Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

For those of you that don't know what a concern troll is it's someone who falsely claims concern about someone while trying to undermine support for it.

This topic is a bit controversial for a website like kym, but something I've noticed the past ten years is a massive number of people who previously espoused beliefs against transgender disingenuously espousing "support" for them. Simply put because the USA has shifted so hard towards being pro-transgender rights, granted it's a personal observation, but people who are anti-transgender rights are switching tactics.

To use a metaphor, back in the 90's support for interracial marriage in the USA reached the tipping point at which most Americans supported interracial marriage. As someone that was already a grown adult during that era something I saw firsthand was the previously individuals who openly were against interracial marriage started supporting it with their lips only. What I mean by this is that in '91 my first serious relationship a coworker tried to get me to break up with a black woman saying, "I support interracial marriage, but what would your family think?!" "My dad said I had good taste in women" "What if someone attacks you? I'm just concerned for you. I think you should break up with her if you know what is good for you"

In the 2000's I saw a similar occurrence with people being "concerned™" that you might get aids and "What would your parents think?!™" or "I think for your own personal safety you shouldn't™", even though both individuals took a blood test and showed up negative.

As a transwoman that is probably older than 90% of the people here… I'm still hip! does the Electric Slide crack "MY HIP!"… Joking aside the past couple of years I've been noticing a trend of people claiming to be for transgender rights, but what actually comes out of their mouth is something you would expect from westboro baptist church. A prime example of this is that the past couple of years people have been complaining about the decline of drag queens and how we're "taking away their gay best friend". Yes there are people that stupid, yes there are numerous articles claiming this and yes they are all stupid as hell.

…
…
Simply put, the hypothesis I'm presenting is that we're starting to see a trend similar to the past by people are against a individual group presenting themselves to others as being pro-rights towards that group while trying to undermine said group. In this case there is a growing number of individuals who are "concerned" about transgender people that their actual beliefs would drastically undermine transgender rights and equality.

Why do I think this is? Easy. Nowadays if someone said that they're against interracial marriage they would be publicly shunned, by feigning """concern""" it is instead passed of someone who is for interracial marriage. With how things are changing in the USA what is eventually going to happen is that if you say that you're against transgender individuals you're going to be publicly shunned, by feigning concern while vomiting up beliefs that would undermine equal rights you're ensuring your place in society will continue.

Concern trolls through the last decades:
1990's, "You shouldn't date someone outside your race. I'm not racist, I'm just concerned for your safety"
2000's, "You shouldn't date someone of the same sex. I'm not homophobic, I'm just concerned for your safety"
Now, "You shouldn't date someone that is transgender. I'm not transphobic, I'm just concerned for your safety"

Call me naive, but you should just try talking to these people. I'm sure some of them don't know the effects of their words, and they will change if you explain. If they really do harbor these beliefs, simply ignore them.

Kinda reminds me when folks say that civil partnership is still good and that same-sex couples don't need marriage.

Which goes out the window when you go to law sites and see them lay it out that the former has fewer rights than the latter.

Although that is likely due to ignorance since I am sure that if anyone found out that their marriage or union had fewer rights than another couple's, they'd be kinda quite pissed about it.

As a transwoman that is probably older than 90% of the people here… I’m still hip! does the Electric Slide crack “MY HIP!”

We call that a transgranny. Go water your flowers, nan.

Sliding into a new form of acceptence tends to come in steps. You might wish for full acceptance to happen in a week, but having an entire nation adapt is gonna take time. Biggest thing is that people indirectly admit they need to adjust to the idea, like the common phrase "I don't mind gays as long as they aren't gay where I can see it."

Seeing how this personally affected you, best you can do is hope history repeats itself. Right now it's at the adjusting stage but give it some years and nobody bats an eye like the previous times it happened.

With how things are changing in the USA what is eventually going to happen is that if you say that you’re against transgender individuals you’re going to be publicly shunned, by feigning concern while vomiting up beliefs that would undermine equal rights you’re ensuring your place in society will continue.

Funny thing you mention that. I'm not a US citizen, just Dutch. Over here you did notice a trend in Western European countries where a public figure showing discontent to transgenders were getting a public shun and would find themselves in the newspapers following an apology and how they didn't mean it like that to prevent their inbox from blowing up further.

However this also resulted in some sort of a counter movement due to the somewhat-ish frequency of this at times, where supporters are annoyed how they believe you can't speak about transgenders anymore in any way other than extremely positive. And recently you're noticing a turn in events where talkshows and newspapers document that as well, which in my country for example came due to events like public transport no longer using "Ladies & Gentlemen" but "Dear Travelers" to not insult the groups falling outside the binary (yes this is real and only an example of more).

It's a struggle for the middle ground. But that's a Western European country with one of the highest acceptance rates, not the USA.

Personally, I'm not sure whether it's people being concern trolls, or people expressing discontent in a more socially acceptable way.

Well, let me give you an example. I don't really have any problem with Islam. I think all the negative stuff most people come to associate with "Islam" as a religion comes from local customs and social conservatism, which becomes evident if you actually study Koran. I believe Islam as a religion free from practices and customs of ethnic groups that adopted it is not that different from Christianity, which makes sense, since Islam was just the Abrahamic faith adopted for Sand People.

However, I do hate brown people. Now, what do you think sounds better to your average brainwashed normie: "I hate brown people" or "I'm not racist, but I believe Islam is incompatible with a modern society and inviting Muslim migrants is unsafe"?

It's sort of like when Western cuckservatives say stuff like "I'm totally not racist, but we must protect our precious gays from intolerant Muslims!!". Sounds just outright ridiculous, right? Well, maybe it's not ridiculous and they're just being racist in a more socially acceptable way. Or maybe they're indeed that ridiculous, who knows.

tl;dr: Often saying "You shouldn't …. I'm not …, but …." is the only way of disagreeing that won't compromise your life.

I'll have my General Forum posts unsalted pls…