Member-only story
‘And You Know What That Means’
Is it a dogwhistle? I don’t know what it means
John Daniel Davidson, who has written for the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, has a thousand-word anti-transgender article today in The Federalist. He’s the editor at that outlet, so he’s self-publishing. His sources are: someone’s blog, 16 links to Twitter, the New York Post (a right-leaning, transphobic outlet that sometimes gets the facts wrong), and another Federalist article (just to complete the circle).
Spoiler: He ends with the sentence “And you know what that means.” But, truly, I don’t.
I’m not linking to this article. It’s short and terrible. Below, I tell you everything you need to know about it.
Part 1 of 2: He Wants You to Fear Punks
First of all, he wants you to know there are “pink-haired youths and black-clad Antifa thugs screaming at old ladies in the streets.”
In the first half of the article, he yarn-spins about an 80-year-old woman who spotted another person in the YMCA pool locker room and believed this person to be “a man.” The 80-year-old complained to staff. It’s unclear what happened next, but she was permanently banned from the pool. She then spoke at a rally. Trans allies came, allegedly wearing black shirts (scary) and even bearing, as do half of USAmericans under 40, tattoos (I mean, they’re the wrong half, right?).
Supposedly, there were physical altercations at this rally, a story he says is supported by “copious video evidence posted on Twitter.” The link he provides does not, in fact, show anyone being physically touched by an opponent, much less “thrown to the ground.” It’s a 3-minute video in which you can hear someone shouting a rude comment before the crowd chants “trans women are women.” Behind the speaker are two flags, early 20th-century symbols of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the National Woman’s Party, representing women’s right to vote. They’re purple, white, and gold. Historically, the original flags had 36 stars, representing the number of U.S. states needed to ratify…
