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A Concern Troll’s Cognitive Dissonance: Helen Joyce On Trans Kids
If your mind is made up, why do you pretend to be open to more data?
Yesterday I wrote about one of Helen Joyce’s anti-trans videos in which she spouts eliminationist language for an hour. It’s standard behavior for her, but it shouldn’t be normal for anyone.
Many anti-trans people have a perception of an opponent they call “trans activism”; it’s generally a straw man.
Anti-trans people usually claim to want a “debate,” but they only talk to each other.
I don’t think Helen Joyce wants a debate. Her position seems inflexible. She claims to be eagerly waiting for more data to find out if trans people are happy being trans, but as her anti-trans position rests on her principle that trans people break the world, I don’t see why more data would change her mind. I don’t see why she’d even want to talk to us, and indeed she doesn’t talk to us.
Few trans people personally want to debate anti-trans ideologues anyway, correctly believing one or all of these: 1) the fact of our existence is incontrovertible 2) we who are trans may simply assume our moral prerogative to be trans 3) our basic rights and social inclusion shouldn’t be up for debate either 4) if we talk to anti-trans people, they will…
