#nor would drag show bans affect cross-dressing in plays surely

[liskantope]

This is going to sound like I'm arriving at this attitude much later than I reasonably should have, and quite possibly I am, but I'm now beginning to feel a gut-level jolt of horror at the thought of what the socially conservative Right is getting up to that I haven't felt since the decade before last during the last great culture war over Christianity vs. atheism and gay rights. The current scene of conservative politicians on the warpath wielding sledgehammers aimed at drag culture, gender medicine, and the teaching of anything uncomfortable related to race (among other targets) is not a pretty sight and is ratcheting up the current war to a level I hadn't fully anticipated.

This part is going to be a rather self-centered take, but... It actually makes me feel nostalgic for a decade ago, when what is now called "wokeness" was this type of ideology that was exploding online and in my academic environment but I didn't really have a name for, until in 2014 I discovered a blogger named Scott Alexander who called it SJ and was basically the first person I had ever seen seriously and effectively address it. I'm even nostalgic for the feeling prior to encountering Scott's online community that I was pretty much alone and probably just kind of evil for taking issue with the ideology and should maybe just let progressive culture go on its merry way as it didn't particularly seem to be causing real concrete trouble or upsetting anyone else throughout the political spectrum. Even from a purely self-centered point of view, in a way this wasn't as gut-twisting as seeing all of this reach the mainstream and an opposing side that I do not want as my bedfellows lashing back as viciously as possible, which is what I see today.