“Criticism is part of the debate, but not lynching”

2022-12-06 18:06:21

Attempts to silence those who have allegedly “illegitimate” opinions fall under what we callcancel culture, a real lynching socialized by electronic packs on screen, who, with tweets and defamatory remarks, disfigure their target. The phrase “cancel culture” was born in the United States to describe the actions of militant groups discrediting a target person through coordinated digital salvos – “sociodrones” (1) – on social networks in order to destroy their reputation.

Intellectual terrorism

The methods are those of intellectual terrorism coated in virtue to better penetrate institutions and thus ally themselves with certain elected officials who will shamelessly sacrifice a few rather respectful speakers for the benefit of an electoral logic. This is how the Paris Center town hall, which reportedly received a significant number of threats, canceled the Wizo conference (2) which was to be held on November 20 on “the new challenges for parents” due to the presence of “controversial researchers”in this case ourselves, invited to a round table with other speakers.

Would the controversy be banned in France? Isn’t this an opportunity to get out of ideological circles, to discuss points of doctrine through contradiction? Unless we only want one publicly and politically correct position?

Prevent any debate

The debate, the controversy reintroduce the discussion (or scientific dispute) over objects of study. Originally, the discussion consisted of an organized discussion, in the form of a debate in front of an audience, according to a dialectical pattern.

On November 20, the entire conference was canceled on the grounds that the town hall was committed to the fight against discrimination and in particular against transphobia. This fallacious argument is borrowed from the transactivist doxa which continues to maintain confusion by promoting the fight against discrimination to prevent any debate relating to the impact of social networks on the transidentification (3) of minors. Indeed, the latter are thus exposed to sometimes too rapid medicalization, due, on the one hand, to the promotion of transidentity by heroic influencers on social networks and/or, on the other hand, to a profound physical and psychological discomfort. At The Little Mermaid Observatory, we are not talking about trans people but about adolescents who identify as trans. The nuance is there and it is important, but the institutions do not hear or pretend not to hear.

Abandonment of the culture of debate

The town hall submitted to the injunctions of self-referred despots whose victim standard is transphobia. This event is a symptom of the fragility of our institutions which signify an abandonment, that of freedom of expression, of the culture of debate and in particular of discussion, sacrificed on the altar of a hypothetical civil peace. But hell is paved with good intentions…

In Lille, where Caroline Eliacheff was to speak about our book The Transgender Child Factory, as part of Citéphilo, in the presence of the philosopher Christian Godin, several calls to demonstrate in order to prevent the conference have circulated on social networks. Indeed, there were people there, and, due to insults and invectives, we had to leave the room after an hour but for another room where we were able to meet two representatives of associations including an association trans open to dialogue.

Criticism, not lynching

We were able to agree on several points. The debate was able to take place with several members of our Observatory including Nicole Athéa and Sylvie Zucca, but without an audience. Finally, on November 24, still for our book, Caroline Eliacheff was invited to Lyon by Michèle Vianès, president of the feminist association Regards de femmes, to a dinner debate in a Lyon restaurant. The threats discouraged restaurant owners from welcoming us. The activists declared victory, believing in the cancellation of the evening. But Michèle Vianès did not allow herself to be intimidated while the police and the prefecture took the threats seriously. This meeting was therefore held in another location under the protection of two police vans and several security agents.

Criticism is part of the debate, but not lynching which cancels the very possibility of speaking, and this reminds us of forms of totalitarianism which reduce to silence, that is to say to death, any opposition to ideology, see the Lysenko affair (4).

Freedom of speech

The debate that we have been calling for for two years is necessary because, based on this phenomenon of the “transgender child” promoted in the media, it would be appropriate to think about new methods of control over the child in the era of promises and dangers of overexposure to screens. While some consider that it is the freedom of speech that would have favored the considerable increase in the number of young people who claim not to belong to the sex “assigned” at birth, others, on the contrary, question the way in which adults – especially professionals – listen to and interpret the child’s words.

There is currently a lively controversy over hormonal treatments given to minors who wish to change sex in the name of their “self-determination”: are they really reversible as some doctors claim? And should we resolve an identity malaise with hormones and trivialized surgical offers? Does the “self-determination” of the child represent real civilizational progress? Isn’t this, on the contrary, feeding an illusion of omnipotence?

The law of lying

Essentialist, even transhumanist, demands would like to ignore reality in favor of a gender utopia that all of society should accept without question. But the alert has already been sounded by doctors, childhood professionals but also feminists and parent groups in countries where requests have exploded: United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, United Kingdom, Switzerland , Belgium…

We reiterate our request to open the debate in a calm manner in France, like these other countries which have returned to care that is more respectful of the child’s rhythms.