The right side of history or the winning side?

Trans activists love to talk about being on the "right side of history." But the mentality is something else—not the sense of being on the right side of history but the confidence of being on the winning side.

When you believe you're on the right side of history, you should act like it: take the high road, practice grace. Among trans activists, that self-belief doesn't translate into a principled approach but contempt. Trans activists have the assurance not of a just cause but of coming out on top—no matter what you say or do to get there. Being on the winning side of history means anything goes: violent threats, bald-faced lies, emotional manipulation, language that obscures.

Meanwhile, they can't decide if their political opponents are Nazis or just losers, evil witches or just ugly crones, bigots or just harpies, hateful or just uncool.

They mix grave accusations with a childish giddiness at bullying women and that giddiness puts the lie to their self-seriousness. We simply can't be all the things we're accused of because not only do the facts not fit the case against us, but the case contradicts itself. It's a revealing performance of victimization and powerlessness paired with a complete assurance of continued social dominance (perhaps accurate, perhaps not). It explains how you can target your opponents' livelihoods, burn books, target freedom of speech, scorn debate and not even dabble in persuasion, and yet somehow not believe that all this might come back to bite you.

People who've experienced—or fear—real powerlessness need recourse to a truth that doesn't live in anyone's head but can be made plain for all to see. So it's curious to see the World's Most OppressedⒸ people making arguments from unquestionable personal authority, while warping processes and institutions that are designed to seek the truth and silencing the people who speak it. That's power's agenda.

Who benefits from a left that's riven by bullshit, diverted from serious causes (climate change, racial injustice, inequality), where the possibility of genuine solidarity has been absolutely denied and where people are afraid to speak their minds, even to their friends? The training trans activism provides is one of constriction on the one hand and a flexible, mindless conformity on the other. Nothing good comes of that.