The Fear Is Real
Today, we continue our look at the trans experience with guest blogger Bitter Karella, most widely known for their brilliant “Midnight Pals” Twitter account. Here, Karella addresses the elephant in the room - literally.
It's difficult to overstate the fear of this moment. For years, trans and queer people have warned about the escalating hostility of the Republican party and the far right toward queer Americans, how they were very obviously building up to eliminate trans and gender nonconforming people entirely from public life, and now it’s here. Florida is the first state to abandon its “Won’t someone think of the children” figleaf and, in opposition to all science and to people's basic right to live their own authentic lives, forcibly detransition every trans adult in the state. It's hard to overstate the fear and despair that I hear from trans friends in Florida, who are being denied life-saving care, and those throughout the country who worry that they're next. And there’s not much to say except it fucking sucks. It’s infuriating that the Republican party and its Nazi sycophants have chosen to wage war against our most vulnerable neighbors for cheap political points. It's fucking bad.
At this point, some sea-lioning dullard will inevitably arrive to cluck their tongue at the use of the word “genocide” and argue that, technically, being forced to live in hiding isn’t genocide and, as long as the Gestapo isn’t physically breaking into your house and putting a physical gun to your head, it’s not genocide. Get bent. You know you’re a joke, so shut the fuck up.
A lot of ink has been spilled trying to understand this resurgent fascist movement, what really motivates all these screaming TERFs and Nazis and chuds, and what makes it so that this irrational frothing hate consumes them. Ultimately, the answer is: who gives a shit. But more to the point, I think one the truest answers came from, of all people, Arnold Schwarzenegger in a video posted earlier this year to his YouTube channel. The video was an earnest appeal to people suckered into hate movements, but I think it's worth watching for any of us. Because Schwarzenegger gets it, they’re losers.
"There has never been a successful movement based on hate," said Schwarzenegger. "The Nazis? Losers! The Confederacy? Losers! Apartheid? Losers!"
Arnold Knows What’s Up
He’s right. You instinctively know a loser when you see one: a chump, self-involved to understand anything outside of their own self-interest, the sort of person who sucks the fun out of the room and then belly-aches endlessly that, because of their own behavior, no one likes them. If their postings are any indication, whatever energy Nazis, TERFs, and Republicans don't waste on actively hurting people is spent lamenting that the people they actively hurt don't like them. Absolute loser talk! Losers will cringe away from self-examination, fearing above all else the reminder of their own loser status. How many times in the last year have we watched state legislatures and medical boards openly sneer at trans people begging for their lives, only to suddenly shut down discussion with lofty cries for "order" and "decorum" the moment someone aims a mirror toward them so that they can too clearly see themselves? Loser shit. The bigot all else hates to be reminded that he is a bigot and will do anything to avoid it-- except stop being a bigot. It wasn't enough for the Republican legislature of Montana to strip away medical care for the state's trans youth, it was necessary that everyone like them for it too. When Rep. Zooey Zephyr demanded to speak, to force them to face what they were actually doing, it was intolerable to them. In typical loser fashion, they couldn't stand the shame of the truth. In Twin Peaks, Gordon Cole (played by series creator David Lynch) admonished transphobic colleagues with the immortal line "Fix your heart or die." Given the choice, the loser would rather just die.
The Illusion of Power
You know it when you look at every major TERF, every fascist, every Nazi. They're losers. You can instinctively feel it. They can project the illusion of power, but they don't ultimately have control of your mind. They are incensed that, no matter what laws they pass, no matter how hard they bring down the boot, they can't get into your head and force you to like them in your private thoughts. Only a loser would worry about something like that. Seriously, they're embarrassing and infuriating to watch in action.
This is cold comfort. It's not enough that these people feel shame in their hearts for their deeds. My sincerest wish would be for them to ask themselves why, in fact, it is so hard for them to face the reality of what they're doing, to realize what absolute weirdo losers they're being, and to change -- to choose the path of winning. I think that the Republicans still have, buried deep down, the capacity to reject the easy path of hate and become winners. Just the other day, a Republican representative in Louisiana voted to reject a gender-affirming care ban after looking at the science and realizing that a ban would accomplish nothing but pain and misery. When a reporter asked if he was worried that extremely online Nazi Matt Walsh was trashing him On the Internet, he replied "Who cares? He's not in my district." That's king shit. That's the way a boss thinks. (I haven’t looked up anything else about the guy so he might be bad in other ways – he is a Republican, after all – don’t @ me) However, I suspect that most Republicans will refuse to self-examine like that. Given the choice, they would rather die than fix their hearts. In this case, they must be removed from power. Losers cannot be trusted to make decisions for the people of this country, because losers only think about their own benefit.
Florida trans people (and many other Floridians as well!) are living through the hell that DeSantis hopes to bring to the rest of the country. He watched America embrace a charismatic fascist, and he's gambling that the country will equally embrace an uncharismatic loser peddling the same schtick. We'll see. In any case, we should get rid of all these losers. They fucking suck, they do nothing but hurt our friends and neighbors while turning us all into ghoulish accomplices, and they’re embarrassing dopes. I am fucking sick to death of these losers.
Want some more Karella? Check out “Midnight Pals” on Twitter. Interested in writing a guest blog post for Blackwarren yourself? Contact us either on our Discord server or at dave@blackwarrenbooks.com.