Another Angry WomanI often use my dad, a man who buys the Times every day, as a barometer of how well the culture war lines are landing with the average reader, and I am thrilled to report that despite years of hysterical fascist articles, he still literally hasn't noticed any of it because he just skims past anything which seems aggro about nothing.
It's not just that he's turned off by it but vaguely aware that there is Discourse. He is entirely oblivious to the culture war hot button topics like GRA reform, no platform, etc. He has never heard of the word "woke". And this is a man who buys the Times every single day. He's just flicking to the bits that interest him (the word puzzle, the business pages and "what have those twats in Westminster done now")
Just about the only weird talking point he seems to have picked up from his newspaper-reading habits is that he spent a few months in 2020 convinced that Rishi Sunak was a socialist. Otherwise, my dad is a pretty normal guy.
There are repeated polls, over years, which show that public opinion on culture war topics hasn't really shifted despite a prolonged assault from legacy media, especially the Times. The majority of people are still broadly supportive of trans people. The general, reasonable person on the street literally doesn't even know what "snowflake" means. The prevailing social attitude remains "live and let live, I guess, it takes all sorts to make a world."
🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleI am more pessimistic about this.
I don’t think most people are supportive of trans people. I can’t really know this though, I don’t think surveys are adequate,
My feeling is that most people have a self bias which means they think they are supportive, they are at least trying, but really the bottom line is that we are not understood, not really seen or heard, and we are tolerated.
There are pockets of where things are more positive, but these are woefully few.
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK@siobhansarelle @stavvers dads and grandparents, even if they outwardly have centrist views tend to be more moderate and tolerant (even if its begrudgingly) they are after all been part of a family unit, generally have a stable lifestyle and don't want to see the world burn. They don't worry me - its the angry younger people (from their teens to early 50s) who are the real threats (particularly if they get into positions of power or take jobs in places like the NHS)