Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro First, my initial question, as a journalist who covers politics, culture, and public discourse, was to seek to understand the actual position of an influential political and cultural faction at the center of an ongoing dispute in public discourse. As well, media outlets and — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro But whenever one tries to discuss them, as here, one gets accused of things one hasn't argued for/told it's dangerous to talk about "at this time." Little wonder so many are confused/afraid to ask basic questions, which is, IMHO, the path to greater understanding and tolerance — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro No one in this conversation has suggested or implied we should refrain from teaching kids that trans people exist. The question of how to teach that and how to answer a kid's question "Am I trans?" remains, with unclear answers that shouldn't be taboo to doscuss — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro I do agree with all of this: "I for example think that people—cis and trans—can and do experience and embody their gender in ways that both conform with and reject stereotypes. I also think stereotypes change and are not monolithic across the world, because they are cultural." — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro And I find the notion that asking these questions is dangerous to be both unsupported and unsupportable if not absurd, as if these deep in the weeds questions are what drives the DeSantises of the world to legislate. It's ridiculous. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro That isn't what I am asking. Neither am I "demanding we give you an answer you deem acceptable." These are uncharitable straw men you've created. I am trying to understand what an influential cohort of activists thinks amid an attempt to understand a prominent political fight. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro would be met with agreement or disagreement or anger among LGBTQ activists. (Note I spoke in my earlier tweet about prevailing opinion among activists, not implying a monolithic view of LGBTQIA+ people) — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro disagreements are perfectly legitimate. To get a bit more specific, insofar as gender is socially constructed, that seems to imply what we teach young kids about gender will influence their notion of whether they are cisgender or trans. I think? But I don't know if that claim — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade @jbarro I think the relevance of this question is to the debate about what/how kids should be taught about gender. I don't have string settled views on that subject and I hate the Rufo style "groomer" attacks but I also think it's a serious and inescapable question and that — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade I don't see where @jbarro asserts or implies that this is relevant to civil rights or bodily autonomy? I understand the context to be, narrowly, an objection to a definition of trans that would include Josh, and more broadly, — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

TFW Beloved, which belongs in Great Books curriculums, is on a book ban list. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@onekade It isn't relevant to that. Who said it was? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@edcu I personally find @jbarro to be unusually smart and unusually good faith. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@mffwww No, that's not it, actually. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

I still don't understand what the prevailing LGBTQ IA+ activist position is on the relationship between gender identity and normative gender stereotypes, just that everyone I ask seems afraid to offer a clear and consistent answer. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

RT @jessesingal: 2/ These two views... "Conservative attempts to ban books are horrible" "I don't think newsrooms and NGOs should care mo… — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

RT @jessesingal: I don't understand how big-name columnists can get away with making this claim in 2022. I think 'woke' is a less-than-idea… — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@tarynhillin Thanks! — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

A frustration with mask discourse: when public health experts make the case for (say) continued masking on planes, I never know what they think the tradeoffs are--i.e., how many lives do they expect it to say or infections to avert? I'd find that helpful in evaluating their case. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Interesting thread. Beyond the news/opinion divide, some articles are better suited to magazine style than newspaper style. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

RT @thomaschattwill: Really meaningful to me to be joining the faculty at @BardCollege and to have my home there within the @Arendt_Center.… — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

RT @nxthompson: "For many of Trump’s voters, the belief that the election was stolen is not a fully formed thought. It’s more of an attitud… — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@nickgillespie @slatestarcodex @jkosseff The SSC case is interesting to me in part because in that case we knew *tons of stuff* about the author (occupation, city, detailed takes on every subject under the sun)––what value did the name add in evaluating the reliability of that content? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@TonyBiasotti @JamesFallows Yes, I agree. I am just not sure that's the right standard anymore, given technological change and how it interfaces with privacy. And I get why news orgs don't want to muddy their *here's how we always do it* standard, too. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

My first writing that I can recall on the anonymity question, back in the blogging era: https://t.co/XnEqmou5Sl — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesFallows I'll have to think about that, but definitely a reasonable standard, whether or not it's what I settle on for my Imaginary Platonic Newsroom. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesFallows public discourse when the name adds substantive information to the matter at hand. So that's basically where I'm at. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesFallows should, in my estimation, be grounded in *this approach is in the public interest.* I think there are plausible public interest defenses for publishing her name. But also, I think there are plausible public interest defenses for a norm of only ending pseudonymity in — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesFallows I have thought about this *turnabout is fair play* angle, and I'm quite sympathetic to it––that is, I don't really think Libs of TikTok has moral standing to complain, given her own behavior––but I'm also reluctant to have that moral judgment be the journalistic standard, which — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

I was pondering what the first "cancel culture" controversy of the present media era is, and I realized the answer might be when Andrew Breitbart got Shirley Sherrod fired by falsely accusing her of racism with a misleadingly edited video clip. — PolitiTweet.org