Transphobes owe a lot to the Nazis.

The Nazis systematically destroyed information about queer people, wiping out transgender history as well as invaluable medical research. If this had never happened current knowledge of sex and gender would be decades ahead of where it is now. It would be much harder for TERFs to portray their bigotry and internalized shame as science and facts.

#Whitesupremacy has always gone hand in hand with transphobia.

#Politics #TERF #Nazi

Fact-checking was much harder pre-internet. Most people also had no platform beyond their families and friends.

Many media tactics for #politics were developed between the end of WW2 and the US' mass adoption of the internet. Next time you wonder "Why did Politician think we would fall for this?!" it may be because that move worked when folks relied on the local #media outlets and neighborhood rumor mills for information.

It's basically the rhetorical equivalent of running Windows 95.

In the 1970's Boston schools were still functionally segregated. A policy of desegregation bussing was introduced

A group called ROAR (Restore Our Alienated Rights) opposed this. They were racists but it was unfashionable to own that label at the time.

Instead, they argued that it would deprive parents of their right to choose their child's school environment.

Yet, with redlining and so on, choice was realistically mainly for White parents. They simply didn't want to share their power.

They say there's two sides to every story and I worry because people seem to interpret that literally.

I genuinely hate the modified version "there's three sides to every story. Your side, their side, and the truth." It always seems to ultimately mean "be quiet."

When a new communications technology becomes widely available and adopted, there is a restructuring of social power.

Someone once pushed back when I told them because there's still so much disempowerment.

I pointed out that, thanks to the internet, the sort of crazy people who previously just sat around screaming at walls are now directing legions of Proud Boys in the streets.

I never said the restructuring was necessarily good.

The brutality and oppression being directed at transgender people is, in my opinion, currently the most pressing civil rights issue in the US.

If you don't fight for their rights, what is happening to them now could be a glimpse of your future.

The people behind the anti-transgender hysteria are not motivated by logic and facts. Letting them have their way will not put an end to their hateful paranoia.

News media overrepresents some forms of violent crime and violent crime itself is overrepresented in news feeds.

This is because violence sells. There's even a saying among news professionals "if it bleeds, it leads."

Here are some features that make violence more newsworthy.

1) rare, relative to other violent crime
2) fits into pre-existing media narratives about society
3) scary enough to be threatening, not scary enough to make you shut down
4) casualties
5) reinforces the status quo

Repetition makes media messaging more powerful.

This can be repetitions of anything you can think of: gestures, text, phrasing, images, associations, music stings, angle, etc.

Major news networks know this. The theatrics of news media are very obvious once you spot them. The bit that gets repeated the most is what you're meant to take away.

Keep in mind, US news outlets are motivated by profit first. Their job is to sell you things and they also sell your attention.

I think the most valuable thing I've learned about persuasion is that you cannot get agreement from someone who is determined to disagree with you.

Once I really internalized that, I started saving loads of time and energy.

@Alfred How do you verify a CounterSocial account with a Twitter account?