Black & White thinking, Gender Critical

Copy of a Twitter thread I just published; slightly altered. (Yes I still tweet every once in a blue moon, under my old “Social Justice Wizard” account.)

Too often we fall for black-and-white thinking. Yes, TRAs constantly verbally attack and unjustly accuse so-called “TERFs” of being horrible in this and that way. Of course, that doesn’t mean it can NEVER EVER happen that a GC woman (or man) is espousing genuinely reprehensible views.

Anna Slatz has been posting extremely homophobic and racist things for a while now. It’s not “quirky dark humor” to call middle eastern men “parasites” or to call an Indian man a “cockroach.” It’s not “quirky misandrist jokes” to make fun of gay men suffering from AIDS.

Depending on context, I suppose, you could argue that some of her “shitposting” could pass as dark humor in a tightly-knit friend group where people know each other and know that nobody in the group is actually that racist or homophobic, but Anna Slatz has been publishing unfunny, straight-up hate-filled bullshit from her Twitter account with thousands of followers. It’s behavior I’d expect from an ultra right-wing 4chan troll, not a public figure representing GC feminist politics.

Another particularly horrendous example of this I’ve encountered recently is a Dutch woman on an alternative social media site who seems to be convinced that *literally* 100% of Muslims are all pedophilic rapists or apologists thereof. No really, literally 100% of them in her words. When I called her out on this, she concluded that I, too, must be a secret Islamist engaging in “taqiyya” i.e. an Islamist who pretends not to be one so as to remain underground. It would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that she seemed dead serious.

This woman said Muslims “aren’t people” and “aren’t human” and that she finds it good when they die. I asked if she wants the 2 billion Muslims on the planet, about a quarter of the global human population, to be exterminated. She said “2 billion scum bastards.” Totally unhinged.

There was a small number of other GC women (just 2 to be exact) liking one or another post of hers, including one that said Muslims “aren’t people.” This kind of extremist hatred isn’t common at all in genuine (feminist) GC circles, but it does occur every once in a while. It shouldn’t be tolerated.

And if someone out there genuinely thinks that all Muslims are equivalent to radical Islamists, you seriously need to touch grass and go visit one or another non-Islamist Muslim-majority country. Go check out Izmir (Turkey), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Tirana (Albania), and so on. Check out Alawite people and their alternative Islam. I haven’t been to Uzbekistan or Albania but my understanding is that they’re relatively similar to Turkey, which is where I’ve grown up, as an openly atheist kid, without ever facing issues because of it. (Though I hear there is serious discrimination against atheists in many places in Turkey.) Here in Germany, I’ve met many friendly Alawites in the city I live in. Their interpretation of Islam seems to be based on humanist core values.

Most Muslims just call themselves Muslims and say they believe in Islam because it’s become part of their culture, but they don’t strictly follow Islam. Same as people in Europe saying they’re Christian but not following the teachings of the Catholic Church or anything.

It goes without saying that the Muslim pedo-rape gangs in Britain are a massive problem and that they should face the full force of the law. Anyone who thinks it’s “Islamophobia” to talk about that, and to question the role (radical) Islam plays in it, is a fool. I’m just adding this here because, as of the time of this writing, this is a massive story in the news, and indeed it should be a massive story. It should be talked about and it should be made sure that it can never happen again.

But it’s possible, no, desirable, to talk about problems with Islam, with horribly failed integration of African or Middle-Eastern migrants in Europe, etc., without monstering all Muslims or all migrants from those regions. When people talk about the pedophilia scandal within the Church, they don’t conclude that 100% of Christians are pedo rapists who should be exterminated, do they? It’s not difficult.