Arguments
- “Cis people do harm too”
- “Cis people commit more violence than trans people”
- “Cis people do more rapes than trans people”
- etc
On the surface, these statements are literally true in the trivial statistical sense that a vastly larger population will, by definition, produce more total wrongdoing. But the point of this argument is not to provide information. Its real function is to redirect attention away from the claim being made and to paint the critic’s group as equally or more guilty, thereby neutralizing the original criticism without addressing it.
Counter Strategy
This argument is flawed in several key areas.
Area 1
In its most literal sense, it’s true that “cis” (sigh) people do harm too. But when countering an argument, we have to do more than evaluate if it is literally true or not. Every utterance of an argument carries what is known as an illocutionary force, and the illocutionary force of this argument is not to educate but to deflect.
Recognize this, and call this out as whataboutism.
Area 2
“Cis” is not a coherent, chosen identity like “trans” is, therefore it is not as valid to group all “cis” people together as it is all “trans” people.
Trans is a movement. They will deny this, but it’s true. An explicit movement exists to support others in the movement. They hope to use their group identity to gain positive clout (virtue signaling for example); they don’t get to handwave negative criticism that they also inherit for joining (and strengthening) said group.
The same does not apply to trans skepticals, as being trans skeptical is not an explicit group (in fact, there are many different types of people fighting against modern trans ideology right now, from gender critical feminists to traditional conservatives to classic transsexuals). Nor is being “cis”. That is not a name we have chosen for ourselves. We don’t have “cis pride” marches. We don’t go around screaming “cis rights are human rights!”.
Imagine arguing against a neo-Nazi about the people killed by Naziism just to have them say “well non-Nazis like you have killed people too! Look at Stalin, who fought AGAINST Nazis!” This would not be a respectable deflection from the harm of Naziism in your mind, would it?
Area 3
If we want to talk about rates of violence in different groups, trans-identifying men commit sexual assaults at a high rate commensurate to “cis” men. In other words, rape doesn’t cause gender dysphoria.