Republicans Aren't Hypocrites; They're Just Cruel

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*content warning: transphobia, racism, general Republican cruelty, brief mention of SA*

One popular style of left-leaning content is to point out the perceived hypocrisies in conservative logic.

Republicans claim to want to “protect kids” when it comes to preventing them from access transition care, but consistently defund child care programs, have yet to pass comprehensive gun reform, and seem to want to send kids to work in dangerous environments. They claim to want small government and more individual liberty, while arguing for increased police budgets and other authoritarian policies. They call Democrats child predators while excusing (or ignoring) the rampant abuse in the Catholic Church and even within their own party. The list goes on. Pointing these out has become a past time for us on the left half of the political aisle, and it might even convince otherwise politically-inactive people to hear out our side of the story on some pretty important issues. Many of my own videos tackle their hypocrisies head-on, as do many political campaign ads:

Here’s the unfortunate truth of the matter: pointing out these “inconsistencies” doesn’t actually change the minds of any conservatives.

It’s tempting to believe that conservatives believe the same fundamental things that liberals/leftists do, but they merely “lack the facts” to come to the same conclusions as us. If only they knew that transition care saves lives, if only they knew that alternatives to police are incredibly effective, so on and so forth. But this strategy doesn’t align with the reality of what it means to change someone’s mind.

As a case study, let’s compare two Republican “hypocrisies”. Here are two mainstream Republican positions:

1. Teenage transmasculine people should not be allowed to receive gender-affirming care because they are too young to make an informed decision on a permanent, life-altering process.
2. Teenage girls should not be allowed to receive abortions because if they get pregnant, it’s their fault and as grown-ups they should have to deal with the consequences (even in cases of rape, abuse, etc.) Once you are able to become pregnant, you are old enough to take responsibility and/or start a family.

In our minds, these beliefs are directly contradictory. Having a child is a life-changing process, not only for what it does to your body but in that it also leaves you with a human child to care for (and, in fact, the puberty blockers given to trans teens are completely reversible). So either a) minors are able to make the decision to change their bodies how they like or b) they aren’t. Pick one. Us lefties understand politics and human decision making in terms of bodily autonomy, something we value a lot, so we generally lean towards allowing (legalizing/decriminalizing) both gender-affirming care and abortions.

However, conservatives don’t see these two beliefs as contradictory at all. That’s because their value system is completely different than ours.

Here’s how they would explain the same two beliefs:

1. Teenage girls shouldn’t be allowed to permanently damage their bodies by taking hormones and getting surgery. Transness isn’t real and confused young girls are being misguided by gender ideology.
2. Teenage girls shouldn’t be allowed to get abortions because abortion is wrong and unborn life should never be terminated under any circumstances.

Notice how “transmasculine people” becomes “misguided teenage girls”, because of 1) transphobia, the belief that transition care is not considered a legitimate medical practice and 2) misogyny, the belief that girls are frail, emotional, and can’t make decisions on their own. Also, conservatives don’t see abortion as an issue of individual bodily autonomy, they see it as an issue of morality; it’s murder, and murder is wrong.

There’s something else here too, something more fundamental: conservatives, including and especially women, view women as baby-making machines. Just look at how they talk about trans men: they’re always “damaged”. To paraphrase an excellent Lily Alexandre video (below), it is incredibly weird to describe a human being as “damaged”. A tool can be damaged—a pair of scissors can fail to cut something—and even an organ can be damaged—your heart can fail to pump blood as effectively—but saying that a person is “damaged” implies they have a “function” to fulfill. While leftism is a largely agnostic movement, most conservatives have some belief in destiny, some belief that we are put here for a reason, to fulfill some grand purpose. A belief in “destiny” is not necessarily harmful in and of itself, but it does become dangerous when one’s idea of “destiny” means controlling others. In my own country, Christianity has been the justifying ideology for colonialism (“manifest destiny”), patriarchy (where men’s capacity for leadership and women’s capacity for breeding is cosmic and unchangeable), and several other manmade horrors.

To reframe the conservative argument:

1. Women are supposed to make babies, the ability to medically transition threatens that, therefore we should opposed transition care.
2. Women are supposed to make babies, the ability to get an abortion threatens that, therefore we should oppose abortion.