By Ben Pensant

There are some truly terrifying hate-groups knocking around these days. From the KKK and the EDL to the New Atheists and the Council Of Ex-Muslims, in this dangerous era no-one is safe from the threat of white supremacists, xenophobic street thugs and self-hating Islamophobes prejudiced against a religious doctrine just because it states they should be murdered.

But as evil as the above all are at least you know where you stand with them: The KKK hate blacks. The EDL hate blacks and Muslims. New Atheists hate blacks, Muslims and anyone with the bottle to talk about punching Nazis on Twitter. And The Council Of Ex-Muslims hate blacks, Muslims, anyone with the bottle to talk about punching Nazis on Twitter and brave middle-class feminists with a penchant for praising Sharia Law, lamenting the deportation of murderers and wearing knitted pink hats that look like fannies.

All are united by a fascist ideology born in Tennessee in 1865, honed in ’30s Berlin and popularised last year by Brexit and Trump. It’s clear, it’s consistent and its adherents are easier to spot than a working-class northerner on polling day. (Hint: he’s the one shuffling around the village hall moaning about the lack of free biscuits and heroin, wondering why there are no instructions on his pencil and asking which box he’s supposed to tick to ‘kick the darkies out’.)

But at least they have nothing to hide. They’re open and honest about their bigotry, which is handy as it makes it easier for us Good People to send them guilt-free death threats or report them to their employers for being Nazis. That the bar has been set ridiculously low for who qualifies as a cross-burning, immigrant-bashing, Muslim-offending Uncle Tariq only makes our job all the more fun.

But these reprehensible wretches are the least of our worries. Terrifyingly, there are far more sinister movements at work, led by snake oil salesmen arriving with smiles and cloaked in good intentions, confidence tricksters who gain our trust before revealing themselves as racist wolves in progressive sheep’s clothing. No, I’m not talking about Jews though you’re not far off. We’ve all seen them, waving their banners in faux solidarity and describing themselves as ‘allies’ despite being about as on-message as a Katie Hopkins column about bearded Syrian toddlers.

Which is why I was ecstatic last week when I learnt of the battle that took place in Speaker’s Corner on Hyde Park, in which a small but deadly gang of fascists disguised as feminists were soundly defeated in combat, their hate-mongering curtailed by a feisty gang of peaceful liberals. Or to be more accurate: when a handful of men in skirts battered a 60-year-old woman for saying something they disagreed with.

But that’s what really happened. And as all progressives know, what really happened in any situation is about as much use as tits on a bull. (Unless the tits in question were fashioned from silicone gel and the bull is a bearded, pot-bellied Humanities professor from Goldsmith’s College with hands like shovels. In which case they are very useful, not least in metaphorically sticking two fingers up at the transphobic public and proving that yes, a man CAN embrace a bovine identity and become a member of the non-binary cattle family while living a healthy, happy life. Just as long as he remembers to un-tuck his imaginary udders from between his arse cheeks when he goes for a shite.)

As celebrated LGBTQEDFACDC activist and ThinkProgress scriber Zack Ford put it when describing the Hyde Park contretemps: ‘A bigoted TERF provoked some trans protesters, initiated violence, then claimed to be a victim’. Quite how Zack, ensconced in his Washington DC office, managed to get a better view of the incident than the various witnesses who had front row seats as Maria McClachlan was assaulted by several blokes in eyeliner wasn’t clear. But anyone with half a brain knows that trans protesters are fast becoming the Kray twins of social justice activism, never ‘urting no-one ‘oo didn’t deserve it, guv’nor, and always looking after their ol’ mum, even when she tells them off for going down to Asda in her tights.

And there are few groups in society more deserving of a good shoeing than the violent harridans who got a taste of their own medicine at The Battle Of Speaker’s Corner. For the uninitiated, TERFS – Trans Exclusionary Rancid Fuck-Muffins – are a bizarre breed of feminists who cancel out all of the good work done by the sisterhood – banning stuff, treating women like infants, telling working-class people how thick they are – by spreading hateful rhetoric about the trans community disguised as demonstrable biological fact.

From the fairy godmother of transphobia Germaine Greer to Sarah Ditum of The New Statesman, these bigoted hags have been getting away with stating empirical truths about the differences between men and women for years, every syllable an act of violence upon the most vilified and oppressed group in society. So vilified and oppressed, in fact, that as well as enjoying the freedom to dress and identify as whatever the hell they like they also have the entire Western liberal media bending over backwards to punish anyone who speaks even mildly out of turn about a minority who make up roughly 0.1% of the population.

All things considered it’s a miracle their disgusting views don’t get them attacked by the cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show more often. Because as Zack rightly pointed out, violence is often the only response to such heavy-duty provocation. Provocation so heavy duty it literally forced members of Action For Trans Health London to drum up social media interest in violently disrupting the TERF-fest days before it happened. It’s sickening that in 2017 a gang of transphobic thugs expect to spout their hate on a public park and not end up with black eyes and broken cameras.

Predictably, the anti-violence mob weighed in, pointing out that assaulting women is never okay, as if a small group of blue-haired feminists saying words on a park is any less aggressive than punching someone in the face. Luckily, as well as the support offered from the likes of Zack and his expert assessment of an incident he never saw, solidarity also came via liberal commentators such as Owen Jones, who quietly pledged support by simply pretending it never happened, a trick he pulled off earlier this year when he completely ignored the far-right anti-Semitic rally that marched through London in June despite regularly talking loudly about fighting the far-right and anti-Semitism.

Given how often Owen writes about toxic masculinity, some may find it odd he had nothing to say about a couple of men assaulting a woman on camera. Indeed, only recently he was spitting feathers about the disgraceful misogyny of a memo from a Google employee which as far as I’m aware is yet to result in anyone sustaining bruises to their head. But as his similar refusal to mention Venezuela and Kill The Jews Day brilliantly illustrated, the fact that Owen knows exactly when to STFU is what marks him as a true great. And if anyone seriously thinks a 60-year-old being beaten up for expressing an opinion is even remotely as problematic as a memo from a sexist pig then they’re beyond help.

Inevitably, as reports of the incident spread throughout the media the most disturbing outcome was the torrent of mis-gendering and dead-naming. You know we’ve disappeared down the rabbit hole when a group of men can’t even repeatedly punch a woman without being referred to as ‘a group of men’.

But this is to be expected. Only last month right-wing trolls were in uproar after a trans rapist was sent to a women’s prison, masking their bigotry as concern for female inmates when it was clear as day they considered her more likely to commit sexual assault because she is trans. The fact that she’s actually more likely to commit sexual assault because she’s a convicted rapist in possession of a penis is neither here nor there, as are the subsequent accusations that this poor marginalised criminal did just that upon entering the prison.

Because much like terrorists are driven to commit terrorism by people smearing them as terrorists, so trans rapists are provoked into committing rape by a society that constantly accuses them of being rapists. That something so self-evident needs to be spelt out is depressing in the extreme but that’s modern political discourse for you. If you want to blame someone look no further than the uneducated ingrates who voted to leave an unelected bureaucracy or made a ginger reality TV star the most powerful man on earth. They’ve got a hell of a lot to answer for.

Luckily, when it comes to the trans movement, the narrative is getting stronger by the day. Be warned, though – there are snakes in the grass. And few are more snakey than Blaire White, the self-hating video blogger-cum-alt-right-courting Uncle Tranny shunned by liberals for having the temerity to disagree with the kind of brave non-binary warriors whose idea of debate is punching people on Hyde Park.

Unsurprisingly, White is despised by the trans activist community because she speaks her mind, refuses to be a victim and actually looks like a woman. She also rejects the policing of pronouns, warns against encouraging children to mutilate themselves and has repeatedly stated that the disproportionately high suicide rate among transwomen might just have more to do with long-term mental health issues than systemic transphobia.

In a nutshell, she might as well be wearing jack-boots and a white hood. And as if her hateful comments about trans issues weren’t problematic enough, she’s also been known to stick the boot into such sacred cows as Antifa, Black Lives Matter and the regressive left in general. Needless to say, she’s been abused, doxxed and threatened numerous times; a tiny fraction of what she deserves for having the temerity to step out of her lane and think for herself.

So as life-affirming as Speakers’ Corner Scuffle was we should never forget the existence of people like Blaire – the living embodiment of the Wrong Kind Of Transwoman – and the rest of the TERFS determined to destroy a marginalised minority with hate, violence and scientific logic. Only by ignoring their scientific logic and countering their hate and violence with actual hate and violence will the trans-activist community earn the respect they deserve.

Until that day: watch your step, TERFS. This is a man’s game, bitches.