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Seth Dillon is an American media executive and anti-transgender extremist.

Dillon is CEO of the Babylon Bee, a satire site banned from Twitter for anti-trans content. The account was reinstated by Elon Musk.

Dillon has also partnered with Chaya Raichik to support Raichik’s transphobic Libs of TikTok account.

Background

Seth Michael Dillon was born on January 5, 1983 in Washington D.C. to Mitchell Wayne “Mitch” Dillon and Faith Barnett Dillon and grew up in an itinerant religious family. Reverend Mitch Dillon wrote the 2010 book Beyond Earthbound Dreams. Dillon has two siblings, including photographer and entrepreneur Daniel R. “Dan” Dillon (born 1985), who is also a colleague.

Dillon earned a degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University in 2004. Dillon is involved in the following business entities:

  • Babylon Bee Media, LLC
  • Dillon Asset Management LLC
  • Dillon Venture Capital LLC
  • Libs of Tik Tok LLC
  • Optisearch Marketing LC
  • Venture Tech LLC
  • Veritas Publishing LLC
  • Volentric LLC

Several operate out of the same business complex Dillon owns on Indiantown Road in Jupiter, Florida.

Dillon and spouse Tara Lynn Dillon have two children and live in in Juno Beach, Florida.

References

Dodds, Io (March 21, 2022). Conservative satire site The Babylon Bee locked out of Twitter for misgendering trans White House official. The Independent https://news.yahoo.com/conservative-satire-babylon-bee-locked-022115051.html

Zeisloft, Ben (October 3, 2020). Babylon Bee CEO’s Christian alma mater disinvites him from speaking in chapel Campus Reform https://www.campusreform.org/article/exclusive-babylon-bee-ceos-christian-alma-mater-disinvites-him-from-speaking-in-chapel/15849

Graham, Jennifer (November 10, 2021). How a preacher’s son made The Babylon Bee sting. Deseret News https://www.deseret.com/2021/11/10/22770662/how-a-preachers-son-made-the-babylon-bee-sting-politics-fakenews-evangelical-fox-news-jokes-humor

Persaud, Chris (May 10, 2022). Libs of TikTok creator backed by Babylon Bee CEO of Juno Beach. Palm Beach Post https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2022/05/10/babylon-bee-ceo-juno-beach-backs-libs-tiktok-creator/7385009001/

Media

Kyle Mann and Seth Dillon (June 2, 2023). The Babylon Bee Talks With Elon Musk at Twitter Headquarters. Babylon Bee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHaczOsMQ20

Seth Dillon (July 14, 2023). Seth Dillon: In An Age of Absurdity, We Need More Mockery. University of Auston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJBsKpaED1c

Resources

Instagram (instagram.com)

Babylon Bee (babylonbee.com)

Not the Bee (notthebee.com)

Substack (substack.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Dan Dillon (dillonphoto.com / dillonphotoblog.wordpress.com)

Volentric (volentric.com / volentricportal.com)

https://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/West-Palm-Beach/seth-m-dillon/25908261.aspx [deleted]

Telegram (t.me)

Jake Shields is an American mixed martial artist and anti-transgender extremist.

Background

Jacob Sequoyah “Jake” Shields was born on January 9, 1979 and grew up in eastern California. After graduating from Calaveras High School, Shields attended Cuesta College, where wrestling abilities led to a scholarship to San Francisco State University. Shields went on to fight in MMA and UFC, winning 33 times in 46 matches. Shields developed a style called American Jiu-Jitsu (AJJ) and has gone on to be a coach.

Shields has a daughter born in 2000.

Anti-transgender activism

On February 15, 2023, Shields stated on Twitter, “Any teacher telling children they can chose their gender should be arrested tried and then executed.”

On April 25, 2023, Shields asked on Twitter, “Would you support public executions of anyone who helps a child transition?”

Shields also offered to fight ten trans men in a row. Wrestler Mack Beggs accepted the challenge.

Shields also attacked trans and gender diverse people who choose to breastfeed their children.

Shields’ views are popular among other anti-trans extremists. In 2022 Debra Soh had Shields on to attack transgender athletes.

References

Shields, Jake (February 15, 2023). “Any teacher telling children they can chose their gender should be arrested tried and then executed. The trans kid issue would immediately disappear.” https://twitter.com/jakeshieldsajj/status/1626189068735332353 [archive]

Webb, Karleigh (April 25, 2023). MMA fighter wants to fight 10 trans men. A trans wrestler says ‘Game on!’ OutSports https://www.outsports.com/2023/4/25/23696668/jake-shields-trans-men-fight-mma-mack-beggs-challenge-mclaughlin-owned

Bucholtz, Andrew (April 26, 2023). Ex-UFC star ponders ‘public executions’ for helping children transition. The Comeback https://thecomeback.com/mma/ex-ufc-fighter-public-executions-child-transition.html

 Khatwani, Shivam (April 28, 2023 ). Transgender MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin react to Jake Shields demanding ‘public executions’ of trans allies. Sportskeeda https://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-transgender-mma-fighter-alana-mclaughlin-react-jake-shields-demanding-public-executions-trans-allies

Brinsford, James (July 6, 2023). MMA Fighter Jake Shields Lashes Out at Breastfeeding Trans Women. Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/mma-jake-shields-lashes-out-breastfeeding-trans-women-1811311

Resources

Jake Shields (jakeshields.com) [archive]

American Jiu-jitsu (americanfight.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

IMDb (imdb.com)

Lou Perez is an American writer, podcaster, and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Luis Gregorio Amate Perez was born on February 26, 1974. Perez earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University and got into performing improv and sketch comedy while there. Perez earned a master’s degree from The City College of New York.

Perez went on to write for several television and web shows and founded We the Internet TV. Perez wrote for the 2015 series Unsafe Space, later a podcast. Perez wrote the 2022 book That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore.

Perez is married to educator Marcela Valentina (Grassia) Amate Perez (born 1975). Their child Valentina Amate Perez (born 1999) graduated from Yale in 2021 and joined PACT that year.

Podcast

From 2020 to 2023, Perez hosted a podcast that frequently featured anti-trans guests. Guests include:

References

Perez, Lou (December 30, 2020). Opinion: How I Became a ‘Far-Right Radical.’ Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-i-became-a-far-right-radical-11609370135

Marcus, David (October 26, 2018). YouTube Bans ‘Dangerous’ Ad For Video Critiquing Transgenderism. The Federalist https://thefederalist.com/2018/10/26/youtube-bans-dangerous-ad-video-critiquing-transgenderism/

-https://unsafespace.com/ep0523/

Resources

Lou Perez (louperez.net) [archive]

Greg and Lou (gregandlou.com) [archive]

We The Internet (wetheinternet.tv)

Unsafe Space (unsafespace.com)

Lou Perez (thelouperez.com)

Locals (locals.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Minds (minds.com)

TikTok (tiktok.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Jennifer Kabbany is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Kabbany is editor of anti-trans publication The College Fix and has appeared in the media to attack trans people.

Background

Jennifer Messera “Jenn” Kabbany was born in 1975 and graduated from Rancho Buena Vista High School in 1993. After a year of community college, Kabbany transferred to Santa Barbara City College, earning an assopciate’s degree in 1997. Kabbany earned a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State in 2002.

Since marrying journalist Chad Christopher Dawson (born June 17, 1976), some publications have come out under the name Jennifer Kabbany Dawson. The couple has two children.

From 2002 to 2013, Kabbany worked in various capacities for the North County Times and San Diego Union-Tribune. Kabbany has worked for and contributed to FrontPage Magazine, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, and the National Review.

Anti-transgender activism

Kabbany has appeared on platforms with anti-trans views, including Benjamin Boyce, OANN, Andrew Klavan, Wilfred Reilly, and Debra Soh.

References

Blair, Billie G. (2011). How To Build A Fire: Organizational Change Management (1st Edition), edited by Jennifer Kabbany Dawson ISBN 978-0979588167

Kabbany, Jennifer June 3, 2012). Life lessons learned at college. San Diego Union-Tribune https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-kabbany-life-lessons-learned-at-college-2012jun03-story.html

Resources

Twitter (twitter.com)

The College Fix (thecollegefix.com)

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Joseph Ladapo is a Nigerian-American physician who was a key figure in banning trans youth healthcare in Florida.

Background

Joseph Abiodun Ladapo was born on December 16, 1978 in Nigeria. At age 5, Ladapo and family moved to the Uniter States.

Ladapo earned a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University in 2000, then attended Harvard, earning a medical degree and a doctorate. After working in New York City, Ladapo was appointed a tenured professor at UCLA.

During the COVID pandemic, Ladapo became known among convervatives for views on vaccines and other protocols. In 2021, Ladapo was appointed Surgeon General of Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Anti-transgender activism

Ladapo has carried out anti-trans policies promoted by DeSantis, most notably SB 254, a law prohibiting gender-affirming medical treatment for minors and restricting access to care for trans adults.

Transgender Floridians brought Doe v. Ladapo to challenge this law.

Via Zinnia Jones:

We now know that the state was covertly assisted in this effort by the leadership of the anti-trans group Genspect, Child & Parental Rights Campaign lawyer Vernadette Broyles, and Riittakerttu Kaltiala of Finland’s Tampere University youth gender clinic; Hilary Cass of NHS England’s Cass Review also privately expressed an interest in the sham report against gender-affirming care commissioned by Florida’s AHCA. Several individuals worked behind the scenes with Patrick Hunter, a leading member of the anti-trans Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM). After being appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Board of Medicine, Hunter arranged for extensive anti-trans testimony from SEGM associates to be submitted to the Boards of Medicine and Osteopathy. 

Jones (2023)

Ladapo has also appeared on a number of anti-trans platforms, including Tim Pool, Megyn Kelly, Glenn Beck, Epoch Times, Newsmax, Dennis Prager, Charlie Kirk, and Debra Soh.

References

Doe v. Ladapo (4:23-cv-00114) District Court, N.D. Florida https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67082532/doe-v-ladapo/

Jones, Zinnia (November 29, 2023). New trial exhibits in Doe v. Ladapo: DOH worked with Genspect leaders Stella O’Malley and Joe Burgo in July 2022; Hilary Cass met SEGM’s Patrick Hunter to discuss Florida’s anti-trans report; Jamie Reed’s attorney Vernadette Broyles chose the lineup of detransitioners speaking at the Board of Medicine. Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2023/11/new-trial-exhibits-in-doe-v-ladapo-doh-worked-with-genspect-leaders-stella-omalley-and-joe-burgo-in-july-2022-hilary-cass-met-segms-patrick-hunter-to-discuss-floridas-ant/

 Migdon, Brooke (April 20, 2022). Florida health dept. says gender-affirming care should not be provided to minors. The Hill https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/3274150-florida-health-dept-says-gender-affirming-care-should-not-be-provided-to-minors/


Riley, John (December 27, 2023). DeSantis Spread Misinformation to Limit Trans Health Care, Judge Says. MetroWeekly https://www.metroweekly.com/2023/12/desantis-spread-misinformation-to-limit-trans-health-care-judge-says/

Izaguirre, Anthony (June 3, 2022). Transgender youth treatment under fire in Florida again. AP https://apnews.com/article/health-florida-cultures-medicaid-government-and-politics-68065d8560f7cb68ea4fd8e57e848295

Caputo, Marc (June 2, 2022). DeSantis moves to ban transition care for transgender youths, Medicaid recipients. NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/desantis-moves-ban-transition-care-transgender-youth-medicaid-recipien-rcna31736

Alfonseca, Kiara (March 23, 2023). Florida parents file lawsuit against state transgender youth care ban. ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-parents-file-lawsuit-state-transgender-youth-care/story?id=98086864

Simon Edge is a British writer and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Simon John Edge was born on December 25, 1964 in Chester, England. Edge graduated from King’s School, Chester, then earned master’s degrees from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 1986 and from City University in 2006.

From 1993 to 1995, Edge was editor of Capital Gay, a publication founded in 1981 that folded in 1995. Edge was freelance and on staff at several publications, including the Evening Statndard, Daily Express, WhatsOnStage, and Attitude. Edge has done press for Green Party candidates.

Edge was married to former Catholic priest Ezio Alessandroni from 2014 until Alessandroni’s death in 2017.

Anti-transgender activism

Edge wrote the 1995 nonfiction book With Friends Like These: Marxism and Gay Politics, which attacks progressive aspects of the LGBTQ rights movement.

Edge was a signatory of a 2020 Sunday Times open letter supporting anti-transgender activist J.K. Rowling. Edge said, “Like many others, I was horrified by the grotesque treatment of JK Rowling, who has received the vilest abuse for daring to challenge extreme gender ideology.”

Edge published The End of the World is Flat (2021) and In the Beginning (2021), satires of the transgender rights movement.

References

Edge, Simon (1995). With Friends Like These: Marxism and Gay Politics. UNKNO, ISBN 9780304333202

Greenhalgh, Hugo (September 29, 2020). Literary figures defend JK Rowling, say she’s been subjected to ‘an onslaught of abuse.’ Sunday Times https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2020-09-29-literary-figures-defend-jk-rowling-say-shes-been-subjected-to-an-onslaught-of-abuse/

Edge, Simon (2023). In the Beginning. Lightning Books, ISBN 978-1785633546

Resources

Simon Edge (simon-edge.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Milo Yiannopoulos is a British right-wing extremist and troll. Yiannopoulos is a key figure in the alt-right and intellectual dark web movements.

Background

Milo Hanrahan was born on October 18, 1983 in Chatham, Kent, England to Catholic parents who soon divorced. Yiannopoulos is the surname of Milo’s subsequent stepparent.

Yiannopoulos attended University of Manchester and Wolfson College, Cambridge, but did not earn degrees from either. Yiannopoulos published works and photos as Milo Andreas Wagner around this time. Yiannopoulos founded Wrong Agency Limited in 2009. It dissolved in 2011.

Yiannopoulos wrote for the Catholic Herald and covered technology for the Daily Telegraph. There, Yiannopoulos developed a knack for clickbait and anti-progressive trolling. Yiannopoulos co-founded technology “drama” blog The Kernel and subscription newsletter The Nutshell with Stephen Pritchard. Following closure over unpaid debts, investor Berlin42 purchased the domain and settled all debts, relaunching The Kernel with Yiannopoulos as editor. In 2014, The Kernel was acquired by Daily Dot Media, and Yiannopoulos stepped down.

From 2014 to 2017, Yiannopoulos covered technology for Breitbart News. While there, Yiannopoulos was a key figure in Gamergate, a complex misogynistic online harassment campaign and right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. Yiannopoulos was also a key figure in the 2016 presidential candidacy of Donald Trump.

Yiannopoulos left Breitbart in 2017, founded Milo Worldwide LLC, and self-published the book Dangerous after it was dropped by publisher Simon & Schuster after earlier comments Yiannopoulos made about pedophilia resurfaced. The ACLU filed suit on behalf of Yiannopoulos after transit ads for Dangerous were rejected by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority,.

In 2018, Yiannopoulos self-published the books How to Be Poor and How to Be Straight. In 2021 Yiannopoulos claimed to be an ex-gay and began fundraising to create a conversion therapy center in Florida. In 2023, Yiannopoulos was involved in the presidential campaign of Kanye West.

Anti-transgender activity

Yiannopoulos made countless inflammatory statements about transgender people during the 2010s, especially in connection with Donald Trump.

Here’s the dirty secret that only the progressive left doesn’t understand: Nobody cares about trannys. There aren’t any of them anywhere. No one cares. If you’re obsessed with gay issues, if you are gay and you go to gay clubs and you only read the left wing press, all you’ll ever hear about is “people want to cut their (expletives) off.” But the rest of the country doesn’t care. There just aren’t that many of them around. Who cares? And Donald Trump knows this, which is why it wasn’t damaging to him when he said he doesn’t care what bathroom Caitlyn Jenner uses, and it’s not damaging to him now when he’s gone the other direction and said he doesn’t want them in the military. No one in America actually cares, and Donald Trump instinctively understands this.

Mitchell (2017)

References

Dowell, Ben (July 7, 2012). Milo Yiannopoulos – meet the ‘pit bull’ of tech media. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jul/08/milo-yiannopoulos-kernel-technology-interview

Williams-Grut, Oscar (June 2, 2013). The Kernel’s back to make new enemies. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-kernel-s-back-to-make-new-enemies-8640597.html

Dunbar, Max (January 9, 2013). Milo Yiannopoulos and the Kernel. WordPress https://maxdunbar.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/milo-yiannopoulous-and-the-kernel/

Reynolds, Daniel (October 26, 2016). Milo Yiannopoulos Takes Transphobia on Tour. The Advocate https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/10/26/milo-yiannopoulos-takes-transphobia-tour

Lynskey, Dorian (February 21, 2017). The rise and fall of Milo Yiannopoulos – how a shallow actor played the bad guy for money. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/21/milo-yiannopoulos-rise-and-fall-shallow-actor-bad-guy-hate-speech

Long, Camilla (February 26, 2017). Milo Yiannopoulos is not so ‘funny and hot and right’ any more. The Australian https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/milo-yiannopoulos-the-pied-piper-of-hate-goes-up-in-flames/news-story/a302709bea5b6fdc571c3a025992f3ff

Mitchell, Conner (July 31, 2017). Yiannopoulos doesn’t hold back on transgender rights, women in military, more. The Palm Beach Post https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/politics/2017/07/31/yiannopoulos-doesn-t-hold-back/7089635007/ [archive]

Resources

RationalWiki (rationalwiki.org)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

  • nero [suspended]
  • KernelMag

Wrong Agency Limited [UK]

  • Company number 07035584

Sentinel Media Ltd [UK]

  • Company number 07837639

The Kernel (kernelmag.com) [archive]

Milo Worldwide LLC

Milo Entertainment Inc.

Milo Inc.

Dangerous (dangerous.com) [archive 2017-2019]

Flickr (flickr.com)

  • Milo Andreas Wagner
  • flickr.com/photos/milo_wagner/
  • The Kernel
  • flickr.com/people/37025991@N08

Daily Dot (dailydot.com)

  • The Kernel [archive]
  • kernelmag.dailydot.com

Eric Weinstein is an American mathematician and former hedge fund manager. Weinstein was a managing director of Thiel Capital from 2013 until 2022. 

Weinstein coined the term intellectual dark web (IDW), a social movement associated with anti-transgender activism and extremism. Weinstein has expressed fairly nuanced views of trans issues compared to most people considered part of the intellectual dark web.

Background

Eric Ross Weinstein was born on October 26, 1965 and has a younger sibling, Bret Weinstein. They grew up in Southern California.

Eric Weinstein earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Pennsylvania, then attended Harvard, earning a master’s degree, then a doctorate in 1992.

After teaching at MIT and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Weinstein served as a managing director for Peter Thiel at Thiel Capital from 2013 until 2022. 

Intellectual dark web

Weinstein coined the term intellectual dark web (IDW) in 2017 as a name for a loose alliance described as a “gateway to the far right.” Many are opponents of transgender rights. Members typically get money and attention by claiming to be “canceled” or silenced by the minorities and progressive movements they criticize (called DARVO in general; see also the Dregerian Narrative in relation to trans issues, named after IDW inaugural member Alice Dreger.

Podcast

Weinstein hosted a podcast called The Portal from 2019 to 2020. Guests included several critics of the transgender rights movement and their supporters, including Douglas Murray, J. D. Vance, Ross Douthat, James O’Keefe, Bret Weinstein, Anna Khachiyan, Tyler Cowen, Sam Harris, Bryan Callen, and Peter Thiel.

42: Cashing Out My Trump & IDW Positions

  • None 1 December 2020

41: Douglas Murray – Heroism 2020: Defense of Our Own Civilization

  • Douglas Murray 23 October 2020

40: Introducing The Portal Essay Club – What if everyone is simply insane?

  • None 12 August 2020

39: Admission To Sugar Baby U.

  • Kimberly de la Cruz 29 July 2020

38: Mass Media, Markets, and Human Malware: A Portal Q&A

  • None 10 July 2020

37: Surfing the Wake of The Woke

  • Andrew Marantz 1 July 2020

36: Dark Matter, Black Matters and All That Jazz

  • Stephon Alexander 11 June 2020

35: Balaji Srinivasan – The Heretic & The Virus

  • Balaji Srinivasan 21 May 2020

34: Zev Weinstein – On Parenting, Boys & Generation Z

  • Zev Weinstein 13 May 2020

33: Josh Wolfe – The Mind Financing The Future

  • Josh Wolfe 3 May 2020

32: J. D. Vance – American Dreams and Nightmares

  • J. D. Vance 29 April 2020

31: Ryan Holiday – Conspiracy, Manipulation & other Pastimes

  • Ryan Holiday 23 April 2020

30: Ross Douthat – The Rave Before the Fall

  • Ross Douthat 16 April 2020

29: Jamie Metzl – The Bio-Hacker will see you now, Ready or Not

  • Jamie Metzl 12 April 2020

Special A Portal Special Presentation- Geometric Unity: A First Look

  • None 2 April 2020

28: Eric Lewis – The Singular Genius of Elew

  • Eric Lewis 28 March 2020

27: Daniel Schmachtenberger – On Avoiding Apocalypses

  • Daniel Schmachtenberger 27 March 2020

26: James O’Keefe: What is (and isn’t) Journalism in the 21st century

  • James O’Keefe 19 March 2020

25: The Construct: Jeffrey Epstein

  • None 7 March 2020

24: Kai Lenny – To Play and Flirt with Giants

  • Kai Lenny 28 February 2020

23: Agnes Callard – Courage, Meta-cognitive detachment and their limits

  • Agnes Callard 24 February 2020

22: Ben Greenfield – Wheat From Chaff in Human Fitness

  • Ben Greenfield 15 February 2020

21: Ashley Mathews (aka Riley Reid) – The mogul and brains behind America’s Sweetheart

  • Ashley Mathews (aka Riley Reid) 31 January 2020

20: Sir Roger Penrose – Plotting the Twist of Einstein’s Legacy

  • Sir Roger Penrose 24 January 2020

19: Bret Weinstein – The Prediction and the DISC

  • Bret Weinstein 18 January 2020

18: Slipping the DISC: State of The Portal and Chapter 2020

  • None 15 January 2020

17: Anna Khachiyan – Reconstructing The Mystical Feminine From The Ashes Of “The Feminine Mystique”

  • Anna Khachiyan 20 December 2019

16: Tyler Cowen – The Revolution Will Not Be Marginalized

  • Tyler Cowen 16 December 2019

15: Garrett Lisi – My Arch-nemesis, Myself

  • Garrett Lisi 6 December 2019

14: London Tsai – The Reclusive Dean of The New Escherians

  • London Tsai 30 November 2019

13: Garry Kasparov – Avoiding Zugzwang in AI and Politics

  • Garry Kasparov 23 November 2019

12: Vitalik Buterin – The Ethereal Prince and His Virtual Machine

  • Vitalik Buterin 21 November 2019

11: Sam Harris – Fighting with Friends

  • Sam Harris 15 November 2019

10: Julie Lindahl: Shaking the poisoned fruit of shame out of the family tree

  • Julie Lindahl 31 October 2019

9: Bryan Callen – Cracking Wise

  • Bryan Callen 30 October 2019

8: Andrew Yang – The Dangerously Different Candidate the Media Wants You to Ignore

  • Andrew Yang 2 October 2019

7: Bret Easton Ellis – The Dark Laureate of Generation X

  • Bret Easton Ellis 29 September 2019

6: Jocko Willink – The Way of the Violent Intellectual

  • Jocko Willink 7 September 2019

5: Rabbi Wolpe – “So a Rabbi and an atheist walk into a podcast
”

  • Rabbi David Wolpe 31 August 2019

4: Timur Kuran – The Economics of Revolution and Mass Deception

  • Timur Kuran 20 August 2019

3: Werner Herzog

  • Werner Herzog 25 July 2019

2: What is The Portal

  • None 19 July 2019

1: Peter Thiel

  • Peter Thiel 17 July 2019

Welcome to The Portal

  • None 24 June 2019

References

-https://twitter.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1104080066139500544

Joe Rogan #1320 Gender Binary is a Form of Oppression – Eric Weinstein Joe Rogan -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl9SBJ4JsAw

Resources

Eric Weinstein (ericweinstein.org)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Edge (edge.org)

Peter Thiel is a German-American entrepreneur and investor.

While Thiel has not been explicitly anti-trans in public statements, many people and institutions Thiel supports are anti-trans. Thiel is closely associated with several anti-trans Republicans and has provided them significant campaign funding, most notably Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Blake Masters, and Ted Cruz. After Trump won election in 2016, Thiel was part of Trump’s transition team.

Thiel is associated with the anti-trans intellectual dark web and has collaborated with other members, including Eric Weinstein, Joe Rogan, Bari Weiss, Tim Ferriss, and Dave Rubin.

Background

Thiel was born on October 11, 1967 in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. Thiel’s parents moved to America soon after, then to South Africa before moving to the San Francisco Bay area. Thiel has a younger sibling.

Thiel earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford in 1989. While there Thiel co-founded and edited conservative publication The Stanford Review. Via Newsweek:

Some of the wealthiest men in the New Billionaires club are Peter Thiel (who financed Zuckerberg) and David Sacks—two guys who spent their formative years at Stanford in the 1990s writing anti-feminist screeds for their school paper. According to Kantor in The New York Times, “In the pages of [Stanford’s] The Review, they defined feminism in negative terms—alarmist, accusatory toward men, blind to inherent biological differences. 

Thiel earned a law degree there in 1992, then clerked for 11th Circuit Judge James Larry Edmondson. After a couple of years working in finance on the east coast, Thiel returned to California and founded Thiel Capital Management.

One early investment got developed into PayPal, which merged with X.com founded by Elon Musk. PayPal went public in 2002 and was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion. Thiel is a co-founder of Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund. Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook. These investments earned Thiel billions of dollars.

Thiel was outed as gay in 2007 by the Gawker gossip blog network. Thiel then funded a successful $140 million lawsuit against Gawker brought by Hulk Hogan for invasion of privacy. The 2016 verdict led to a $31 million settlement that effectively ended Gawker.

The Thiel Foundation supports young adult visionaries, speculative scientific research, AI, life extension, and seasteading.

Thiel has citizenship in Germany by birth, the US via naturalization, and New Zealand in 2011 through investments there.

Thiel married longtime partner Matt Danzeisen in 2017. Thiel was also reportedly in a relationship with model Jeff Thomas, who died in 2023 at age 35.

Anti-transgender activism

In 1995, Thiel and David O. Sacks co-authored The Diversity Myth, an attack on progressive policies in higher education. Thiel is a Republican and has become a major figure in conservative gay activism. Thiel has been a major donor to Republican and libertarian political candidates and founded Free Forever, an America-first political action committee.

Thiel was a major contributor to Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. In 2016, Thiel spoke at the Republican National Convention, saying “I am proud to be gay” and criticizing the GOP focus on cultural issues:

“When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union. And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?”

In 2016, Thiel was revealed to be the instructor behind a “Heterodox Science” course offered by the Berkeley Institute, a private academic institution that Thiel bankrolls. “Heterodox” is a term popular among right-wing academics like anti-trans activist Jonathan Haidt, founder of Heterodox Academy. The Berkeley Institute course description included buzzwords used by anti-trans academics, including “sexual differences,” a term frequently used in anti-trans fields like eugenics, evolutionary psychology, “race science,” and “sex science”:

This seminar will discuss possible instances of “heterodox science,” fields of study that dissent from mainstream science. Areas to be examined will include neuroscience and human consciousness; biology and human nature; evolution and sexual differences; and economics and urban social policy.

The seminar was later removed from the Berkeley Institute website.

At the 2022 National Conservatism conference, Thiel discussed “wokeness” in California, likening it to Wahhabism, an orthodox Islamic reform movement in Saudi Arabia:

In his view, the main problem with California is that, like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, it is the victim of a “resource curse”. That is, the wealth generated from California’s tech sector is so tremendous that it ends up distorting the state’s entire political economy. “Wokeness”, he posited, plays the same role as Wahabbism in the similarly afflicted Saudi Arabia.

In 2024, Thiel reiterated these views on the Joe Rogan Experience.

In 2023, Thiel decided not to fund political candidates, “reportedly voicing frustration over the right’s attacks on abortion and transgender rights,” according to Vanity Fair.

References

Warnke, Melissa Batchelor (December 21, 2016). Peter Thiel is almost definitely behind this mysterious ‘Heterodox Science’ course. The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/21/14025760/peter-thiel-heterodox-science-class-berkeley-institute

Pershan, Caleb (July 22, 2016). Gay Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel Belittles Trans Rights In Republican Convention Speech. SFist https://sfist.com/2016/07/22/peter_thiel_gay_republican_hypocrite/

Holden, Dominic (July 21, 2016). Peter Thiel Calls Transgender Bathroom Access “A Distraction” At GOP Convention. BuzzFeed News https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dominicholden/peter-thiel-calls-transgender-bathroom-access-a-distraction

Ecarma, Caleb (April 26, 2023). Peter Thiel Reportedly Doesn’t Want to Give Republicans Any More Money, for Very Confusing Reasons. Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/peter-thiel-reportedly-doesnt-want-to-give-republicans-any-more-money-for-very-confusing-reasons

MacDonald, Park (September 12, 2022). Peter Thiel: wokeness is like Wahhabism. UnHerd https://unherd.com/newsroom/peter-thiel-wokeness-is-like-wahhabism/

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Ballotpedia (ballotpedia.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Zero to One (ZeroToOneBook.com)

Lindsay Shepherd is a Canadian writer and anti-transgender activist. Shepherd is part of the so-called intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right.

Background

Lindsay Shepherd was born on December 7, 1994 and grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia. Shepherd earned a bachelor’s degree form Simon Fraser University, followed by a master’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2018.

Anti-transgender activism

Shepherd became a cause cĂ©lĂšbre among transphobes from the “academic freedom” faction after a 2017 classroom controversy at Wilfrid Laurier University. Shepherd showed students two clips of Jordan Peterson criticizing Canada’s Bill C-16, which added gender identity and expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the list of characteristics of identifiable groups protected from hate propaganda in the Canadian Criminal Code.

Shepherd was called into a meeting with administrators after a student complaint, and Shepherd’s supervisor agreed to review Shepherd’s future class materials. Shepherd secretly recorded the meeting and released it to the press, which led to apologies from Shepherd’s supervisor and the college president. The university opened an independent inquiry that found no wrongdoing by Shepherd. The incident led to lawsuits by Shepherd and Peterson, as well as countersuits against Shepherd.

Shepherd appeared in the 2019 film No Safe Spaces to discuss the incident.

In 2019 Shepherd began work with anti-trans organizations Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and True North Centre for Public Policy.

The Boston Herald identified Shepherd as a member of the intellectual dark web. Praising “intellectually curious podcast hosts like Dave Rubin and Joe Rogan,” the anonymous editorial lists “victims of these progressive mobs”:

People like Jordan Peterson, Eric and Bret Weinstein, Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Douglas Murray, Christina Hoff Sommers, Steven Pinker, Ben Shapiro, Lindsay Shepherd and Owen Benjamin, to name just a handful.

Shepherd was briefly banned from Twitter in 2019 after exchanging insults with litigant and troll Jessica Yaniv.

Shepherd has written for several anti-trans publications, including The Post Millennial, Maclean’s, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, and Quillette.

References

Editors (May 14, 2018). Editorial: Truth requires free thinking, honest talk. Boston Herald https://www.bostonherald.com/2018/05/14/editorial-truth-requires-free-thinking-honest-talk/

Krishnan, Manisha (July 16, 2019). Free Speech ‘Activist’ Lindsay Shepherd Was Banned From Twitter. Vice https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwnbxd/free-speech-activist-lindsay-shepherd-was-banned-from-twitter-and-its-very-sad

Hutchins, Aaron (December 11, 2017). What really happened at Wilfrid Laurier University: Inside Lindsay Shepherd’s heroic, insulting, brave, destructive, possibly naĂŻve fight for free speech. Maclean’s https://macleans.ca/lindsay-shepherd-wilfrid-laurier/

Myers, Fraser (July 23, 2019). “I was banned for trans heresy.” Lindsay Shepherd on the Jessica Yaniv balls-waxing controversy. Spiked https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/07/23/i-was-banned-for-trans-heresy/

Amundson, Quinton (May 16, 2021). Lindsay Shepherd carries on fight for free speech. The Catholic Register https://www.catholicregister.org/item/33101-lindsay-shepherd-carries-on-fight-for-free-speech

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)