Thread by @shahmiruk

As tomorrow is #TransPride in London, I had a collection of thoughts to share regarding the exponential increase in anti-trans rhetoric across the U.K. and why I believe it is directly connected to Brexit, Donald Trump, Johnson & the wider rise of white supremacist ideologies.

It comes as no surprise to anyone that we are living in unprecedented times. The blip in American politics of a Democratic leader will be relaxed by years of Republican rule that will see the rise of fascism & white supremacist patriarchy on a scale we have never seen before.

The western world has been conditioned to accept bigotry, racism & all kinds of inhumane practises of capitalism for the last few decades as a result of ideologies that centre profit over people. The poor are getting poorer, the rich ever richer.

Underlying the crisis of hyper capitalism is a culture shock among white peoples of their supposed identities and beliefs being erased by minorities whose voices have become ever louder on the internet.

The Great Replacement Theory, one which imagines the total erasure of white people, particularly the embodiment of them, the cis, all powerful white man in a suit, is the foundation of this shock. And has given rise to a fear that has led to Brexit, Trump & mass shootings in USA.

It is a fear that has been justified by an idea that white peoples ideas are the most civilised of any peoples across the planet. It is one that convinces itself that they are the smartest, kindest & most distant from the first man. Everyone else remains tied to primitivity.

In their quest to attain greater enlightenment they have (by their will) allowed ‘less civilised’ peoples to make a home in their civilisations, mostly because of economic pursuits and subsequently the collective demands of these people.

These demands are a quest to replace them. This is a belief system that remains the crux of white supremacist systems, thoughts and cultures across the western world. And underlying it ALL is the innate belief in what/who is a civilised, developed human being and what/who is not.

Black peoples faced this for centuries, and continue to. Disproportionately poor, disproportionately harmed by the state, disproportionately affected by climate change. Instead of choosing to break such systems, western peoples have been forced to reckon with their bigotry

By the collective calls and demands of Black peoples to see them as human, as like them, as worthy of decency and respect as any other white person. Not because white people ‘chose’ to be compassionate, but because Black people had to fight to convince them of their humanity.

The western man has been, for the last few centuries the one who determines whether one is worthy of rights and not, and that is determined according to them first and foremost by the biological & cultural makeup of a person. Race, religion, sexuality, gender.

An obsession with determining a human beings worth on how they look or present or are made up is why and how such violence was committed on indigenous peoples across the planet. To this day, many think they brought civilisation to the cultures they destroyed. It is a delusion.

Trans people, gender variant people, have existed in the world throughout human civilisations. They are not new, or a result of gay marriage, but a staple part of communities across the globe. In Pakistan, they are called Khwaja Sira, and integrated among Islamic society.

The U.K. in particular is failing to grapple with a seemingly new emergence of gender variant people because it has historically seen anything that does not fit the ideas of white, cis, men as a threat, even if it is not. Anything or anyone that does not make sense is wrong.

But it only doesn’t make sense to them. While cultures such as the one I am from have acknowledged and understood trans people as present, without question. And most, if not all mistreatment of them comes from colonial and convoluted fundamentalist beliefs about who is human.

We are at a point where the debate around trans people is whether they exist, whether they are a man or woman, and that is a direct result of an ideology that has been rekindled and lit exponentially by the resurgence of white supremacy across the west.

White supremacy does not see spirituality, it does not understand diversity, it views everything that is different or minority as a diversion, a mutation and a threat to the divinity of a heteronormative, racist, patriarchal white society.

It is no surprise that the anti-trans movement came so viciously and ferociously after Black people across the west spoke out against police brutality and racism. A collective movement among a minority that I believe has stoked a deep fear of replacement among white peoples.

Now, anything that is different, or unique or unusual to their cultures and practises is immediately attacked with such ferocity that it begs the question, why? Why are these people so adamant that a minority is a threat to their already privileged positions?

Some even use people of colour who are on their side to justify that their positions are not white supremacist, but there have always been misguided people of colour who support the oppressor - always.

But trans people do not present a threat to anyone…in the same way Muslims are not a threat to anyone or Black people or me…but we know that this is seen as untrue by people who lean into bigotry. That they will homogenise entire groups in order to protect themselves.

Like Trump’s supporters, or Brexiteers or mass shooters driven by this fear of their replacement, it is the duty of progressives to stand firm in the belief that diversity is what makes us stronger, not weaker. And that fear of something or someone you don’t understand is wrong.

Lies & disinformation are rampant, as a former whistleblower I can say point blank that this works directly in the hands of people who are invested in the subjugation of people in order to pursue their own goals.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal, from which many of you know me from, was a lesson in how communities are radicalised online to not see each other as human beings, but to reduce them to a threat and use anger and pain as a tool to create extremism.

Trans people are yet another victim of this immense global wave of divisiveness aided and abetted by social media landscapes without protective and disciplined systems. We must be wary of it and we must always remind ourselves who is really being harmed here, structurally.

There is an unhinged fear and anger that is spreading across the U.K. toward trans people in the exact same way that was once spread about Muslims (and still is). It is totally unjustified, as Muslims in the U.K. continue to be the most impoverished, yet are presented as a threat

The systems in place prove that Muslims are not a threat to British society yet millions have convinced themselves that they are - because of coordinated, white supremacist, racist propaganda campaigns. These same campaigns that led to the abortion rights being overturned in US.

The same campaigns that lied to Britain about Brexit. The same campaigns that stoked fears to elect Trump. They remain strong and well funded. Each one to stoke fear among white people of a scary, boogeyman that presents itself as a community monolith.

My ask for those who sit on the fence about this so-called debate is to see who is poor, who does not have a house, who does not feel safe, who is disadvantaged and who is really benefitting from stoking racist & biological ideas of what is and what isn’t.

The science is clear, the systems are apparent yet we are being manipulated into thinking that there are two sides to this story, just like we were gaslit for saying Muslims aren’t bad or Black people aren’t bad or gay people aren’t bad. It is a radicalisation toward division.

All to ensure that the people who benefit most are those that created these barbaric and inhumane ideas around humanity in order to once conquer the globe. Compassion and humility are necessary. We must choose kindness over anything else. Kindness and facts.