Thread by @Katja_Thieme

Four years ago, before he published his first #Quillette piece, before he signed on as editor to that same online magazine, #ColinWright wrote an email to #JamesLindsay in which he laid out the set of simple and basic ideas that continue to drive his anti-trans activism. 1/

https://twitter.com/mccormick_ted/status/1555982607397036033

1. You can be an academic⁠—held to the quality of his evidence, the knowledge of the existing literature, & the soundness of his arguments⁠—or you can be a "free-thinking intellectual." (To the point that having lousy evidence & no demonstrable knowledge shows "free thinking.")

2. Let's blame everything on the "trans activists." Let's call everyone who disagrees with anti-trans talking points a "trans activist." "Trans activists" are bad, it goes without saying. Let's claim they are in "denial of gender or sex differences."

Straw man done! And done!

3. If biologists & biology graduate students mention the phrase "sex is a social construct," let's say they are disavowing the objective stances of their natural scientific research field. That makes their words activism! And voilà, they "put their activism before their biology."

4. Cue incredulity. "I can't even comprehend how anyone can deny the reality of biological sex and claim to be a biologist."

Re-iterate variations of: "It's insane," it's "complete madness," it's "completely insane," it's "craziness."

No need to make any other point, really.

5. Swivel from humans and their self-conception as regards gender, incl their conscious experiences of gender dysphoria and transness, to how easily you as a biologist can identify the sexual organs of ants, bees, & spiders. "Unambiguously male or female over 99.9% of the time"!

6. Act as if re-stating the same non-relevant "plain facts"—with little regard for issues under discussion (health care, academic inclusion, social acceptance of trans & enby folk)—isn't an argumentative move in relation to the issues under discussion. Call criticism "denialism."

7. Perfunctory exclamation of how you are "quite liberal and support trans people and their rights entirely."

#BUT!

"But if jettisoning the reality of biological sex is necessary for me to be a good ally, then I can never be a good ally."

8. Stick to your basic set of activist ideas. Plot your course & push it through. Don't read. Don't change. Don't question.

And block critics & interlocutors when you "risk revealing yourself to the wrong people who might sound the alarm."

#ColinWright really has not developed much nor studied at all the issues on which he conducts his activism. He had his set of simple ideas to hand early on, and he's stood by them without much re-evaluation. He has been thinking this way all along. He has only revealed himself.

#ColinWright's email to #JamesLindsay ends: "But you and your colleagues give me some hope here, and I'll continue trying to do what I can from within. For now it will be small things, as I can't out myself entirely now."