While I’ve been dozing under my rock, yet another type of insidious bigotry is drenching the ‘net, based on the time immemorial pastime of linking LGBT peoples with pedophilia.
Martin Shkreli has given the LGBT community another reason to despise him.
The pharmaceutical executive, who rose to infamy by hiking the price of a drug used for an AIDS-related condition by more than 5,000 percent, is now promoting “clovergender,” an identity concocted by trolls to mock LGBT people.
Before his Twitter account was suspended for harassing a Teen Vogue writer, Shkreli urged his followers January 4 to “please spread clovergender awareness.” The term, which has sprung up on several social media accounts early this year, appeared to be used by adult individuals claiming to be “a child trapped in a man’s body who is attracted to other children.”
However, “clovergender” is a hoax. Snopes debunked it, tracing the birth of “clovergender” and this definition, which ridicules the identity of transgender and gender-nonbinary people, to a 4chan thread from December 31.
“We’re creating a new gender to trolls SJWs with,” posted an anonymous user, in a reference to “social justice warriors.” They then coined “clovergender” and ascribed fake preferred pronouns like “cl / clir /climself.”
“We will be trolling on Tumblr and Facebook,” the user stated. Another replied, “I see potential in this.”
Just what this sociopathic asshole has to gain from this, I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. I guess it’s just his way of getting his kicks. The potential for damage is overwhelming though, and it’s not like people in general don’t already have a whole lot of hatred for LGBT peoples anyway. They do, and those who are always looking for any reason to fire up that hate will grab this garbage and run with it. We have one state after another attempting to legislate bigotry and hate, and I imagine there will legislators who will seize on this as well, in order to shore up their always faulty reasoning.
After gaining momentum on the message boards of 4chan and Reddit, the term did indeed find its way to broader social media. A new Facebook page claimed to be created in response to “the horrible pain and backlash somee [sic] Clovergender people receive. We are against that. We think a kid should do what he wants.”
[…]
Several Twitter accounts, which follow and retweet LGBT outlets and influencers, are also attempting to intertwine the fake cause with the real-life movement. At least one has attributed Shkreli’s Twitter ban to clovergender discrimination.
The ruse duped some folks on social media, who reacted with disgust to the “clovergender” community.
The myth of the sexual predator has dogged the LGBT community since time immemorial. The call for “bathroom bills,” which prohibit transgender people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity, is the most recent example of how conservatives are painting queer people as perverts. “Clovergender,” if it perpetuates, will only continue to stoke these mistruths and biases.
So. We find ourselves back at the beginning again, folks, having to fight this blatant lie again, over and over. Be aware of this, spread the word, get the truth out there, we all know the drill.
Full story at The Advocate.
Mr Shkreli seems to love destroing people’s lives and eroding social capital, just like the Liar-And-Pussy-Grabber-In-Chief along with rest of RWA/Fascist community.
Yeah. Right now, living in uStates feels like being dropped down a smooth well full of venomous snakes, and even that makes me feel like I’m denigrating snakes.
How long until he joins Trump’s cabinet?
People in the USA, please remember that you are the majority. I know it doesn’t look like it because the Refascistans have seized power, but they are not the majority.
Giliell, #3
Holy shit, I had never thought about that. It wouldn’t be a surprise in the least and he’d fit right in.
I… can’t even.
Thanks Caine. I don’t know if I can read the Advocate’s article today, but I sure as hell appreciate your work and summary. If/when I can, I’ll blog about it too.
CD:
I know how you’re feeling. I still feel physically sick over this, and I did not want to blog about it. I edited out all the links, because I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone linking to that filth from here. Take the time you need, this needs a lot of strength. That said, we are going to need people everywhere to speak out against this…whatever this is, this evil.
I have a childhood friend who recently posted an fb photo proudly posing with Shkreli. Guess who’s getting a de-friend-and-block.
You know what’s the difference between real snakes and these people? Snakes conserve their venom. As it is precious as a defensive weapon, they will take care to inject just as much as needed to get the job done, and nothing more. These people, on the other hand, actually derive pleasure from injecting their poison, and so they will keep pumping it for as much as possible, until the victim just can’t take it any more. It doesn’t matter if that weakens, or even kills them in the process, the pleasure is just too great to care about stuff like that.
… And that bit about children, well, if they’re children, they need a legal guardian -- someone to baby-sit and parent them, instead of allowing them to do whatever they want. And it means they’re also not capable of consenting on their own behalf, because children!
So it’s obvious they didn’t think this through, which of course wasn’t the point, because they’re a bunch of assholes led by one of USAmerica’s biggest assholes (and yeah… Shkreli in Trump’s cabinet, wouldn’t surprise me).
May this trolling never gain a wider foothold.
Okay, notice how these fuckers need to outright fabricate a social movement in order to make LGBT rights look bad. If they aren’t just doing this for “satire”, they’re trying to fool people into thinking that “clovergender” is a real thing to vilify LGBT people. If you’re making up hoaxes and lies to smear your ideological opponents, you’re not the good guys. How do these assholes not realize that?
Emergence:
Oh, they realize it. They want to be bad guys. And they are. Some people have already reacted to this as if it were real, so the need to combat this with the truth is urgent.
rq, #9
Yup. But dudebros aren’t the best at reasoning and using their brain. They think they’ve come up with some unassailable challenge here.
Also, it’s obvious that this is fake just because it bills itself as a gender. No one argues that age is a part of gender identity, so this is blatantly based on 4chan trolls’ abysmal understanding of LGBT identities. Any attempt to satirize something you don’t understand will come across as a shallow, ignorant caricature.
I’m also not surprised that a ripoff artist who bought the rights to a life-saving drug that he didn’t make so he could price gouge the people who need it would also be a bigoted asshole.
@Caine
I’m usually of the mindset that everyone thinks that they’re the good guys in their own eyes. Even the shittiest people on Earth rationalize their words and actions as justified. Internet trolls are one of the few groups of people that make me question that. I think that they picture themselves as the Joker, and forgot that he’s the villain.
Saad @12
But rational! And logic! And can’t we just have a discussion about this!
….
No?
I’m getting that sledgehammer feeling on the inside.
The more I think about how vulnerable people with developmental abilities for whom the description “child in an adult’s body” is a more or less fitting description are to sexual abuse and rape, the worse this gets.
@rq, 9:
Remember, they think trans men don’t count as “real” men and trans women don’t count as “real” women, and their complete disregard for other people means they assume that claim is universal and self-evident. They simply assume that their made-up “trans children” don’t count as real children because they’re incapable of even thinking the alternative.
Martin Shkreli’s problem is that he’s a worthless sack of shit trapped in a man’s body.
Emergence @ 14:
There are people who don’t think of themselves as good, and don’t want to be good, either. Sometimes those people do view themselves a villain with some sort of purpose, but they don’t mistake themselves as being good. Sometimes those people are…damaged, and sometimes they aren’t. I’ve lived long enough to encounter too many examples of those types of people.
American society in particular seems to brim over with sociopaths, they are acquaintances, neighbours, co-workers, and sometimes friends. Of course, they aren’t limited to the States, it seems everyone has their fair share, and one thing they all have in common is the desire for power. The power to oppress, the power to hurt, the power to drive people to torment and often death. I understand the desire to see good, I much prefer to see that too, but there are people who want no part of good in any way.
Giliell… @ # 3: How long until he joins Trump’s cabinet?
The Food & Drug Administration chair is not a Cabinet-level position.
Or maybe they’re saving Shkreli as a backup nominee for Health & HS Secretary.
Giliell raised a good point @16.
This is the kind of thing that could really, really harm vulnerable people.