#because if you spout a slogan without ever examining the why behind it

[belovedblabber]

Actually, thinking about that post about how it’s easier to hate nazis then to love Jews etc., and it did make me think about a similar (in terms of sentiment, I don’t want to imply that I’m saying these things are the exact same and can just be swapped in terms of how they function) situation I see a lot with how so many cis people who are trying to be good allies focus like 90 or so percent of their time on hating terfs and being like “punch a terf!” “fuck terfs lol!” etc. and so little time on trying to listen to trans people, uplift trans people etc. It’s very easy to jump on the wagon in terms of shouting those sentiments, often with good intentions (and very often, let’s be real, for clout as well), but then a lot of the time so little of that energy is turned to actually trying to do any work on your own internalized transphobia, and to trying to support, listen to, and uplift trans people. I see a lot of cis people shouting “fuck terfs” but then turning around and refusing to learn from and engage with actual trans issues past the surface level performance of anti-terf rhetoric. I’m not saying that saying like ‘fuck terfs!’ is a bad thing, obviously. But it does often seem that people will engage in that aspect of rhetoric without making any attempts to be actual by allies and uplifters of the people they claim to be supporting. 

And to be clear, I’m cis. And this isn’t me trying to be like “well unlike OTHER cis people I GET it” because no, I have many times had harmful shit I’ve had to unlearn, and I am sure I will continue to learn things and fuck up and need to self examine. This habit of talking the talk without walking the walk is just something I’ve noticed, and something I myself have done in the past. It’s a lot easier to say a trendy (within you know, many leftist circles etc.) slogan than to do actual work, and I think that this is something cis people, including myself, need to keep in mind