It believes it knows, and can shape, who we are and what we’ll do. Surveillance capitalists believe in determinism, not free will. Transphobes, taking their cue, reject the gender freedom by which some of us are trans.

It messes with their imagined ‘pure’ origin story for their compatriots. Just by existing, we overturn the alleged ‘mythic past.’ We expose its fictions. Fascists don’t want us to exist because we are outside their time.

If you believe oppression is real, Peter Boghossian doesn’t think your academic work is real. Conservatives ask for their feelings to be validated and for “Western Civilization” to be saved through intellectual debate. Can we meta-debate that?

Breakdown of ‘A Heretic’s Manifesto’ (2023) by Brendan O’Neill. They publish screeds without speaking to a single one of us, which goes beyond paternalism and shows an intent to control us in ways that are harmful to us.

They really pack ’em in. They didn’t read my article and don’t care about my perspective. They act as though I’m the one who didn’t do the required reading.

I will tell you how I generated this list. It’s not random. For people who have been bothered by these arguments, who want to see them unpacked, and who will gladly avoid repeating or amplifying them in the future.