Jesse Singal's Twitter Account Died in a Helicopter Incident

 

I've ignored Jesse Singal's reporting about trans people because he seemed to me to be a tetchy dolt--someone writing with no particular expertise on a subject he was unqualified to write about, who was righteously roasted frequently for same, and then, nonetheless, persisted. He occupies a kind of twilight centrist space, on one hand, understanding that anti-woke is basically bigoted, but also being himself anti-woke about trans issues. How long can you report badly about a whole marginalized group and still think you are not the problem?

Singal has deactivated his Twitter account after a story that was dumb as hell. He relied on a "whistleblower" who related stories as a former employee of a pediatric gender clinic who really had a lot to say about the patients and their treatment because she was keeping a little list. A little list she never needed to be keeping, because it was a HIPAA violation. But one of the funny anecdotes she recounted to gullible Jesse and that he repeated, was that one of the youthful patients related identifying as a helicopter. 

Holy shit. The only trans joke conservatives know, and Jesse Singal--didn't recognize it? Like, he didn't smell a rat? He didn't realize he was being taken for a ride by the trans clinic equivalent of Abby Johnson? 

Yikes on bikes, Jesse. Are you a professional out here or what? 

Answer, not so much. Also, Jonathan Chait has been disappointing as hell in his defense of assorted trans treatment critics, and now his defense of Bethany Mandel, who choked on the definition of  "woke" when she should have had an answer if she was going to make anti-wokeness her entire deal. The normalization of denying marginalized people agency and understanding of their own situation and the minimization of their speaking out about their own life experiences is a goddamn shame. Well, actually, it is a whole oppression and example of the fucking faults in our society, and if noticing that is woke, well, whatever. 

Singal's kind of whatabouting trans therapy is a way to justify trans people not getting any care at all, as various states outlaw it, for children at first, for anyone, eventually. His inept reporting gives transphobes a pass. It gives them justification. And they don't deserve it, and it is based on so little, so much manufactured by concern trolls--like Singal. 

So anyway, I was ignoring Singal for the longest and mean to go back to doing that, because I think that trans people are the best at writing about their own experiences and people who are demonstrably bad at it shouldn't get a whole lot of exposure, except when it is for being a whole entire dumbass. 

And that is my opinion of the Jesse Singal saga.