 Earlier in the week we talked about Coleman Hughes, and Coleman Hughes not exactly being cancelled by the Ted Talks, but suddenly not Ted Talks kind of not living up to their agreement with Coleman or seemingly not and creating a lot of problems because of the radicalness of his position. After all, I mean he called for a colorblind society and as the best way to deal with racism. And so we talked about that. And today Andrew Sullivan in his, what do you call this, is a sub-stack? Yeah, it's a sub-stack. In a sub-stack the weekly dish writes about that, but he also gives some additional examples of things that have just happened the last few days that are kind of in the same woke kind of attitude. They generate the same kind of general attitude and I just thought I'd share a couple of these examples with you. So one is the American Anthropological Society. American Anthropological Society had a conference, I guess the American Anthropological Association. That conference and the panel was supposed to be a panel on the annual meeting of the importance of biological sex in anthropological anthropology research. In anthropology research you would think that biological sex has some relevance. Well, there was a statement made by members of the association and ultimately the panel was canceled. The group that complained about this claimed the statement was transphobic, asserted that is the name of the panel was transphobic, asserted that it, quote, relied on assumptions that run contrary to the settled science in our discipline. I guess the settled science in anthropology is the additional such thing as sex and would harm vulnerable members of the community. They further accused the panel, this panel at a conference, people talking about ideas of committing, quote, one of the cardinal sins of scholarship, such as assuming that, quote, sex and gender are simplistically binary and that this is a fact with meaningful implications for the discipline. Of course the panel was about sex, not gender. Maybe now it turns out there's more than one sex, or there's more than one sex, more than two sexes. And it goes on, quote, people whose gender roles did not align neatly with their reproductive anatomy would be offended by a panel like this and, quote, there's no single biological standard by which all humans can be reliably sorted into binary male, female sex clarification. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, even if you believe that there is something here, that is that the whole trans issue, there are some saddles, there are some issues that are worth thinking about, that are worth acknowledging with regard to gender and gender dysphoria or anything like that. The reality is that for an academic institution to ban a panel, to cancel a panel because it deals with the importance of biological sex and anthropological research to cancel it is absurd, ridiculous, goes counter to the very essence of what a university is supposed to be doing and what a conference like this is supposed to be doing where people discuss ideas and ludicrous in a sense that biological sex matters. Biological sex exists. Even if the margin, you think there's some shady areas of where it's not binary. Okay, bring it up, have a discussion about it. And indeed, the title of the panel is not even about whether it's binary or not. It's just, again, the importance of biological sex and anthropological research. But now, some people in the American Anthropological Association can't handle even that, right? Even that. And yeah, there are people who are into sex, right? So what? It's still the importance of biological sex. It is biology or not. And it is still true that even something like intersex is pretty marginal. All these issues are pretty marginal. They are basically for the vast overwhelming majority of human beings, they are two sexes, male and female. That's it. And it doesn't mean that the margin, they're not some gray area, you know, unique cases. All right, that's one in an almost even more ridiculous occurrence in Comic Con, Comic Con, Comic Con, right? Comic Con, you know, Comic Con. In London, there was going to be a discussion, a panel discussion about Harry Potter's newest, I guess, play. There's a new Harry Potter play that's going to be produced in London. And there was going to be a panel discussing the play. Well, an LGBTQ plus charity complained of the potential impact on trans individuals of the fact that they would not, they didn't have to attend, but just hearing about the fact that there was going to be a panel to discuss something that J.K. Rawlins might be associated with in some way. And just the fact that J.K. Rawlins is a creator of Harry Potter was enough to get the panel at Comic Con, Comic Con, not an academic institution, canceled, canceled. J.K. Rawlins was not going to be there. I'm not even sure J.K. Rawlins was directly associated with this production. But J.K. Rawlins, who have used on trans issues, are not consistent with LGBTQ plus whatever, and therefore it had to be pulled. It truly is stunning the extent to which these crazy woke leftists, particularly in the transgender community, it seems like it affects that question more probably than race now. It really seems like the trans issue is the number one issue. One can get canceled out there for it is amazing how much power they have. It is amazing how much, how few people are willing to stand up against them. It is amazing that everybody just folds before them. And despite of the fact that I think there's been already a lot of backlash in England, a lot of the clinics or the main clinic that was doing a lot of the transitioning for underage people, for kids, has been closed and there's a lot of backlash against the whole trans phenomenon in educational institutions in the United States. And despite all of that, so many of our cultural institutions, even Comic-Con, are kind of sensitive to this and capitulate and fold. And I highly recommend the weekly dish, this particular one, could MLK give a TED talk today. It's called and Andrew Sullivan examines the question of why? What is it that makes all this possible? He doesn't go all the way. He doesn't give the full answer. But what's really powerful about what he writes is his identification, which shouldn't be new to any of you or shouldn't be new to anybody who's read Iron Man, that ideas matter, that ideas move the world. And that leftist ideas from 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years ago apply to all of this and are dictating the way people respond to all of this. And that the left's focus and the left's focus on capturing the academia, capturing the intellectual high ground gives them kind of a disproportionate, unbelievable power over the culture more broadly, over every aspect of the culture. And that this is just an expression of ideas matter and ideas shape the future. And so he talks about Chris Rufo's latest book, America's Cultural Revolution, which he likes parts and doesn't like other parts. I probably agree with which parts he likes and which part he doesn't. But the book focuses on radical leftist thinkers that have shaped the modern left, Herbert Malkus, Malkuse, Angela Davis, Paolo Ferreru, and Derek Bell. And so I encourage you to read the article. And Chris Rufo's book is probably worth reading, even if at the end of the day, even if at the end of the day, you know, he, even if at the end of the day, you don't agree with everything he writes, it's probably worth reading.