I am trans and I'm going to spill the tea here on Jesse.
2016 — I became aware of Jesse Singal's writings on trans issues. I thought they were nuanced, well researched, and tried to include multiple points of view. I started following him on Twitter and would keep an eye out on his posts. At some point during the year I must have contacted him on Twitter to tell him I had a critical view of gender ideology.
2017 (May) — I had an email exchange with Jesse worked on a story that involved detransition. He sent me an excerpt of the draft which incorporated a mainstream trans view and asked for my feedback. I sent him some notes on a gender critical perspective, which he thanked me for and _did not use_. Come on Jesse, what about my labor? The email exchange was perfectly professional and polite.
2018 — Learning that Jesse was working on a piece related to gender dysphoric children, I forwarded him an email exchange I had with Kristina R Olson, where I extended an offer to have conversations with her about what happens when teen transitioners grow up, and of her declining the offer.
2018 — Jesse was receiving harassment from a politically manipulative activist who I had tangled with before. I reached out to Jesse, had a phone call with him to relate my experiences and this person's tactics, and the phone call, although friendly, was polite and professional.
2019 — I reached out to Jesse about a bonkers NYT article about "TERFs" which Jesse relayed his frustration that the conversation about the conflict of rights between women and trans people was being collapsed into accusations of bigotry. I replied with a castigation that he had been supportive of an known ideological culture warrior having been brought on to the NYT opinion editorial board. Jesse replied "Everything's Terrible".
Well you can see now that over time Jesse and I are getting more friendly.
You'll never guess what happens *next*,
2020 — Jesse and Katie start Blocked and Reported. I join as a patron to listen to a podcast which makes me feel some relief that I'm not the only irreverent person interested in social and political issues. On the "Patron's Questions" features I ask Jesse if he's worried about institutional capture of illiberal culture warriors. Jesse provides a naive yet hopeful response.
I have had more than a handful of interactions with Jesse Singal. He has never been anything less than professional. He has never made a creepy comment, never asked a creepy question, has never signaled any prurient interest in my life or experience. My only criticism of Jesse is that he is SO COMMITTED to nuance and hearing both sides that he has allowed himself to be twisted around by people with personality disorders when he ought to be standing his ground.
I am so tired of these people. I hate that a bunch of severely disordered people started screaming so hysterically online that, to a lot of people, they're now the face of the entire transgender movement. Most trans people in real life aren't represented by them at all, aren't hyper-insecure about the existence of detransitioners, aren't eager to spread suicide contagions, want transitioners to know there are potential side effects to puberty blockers and HRT, are capable of reading things and understanding the content of what they've read without having an unhinged meltdown, don't free associate defamations in a red-faced fit, etc.
They're fucking awful and embarrassing. They make trans people look like assholes and children. I have no idea what it would take to shift the balance of power to the trans activists who are normal rational people since they harass the shit out of them, too. The rational activists still have some big platforms so I hold out some hope. Definitely two of the biggest issues with how this has gotten out of control in recent years are 1) well-meaning allies feeling like they're doing a good thing by boosting people who need serious therapy, and 2) institutions that fall all over themselves to appease them and then get too chickenshit to fire them or publicly discipline them while they steadily go off the rails.
The creep of insane people into institutions that I thought had better judgment is really troubling to me. I quit donating to a handful of places like the ACLU since so many places are happy to defame innocent people if people online are gurgling enough buzzwords. So many institutions don't care about facts or science anymore. So many places are eager to hire people whose Twitter presences boil down to being an extremist snotty baby. So many places don't care if the "journalists" they hire are emotionally disturbed liars!
I'm really glad you have subscriptions protecting you from some of this stuff. I totally understand why you don't want to sue anyone, it would doubtlessly feed a lot of shit at least in the beginning, but... I don't know. I feel like at some point, someone is going to have to start suing people like this. Not that it has to be you, obviously. I just feel that if we're going to have free speech, and we're going to have mobs that can incite horrible shit by defaming people, then there needs to be actual consequences for defaming people. The people who do this kind of thing are NEVER going to stop on their own, they have too many career and social incentives to be horrible people and they completely lack the ability to self-regulate. Refutations don't get a fraction of the visibility of a frothing tweetstorm full of salacious lies.
I want to begin by apologizing. I am a parent of a trans guy. He is now almost 20 and doing marvelously. He came out to us at 13; we did some medical transitioning in high school. So I have been a part of the trans parent community for a while now. And I have been fully aware of the lies being spread about you by my fellow activists, and the only thing I did about it was leave a parent support group**.
I read your 2016 Atlantic article. It wasn't easy. The thought that we might be making a mistake was terrifying. But I read it anyway. And I tried to find places where what you were saying was outright false or misleading. I didn't see it.
People have tried to convince me that you were poison and I should either just ignore you or, better yet, join them in denouncing you. I love my kid fiercely and I have and will continue to zealously advocate for him and for other trans families, but I cannot and will not lie and defame to do so. I will not ignore or dismiss published scientific results obtained out in good faith and according to accepted experimental protocols, even if they "hurt us."
As you know, what you are seeing is fear. People who are confident in who they are and what they are doing do not react like a cornered animal. Not everything trans allies want is necessarily good for the country as a whole. I for one think it is OK to discuss the conditions under which it is fair for someone with a huge amount of testosterone to compete in women's sports. I liked Andrew Sullivan's idea of "bimodal gender," that, yes, there are predominantly male and female genders.
I am not going to agree with you all the time. I transitioned my kid in high school because, we were told, it would make his life much easier in the long term. I agree this was risky, but we thought it was worth it. And for us, this risk paid off: as I said, my son is doing marvelously. I do not regret what we did for a second. But the fear that I did him wrong is there - I am sure every parent of a trans kid has that fear. It is the fear of being wrong about something major and of the consequences of being wrong - in this case, the stakes are insanely high. But in the end, that fear is no excuse to be an evil liar and slanderer. And the time to remain quiet about it ends now.
“Growing up evangelical, you really learn how to read between the lines of what people say. “I don’t hate gay people! I love them like God loves them” sounds fine on the surface. What it means, however, is “I believe gay people are going to hell and that is righteous and just.”
-and-
“... though he never outright says “I support conversion therapy for transgender kids.” He doesn’t have to.”
Despite factual errors (of which there were many) the real issue is that CORRECTING ERRORS IS MEANINGLESS by the explicit admission of the person you’re addressing; this person has already stated that they are happy (nay, prefer) to accept speculation (i.e. - projection, mind-reading) in the place of fact (i.e. - actual text & statements as published). The fact that they have dubbed their motte and bailey things like “dog whistling” and “concern trolling” does not make it less of a rhetorical prestidigitation.
For argument’s sake, let’s say that they aren’t arguing in bad faith, that they are 100% sincere and not consciously deploying any legerdemain. The foundational point is that they are explicitly (and boastfully) PLAYING A DIFFERENT GAME than you! Correct their errors all you want, because they have the crystal ball that lets them see into your soul, whatever the facts end up being (after all, they were left their natal religion, so they know... everything about every human’s inner thoughts, apparently); you’re playing basketball, and they’re playing cricket. It’s why phrases like “seems to be” and “felt, to them” crop up so much in this thread. (From where I’m standing, the world SEEMS to be flat. So what?!)
Even if they’re arguing in good faith (in this particular case, they’re not, but let’s play like they are), you can’t engage because you’re not playing the same game. You’re calling them out for double dribbling, and they’re calling you out for touching the ball with your hands.
Another parent on a trans teen who subscribed out of solidarity. I so appreciate your willingness to write about these issues with nuance and depth despite the immense downsides for doing so. I really fear a backlash against trans rights if activists insist on stifling all healthy discussion of when biological sex or anatomy may be relevant to a given issue (e.g. I have a trans son who just turned 18, I have no particular concerns about a trans woman being housed in a women's prison -- hence I am not exactly a GCF -- but I think the idea that my son might be housed with men is truly terrifying and I hope that many people would be able to see that). The gaslighting on women's sports that is everywhere (I cringed as I listened to NPR just last night) is going to backfire when people wake up and realize that "diversity" in women's sports means that fewer people with female anatomy will be able to compete at the highest levels -- in track and field this will happen sooner than later. How is that a victory for women's civil rights? Glenn Greenwald is way too much of a crank who lacks nuance on many issues for me to subscribe to anything he is putting out there, but that weirdly long youtube video on not alienating allies who agree with most of what you are fighting for was pretty spot on. I am disgusted by the way the GOP talks about these issues in a way that clearly is transphobic but I very much fear that we will be on a constantly seesawing pendulum for and against trans rights if the left doesn't find a way to talk about the complexities of trans issues in a compassionate and inclusive manner that does not exclude the many people on the left who do not agree that trans women should always be able to compete in women's sports, or that children should be able to consent to irreversible medical interventions full stop.
"this kind of behavior is squishy and hard to pin down...You see bits and pieces of this in Singal’s work, though he never outright says 'I support conversion therapy for transgender kids'..."
These are such laughable tells to anyone who reads this fucking slime with a smidgen of objectivity. I'm sure the core target audience will accept it uncritically, but they are lost to you anyway. Others, I hope, will be more discerning -- or simply look under the hood, as anyone can, and see that this is utter bullshit.
Right now you are being manipulated into putting time and energy into refuting spurious claims when you have a book coming out! At some point you’re going to have to take a leaf from Disraeli’s book and vow to “never complain and never explain”
While it’s ridiculous that you are being accused of legal threats, your detractors have an (unintentional) point. Surely a lawyer could take on some of the bureaucratic parts of this quagmire, sending form letters with the facts, for instance, and leaving you the mental space to WRITE. After all, that’s why we’re paying you the big bucks!
Mr. Singal, don't let the !@#$%^&* get you down. Keep up the good work. I don't always agree with you. However, the USA needs real journalism (now more than ever). You are definitely providing some of it.
Another take on this whole thing, that Jesse's article brought to mind for me, is that the effect of these peoples' mischaracterizations is to incentivize anyone watching to proceed by having less nuanced discussions and opinions. If you express a nuanced point that is (categorically) not 100% in line with their values - and you fall into their crosshairs, and have sufficient clout to be a threat - it will almost certainly motivate them to use 'the nuance' as an opportunity to mischaracterize your argument. They want less nuanced discussion because on many of their points nuance does not do their arguments any favor—and I think this tactic here actually plays to that. It's kind of genius. I wouldn't be surprised if over the next year or so we start seeing this crowd formulate an explicit argument about why nuance is a characteristic of white supremacy or another form of bigotry.
Dang, Jesse ... I'm a journalist (former daily newspaper, now freelancer) and I make it a point not to personally address people in comments, as that seems unprofessional. But while I don't know you, I "like" you based on reading your writing and listening to you and your fellow truth-telling smart-mouth Katie on the podcast.
But, really, I'm just so sorry you have to deal with these dishonest liars. And I'm so appalled that so many seemingly smart people are willing to pick up a thread of some comment somewhere and run with it without examining it even cursorily to see if it's true. The old-guy journos used to say, "If you're mama says she loves ya ... check it out!" Be skeptical, people.
Two quick examples:
My stepson, 27, smart, engineer with physics background, recently told his mother and I on the phone he was leery mRNA COVID-19 vaccines "get into your DNA and change it." I said nothing, but after we hung up, I sent him several articles from well-respected journals debunking this utter horseshit. Thankfully, he listened to me, and was grateful — but I was still disturbed that he (through his girlfriend, I suspect) "knew" something that simply wasn't true, and didn't bother to check it out.
Seth Andrews, the great atheist podcaster with the best, most mellifluous "radio voice" I know, recently tossed off that J.K. Rowling was "anti-trans" and had even "doubled-down" on her alleged anti-transness. This, too, is complete horseshit, unless you are a despicable, lying "trans activist" like those attacking Jesse. But man, I have great respect for Seth, have even met him ... and there he was, just passing crap along without bothering to look into it.
I wish I had a huge megaphone to defend you, Jesse, but I don't. I'll still send along my whopping few bucks a month, however, and recommend that people pay attention to the careful, honest, responsible work you are doing.
Finally: Fuck these fucking liars; may they all choke to death, gargling on their own cynical, nefarious bullshit.
Jesse, I hope you won't bother responding to anymore of these claims, best to just let the current pileon fade away (as much as that sucks). BUT ALSO, I admittedly did read Serano's updated list of claims against you and I just still can't get over how substance-free they are. She makes a big deal of how she never insinuated you were sexually attracted to TW (fine), to imply *you* are the one who implied that (probs as a result of your deep, possibly sexual, fascination). Fine. But she also just repeatedly claims you slut-shamed her based on... a vaguely worded poll of her anonymous followers? It is just so, so deranged.
And of course, all the other examples in the updated piece are you asking people to stop libeling you. So deranged. I hope you deescalate/ignore this going forward, but I am so sorry. These people are lunatics.
I never cease to be shocked at the ways in which twitter has turned so much politics from sitting down with someone and finding common ground to hurling lies and insults at each other as fast as possible.
I'm concerned about the Daily Beast Julia Serano piece that you linked and endorsed. It's a classic example of "cotton ceiling" rhetoric. It's part of an overall advocacy by some trans women against the concept that many lesbians might possibly be same-biological-sex attracted and not same-gender-identity attracted. The argument that we (lesbians) should look at our biases and must determine that we want to date biological males feels oddly like conversion therapy.
I am just going to say it. Mr. Singhal, this is boring as hell. Reading about all the stupid twitter wars you are involved in with people I do not know or ever want to know is a complete snooze. These people are not worth responding to. You cannot stop the tide of bullshit on twitter and you only amplify it when you try. There are more many interesting things to talk and write about and for me to read. Please leave twitter and ignore this bullshit. If not for me then for your own peace of mind.
Good read. Sorry that you're going through all this. There's a tiny typo here: "Anyone who reads this tweetstorm will think I am deafening some indefensible goon".
I am trans and I'm going to spill the tea here on Jesse.
2016 — I became aware of Jesse Singal's writings on trans issues. I thought they were nuanced, well researched, and tried to include multiple points of view. I started following him on Twitter and would keep an eye out on his posts. At some point during the year I must have contacted him on Twitter to tell him I had a critical view of gender ideology.
2017 (May) — I had an email exchange with Jesse worked on a story that involved detransition. He sent me an excerpt of the draft which incorporated a mainstream trans view and asked for my feedback. I sent him some notes on a gender critical perspective, which he thanked me for and _did not use_. Come on Jesse, what about my labor? The email exchange was perfectly professional and polite.
2018 — Learning that Jesse was working on a piece related to gender dysphoric children, I forwarded him an email exchange I had with Kristina R Olson, where I extended an offer to have conversations with her about what happens when teen transitioners grow up, and of her declining the offer.
2018 — Jesse was receiving harassment from a politically manipulative activist who I had tangled with before. I reached out to Jesse, had a phone call with him to relate my experiences and this person's tactics, and the phone call, although friendly, was polite and professional.
2019 — I reached out to Jesse about a bonkers NYT article about "TERFs" which Jesse relayed his frustration that the conversation about the conflict of rights between women and trans people was being collapsed into accusations of bigotry. I replied with a castigation that he had been supportive of an known ideological culture warrior having been brought on to the NYT opinion editorial board. Jesse replied "Everything's Terrible".
Well you can see now that over time Jesse and I are getting more friendly.
You'll never guess what happens *next*,
2020 — Jesse and Katie start Blocked and Reported. I join as a patron to listen to a podcast which makes me feel some relief that I'm not the only irreverent person interested in social and political issues. On the "Patron's Questions" features I ask Jesse if he's worried about institutional capture of illiberal culture warriors. Jesse provides a naive yet hopeful response.
I have had more than a handful of interactions with Jesse Singal. He has never been anything less than professional. He has never made a creepy comment, never asked a creepy question, has never signaled any prurient interest in my life or experience. My only criticism of Jesse is that he is SO COMMITTED to nuance and hearing both sides that he has allowed himself to be twisted around by people with personality disorders when he ought to be standing his ground.
I am so tired of these people. I hate that a bunch of severely disordered people started screaming so hysterically online that, to a lot of people, they're now the face of the entire transgender movement. Most trans people in real life aren't represented by them at all, aren't hyper-insecure about the existence of detransitioners, aren't eager to spread suicide contagions, want transitioners to know there are potential side effects to puberty blockers and HRT, are capable of reading things and understanding the content of what they've read without having an unhinged meltdown, don't free associate defamations in a red-faced fit, etc.
They're fucking awful and embarrassing. They make trans people look like assholes and children. I have no idea what it would take to shift the balance of power to the trans activists who are normal rational people since they harass the shit out of them, too. The rational activists still have some big platforms so I hold out some hope. Definitely two of the biggest issues with how this has gotten out of control in recent years are 1) well-meaning allies feeling like they're doing a good thing by boosting people who need serious therapy, and 2) institutions that fall all over themselves to appease them and then get too chickenshit to fire them or publicly discipline them while they steadily go off the rails.
The creep of insane people into institutions that I thought had better judgment is really troubling to me. I quit donating to a handful of places like the ACLU since so many places are happy to defame innocent people if people online are gurgling enough buzzwords. So many institutions don't care about facts or science anymore. So many places are eager to hire people whose Twitter presences boil down to being an extremist snotty baby. So many places don't care if the "journalists" they hire are emotionally disturbed liars!
I'm really glad you have subscriptions protecting you from some of this stuff. I totally understand why you don't want to sue anyone, it would doubtlessly feed a lot of shit at least in the beginning, but... I don't know. I feel like at some point, someone is going to have to start suing people like this. Not that it has to be you, obviously. I just feel that if we're going to have free speech, and we're going to have mobs that can incite horrible shit by defaming people, then there needs to be actual consequences for defaming people. The people who do this kind of thing are NEVER going to stop on their own, they have too many career and social incentives to be horrible people and they completely lack the ability to self-regulate. Refutations don't get a fraction of the visibility of a frothing tweetstorm full of salacious lies.
Jesse,
I want to begin by apologizing. I am a parent of a trans guy. He is now almost 20 and doing marvelously. He came out to us at 13; we did some medical transitioning in high school. So I have been a part of the trans parent community for a while now. And I have been fully aware of the lies being spread about you by my fellow activists, and the only thing I did about it was leave a parent support group**.
I read your 2016 Atlantic article. It wasn't easy. The thought that we might be making a mistake was terrifying. But I read it anyway. And I tried to find places where what you were saying was outright false or misleading. I didn't see it.
People have tried to convince me that you were poison and I should either just ignore you or, better yet, join them in denouncing you. I love my kid fiercely and I have and will continue to zealously advocate for him and for other trans families, but I cannot and will not lie and defame to do so. I will not ignore or dismiss published scientific results obtained out in good faith and according to accepted experimental protocols, even if they "hurt us."
As you know, what you are seeing is fear. People who are confident in who they are and what they are doing do not react like a cornered animal. Not everything trans allies want is necessarily good for the country as a whole. I for one think it is OK to discuss the conditions under which it is fair for someone with a huge amount of testosterone to compete in women's sports. I liked Andrew Sullivan's idea of "bimodal gender," that, yes, there are predominantly male and female genders.
I am not going to agree with you all the time. I transitioned my kid in high school because, we were told, it would make his life much easier in the long term. I agree this was risky, but we thought it was worth it. And for us, this risk paid off: as I said, my son is doing marvelously. I do not regret what we did for a second. But the fear that I did him wrong is there - I am sure every parent of a trans kid has that fear. It is the fear of being wrong about something major and of the consequences of being wrong - in this case, the stakes are insanely high. But in the end, that fear is no excuse to be an evil liar and slanderer. And the time to remain quiet about it ends now.
The real problem section of the western is here:
“Growing up evangelical, you really learn how to read between the lines of what people say. “I don’t hate gay people! I love them like God loves them” sounds fine on the surface. What it means, however, is “I believe gay people are going to hell and that is righteous and just.”
-and-
“... though he never outright says “I support conversion therapy for transgender kids.” He doesn’t have to.”
Despite factual errors (of which there were many) the real issue is that CORRECTING ERRORS IS MEANINGLESS by the explicit admission of the person you’re addressing; this person has already stated that they are happy (nay, prefer) to accept speculation (i.e. - projection, mind-reading) in the place of fact (i.e. - actual text & statements as published). The fact that they have dubbed their motte and bailey things like “dog whistling” and “concern trolling” does not make it less of a rhetorical prestidigitation.
For argument’s sake, let’s say that they aren’t arguing in bad faith, that they are 100% sincere and not consciously deploying any legerdemain. The foundational point is that they are explicitly (and boastfully) PLAYING A DIFFERENT GAME than you! Correct their errors all you want, because they have the crystal ball that lets them see into your soul, whatever the facts end up being (after all, they were left their natal religion, so they know... everything about every human’s inner thoughts, apparently); you’re playing basketball, and they’re playing cricket. It’s why phrases like “seems to be” and “felt, to them” crop up so much in this thread. (From where I’m standing, the world SEEMS to be flat. So what?!)
Even if they’re arguing in good faith (in this particular case, they’re not, but let’s play like they are), you can’t engage because you’re not playing the same game. You’re calling them out for double dribbling, and they’re calling you out for touching the ball with your hands.
Another parent on a trans teen who subscribed out of solidarity. I so appreciate your willingness to write about these issues with nuance and depth despite the immense downsides for doing so. I really fear a backlash against trans rights if activists insist on stifling all healthy discussion of when biological sex or anatomy may be relevant to a given issue (e.g. I have a trans son who just turned 18, I have no particular concerns about a trans woman being housed in a women's prison -- hence I am not exactly a GCF -- but I think the idea that my son might be housed with men is truly terrifying and I hope that many people would be able to see that). The gaslighting on women's sports that is everywhere (I cringed as I listened to NPR just last night) is going to backfire when people wake up and realize that "diversity" in women's sports means that fewer people with female anatomy will be able to compete at the highest levels -- in track and field this will happen sooner than later. How is that a victory for women's civil rights? Glenn Greenwald is way too much of a crank who lacks nuance on many issues for me to subscribe to anything he is putting out there, but that weirdly long youtube video on not alienating allies who agree with most of what you are fighting for was pretty spot on. I am disgusted by the way the GOP talks about these issues in a way that clearly is transphobic but I very much fear that we will be on a constantly seesawing pendulum for and against trans rights if the left doesn't find a way to talk about the complexities of trans issues in a compassionate and inclusive manner that does not exclude the many people on the left who do not agree that trans women should always be able to compete in women's sports, or that children should be able to consent to irreversible medical interventions full stop.
"this kind of behavior is squishy and hard to pin down...You see bits and pieces of this in Singal’s work, though he never outright says 'I support conversion therapy for transgender kids'..."
These are such laughable tells to anyone who reads this fucking slime with a smidgen of objectivity. I'm sure the core target audience will accept it uncritically, but they are lost to you anyway. Others, I hope, will be more discerning -- or simply look under the hood, as anyone can, and see that this is utter bullshit.
Right now you are being manipulated into putting time and energy into refuting spurious claims when you have a book coming out! At some point you’re going to have to take a leaf from Disraeli’s book and vow to “never complain and never explain”
While it’s ridiculous that you are being accused of legal threats, your detractors have an (unintentional) point. Surely a lawyer could take on some of the bureaucratic parts of this quagmire, sending form letters with the facts, for instance, and leaving you the mental space to WRITE. After all, that’s why we’re paying you the big bucks!
Mr. Singal, don't let the !@#$%^&* get you down. Keep up the good work. I don't always agree with you. However, the USA needs real journalism (now more than ever). You are definitely providing some of it.
Another take on this whole thing, that Jesse's article brought to mind for me, is that the effect of these peoples' mischaracterizations is to incentivize anyone watching to proceed by having less nuanced discussions and opinions. If you express a nuanced point that is (categorically) not 100% in line with their values - and you fall into their crosshairs, and have sufficient clout to be a threat - it will almost certainly motivate them to use 'the nuance' as an opportunity to mischaracterize your argument. They want less nuanced discussion because on many of their points nuance does not do their arguments any favor—and I think this tactic here actually plays to that. It's kind of genius. I wouldn't be surprised if over the next year or so we start seeing this crowd formulate an explicit argument about why nuance is a characteristic of white supremacy or another form of bigotry.
Dang, Jesse ... I'm a journalist (former daily newspaper, now freelancer) and I make it a point not to personally address people in comments, as that seems unprofessional. But while I don't know you, I "like" you based on reading your writing and listening to you and your fellow truth-telling smart-mouth Katie on the podcast.
But, really, I'm just so sorry you have to deal with these dishonest liars. And I'm so appalled that so many seemingly smart people are willing to pick up a thread of some comment somewhere and run with it without examining it even cursorily to see if it's true. The old-guy journos used to say, "If you're mama says she loves ya ... check it out!" Be skeptical, people.
Two quick examples:
My stepson, 27, smart, engineer with physics background, recently told his mother and I on the phone he was leery mRNA COVID-19 vaccines "get into your DNA and change it." I said nothing, but after we hung up, I sent him several articles from well-respected journals debunking this utter horseshit. Thankfully, he listened to me, and was grateful — but I was still disturbed that he (through his girlfriend, I suspect) "knew" something that simply wasn't true, and didn't bother to check it out.
Seth Andrews, the great atheist podcaster with the best, most mellifluous "radio voice" I know, recently tossed off that J.K. Rowling was "anti-trans" and had even "doubled-down" on her alleged anti-transness. This, too, is complete horseshit, unless you are a despicable, lying "trans activist" like those attacking Jesse. But man, I have great respect for Seth, have even met him ... and there he was, just passing crap along without bothering to look into it.
I wish I had a huge megaphone to defend you, Jesse, but I don't. I'll still send along my whopping few bucks a month, however, and recommend that people pay attention to the careful, honest, responsible work you are doing.
Finally: Fuck these fucking liars; may they all choke to death, gargling on their own cynical, nefarious bullshit.
Jesse, I hope you won't bother responding to anymore of these claims, best to just let the current pileon fade away (as much as that sucks). BUT ALSO, I admittedly did read Serano's updated list of claims against you and I just still can't get over how substance-free they are. She makes a big deal of how she never insinuated you were sexually attracted to TW (fine), to imply *you* are the one who implied that (probs as a result of your deep, possibly sexual, fascination). Fine. But she also just repeatedly claims you slut-shamed her based on... a vaguely worded poll of her anonymous followers? It is just so, so deranged.
And of course, all the other examples in the updated piece are you asking people to stop libeling you. So deranged. I hope you deescalate/ignore this going forward, but I am so sorry. These people are lunatics.
Agreed. When someone posted that thread on the subreddit a “interesting,” my reaction was “innnnnteresting in a very specific way, perhaps.”
I never cease to be shocked at the ways in which twitter has turned so much politics from sitting down with someone and finding common ground to hurling lies and insults at each other as fast as possible.
I'm concerned about the Daily Beast Julia Serano piece that you linked and endorsed. It's a classic example of "cotton ceiling" rhetoric. It's part of an overall advocacy by some trans women against the concept that many lesbians might possibly be same-biological-sex attracted and not same-gender-identity attracted. The argument that we (lesbians) should look at our biases and must determine that we want to date biological males feels oddly like conversion therapy.
Here to register my Doyle Bump.
I am just going to say it. Mr. Singhal, this is boring as hell. Reading about all the stupid twitter wars you are involved in with people I do not know or ever want to know is a complete snooze. These people are not worth responding to. You cannot stop the tide of bullshit on twitter and you only amplify it when you try. There are more many interesting things to talk and write about and for me to read. Please leave twitter and ignore this bullshit. If not for me then for your own peace of mind.
Good read. Sorry that you're going through all this. There's a tiny typo here: "Anyone who reads this tweetstorm will think I am deafening some indefensible goon".