hipsterfun, one of the advantages of being very aged is that you do get to see how these things come and go. I have always been a radical feminist, but there have been times when I've kept away from feminist activism because of all the nuttiness and negativity and bullying and policing each other. Ditto left activism. And lesbian and gay activism too. One of my best times as a lesbian activist, paradoxically, was Clause 28, perhaps because it was a battle against a very real danger, and forced us to be united and reasonable people to stand up for us.
So I do think this too shall pass. The students will move on. Activists will find another way of playing top dog. The question is how much damage will it leave in its wake, and who will pay the price for that. I'm inclined to say that children and young people will be the main victims, and then all the decent and real trans people who have a very real cause to fight and are seeing it trashed. Feminism will survive and we may even get stronger. I think the biggest reason for asking each other not to be gratuitously unpleasant, and that when they go low we should go high, is that when all this reaches its messy end there is an alliance to be forged between feminists and trans people. It would be a shame if that couldn't happen because our anger with a minority of vile posh boys forced a more permanent alienation.