Weekly Reading List

August 21, 2022

This is a specially-curated reading list for paying subscribers. It contains my personal selections and summaries of the week’s best 8-10 articles on the topic of sex and gender, free speech, and other related topics. Happy reading!

I’ve been locked out of Twitter

Apologies for the delay in releasing the reading list, but I woke up this morning to an email informing me that I have been locked out of my Twitter account for posting a political cartoon that Christina Buttons and I recently made for an article published on Reality’s Last Stand on Friday by Eliza Mondegreen titled “Trans Activism and the Road Not Taken.” That cartoon is shown below.

Twitter says that the cartoon violated their rules “against hateful conduct.” But despite what Twitter is accusing me of, the cartoon does not in any way “promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

Instead, the cartoon depicts a modified version of the classic moral philosophy “trolley problem,” but instead of choosing between letting five people die or intervening to kill only one person, my cartoon depicts a trolley speeding toward “reasonable accommodations” for people with gender dysphoria, only to have radical trans activism intervene to send the trolley down a side-track on a collision course with “biological reality,” “women’s rights,” “child safety,” “LGB rights,” and “common sense.”

People are free to agree or disagree with the cartoon, and my hope was to have it be a starting point for productive conversations. But this cartoon does not single out any protected group for criticism. In fact, I purposefully labeled the level-pulling individual “trans activism” instead of “trans activist” to highlight that activism itself and the ideologies it promulgates is the problem, not trans people. The cartoon is criticizing ideologies and belief systems, not individuals who identify as trans. In fact, many trans people agree with the cartoon!

I have appealed Twitter’s decision, and am waiting to hear back. I am not very optimistic about them allowing me to return without deleting the tweet, even though I have posted the cartoon in other tweets that are still active.

It’s important to understand this is not simply a 12-hour time-out. I am being asked to delete the tweet and, in doing so, admitting that I violated Twitter’s Rules. If I simply delete the tweet, I will be setting myself up for an immediate permanent ban should Twitter decide in the future that I violated their Rules a second time. But I have not violated any Rules, and I will therefore be fighting this even if it means personally showing up at Twitter’s Headquarters.

I will keep everyone informed on whatever progress I make on having my account unlocked. Until then, please spread the word by tweeting about this and, if you’re bold, sharing the cartoon. Thank you for your support!

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