I hate the dismissive way politics-heads talk about lefties having “purity tests” as an insult. It’s such a sneer.

But looked at another way - what it really means is that they have DIFFERENT purity tests.

E.g. if we demand full trans rights, that’s supposedly a purity test. Why?
[cont]

February 26, 2026 - 06:21 UTC

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“Purity tests”? You mean standards?
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it is the liberal equivalent of how conservatives use "woke" or "virtue signalling". it belies an unexpectedly transparent lack of spine in the people that use it the way they do.
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(1/3) One of the defining moments of my politics was in the John Kerry/GW Bush debates, the moderators asked the candidates, "Is homosexuality biologically predetermined determined or a choice?"
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(2/3) Neither candidate had the courage to answer the question, "It doesn't matter what 'causes homosexuality,' I accept my LGBTQ brethren unconditionally."
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It's projection, really. The "purity tests" of the left are NOTHING compared to the actual ones the right has. It's like them scoffing at "Limousine Liberals" as if Republicans don't ride around in limousines themselves.

If "allowing people to be who they are" is a purity test, I'll try to be pure.
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Example of a purity test:

"A" checks all the boxes except one hot topic for single issue voters - no matter which one.

"B" checks the BAD boxes, is destructive, but wins when single issue voters stayed home.

"A" didn't get the ONE THING correct

Trump won

Revoke Citizens United and dark💰..cont
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Which topic did you find most annoying and why?
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I was born yesterday. What was the one hot topic?
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THEY ARE ACTIVELY TAKING OUR RIGHTS AWAY AND YOU INSIST THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE A PURITY TEST? GET FUCKED.
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If we put our energy into campaign and election reform, we could:
1. stop billionaires from buying politicians (not optional)
2. Create a system that supports multiple parties 3, 4, 5
3. REMOVE the electoral college to make it fair - someone in WY gets 4 votes to my 1 vote in NC
4. NO gerrymandering
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What if that "one hot topic" was your right to exist?

What if a candidate checks all the boxes, except they want to legalize slavery?
Still voting for them despite the one single issue?

Fuck anyone willing to throw others under the bus to save themselves. Those people deserve all the bad things.
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you cannot ask people to vote for their own destruction

you cannot ask people to vote for their own destruction

you cannot ask people to vote for their own destruction

you cannot ask people to vote for their own destruction

you cannot ask people to vote for their own destruction
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what was the one thing
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If the single issue voters had that much power, then she should have done the thing she needed to do to get their votes.

if she didn't need them, like she insisted, then they aren't to blame for her losing.

do you see how that works?
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Purity = “it’s fine if you die, but how dare you not save my dying privilege, you monsters!”

And these gaslighters are in total denial that the bosses will come for them, too, after they kill us brown ppl. They actually think they’re saving themselves by tossing us under the bus. Suckers.
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You really are a Brain Guy!
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EXACTLY it's so annoying to hear about this crap when centrist liberals and right wingers have much worse, much more rigid purity tests about who is and isn't allowed to be a person. Our "test" is that everybody is.
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A purity test is what you do to me. A simple matter of politics is what I do to you.
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❤️
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Because they believe they have no purity what so ever and it make them big mad
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"Purity test" is just a coward's way of going "I've made the decision to sacrifice individuals who don't meet my grotesque reactionary standards and I hate you for having basic empathy for them plus acting on that."
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It's not purity, it's discipline and solidarity with vulnerable people. When right wingers decry are refusal to support "impure" politicians it is because they are pure in that the ten rich guys that own everything can count on them and human beings can't
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It's more fundamental than that. The idea of a class of people being subordinated forever runs in opposition to the basic idea of equality before the law. The 'intervention' isn't 'trans rights.' The BIGOTRY disrupts the system. The rights aren't imposed but consistent with basic ideas in our laws.
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Purity tests are good, sometimes! Just like virtue signalling.

The problem is when people engage in these behaviors cynically to manipulate, not that they exist at all.

Gold? I want to know the purity. Medications? I wanna see that analysis. Drinking water? You better believe I’m purity testing.
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“Purity test” always seems to mean “you asked your reps to represent your interests and I dislike it”
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by throwing a [cont] on this you have already put more thought into this than they have
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When I hear people cry "purity test," what I'm really hearing is "You stand for something while I stand for nothing and that pisses me off."
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…Because, the story goes, we need the votes of people who *don’t* want full trans rights. Because THEY have that purity test, and must be catered to.

So trans people and the people who love them should just suck it up and watch their rights taken away. For some mythical voter’s (yep) purity test.
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Bill I gotta say I've been a fan of yours since I was probably 13 or 14 years old and it fuckin rules that you're still Cool As Hell
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I dont get why its a problem for them to just support trans people but not get drawn in.

Some people are trans, a tiny fraction of society. The right wants to demonise and attack a minority of a minority again rather then look at what's important for everyone.

It's not a complex defence.
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This whole framing of blaming voters for the party's failures is so annoying. It's their job to win elections, if an issue is a dealbreaker for a lot of voters they have to decide whether they need those votes or not. Whining about it is fucking childish.
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They also have "purity tests" (can't be trans, have to support Israel, can't question the military budget, etc.) but they just lie about them.
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and then the fascists just move on to their next group of scapegoats…
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Change, or things they don’t understand, scares those voters. So they make it sound like they’re too important to ignore, and so marginalized communities have to make concessions to win them over
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Isn't it true that we do need the votes of some people who don't want full trans rights?

Isn't that one part of the story true, even if the rest of the story is a false dilemma or pre-surrendering or whatever?
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I'm so tired of having to keep fighting for my right to exist, Bill.

I also wish I could hit transphobia with a bus. That would make things much easier on me.
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Thanks for speaking up, Bill. 💜
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It'd already be absolutely inexcusable if they rationalized it with polling data, but they don't even have that on their side- bsky.app/profile/danancona.bsky.social/post/3lzbquknm222w
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Righties don't want rights for everyone. They want privilege. Rules are for "other people."

If they personally dislike a particular kind of person, they want the ability to treat them like garbage or even kill them without consequences. It's been like this for centuries here.

They need to go.
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Hey Bill, I just wanna thank you for speaking out on this. I’m a massive fan of yours and MST3K, and I often put reruns of the show with old commercials in tact to unplug and “time travel” away from this hellish timeline. It’s so scary trying to live my life when so many don’t want me to. Cheers. 🙏
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I think it's also telling on themselves in another way: if "purity test" means "issue I am not willing to compromise on"... do they NOT have those?
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Seems relevant

bsky.app/profile/skepchick.org/post/3mfpcbp525s24
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bsky.app/profile/captainruck.bsky.social/post/3mfr5qwmh7227
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