Zack Beauchamp

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

Thanks to @dziblatt, @kcroninfurman, @LilyMasonPhD, @EricaChenoweth, and others who helped shape the piece. Special apologies to @robmickey, @jlynnmccoy, and @hadas_aron — whose very thoughtful interview tape was rendered inaccessible due to a computer crash! — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

I talked to a bunch of really smart people about why you should be even more worried by what’s going on in Portland than you think https://t.co/az0X1xCeYA — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

I don't usually promote my podcast on Twitter, but this episode was different — and important. https://t.co/qZxeBmKv1G There's a massive campaign of cultural extermination and ethnic cleansing going on in China, and it's barely breaking through in American politics. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@BeijingPalmer @drfarls In general, a lot of "literary intellectualism" amounts to the valorization of stylish prose at the expense of substantive knowledge — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@DanielTorday @thomaschattwill @JeffreyASachs That wasn't what I was doing, as I said in one of the other threads. But you know what? The correction is up and I've apologized to Thomas directly; since this was at root my fault I'm happy to leave it there. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@thomaschattwill @Schwartzesque @JeffreyASachs Rather than getting into unpublished emails, I will say I appreciate you taking the time to talk, I certainly I am sorry for the error, and the correction should be on the site in a minute. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@thomaschattwill @Schwartzesque @JeffreyASachs This is not about "valuing truth!" It's about discrediting a position — actually, a writer — you disagree with without engaging on the substance https://t.co/hi9FT3drmm — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@thomaschattwill @Schwartzesque @JeffreyASachs see, this is why i did that. my point was not to defend something i'd said i would correct but rather to illustrate that you are really angry about arguments you disagree with and are pursuing them by less-than-direct means. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@thomaschattwill @JeffreyASachs The rhetorical heat here is honestly absurd. I will say I'm sorry for the misattribution and I'm in the process of correcting. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@thomaschattwill @JeffreyASachs I mean, I am happy to fix this — though you have been identified as such previously in a July 9 article without correction (https://t.co/OZmq9jVUgN). More broadly, though, Jeff is right — being obnoxious about "contributor" rather than "contributing editor" is a not a good look — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jbouie From what I understand from The Discourse, the project is is defined by 1) its unbylined marketing language and 2) a single line from Nikole's essay about the Revolution and slavery — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@adamgurri @jneeley78 @DrewFitzAndrew I am extremely honored to have created a cottage industry — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

I'm old enough to remember when Orbán's Western fans pointed to Index's continued existence as proof that he hadn't captured the press — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

The AP is reporting that it was federal, which is helpful. But not a ton of detail https://t.co/fSX35kFIou — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

Do we still not know if it was federal or local cops who teargassed the Portland mayor last night? — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@bernybelvedere @CathyYoung63 No. It is that they share relevantly similar moral features — specifically, the denial of the validity of the existence of the conversational partner — that make discussion morally burdensome for the oppressed group. They don't have to be equally odious for that to be true. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@CathyYoung63 comparisons are not moral equations, come on — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig @JeffreyASachs And sorry for ignoring you Matt but there's really only so much arguing on Twitter I can do at once while editors are trying to make me do real work — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig @JeffreyASachs Happy to leave you with the last word on these points. Glad we could talk about this, even though it could be a bit heated. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig Which is, as @JeffreyASachs pointed out, whether or not my characterization of Rowling's position that you screenshotted was fair. And I really think it was. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig I guess at the end of the day, I'm resisting offering a full definition of gender on Twitter because it's extremely complicated and there's no way to capture all the nuances here. Moreover, I think the minimalist one I've offered is all that's necessary for present purposes. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig I don't think you need to define "race" in a fully adequate philosophical sense to make statements about racism or exclusion! The level of detail you're asking for *beyond the definition I've provided* is the work of a paper. And your second tweet is inaccurate as to my views. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig Yeah, I genuinely think that level of granularity about the nature of trans identity isn't important *at all* for the question of whether Rowling's denial of their legitimacy is bigoted. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig https://t.co/VxECSY40ud — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal @MattBruenig i just gave you one! nor do i think it's particularly important to give a comprehensive account of every aspect of the definition of gender to argue that a specific account of it is bigoted — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

This is a hilarious self-own. I am making a perfectly straightforward philosophical point — the issue in question is normative, not descriptive — which Lindsay somehow takes as a statement of "postmodernism" about truth — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal I'll take a minimalist view: deep self-identification as a woman, in the way that trans women understand their own identity, is a sufficient condition to qualify for womanhood — but not necessarily the only such condition. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal Put differently, Rowling is using her personal attachment to the idea that her biology is important to her personally as a woman — which I don't object to — as a move to argue that trans woman are devaluing womanness as a political and social category, which I do. — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal In a way very similar to the way that the argument that same-sex marriage makes marriage undermines the value of opposite-sex marriage is (was?) 2/2 — PolitiTweet.org

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp

@jessesingal Her argument here is that trans activism amounts to "pink brain" theorizing — that the effort to decenter biology in our definitions of "wommanness" is a way of demeaning what it means to be a woman. I think that's bigoted 1/2 — PolitiTweet.org