what's convenient about liberal conceptions of identity politics is not only do they prevent solidarity and sow division they also present a ready-made excuse for why any given action can't be accomplished

this is super useful for people who only ever planned to "post through it"

#IdentityPolitics #Liberalism

humans, or more accurately patriarchal societies, are so fucking stupid. Those with more privilege just spend their lives trying to degrade anyone with slightly less privilege, and when we finally go "you're wrong and I don't care what you think, actually" they act like we are oppressing them.

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#PatriciaTaxxon #identity #IdentityPolitics #CognitiveDissonance #Furry #Queer #Trans #Gay #Transgender #AngryFaggots #NotGayAsInHappy #QueerAsInFuckYou

(if on Mastodon, lyrics in alt-text of track)

On Pride Month and Why I’m Not a Leftist

One of the things I will never agree with is how modern culture insists that sexuality or gender identity must become the center of a person’s identity. I have never felt pride in being transgender for the simple reason that I do not consider it an accomplishment. It is merely a fact about me – no different from being born with a particular face, height, or temperament.

The things I am actually proud of are the things I earned.

I am proud of my intelligence. I am proud of the person I have become through hardship, discipline, consistency. I am proud of the money I make, the independence I built for myself, the knowledge I fought to acquire, the resilience I developed through life’s real fucked-up moments. I am proud of lessons learned and unlearned. I am proud of surviving my own naivety. I am proud of becoming sharper, harder, more perceptive, more capable of compassion towards those in need, even more ruthless when necessary. I’m proud of becoming impervious to ideology or sentimentality.

But being trans? That, in itself, means nothing morally or intellectually. It does not automatically make someone courageous, profound, virtuous, or “oppressed.” It is nothing but a demographic characteristic.

And that is precisely why I have never felt particularly connected to the modern LGBT movement.

People constantly refer to the “LGBT community,” but I do not experience it as a genuine community at all. A community is built around shared values, shared history, mutual loyalty, common goals, culture, or meaningful bonds between people. Merely sharing a sexuality or gender identity does not automatically create solidarity or kinship any more than sharing skin color does.

The truth is that LGBT people are wildly different from one another. To be honest most I’ve encountered are foolish; some are smart. Most are degenerates; a rare few deserve admiration. Some are kind; most are vicious and spread disease and then play the victim. Most are politically on the left; others have a mind of their own and are less manipulated by groupthink. Some are artists, others are businessmen, academics, laborers, opportunists, narcissists, romantics, hedonists, idealists, Christians, cynics. There is no singular worldview, moral code, or personality uniting all of them.

What often gets called a “community” today feels like a political coalition or branding category than an authentic human bond.

And what exactly is this “non-binary they/them” brouhaha? Gender is binary. There are two sexes, two genders. The idea that all human beings are sexually dimorphic is a fact of life. It is not a social construct. It is not a patriarchal invention. Being transgender means medically and socially transitioning from your birth gender to the opposite. Even those rare intersex cases – the hermaphrodites – are raised and grow up to be one gender or the other.

I despise the manufactured pressure to reduce oneself to made-up identity labels. Modern identity politics encourages you to interpret every aspect of life through categories of gender, sexuality, race, and oppression. That’s cultural Marxism in a nutshell. I find this worldview stupid, to say the least. It’s spiritually and intellectually suffocating. It flattens individuality and replaces personhood with empty slogans and demographics.

I refuse to make my gender identity the most interesting thing about me because it isn’t.

My thoughts are more interesting than my being transgender. The work I do is more interesting. My ambitions are more interesting. My failures, contradictions, obsessions, tastes, memories, and experiences are more interesting. The books I read, the ideas I wrestle with, the things I create, the people I love, the childhood and adult traumas I endured that I now laugh about, the discipline I cultivated: these define me far more than the irrelevant factoid that I am trans.

There is something deeply regressive about encouraging people to anchor their entire identity around immutable traits rather than around character, achievement, intellect, or personal responsibility. It is not a sign of progress.

The irony is that I support the basic principle that adults should live as they choose without harassment or persecution. But supporting individual liberty is not the same thing as subscribing to an ideology or movement. I do not believe every demographic category requires a political identity, a flag, a doctrine, or a culture of compulsory affirmation.

I do not want to be celebrated for what I am.

I want to be respected for what I have done.