Response to Guardian Article “It’s not the police’s job to shut down political debate. They should stick to solving crime”
Gender critical “feminism” is a uniquely British trend among the global anti-transgender movement. Despite the clear agenda of its adherents to undermine the rights of trans people and normalise hate and marginalisation directed against them, it is a popular topic in the British press both in right and left wing publications as well as the BBC. The Guardian has made a name for itself as a more left wing platform for gender critical perspectives, where many of the articles frame the debate over trans rights from a feminist angle. Perhaps that’s why the Guardian censored a segment of an interview with feminist philosopher Judith Butler where they connect the gender critical movement to fascism. In an interview originally published by the Guardian UK, Butler said, “The anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times.” However, due to backlash from anti-gender activists who were upset that their movement was being compared to right wing fascism, the Guardian quietly removed the section containing this line from the article.
Butler was tangentially implying that the Guardian is enabling one of the dominant strains of fascism, as are many self styled feminist politicians and public figures in the UK who are held up in the press as women’s rights icons while spreading transphobic hate. Butler’s statements are controversial, but not without merit, and also a fair topic for debate, at least equally as fair as debating whether trans women deserve to use a bathroom congruent with their gender identity. But to the Guardian it’s fair game to equate trans women with rapists, but unfair to comment on the overlap between gender critical feminism and fascism.
Ironically the Guardian has proved in an article published on January 2nd, 2022 the exact point that was deleted from Butler’s interview. The article is about a Harry Miller, a victim of police repression against his freedom of speech, a social pariah in the modern era where transgender ideology has created a 1984-eque police state. Nevermind the fact that police violence against transgender people is proportially higher than against cisgender people, nevermind that police ignoring domestic violence that INCLUDES domestic violence against trans women, nevermind that the state forces trans people through dehumanising hoops to be legally recognised. Instead the article frames modern Britain as a state dominated by transgender ideology where cis people’s rights are infringed upon by this out of control trend which is forced upon society by every institution. On the surface level, this is a typical right wing article, “woke culture out of control”, mixed with a sprinkle of American “free speech” rhetoric. But the article covers up a much deeper alignment with a fascist agenda.
The article doesn’t start by mentioning Miller by name, instead he is an imagined man. He could be anyone. Even you. But later, the author writes, “Miller is chair of the Reclaim party, led by Laurence Fox; hardly a political ally of this newspaper.” One sentence, probably added because if they had just mentioned the name of the victim of this story, it would have caused more backlash that they had covered it up. Now it’s clear, this is not any man, this is a fascist politician with an agenda. The Reclaim Party is a new fringe right wing populist party in the UK who are strongly involved in anti-vaccine and anti-mask movements. They are some of the most vile people who profit off of a cynical movement. Their party equates mark mandates with the holocaust and are clearly allied with American religious fundamentalists and QAnon conspiracy theorists. The party Leader, Lawrence Fox has centred his politics around opposing ‘diversity’, and shutting down debate and discourse around social issues. It’s not a stretch to call Fox a fascist. It’s also not a stretch to call Fox a transphobe. During the Tokyo Olympics, he tweeted a meme from his account which referred to trans women by a slur.
The Guardian cares deeply about freedom of speech and respectful debate, enough to make sure that those who repeatedly misgender and demean trans people have the opportunity to share their hate in the press. But apparently that concern for debate and discourse doesn’t extend to critiques of gender critical voices. Even though this article, as with many articles regarding trans people, uses a neutral tone, with appeals to the broader implications of suppressing freedom of speech which impact everyone, it’s not a neutral article. The author uses subtle rhetoric to push anti-trans talking points, such as repeating gender critical takes on JK Rowling and Kathleen Stock, and confidently calling other perspectives on trans people’s biology, “unscientific”. When describing why Stock was criticised by the students at Sussex University, the author simply says she was punished for “wrongthink”. Ironically, this writing is more akin to 1984 than the scenario described in the article. When the Guardian opinion writers find common ground with those who equate covid mask regulation to the holocaust, it’s clear to see that this is yet another bit of fascist transphobia from the Guardian that we have come to expect nearly every Sunday.