Transphobic rhetoric is becoming genocidal
A new report highlights the spread of harmful disinformation concerning the transgender community.
“But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.”
The above quote comes from ‘They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45’ by Milton Sanford Mayer. The book is a study of ten Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews Mayer conducted after the end of the second world war. I was reminded of the quote when reading some of the discussion that followed the publication of the Disinformation Project’s working paper ‘Transgressive transitions; Transphobia, community building, and community bridging within Aotearoa New Zealand’s disinformation ecologies March-April 2023’. The paper looks at the spread of disinformation online following the visit of British anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka Posie Parker) to Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in March. Keen-Minshull’s rally In Melbourne was attended by a group of neo-Nazis from the National Socialist Network, led by Thomas Sewell (a man who had previously tried to recruit the future Christchurch shooter). The group performed Nazi salutes and carried a banner reading ‘destroy paedo freaks’. The report notes that “the neo-Nazis in attendance were not decried by Parker or other organisers during the event, though Parker later claimed no association with them.”
When Keen-Minshull came to Auckland she was met with a sizable counter-protest. In attendance was Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, who was accosted by Counterspin Media who questioned her about violence from the transgender community, “I am a violence prevention minister and I know who causes violence in the world,” Davidson answered, “it is white, cis men.” After the comment received significant backlash, she clarified that “violence happens in every community. My intention was to affirm that trans people are deserving of support and to keep the focus on the fact that men are the main perpetrators of violence.”
On Telegram, the unmoderated social media platform of choice for the far-right, content which targeted Davidson was produced by the white nationalist group Action Zealandia, and then shared across the wider sphere for disinformation channels, reaching more mainstream social media platforms.
“The immediate effect was norm-setting, where the type of content normative on Telegram rapidly migrated to more mainstream platforms, including Twitter. The longer-term effect is multipolar community bridging, in which through their engagement with others on this theme, and their much engaged with narrative which used racist invective and misogynoir to target Davidson, Action Zealandia are now effectively core members of a community that previously had seen little engagement with them or perceived them as fringe. Multipolar community bridging is reinforced through bonding activities, such as Action Zealandia encouraging their audience to help them identify counterprotest participants through slow harvesting of names and other identity details.”
The working paper describes far-right content and narrators emerging as “the dominant narrative signature across domestic Telegram discourse – with content imported from foreign neo-Nazi channels at a pace never before studied, which we can state, with a high level of confidence, did not previously exist to this extent within our location of study.” The online communities that had formed in response to COVID-19 vaccine mandates had become imbued with transphobia, originating from far-right groups and reaching a genocidal level of rhetoric. Transgender people were portrayed as preying on children, and dehumanised with comparisons to animals and demons. The following are comments from Telegram noted by the report. Please be aware this may be distressing to some readers (destress in fact is a reasonable response):
There'll be NO MORE peaceful Pride Pedo Marches in this country again. Boycott all businesses who support this community. Tear down their propaganda posters. Paint over their symbolism. And always remember, you're dealing with the mentally deranged so do keep yourself safe when around them!
They are supporting pedophilia and arguing for pedo rights. It's disgusting. Unfortunately I am just one person and the state has an entire army protecting these pedo freaks.. It's really frustrating and infuriating. I can't believe that our societal standards have gone so low that not only is pedo advocacy a thing that is allowed to exist but that pedos themselves are protected by the state.
sex with kids is NOT ok & you need a public hanging
Their views are nothing but pure satanism....I'm going to call it out for what it is....I don't care if I get locked up.... they're been calling our people terrorists for years....no we are going against they're Babylon bullshet!
violent animals & child groomers
These psycho weirdos attacking women is unacceptable. Very disappointing men did not show up in force to provide protection from these sick puppies. My grandfather taught me if you turn your check you will get hit hard, so face them and protect yourself.
Story time with the crossdressing tranny goat Freemasonic faggot Baphomet
When the NZ government is run by genocidal psychopathic homosexual communists and feminazis, they import cross dressing UN Baphomet faggots to attack and censor white women and femininity.
These Transfuckers are inciting a war against us. Baphomet
The mainstream media hatred for white folk in general makes it dangerous enough, just add Baphomet to the mix and they're literally bashing old women up publicly in broad daylight.
This online hate leads to offline harm. Stuff journalist Gabrielle McCulloch spoke to a teacher who requested to be anonymous as she is an ongoing target of hate. She had answered in the affirmative when some children at the school had asked if two men could get married, and then began receiving emails. “They said that I was forcing my views on the children. They didn’t want me to talk about or refer to gayness in any form, at any point. They wanted that ‘disgusting flag’ on the wall taken down,” Someone came to her classroom and photographed the pride flag which had been there for years without complaint, and posted it online. One person said they would go to the school and “burn it down off the wall”.
One of Aoteroa’s most prominent transphobes, a woman who is not a neo-Nazi or fascist but probably best described as a Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminist (TERF) took to Twitter to attack the authors of the Disinformation Project report (one of whom it should be noted is a Holocaust historian) posting a thread of gruesome photos of genocide victims. “Anyone who refers to “trans genocide” is either ignorant of history (& present genocides) or so self-serving & entitled that they willingly disrespect victims of actual genocide.” she wrote “They should be ashamed of themselves & the news should be condemning them not propagating their lies.”
Historians understand that mass murder is not the beginning of genocide but it’s end point. When I wrote about the genocide that occurred in Bosnia in the 1990s I drew on ‘The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia’ by Michael Sells. Sells wrote of an “ideology of genocide.” A set of symbols, rituals, stereotypes, and partially concealed assumptions that dehumanised a people as a whole, creating a justification for their extermination.
An ideology of genocide targetting the transgender community (and the wider LGBTQIA+ community) is emerging online, and those who understand where this ideology can lead are raising the alarm.
We are not at a point in history comparable to the Nazi gas chambers of 1943- no one is claiming that we are. Returning to the quote from Mayer’s book, we are at a point more akin to the “German Firm” stickers on shops in 1933. Are we at step A? Or B? Or C? People are demanding the removal of pride flags and books with LGBTQIA+ themes from schools and libraries, and the banning of drag queens reading to children. What's the next step and when exactly is the time it’s appropriate to be speaking out?
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