Thread by @poetsoup

A great indicator of the moral or ethical veracity of an idea or movement is in how it deals with those who disagree. 🧵

Classic Liberalism cherishes diversity of thought. Differing voices are important in order to do the hard work of building a common world in which we can live together amidst our real and important differences. It values rationalism, reason and science. It seeks to uplift.

It is democratic and loving. Diversity of thought is Classic Liberalism's strength. Protest is peaceful, non violence is absolutely necessary, because true and lasting success lay in strength of ideas and in the power of words to effect change in order to improve the world.

Violence is a way to delegitimise your argument by the powers that be. You Love your enemy because you recognise their humanity despite any gulfs in viewpoints. It's the idea that no matter how much you dislike or even hate a group with whom you have diametric opposition;

they shouldn't starve. They should have safety. Their children should have a good education. They should receive healthcare. They're entitled to due process. Their should have the same right to voice and agency as those you love.

An example of Classic Liberalism is a group of women gathering peacefully to speak about important political issues that they feel affect their lives and the lives of all women, regardless which issues they may intersect with.

Absolutist Liberalism contends that words are violence and that it's reasonable for any violence to be met with force. Because diversity of thought is a weapon, it must crush dissent. It condescends disagreement not only

as stupidity, but as Hate and "hateful ideas." It can't allow for discussion because even acknowledging another side gives it validity, and gives "hateful ideas" validity. Discussion is impossible. Protest comes dressed in black, wrapped in flags, it comes ready for a fight,

because when you are in opposition to "hate," it becomes a matter of survival. So it is absolutist and angry. Without diversity of thought, communication is in slogan and chant. Slurs are deployed to deny legitimacy and to create a negative brand association of the opposition

before views can be expressed, a tactic learned from The Republican Party's influence on American political discourse. Instead of invalidating ideas, it invalidates entire groups before an idea is even spoken.

Because it is absolutist, any opposition to it dangerous and fascist. Love is best proven by being the angriest. You can punch a "Nazi." Even if the "Nazi" is a 70 year old woman.

The justification for all of this is that the "tolerant can tolerate anything but intolerance itself." It's the idea that tolerance is a base line. Tolerance is the practice suggested for those people that you can’t stand. It's necessary, but only with distaste and

something meant for "unjust people" but it holds absolutely no virtue when applied to "unjust ideas.* It demands silence & acquiescence as a mandated kindness & places people in different classes of subjective validity due to personal belief.

But casting aspersions and fomenting suspicions of "others" as fascists becomes decidedly dangerous when you cynically insinuate that there's a violent or genocidal danger from an opposing group, when that danger is provably false.

Because the "Nazi's" Absolutist Liberalism are fighting are Women.

They're women, and the men who support their Right to agency. They're elderly women, disabled women, lesbians, mothers with their children, victims of domestic and sexual abuse. They're women exercising their civic duty by participating in democracy. Their people who believe that

issues that directly affect 51% of the population are not trivial, doctrinal or fueled by intolerance. They are not genocidal. And this makes them dangerous because of the strength of the ideas and the power of the words. Because of Classical Liberalism.

Believing that Women- a varied, disparate, vast group, do not have the right to discuss or question their own agency regarding issues that affect them, even if these issues intersect with trans issues, is patently wrong.

You're not a supporter of Women if you're actively trying to put them in their place. We either uphold the democratic principles that we each get to participate in democracy or we don't. Every woman, just as every person, deserves this respect.

In Auckland they literally beat women for the sins of agency, voice & self determination; for the existential crime of exercising their democratic voice and speaking to their human rights. Those claiming to be Liberal reinforce to young women and girls everywhere that the value

of their voice is found either in silence or in compliance, that the right to speak is now conditional & that their merit as a human being is determined by their acquiescence. This is a kindness.

That is not my Liberalism.

Tomorrow in Belfast, groups that have been vocal and organised in their Absolutist opposition to @ThePosieParker and her Fascist gathering are coming out in the name of love and inclusion to "kick out" those hateful and unjust people who'd deny their

very existence and lives, using Auckland as the bar. What happened in Auckland was not okay. It was violent and shocking and worrying, both for the safety of Women in general but worrying for the democratic process as well.

As footage and coverage unfold, I'd like to caution those who feel that these women have no Right to gather to speak because they feel their hateful and unjust and fascist ideas do not deserve respect and remind them of this: Women gathering

in a public space to speak to each other about issues they feel affect them, regardless of the danger and regardless of whether these issues intersect with trans issues or not, is the exact opposite of and about as far way from fascism as you could get. It's Classical Liberalism.

However, if you look in the mirror you may see how the use of propaganda, how the display of power and use of coercion, how the dependence on an ideology and how the dismissal of legitimate Rights,

how your form of Absolutist Liberalism shares a lot hallmarks and characteristics with another kind of political system: Authoritarianism.

#LetWomenSpeak

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