“I do like the decision to make Janice Raymond sound like an evil witch…”
I’ve spent some time tracing the line Wokists have drawn between feminists and the Right Wing, but this node in the TERF dot-to-dot has a few things that make it special.
You’re going along, minding your own business, when suddenly…
Credit is due to YouTuber King Critical, whose encyclopedic knowledge of literature brought this misdirection to light. While reacting to Jessie Gender, he spotted a misquote that changes the whole meaning of the referenced passage. Jessie tweaks a sentence in a foundational text, and uses it to smear radical feminism.
Janice Raymond’s The Transsexual Empire pulls no punches, and some of the more scathing lines are perennial favorites of those looking to paint feminists as judgmental bitches. Janice does a fine job crafting aggressive arguments without Jessie Gender’s help.
But, true to form, Jessie is keen to help anyway. He offers us a choice cut, “The problem of transsexualism would best be served by mandating it out of existence.”
Our guide King Critical is ready to roll right along, “I mean, that’s kind of true, right?” But a closer look at the line stops him in his tracks. “…Am I being weird? I feel like there’s a word missing here.”
KC is leaping quickly from one idea to the next, because he has already done his homework – “I think that a word is missing. Let me just check this, I feel like this is just – That was a lie.”
Maybe I’m tired, but I was impressed with his ability to catch this poisoned arrow mid-flight: “I’m pretty sure that should say, ‘Best be served by morally mandating it out of existence.’ And, if so, this is really interesting to me.”
Never one to make hollow accusations or not bring receipts, KC pulls up the PDF already on his computer, “This is fun, because – Literally – This is a complete misrepresentation. And it’s really funny.”
That’s a word for it, I guess.
He walks us through the actual quote from Raymond’s book again, scoffing at having stumbled upon something so blatant. “That’s a big difference, isn’t it? Because, if you say -” KC has to pause for a breath, hands flying to his forehead, “It’s so transparent! And this is so fascinating.”
Thorough to a fault, he even double-checks Jessie isn’t quoting a different edition. “I’m just gonna make sure that I’m not being silly … Because I’m actually kind of shocked to think that this could be totally misrepresenting the quote.”
Oh, you sweet Summer child!
But, sure enough, every source he can find agrees with his version.
“And that is huge. Basically, what this is – It’s a misrepresentation and a tremendous lie. Genuinely, this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my time doing these videos.”
One word might not seem like such a big deal, but this word changes a core concept of a core text of radical feminism. “What must have happened here is that the exact quote was written out, and it was realized if you include ‘morally,’ that changes the meaning of the quote.”
He tells us about The 99 Rule, crediting David Wood with the idea that most people just aren’t paying attention. “The attitude of, if you say something, only like one percent of people will actually bother looking up what you said.”
“Therefor, a lot of the time, it’s to your advantage to just lie.” He calls Jessie’s transgression a literal example of this. KC seems so perturbed by Jessie’s clumsiness he feels compelled to find an explanation for it.
And just when we might be worried the tangent ran away with him, he brings it all together: “So, let’s just clarify this case – What is the actual distinction?”
“Mandating something out of existence implies using the law to make something illegal. Morally mandating something out of existence means changing the public perception of morality so this thing is no longer acceptable.”
The rush of discovery wearing off, KC begins to process the ripples of what Jessie is saying. “That phrase, ‘morally mandating out of existence,’ is a term that I use a lot.” For whatever reason, the first example he hits on is tipping, and what a shitty custom that is. “We should change our attitude toward tipping, in order to make it no longer exist.” He adds fascism as another good candidate for social extinction, alongside gender ideology.
And he can’t help but pinpoint the irony of it all, “And, by the way, I’ll point out that Jessie Gender wants gender critical beliefs mandated out of existence.”
KC runs through the situation one more time, not quite believing what he’s heard, “To morally mandate something out of existence is to so firmly establish in the zeitgeist the idea that something is immoral that it ceases to even exist.
“That is radically different from mandating it out of existence. That implies government intervention, which is not what Janice Raymond is talking about.
“I think that’s absolutely fascinating, that such an obvious perversion of what Janice Raymond was saying… [She] was talking about changing people’s minds using logic and reason. I think that’s such a powerful idea to describe how we should approach all horrible, evil things in society.“
The big thing that makes this stop on the TERF Express special is it explains much more than a simple word change should, at first glance. I think this gives us a motivation for the sweeping legal changes happening all over the world – It’s a preemptive strike.
Nobody gets the drop on me!
“The way that Jessie presents it … changes the entire basis for what this is saying.” KC explains that Janice is arguing for using limiting legislation to establish transition as something worth limiting.
Jessie’s tweak makes Janice’s proposal into authoritarian eradication. Jessie dances with his straw man, telling us this sneak attack is not just an intellectual exercise.
KC hits back, “It was! – Morally mandate it, change people’s minds – You’re arguing in a really disingenuous way.”
He expresses disappointment with how bad Jessie’s tactic is, but lets him continue: “The intention of TERFs is … to have actual real-world ramifications for transgender people’s daily lives.” Effective legislation? The horror!
KC jumps on this, “Well, of course. We’re not just doing this for our health.”
“We believe that gender identity extremism is harmful, and should be opposed. I like how it’s being presented as the Big Reveal.”
But, for Jessie’s audience, it probably is. He’s going to get away with the lie, but I bet he didn’t come up with it himself. This idea fits nicely into a gap in my personal understanding of what we’re up against – Wokists are very litigious zealots.
They have prioritized legislation in their favor in a way I don’t think any of us saw coming. Like any cult, they are heavily insulated and limit the flow of information. But anyone can watch a YouTube video, and we engage a lot more with their content than they do with ours.
Knowing our adversaries is the first step to beating them. Gender ideologs keep their defensive stance and shout ‘Bigot!’, refusing to actually engage with anything we say.
This gives us some hope of outmaneuvering them, and I think I’m seeing a silver lining to their insistence on lumping us with the Right Wing. They have no idea what they’re talking about, but we’ve done our homework.
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