Philosophy twitter...please...just...take a break. The anti-trans assholes are going to have their tantrum.

LET THEM HAVE IT.

Stop wasting your limited time and emotional resources on the day-to-day onslaught of their bullshit, prevaricating, and transphobia.

Academic philosophy is VERY small and VERY insular. If you spend most of your time within that circle, what's happening can feel like the sky is falling...

...but as someone WHO HAS BEEN THERE BEFORE YOU, you need to take a break. I'd even recommend logging out of Twitter.

Think about it: you know a lot about gaslighting and epistemic injustice.

What did you think was going to happen? How did you think the general academic philosophy population would 'adjudicate' this dispute?

OF COURSE they're going to continue to be dismissive assholes.

What you did was a REAL and IMPRESSIVE and IMPACTFUL service to academic philosophy and its ENDEMIC transphobia problem.

Now let the countless transphobes have their tantrums. The more you engage in the back-and-forth, the more you waste your energy/resources.

Activism is a marathon, my comrades. Think of the long game. Burning out is very common, and hugely damaging, and it just means you don't achieve your goals.

Keep your powder dry. Strike hard and true, then withdraw for the next big engagement. Ignore the little squabbles.

Remember, you goal is NOT to convince the 'true believers' away from what they already believe. They are not responsive to reasons. You're arguing w/ the flat-earthers of gender.

Your goal is to present the evidence to those 'undecided' or 'on the fence.'

YOU DID THAT.

Look, do you really see me arguing daily with transphobes?

Why do you think that is?

When I do confront transphobia, what does it look like?

WHY do you think it looks like that?

Big pictures, my babes. Take the long view.

Look, it's fun to dunk on these transphobic dipshits on the daily. I get that.

But each time, ask yourself this: Is what I'm doing actually advancing my long-term activism goals?

It's probably not. Pick your battles. Choose fewer much higher impact engagements.

E.g., I went into the lion's den and went on a 30min Fox Nation show, live, in their New York HQ to 'debate' trans athlete rights sitting directly next to Abigail Shrier, with an overtly anti-trans host.

That is some high impact shit.

Fighting with some rando twitter shit? Nah.

Let me tell you a little story about my work on trans/intersex women athlete rights and confronting, specifically, the really biased and shady research by IAAF head scientist Stephane Bermon.

On the one hand, I spend a LOT of time writing a very long, very detailed journal article on a lot of what's wrong with his data and arguments.

http://bit.ly/transsport 

But I was also invited to an all-star symposium at the DC French Embassy, at which he was also a speaker.

I gave my presentation specifically focused on just how bad his data is (and told him to 'Just...stop' 3 times).

Then he presented THE SAME shitty data.

You know what happened. Lots of people came up to ME afterwards (he hightailed it outta there) and said:

'You know, I didn't know what to think about all this, but I had NO IDEA that their arguments were really just THAT BAD. So...thank you for that!'

HIGH IMPACT

Pick your battles.

You picked a GREAT battle with this accurate accounting of Stock's overt and obvious transphobia.

The people who want to keep their heads buried in the sand will find a way, just like they did with the Colin McGinn scandal.

YOU ARE NOT arguing with THEM, though. They're likely never going to change their minds, at least not due to any argument or reasons.

You're presenting the bare evidence for ALL THE OTHERS looking in but not yet invested.

And let me just say:

Once the president's son, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and a scary number of people around the world start viciously hating you and you start receiving rando death threats...

Leiter is a small fish little bitch who doesn't count for shit in the grand scheme.

But...

On the other hand...

If you consider yourself a trans 'ally,' NOW is the time to start throwing your bricks and becoming an accomplice.

Open letters don't do shit. What are you going to do? Grad students, early career, and trans philosophers are under siege.