Abigail Shrier is the author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Standing athwart the trans craze shouting stop, she and the book have achieved a certain notoriety. Having been invited to give a speech at Princeton, she was of course canceled, only to emerge off campus before a limited audience of 35. She gave a wonderful speech addressed to young people. The theme, as Bari Weiss aptly summed it up: “[D]on’t buckle in the face of the mobs. Don’t become a sock puppet to your institution or employer or social circle. Tell the truth. Speak your mind. Reclaim your freedom.”
The left seems to have taken over every significant institution in American life, including K-12 education. As a general proposition, it seems to me, the conformity that the left imposes and enforces is unnatural, especially as to teenagers whose natural instincts run in the other direction. Yet the conformity is stifling. Perhaps the urge to get along and belong is more fundamental than the urge to distinguish oneself. I don’t know. It certainly runs against the American grain.
Shrier’s message may or may not be practical, but it is inspirational. She means to light a fire. She deserves to be heard by her intended audience of bright young students.
Bari Weiss invited Shrier to read her speech for a larger audience on Weiss’s podcast. I have embedded it below. Weiss has also posted the text of Shrier’s speech here on her Common Sense site.
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