Most people are familiar with the paradox of tolerance: If you want to be truly tolerant, you have to be intolerant of intolerance. Some weird people see this as a weird “gotcha” but most people accept this as part of the deal.
If you want your organisation to be a tolerant one, you have to kick out intolerant people. Transphobia and racism should NOT be tolerated at a tolerant event. Likewise, the presence of terfs and racists should NOT be tolerated: Terfs and racists should not be allowed to participate. If you disagree with this, then fuck you too.
In-fighting is when people in an organisation waste time and resources by squabbling with other people within the organisation, instead of spending it on things that you actually wants to achieve.
In-fighting is very common in left-leaning organisations. Left-leaning organisations often spend a lot of time fighting themselves, or other left-leaning organisations, instead of the bigger threat.
Right-leaning organisations do much less in-fighting. They’re much more willing to do deals with the devil and to compromise. They don’t have the pride or principle of left-leaners, so they end up being much more effective.
I make these comments based on my time spent being a fly-on-the-wall of various cross-party communications, which I can’t cite, so it’s your choice over whether you believe me or not. (This is another reason why these kinds of communications should be more public).
One of the ways I’ve been seeing in-fighting more recently has been on the decision paralysis of what and which humanitarian cause to tackle.
On the one hand, I see some of us criticizing anyone who’s “not doing enough” for the genocide in Palestine, to the point of saying that other issues, like the trans genocide, should not be brought up.
On the other hand, I see some of us criticizing anyone who’s “not doing enough” for local issues like the trans genocide, to the point of saying that other issues, like the genocide in Palestine, should not be brought up.
And Honestly, I want to take all your heads and smash them together! Listen to yourself! You are competing for airspace with your friends / with your collaborators. It’s ridiculous!
Listen to me: Trans liberation is not the enemy of freedom in Gaza. Freedom in Gaza is not the enemy of trans liberation.
You might be reading this “Well of course! That’s obvious. Why does this even need saying?” and so I challenge you to LOOK OUT for this kind of phenomenon. I see it slipping into left-leaning dialogue in increasingly subtle ways. I challenge you to spot it and to call it out!
I’ve seen it happen many many times, often from people I trust and respect, and I’ve turned a blind eye to it in the past, because I don’t want to add to the in-fighting! However, I’ve now realised that reducing in-fighting is the same as reducing in-tolerance. If I am truly against in-fighting, then I need to in-fight the in-fighting! Right?
Let this be a warning to you: If you take part in pointless in-fighting, then fuck you! I will fight you! Total intersectionality or bust.
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