My politics are always too complicated to share in the Twitter discourse but i will say i do believe in rehabilitation, education, therapy and change - to some degree.

Continued;

However, in allot of cases where men are found to have abused power dynamics (which are often centred around authority and the potential for abuse of power) - its only then that they start to reflect on their past and acknowledge anything at all

This is the difference i have observed between cis men (and some cis women) and every other (western) identity

And its only a general issue because so often collectives will favor others that they consider as being belonging to their tribe.

So when these people are called out, they have a semi natural reaction, because they believe theyre not a badie, and all of us can empathize with believing we are not the baddie only to find we have internalised racism, queerphobia

But these men have never been forced to reflect on the negative consequences of their actions before and lo & behold it delivers us to the classic:

REDEMPTION ARC

As a trans woman who tried to live as a man for 5 years, I can tell you that real redemption is not easy. Actually living with all your past cringe, calls to power, ghosts and skeletons can be a nightmare and you are blessed if any of the people u have hurt will engage with you

And ive witnessed real positive changes in people ive known as well.

But the discourse isnt centred around helping, healing or growth. Its around removal/recovery

But as we gradually shift more into a shared global digital space, this becomes harder and harmful.

Often this even promotes harm as it collects the outcast, cancelled into a counter culture of its own. Resulting in a net loss for our communities as it cultivates a sense that accountability = social death

There are ways for our communities to become healthier... and one is in acknowledging that all the people in the situation need help, and i dont mean help as support. Victims need support, abusers need help but not in the same way addicts need help.

Whether That help comes in the form of loss is circumstancial.

Does the abuser believe their position is more important than the harm they have caused their victims?
In most cases, yes.

But we also need to develop cultural/systemic pathways to recovery without social death, else we just end up with the same game as before.

Absolute removal for sure should always be a real possibility, but maybe not our first response as a culture.

Maybe if we encouraged accountability by making rehabilitation more accessible, demanded more, we would see a more mature, constant community, where past mistakes become genuine guides for each new generation, instead of pitfalls to avoid in the schemes of those who harm us