The Ezra Klein Show

It’s a stimulating show, one I manually refresh on my feed because I look forward to it that much. It’s my last remaining connection to The NY Times. I wish the theme music with the low piano keys had not been replaced with a new and unremarkable jingle. I’m telling myself the suits at the Times ordered that change not Mr. Klein.

Klein is a smart guy but he works for a corporate entity that serves the interests of its shareholders. The equivocation that contributed to the disastrous 2024 election outcome is always going to be implicit here. This is so even with The Daily. I've switched to nonprofit media (The Guardian) and the Bulwark and Meidas. Klein should abandon ship before he debases himself further like Nate Silver.

Secondary sex characteristics are not gender expression. They are sex expression. We wouldn’t let a child choose to remove their hand - no matter how much dysphoria it was causing. And no we don’t let 10-year-old “little girls” do rhinoplasty, and no rhinoplasty or a tonsillectomy is not akin to cutting breasts off. These are decisions adults can understand, make and accept the consequences for, not 10-year-olds. The dishonesty and blurring of facts around this discussion reminded me of anti-choice activism. Masha can sign up for what ever she wants to. She can conceive of and call herself anything she wants. She is free to relate to the world on her own terms. What she can’t do is force her own terms on the rest of us. Social norms are necessary and liberation from them is achieved without permission from society. It is not the function of society or government to affirm your liberation. The government is only there to stop others from preventing your self-liberation. You are liberated when you decide you are liberated, not when the government puts an “x” on your driver’s license. Denying trans children care is wrong. Allowing them to remove body parts is also wrong and we do not have enough data on hormones for children. The statistics on regret across all trans people are 1%. Coincidentally, that is the same percentage of trans people vs non-trans in the world. To minimize the 1% is to argue that the reality of trans people should be minimized as well. “Race” is a mess because it is constantly changing and no “race” has existed for more than 2 thousand years. Sexual dimorphism/gonacory has been a stable evolutionary structure for over 400 million years. Why are we placing gender above sex? And what has the brand new concept of gender identity brought us but Dr. John Money and his sexual abuse of children? Going from “human beings have an internal sense of gender” to “gender is the center of all things and we must eliminate the gender binary in order to ‘liberate’ people” is misguided and quixotic at best and authoritarian at worst. “You must accept my view of the cosmos or you prevent my liberation!!!!” This is the cry of a crazy Pentecostal who can only see non-believers as demons. You aren’t trying to end social norms to liberate, you are trying to impose social norms that place your personal experience at the center. 99% of the rest of humanity is asking “What about my experience? Is it not valid? Why her but not me?” If you insist on making social norms zero sum, democracy demands the majority wins unless they are violating a fundamental human right. Having your life experience at the center of everyone else’s life is not a human right. It is the wish of a tyrant. And being threatened by other people not accepting your view is not liberation, it’s the opposite. Liberate thyself.

Five stars to Ezra for consistently high level of intelligent discussion. One star off because I can’t shake the feeling that the paywall and subscriber features exist to pay teams of people to tweak the thumbnail and select new 5 second long intro music every few months.