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Ollie Parks's avatar

One cannot underestimate the importance of Emanuel’s admission that a man cannot become a woman. However cautiously phrased, it's a line few Democrats have dared to cross. Whether he ultimately walks it back remains to be seen—but anyone seeking the presidency is playing with fire if they later claim not to have said what they said.

Then again, after nine years of Trump, too many Americans have been cut loose from their epistemological moorings. Truth itself has become optional. So even the clearest statements may dissolve in the fog.

Furthermore, Rahm's saying the trans problem is “not the dominant issue” marks a pivot from the classic DARVO playbook. Instead of outright denying the sex-realist claim, the first step becomes diminishing its importance. It's a subtler rhetorical strategy—but no less evasive. DARVO is DARVO. This updated sequence allows politicians to acknowledge biological reality in vague terms while signaling to activists that they still consider the issue politically marginal, even taboo. But minimization is not neutral. It's a form of dismissal—and it still functions to invalidate the concerns of those raising legitimate objections.

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