I have always been ruthless about not following high-volume posters on Twitter, because I can’t consume that much content and I’m generally after high signal links and/or contact with people I know irl. So, I don’t follow pinboard, who’s a high volume poster, and I don’t have the mental energy to go track down sufficient material to prosecute him with evidence, online argument-style.
With that said, what Anil and the poster above seem to say is that Maciej is transphobic. The link above then quotes Maciej’s posts about some female boxer from Algeria, something else I know nothing about and am unqualified to speak on. These are presented with posts from some IOC boxing official that come across as entirely reasonable. In contrast, this post of Maciej’s works via insinuation:
“Watching male competitors in women’s sports is a lot like the Biden debate thing. Everyone can see with their own eyes what’s going on”
This might as well have been written by moldbug. It doesn’t come right out and say “hey this boxer is a man and shouldn’t be allowed to compete”; it says anyone can see with their own eyes. But the posts from the IOC official directly contradict this boxer is a man or trans. I don’t care enough to research this topic, so maybe I’m wrong, but I’m making a judgment based on pattern recognition and I’m free to do so.
I love many of Maciej’s blog posts. He feels to me like a fellow cynic, especially about the current tech industry. I have no idea what has compelled him to post about women’s Olympics boxing specifically, or transgender issues generally, but that he seems to be doing so changes my opinion of him, shifting him a bit more from “personally beloved Internet personality, of about the same age and perspective of my own” to “terminally online Internet commentator who can’t keep himself from posting tired perspectives about overdone topics that don’t benefit from his commentary, a la David Brooks.”
Having now compared him to moldbug and David Brooks, I fully expect him to roast me into eternity. In no way would I advocate any silencing of Maciej, nor does anyone else in this thread. There’s no fascism to be found. What I am trying to lay out for you, earnestly, are my own heuristics for deciding who and what I should spend my precious attention on. I will pay less attention to him now that I’ve seen examples of this style of argumentation from him about topics that are far-removed from importance. This is not fascism, but personal liberty.