We Need a Normie Trans Rights Discourse
A response to Freddie deBoer
Today, I want to respond to Freddie deBoer's idea of a 'normie politics', focusing on the example of trans issues in particular. As deBoer explains, when he says 'normie politics', he means a politics that is 'commonsensical and in keeping with folk wisdom' and 'emphasizes the comfortable and the mundane'. DeBoer thinks that 'such a politics can help Democrats stop the bleeding as they face potential electoral annihilation this fall'.
I am absolutely a fan of the idea of embracing a more 'normie' politics. After all, I'm a Moral Libertarian, and I believe that every individual should have equal and maximum moral agency. Most individuals will choose things that are in line with the values of their upbringing, their experience, and what they consider to be common sense. A normie politics is therefore what most people would actually want, if given a truly free choice. Therefore, it is arguably the only kind of politics that is compatible with Moral Libertarianism, and even liberalism more generally. A truly liberal politics is inherently normie, simply as a result of allowing people to choose what they want.
Like deBoer, and also many other people out there, I have been frustrated at how a particularly loud faction in the left is consistently pushing anti-normie politics into the mainstream. It is making many people confused and scared, and culture war reactionaries have been increasingly able to make inroads with these people. The reactionaries argue that liberalism, in its pursuit of individual autonomy, inevitably leads to extreme 'wokeness'. However, not only is this reasoning absurd (given how 'wokeism' isn't pro-free speech, for example), it is also easily debunked by an analysis of the ideologies involved. So-called 'wokeism' is rooted in postmodernism and critical theory, philosophies steeped in a worldview where power and oppression is everywhere, and liberation from oppressive social constructs is the highest goal. I think this hostility towards social institutions and paranoia about power means that what we are dealing with is a form of anarchism, not a form of liberalism. However, unlike old school anarchism, this new, postmodern neo-anarchism locates power not only in government and organized religion, but also in culture, which they believe is full of social constructs that enable privileged groups to oppressed marginalized groups. This line of thought is clearest in the call by Foucault to 'cut off the King's head' in political theory, but it is also present in the works of other thinkers like Althusser and Marcuse. This worldview explains the 'movement' to deconstruct most of what we consider common sense. This, in turn, is why postmodern critical theory politics is inherently anti-normie (and hence anti-liberal).
The best way to argue for liberalism, i.e. for an ordered liberty, against anarchy (including the postmodern kind), is to demonstrate that it works better in practice. This would have to include the accommodation of minorities, so that they have equal opportunity and liberty in practice. Liberalism has won many battles on that front over the years, by advancing women's rights, civil rights and gay rights. The latest battlefront appears to be trans rights.
Many trans people feel like the current social order does not treat them fairly, and as a trans woman myself, I think it is fair they feel this way, unfortunately. As a result, a substantial number of trans people have rejected society as it currently exists, and embraced postmodern anarchist ideas. This has made the trans discourse look quite anti-normie in recent years, which has scared away many moderates and liberals who believe in a normie politics. Many people, who previously argued the 'normie' case for gay marriage, have decided that trans issues simply can't fit in a normie politics in the same way, and therefore should be ignored. This attitude has, in turn, 'confirmed' the worst suspicions of many trans people: that normie politics are nothing more than respectability politics, and only the postmodern far-left is their true ally. All this goes round and round in a vicious cycle, serving to marginalize trans people further and further. Moreover, the lack of a mainstream, normie movement for trans acceptance and trans rights has allowed reactionary culture warriors to comfortably target trans people, knowing that they will not get much credible pushback. The lack of a robust liberal response to the anti-trans 'movement' has in turn provided fuel for postmodern anarchists to discredit liberalism, especially in the eyes of Generation Z.
This is why we desperately need a normie pro-trans movement right now. DeBoer seems to agree with me here. 'A normie trans politics emphasizes equal rights and dignity rather than academic conceptions of gender identity.... should emphasize the shared humanity of trans people, their fundamentally mundane status as ordinary people who simply want to live and work and flourish,' he writes in his article. This is consistent with what I have advocated for some time. As I have repeatedly said, trans people are caught in a philosophy war that has its origins in academia, which has nothing to do with our everyday lives at all. These philosophy wars have hindered public understanding and acceptance of trans people, by taking the focus away from trans lives and onto abstract philosophical questions. On this, the postmodern activists are actually just as guilty as the reactionary culture warriors and the most extreme gender critical feminists.
The fact that postmodern activists are more interested in deconstructing gender than actually helping trans people in any tangible way shows that they are not our true allies at all. Liberals have a good opportunity here to expose the weakness of the postmodern arguments, and demonstrate the merits of reformism within the framework of ordered liberty. We simply need to provide a pragmatic pro-trans politics that puts the focus back on the everyday life needs of trans people, and help build the required consensus in society to achieve the necessary reforms. There is a better way to do the trans discourse than what exists currently, and it's up to us to make it happen.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Horizon books, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory.