this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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I disagree. I don't mind if they want to be polite to transphobes and take that approach, but I think I made it clear in my post that I'm disgusted with people who arrogantly presume to lecture us on how we need to be nicer. It's all part of the severely misguided idea that people withdraw allyship because we're not kind and patient enough. Sometimes anger is justified. I'd much rather someone be angry at me while defending equity and human rights, vs. someone being a polite bigot.
Please do let me know your thoughts though, because maybe it is I who needs to take a break.
Personally I feel that asking a marginalized community to "be nice" to those oppressing them is complete hogwash; I believe it was Martin Luther King Jr. who said "riots are the voice of a rebellion."
That being said, I think that what Kolanki was trying to say is that a majority of the time, transphobes aren't looking to have their mind changed when they log onto the internet to spread their bigotry; they're looking for an outburst of violent reaction from the people they torment.
Oftentimes they may be looking for this as evidence to support whatever claim they're making about trans people (they're violent, they have an agenda, they want to take people's kids, etc). Coming from a background of abuse, I agree that we shouldn't feed the bigots much like one shouldn't feed trolls; they never leave once you start unless removed by force (i.e. banned from a community, in this case).
I do agree that people don't withdraw allyship because we're not kind or nice or patient enough or what-have-you; that is something that I have not seen personally and anecdotally from other marginalized people (in fact, I've tended to see the opposite).
If the argument is that people shouldn't react with hostility towards bigots, that's fine on the condition that the bigoted people are removed very quickly. No hearing them out. No giving them the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise the space is just tolerating them with extra steps.