I’m very glad they did, but it’s heckin frustrating how many Republicans don’t seem to care about anything that affects other people until something affects them personally. I’ve read variants of this article for many years.
I have read research that conservatives are high on fear and low on empathy, while progressives are high on empathy and low on fear.
And that just always clicks. It’s also quite universal, in all countries.
It also really explains why Republicans only change when it happens to them: suddenly their low empathy finally gets activated and the fear goes away because it is now familiar.
Republicans need to quit the party in droves
My gut feeling is that most of the anti trans crusading is actively harmful for the growth of these people. Not because people in general care about trans people put because they don’t. It’s possible to drum up some moral panic about children being mutilated, but that also requires a quite large departure from consensus reality that’s expensive to maintain given that gender-affirming surgery on trans children pretty much isn’t a thing. On top of that, it’s difficult to go around yelling about other people’s genitals without being seen as weird and off-putting.
