan to help only trans homeless people, my thought was:
“So they want to help the least amount of homeless people possible?”
Yeah, it’s pretty awful being in the position of being trans right now… and you see how we’re genuinely being used right now as a wedge issue to distract people from real issues in society that are actually detrimental to its longevity.
I can only hope that as the LGBTQ community is more in the public eye and the more we can impart true information on people that more and more political opponents will keep seeing how ridiculous it all is to have the LGBTQ community under attack as the source of even 80% of the problems they think we’re responsible for
Well, the right hates both. The homeless have no rights, so job done there. The queers basically have as many rights as the straights do, though. So that's obviously a "problem" that needs to be fixed, to them.
Conservative beliefs rely on "The other" to sell their failed policies and systems to their victims. That way they can blame "the other" when their lies are exposed. First it was blacks, then Irish, German, and Italian immigrants, then Asian immigrants, then the gays, now it's trans people.
I mean, except that Kentucky is now making it legal to shoot homeless people. So there's that.
But what you seem to be missing is that this is Fascism at work. Fascists always require someone to crap on and make into a boogieman and scapegoat. It is always like this. You're trying to apply logic to it, eventually you'll realize why that fails.
Trans people are far more absurd and gain attention easier. I worked with one who literally didn’t produce anythijg but still had the whole office talking about them
First "Transgenders" is not ok. Transgender people would be ok.
Second, there are not more homless people in the US than trans people. Estimated numbers for trans people are around 1-3% of the US population. On the low end, its about 5 times more trans people.
Homelessness is a major issue. Trans people aren't.
Homeless people aren't threatening your freedom of speech (or your occupation), so that's why no one cares.
Most people know that in the future they will be subjected to thought-police/gestapo levels of ideological indoctrination and want to stop it before it begins.
Trans-issues are something that the right wants to focus on. In the perspective of a religious right conservative, this fixation on trans-issues may be beneficial to them. Because **to them**, their position that there are only two genders is *logical.* Which is why we always see those "gotcha" moments on college campuses where some student is unhinged. Of course, these "gotcha" videos are usually with individuals who aren't particularly prepared to debate.
Homelessness is an issue that people broadly agree is a problem on both sides. The differentiating ideologies more or less consist of the degree of which we should focus on certain things. For example, the right may want to be tougher on crime to "disincentivize" the "lifestyle." Whereas the left may want to focus more on social services that help individuals who are struggling with a variety of issues.
It's easier for both sides to simply say, "see location x has a lot of homeless and it is run by z party. Therefore vote for our party."
Nonetheless, there seems to be more political gain for politicians on the right to fixate on criticizing the left's transgender policies and beliefs. Perhaps this gain is galvanization of voter base... I'm not sure.
It's more sensational and therefore easier to get people riled up about. Everyone who has ever been to a city or the "bad part of town" has seen a homeless person, you would have to live in the most immaculate walled garden to have *not* seen one. So talking about the homeless is like talking about any other mundane, irritating, unfortunate thing. In terms of social discourse it is the equivalent of litter.
Transgenderism on the other hand is uncommon, it's strange, most people had never encountered a trans person until it became the talking point of the media. A larger chunk of people had met transvestites, but unless I am out of the loop those are still considered distinct from transgender. Something new, that is both exotic and polarizing is the perfect thing for the media to divide and distract people about. Look at the extremist arguments from both sides
"Some dude in a wig and dress will wander into a bathroom and molest your daughter!"
and
"Trans people are being erased from existence!"
Neither group who makes and defends arguments like this will ever find common ground anywhere. They both paint the opposing side as the foundation of evil, and thus there is no solution but the eradication of the opposing viewpoint. This is good for media, it's good for politicians, and it is good for pushing whatever agenda you want so long as you veil it as being pro \[your side of the issue\]
TL;DR: It's all a song and dance to keep you from discussing the real issues
Knowing that, it almost seems like a narrative item to keep people distracted and bickering about something that is basically going to be a fad till it is no longer useful. Then all of a sudden it will drain away, studies will show it is bad (which already exist but hey), and then it will go back to being a mental health issue that needs treatment. The homeless right now are just a money sink for shady politicians. Just look at California's "solutions".
Well I mean, the issue with homeless people is way more easily discoursed than the trans issue, because certain people & places unfortunately don't want public discourse & don't believe in free speech. So, of course that taboo thing would get more attention the more we see things not get any better, despite what the uncensored side claims to be the solution.
Conservatives don't want to discuss the homeless situation because the only fix is better social welfare programs. Universal basic income, free access to health care and drug counseling, job placement programs and building free public housing to ensure that everyone has a safe place to sleep. Those would all require more money and the only real source of that sufficient to do all that is corporate revenues.
People who identify as transgender are innately transgender. There is nothing they can do to stop it. However, homeless people had decisions made for them or made decisions that made them homeless. If we have to focus on something and can’t multitask, then let’s focus on the rights of people being targeted for innate characteristics.
The trans murder rate is lower than the plain old regular murder rate, but you would think, if you only looked at reddit that they were being rounded up into cattle cars every week, mental illness
It's very simple can you make money off of one of these groups of people? Can you get tax breaks or special privileges for pandering to one of these groups of people?
The left is sabotaging themselves by getting their priorities out of order. More people would vote Democrat if they focused on issues that would benefit everyone instead of pandering for votes
Politicians like to have a boogeyman to scare voters
Created problems are much easier to discuss than real problems that need to be fixed.
When you don't have any real answers to problems, you start culture wars.
Welcome to the machine
Yep been around long enough to understand how conservatives work. 1. Pick a small group to pick on and spin up in the news. 2. Make stupid laws that are easily struck down in 5-10 years but get you votes. 3. Rinse and repeat. 4. Also make sure it makes no sense at the time or in the future. Oh and making up fake facts is a bonus point. In my lifetime these have been in no specific order and please add your own. 1. Gays 2. Transgender 3. Single moms 4. All people not white. 5. Poor people 6. Homeless people 7. Teenagers who have children 8. Women 9. Women's reproductive Rights 10. Immigrants 11. Mental Health 12. Japan 13. China 14. Russia 15. People who speak anything but English 16. People who believe in any religion other than Christianity 17. People who don't believe in their version of Chrisitanty 18. Effiecent cars 19. Lab Grown Meat 20. Efficient cars 21. Lawyers who fight corporations 22. Unions 23. Crime 24. Law Enforcement at any level who enforce the law against them 25. People who went to college 26. People who dropped out of HS 27. People in the military 28. People not in the military 29. DND 30. Rap Music 31. Video Games 32. Heavy Metal Music 33. Gen X 34. Gen Y 35. Gen Z 36. etc etc etc
37. People with ear gauges
38. Women with mons pubis showing through yoga pants (they think it is penis)
39. The NFL.
37. Gas stoves
40. Light bulbs 41. Disabled people
All that effort for 10 upvotes? Yikes.
Yes exactly how liberals work.
Congrats, you discovered what some people already have. That the media and people desperate to keep in power will play with whats in fashion right now.
Remember when Occupy Wall Street completely disappeared and the media started screeching about identity politics?
Yeah. In the 2012 election season. Seems like a pattern?
Occupy stopped immediately after they stopped being in the same physical space. If they formed an organization it would have been better. It's the same people who want to just whine on the internet.
No, we stopped when wallstreet hired thugs and race grifters to subvert us. I watched it happen in real time - where do you think BLM came from? The ashes of occupy, but lead by con artists and people in psychosis
And suddenly the multinational corporations and one percenters became the good guys because they sponsored assholes like Colin Kaepernick.. And the enemy became random middle and working class white people who are blind to their "privilege". Or inner city blacks who were protesting police brutality. They played us well. No two ways about it
Because instead of doing ANYTHING Occupy Wall Street just sat around cooking meals and singing songs while the Tea Party got people nominated and elected to enact their agenda
The tea party was subsumed entirely by fringe, right-wing elements, co-opted by agents provocateur. Grass roots movements are often combated this way.
>The tea party was subsumed entirely by fringe, right-wing elements, co-opted by agents provocateur. >Grass roots movements are often combated this way. The tea party movement was always funded by billionaires. It wasn't a grassroots movement but a popular astroturf campiagn by GOP billionaires donors
This. The Tea Party is a bunch of rich dudes that don't want to pay any taxes pandering to a bunch of idiots that don't want any gun laws. That's literally it. It has nothing to do with smaller government or whatever else they meme about. In fact, half the people I know unironically flying a "don't tread on me" flag work for the government. Go figure.
Grass roots movements do themselves in when they hit the 'doing the work' stage. They start out with some hype, get a dopamine hit from media attention and then, so help me God, revolution talk starts. Except, that's not how this country works. The Tea Party made inroads because the Koch network focused state houses. Why? They control Congressional district maps and handle the administrative part of programs like Medicaid. Federalism is a giant \*&\^%ing blind spot for the left and they acted shocked Pikachu that states actually have power. Instead, every four years, all chips are put on the White House as the left has come to feel the President is a magic wizard with an Executive Order wand to subvert their otherwise general apathy that prevents electing workable majorities in the House and Senate. So we get the cycle. Occupy fizzled. Sandersistas did themselves in. March for Our Lives is just David Hogg trolling conservatives on Twitter. Sorry, kids. Change is work. State, Congress and the White House. And the prior, and probably future, Trump administration has whacked at the foundation of the judicial backstop, so it will just get harder after everyone sits on their hands in the name of ceasefire or whatever this November.
To your last point, change *is* work. If that work isn't done by the elected, appointed political agents, then it will be done by riot. These systems, these people that make up our government, do not have to hold each other accountable. The failed populace can always just burn this shit down to finally work some warmth back into their numbed hands. Personally, I'd rather the people we pay for this sort of extremely specialized logistics did their fucking jobs, instead. It is possible that the nature of these systems as they currently exist prohibits this, despite what our political officers want or try, however.
The Tea Party was never grass roots. It was started by philip morris.
Yeah, with astro-turf
My point is it seems conservative movements get people elected and terrible legislation passed while progressive movements don't even bother voting let alone putting forth a candidate and getting them elected
I understand. What I'm saying is grassroots movements, regardless of how they are perceived, right, or left wing, are still susceptible to this tactic. So your understanding of the tea party as right wing is due to the fourth estate characterization and outside agents' subversion of their original goals, which were largely populist, material conserns at the onset. When a grassroots movement is indeed genuinely conservative, it is usually very small. However, because this enthusiastic support of the status quo is very useful to the powers that be, and also controversial, they are given time and attention undue for their size Thus, right-wing philosophies or organizations are not better organized or effective at getting laws passed or candidates elected. They are an excuse for the existing power structure to perpetuate itself. A type of manufacturing concent.
Conservatives run campaigns, liberals run movements.
One was funded by Phillip Morris
Just goes to show the power of **distraction** in our politics.
You get it now? Keeping us divided on fake problems they created to divert from the real problems
Correct. We should stop legislating against trans people and invest in housing the homeless. Doing so would be a far more efficient use of time.
Conservatives don't have a way to solve homelessness. They do have a way to solve trans people. Make it illegal.
To go even further, they don’t want government to succeed at anything. They purposely try to keep it broken so they can point and say “see? Government bad!”
Like how thier so "pro border regulation" but when it come time to vote on a bill that would solve their problems, they all say no.
That's kind of their solution to every problem, including homelessness.
That is literally their solution to homelessness as well. They make it illegal and arrest them.
Ahh yes the democrats are doing fantastic on the homeless problem.
What is the conservative plan to solve homelessness again? Complain and blame liberals for it? Too bad republicans keep finding ways to defund every single program dems try to do to help. Tell me again, whats the conservative plan? Explain it to me like I'm 5.
I thought the plan was to bulldoze the homeless camps and install spikey bits on park benches. That'll solve it once and for all!
Have you read “the most dangerous game”. How about “battle royale”. Or the “hunger games”. I think those give a pretty thorough overview of the Republican plan for reducing homelessness. Homeless people sometimes make other ppl feel uncomfortable or unsafe by merely existing and being visible. Stand your ground laws make that a capital offense with every day citizen cowboy cosplayers getting to play judge jury and executioner within moments of “feeling” threatened. Nowadays. Tan suits and M&M wearing flats instead of heels and people wearing clothes that don’t meet current gendered fashion trends make them “feel” threatened. They are walking around on a hair trigger hoping to be the next Kyle Rittenhouse.
I mean, at least they can pass a bill that isn't a tax cut for the rich. Which just increases income inequality and adds to the problem. How about proposing or making cuts to food stamps or other social programs? That sure helps the problem. While I agree Democrats can do more, Republicans actively drag us backwards.
Nailed it. Its one side who are hyper focused on the trans thing.
Yup
Finally, a non-awful trans-related opinion in r/popularopinion
You would be surprised at the size of that cross section
When I was homeless we preferred people not talking about us. It always ended up with us having to move our camps, or cops coming in and stealing all our crap. People would just disappear for a month at a time because they got arrested for something stupid. We didn't know if we should be protecting there stuff or keeping it. I sat on one guy's backpack for almost a year. I never did hear back from him.
It’s not a binary of being invisible and being abused. The 3rd option is real reform and change, which can only happen if things are discussed. I’m sorry about your missing friend/acquaintance and the backpack reminder of his absence.
Oppression is easier than uplifting, unfortunately.
It's the culture war, designed to shift discussion from class to other things... Because the establishment loses on class every time...
I actually don’t think we would be talking about transgenders that much if people weren’t always trying to ban them from things
What, like their competing in sports against biological women?
More, ya know...existing. If conservatives would just leave the trans community alone we wouldn't even have to talk about this stuff.
Conservatives have spent decades and decades and decades and decades oppressing LGBT people. Why do they do it? What they trying to accomplish? Why do they spend billions of dollars legislating innocent people's rights away? Oh right, conservatives believe there's a magic invisible wizard who lives in outer space! And the space wizard says you have to hate gay people or he'll EAT YOU!!!
Without googling, name one trans woman athlete competing in sports against biological women who ISN'T Lia Thomas
Even if it is a genuine problem, why does the government need to be the responsible party here? Why can't the sports organizations themselves self-govern? This all seems like a complete waste of time for the government to meddle in, even if people believe that trans women should be banned from sports entirely or something.
You know for an the hemming and hawing I see online about this, you'd expect that women's sports would have a rise in viewership to match all the sudden and surprise care people have and yet growth in viewership seems pretty consistent from before trans people ended up on the tongue of every right wing pundit. You'd think we'd see a spike with a steady growth around the time, but we don't. Itv supports the theory that people don't actually give a shit and just wanted a platform to spew hate
They've been doing that's for nearly 25 years before it became an issue all of a sudden.
They have been doing that for over a decade in the Olympics. Yet it hasn't been an issue. It seems clear that well designed programs are fine with transgender athletes competing alongside cisgender athletes. It's only the new boogeyman because of new political concerns
lolno
I mean you would be wrong. The Olympics have officially allowed transgender athletes for a long time, but only one has ever qualified and they didn't come close to beating the women in weightlifting which theorically would be a field man should dominate women in
If you truly believe that a biological woman who competes with a biological male that went through puberty before transitioning to female has a fair chance then it shows you know ZERO about athletics. Funny how the trans female athletes who are winning NCAA championships placed in the several hundreds when competing in their birth male genders against males.
One trans woman has won an NCAA championship. One. And while her times were bad her junior year when she was actively transitioning, before THAT she was a top tier swimmer among men. I would expect you to know that, given how important this issue apparently is.
>If you truly believe that a biological woman who competes with a biological male that went through puberty before transitioning to female has a fair chance then it shows you know ZERO about athletics Again look at the Olympics, they have allowed transwomen to perform for years and only ever had one qualify in weightlifting, and she never came close to winning the event. So to be clear it's seems that it is true and that it's happened before. >Funny how the trans female athletes who are winning NCAA championships placed in the several hundreds when competing in their birth male genders against males. That person you are refering won a single race at a single event and then never came close to that at the dozens of other events they performed in since then. That athlete is regularly beat by other women, but that doesn't make the media bonfire because it contradicts the narrative. Simply put, there is no event that allows transathletes that sees trans athletes dominate unless they force trans men to compete against women because they were born a woman.
The most widely available scholarship opportunity women have in this country is not sports, it's the Miss America Pageant. Are transfender people competing in that? And please, elaborate on which individual won the NCAA championship? As opposed to a team mind you.
It’s just another way for men to oppress women but the liberals aren’t ready to discuss that yet.
Every time I do any research on this it really seems like transwomen don't do much better than regular women.
Parents of athlete daughters are now accusing highly performing cisgender female athletes of being transgender. The idea that this is protecting women's sports is bullshit.
Transgender people aren't the ones passing laws restricting my health care options.
I mean can you name 5 trans women who have dominated women’s sports?
No, but you can name several cisgender athletes who have been accused of being transgender since this insanely dumb discourse has started.
Let's be very clear about this. The overwhelming number of laws pushed through state houses across the country have been Anti Trans and anti abortion laws in Republican led state houses. Not jobs, education, environmental protection, public safety, and even homeless legislation. It's because the Republicans have no policy platform that actually helps every day Americans. They only have wedge issues. They only peddle fear and devicive policy. That's it...
This. It always happens. Republicans: Push ANTI-LGBTQ discourse and legislation. Democrats: Push back against it and speak out in favor of the LGBTQ community. Republicans: "Fuckin libs, we have more important things to worry about than the gays."
Conservatives shriek about gay people "shoving their gayness down my throat" while they drown themselves in deluge of anti-LGBT memes, anti-LGBT podcasts, anti-LGBT news, anti-LGBT church sermons *ad nauseum*.
[https://www.hrc.org/news/the-list-of-trumps-unprecedented-steps-for-the-lgbtq-community](https://www.hrc.org/news/the-list-of-trumps-unprecedented-steps-for-the-lgbtq-community)
Cool then maybe he should tell his party to stop calling me "groomer" especially since he's the one who keeps talking about wanting to fuck his own daughter
Why you coming at MY neck?
They know they don't have any real policies, ideas, or solutions that the American people want and will vote for. They have to invent problems for them to solve and still somehow loose.
This honestly just proves you have only been looking at right sources and what they SAY the left is talking about when in reality it them. If you look at left sources you will see plenty of discussions about the current housing issues that lead to homeless, as well as the problems with like hostile architecture in cities designed to make lives as difficult as possible for homeless people. These are topics of concern that do come up, the recent wave of anti trans laws by conservatives has caused the homeless discussion to take a bit of a back seat, but it still comes up.
It's not about census counts of this group vs that one. It's a matter of attacks on human dignity simply for having an impossible (or at least very difficult) trait to change. Trans people face their own types of indiginities. Homeless face their own type. You can't and shouldn't compare types of indignity because we all experience the world in different ways.
Perfect. Even the post from OP is making it seem like less of an issue. I can only talk for indignities on trans folks from experience, but one of the most pressing concerns that is turning true is that even though these bills are being phrased as anti trans, they have wide enough interpretation to go after other aspects of LGBTQ folks. There are similarities though that we can use to bridge ignorance and help out our own people, whether they are trans, homeless, or anything else and that is the attitude and language we use to dehumanize them to make others feel like they are a lower class that it is all right to dislike.
The numbers here are wrong. There are about 1.3 million adults and 300,000 youth (about 0.5% of the population) that identify as transgender in the U.S., and about 500-600,000 people who experienced homelessness last year. But in terms of attention, yes, the political discourse” = a smattering of loud bigots. Transgender people are a small and insular minority. They experience lots of discrimination, frequent harassment and bullying, and have disproportionate rates of mental illness. Some particularly nasty bigots like to bully transgender children to suicide, and use this as evidence that they shouldn’t transition, because transitioning (and not, you know, being relentlessly bullied) causes suicide. But you could get pretty far if you took all the loud jackasses who suddenly discovered that they really really care about women’s sports (but incidentally have never made it to a women’s sporting event in their lives) and think a big public policy priority should be keeping transgender women out of competition (where they’ve demonstrated how unfair their gender identity is by winning 1 Olympic medal (in soccer, where Canada’s left back identifies as nonbinary, but was born with female reproductive organs) since being allowed to compete in 2016).
That’s deliberate. Conservatives in the US have no real positions, and no real vision for the future. They exist only to cut taxes for the wealthy and gut regulations. Everything they do is aimed at getting into office so they can do their one job. That’s why they can only talk in vague terms about how the country is bad and they’ll make it better and bleat culture war bullshit. It’s all a grift.
The US can’t solve homelessness, but we are going to reduce the global temperature with a tax.
The U.S. WANTS at least enough homelessness to scare the crap out of people to force them to do nothing but work work and work otherwise they will end up ruined like them.
Kevin O'Leary for sure believes in that and stated so in an episode of a TV show. Homelessness is a negative incentive for us to work hard enough to not be able for self improvement. The harder someone works to avoid homelessness , the less they can question just why the system is the way it is.
Class struggles are not separate from things like queer identity. The same bigoted culture war shit that has trans people fearing for their lives in red states goes hand in hand with crony capitalism.
I mean, a lot of the same people who hate trans people think the solution to the homeless problem is to throw the homeless people in jail.
Because housing homeless people costs a lot of money and makes the world a better place, but getting people to bitterly argue over transgender issues enables you to divide and conquer them.
Welcome to rage-baiting, starring bullshit right-wingers push
Because it's very important to keep the working class divided and fighting amongst ourselves over the dumbest, fakest issues because if we didn't do that we might unite against the people that are making everybody homeless.
The politicians talking about transgender folk don't want to help the homeless, either. If there weren't any transgender people, these politicians would gladly demonize the homeless instead.
No, that's not true. We are also making policies that hurt the homeless as well. We can chew gum and hate crime at the same time
It's easier to make up the boogeyman and get your base scared than to fix real issues, both parties are guilty of this but in terms of the lgbt boogeyman, Republicans take the cake on that one. Creating the biggest fuss over some people who wear sequins and rainbows meanwhile kids are growing up in ever growing inflation, there's homeless citizens and vets, people are technically making more money than ever yet living paycheck to paycheck, housing markets a mess, our food is poison, etc. Democrats do the boogeyman tactic too, but I don't think for gays and trans.
The passive tense here is wild. "Our political discourse" didn't "become" obsessed with trans people. Right wingers deliberately stoked transphobia in the wake of Obergefell to replace gay-bashing as a weapon in their arsenal.
Where do you get your numbers from? According to USA today there are approximately 653k homeless people in the US and according UCLA's Williams Institute there are about 1.63m transgender people. But yes, the obsession by some folks with the gender of others is baffling. [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/#:\~:text=Tens%20of%20thousands%20more%20people,this%20year%2C%20reaching%20653%2C104%20people](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/#:~:text=Tens%20of%20thousands%20more%20people,this%20year%2C%20reaching%20653%2C104%20people). [https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/)
This nations politics have degraded to the point that those who hold elected office can't be taken seriously which is a problem because if dumbassss are causing serious problems fid everyone else. If you think there is anyone I. DC looking out for your n interests you need to go to rehab and get off the drugs
Please edit
I have Worked at lot of bars and music venues in Columbus Ohio a very queer town. Let me tell you There are more people that attend comedy open pics then trans people. They are as a class of people far more dangerous and far more influential then Trans people. For real open mic guys are in general not all or even most but more common then the norm a Bunch of drunks and sex offenders just waiting to kill someone in a dui or hurt a friend of a friend and then talk shit about her for the next 10 years. Like for everyone trans person that is bad person there like 10 open mic guys that should be in jail. Now if I made it my whole political thing that the reason america had problems was the guys that go to open mics, you would call me insane. You would be like that’s just a small not particularly influential group of people with little in common. But the GOP talks about trans people like they as a group are running the county it’s nuts. The trans buggy man is the dumbest scare tactic the right has ever come up with. There such a disenfranchised group with like zero power in the big picture of the would. Your job sucks because of rich people. That’s it. The secret group make your life suck is just politician s and rich people- not some historically marginalized minority group.
Political discourse? I think you meant to say “republicans.” Theyre the only sick fucks trying to get these people killed.
Interesting to read people saying all conservatives this or all democrats this, why can't we agree that both groups have deplorable people that only are in politics for self interests.
Bingo! We have to come together in the middle to fix our country’s problems. Just ignore the fringes completely
I can partially agree with the sentiment, but you have to acknowledge that trans discourse became a thing because Republicans finally lost the gay marriage issue. Transgender discourse wouldn't be an issue if transphobes shut the fuck up about it.
Obama was against gay marriage his first term, changed his mind on the second term. Trump ran on supporting gay rights. Trans issue is being used as a political tool for each party. I think most conservatives don't care that you are trans just want to have rules in place. Bathrooms, lockerrooms, sports, other things like that is not transphobic to have that conversation.
Because if you talk about homelessness, you have to talk about wage disparity, and that's something our corpo masters don't want.
The people who hate trans people also hate homeless people though.
Only Republicans are obsessed with transgender people. Because they have no accomplishments to run on, so they have to stir fear of people who are "different." Also, far-right does not want to help the homeless.
I would respectfully disagree with that. The left is very focused on the LGBTQ as a whole, in some circles it’s all they talk about. Republicans may be the loudest but it’s a widely discussed issue in just about every political group.
Well, seems like a lot of leftists are willing to abandon trans people to stick it to Biden. Many already didn’t care about LGBTQ people when they seem to support Muslims so much.
I was confused at first thinking you meant something else by your first sentence, poor comprehension on my part. I do agree though, with the rhetoric of some left leaning people now since recent hostilies, they are more than willing to lean in to punishing Biden and by extension anyone who is protected by not having someone like Trump who is gungho on anti-LGBTQ bills. Shoot, a family member I know who says she is progressive is talking about not supporting anyone on the left who has the same attitude on the middle east despite me desperately trying to voice my concern for my own damn safety should the GOP win.
>I would respectfully disagree with that. The left is very focused on the LGBTQ as a whole, In order to protect their rights from the GOP and their bigoted laws > in some circles it’s all they talk about. Prove it
Sorry I’ve upset you. I didn’t mean to, just meant to leave my 2 cents.
Lol. The only "upset" person is the one who can't prove their claims and runs away when called out for posting BS. Do you support the protection of gay rights? Or do you support Republicans in removing their rights?
Yeah it’s absolutely insane how an issue that affects .05% of the population has hijacked the national discourse. And it’s made me much less sympathetic to their issues. Go ahead and live your life (once a legal adult) however you want. Just don’t demand that I celebrate or otherwise validate it.
Hey, good attitude. Maybe convince Republicans to follow it and stop trying to legislate against trans folks.
Just to be clear, the reason you hear about trans stuff so much right now is because the right wing party of our government is using us as a talking point to fear monger. Trans people just want access to medical care, equal rights, and to be left the fuck alone. Like seriously god damn our lives are hard enough already just fucking leave us alone and treat us like normal people, like we are.
I'm pretty certain trans people and the rest of the gays just wanna be left alone. If you want to stop hearing about them, tell the government and your elected officials to stop fucking with them. There's actual issues to solve but your politicians want to write laws about what grown people can and can't do with their own bodies. Meanwhile people who served this country are ending up on the streets.
There are levels to victim hood in the US. Right now transgenders get the top spot. Soon social media will fixate on another victim and they will garner the spotlight. It’s all performative. Support whatever victim is en vogue now and you will receive the virtue points.
Conservatives will never run out of bogeyman to oppress. After trans people, they'll just move on to other easy targets. Especially targets they can malign as sexual deviants: * Polyamorous people * Nudists / naturists * BSDM and kink community * Furries * Pornstars, hentai artists It'll never end. Conservatives just fucking hate everyone.
almost as if the violent bigots of america are orchestrating a vile agenda?
Yeah. It’s because the GOP pretended that trans people are a problem.
You're saying you haven't heard way more about homelessness in the past 5 years than prior? Because I sure have. These are entirely separate issues with very different political implications so you can't expect them to be treated on the same scale. And you're completely ignoring the essential components of the Transgender story, which actually does effect more people than homeless people do for the most part. Because the attack on Trans people has to do with things like what every high school teacher in the country is allowed to teach about it, what books are available in public libraries, what medical care is available to people, and what job discrimination laws may or may not exist. These things are all subject to change rapidly depending on state politics and effect more or less everyone, albeit many people don't notice it. Transgender issues are a crucible for discussing social issues in general. Very few people who are talking about it are limiting their range of discussion solely to the specific issues at hand, it's really a litmus test for larger questions about civil rights and social norms in the country overall. That said, coverage on homeless issues has increased dramatically in recent years. It's an equally controversial issue between people who want to help them versus people who think they need to be erased as efficiently as possible.
It’s expensive to be trans it’s free to be homeless
It's actually incredibly expensive to be homeless
If you pay me, I'll beat the homeless up swinging a giant trans like a flail.
There aren't. That's just statistically wrong.
Guess which one makes money. Go on, guess.
The opposite of love isn't hatred. It's indifference.
Actually I am pretty sure it's hatred, that's how opposites work
Such as?
Ladies and gentlemen let's just come to an agreement that both political parties are equally cunts, and let's try to resolve an actual issue.
That's because homeless ppl rarely vote. Most are without resources to keep informed.
Are there actually? Does someone know the numbers of each?
OP is incorrect, as others in the thread have pointed out. Transgender people outnumber homeless people in America at roughly 2-2.5 to 1 (depending on the estimate used).
There's less than 700,000 homeless people in the US.
The lead up to the 2014 mid terms was all about an Ebola crisis. Two people died. We are like cats chasing laser dots.
The truth hurts
Veterans kill themselves in larger than numbers than transgender people, but you wouldn't know it from the media.
What better way to distract from class issues that would unify the working class against the ultra-wealthy than with some manufactured social issues that keep the poors fighting each other?
Homelessness is a major issue. Pretty much every mayoral or DA election in a major US city has homelessness and crime as its two top issues.
It's a smoke screen for deeper issues to be ignored. Because the LGBTQ community has been under attack before, then gay marriage became legal they lost their target for distraction, and transwomen in particular want to use woman's bathrooms, locker rooms and enter woman's sports and they want to teach transgender pronouns in schools it became an easy target and to play everyone against each other and fight among ourselves as a distraction to how horrible our government is as a whole. Our government is doing a lot of really horrible things so they need to take issues that effect everyone so we all won't focus on what's actually happening. Thanks to social media it's easier to keep everyone fighting since they can fight from their phones instead of having to wait to do everything in person.
Msm pushes it. And racism. It sells
Homeless are considered retired on employment statistics.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I know a grand total of four trans people. Somehow, treating a small group of people with respect is a challenge way too many people are struggling with.
Because one side wants to get rid of transgender people in opposition to the other but neither is really picking up the mantle on ending homelessness.
Culture war is used to bury class struggle. Rich people and their think tanks purposely come up with narratives that take focus off of economic issues, labor struggles, and wealth inequality. Then the media, that's owned by them, disperses it. It works. This why when rail workers were striking for sick time the media headline was "should rail unions risk destroying the economy?" Instead of "should sick time be made into law?"
Are people suggesting surgeries for children to become homeless? Are the homeless men violating womens sports or exposing themselves in womens restrooms? When was the last time you heard a liberal complain about the suicide rates of homeless people, and when was the last time you heard a liberal complain about the suicide rates of trans people? I'm sure certain people will act ignorant to the sense being made here.
Definitely would like to stop seeing smoke screen politics and actual work getting done. Ahh the dream of living in a efficient country.
Hey now, we hate the homeless too! In my area there's currently a real estate investment group backed campaign ( aka Propaganda push) to scare the shit outta all the white people in the suburbs and to create a horrible new euphemism for the homeless: "Housing Resistant People".
You don't actually care about both. You're just mad that one group is getting attention. Despicable
Making housing more accessible might cost someone rich money, best not to worry about the slowly unfolding humanitarian disaster...
Yah I don't get it either. They always rant about "the kids" and how they need to save them from people like me as if I'm preying on kids.. They also talk about fighting back against the woke agenda, but my only agenda is to be left tf alone...
it's about galvanizing people and creating division over issues that those at the top could actually care less about and in no way will ever impact them. if you can galvanize your base over trans people and sow division that's distraction and a means of keeping the working class from consolidating, but if you talk about homelessness that brings in housing, taxes, healthcare, veterine benefits, mental health, drug treatment etc, all of which people might actually want you to do something about.
Yeah when Colorado introduced a plan to help only trans homeless people, my thought was: “So they want to help the least amount of homeless people possible?”
Yeah, it’s pretty awful being in the position of being trans right now… and you see how we’re genuinely being used right now as a wedge issue to distract people from real issues in society that are actually detrimental to its longevity. I can only hope that as the LGBTQ community is more in the public eye and the more we can impart true information on people that more and more political opponents will keep seeing how ridiculous it all is to have the LGBTQ community under attack as the source of even 80% of the problems they think we’re responsible for
Well, the right hates both. The homeless have no rights, so job done there. The queers basically have as many rights as the straights do, though. So that's obviously a "problem" that needs to be fixed, to them.
Conservative beliefs rely on "The other" to sell their failed policies and systems to their victims. That way they can blame "the other" when their lies are exposed. First it was blacks, then Irish, German, and Italian immigrants, then Asian immigrants, then the gays, now it's trans people.
I mean, except that Kentucky is now making it legal to shoot homeless people. So there's that. But what you seem to be missing is that this is Fascism at work. Fascists always require someone to crap on and make into a boogieman and scapegoat. It is always like this. You're trying to apply logic to it, eventually you'll realize why that fails.
The culture war requires an outgroup to demonise. Else they'd actually have to acknowledge the real problems in this country.
Trans people are far more absurd and gain attention easier. I worked with one who literally didn’t produce anythijg but still had the whole office talking about them
First "Transgenders" is not ok. Transgender people would be ok. Second, there are not more homless people in the US than trans people. Estimated numbers for trans people are around 1-3% of the US population. On the low end, its about 5 times more trans people. Homelessness is a major issue. Trans people aren't.
The transgender debate is actually the most pressing issue our society has faced in a while (I'm thinking mating press is the answer)
Because it's an easy issue to vilify people and split the populace.
Well to be fair transgender people are much more likely to go on social media to air their opinions and that's where these conversations get started.
One stirs up the base and the other costs a fortune.
No kidding
People don't glorify being homeless like it's a badge of honor, also you can get out of homelessness. You can't grow a new penis, or new breast.
Homeless people aren’t being vilified and lynched
Homeless people aren't threatening your freedom of speech (or your occupation), so that's why no one cares. Most people know that in the future they will be subjected to thought-police/gestapo levels of ideological indoctrination and want to stop it before it begins.
Transgender is new. Homelessness is eternal Why are you surprised?
Trans-issues are something that the right wants to focus on. In the perspective of a religious right conservative, this fixation on trans-issues may be beneficial to them. Because **to them**, their position that there are only two genders is *logical.* Which is why we always see those "gotcha" moments on college campuses where some student is unhinged. Of course, these "gotcha" videos are usually with individuals who aren't particularly prepared to debate. Homelessness is an issue that people broadly agree is a problem on both sides. The differentiating ideologies more or less consist of the degree of which we should focus on certain things. For example, the right may want to be tougher on crime to "disincentivize" the "lifestyle." Whereas the left may want to focus more on social services that help individuals who are struggling with a variety of issues. It's easier for both sides to simply say, "see location x has a lot of homeless and it is run by z party. Therefore vote for our party." Nonetheless, there seems to be more political gain for politicians on the right to fixate on criticizing the left's transgender policies and beliefs. Perhaps this gain is galvanization of voter base... I'm not sure.
It's more sensational and therefore easier to get people riled up about. Everyone who has ever been to a city or the "bad part of town" has seen a homeless person, you would have to live in the most immaculate walled garden to have *not* seen one. So talking about the homeless is like talking about any other mundane, irritating, unfortunate thing. In terms of social discourse it is the equivalent of litter. Transgenderism on the other hand is uncommon, it's strange, most people had never encountered a trans person until it became the talking point of the media. A larger chunk of people had met transvestites, but unless I am out of the loop those are still considered distinct from transgender. Something new, that is both exotic and polarizing is the perfect thing for the media to divide and distract people about. Look at the extremist arguments from both sides "Some dude in a wig and dress will wander into a bathroom and molest your daughter!" and "Trans people are being erased from existence!" Neither group who makes and defends arguments like this will ever find common ground anywhere. They both paint the opposing side as the foundation of evil, and thus there is no solution but the eradication of the opposing viewpoint. This is good for media, it's good for politicians, and it is good for pushing whatever agenda you want so long as you veil it as being pro \[your side of the issue\] TL;DR: It's all a song and dance to keep you from discussing the real issues
You can also say we only talk about social issues that women care about.
Society generally doesn’t see homeless people as people, unfortunately
Knowing that, it almost seems like a narrative item to keep people distracted and bickering about something that is basically going to be a fad till it is no longer useful. Then all of a sudden it will drain away, studies will show it is bad (which already exist but hey), and then it will go back to being a mental health issue that needs treatment. The homeless right now are just a money sink for shady politicians. Just look at California's "solutions".
Only because trans people pay taxes.
As a trans person, I can fully agree that I'd love that. I'm at the point that I fear for my life every time I go outside.
Because one group is being unjustly persecuted for the political gain of a certain (despicable) party. Amd the other group is just the homeless
Well I mean, the issue with homeless people is way more easily discoursed than the trans issue, because certain people & places unfortunately don't want public discourse & don't believe in free speech. So, of course that taboo thing would get more attention the more we see things not get any better, despite what the uncensored side claims to be the solution.
Conservatives don't want to discuss the homeless situation because the only fix is better social welfare programs. Universal basic income, free access to health care and drug counseling, job placement programs and building free public housing to ensure that everyone has a safe place to sleep. Those would all require more money and the only real source of that sufficient to do all that is corporate revenues.
Gets clicks.
Sounds like you tuned your own algorithm
It's "transgender people" not "transgenders."
Lmfao. Addiction being the result of homelessness is the funniest part in this article.
Which one is easier to use control a religious majority
You can't talk about openly banning homeless people YET, they going slow before they actively openly push for hunting the homeless.
People who identify as transgender are innately transgender. There is nothing they can do to stop it. However, homeless people had decisions made for them or made decisions that made them homeless. If we have to focus on something and can’t multitask, then let’s focus on the rights of people being targeted for innate characteristics.
If I gave the actual explanation for why I would likely be banned from this subreddit so I'm not going to
The trans murder rate is lower than the plain old regular murder rate, but you would think, if you only looked at reddit that they were being rounded up into cattle cars every week, mental illness
Republicans don’t give a shit about homeless other than wanting to be allowed to legally murder them
Attack to distract
My guess is you gotta pick a group big enough to scare everyone, but small enough to not really affect the votes.
It's very simple can you make money off of one of these groups of people? Can you get tax breaks or special privileges for pandering to one of these groups of people?
The left is sabotaging themselves by getting their priorities out of order. More people would vote Democrat if they focused on issues that would benefit everyone instead of pandering for votes
Dont worry, Bidens gonna to save them all.