Someone (a man) just blocked me on FB for sharing this

[sunnypatio]

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/self-defining-trans-women-to-be-allowed-on-labours-all-women-parliamentary-shortlists-partys-nec-set-to-announce-equalities-committee_uk_5a9d94f4e4b0479c0255e9c2

I wrote that I couldn't vote for Labour any more.

Admittedly, I don't know him all that well. He's the exH of a friend that I never bothered to defriend. He works in the NHS and I think considers himself quite "right on", labour voter, etc.
He didn't engage, just wrote "blocked" underneath and has indeed blocked me.
No great loss, but it obviously really offended him and I'm kind of surprised, that he would be offended enough by it to block me. Also noticeable was the huuuuuge tumbleweed from other people. My FB is a bit of an echo chamber of people who think themselves "left/progressive/whatever". Not one commented. nobody liked it.

I think I have outed myself as a TERF and I think I'm probably the only one or the only one to admit it.

Another person I like and generally agree with was spouting some bullshit about scientific evidence for male and females brains the other day.

I've read so much (really thought provoking) stuff here but I think most people haven't realised the implications of Self ID or know nothing about it.

That's it really, just a bit taken aback by reactions.

It's probably crap of me but I've deleted all references to feminism and trans issues from my FB feed and have decided I'm not mentioning politics on there any more.

I keep wondering why so many posters are so surprised that the deafening hush is coming from left/liberal people.

It's all this compassion and moral highgrounding many go in for. It used to be the same with any suggestion that debate was needed about immigration levels - until it became clear even to the left that asking for a debate did not always mean you came complete with horns and a tail.

Hopefully, thanks to the issue of self ID being highlighted by MN and certain journalists the implications of self ID will be come clear to even the most virtue signalling leftie, the penny will drop and they will start saying "we need a debate about this".

Mind you that could a case of the triumph of hope over experience.

Op - I'm having a similar issue. I intend to leave the Labour Party if it goes ahead with self-id being all you need. But I'm concerned about adding my name to the list - I think it will have a huge backlash and I'm concerned (especially after a couple of women were attacked for attending a meeting earlier).

This is pretty shocking that people are afraid to speak out in this way...

Nearly 80 years ago men in this country bravely went to war and fought fascists.

These days there are men who are too cowardly even to listen to an opinion they don't agree with.

@hackmum this is brilliant and well worth repeating.

I've been making the occasional comment on FB about trans issues, and the other day I shared a post from the Women's Place UK - an article in the Morning Star about why we need a new woman's movement.

Tumbleweed. Pretty much every time.

It's ... disconcerting.

People are either unaware of the implications of self ID or are scared to admit they are concerned.

Keep going OP.

Posting reasonable articles about the implications might lose you the odd follower but you WILL empower others who have been to scared to comment and you will make people think.

I've been posting gender critical stuff on twitter for a couple of years now and have lost count of the people who have messaged me to say they now get what I am saying.

Keep on keeping on.

Well, yesterday I shared the petition I saw on here (about asking the govt to consult women about changes to laws about Gender) and got one like.
Hopefully others saw it and signed it even if they don't want to publicly say anything.

You're out now, so keep going! I did — kept it polite and rational, linked to a few things that people could follow privately, pondered on what this would mean for our daughters and granddaughters — and while I get ignored on FB in RL people come up and say 'I read that link you posted. Hmmm...' IME many people have big doubts about self ID but are scared to say. Someone needs to take the lead and it turns out that I'm the one locally.

The bloke who blocked you is virtue-signalling: easy for men to do when this issue doesn't affect them.

The tumbleweed thing is interesting. Admittedly, some people are worried about their jobs, and possible repercussions, but I'm beginning to think that more are starting to notice some of the criticism of Transgender demands and tactics in the media. There is lots of stuff on Twitter, and some excellent articles getting through.

Maybe, just maybe, they are beginning to realise they backed the wrong horse, and need to do a bit more actual thinking... and would rather ignore things for now.

Incidentally, why do people care about Facebook/twitter friends, and not being "liked"? Genuine question. My (actual) friend told me she would be scared to share anti Self-ID stuff. I asked her why she was so bothered about getting validation from numerous strangers, - most of whom she will never even meet? Why do we as women feel the need to always placate and be "nice"? It's our actual socialisation as WOMEN that drives this, and makes us an easier target for all this Trans shit

It's not the "likes", I do worry about offending, because apart from virtue signalling beardy twat who blocked me, I do have a lot of friends there and I'd hate them to end up blocking me.

I think the tumbleweed thing is a sign of how the TRAs have used the kind of leftie/liberal/live and let live thing to kind of grab the narrative by stealth. It's hard for a lot of people to square the "trans people are just trapped int he wrong body and just want to live in peace" thing with what's actually going on and at stake.

It’s a slow process, but all people can do is keep chipping away. The TRAs are so hostile and openly misogynistic that they’re outing themselves as such every minute of the day for all to see.

The brainwashed left will ignore and keep rejecting the objective truth until it comes back to bite them. Look what is happening in Canada, it’s a mess. At least they can’t say that they weren’t informed.

What's happening in Canada?

There have been attacks on women by men accessing their spaces under the guise of being a woman. There are a few Canadian posters on MN and they say reporting of the problems is being suppressed.

I think what you will find and what has been the case in my experience is that a lot of people feel this way, a lot of people don't feel they can say so.

Because we're not bigots, and we've never been on the wrong side of the debate before. We don't hate, we are anti racist, pro LGBT, care about transexuals. So when someone says that's "literal genocide" we start to wonder what the hell has happened and question ourselves. I'd made several feminist friends in a new area (a first for me) but what I started to notice after while with them....was none of them were doing the virtue signalling trans stuff.

It did make me wonder and then eventually we start discussing it.. and they're all right there thinking the same as me.

The other thing is that while we're all so worried about out potential "Bigotry" and how we can best accomadate trans people if we don't want them to self identify... we're not talking about why gender is nonsense. Because we don't identify with gender ourselves. We skirt around these issues and it's so stupid. Of course liking ballet as a child doesn't mean you're a girl. It's fucking ridiculous

Also re: tumbleweeds if your friends are ultra right on are they the sort to call out racism and hophobia?

So if they haven't called you a terrible bigot, why do you think that is?

Incidentally, why do people care about Facebook/twitter friends, and not being "liked"? Genuine question. My (actual) friend told me she would be scared to share anti Self-ID stuff. I asked her why she was so bothered about getting validation from numerous strangers, - most of whom she will never even meet? Why do we as women feel the need to always placate and be "nice"? It's our actual socialisation as WOMEN that drives this, and makes us an easier target for all this Trans shit

Because "likes" indicate agreement. If your friends in RL think you're a bigot and aren't going to speak to you anymore, that is scary.

Anyone searching for reports on attack by trans women on born women will need to use DuckDuckGo search engine as google don’t include this information or any links - not difficult to work out why of course.

Sunny are you in any secret feminist groups on fb?

I have made friends with quite a few rad fems over the years on fb and it’s great because we support eachother on eachothers walls and if it kicks off we back eachother up.

It's so easy to virtue signal about trans issues that if you haven't got that going on then you're probably getting a lot of people quietly agreeing with you.

I put the petition out on Facebook yesterday and have had no response- granted though I keep Facebook for old school friends & family and Twitter for politics.

I'm going to keep posting it regularly, though; on both FB & Twitter until it reaches the 100k mark.

I always remember the advice given to me by a political campaigner - when it feels like you have repeated yourself ad nauseum, you're sick of the sound of your own voice, that you can't believe anybody needs to hear another thing about it then, it's possible 1 or 2 people may have noticed you've said something on the topic but they can't remember what.

So, keep going and no news in this virtue signalling world we live in, is good news!

Tumbleweedy on any of my posts too...

Just re-posting from another thread

Can I prompt anyone with supportive men in their lives to get them to share and talk about this? I have come to the depressing realisation that men simply get listened to more, whilst women sharing this are more likely to get abused and blocked.

DH has quite a wide social media presence. with a rather arty "Trendy lefty dude" vibe. He has been posting some Gender critical stuff for a while - no abuse at all, and even some shares and likes! I seriously doubt a women with a similar following would get the same.

He tweeted a friend yesterday with this www.wnd.com/2017/03/female-athletes-crushed-by-women-who-were-once-men/

Said friend has 2 very sporty daughters ( with professional sporting ambitions), and he has gone NUCLEAR, passing it on to all the other parents involved in the girls clubs etc.

Just goes to show what happens when there's self-interest involved!

I find myself genuinely conflicted on this matter and as a 'leftie' I feel like there is no current political voice that is in tune with my own.
I don't agree that any man can just tick a box to say that he identifies as a woman and thereafter be treated as though he were born female and likewise in the reverse. I do however think that people who genuinely identify themselves as the opposite gender should be allowed to be treated like equal human beings and find a place in society to feel like they belong.
It must be extraordinarily difficult to belong to neither gender because your body and mind are in conflict, but being able to sympathise with that difficulty doesn't mean that I think it should be possible to make the switch at the expense of other people's safety or rights.
Unfortunately I don't have the answer as to what is the best way to move forward. Trans people are people too and do deserve a voice and to be able to be an equal part of society without fear of prejudice or attack, but in the same breath it doesn't seem possible to easily allow one party rights without taking away those of another in the current situation.
There is always a danger that by fighting for inclusivity to every single person who deviates from the 'norm' we end just end up in an impossible situation.
Fundamentally for a society to exist and thrive it is necessary for everyone within it to adapt some element of themselves to conform to mutually agreeable standards of behaviour.

A bit off thread topic, but it is linked, I am more worried that right now we have only two political extremes to realistically choose from and neither seem like the right solution. As I said I generally conform to a lot of what is currently deemed to be left wing political thinking, but would mostly prefer that we have a more balanced political landscape. One that reflects both sides of the spectrums importance in creating a well run country and seeks to unite rather than divide the general public.

I have been genuinely shocked at how divisive political topics have become on social media. Families and friendships are being broken because of people being unable to open their ears to or eyes to the idea that is perfectly ok to have a debate and disagree without resorting to name calling and gross over generalisations.
I came close to blocking a number of friends and family of my own a number of times in recent years. Not because I disagreed with them, but because of their overwhelming refusal to consider an alternative viewpoint as valid and insistence on using personality assaults in defence of their view rather than actual information to support their cause.
These are people that I otherwise like and respect, kind hearted people I have laughed and cried with who suddenly I felt like I didn't know anymore. It is often easier in this age of instant gratification to block someone than it is to engage in a potentially uncomfortable conversation. I chose not to block them in the end and I'm actually glad to have the occasional thing pop up on my feed that makes me think twice about my own opinions.

The person who blocked you did so because he couldn't be bothered to engage in a healthy debate, a shame really because he ruled out the option to voice an alternative viewpoint. I wouldn't stop posting or sharing the things that you feel strongly about, unless you do so in a closeminded fashion it shouldn't offend anyone and who knows it may slowly bring someone else round to thinking about things differently.