#dogwhistle/strawman

[ebenelephant]

so like, in case anyone was wondering, the fact that andrew tate 'supported mens mental health' and encouraged dudes to go to the gym and have better self esteem and such is not actually good enough reason to defend his online presence (seperate to the literal human trafficking)

even if you think that you didn't take in his political messages, I would bet money that you did, because the guy who myself and a friend got into an hour long debate about this with in our english class referred to someone female-presenting as 'dominatable' and 'like a weak animal' this morning – just the tip of the iceberg of the increasingly concerning misogynist rhetoric he's been developing over the past months, perhaps the past years.

obviously this isn't an exclusively andrew tate related thing; toxic mens rights 'activists' are a dime a dozen and often vile. this is just the situation that I find myself privy to, and I felt like it was important that people were aware.

[patricia-taxxon]

ok, honestly, the take of mine that makes me sound the most like the strawman leftoid in a political cartoon, this shit is a racist dogwhistle

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

So, the DfE have released their non-statutory guidance for schools on "gender questioning children". I know much has been made of the idea of outing trans children to their parents, but I think the guidance actually has far more concerning sections. And by concerning I mean "deeply transphobic and fucked up".

I know some people are happy it's non statutory, but let's be explicit, this document is transphobic, it's dogwhistle politics, and it's existence will directly harm trans people.

Ironically, the DfE's own lawyers have advised that this guidance is likely illegal and contravenes the equality act.

I think the idea that there are lots of students who are fully transitioned in school but not out at all at home is a bit of a strawman from both sides. In my experience (and I've mentioned this on tumblr before), a school would not normally encourage this if a student was genuinely at risk at home if outed, because even if all the teachers knew not to out the students, you can't control the behaviour of other students/parents etc. I think it's a bit of a right wing scare tactic "Schools are transitioning your kids without your consent". It's a fascist dog whistle.

In my experience as a teacher, the vast majority of trans kids I've taught were transitioning socially at home and school. Some did only use their chosen name/pronouns in school, but parents were aware.

But this straw man has been used to build a document which is deeply transphobic and wide reaching and will defacto exclude some trans kids from school, or from school sports, or from attending a school where they feel comfortable.

Trans kids exist. Kids can know they are trans from a young age, and there is no harm to anyone from allowing social transition at a young age. Some kids transition back to their assigned gender at birth. That doesn't mean anyone was harmed. But this guidance explicitly presents the idea of transition as both harmful to the person transitioning and those around them. Which is fucked up.

The new guidance has some really concerning bits in it which will seriously negatively impact all trans students. Here are some quotes below, with my comments in italics. Please note I'm quoting directly from a document that uses transphobic language:

-Primary school aged children should not have different pronouns to their sex-based pronouns used about them. (This is fucked, I cannot stress how fucked this is. These kids exist and simply pretending they don't is awful in the extreme. The idea that children can't socially transition at primary school is really messed up. )

-schools and colleges should only agree to a change of pronouns if they are confident that the benefit to the individual child outweighs the impact on the school community. It is expected that there will be very few occasions in which a school or college will be able to agree to a change of pronouns. On these rare occasions, no teacher or pupil should be compelled to use these preferred pronouns. (How does a child using pronouns of choice impact the school community? It doesn't? In my experience, teens are much more accepting of trans classmates than some adults. Also giving teachers explicit permission to misgender kids is fucking dangerous).

-schools and colleges should exhaust all other options, such as using firstnames, to avoid requiring other individuals having to use preferred pronouns. (My initial response to this was "why the fuck" but a trans friend commented that the purpose is to make trans people's lives as difficult and as miserable as possible, and they're going after the most vulnerable trans people- trans kids)

-If a child does not want to use the toilet designated for their biological sex, and the school or college has considered all the relevant factors outlined above, they may wish to consider whether they can provide or offer the use of an alternative toilet facility. (this is weird because I'm pretty sure it contravenes the equality act, I'm pretty sure there is a legal duty on schools, and certainly colleges where over 18s attend to provide gender neutral toilet facilities if required. Also, not having an appropriate toilet defacto excludes children from school).

-Schools may have different uniform requirements for girls and boys. Some specify which uniform items are for girls and which are for boys, and similarly some schools have hairstyle rules which differ by sex. A child who is gender questioning should, in general, be held to the same uniform standards as other children of their sex at their school and schools may set clear rules to this effect. (So some schools could, for example, force a trans boy or non binary student to wear a skirt. Which is unfair and messed up. To be honest, I think sex segregated uniforms belong in the dark ages anyway, but this is just ridiculous.).

-There is no general duty to allow a child to ‘social transition’. (Firstly, there legally is. Secondly, why would a school not want to? This just gives licence to transphobic heads to say "oh, no, we won't allow you to transition", which is illegal, but the whole thing is just such a fucking mess. And again, why? Why would you not allow a child to transition socially? Unless you want to pretend that trans children don't exist?)

If you want to read the full guidance, it's available here, but trigger warnings etc do apply: https://consult.education.gov.uk/equalities-political-impartiality-anti-bullying-team/gender-questioning-children-proposed-guidance/supporting_documents/Gender%20Questioning%20Children%20%20nonstatutory%20guidance.pdf

Yes, the guidance is non-statutory, so in theory schools could ignore it, but in reality, OFSTED etc can use non-statutory guidance as a stick to beat schools with. At this stage, I think we all know the OFSTED don't give a fuck about anyone's mental health or wellbeing.

Interestingly, even the DfE's own lawyers have admitted the advice could open schools up to a legal challenge. This SchoolsWeek article on the topic is super interesting: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/trans-guidance-dfe-lawyers-said-schools-face-high-risk-of-being-sued/

Anyway, whilst the fact it's non statutory is something, this is not the victory some people are making it out to be, and the fact a document encouraging misgendering children has been published at all is fucked. This document could very much be used to prevent children from transitioning, and will likely prevent some children who have transitioned from attending school.

[tpwrtrmnky]

I respect and understand that good-faith usage of the term "AFAB trans woman" is possible, but given that it's

Ambiguous what's being conveyed with the phrase, as it depends on non-conventional definitions of at least one of the words in it

Also seeing usage as a TERF dogwhistle in a weak attempt at attacking their strawman of "gender ideology"

Seriously consider if any other combination of words would do the job better! You have a responsibility to communicate in ways that don't contribute to making the community unsafe for members of it! Contradictory labels are not the issue here, genderfuckery is valid, intersex technicalities exist, AND this combination of words reads like an enormous red flag for someone who either doesn't know enough about how TERFs operate, OR thinks that harm to trans women from enabling this dogwhistle is acceptable.

[olderthannetfic]

What's this situation called: I noticed someone accusing that "White people are the only ones giving this book 1-2 stars" but when I went to check the book, most of the 1-2 stars were from pocs, especially compared to white people's ratings which seemed to on average be higher. Is that dogwhistle? Strawman? I noticed this a few times now, and wondering if the people making those claims are betting on you not double checking.

--

The word you want is "lying".

[stil-lindigo]

if you can't understand why women would be apprehensive of someone born and raised male gaining access to spaces that are supposed to be free of them, you're the one who lacks empathy, plain and simple. you speak like you think radfems are just angry at trans-identified males who "are too ugly to be women", when it's just basic awareness that changing your pronouns won't undo years if not decades of misogynistic socialization and physical disparity. you're arguing against an imaginary strawman.

sure, logically I can understand people being apprehensive of male presence in female spaces, but the jump to the assumption that every trans woman is a malicious rapist in disguise is completely insane. The idea that any cis man would willingly subject himself to the relentless abuse and societal ostracisation that trans people undergo just to gain access to female spaces is laughable and your use of language like 'trans-identified males' is so clearly flippant of the entire identity that I really don't know what else to say. I never said that terfs are just "angry at men too ugly to be women" but hey, transvestigators do that job for me by attacking cis women for being too tall, having too broad shoulders, too sharp of a jaw and, of all things, for the shape of their fucking vulvas. I hope that as well as a so-called feminist, you also call yourself a loud and proud bigot against the entire queer community since it's just a fact that without trans women, we wouldn't have rights as a whole. we owe so much to people like marsha p. johnson and if you can't recognise how much of a red flag it is that terfs have literal neo nazis sieg-heiling alongside them and alt-right politicians rushing out anti-trans legislation like it's a fucking race then I think you're just unreachable.

and just for good measure - a post on nazi dogwhistles that are a core part of terf ideology.

[as-tro-nauts]

I want you to know it’s okay to be hurt by someone making a caricature of you, a strawman. Assuming you’re the worst kind of person due to falling to bigotry. I want you to know that hurtful hiveminds feed off of “independent thinkers” very often. You are not out of line, you are not overreacting. He is using dogwhistles.

[memoryoflooping]

PSA: Do Not Play Pixpet Or The New Dragon Adopters Unless You Know 100% That The Staff Doesn't Still Behave Like They Do In This Post

EDIT: 11/22: The new dragonadopters may not be run by the pixpet staff. However i have not personally confirmed this. I personally will continue to not play it but the choice is open for you to join the discord and find out ig ?

As a quick aside, I fully believe in the ability for people to grow and change, however, this incident was so egregious that I swore off on these sites ever since, only popping in on the new dragon adopters to see what it was like. Please be aware, this happened two years ago (almost three!) in feb of 2022. This was before the Discord Username Revamp, the users very likely have different names now. Also this is probably outdated, however the behavior is still disgusting, I didn't have the most confidence that the staff had changed when I left, because they were making jokes about continuing to use the meme that had started the situation in the first place.

A TL:DR for the chat: Pixpet admins pulled out the white racism card over pepe the frog, then proceeded to hound a black staff member looking to step down with unrelated strawman arguments (while having called said staff member racist, against white people)

I put up with a lot when I play petsites, admins powertripping, bad game design, and much much more. What I won't put up with, however, is any decision that will increase risk of bad actors in communities claimed to be safe. This is why Pixpet, Dragonadopters and any other petsites made by the same team will not be featured on my blog.

Why you might ask? Years ago I tried Pixpet out, and i enjoyed it, i didn't find the weird rpg part as fun but it had interesting things going on gameplay-wise. However, the admins handled a dogwhistle situation so extremely poorly, you should never, ever take someone claiming that something is a dogwhistle lightly, you should listen and do research. You should never defend your favorite meme because you don't think it's a dogwhistle. This is exactly the choice the Pixpet staff team made, I need to preface the following evidence with: this is not a leak, this was publicly released after the incident occurred.

Posted to Discord around Feb 9, 2022 (Archive)

I should not have to explain why the behavior by the staff members who weren't Hexadecks/Inked is appalling, because pepe the frog was very much used as a dogwhistle and hate symbol (probably still is!). The fact that none of the staff did adequate research is disgusting and they should not have treated Hexadecks the way they did regardless of how rude Hexadecks came off as because as Hexadecks said, "it is very much a sign of right-wing troll personas". Chicken Raptor denying this was ignorant and dangerous, and telling hexadecks that they were not better than racists is grossly inappropriate for this conversation regardless of Chicken Raptor's half native status.

Additionally Chicken Raptor calling Hexadecks racist and then claiming white racism is real is also inappropriate in this discussion, white people have colonized so much of the world and destroyed so many cultures that "b-but South Africa!" is not an excuse I will accept. White people colonized Africa and made South Africa an Apartheid that mostly benefited white people. Of course, this is not to dismiss their struggles, poverty and discrimination among white South Africans did increase post-apartheid, and this is not deserved, but touting them around and pretending like this is a reality 99% of other white people can face, ignores the role white people play in destroying other cultures. White people hold so much power of other groups in so many parts of the world that, we cannot treat "white racism is real" as something that is true everywhere, yes, they should not be getting death threats and be getting discriminated against, however this is simply the case in one country. I will not sit here and pretend that white racism is real anywhere else in the world when white people are very much continuing their own flavors of racism in places where they are "dominant". Furthermore, calling someone racist because they told you that you should maybe, just maybe, stop telling a black person to not be offended by a hate symbol used by people who are racist against primarily black people (a little more rudely than that, but you get my point) is disgusting, your half native status does not give you an excuse to be racist nor does it allow you to waive the possibility of something being anti-black. Hexadecks is not South African, they cannot and do not have power over white people to legitimately discriminate against white people past, perhaps, making a mildly rude post that could get them harassed by white people with more social power, touting the same white South African arguments over something probably as simple as a contextless "I hate white people." If you don't believe this is true you have never seen a black person make a social faux pas online and then instantly get dogpilled for it, which is arguably what happens to Hexadecks during this chat. The repeated refusal to listen to Hexadecks in this conversation is telling, and starkly paints the staff in a awful light, because Hexadecks brings up good points, that South Africa is not built off of the bones of white people to the same extent places like the USA is with POC.

I will not claim to have done the greatest amount of research on South Africa, however I can say with certainty that Chicken Raptor had also made a bad statement about BLM as well, claiming that "the other half target only white people." which is a gross assumption to make about people fighting for their rights. And Chicken Raptor's repeated insistence that pepe "was always a joke meme" and refusing to let it go because that would allow the alt right to "win" is dangerous. Additionally Draconic Emperor Takkju, and Chicken Raptor bringing up strawman arguments and forcing Hexadecks to engage is distracting from the topic at hand. I will not entertain and argue that you can be ethically rich in a capitalist society, I will not entertain any of these arguments, Draconic Emperor Takkju and Chicken Raptor are being centrist and ignorant of how meaningful change is made. Regardless hounding a black person and telling them that they're wrong about the racism they experience is harmful and gross, and those two admins do not belong as admins on any website. I do not claim to know Hexadecks, but I hope they are doing well.

The statement linked was posted in the discord and players were allowed to discuss it, however, after the discussion Chicken Raptor did not take discussion of pepe the frog seriously, and made a joke along with another user about it. Hexadecks allegedly having Pixpet's source code and threatening to make a copy petsite does not excuse this behavior whatsoever, it is still disgusting to its core.

Pixpets, Dragon Adopters and any future sites made by Komodo will not be allowed on my blog further than this post and the spare few posts I made about Dragon Adopters in the past. I have left them behind permanently, and I recommend you do the same if they have not changed their behavior since 2022.

I am not worried about being banned anywhere as I am not going to be logging back in or going back anytime soon. I also don't believe this post will go anywhere, as last I checked Pixpet didn't have an active drama blog anymore. However, please do not harass anyone over this post. It is quite literally almost 3 years in the making, because I simply recalled that the text was lying around in my drive. I deeply hope the staff in this post stepped down, and if they haven't that they've changed and grown as people, because this was a while ago. Hopefully they are not still treating the topic of dogwhistles so lightly as to basically ignore it when inconvenient, because they will not foster a healthy environment "for everyone" like that.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

more from khanuckle's buddy lepartidelamort, who apparently is a writer for the daily stormer. https://www.tumblr.com/lepartidelamort/765534523171700736/i-need-to-go-back-through-the-basics?source=share

"Jewish culture is totally satanic and bizarre, and fixated on abuse."

This man either copied a Kampfesque manifesto from Andrew Anglin or this is Anglin's tumblr

both options are equally pathetic

good for us he reasons like a holocaust denier which is not at all

Briefly, Jews

off to a bad start

Jews are a monolith

Jews do not work or serve in the military

Umm sir most Jews were fucking Merchants and traders that is a job. Also I wonder how my great grandfather ended up in Auswitz as a Russian (he was a prisoner of war and he was sent there instead of being shot upon discovery of him being Jewish based on Nazi protocol) but I'm sure Anglin thinks the holocaust is fake.

"Jews are nervous wrecks". This is actually an America only canard as Europeans think we're always lying and really good at acting, while in Arab countries we're seen as either rude and uncaring.

Jewish behavior is all genetic (he says the same for black and brown people) but his enlightened white ass evolved above such things and will use his higher evolved senses to genocide the rest of them. So evolved so enlightened/s

"Chosen people"/ "Jewish supremacy" I have debunked this before, it's projection on Nazis part

"why don't they assimilate yet?" AWWW is the white American man sad America took his culture when his immigrant ancestors assimilated? Is the white American Jealous he has no "white culture'" so he hastily creates one from scratch?

"Jewish culture is weird, creepy and focused on abuse" Andy stop projecting what your fabricated "white culture" is like on us

"Deicide" + "Jews are parasites". Man this guy is good at sneaking dogwhistles into text. He probably has more practice and editors than the average hamasnik

Ok you lost the plot if Jews are genetic and can't control themselves then why do you believe that a Jewish man marrying a christian woman and converting will stop him from being Jewish? At least the Nazis were mostly consistent in their illogic.

Man has to backtrack and contradict his theories because his conclusion neccesarily it calls for a second holocaust so he goes for a conclusion that doesn't follow his theories to not sound like a full on Nazi

also

classy

(I cut out the incel rant about women being only in it for the money and the sex but it was bad I promise)

Does that means that you think Jews are obssessed with sex and gain power through marriage?

I'm not strawmanning here, I truly think this incel nazi believes in 'evil Jewish hypergamy?

That's enough nazi shit for one day

[cmdrburton]

people brainrotted by their fandom echo chamber: at this point [reasonable take based in canon] is practically a dogwhistle for [strawman I and my friends just made up and are totally convinced is real]

please touch grass, this is embarrassing

[a-treatise-on-velociraptors]

"AI 'art' isn't art" isn't some goddamn fascist anti-art dogwhistle it's an extremely *pro-art* statement. Art requires a creator to be art. AI is not a creator, it's a predictive text generator that operates on theft with the express purpose of replacing real creators.

Duchamp's urinal is art. It's not art I *like* but it is *art*, it was put together with human intent.

Hell, *PISS CHRIST* is art. It's art that I fucking despise but it's still *art* because it was put together with human intent.

The human intent can be disgusting. It can be morally reprehensible (sun yuan and peng yu's art made of child corpses and actively dying animals comes to mind. That kind of art I do think should be banned or at least shunned, I think there's a line to be drawn there). It can be the fucking worst. It can be made by complete shitheads. But it was made by people.

AI is made from the most statistically probable common denominator. It creates shiny pieces of digital glitter that corporations eat up because it's safe and cheap and an easy button for corpos wanting an easy shortcut to cut humans out of the equation. A world where "art" is created by computers in order to sell us products, that cuts out real humans in order to get us to consume more more more, and puts the nature of mainstream "art" solely in the hands of the companies that run the AI, is more fascist than any goddamn strawman y'all have created.

[shamebats]

How to spot a fascist:

A. State of Emergency

A fascist will magnify the importance of a seemingly minor thing. For example, a drag show will be presented as a fundamental threat to Western life. A state of emergency allows a fascist to justify unspeakable actions. When people are panicking, they are more likely to permit more extreme and violent measures.

B. Concern Trolling

A fascist will never state their core belief that something is a Jewish conspiracy to destroy white people. They will repeatedly state that something shouldn't happen until people have had a chance to "voice their concerns". Fascists will never say what those concerns are because their concern is a Jewish conspiracy to destroy white people by promoting "degeneracy". They will repeatedly obstruct and prevent potentially life-saving laws by saying there are unheard "concerns".

C. Common Dogwhistles

A fascist's biggest fear is being revealed as a fascist. Smart fascists don't go around ranting about Jews destroying white people. They use dogwhistles. Common fascist dogwhistles include:

- Protecting Western Civilization/Values - This just means white supremacy.

- Protecting family values. This does 3 things at once. It asserts that our family values are in danger. It asserts a root cause for everything wrong in society. It is a rallying call to militarise because you can't defend something without fighting someone. The natural question for a brainwashed person is - Who is attacking the family values which must be defended? The answer is - The people who control the media and pull the strings i.e. Jews.

D. Strawman Oppressor

Fascists will always try to usurp the narrative by creating a strawman who is oppressing people. They will say things like - You can't even say X without a crazy Y giving you a lecture about Z. They will paint someone's existence and requests for basic human decency as wildly disruptive to normal life. This creates a narrative of oppression where it doesn't exist. This is a recruitment tool to push gullible center-right people towards the far right.

- Taken from this comment by a reddit user on a great post about why fascists are targeting drag performers.

[starrbar]

Isn't it funny how when rad-antis do their cute little "PSA" thing, and their target tries to defend/explain themself, the ones doing the callouts take common, true, scientifically-backed statements and call them "red flags"?

I've seen so many posts going "Oh god guys, we'd better watch out for this dangerous person. 😨" and their evidence is just a screenshot of the "Fiction doesn't equal reality" bullet on their profile/Carrd, or a similar statement in a rebuttal against claims that they're a Literal Child Rapist™ because of their Pixiv bookmarks.

Like, "how DARE you say the most obvious response to the garbage I'm spewing that's been debunked time and time again?" Next, they'll be saying that citing doctors and professionals to back up their points is a "red flag". xD (I don't remember the exact wordings, but I 99% sure I've actually seen one of them say something like that.)

And okay... to play devil's advocate, this makes sense when you consider, for example, how phrases like "free speech" and "anti censorship" mean very different things coming from a Conservative vs. a Progressive, and those are also simple concepts that I think should be supported for their true meanings, but it still looks quite ridiculous when you start saying that phrases like "anti-harassment" and "fiction ≠ reality 1:1" are "proship dogwhistles", as if there is no context in which those statements have any merit.

(and then I started ranting)

❝ No, of course, only CHILD PREDATORS think that abusing and bullying people is wrong, because the ONLY time anybody ever gets bullied is when they've done something to DESERVE it, right?? There are no people on this earth who hurt innocents. Justice is always served. Therefore, "anti-harassment" is a pro-abuser stance! ❞ /s

❝ And obviously "fiction ≠ reality" is always code for "I just really like Stonetoss comics and drawing porn of child actors, but those are just pictures, so they don't mean anything!" It's definitely not like many people who make the former statement would immediately recoil in disgust and block anyone who uses it that way. Nah, we're all just secret predators who formed a club where we worship sexual abuse and bigotry. ❞ /sss

See, that, up there, is why I've started specifically referring to "radical antis" because they ACTUALLY embody these extreme stances, and they have repeatedly blown my mind with how exaggerated they can be, but they're 100% serious.

If you're an anti and the above obnoxious strawman doesn't apply to you, you may very well be just fine. But I'm really just tired of essentialist dickheads spear-heading one harassment campaign after another in the name of "reducing harm", and sadly those people take your genuine beliefs and warp them to create those situations.

I'm sorry you have to be associated with them tbh! /gen

I genuinely don't know how things ended up like this, but unfortunately there are people with genuine, valid concerns about fiction's affect on reality who aren't being taken seriously because a bunch of abusers take those concerns and mangle them until they're unrecognizable, probably on purpose so they can justify torturing other people for fun.

Sad day for survivors all across the board, huh? :/

[grim-echoes]

seriously side-eyeing anyone who still makes Lol Woke Feminism Le Manager Big Red jokes in 2022. that shit was already a strawman when being an anti-sjw was the trend in the early-mid 2010s and it reeks of fucking alt right dogwhistling because the only way i can see somebody still finding that shit funny is if they actually believe that social justice has always been conceptually evil and that legions of crazy women with flaming red hair are out to get them for manspreading and leaving the toilet seat up after they piss

[ileftherbackhome]

i think after sitting with my diagnosis for a while now and really trying to understand myself in a new light, I cannot help but notice how NT social injustice is.

like it heavily relies on dogwhistles which is literally saying 1 thing while meaning another. it relies on assumptions and gaslighting when called out on your behavior. it relies on projecting your own emotions onto the words that other people are saying.

and i cannot help but make the connection to my autistic desire to say the right things whenever i think about my special interest (or hyperfixation idk how to diff between the two personally, ik the definitions but i cannot tell which is which for my brain) in learning social justice policies and watching video essays that discuss these issues. because if u look at politics like a ND vs NT spectrum, the ND are the left and the NT are the right. its an analogy btw not a literal thesis or whatever but idk how else to communicate my thoughts at the moment.

anyways like the left vs the right debates that happen on social media, they can really be boiled down to "the left argues based on facts and evidence whereas the right relies on strawmanning, dogwhistling, and gaslighting when arguing their position." a recent example I can think of is when i said that pretending like the original definition of woman was adult, female human is racist (and sexist but im adding that now lol) and terfs read that as saying the definition "adult female human is racist" which is not what I said but the right relies on assuming that's what I meant, attacking that position, and then gaslighting you when you say I never said that show me where I said that.

like it happens with everything not just trans issues but it's very prevalent on the far right side of the internet and I think for a long time, my autism was driving my desire to believe the right things and say the right things etc. idk its always very interesting whenever i learn a new aspect of my life autism has affected.

[posi-pan]

let’s talk about panphobic dogwhistles

A panphobic dogwhistle is coded/subtle to avoid opposition. These statements aren’t inherently panphobic and not everyone who shares them is panphobic.

“You can identify as pan, if... I support you being pan, but...”

This create hoops for pan people to jump through in order to be supported. But support and respect contingent on us internalizing and regurgitating panphobia isn’t genuine. We don’t trade autonomy for a sliver of pseudo acceptance.

“New labels damage the community. It doesn’t matter if a label is valid, it matters if it’s useful, materially different, and serves a political purpose.” And other anti self-identification/individualism statements.

This targets any label that isn’t The Four. Labels are, and always have been, useful if they help someone understand and communicate their feelings, identity, and experiences. We don’t owe our queerness to anyone, and we don’t have to use our queerness as a calculated strategy for anything.

What damages the community is creating an environment where any kind of difference in identity/language/expression or rebellion against norms/status quo/rules is met with hostility, fostering fear and distrust of the people who are supposed to support and nurture that self-discovery and expression.

“All genders/regardless of gender has always been the definition of bi.”

This often perpetuates the counterfactual ideas that pan “stole” The bi definition and isn’t necessary because “bi already means that”. This is also ahistorical biphobia; there’s never been one “true” definition of bi (this isn’t even the common community one) and it erases bi history/people who don’t relate to it.

Using scare quotes around pan.

Putting pan in quotes when it isn’t necessary is often a way of disrespecting its legitimacy, casting doubt/judgement, especially if pan is the only one in quotes.

“Bi has always included trans/nonbinary people.”

This is often used to falsely claim pan was created because “biphobes thought bi didn’t include trans/nonbinary people, so pan doesn’t need to exist”. (Binary bi texts aren’t universal, but there are plenty that speak to a reality that affected people and contributed to the current more inclusive language.)

“Mspec labels overlap but the distinction matters to some and that’s okay.”

I’ve seen this said so many times in response to people asking what bi and pan mean and how they relate to and differ from each other. What good is it to tell people the distinction matters while avoiding explaining what that distinction is? Ultimately this statement discourages any dialogue about mspec labels.

“Bi is an umbrella term that includes pan.”

The bi umbrella was once genuine inclusion of all mspec people, and activists/orgs use it, so most people don’t see it as anything else. But when bi only content has “bi+” slapped onto it, it becomes meaningless and performative. Panphobes also use it to argue pan doesn’t need its own, specific visibility.

“When a character ‘just likes people’ or is ‘attracted to all genders or regardless of gender’ they aren’t automatically pan instead of bi.”

I’ve experienced this from panphobes who simply assume pan interpretations of pan definitions/common pan explanations must be because of biphobia. But it’s a big, false, and purposely bad faith leap of logic to fuel the panphobic narrative that pan people are always misrepresenting bi.

“Pan people need to let bi people have something and stop making everything about themselves.”

This might seem like advocating for bi only content/events for the sake of bi visibility/community, but it’s often malicious exclusion of pan people who’ve always been included. We aren’t “invading” or “derailing” anything by being in spaces we’ve always been in, or by sharing a bi post because we relate to it.

“Read the Bi Manifesto.”

A lot of the time, people say this because they think the manifesto states the true definition of bi and proves pan is unnecessary/biphobic. However, the full text explicitly states there isn’t one true definition of bi and the group who published it explicitly supports all mspec people and identities.

“People identify as pan due to internalized biphobia.”

This masks panphobia with concern for internalized biphobia. Pan is being written off as a product of biphobia under the guise of wanting bi people to embrace being bi. Pan people are being equated to bi folks who just haven’t unlearned biphobia enough to embrace being bi, when that isn’t the case.

“All pan people are bi, but not all bi people are pan.”

This appears to be an easy explanation of bi/pan, borrowing from “all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares”. But queerness isn’t geometry and doesn’t work like that. The only pan people who are bi are the ones who also identify as bi. We can’t box queerness into simple, universal categories.

“Analyze why you’re uncomfortable with being associated with bi people or being called bi.”

Of course, pan and bi are associated, but it’s never mere association these people are referring to. Pan people are vilified and wrongly painted as biphobic for criticizing the erasure and mislabeling of our identity.

“Bi and pan people need to stop fighting each other, both are valid and neither is -phobic.”

This implies the “fighting” is equal. But there are popular bi accounts dedicated to panphobia, “battleaxe bi” was coopted for panphobia, a major bi org spreads panphobia, panphobic bi authors/activists are praised, and researchers subsume pan data into bi data. Biphobia from pan people just is not on the same scale as panphobia from bi people.

This is not to disregard/downplay biphobia from pan people. It’s just important to acknowledge the reality, severity, and disparity of the situation. Erasing that by saying or implying it’s just a silly mutual argument about which word is better is disingenuous at best, and malicious misrepresentation at worst.

“I’ve never seen a definition of pan that isn’t biphobic/transphobic.”

Panphobes involved in bi/pan “discourse” saying this aren’t hoping to learn the actual (read: non bigoted) definitions of pan, they’re saying there aren’t any definitions of pan that aren’t biphobic or transphobic, because they believe pan is inherently biphobic and transphobic.

“Behaviorally/scientifically bi.”

“Behaviorally” and “scientifically” bi are used to categorize people based on so-called innate, universal indicators of being bi. Both say pan people are actually bi, hiding identity policing/erasure behind science. Funnily enough, researchers have said it’s hard to determine who is “actually bi” because “individuals determine this for themselves”. In other words, there aren’t innate or universal indicators, we simply are who we say we are.

So. I’m sure there are plenty more examples I’ve missed, and if you have any please send them my way! (I tried to make this as short as possible, so if you’d like me to elaborate on any of these, let me know and I’ll happily do so!)

But I hope this will encourage you to think a bit deeper about the things people say and the possible intent behind it before sharing, as well as be more invested in supporting pan people and trusting us when we tell you something is being said to spread panphobia.