“Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.”

These words were in a speech by a major right wing figure at a national conservative conference.

It’s a straight up call for genocide. That’s what this fight is about. They want us gone. pic.twitter.com/HHFyjbCejg

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) March 4, 2023

My colleagues Bonchie and Jeff Charles talked about this speech in Daily Wire Host Accused of Genocide After CPAC Comments on Transgenderism Set off a Firestorm and What Does Michael Knowles Mean When He Calls for ‘Eradication’ of Transgenderism?.

Nearly everyone knows what the outcry is about. Knowles is an extraordinarily popular and influential host of a major podcast owned by one of the left’s favorite bêtes noires, the Daily Wire. If his words can be deliberately distorted, then the Daily Wire’s advertisers can be assaulted, and you know the rest.

Some interesting commentary has come out of that; bear with me as I string this together.

Today a writer for the Daily Wire, Christina Buttons, used a substack called “Reality’s Last Stand” to announce that she was resigning from the Daily Wire. The reason? The insensitive way it handles transgender issues. I don’t know Ms. Buttons, but by the standard of people who leave an organization and go to another one to bash it, it was pretty mild and respectful.

I was told that The Daily Wire’s stance was that adults could live their lives however they pleased, so long as they kept kids out of it. There was no clash between safeguarding of children and tolerance for alternative adult lifestyles, even ones that some might regard as unhealthy.

It was a message I could get behind.

But recent videos and posts have weakened my confidence in their commitment to this message. On Valentine’s Day, Matt Walsh did a segment on his show about transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney that has now been viewed by millions. “You are weird and artificial, you are manufactured and lifeless, you are unearthly and eerie, you are like some kind of human deepfake,” Walsh said. “Everyone [who] looks at you will see something pitiable and bizarre.”

Walsh has defended these statements as “good strategy” because, he says, they rally the conservative base. He adds that the goal is not to “convince the other side” but to “defeat, humiliate, and demoralize” his opponents. This triggered a race to the bottom, with other social media personas one-upping each other to see who can take more extreme stances.

There are transsexuals who are not ideologues, who know they cannot literally identify out of their sex, and who believe that medical transition is a choice for adults—not children—to make. I count some of them as my friends. They are trying to educate the public, using their unique position as transsexuals to deflect ad hominem criticism that they are motivated by prejudice or perversion. Some have also participated in helping to pass legislation to protect women’s sports and safeguard children. Walsh’s rhetoric coincided with a sudden deluge of animus toward transsexuals like my friend Blaire White, simply for being transsexual.

I can only assume that the enthusiasm generated by Walsh’s hardline position encouraged another colleague of mine, Michael Knowles, to make a controversial statement at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
…
As a journalist, I have to believe there are reachable centrists, including moderate liberals, who are uncomfortable with gender ideology but who have been insulated from serious coverage of this medical scandal. Winning over hearts and minds is difficult enough without inflammatory statements such as “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life.” There is a critical distinction between speaking truth and being tactless, between sticking to the facts and sticking it to the libs.

The second factoid appeared in Newsweek. Yes, it is still turning out the dross. The piece is by Brad Polumbo of “BasedPolitics” titled Conservatives Embracing Extremists on Trans Issues Will Lose the Fight. (I’ve mentioned this writer before; I was careful to spell his name right this time because getting all stompy-feet on Twitter is debasing, not based. See Ron DeSantis Beats Woke Disney Like a Rented Mule but Conservative Inc., Thinks He Is a Bad Man.)

But even though Knowles stopped short of advocating genocide, his view is authoritarian, impractical, illiberal, and frankly evil.

Transgender people always have and always will exist. There has always been a tiny percentage of the population that experiences gender dysphoria, an intense incongruity between their birth sex and their gender identity. This often causes extreme levels of depression and even suicidal ideation, and for some adults, socially transitioning and living as the other gender makes that dysphoria resolve and improves their lives astronomically.

What Knowles is saying here is that these people should not be able to live their lives in the way that makes them happiest. They should be forced back into a life that caused them dire mental health problems, just because he doesn’t personally agree with them.

This is totally immoral. There is nothing in line with traditional conservative principles of limited government and individual liberty that entails trying to outlaw lifestyles different than your own or forcing your way of life onto others.

…

After all, if the debate is between the Left’s extreme stances and a commonsense approach of letting adults live their lives while acknowledging biological reality in sports and protecting children, the Right will win that debate all day with the American public. But if the Right’s alternative is the complete elimination of transgenderism, a zero-tolerance, authoritarian approach, many more people will not be on board with that.

I know I sure won’t.

Michael Knowles’ position is not just morally untenable but wildly impractical and politically suicidal. It will get him the attention he ordered and the hate-clicks he’s made a career around chasing. (And yes, I know I’m probably contributing to that in a small way.) But if his ideas catch on, it will do immeasurable harm, not just to the transgender community but to the principles and political prospects of the American Right.

Let’s pause for a moment to reflect.

Ignore Matt Walsh. Focus on the woman known as Dylan Mulvaney! This is stunning and brave! pic.twitter.com/11SmG3LfWp

— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) March 7, 2023

Jeffrey Marsh has become the latest man to reveal he has been paid to advertise tampons (believed to be Tampax). He says he did it because he wants women to stop hating themselves so much pic.twitter.com/yDJDR7IFz2

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) January 10, 2023

What Knowles was talking about is not those people suffering from gender dysphoria who are trying to get by. Not that I think that would be a bad idea because if someone said we were trying to eradicate paranoid schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or any other DSM-5-defined mental illness, we would not be having this conversation. He is addressing the political philosophy that makes a Supreme Court nominee fear defining the word “woman.” He’s talking about “transwomen” destroying women’s athletics. He’s talking about the pedos in the girls’ locker rooms and the groomers on TikTok and in your child’s classroom. He’s talking about the “medical doctors” who believe that removing the genitalia from children and replacing them with non-functioning simulacra of the actual organs is “gender-affirming care.”

We’ve seen the movie that Buttons and Polumbo are writing before. It’s called homosexual marriage. Be kind and tolerant, we were told. They just want to live their own lives. It’s about visitation rights in the hospital (lolol) and inheriting property and pension rights. If you oppose it, you are the worst kind of bigot. Now we have the reality. Look at the ordeal of Jack Phillips and his Masterpiece Cakeshop. He’s been targeted for harassment by the people who just wanted to lead their lives (see The Masterpiece Cakeshop Decision Is More of a Dire Warning Than a Cause for Celebration).

If you say you don’t care about this fight, to quote my friend and former RedState managing editor Erick Erickson, “you will be made to care.” See, You Will Be Made to Care.

What we can’t do is let ourselves get suckered and bullied into accepting transgenderism the way we were into accepting homosexual marriage. The goal is never just to live their own lives. They aren’t satisfied until you agree that what they are doing is normal.

We have to speak the truth about the danger buying into the transgender bullsh** poses, even for those who are legitimately afflicted with gender dysphoria. We have to call out the grifters and perverts who are using it for exploitative reasons. We can’t worry about hurting feelings because the stakes are too high. And, as Andrew Breitbart was fond of saying, “Truth ain’t mean, truth is just truth.”