Publishers, control your authors
I thought publishers were responsible for publishing books, but apparently I was all wrong, apparently they’re responsible for how the writers of books talk and behave. Kind of parental, kind of tutorial, kind of policey? How did I not know this was the job of publishers??!
That bit about “whose only crime is to try and carve out a small safe space for trans people” means, when translated, “whose only crime is to try to create a blacklist of published writers who commit gender thoughtcrime.” He means “the Young Refuseniks,” who have now closed their Twitter account which called on people to help create that blacklist.
When people talk about “banned books”, the first thoughts that come to my mind are efforts like this, to bully publishers into denouncing or refusing to publish certain “unacceptable” authors, and the Amazon worker “die-in”, an effort to bully a bookseller into refusing to sell books the protesters don’t like.
I think what motivates people to do this is that they know that most online arguments are utterly unproductive. They know that yelling at someone on Twitter or wherever because of their Awful View On Issue X isn’t going to change that person’s view, and probably isn’t even going to change the view of any third parties observing the fight. So it becomes a battle to “ask to speak to the manager” or whoever is in a position to inflict consequences on the person with Awful Views. Of course, getting someone fired or dropped by their publisher doesn’t necessarily accomplish anything either other than in a pour encourages les autres sort of way.
Obviously I’m not against arguing with people online. I just think you have to temper your expectations for actually accomplishing anything other than amusing yourself, or venting, or whatever other person benefit you might derive.
There are, of course, times where pressure campaigns to fire someone are justified, e.g. if those Awful Views make someone unqualified to perform their job. But a book can speak for itself.