Daily Blegh.

That’s the headline of UNC philosophy professor Justin Weinberg’s June 26 post on his philosophy news site, Daily Nous (@DailyNousEditor). I’m posting comments here since Weinberg has chosen to not to open them on this particular post. What’s Byrne’s sin? He served as one of nine co-authors on the recently released HHS report “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices.” (Available on the HHS website.)

Weinberg clearly disagrees with Byrne (who, for the record, did not vote for Trump) about whether serving as a co-author of the report was the right thing to do.

I happen to have intimate knowledge of Byrne’s motives—I’ll refer to him as “Alex” from here on—because I’m married to him. We talked extensively about his decision, and I came to fully understand and respect the choice he made, even if I might have made a different one. Alex believed that his participation would help to ensure that the report was of the highest possible quality, and that it would be a useful resource for parents in particular who are looking for clear information about the costs and benefits of medical treatment of their children’s gender dysphoria.

Overall Alex believes that medical practices (especially those involving children) should be based on strong evidence, produced and discussed in an open environment free of harassment and threats of reputational damage.

Especially after working on the report, he is convinced that the evidence supporting medicalization of gender dysphoric kids (AKA “gender affirming care”) is weak.

After Alex’s name was leaked as a co-author, Weinberg wrote (in his May 6 post) that it would be “appalling” for a philosopher to participate in such a project. Doing would mean that the philosopher had “decided to help Trump” with his “selfish and authoritarian ambitions,” “cruelty” regarding “immigrants, government employees, the disabled, and the domestic and global poor,” and “transgender women and men.” So perhaps authors should have been limited to extreme right wingers?

…

Weinberg has said that he does not “use Daily Nous as a platform for humiliating people or hurling insults at them.” (From an interview with Weinberg (at http://whatisitliketobeaphilosopher.com/#/justin-w/), and that “disagreement is misunderstood and underappreciated, and readers are welcome to disagree with me.”

Yet he did not open comments on the post that essentially accused Byrne of using academic freedom as a smokescreen for helping Trump advance selfish and cruel policies, thereby bringing further harm to the most vulnerable among us. This from the philosopher who advocates for respectful engagement, humility, and who “welcomes comments” on his views and posts.

In his June 26 post, Weinberg wrote that “To oppose joining with the powers that be in their push for a callous, dehumanizing, agenda is not thereby to oppose free and open inquiry.”

But Alex never claimed that academic freedom has been violated; rather he described a culture in academic philosophy and elsewhere in which good-faith dissenters are compared to Nazis, and in which philosophers, rather than engaging with arguments, express outrage and make public accusations about motives. This is not the way to create a culture of free and open inquiry.

Daily Nous is very very very committed to trans ideology.