@MentORPHEUS There is a meme (I'd post it but Google is clearly altering search results to make it difficult to find) that has a leftist responding to some outrageous example of authoritarianism by saying "that never happens." When given a concrete, documented example of it happening, the leftist says "that's an isolated incident." When shown more examples, he says "you are exaggerating." When shown even more specifics demonstrating how commonplace the authoritarian crackdown actually is, the leftist calls the other person a bigot and approves of the authoritarianism.

People aren't making an oppositional big deal about the trans issue just for the heck of it. They want to be left alone and want their kids to be left alone. It is schools and institutions who are forcing in on their kids (and on them in the workplace) and requiring loyalty oaths. There's no way to avoid it and live and let live. Wrongthink is being punished by every major institution, public and private, in this country in every single state, no matter how red. It's coming to a head now because of the implacable imposition of this garbage on children and parents are saying "enough." No parents other than suburban Karens want their grade school kids subjected to drag shows and sex change propaganda. And yes, that is happening everywhere in this country.

@MentORPHEUS At my workplace topics like this don’t come up, partly because of people like me, that see the red line approaching and the light conversation deteriorating into a political debate and the swiftly stirring the conversation in a different direction.

The problem lies in when it comes up. You never get asked point blank “Would you date a tranny?”, but what happens is that some activist or someone who’s too deep into it (at my workplace they call themselves radical leftists) makes a statement like “there are these idiots who don’t want to date a tranny/hate gay people/don’t want to take the vaccine” and then check for any reaction that is not in agreement or not non-reactive and then they talk the person down. They actively search for opponents. Obviously no one is stupid enough to outright say “I’m one of those people!” otherwise you would be excised from any future conversation or even lose your job.

Granted, often the reaction is everyone being annoyed by the discussion and hoping for an end, but if it’s a rather well respected member of the workforce, it is accepted to act like this.

Clearly, I possess the social skills to navigate something like this without giving in and without getting into trouble, partly because everyone likes me, but nearly none of my colleagues do.

I mean, HR always must have a person that checks for DEI crimes. What more evidence do you need?