Trans Ideology’s Ominous Parallels with Totalitarianism
By Henry Thompson
Does this remind you of anything?
The image on the left is a scene from Beijing during the height of the Cultural Revolution in 1967. The image on the right is from a tweet by London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan
How about this image from Beijing in the 1960s?
A schoolteacher, respected, grey-haired, known in his community, is hauled onto a stage by his students in a scene similar to the one depicted in this photo. They jam a dunce cap on his head, hang a placard around his neck: “Counter-Revolutionary”. They jeer, slap, and spit. There is no trial. No defence. His “crime”? Failing to repeat the right slogans with enough zeal. The crowd roars.
These “struggle sessions,” as they were called, were a hallmark of China’s Cultural Revolution. Mao Zedong unleashed an army of radicalised youth, the Red Guards, to root out “enemies of the revolution”. Millions were humiliated, imprisoned, assaulted, or killed. Temples were smashed, libraries burned, families torn apart.
We, living in the twenty-first-century West, like to think we’re immune. We’re not.
The Pattern Repeats
No one is being paraded through the streets today. Sadly, most of the violence is self-directed. But the logic—identify a thought criminal, declare them morally unfit, rally the mob—remains.
When J.K. Rowling published a measured essay about sex and gender, she wasn’t met with reasoned debate. She was branded a bigot, denounced by celebrities she’d helped make famous, and subjected to a global campaign to destroy her reputation.
In Mao’s China, the rallying cry might have been “Down with the Four Olds”! Mao promised liberation from “old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits”. It was a catch-all insult for reactionaries. Today, the chants are “Transwomen are women” or “#NoDebate.” The substance is different; the slogans work the same way: they signal virtue, demand conformity, and mark dissenters for punishment.
A Gay Author Boycotted for His Views on Trans
Irish author John Boyne’s inclusion on the 2025 Polari Prize longlist for his novel, Earth, sparked backlash due to his gender-critical views and advocacy for women’s rights. Over 800 authors and publishing professionals demanded his removal, with half the nominees and two judges withdrawing. The Polari Prize paused the competition to review its policies. Boyne, aiming to create space for debut authors, urged them to reconsider withdrawing, offering to remove Earth from shortlist consideration if they returned, while condemning online bullying. Readers can see his gracious statement about the controversy below.
From Red Armbands to Pronouns in Your Bio
The Red Guards wore their loyalty on their sleeves, literally. A red armband marked them as ideological enforcers, ready to expose and punish any deviation from the party line. Today’s activists wear their allegiance in their social media bios: pronouns, hashtags, and rainbow lanyards. Both are badges of purity, signalling I am on the right side.
And, just as in Mao’s China, these symbols serve another purpose: to warn others. The message is identical: I am pure, I am loyal, and cross me at your peril.
Back then, the accused were forced to “confess” and publicly denounce themselves. Today, we have the digital equivalent: the cowed apology after a Twitter storm. The script rarely changes: “I now realize I caused harm… I will do better…”
No, we aren’t sending people to rural labour camps. But too many careers have been ended. Reputations have been ruined. Families destroyed. Ask Kathleen Stock, who was hounded from her post at the University of Sussex. Or Maya Forstater, sacked for saying biological sex is real, a view eventually upheld as protected speech in court. And thousands of the unknown, uncounted “little people” who did not make the headlines.
When Institutions Fall in Line
Mao’s Party controlled the press, the police, and the schools. Today’s institutions are not commanded by a single political party, but many are captured by a single ideology.
- Universities compel affirmation of self-declared gender identities.
- Corporations enforce pronoun policies and mandate DEI training rooted in critical theory.
- Medical associations issue protocols that discourage, or forbid, exploratory therapy for gender-distressed youth.
When a single worldview dictates science, policy, and culture, dissenters learn fast to keep their heads down.
Fractured Families
The Cultural Revolution encouraged children to denounce their parents. Today, we hear of parents branded “unsafe” or “transphobic” for questioning whether hormones or surgery are the right answer for their child.
At Genspect, we’ve seen families torn apart: teens and young adults cutting off all contact with loving parents after online activists or even school staff have framed parental caution as bigotry. The dynamic is disturbingly familiar: vulnerable youths persuaded they’re soldiers in a revolution, told their “real” family is the glitter community that will affirm them unconditionally, while their actual parents are the enemy.
“Affirming care” is a carefully chosen euphemism designed to mislead families. The reality, performing double mastectomies on 12-year-old girls, for example, would provoke too many questions. Change the language, and the problem seems to disappear. Even critics sometimes find themselves using this “Doublespeak” term. In practice, “affirming care” refers to a model of medical and psychological intervention rooted in trans ideology, which fully accepts and validates an individual’s self-identified gender —even that of a four-year-old child, without evaluation or alternative perspectives. It typically includes the immediate adoption of preferred pronouns and names, social transition, and medical interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries. These measures are now being initiated at increasingly younger ages, with the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) recently removing all age restrictions.
Any dissent or caution regarding this model is labelled as harmful, bigoted, or transphobic. It effectively shuts down debate in healthcare, education, and public discourse, and leaves no space for less harmful, less intrusive alternatives. Most individuals undergoing such interventions present with multiple comorbidities, including autism, ADHD, anxiety disorders, major depression, PTSD, OCD, eating disorders (such as anorexia or bulimia), self-harm, and suicidal ideation (suicidal thoughts).
On the latter point, research shows that suicidal ideation is often no better after transition and, in some cases, worse than before. Despite the oft-repeated mantra: “Would you rather have a trans child or a dead child?”, no research or statistics back this claim; it is designed to frighten parents into accepting affirmation.
Why This Matters Now
The Cultural Revolution began with a promise of justice; ten years later, it ended with conformity, fear, and silence.
Our situation today may be different in its shape and scale, but the psychology is the same: moral absolutism, mob enforcement, and the silencing of dissent. That’s why the parallel matters. History is not just “something that happened over there” in another era —it’s a mirror.
Some people will claim this comparison is overblown. But look around: the hard-won right to free speech has become almost an afterthought for many. In the last decade, it has been eroded to the point where the rallying cry for free speech so closely associated with Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, feels quaint, even naïve.
If we want a society where disagreement is tolerated, science adheres to evidence, and families are not torn apart by ideology, we must resist authoritarian patterns—no matter how righteous the cause may seem. Too many people have suffered ruined lives for advocating open dialogue, evidence-based practices, and the protection of children from premature medicalization. Yet we must persist; the right to think, speak, and question without fear is fundamental to a free society.
The Cultural Revolutions and Modern Social Justice Side-by-Side
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