𝓝𝓪𝓽𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓮 𝓦𝔂𝓷𝓷  💎

In fact: the event is sponsored by the UBC "Free Speech Club," a conservative undergraduate campus group at the University of British Columbia.

So, on the basis that, almost a year ago, a member posted a holocaust-denying comment *for which he was banned from the group* it is now claimed that the group itself is an "anti-Semitic, holocaust denial" organization.

Now, just because the group isn't overtly anti-Semitic doesn't mean it isn't a far-right group that fosters bigoted opinions. It's a "free speech" group, and we all know what that means. However, I think they are worth speaking to, for a few reasons.

The group has publicly called the Charlottesville rally a "wake-up call," and is currently reformulating their goals and methods, including hosting more left-wing speakers at their events.

Last month they hosted an event titled "Questioning Free Speech" that aimed to interrogate the basic presuppositions of the group. The speakers at the event included a critical race theorist and a left-wing sociologist.

Furthermore, some of the group's organizers are specifically fans of my videos, and appear to be genuinely interested in what I have to say beyond my role as a mere foil in the furtherance of a right-wing victory.

Now, many people have assumed that because the speakers involved in the event (me, Theryn, Blaire) are all trans, the primary topic of the discussion is trans issues (variant: "trans people's right to exist"). This is not the case.

The event will be a discussion, not a debate. The primary topic is the philosophical/moral values underpinning left- vs. right-wing thought. Trans politics will likely come up at some point, but it is not the primary topic.

Many have expressed concern that I am "walking into a trap," i.e. a ploy to humiliate me on stage, to publicly pwn a SJW for the delight of the audience. I will owe you all an apology if I'm wrong here, but I don't think this is the case.

The event will be moderated by @TheTherynMeyer, one of the lead organizers of the event. Theryn is someone who, though conservative, I have found very open to reconsidering her opinions, and whom I trust to be a good moderator.

Many of my critics have objected to the event on the grounds that it is a ticketed event. Tickets will fund travel/hotels/honoraria for the speakers. It *is* possible funds raised will be used to host an objectionable speaker in the future.

If you are not comfortable with this, do not attend the event. I have conflicted feelings about it myself but have decided to take the risk in order to promote a leftist perspective that I believe at least some of the audience is receptive to.

I don't know what my speaker's fee will be (if anything), but I have not been promised anything extravagant. I am not doing the event for profit or self-promotion but because I believe it is the right thing to do.

I understand that trans people who have been out longer than me have experiences that I do not, and I do try to listen to those perspectives. However, I wish that, in turn, I were not treated like an inexperienced little child.

I'm almost 30 years old, significantly older than many of my critics. I have taught classes of undergrads like the ones to whom I'll be speaking. I have seen students radically shift views on subjects like abortion, affirm action, etc. over the course of a philosophy class.

"But bigots are different, they can't be reasoned with." Often that's true, yes. But sometimes what appears as an inveterate bigot is simply someone who hasn't thought much about a subject, hasn't really considered an alternate point of view.

When we're talking about 20-year-old undergrads, I'm especially reluctant to concede that "these are just hopeless bigots, they can never change." Are they? Have they even *really* encountered an articulate formulation of the anti-bigoted views yet?

One of the tenets of leftist thought is supposed to be that many popular attitudes are the result not of individual moral defects, but of a collective default way of seeing: "bourgeois ideology," "rape culture," "male gaze" "cis/hetero normativity"

Basically everyone raised in our society is transphobic/racist/misogynistic by default. In order to escape those viewpoints, someone or something has to intervene. Default thinking says that PoC are inclined to criminality, that children transitioning is child abuse.

Try to remember what you thought and felt growing up, before any exposure to leftist thought, or to personal experiences that changed your preconceptions. I personally aim to be that informant, that intervenor as often as possible.

I'm not claiming to be a special sorceress who's magically better at this than anyone else. Others are more experienced, more educated, more articulate than me. My success rate even breaching the surface is probably no better than 1 in 10.

But I'm willing to try, willing to improve. Also, *this is my job.*

I've received hundreds of messages from people telling me that my videos have helped pull them away from the brink of the Alt-Right. Or that I've persuaded them as to the validity of non-binary gender IDs.

And this is not because I'm some sort of magic savior. I'm not. It's just that this is what I do all the time. For an audience of hundreds of thousands. And a few hundred of those have been affected in some way.

So when people say "trust my experience: you can't persuade a bigot," I want to respond: "well, what about my experience? Am I supposed to just discard that?"

Now I know many of you may generally agree with what I'm saying here but still think that this particular event is a really bad idea. And that's fine. That's allowed. I thank those of you with constructive criticism, and I will take it into consideration next time.