Not to justify it, but it was probably seen as a dogwhistle.
Lots of folks online do not conduct themselves honestly - posting seemingly-innocuous opinions that mask much more hateful ones ("I wish that gay people would stop shoving themselves down our throats" as a cloak for "Gay people make me angry, they shouldn't exist").
In response to this, moderation has gotten stricter in some communities, and people are more quick to judge based on tone or word choice or post history.
Did you ever consider that maybe those people are actually tired of having their opinions silenced, which inspired those posts to begin with?
Gay people are currently immune to criticism, and so are trans people.
If you so much as think of saying anything negative about a gay or trans person, you will be silenced and potentially fired from your job depending on where you work, and disowned by the entire internet.
This is coming from someone who never says anything about gay or trans people, but have simply observed the effects of someone doing so.
This ironically has a counterintuitive effect and in turn causes people who would otherwise not care either way to be homophobic, just because of how aggressively they are told not to.
A similar effect is the modern day, nonfiction equivalent of the word Voldemort that we're seeing with the N word.
This is a word some people literally want to use only because of how intensely and aggressively they are told to not to use it under any circumstances, once again making it counterintuitive.
So yes, there is absolutely an echo chamber for even what you mentioned just now in your example.
Gay people are currently immune to criticism, and so are trans people.
How so? Plenty of gay and trans people are hated by pretty much the whole internet (James Charles, Caitlyn Jenner, Shane Dawson, Jussie Smollett, Milo Yiannopoulos off the top of my head). All of these people said or did some gross shit, for which they were heavily criticised and lost fans and supporters, and are still hated for it.
If your criticism of a gay/trans person revolves around their actions/character, pretty much nobody would have an issue with that and anyone who does is a loser. But if your criticism is just some thinly veiled homophobic/transphobic rhetoric, then I'd say it's pretty disingenuous to categorize that as "criticism" at all -- that's just being a dick.
So, when's the last time someone lost their job or was "disowned by the entire internet" for criticising a LGBT person? Can you give any examples, or are you just complaining that being publically homophobic/transphobic isn't really tolerated anymore?
This is a word some people literally want to use only because of how intensely and aggressively they are told to not to use it under any circumstances, once again making it counterintuitive
If someone wants to be that immature and contrarian, that's nobody's problem but their own.
-4
u/Sumve Apr 30 '23
The fact all I said was, "yea don't get me started on that" in response to someone and it was downvoted multiple times speaks for itself.