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There are a lot of other good answers, but it seems worth remembering lots of poor powerless folks hate trans folks too.
Part of the reason they're coming after trans people is because it's human nature to hate or fear those you don't understand and who are different. A dark, and sad part of human nature, but part of human nature nonetheless
All the other stuff folks are talking about is also a true, but it's not like they're unique in their contempt for people who are different
Mostly a people to blame and for others to fear monger, it's a way to make people look the other way also, a common "enemy" instigated from the true enemy. And sense there is not a lot of trans people statistically it's hard for them to defend themselves. It's all about manipulation and control over the people
I do wonder what their end game is. History surely will not look on them favourably, so who would want to be the villain on the world stage? Yes history is written by the victors, but only for a short while until the truths come out. I just can't understand why anyone would deliberately want to be on the wrong side of history.
Products of their generation. As they die off others will take their place and society will move on to other groups to target.
Correlation is not causation.
Personally I just think they're just pandering some group of people who have real power to determine how money flows in a society and they happen to be right wing conservatives.
US democracy is collapsing and the future throne is probably already set and they might have inside information.
Like you said, trans people can't really do anything. Perfect target when you want to show where you are planning to stand.
They may not be politicians but they spend money to get themselves into positions of political power as these few days have shown with Musk. And these people get most of their power from the masses that are dumb enough and bigoted enough to be swayed by a shared common hatred of groups to scapegoat for everything.
Because there are alot of ignorant people in the world afraid of what they perceive as different.
In your first two examples, regardless of not being politicians it's clear that by helping put politicians in power they benefit, so whether they genuinely care or not, it's just about money and lack of compassion to them. And continuing to drive class warfare continues to benefit them.
In your last example, I think that person is just in the ignorant and afraid of change category with an unfortunate amount of exposure.
Rich/famous transphobes' voices are louder because they're rich, unfortunately. It's the same problem with every other awful opinion that rich/famous people have.
I do suspect though that it also has to do with social class and thinking that they are "above".
yeah may be it's just rich people having a louder voice . But trans existed for a long time, and we never heard so much vitriol against them until a few decade back
So there is definitely more to it as plenty of people have already explained, but when it comes to Elon and Rowling they both have personal reasons for their anti-trans beliefs. Rowling was sexually assaulted, and now finds the idea of, in her words, "men pretending to be women" utterly terrifying due to her PTSD, and is seemingly incapable of seeing trans women any other way.
Elon on the other hand went through a bunch of drama bs with his family, he's got at least one trans kid who has disowned him, and he spiralled out from there, eventually finding a place among the far-right Nazis who have only reinforced his preconceptions about trans people and trans kids.
No idea what the fuck Zuck's trans villain origin story is though.
Most people agree with the ultrarich on this issue (at least initially, before social media insanity), but only the ultrarich can afford making arbitrary people hate them without any good reason. That's why it looks like only the billionaires are doing it.
Then they go to Twitter with these opinions and go insane and the whole thing enters a neverending tailspin.
Elon is slightly different insofar that one of his own kids is trans. So that's not entirely due to Twitter, but there's also some lived experience at the bottom of it all (I assume here that he spent time with said child).
"Most people agree with the ultrarich on this issue (at least initially, before social media insanity)"
Are you saying most people are anti-trans? And that people who aren't anti-trans are somehow not of sane mind?
Are you saying most people are anti-trans?
No, I think it's more nuanced than just black-or-white allies and anti-trans people. The level of pro- or anti-transness within individuals falls on a spectrum that's shaped like a bell curve, and the majority in the middle are usually amenable to trans rights if they bump into the issue in a way that resonates with them. Like for instance in their personal life with friends or family.
But less amenable if they mostly face the issue on TV, social media or via angry activists. You might then recognize these people as anti-trans, especially if the issue is deeply personal to you.
And that people who arenβt anti-trans are somehow not of sane mind?
No, that's not what I was trying to say. In fact, I'd say that genuinely anti-trans people (the other end of the bell curve) are the insane ones. Socio- and/or psychopathic. My claim (possibly a bit extraordinary claim in this day and age) is that most people are not at that end.
I agree with what you've said for the most part but I find no correlation between it and what your initial comment said. Maybe I'm just tired.
I don't want to pretend that this (this being how and why people think the way they think about trans rights et al) is a simple issue, which is why what I say on two different comments might be slightly incongruent. I think I was mostly answering your specific question in my second comment without so much trying to address or bolster my first comment.