this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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Right, they never stated otherwise, but transphobic measures doesn't necessarily make one a nazi. It makes you awful but there are different kinds of awful than just nazism. The risk of calling everyone a nazi is that you dilute what the word actually means so that you risk generalizing and uniting the awful people instead of separating them based on their various horrendous opinions.
True but neither ideology deserves a spot at the table of civilized discourse. So it's a bit of a moot point.
It's not a moot point when we consider the fluidity of language and the potential for any group to manipulate terms to suit their interests. If someone can blanket-label their opposition as a 'transphobe' or, more extreme, a 'Nazi', it bypasses meaningful debate and eradicates the chance to understand differing viewpoints. This not only oversimplifies complex discussions, but it also fosters a lazy and destructive discourse that can fuel animosity rather than understanding. We need to be challenged. A tree that grows without wind will not have the strength to stand in a storm.
Imagine using the ammo of "complexity" and the subjectivity of language to defend wholly unsubtle people who explicity want others harassed/harmed/dead for being their authentic selves and that authenticity has absolutely NOTHIGN to do with them personally
Please explain how they differ?
Edit (2): TL;DR (and the first thought I had which then escaped me when I went to type my original reply but has now returned): The Venn diagram of Nazis and transphobes has massive overlap, but even those that don't fit in both are bad and harmful in their own right, so who are you really defending here?
And before you try
"Nazism wasn't about transphobia":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft#Nazi_era
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/
or
"Transphobes today have nothing to do with Nazism":
https://zeefeed.com.au/anti-trans-feminism-nazi-ideology/
https://socialism.com/fso-article/posie-parker-in-australia-terfs-nazis-and-the-fight-for-trans-liberation/
Edit (1) because sent too soon:
Not wanting to admit it to themselves and/or being wilfully ignorant in defence of their cognitive dissonance, nor you personally not liking it, doesn't make transphobes any less supporters of what is without a doubt a Nazi (if not Nazi inspired, which doesn't make it better) ideology, attitude, and behaviour.
Nazis, they are defending Nazis and want to pretend they are not.
That's why when you ask them to clarify they go quiet, because they know that means saying the quiet part out loud because, as you say, there is only one conclusion.
That Sartre quote again but with the relevant bit in bold:
What people don't get is that when someone is called a Nazi, it doesn't necessarily mean that they literally identify completely with Nazi ideology.
Rather it is about the pattern of behavior that is equivalent to the Nazi pattern of behavior.
For that to be true, people do not need to, for example, hate and want to kill Jews. "Jews" could be replaced by anything else, for example trans people, and it's still valid to call them a Nazi.
If one does not want to be called a Nazi, maybe don't try to get rid of a group of people that haven't done anything bad.
The vast majority of people screaming about bathrooms in the US are in fact Nazis or nazi adjacent.
There is NO reason to dump that much hate on like two or three people per state unless you just enjoy the cruelty.
That's just ridiculous. Not all bad things are the same thing.
Read up on nazi policies towards trans people
All Nazis are transphobes, but not all transphobes are Nazis.
At best this is obnoxiously pedantic and at worst you provide cover for bigots so what are you getting out of this?
If we start going down the "all bad people are x" path without having at least some knowledge of why and how they're bad, we open ourselves to manipulation. Or irrelevance, if we dilute the term "Nazi" so much that when we call out actual Nazis no one listens.
We have to be truthful in our accusations. Especially in a case like this. Being a transphobe is, by itself, a horrible thing. We don't need to muddy the waters by throwing "Nazi" in there too. There are plenty of other, actual Nazis that can have that label.
Oh my god shut the fuck up. How many people do you think are rocking swastika armbands and are members of the nazi party? Like, none. Now how many nazis are there? It’s a descriptor, it’s a pejorative. Shut the fuck up prevaricators