VIDEO: Glenn Greenwald (!) Trending as a Transphobe and Bi-Phobe

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Glenn Greenwald



What drives online mob campaigns, and what does this new Gallup survey of the U.S. LGBT population highlight that merits further examination and investigation?

I had the privilege of having my name trend on Twitter for a good part of Wednesday and into Thursday morning because journalists in the liberal sector of media along with left/liberal activists accused me of transphobia and bi-phobia (with half-hearted accusations of misogyny tossed in) so many times that Twitter’s algorithm catapulted my name onto its sacred most-discussed list. Twitter’s new team of extremely politicized editorialists summarized the trending term this way:

So repetitious were the accusatory tweets that a journalist entering my name in the Twitter search feature found these helpful prompts:

Among the many bizarre aspects of this episode is that I am and long have been someone who resides on the far end of the spectrum when it comes to trans rights: in favor of full legal rights for trans people, in favor of honoring their gender identity, and opposed to efforts to malign or exclude them, so much so that, in the past, when attacked on the rare occasions that I discuss this issue, it is almost always from people who oppose the core tenets of trans rights, not from those who support them. If I, with these views, am a bigoted enemy of the trans movement, then who are its allies? Do many of those who form this movement even want allies? So often it seems like they are more intent on insisting that those who perceive themselves as supporters are actually enemies due to the slightest deviations from the full panoply of dogma rather than persuading their actual enemies to become supporters: the persusaion-driven way that all successful social movements succeed in fostering change.

What prompted my discussion of these issues yesterday was a fascinating new Gallup survey of the LGBT population in the United States that shows enormous and highly consequential changes in a short period of time. When noting the new polling data, I highlighted several data points I found most interesting and, over the course of six tweets, laid out several questions that I said at the start “should lead to lots of deeper investigation to understand what explains some of these astronomical changes.” And then the accusatory mob was off to the races.

This is not, to put it mildly, the first time I have been at the center of such online demonization orgies and, I predict with some measure of confidence, it will not be the last. I am fortunate enough to have a long enough body of work, a large enough readership which trusts my integrity even when they disagree with my views, and a strong and independent enough platform that renders me largely immune at this point from the effects of such reputational attacks. But I nonetheless wanted to discuss the dynamic that drives these sorts of frenzies because they so often destroy the reputation, the livelihood or even the lives of people who are far more vulnerable and less secure in their work and in their lives. When it goes astray, few things are as irrational, merciless, vindictive, and impervious to reason as mob justice.

To explore the dynamics of this strain of mob conduct, address some of the good faith criticisms from yesterday, examine the substantive questions I believe are raised by this new polling data, and emphasize what I did and did not say about these questions, I recorded the video below, roughly 40 minutes in length. I have learned that attempting to engage critics or respond to these kinds of controversies on Twitter is one of the worst choices one can make. It is, instead, imperative to choose a venue more conducive to nuance and less vulnerable to distortion and context-removal. Beneath the video are a few notes about it and some of the links to the articles and interviews I reference in the video.

  • The New York Times article on left-wing trust-fund kids attempting to give their wealth away is here (and apologies to Pierce Delanhunt, whom I erroneously referred to as Price).

  • Because I used a new microphone in a less than perfect manner, there is occasionally some static in the video that, while slightly irritating, should not be a major distraction for anyone other than hard-core audio nerds (there are more of those around than one might think).

  • The Katie Herzog article I referenced about changes in lesbian culture is here. Two particularly engaging and compelling young people who began their transition and then changed their minds can be heard here and here, and an article on that group here.


Some select comments follow (NB: Most comments got tangled up in rather ludicrous and ego-driven minutia, something that hapoens often with comment threads. These are worth some attention, although I am not sure Running Burning Man is not a troll.)



The difference between gay rights and trans rights is that gay rights were advocated from the bottom up, and trans rights are a top-down decree from the Establishment.  The bullies understand that they are fully backed by the Establishment and it emboldens them. They are allowed full range, no matter what threats they make or harm they do, while dissenters are attacked, threatened, banned and fired.  This is not a grass roots movement of the oppressed.

Running Burning ManFeb 25

Holy shit and fucking A, GG! you write "If I, with these views, am a bigoted enemy of the trans movement, then who are its allies? Do many of those who form this movement even want allies? "

Before that you signal your - self presumed - bona fides on trans issues. "Like, wow, mang, I am on your side! Why do you criticize me?" You are just as pathetic and virtual signaling as is Taibbi. You can't resist offering up your credentials to demo that you are "one of the good guys".

Don't fucking do that. Just write what you think, and let the chips - and shit - fall where it will. Let you supported opinion stand on its own. As soon as you attempt to present your credentials, you've lost the battle. I cannot, I CANNOT believe I( nee to explain this shit to guys as smarter as I thought your were.

Don't be a pussy, Glenn.

I addressed that specifically. You’re assuming I don’t hold the views I said I do here. I do. I have spent years saying them. I would never apologize for expressing my views - and I didn’t remotely apologize here and I don’t — but I’m also not going to let people distort what I think. I said what my views are on trans issues to illustrate the bad faith nature of these accusations and to highlight how little deviation from their dogma is needed for these vilification campaigns to be launched, not in order to appease anyone or try to convince anyone of anything.

You say “just write what you think and let the chips - and shit - fall where it will,” but I’m not sure you really mean that since that’s exactly what I did but you wanted me to be artificially defiant about it.

Glenn, I really appreciate you commenting here, but I myself kinda said what Running Burning Man said to you to Matt Taibbi 🙂 I can't speak for others but at a certain point I'm fed up with you and Matt being nice and understanding to these Leftists who just want to abolish all western structures because they're spoiled brats who only really understand - and crave - a kind of totalitarianism I personally don't want to live under. If only their parents had been real parents. But these Leftists are still tantrummy children. And this is what the Left craves/hates, real parents. And I'm fed up with their acting out.

I am an old school leftist (as in - expropriate the bastard's means of production kind), and I don't recognize any of these people that are painted in media or in online opinion universe as leftist at all. They are simply Trojan horse of the establishment and owner class (and as we know, paid by them through various NGO) - once the public gets tired of their noxious groupthink and de-platforming "culture" there will be a huge backlash against them, which will necessarily catch and sweep away real leftists - those who actually think that taxing Jeff Bezos 80% and investing that into run-down schools, neighborhoods, public transport, clean water and other such stuff that benefits poor and communities of color is more beneficial than painting BLM or rainbow flags in front of their corporate offices. Once that happens, they will have decades more of unchallenged rule, change tack and flip from exploiting (fake) "left-wing" useful idiots to exploiting (real) "right-wing" ones.

Couldn’t agree more. “Left” used to mean (and in any “normal” country still does) first and foremost “pro-workers” and “anti-war” (vs “pro-bosses” and “pro-war”). Somehow, though, in the US for a lot of people it has come to mean primarily “100% on board with trans activism” and such. Why? Because we have two major corporate-owned/warmongering parties and pretty much the only differences between them are the “wedge” cultural/social issues like abortion, gay marriage and trans bathrooms. So both parties and their media have redefined what it means to be “left” and “right” by basically taking class and war/peace completely out of the picture. Which allows the new redefined “left”/Dems and “right”/Repubs to wage never-ending cultural wars, riling up their respective bases, while the billionaires and big corporations that own both parties, the entirety of the msm and everything else under the sun make out like bandits at the expense of the people and the planet.



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