631
Lesbians Like Me Joined Forces with Conservatives. Now They’re Turning on Us. (www.queermajority.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/leopardsatemyface@lemmy.world
176 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

When the “woke” mania swept the country in 2020, I took a step back and reevaluated where I stood and why I stood there. To my surprise, I found that I agreed with conservatives and libertarians on a number of issues. I opposed childhood gender transitions, unlawful and divisive DEI mandates, and the excesses of Critical Race Theory. I argued against biological males competing in women’s sports and being housed in women’s prisons. I did so loudly and publicly, losing many friends along the way.

Today, some of those same attorneys I worked with are advocating for my right to marry my fiancée to be stripped away.

I fell for obvious right-wing propaganda and rationalized the hate with reason and logic. Now the hate machine is coming for me and that's not fair!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 64 points 6 months ago* (9 children)

This person needs to develop self-awareness: why is it only becoming a problem when it affects her directly?

Her issue doesn’t affect me at all but I still want to do the right thing. And I would never vote for Trump because it was pretty clear he wouldn’t do the right thing, in many human right and quality of life scenarios

(Plus he had a long history as a con man from before he ran for election, before he paid for his sleazy reality show to reset his reputation: I’m still confused how people could fall for this)

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 9 child comments
    •
  • [+] 19 points 6 months ago (1 child)
    [deleted]
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 7 points 6 months ago

    It seems to be a variation in the extent to which one can easily extend empathy outside close kin groups to more extended or even abstract kin groups that defines what makes someone constitutionally more conservative or more liberal. It has to do with fear thresholds and openness to experience traits too but also empathy scope. And so my conclusion is that this woman is constitutionally more inclined towards a conservative mindset and that this is independent of her sexual orientation. Too bad for her that other conservatives will never be reliable allies for her because, even though she identifies with them, they can't empathize with what she is.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    The problem isn’t so much about things becoming problems once they affect a person, it’s often that these people were never exposed to things affecting them personally before they became adults.

    I am of the opinion that empathy develops best when people are exposed to life (for this exercise you are welcome to define “life” how you see fit).

    While I have not personally been mistreated for my gender or race, and I have never had anybody murdered or abducted in my personal life, I have had a lot of other Bad Things(TM) happen to me that has developed a healthy sense of empathy. I can then use that empathy and apply it to those other situations. It’s like the analogy of lifting weights can train you to pick up and move heavy things (not just barbells).

    People like this have led what I believe to be very sheltered lives. Maybe they were spoiled, never told no, whatever. As far as they ever knew the horribleness of the world only happened to other people (in books, papers, movies, and TV shows), who they were taught were deserving of such things, and that it would never happen to them regardless pf anything.

    None of this is meant to excuse anyone’s behavior or lack of empathy. Never would I suggest such a thing. But it may help your sanity in having a possible understanding of how it might happen in the first place.

    It may not; I am not presuming to know you or how you will react to anything I’ve just said.

    YMMV.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 15 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Along the way in life I have met plenty of people who did have the awful things in life happen to them, and yet they still take this position. I have met many people who have been subject to bigotry all their lives, but then an trans person comes into the picture, and they expose themselves to be equally bigoted, and equally without empathy, and just as vicious.

    People develop this way because they desperately want to be part of the power holding in-group, not the powerless out-group. So they will have their own out-group of marginalized people, whom they can feel some of that power over.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago

    It could be a lot of things. I have learned that with how the world works there is no one single answer for why people do the things they do. So yeah, it could be ignorance as I suggested, a power grab/sense of belonging like you suggest, and/or something else entirely.

    I also think people like this person in the article gets wha they deserve, regardless of why they are the way they are.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] -1 points 6 months ago

    Based on my interactions with you in the past, you were unable to apply this same logic to the genocide in Gaza.

    You don't actually live by the principle you just stated and hypocritically are fine with throwing someone else under the bus to protect yourself.

    That was several years ago, though. Hopefully you've changed.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent