Banned by Freddie deBoer
I mentioned women's rights one too many times
So I have been banned by Freddie, who wrote:
That is not remotely compelling. Race is, among other things, about ANCESTRY, genetic relatedness. The social construction of race happens on top of heredity, not as a replacement for it. There are innumerable other ways that race and gender identity are not remotely similar. Attempts to analogize them are almost entirely driven by a desire to insult and delegitimize trans people, and we're not going to be doing that here.
To which I replied:
Why do you persistently refuse to recognize that there are real legitimate issues of women's rights when men are legally permitted to declare themselves to be women?
Freddie banned me (I assume permanently) for this comment.
I saw the comment that got you banned by deBoar (to his credit, you can still read your comment, it was not deleted). Even if he absolutely believes that a person's brain decides what sex they are, but not what race they are, your comment was merely pointing out that allowing men to declare themselves as woman impacts actual women. No shit. Liz Warren declaring herself to be Cherokee in order to get a high paying-prestige job impacts some actual Native American who didn't get the job. Is no different than Dolezal. As long as there is an INCENTIVE to declare yourself trans, young kids are going to keep doing it.
deBoar has some interesting articles, and others of no interest to me at all, but why post something that will obviously draw comments he doesn't want made? I guess he just wants to be one of the Good White Intolerant Men.
I mean, I get it - it's his blog. His rules. His decisions!
It's also a big blind spot, and eventually, I think he really needs to understand *why* this issue keeps coming up with his readers. WHY this issue isn't separable from the larger mess around identity and intersectionality.
It's a red line for him, and he's told everyone. We get it. I also think it's a big mistake on his part. Freddie has never shied away from casting a realpolitik analysis (at least) on any issue, so his dogged insistence on any taboo (while his right!, etc.! we know, man!) comes off as strange.
I think he may have just been badly rattled by idiots reflexively lumping him in with "transphobes" simply because he's already assumed to be "one of the bad ones" by certain elements of idiot activist tumblr/twitter and he's overcompensating? Unsure.
I abide by his rules on his substack, but I still think it's a blind spot for him, and any blind spot for a writer whose claim to fame is analyzing politics and culture in the real world is a serious mistake, and banning people for it (for the last time - while his prerogative!) is counterproductive, and will sour more people than it satisfies. Dunno.