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| Abigail Shrier |
I've written about Abigail Shrier several times. She is the author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, a book which makes negative and false claims about transgender people, particularly transgender youth.
As you can guess, the book is highly controversial, with Shrier basking in all of the infamy and attention. She has also skillfully exploited recent controversies to make it seem that she is a victim of censorship. To hear her and her supporters tell it, transgender activists and others on the "left" are attempting to "cancel" her and ban her book simply because she supposedly dares to have an opinion opposite from theirs. Or because she is simply "asking questions."
The following tweet she recently sent defending her book speaks to that claim
What's so funny about this tweet is that it belies a paper trail of Shrier going on podcasts and television advancing the narrative she claims that she
isn't advancing:
Joe Rogan and guest Abigail Shrier equate being trans to having anorexia, joining a cult, and “demonic possession”
But more to the point that I am attempting to make about Shrier's false victimhood and her actual vindictive bias against trans people is this other recent tweet she sent:
Her tweet reminds me of how the George Bush campaign exploited racism in a successful bid to win the White House in 1988. The campaign used the mugshot of this man, Willie Horton, in an
ad to make a claim that his opponent, Michael Dukakis was soft on crime:
The narrative of the ad was a lie, but it successfully played on racial fears and helped to propel Bush to the White House.
My point is this - I don't think Shrier's book should be banned, but unlike so many more prominent people who should know better, I do not see Shrier as a cause celebre of free speech. Nor do I see her as a martyr.
I personally think she is a fraud and a shill who is successfully marketing fear and hate. She claims that she is merely asking questions or presenting a point of view which should be listened to in the debate about the transgender community. I have a hard time believing that.
In spite of what she claims, there are those interviews with Joe Rogan and on Fox News which reveals how much of a clever deception she is pulling on people. Then there is that tweet of the serial killer, which makes an even more damning case against her.
She talks about intelligent debate which will lead to informed opinions but in actuality the only opinion she wants formed is the stereotype of the psychologically warped and mentally ill transgender person. The tweet was a way of her giving a wink to those who really know what she and her book is all about. Shrier doesn't want to educate people about the transgender community. She wants people to fear the transgender community. She wants people to be outraged at transgender men and women. And she wants people to believe all sorts of lies about transgender children and affirming healthcare.
And she especially wants to profit from it all.
You can easily see this in any of the threads on her Twitter page. Her supporters are as transphobic as she is, albeit less modest about expressing themselves. Those who bought her book have most likely already made their minds up about transgender community and she knows that. Shrier is merely feeding the beast to get her coins.
Pointing out the basic emptiness and fraudulence of her message is much more satisfying than "censoring" her.
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