@xorlou

Why did the Nazis choose the Jews? Because fascism needs an enemy. And they've learned that USan people are gonna stand up for immigrants. So we're being promoted to Main Threat.

They feel fairly confident that the US population will not make the same level of effort for a quiet genocide. No ICE teams harassing people in the streets, just a bunch of trans folk quietly harming themselves in despair.

And *poof* - they've got a galvanising issue to put in front of their bigoted base, and hope to juice turnout by promising to make our lives hell.

It's just cynical politics, allied to their innate conservatism that says "you can't be different from me, it's immoral!"

@xorlou @oldladyplays I really don't think it's ever been about transness or queerness of any kind, just like it's never really been about abortion. In any organization there are rank-and-file members who believe the explicitly mentioned goals of the organization and the inner members who understand what the goals actually are -- and in this way there are genuinely lots of folks manipulated to believe that transness or queerness or abortion or whatever other contrived issue *is* the thing they need to be concerned about. The rest of us need to understand that these folks are being manipulated to ends they don't even understand and the reason we need to see this is because only then can we really start to pick apart what the underlying strategic move is. These are easy issues to manipulate folks on, and they enable the organization (the government or whatever entity/entities are otherwise controlling the government branches through money etc) to begin to erode agency little by little.

I see this *said* a lot in the vein of "first they come for the X, then they come for your neighbor, then they come for you" but it feels like at the end of the day folks are still trying to find the logic in *why them?* and I'm just here to say, I guess, that there is no way to resolve the logic here without understanding that this is part of a continuous colonial authoritarian thread that's been spun since long before what we call "America" even existed and will continue to be spun for a long while, long after we forget all about the age of fears of "trans-contagion" and all of that nonsense.

@xorlou @oldladyplays

The point is to legitimize violence / subjugation. Once they get away with it on one group, they branch out from there.

Mostly, I tend to say the point is self-destruction. It’s a disease process like cancer.

@xorlou @oldladyplays

IMHO - They are bullies. Simply put.

Bullies trying to appeal to other bullies by being bullies and flaunting their 'accomplishments" as bullies.

Other bullies see the signaling and understand that they also need to show their allegiance and support for #fascism and #hate by looking for new opportunities & victims to bully.

It's grade school basically...

@xorlou @oldladyplays Enforcing heteronormativity means, through direct and indirect means, that there's more babies to groom (theyre very worried about birth decline, in any facet, due to the coming climate impacts they acknowledge behind closed doors, but reject openly), more men to groom into service, more control over the population, and a creation of a scapegoat to propagandize as "the problem" in order to not only distract, but maintain the hegemony of heteronormativity. The state, as its built and functions, NEEDS heteronormativity to function as it is. It has interwoven nearly all of its systems with it to such an extent that in the event of instability, it becomes one of the first things tightened—nearly always.

This is beyond the obvious effect of killing transgender people through lack of care leading to suicide. This is also a feature and intent, but its not the only one, and neither is scapegoating. They dont want their men to be anything but "men" so they can use them in their wars. They dont want their children to be independent because they are instrumental tools for political gain, and future laborers (and trans people tend to be less productive; this is likely due to 'overlapping' neurodivergence). They dont want people to be trans because it risks upending the board.

@oldladyplays

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Gays, and I did not speak out because I was not a Gay.
Then they came for the Gipsies, and I did not speak out because I was not a Gipsy.
Then they came for the Arabs, and I did not speak out because I was not an Arab.
Then they came for the disabled, and I did not speak out because I was not a disabled.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
(from Reverend Father Martin Niemöller)

@oldladyplays In case anyone is unsure what to comment:

The American Astronomical Society has tips (and maybe a template) on what makes a good public comment that they will actually consider.

https://aas.org/posts/news/2026/06/omb-proposed-rule