They are just stupid. They’ve got this playbook and they are following it step by step. Target an out group to rile up your base and get them focused. Except they need charismatic people working on the people and they just don’t have it. They think it’s working because their polling metrics tell them it is but their polling methods are terribly outdated and they aren’t getting an accurate slice of the people. Because if they realized, truly, how little trans rights matter to almost everybody one way or the other they would find a different target. It’s almost a cliche at this point where rich and powerful people believe their own bullshit and think themselves clever because they have money or something. They are their own worst enemy.

In the end rich people dumb shit will actually help trans people by bringing attention to their existence and their issues.

PS- don’t get me wrong here. I think trans rights matter but it is a ways down on my list of things we ought to be dealing with right now. Seems that way to most people I’ve talked to about it. It gets a big shrug from most people.