The thing with Chappelle is that as a black man, it is not clear that has ever “punched down”?

It's not like there's a hierarchy of which group is worse off than the other. Chappelle is a multi-milliionaire with Netflix specials. Money = power, and he's got a lot of money. So he has a lot more power than the people he's attacking. That's punching down. If a trans person was as wealthy and well established as Dave Chappelle and started talking shit about black people, it would be also be punching down. Money has a big part to play in this, as it does in most aspects of our society.

Also, oddly enough, whether it’s due to Chappelle’s challenges or whatever, I hear some of the same talk coming from actual LGBTQ comedians?

It's generally accepted that it's fine for members of a group to talk about their own group. Within reason, of course. Nobody is upset if Dave Chappelle makes commentary on the black community.

like if a big dude walks up to you, with a beard and a deep voice, and says that they are a woman, obviously they must be referring to the latter rather than former, but it’s not always so easy to tell otherwise.

I dunno. Probably just ask. Generally if you're respectful to others you're not going to have problems when there's confusion.

Though Chappelle is saying that from the “outside”, while there are other dicussions happening from the “inside”, so he still gets razed b/c he shouldn’t be the one saying it, even if they are identical words.

Yup. That's how it works on lots of things. If I say "there are a lot of problems with the US" do those words have different meaning if it's an American saying it vs. if a non-American says it? If it's an American saying it, it's an invitation to discuss the problems of the country with a peer. If a non-Amercan says it, It comes off as a little judgemental doesn't it?

Often, pushing media companies to live up to their ideals about inclusion and equality is a long game, requiring sustained pressure and constant scrutiny — a much different notion than so-called “cancel culture.” Responding to problematic media with a knee-jerk push to cancel people just encourages companies to react without nuance or deliberation when a controversy erupts.

Yeah ultimately companies are all about making money. I always laugh when people say things like Disney is woke. Or Hasbro is woke for how they market Potato heads. Or the Dr. Seuss Company is woke for pulling some books. There's actually something these companies have in common. They all make products directed at young people. They've done market research and they decide things based on what will make them money.

Disney fired Gina Corano so that Millenials would feel comfortable watching the next season of Mandorian with their kids. It was important for those kids to see what Mando's new spaceship looked like so they would want that toy for Christmas. Because that's what Disney really cares about: money.

And it does not help that trans people seem like they could care less about issues faced by black people - they just want theirs

It may shock you to learn that there are actually black trans people.

It would help if we all could push just for “civil rights” and have that be inclusive of ALL, but b/c of the extremely low numbers, plus the extreme severity of the issues faced by black people, if that were to happen then trans people would not have gotten a fraction of the attention that has been awarded there in the past

Agree completely. But consider that those that are against this may be taking a divide and conquer approach. Pit various minority groups against one another so people can't unite in a common cause for rights for everyone. Trans people are always the group that people using this approach go after first. Like I say, they're a very small group, not a lot of people have trans friends, people feel confused and uncomfortable about trans people. So it's easy to isolate them and take away their rights. But people that are all about taking away people's rights usually don't stop with just trans people.

If we want people to unite for the common interest of civil rights for everyone, then is Dave Chappelle helping in that cause?