I recently made a new account on lemmy.blahaj.zone, because I’ve been harassed and doxxed on my old account and I wanted a fresh start with a more lighthearted online identity that I could be more open about my gender identity on. I’d heard blahaj zone was good for trans people, so I made my account there. And yeah, [email protected] removed my post discussing neuronormativism from a queer perspective, but I hoped maybe “the trans instance” would be friendlier to trans people.
A couple days after making my account, I saw someone on Blahaj engaging in the tired old cliche of “I hate politics, there’s no politics on my social media and I want to keep it that way!” Well we’ve all heard the joke that the two races are white and political, the two genders are male and political, and the two sexualities are straight and political. Hatred of politics is a transphobic, sexist, and racist trope. And having sufferred harassment and abuse from people inside the queer community who “hated politics” and saw trans or nonbinary or xenogender identities as political, I knew this kind of speech was going to make bigots feel comfortable saying they also hate politics, and they think us trans people are it.
So, I responded to the transphobia. I started out by attempting to educate them on what politics actually means. But I was interrupted by the Blahaj admin Ada, who told me that politics is “anything I disagree with”, and that indeed politics isn’t welcome on Blahaj. This language was deeply triggering of my past issues dealing with abuse, and I knew from past experience this sort of thing is said by people who are getting ready to say some enbyphobic or racist hate speech. It is especially common for white queer people to talk this way to BIPOC queer people. I tried to reason with Ada, explained the history of the cliche, the trauma it’s caused many trans people, and the consequences this kind of speech will have on the community here, making us all less safe.
Ada wasn’t having it. She minimised my concerns by reducing them to my personal trauma while ignoring my wider concerns for others’ safety, and weaponised my PTSD to paint my opinions as invalid because I am mentally ill. She said she owns Blahaj, and she gets to do whatever she wants with it, and nobody is allowed to express a differing opinion, even one that protects trans people, because that’s politics. At the time I thought her concern was me speaking directly to transphobes and making them feel uncomfortable by calling out their actions, so I said I’d just report it instead, and she banned my account.
This behaviour protects transphobes, WILL lead to trans and BIPOC people being harassed on this instance, attacks and gaslights victims of trauma (my concerns can’t be valid because I have a mental illness), and forces out any trans person with a commitment to safety for the community.
The thread where all this happened: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/2143969
I don’t think it is a dumb take. People that affirms they hate politics are either uninformed or straight up conservatives without knowing, at least the ones I’ve met.
Generally when I’ve heard people say they hate politics, they mean discussing elections and political leaders or political issues isn’t fun. It’s not what they’re looking for, and they don’t like it popping up outside of places meant for it.
If I went into a politically focused community and started posting random furry meme pics, I shouldn’t be surprised when people say they hate furry memes. Now, apply that to people who hate politics when they’re in non-politically focused communities when some politically charged idealist of any spectrum starts trying to relate this totally unrelated thing to some political issue.
If they’re saying they hate politics while in the middle of a political discussion, sure. But I don’t see that as often as the other context.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even say the second part about conservatives. In my experience, most centrists agree with Democrats on most issues. But Republicans try their hardest to make politics a mudslinging contest so centrists become disinterested. That evens the playing field.
All that to say yes, I agree with you that they are uninformed. And it’s caused by the most vile of the Republicans because they can’t compete if centrists stayed engaged.