Anlaf, that's really interesting. The same appears to be true of Trump followers in the US and Brexit supporters over here (and for balance I'm sure it also applies to Momentum and other left-wing groups too). I was gobsmacked on Twitter the other day to find out that many Republican supporters believe the US is not a democracy. This explains a great deal. They actually believe that because they are a republic they can't also be a democracy. This can only be tribal. They vote Republican, Democrats are the enemy, therefore nothing that sounds like Democrat can be a good thing. Wow.
The reason we are at the position we are at is because of a gradual complacency over the concept of democracy and the involvement that ordinary people have in that.
It has been particularly noticeable in the UK since the Blair years and people tend to term the undermining factor as 'political spin' - its basically a reflection of the overuse of propaganda to try and persuade people to believe certain things and behave in a certain way (an authoritarian creep) which has ignored the participation and contribution of certain groups to debate. Obama was also very guilty of using executive powers too often as he struggled to get anything done otherwise because of democratic opposition in Congress. It meant that it is now much more acceptable and harder for Democrats to challenge Trump's use of executive powers.
As parts of the public feel they have lost influence they have looked elsewhere to be 'listened to'. This is where it becomes sinister as groups exploit this democracy deficient profess to have the answers become popular with the mentality that 'we aren't being listened to by the mainstream so we are not part of democracy so have nothing to lose anyway'. It doesn't matter if those they turn to tell outrageous lies, because the perception is that 'everyone else does the same anyway', and 'I may as well look after my own interests and screw everyone else' because they feel they have already been screwed over. They cling to the ideal of hope because the governing alternative has already removed that glimmer of hope from them.
The reality is it never works like that. When rights in a certain area are eroded, it becomes acceptable for rights in other areas to be eroded. Rights can only be protected by a collective valuing of what they mean. People swept up in this mentality have a misconception and inability to conceive that things could indeed get much worse for them until it happens sadly. Because they take for granted the protection that rights offer them. What we are currently seeing is the loss of value and a lack of understanding of what anyone losing rights really means. You can not 'replace' rights - you can only add to those that already exist - without destroying the integrity and value of rights overall.
People do not realise that devaluing the rights of others ALWAYS devalues their own rights. Without exception. Until you are part of the small number of people who have real power.
Over use of propaganda and turning away from the slow and difficult job of building consensus by liberals for a 'quick result' has corrupted liberalism from the very thing that it opposed - authoritarianism. It has merely served to make it acceptable for those with darker agenda be able to use the same methods, without the ability of liberals to criticise without appearing - quite rightly - total hypocrites, for their own more extreme and less inclusive agendas. This is both on the left and right.
The trans issue in America, did influence a certain section of the population and make them turn away from voting for Hilary when they might otherwise have done so.
I do recommend Nick Cohen's 'What's Left' for a wider and more in depth exploration of the erosion and loss of faith in democracy in the west.
At the moment, we are not making any progress on reclaiming this and turning the tide. It requires people to better understand the concepts and principles of democracy and to fight for them. The current government and opposition are both working against that, which makes it very difficult to get a work in edgeways in a climate where the language of both is very much focused on this polarisation and the idea of 'traitors'.
Brexit is the very embodiment of this pattern. Leaving the EU in itself was not necessarily a bad principle - there were some good reasons in the mix of all the bad and for some people they were important and I think it is important to recognise that rather than condemn the idea of Leaving outright. The problem is and always was, how it leaves the UK and EU citizens here vulnerable and exposed to the removal of rights as certain groups hijack it as an opportunity to 'take back control' of power for themselves rather than the people.
As always, its not what you do, but the way you do it that is incredibly important. To restore liberalism and democracy people need to understand its value and get back to the hard graft of defending it wherever it exists.
Anyway, I digress a lot, but I do think the background to the wider political climate is relevant and worth understanding in order to try and defend against authoritarian Trans Activism.
It is not an issue about left, right or centre here. There is a movement to try and create this idea that those on the right or in the centre are the enemy which is part of the dynamic of far left gaining control and growing in power. There are liberals in the centre and in the right who are allies on certain issues and value the idea of democracy even if they have different opinions elsewhere. A healthy functioning democracy allows and encourages debate, rather than tries to shut it down by 'demonising the enemy'.
