It takes only one tweet to get a woman shut down
Last thing yesterday I did a post about some amateur Savonarola on Twitter telling a college to cancel a talk by a woman artist because he, pretend Savonarola, considered her trAnspHobic, on the very serious basis that she had retweeted a couple of tweets he disapproved of. It seemed like childish bullshit, AND YET – it worked.
Rachel A R A tweeted 7 hours ago (so about 7:30 a.m. UK time)
Sorry folks .. but my talk at Oxford has been cancelled tonight. Some twitter user @terfsoutofart (I assume some disenfranchised man) has galvanised students to complain about me. I guess making art about feminist issues is a bit too challenging for today’s youth! #waronwomen
Just.like.that.
One asshole, one stupid tweet that can point only to a couple of retweets of unapproved women, and BAM, talk is canceled.
I hope someday these students realize what they missed out on by not getting to encounter all these diverse and talented speakers. We had John Birch Society to speak to one of my political science classes. None of us suggested he shouldn’t come. What we did do was prepare probing questions to challenge and test his assertions. This was why the teacher wanted to invite him, to expose us to opposing views and have us think, and challenge those views.
The thing is, John Birch Society views are pretty easy to challenge; we were armed with knowledge and data. He was unable to answer our questions except through spouting talking points. GC Feminists are not so easy for them to challenge, because GC Feminists can point to data and knowledge and personal experiences, while the only possible argument the TRAs have is “But if someone feels that way…” – an answer that could destroy science and philosophy forever if it becomes default across the spectrum of issues, as I begin to fear it is doing.
No, iknklast, the only answer the TRAs have is that having the evil women on campus makes someone on campus feel unwelcome and unsafe and more likely to harm themselves, and hence, by failing to deplatform the evil women, the university would in effect be murdering its students. That’s all they’ve got, and they’ve used it to maximum effect.