That's a rather biased and uncharitable view of what is actually a fairly diverse field in both theory and practice. The fact that it impacts already marginalized folks can lead some people to dig in to their prescribed ideologies, but for the most part the field is engaged in very healthy debate along any number of issues.
What academics in the field don't tend to take too kindly to is folks who question the underlying basis of the field itself, of which there is plenty and of whose opinions on the subject are demonstrably not valid.
I think I said that there are good things happening, but I also see a lot of bad - particularly in its divisiveness and finger-pointing at certain demographics, as well as insularity and inability to be self-critical. I feel that, as a general rule, anything that tribalizes and separates often does more harm than good. We should be looking for ways to bring us together to recognize our shared humanity, not further divide.
I think also you diminish the degree of entrenchment, and how the rigidity of a certain ideological outlook has spread outward...as evinced by some of the participants in this thread, who are--as one poster put it--thumping the bible down and saying, "this is how it is - no questions or variances in perspective allowed." When a movement or ideology doesn't question itself, isn't self-critical, it risks becoming cultish.
I don't see why it is a problem to question underlying assumptions. Certainly there are certain phenomena that are unquestionable. But the way we interpret that phenomena? The frameworks and concepts? Certainly those shouldn't be inviolable.
Well, I'm trans, so you can probably guess where I stand on that.
Not necessarily. I wouldn't assume you reacted a certain way just because you're trans. This is part of the problem, I think: the assumption that everyone of a certain demographic must or will have the same reaction, that there is a "proper amount of offense" one should take, depending upon one's intersectional profile. We're all much more variable and diverse than that.
If you didn't already, you might want to watch the "hidden" epilogue at the end of the special. He shares an interaction he had with a trans person who actually loved his standup and thanked him for normalizing transgender people by telling jokes about them. I'm not saying this is the right way to look at it, or that you should look at it this way, but it is the way that at least one transgender looked at his standup.