Read on Twitter
This letter, for all the effort that tattling invited signatories, Stock, and especially Brian Leiter made this weekend to jeopardize it, is extremely important, and just beautifully well-done. If you are committed to resisting transphobia in Philosophy, please consider signing. https://twitter.com/lastpositivist/status/1346388801380372481
If you're seeing this tweet because you follow me, you probably are already aware of how bad things are on the transphobia front in Philosophy. But if you need more context, the tab that @christapeterso has been keeping is a good place to start. https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1090093182447104000?s=20
Christa started that thread almost 2 full years ago now (WOW), after "philosophy's anti-trans wave" had already been gaining speed for over a year, due largely to the increasing prominence of Stock herself. But if you just want the most recent context, see: https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1345147594909995008?s=20
What we’re facing here is not an admirable championing of academic freedom or so-called “sex-based rights”, but a ruthless, concerted political effort to exploit the ignorance and biases of philosophers and the public to destroy the dignity and rights of trans people.
The goals of Stock et al are, and always have been, political. Like a good propagandist, she alternately highlights and obscures this fact when it’s in her immediate (political) interest to do so. https://twitter.com/philoso_foster/status/1159310302732681216
So now, in just the last 3 years, Stock has gone from no-name philosopher of fiction to
-invited (no review!) lecturer at prestigious Aristotelian Society
-“expert witness” to UK Parliament
-OFFICER OF THE BRTISH EMPIRE
all w/o a single peer-reviewed publication on sex/gender!
-invited (no review!) lecturer at prestigious Aristotelian Society
-“expert witness” to UK Parliament
-OFFICER OF THE BRTISH EMPIRE
all w/o a single peer-reviewed publication on sex/gender!
In that time Stock has been so terribly “silenced” and “oppressed” by “trans rights activists” that she has received multiple positive (inter)national features in the Guardian, been interviewed by several podcasts/online outlets, and has made numerous appearances on radio and TV.
The poor woman, just a brave, misunderstood, innocent defender of freedom and “common sense,” has been so silenced, in fact, that her list of “in the press” features (on her OWN website) is so long I had to stop taking screenshots and just make a video
Kathleen Stock is very, very, very good at this — much better, indeed, than any of the other prominent “philosoterfs.”
But despite this — under the victim narrative, under the good PR — she is a deeply, viciously, maliciously negligent “scholar.” https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1153812646388305922?s=21
But despite this — under the victim narrative, under the good PR — she is a deeply, viciously, maliciously negligent “scholar.” https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1153812646388305922?s=21
After years of (yes, increasingly hostile) correction and pushback, Stock has only continued to double-down on her (transparently) terrible arguments, her fear-mongering rhetoric, and her cruelty.
She has attacked — not philosophically, personally — my colleagues and my friends.
She has attacked — not philosophically, personally — my colleagues and my friends.
I’ve no doubt that she and other “gender criticals” have received ugly abuse on the internet, because it’s the internet.
But the idea that, *professionally*, it is Stock et al, and not vulnerable trans philosophers and grad students, who are being bullied into silence is absurd. https://twitter.com/philoso_foster/status/1160079087513194496
But the idea that, *professionally*, it is Stock et al, and not vulnerable trans philosophers and grad students, who are being bullied into silence is absurd. https://twitter.com/philoso_foster/status/1160079087513194496
She is a “radical feminist” if that means “reactionary defender of patriarchy”, and a “free speech advocate” if that means “ideological bully”. https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1346324453198688257
The rapid elevation of Kathleen Stock, quite literally up to an honor from the Queen, is an indictment of too many people’s — and too many philosophers’ — willful ignorance about trans realities, and reflexive readiness to put trans human beings on the political chopping block.
Obviously, then, academic philosophy — to say nothing of the world at large — has a very serious transphobia problem.
But it’s not *all* academic philosophy — it’s certainly not the best of academic philosophy — and it’s important that people know that. https://twitter.com/philoso_foster/status/1346432688404611072
But it’s not *all* academic philosophy — it’s certainly not the best of academic philosophy — and it’s important that people know that. https://twitter.com/philoso_foster/status/1346432688404611072
Oh! One more thing!!!
I think it is *very* instructive to see what happened with Stock and @DailyNousEditor who, if not an early sympathizer, was at least willing to platform her; and whom many of us criticized in 2019 for being too taken-in by her “apparent reasonableness”.
I think it is *very* instructive to see what happened with Stock and @DailyNousEditor who, if not an early sympathizer, was at least willing to platform her; and whom many of us criticized in 2019 for being too taken-in by her “apparent reasonableness”.
But at some point, incredibly, (or perhaps not incredibly at all) Stock wrote an even-more-than-usually transparently bad post (for..QUILLETTE), and then went on a very public and, uh, spirited rant because @DailyNousEditor didn’t (checks notes) include it in his “Heap of Links.” https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1120384694992949248
To which @DailyNousEditor — again, someone whom “the Twitter Red Guard” had previously criticized for being overly friendly to Stock — was forced, ridiculously, to publicly respond.
His response (which you can find here: https://dailynous.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/stock-kathleen-reply-2019-4-22.pdf) is good. Here are some highlights
His response (which you can find here: https://dailynous.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/stock-kathleen-reply-2019-4-22.pdf) is good. Here are some highlights
We’re not a bunch of deranged “wokebeards”, or violent “TRAs”, or “misogynists”, or “ontological totalitarians.” We’re smart philosophers, asking other smart philosophers to just...look
at what political bad actors like Stock are doing, and to see it for the threat that it is.
at what political bad actors like Stock are doing, and to see it for the threat that it is.
the things in quotes are things these people have actually said lmao
