Alex Jones is an American far-right conspiracy theorist. Jones is a key figure in the alt-right and so-called intellectual dark web.
Background
Alexander Emerick “Alex” Jones was born on February 11, 1974 in Dallas, Texas. Jones’ family moved to Austin, Texas when Jones was a teen. Jones attended Austin Community College but did not get a degree.
Jones became interested in right-wing conspiracy theories as a teen. Around the time of the seige of the Branch Davidian compound in nearby Waco, Jones began a call-in radio show. Jones claimed the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was a false flag operation by the government.
In 1999 Jones and spouse Kelly founded InfoWars as a way to sell their conspiracy materials
Anti-transgender views
Jones was warned and ultimately banned by Facebook for “violent or graphic content,” including one with anti-trans content. Another was flagged for anti-transgender content in which Jones appeared to threaten transgender people.Â
Jones has appeared in media with conservative transgender troll Blaire White and numerous personalities who platform anti-trans guests and views, most notably Joe Rogan. In 2018 Jones inadvertently revealed on camera recent browsing history that included trans porn star Marissa Minx.
Stephen Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher, considered part of the so-called intellectual dark web. Hicks and Jordan Peterson have overlapping anti-trans positions.
Background
Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks was born on August 19, 1960 in Toronto. Hicks attended University of Guelph, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2001 followed by a master’s degree. Hicks earned a doctorate from Indiana University in 1991.
Hicks began teaching at Rockford College in 1992. Hicks was a Fellow of The Heritage Foundation in 1996 and served as director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.
Hicks is known for the 2004 book Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. It was influential among lay critics of postmodernism and progressivism. Hicks believes that Western society has experienced a failure of epistemology, which is basically a study of the way we know things.
Hicks’s thesis is that “the failure of epistemology made postmodernism possible, and the failure of socialism made postmodernism necessary.” In other words, Hicks believes that postmodernism is an intellectual reaction to the failure of communist, collectivist, and socialist political thought. Hicks believes those ideas failed when put into practice, and intellectuals needed a new form of political philosophy to explain those failures.
Anti-trans views
Critics of postmodernism sometimes see “gender ideology” as an aspect of postmodernist philosophy. As an example, the nonbinary gender identity emerged from deconstructionism, a school of thought which seeks to break down social constructs, many of which operate under what philosopher Ferdinand de Saussure calls binary opposition. As an example, the long-held idea of âopposite sexesâ creates the category of âsexâ as one of two mutually exclusive opposing terms: male or female. In this school of thought, binary opposition created a hierarchy where one of the two components is dominant.
Challenging binary oppositions is an important part of postmodernism, an intellectual movement that uses rhetorical, critical, and strategic means to destabilize concepts and beliefs that some people consider stable or even unchangeable. When academics say that race, sex, and other characteristics are socially constructed, they are challenging the deeply held beliefs of many people.
Critics of postmodernism and relativism also believe that these ideas will lead to loss of freedoms, the end of reason, and a number of other existential threats to society and humanity.
Academics are often concerned about freedom of speech in general and academic freedom in particular. Some believe these freedoms are threatened by postmodernism. They see things like expectations to use preferred names and pronouns as “compelled speech.”
Hicks gives an example:
Demanding that people call you by your preferred name is already a retreat from civility, and that should be a two-way street. You also have to respect the other personâs context and what kind of linguistic framework that they are operating within.
Jordan Peterson Aug 18, 2017 Postmodernism: History and Diagnosis…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyzSrtr6oJE
Jordan Peterson May 27, 2019 Stephen Hicks: Postmodernism: Reprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwW9QV5Ulmw
TRIGGERnometry Dec 12, 2021 The Truth About the Nazis with Stephen Hicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAydErHRJ9w
Sovereign Nations Sep 3, 2021 Encroaching Darkness | Stephen Hicks, James Lindsay, & Michael O’Fallon | Changing Tides Ep. 6
Michael Nayna May 16, 2020 Stephen Hicks & Mike Nayna – PhDs and Passive-Aggression https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7iFIhUVHuw
Benjamin A. Boyce Dec 11, 2019 Postmodern Monsters | with Stephen Hicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEGMoQkgXf8
Mark Michael Lewis Dec 12, 2016 Ayn Rand Hero: Professor Stephen Hicks – Postmodernism and Making Work Beautiful Stephen Hicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTKE00OQTpE&t=1841s [transcript]
Glenn Beck Dec 17, 2018 Dr. Stephen Hicks | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 15 BlazeTV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fs0HFRwqrY
Owen Benjamin is the stage name of Owen Troy-Smith, an American conspiracy theorist and anti-transgender activist.
Benjamin is part of the alt-right and intellectual dark web movements of anti-trans extremists.
Background
Owen Benjamin Kares Troy-Smith was born on May 24, 1980. Both parents are college professors. Troy-Smith earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2002, then began a career in stand-up comedy, branded as a conservative comedian.
Anti-transgender activism
After podcaster Jesse Thorn expressed support for their family’s trans child on Twitter, Troy-Smith and other anti-trans extremists like Jesse Singal decided to make inappropriate comments about this child.
Following additional attacks on trans healthcare for adolescents as well as posting standup clips mocking trans people, Troy-Smith’s talent agency cut ties.
Mike Cernovich is an American far-right extremist and anti-transgender activist. Cernovich is considered part of the intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right.
Background
Michael C. Cernovich was born on November 17, 1977 in Kewanee, Illinois. Cernovich earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois at Springfield in 2001 and a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2004. Cernovich was married in 2003 and divorced in 2011. Cernovich’s spouse was a successful technology lawyer and was required to pay Cernovich a large sum in the settlement. Cernovich was admitted to the California Bar in 2013.
Cernovich started as a self-help writer. Cernovich endorses an anti-feminist “gorilla mindset” for men interested in meeting and dating women.
Cernovich is a key figure in the QAnon conspiracy that claimed Hilary Clinton was involved in a vast pedophile ring.
Cernovich is well known for trolling and no longer identifies with the alt-right, saying it is “too obsessed with gossip and drama for my tastes.”
Cernovich and second spouse Shauna announced their fourth child in 2023.
Anti-transgender activism
Cernovich once reportedly made a list of countries with the most attractive transgender women.
Cernovich also shares consistently negative news stories about transgender people.
References
Stack, Liam (April 5, 2017). Who Is Mike Cernovich? A Guide.New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/mike-cernovich-bio-who.html
Cernovich, Mike (August 31, 2016). Is Mike Cernovich Part of the Alt-Right?Danger & Play https://www.dangerandplay.com/2016/08/31/is-mike-cernovich-part-of-the-alt-right/
Marantz, Andrew (October 24, 2016). Trolls for Trump.The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/trolls-for-trump
Nicholas Christakis is an American physician and academic. Christakis is considered by some to be part of the intellectual dark web.
Anti-transgender statements
In 2020, Christakis ascribed the increase in trans adolescents seeking healthcare as “social construction of medical conditions.”
On February 8, 2022, Christakis responded to a Twitter post on social contagion by anti-trans extremist Mia Hughes, saying:
I think there is a large element of social contagion with respect to transgenderism. It reminds me of previous examples including not just bulimia but also peanut allergies and (mild) autism. But this explosion of cases will likely ultimately be seen as a failure of the medical system, not a victory â a failure to clearly demarcate the small core of people for whom surgery & hormones are indicated, & the large number of others for whom other modalities are preferable.
Matt Christiansen is an American media personality and anti-transgender activist. Christiansen is associated with the intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right.
Background
Matthew “Matt” Christiansen was born on October 18, 1987 and resides in Bozeman, Montana.
Christiansen frequently discusses political issues on YouTube.
References
Olson, Warren (June 18, 2021). The Orwellian Function of Transgender Ideology.Matt Christiansen Media https://www.mattchristiansenmedia.com/outback-observer/2021/6/17/the-orwellian-function-of-transgender-ideology
Media
Matt Christiansen (December 10, 2015). Transgender, Transage, and Transreason | Meet Me on Mars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBGZq7XCBOE
Sam Harris is an American writer, podcaster, and anti-transgender activist. Harris is a key figure in the intellectual dark web (IDW), described as a gateway to the far right. In 2020, Harris disavowed the IDW, and in 2021 Harris symbolically returned the “imaginary membership card to this imaginary organization.”
Background
Samuel Benjamin Harris was born on April 9, 1967 in Los Angeles, California to parents who were both in entertainment. Harris left Stanford after an experience with MDMA and spent about a decade learning spiritual practices in India and Nepal. Harris returned and completed a bachelor’s degree in 2000. Harris earned a doctorate from UCLA in 2009.
Harris published the book The End of Faith in 2004. harris has gone on to be a critic of religion, especially Islam. Harris has debated many people on religion, including Rick Warren, Deepak Chopra, Jean Houston, William Lane Craig, and Reza Aslan. Harris has also appeared in debated on religion with anti-trans extremists Andrew Sullivan, Jordan Peterson, and Michael Shermer.
Harris and spouse Annaka Gorton have two children.
Podcast
Harris began the podcast Waking Up in 2013, later renamed Making Sense.
Peter M. Clarke was born in August 1985 in Port Angeles, Washington. Clarke earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University in 2007 and a law degree from University of the Pacific in 2010.
Clarke wrote for Reputation.com, LegalMatch, FindLaw, Indiegogo, and Judicial Council of California. Clarke wrote the books Politicians Are Superheroes and The Singularity Survival Guide. Clarke has also written for Areo Magazine, The Humanist, The American Spectator, Quillette, and Free Inquiry Magazine. Clarke founded Jokes Literary Review.
Clarke is based in Sacramento, California.
Anti-trans activism
Clarke wrote a sympathetic profile of anti-trans extremist Michael Shellenberger, part of a sustained effort by a faction of anti-trans activists critical of progressivism.
Clarke wrote a sympathetic profile of anti-trans extremist Jesse Singal after a panel featuring Destiny, Vaush, and Emma Vigeland discussed Singal’s extensive anti-transgender activism:
To be clear, if Singal did have horribly offensive views about trans people or gender dysphoria, then, of course, the Seder-Vigeland position would be correctâor, at least, defensible. Some people are, unfortunately, transphobic in the genuine sense of the term. But Singal is not. It is certainly possible to disagree with Singalâs position. But it is not possible to find an ounce of bigotry in his writing. He is, in this respect, a âgood liberal.â
If someone is biologically male, they canât change to biologically female. The medical interventions are crude, often harmful, and not incredibly successful right now. The culture war on this topic, in my view, would be more civil if identity was less important to people.
Candice Hellen Brown Elliott is a retired American engineer and âautogynephiliaâ activist. Elliott is a self-proclaimed âhomosexual transsexualâ and maintains two websites that promote the controversial sexualized taxonomy of transgender women created by Ray Blanchard:
On the Science of Changing Sex (sillyolme.wordpress.com)
Elliott’s pen names and online handles include:
Kay Brown
Cloudy
Sillyolme
Seaby
Glowing SunBear
DisplayGeek
Biography
Elliott was born June 6, 1957, grew up in California, and transitioned in the late 1970s at the Stanford gender clinic after coming out to friends in school.
I came out to my friends at school slowly, first to my girlfriend. She was very supportive at first, but later tried to convert me to Christianity and to make me âstop sinning.â
Elliott became involved in music and activism after meeting Sandy Stone at a gender clinic event:
She was tall, with long black hair, turning gray. I was attracted to her as my idealized image of a quietly self-confident, friendly, humorous, gentle, strong woman. I wanted and still want to be like her.
In 1976 Elliott met Christine Jorgensen at an event. In 1978 Elliott decided to move to Los Angeles, where Stone was working as a recording engineer. During the summer of 1979, Elliott said, “I met a transsexual who would become my best friend, point of stability, and sister, Joy Diane Shaffer.”
Historian Zagria Cowan’s profile of Shaffer includes an image of Elliott and Shaffer together. Elliott now claims Shaffer has “autogynephilia.”
Elliott was involved in several activist initiatives, including co-founding ACLU of Southern Californiaâs first Transsexual Rights Committee, led by Sister Mary Elizabeth, in 1980. Elliott worked with former Los Angeles police officer Carol Katz in an organization called The Group.
By 1986, Elliott had completed a bachelor’s degree and was working as an engineer in Silicon Valley. Elliott attended women’s music events and gatherings of Pagan and Wiccan adherents.
By the mid-1990s, Elliott was living in Portland, Oregon with trans lover Kier Salmon. The two hoped to adopt a child together.
Elliott also maintained a website on trans history from 1999 to around 2006.
In the 1990s, Elliott became a well-known figure in the field of electronic display screens, holding dozens of patents and winning the Otto Schade Prize in 2014. Elliott worked at several firms before founding Clairvoyante in 2000. That start-up created and developed PenTile technology and was acquired by Samsung in 2008. After the sale, Elliott began getting involved in trans activism again.
In March 2008, Elliott sent me a submission for this site with advice for young transitioners. Elliott also shared some thoughts at the time on Blanchardâs taxonomy and its two main promoters, J. Michael Bailey and Anne Lawrence (abbreviated BBL below):
So⊠according to Bailey, since Iâm an androphilic early transitioner who at age 18 passed more easily as a girl than a boy, even before HRT, I would make a natural prostitute? Iâve had this recurring daydream that past few weeks of meeting him at some conference and posing two life histories, one of a 23 year old trannie just getting surgery, who hopes to be a wife and mother someday, and one a 50 year old trannie who is CEO of a high tech Silicon Valley company⊠and hear him make a fool of himself explaining that the one is a flamboyant promiscuous, âhomosexualâ, and the other is a âparaphilicâ and likely to be hopelessly mannish⊠and have him get egg on his face when he learns that they are both the same person⊠ME!
My take on the whole BBL hypothesis, is that it does not rise to the level of theory. It has been poorly measured. My Goddess! Have you read Blanchardâs instrumentâs questions? It seems *designed* to give false signals. His interpretation of the raw data is stretched, in fact, he ignores what looks like a progression from gynophilia to androphilia in the data, rather than a clear cut clustering of responses between those he labeled androphilic vs. bi, asexual, and gynophilic. Further, it has never been corroborated by any other researcher, though Anne did create her own weakly designed instrument, which I personally answered, with notations to improve it, back in 1998.
Sometime later that year, Elliott reconsidered, eventually becoming one of the most prominent âautogynephiliaâ activists.
Elliott later claimed this letter to me is a “total fabrication,” so I have taken the unusual step of publishing our full 2008 correspondence.
âThe Invisible Transsexualâ
In late 2008, Elliott posted an essay under the pseudonym âCloudyâ on transkids.us. It supports a controversial two-type taxonomy of trans women that reduces their motivations to sexuality:
âHomosexual transsexual,â gay males who transition to indulge their fetish for sex with straight men.
âHon-homosexual transsexual,â straight males who transition to indulge their fetish for their feminized selves (caused by the disease âautogynephilia,â created in 1989).
Elliott often abbreviates these two types as âHSTSâ and âAGP.â
This taxonomy appeals to two small subgroups of transgender people:
People who used to be called ânon-transsexualâ or âpseudotranssexualâ but self-identify as transsexual.
People who would be considered ânon-homosexualâ by proponents of this term but self-identify as âhomosexual transsexual.â
Elliott is part of the second subgroup. In fact, every person involved in the site transkids.us where this essay first appeared has also turned out to be from the second subgroup when their true identities were confirmed.
Trans supporters of this taxonomy believe it improves their social standing, because these terms create a false hierarchy, from best to worst:
intersex
âhomosexual transsexualâ (formerly called âprimaryâ or âtrueâ transsexual)
ânon-homosexual transsexualâ
âpseudotranssexualâ
In this essay, Elliott accuses a number of notable trans women of being autogynephiles trying to take âcontrol of HSTS narratives and visibilityâ:
Lili Elbe
Christine Jorgensen
Roberta Cowell
Jan Morris
Canary Conn
Jennifer Boylan
Deirdre McCloskey
Julia Serano
Proponents of the term âhomosexual transsexualâ claim its hallmarks include âeffortless femininityâ and occupations like hairstylist, beautician, âfemale impersonator,â lingerie model, or prostitute. They claim hallmarks of a ânon-homosexual transsexualâ include: computer programmer, businessman, scientist, and engineer.
Perhaps Candice Brown Elliott will come to realize how these writings damage Elliott’s own credibility in addition to damaging the community by lending credence to this oppressive nonsense. These pathologizers actively seek out these attention-craving eccentrics and exploit them as long as possible.
A few days after this page went live in 2010, Elliott kicked out roommate Susan Alexandria. The two had been pals since Alexandria was 15.
Alexandria then decided to steal one of Candice Brown Elliottâs airplanes and fly it until running out of fuel in the dark, ditching it in a field in extreme northeast California. Alexandria then walked to a hotel and was arrested there the next morning.
van Diggelen, Alison R.G. (October 9, 2005). Bright light at Cupertinoâs Clairvoyante.Silicon Valley Business Journal https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/10/10/smallb1.html
Callahan, Mary (March 12, 2010). Santa Rosa woman arrested in airplane theft.Santa Rosa Press Democrat. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2241061-181/santa-rosa-woman-arrested-in
Brown, Candice Hellen (Spring 1995). Heras. TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism, Issue 8, pp. 49 ff. https://archive.org/details/transsistersjou1995unse_0/page/49/mode/1up
Debunking Kay Brown and Blanchardianism. A critical approach to âautogynephilia.â
Margaret E. “Margie” Nichols Jacobson (born 1947) is an American psychologist and sex therapist who specializes in LGBTQ+ clients, “including kink and consensual nonmonogamy (swinging, polyamory, etc.).”
Background
Nichols attended Radcliffe College before earning a Bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1970. She earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1981 and is a licensed therapist in New Jersey. She did post-doctoral work in sex therapy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, now part of Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences.
In 1983 Nichols founded the Institute for Personal Growth. In 1985, she was a founder and the first director of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation. She became a diplomate of the American Board of Sexology in 1985.
In 2003 she became and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and became a Certified Sex Therapy Supervisor in 2011.
Review of Alice Dreger
In 2008, Nichols published a scathing commentary on a paper by Alice Dreger. Her review describes and contextualizes Dreger’s activism within the history of disease models of gender identity and expression.
Review of Anne Lawrence
In 2013, Nichols published a review of Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism, a book by Anne Lawrence. The review describes and contextualizes Lawrence’s activism within the history of disease models of gender identity and expression.
References
Nichols M (2008). Dreger on the Bailey Controversy: Lost in the Drama, Missing the Big Picture. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2008 Jun;37(3):476-80; discussion 505-10. [PDF] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9329-x
Nichols M (2013). A Review of âMen Trapped in Men’s Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism.â Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 40:1:71-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2013.854559
