The defamation of Michael Knowles, who made a humanist speech about the scourge of transgenderism among America’s youth
Last week, Michael Knowles appeared at CPAC, where he argued against the leftist-pushed social contagion encouraging our children to deny their biological reality in favor of the so-called “transgender” fantasy. He’d barely finished speaking before the leftist media, led by Rolling Stone and The Daily Beast, accused him of pushing for the “extermination” of people who claim to be “transgender.” Both Rolling Stone and The Daily Beast backed off that position, but their attack makes it more imperative to highlight Knowles’s analysis of what happened, especially because it’s an unusually elegant challenge to transgender madness.
During his CPAC speech, Knowles essentially said that transgenderism is a dangerous, damaging ideology and that we need to rid the public square of the concept. When he spoke of people who claim to be “transgender,” he said only that they’re acting upon a very damaging belief system and that the best thing for them is for the belief, not the people, to be wiped from the public square.
The lies from big, leftist, online media were instant:
I never said that and demand a retraction. @thedailybeast pic.twitter.com/RvPCikgHgG
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 4, 2023
This headline is libelous, and I demand a retraction. @RollingStone pic.twitter.com/ud8kUPwDwy
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 4, 2023
Very quickly, though, undoubtedly after words of warning from their legal departments, both outlets changed their headlines:
I’m pleased to see that both @thedailybeast and @RollingStone have at least partially admitted their dishonesty by changing their libelous headlines. I look forward to seeing the other outlets that are defaming me follow suit! pic.twitter.com/MZAfJFgExm
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 6, 2023
Naturally, rather than accepting the truth, left-wing activists attacked Rolling Stone and the Daily Beast for bowing “to right wing pressure.”
"right wing pressure" = libel law https://t.co/1CbMzACXPb
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 6, 2023
Moreover, as with all lies, this particular lie had legs:
Michael Knowles publicly says he wants to “eradicate” transgendered people.
— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) March 4, 2023
That’s some Hitler Nazi Germany genocide shit
"Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely."
pic.twitter.com/41Fk2HSRQd
Leavitt, incidentally, has almost 340,000 Twitter followers.
I wonder if my wife is behind this protest campaign so I don’t hit the road again this week… https://t.co/26Gfy7aEIj
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 6, 2023
The fact that this lie will continue to circulate is an inevitable byproduct of the internet world in which we live. Knowles sounds sanguine about that fact.
The important question is why the media and activists attacked Knowles so crudely and brutally. I think the answer lies in the fact that Knowles is unusually elegant in how he challenges transgender madness, root and branch.
For example, Knowles is one of the few who notes that conservatives fall into the leftist trap when they go the libertarian route and say that surgery and deadly drugs are fine for adults, but not for children. If transgenderism is real, then the activists are correct that children should be “treated” too. And if it’s not real, anybody with the delusion should gently be led back to reality.
In any event, I listened today as Michael Knowles discussed both the attack against him and reiterated his position on transgenderism. The latter struck me so much that I wanted to share it with you. He starts his show with that discussion:
We need more people to speak this truth before more young Americans are physically and mentally destroyed by this ideological plague.
Image: Michael Knowles. YouTube screen grab.