I suppose what I mean is activism towards inequality or specific issues, rather than specific campaigns or broader political ethos.
I have a personal preference towards a mix. I think there's a very large swath of social activists who don't get involved with political campaigns or have any in-the-know understanding of the modern political climate, and I think there's people who work on individual campaigns who lack any detectable or coherent ideology and instead are drawn to cults of personality. Both approaches are deeply flawed, in my opinion. I've been bitten by both before. First with Obama (not having a complete ideology and not really putting who I'm voting for under ideological scrutiny) and then after Obama (only paying attention to social activism and education, rather than the current climate of politics). Only starting at the end of 2012 did I really start seeing the necessity of both.
There's a lot of discussion right now about how monosexuals can have misconceptions about trans people and rule them out of their dating pool due to these misconceptions. [...] But there are people who are taking that too far, and essentially telling people that if they say no to sex a trans person, even if they haven't medically transitioned, they're a bigot and should be shamed. [...] But what about a lesbian, who has possibly been threatened with corrective rape at some point in her life, and perhaps even experienced it? For those of them who've had that experience, they are more likely to hear: "People with penises have made their way into the lesbian sphere and are now advocating corrective rape of lesbians, just like STRAIGHT MEN have done. HOLY ****ING ****.." That's an overreaction. But it's an understandable one in the context of the fact that such a huge percentage of lesbians have been threatened with corrective rape. Again, most lesbians aren't like that, but it's understandable some of them are [...] And that's what people aren't seeing when they look at TERF's. [...] In a way, they're both right. Trans people absolutely should not be trying to coerce anyone into having sex with them, however subtly. And cis women should absolutely not be attacking trans people, doxxing them, etc. But neither can see that, because they're neck deep in their own struggles and think it's a struggle for their safety.
Does that make sense?
I mean, I agree of course, but just to play devil's advocate over one detail --even the case of (probably the most publicly present TERF) Meghan Murphy, I don't even think that she's a lesbian and there's nothing (from what I know) to indicate any history of rape or personal history of abuse. But aside from that, yes, culturally, I think the motivations for why they are believe/act that way seems to be quite clear, and it's what you've mentioned. Part of the dialogue is viewed (not totally unfairly) as a gladiatorial arena where people literally think they're fighting for their lives; I think one of the chief confusions is the relationships among public policy, cultural attitudes, and the conversation they are having in that moment. If one is too bristly about what another person says, it turns people off or you even end up making really antagonistic/counter-factual/counterproductive talking points. And public policy on social issues tends to follow the cultural attitudes, which follows the aggregate of personal opinions and the conversations that create them. So winning a public battle on Twitter and getting people fired or doxxed doesn't actually budge the needle, I don't think, on cultural attitudes and public policy. Sure, there's a few cases here and there, but I feel like when these hard line positions are staked out, you win a battle that probably wasn't worth winning, all while losing the war.
(As a side comment, I don't really know statistically how many lesbians in the US/UK/EU deal with corrective rape. Obviously, it's not zero, but I don't know the statistics for the US/UK/EU; obviously in Africa, it's quite a serious issue.)
Laci Green is a really interesting example. Have you seen her recent stuff about SJW culture?
So I personally refuse to follow Twitter politics (I think having 140 characters to discuss complex political topics has made the world dumber and measurably worse, and frankly is an aberrant way of communicating --I digress), but it's my understanding that the biggest issues with Laci Green's behavior resides there so I have very little to say about it. I'm fully aware of what she's done on her YouTube platform, which I find largely unobjectionable (although it's odd the way she's going about doing what she's doing; she's not the first feminist to talk to anti-SJW YouTubers). In terms of individual drama, I'm only aware of her spat with Zinnia Jones, which I think was mostly belligerent miscommunication on both sides.
