Transgender youth in the United States have been flooding crisis hotlines since the election of Donald Trump, who made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign.
Going after a population of children that already are struggling with feeling different and trying to navigate a world that is weird and unaccepting of them feels so predatory. Do they plan to go down the line and just keep choosing groups to demonize? Today is trans kids, are we going to go back to punishing lefty kids also?! They both sound insane and cruel and something the government shouldn't even be worrying about with everything else going on in the world.
And in the pit of my stomach I know that trans kids are just the dog whistle for the christofascists war against anyone nonwhite, and anyone in the orbit of LGBTQ+. Stay safe everyone, the storm is just beginning. =(
Do they plan to go down the line and just keep choosing groups to demonize?
Yes, absolutely. Fascism requires an "out group" to demonize and scapegoat, and an "in group" that sticks together to hold their power. It's an us-vs-them thing that only works if you've got a them to be the enemy. They'll go down the list of minorities persecuting them as they go. Today it's immigrants, trans, and pregnant women. Once they're taken care of they can move into the rest, like Muslims (from Trump's first presidency), gay people, and likely atheists, intellectuals/academics, the disabled, etc.
The Nazis in Germany did exactly the same thing the American Nazis are about to do.
Yeah, my question was kinda rhetorical, but it also seems unreal that so many wanted this. So many thought this was the answer. Just shows how much the Rights disinformation network works, and the Left has no answer for it. They have been building an enormous and well connected media network to spread their lies and hate for years, while the Left fights over not having a unicorn candidate every 4 years.
We have a country full of people with Stockholm Syndrome, looking to their oppressors to make their lives better while being shit on (metaphorically for now).
I wish I could for the life of me remember which book I was reading when I heard this but basically the ultimate goal of fascism is cronyism, where a very small number of people control and have power over everyone else.
In order to accomplish this, they create enemies just like you state but they are very specific in the order in which those enemies are created.
It starts with people with whom you can easily identify. Immigrants, people who are a different color than you. Different languages, different look. Basically you are creating a group of who is bad so that you can create an implicit group of those who are "good". But it's important that the characteristics of who is good is never defined.
Once you isolate those who look different, you isolate those who act different. This is why trans people are attacked before homosexuals are attacked. Or in our current environment, there is a lot more violent rhetoric against the trans community than the LG community. But once they are gone, their hatred will return to homosexuals.
Once those who act different are dealt with, now you have to be more arbitrary because you have a homogeneous group. Now it becomes about status and class. So you the poor are the ones that face the brunt of the state.
At this point, cronyism usually sets in and you either are loyal or you are killed.