In the run up to the EU referendum, most of our (at that time enormous) pool of Labour Party activists failed to step up and join the campaigning. I found myself working with people from other parties, or from none, who came out to have those street conversations. The conversations were mostly a waste of time – people weren’t in the mood to do any thinking.
In the aftermath of the 2019 general election, I was completely debilitated by what had happened. I remember sitting on the sofa the next morning, wondering when or how political life would ever get started again. It wasn’t the defeat that drained me so, it was that I realised that I’d known for quite a while that we were going to lose that election.
This week, the lessons of those days were hovering in the back of my mind as a local organisation that’s really useful on some things prepared to vote on a stupid mess of a motion on what they think of as the trans issue. I wondered, a bit, why I wasn’t trying to talk to any of them, and why I, and others who’ve spoken for reality elsewhere, weren’t mustering to go along to their meeting and talk sense.
Maybe we’re just incredibly tired of this argument. Well we are, but it’s more that we know that to keep on doing the same thing and expect a different result is a sign of insanity. If people aren’t ready to think, they won’t. It was a real stroke of genius, Hannah Barnes calling her excellent book Time to Think.
Find out more about Barnes’ book
Most people have now worked out that you can’t change sex, that trans women aren’t women, and that it would be perfectly possible to be decent to trans people and protect our children from the cultish nonsense they’re being fed about it all. Unfortunately, there are still quite a few trade unions and other organisations that are still banging that drum so hard that their loyal members can’t think.
What exactly is it we do, that persuades us our group, our team, our party is right, and everyone else is wrong? I know what happens when that belief breaks down – cognitive dissonance, it’s called and, when you have time to think, when you allow yourself to think, only then do you realise how drained of energy you’ve been, trying to believe a load of things that don’t add up.
If you’re still caught in the dilemma but you’re reading this article anyway, you’re probably on your way out of the nightmare. Please apply your mind to the debates about identity politics. Here’s my tuppensworth on that…
Click here to read The inevitable end game of identity politics.
See you on the other side. I’m off to investigate how the Palestine campaign achieved breakthrough, now.
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Dear Reader,
Times are hard, and so the articles on this site are freely available but if you are able to support my work by making a donation, I am very grateful.
Cheers,
Kay
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Kay Green 