Recently @crookedfootball (Chris Bertram) tweeted:

He might be referring to me, but I don’t think so: my situation is different from what he describes.

It’s not that I “didn’t like [@crookedfootball] moderating comments at Crooked Timber once”, it’s that (as described earlier here): “[he] deleted my comments, gave an implausible motivation for doing do, mischaracterized what I had said, and then suppressed any further response from me.” So that’s different from the person he describes.

And, I am not that poor soul “obsessed with gender issues”: while I do tweet in some threads of his concerning trans issues, this is partly because there’s little else that he tweets that engages me, and partly because he banned me from commenting on crookedtimber after I answered some questions about his views on trans issues, by linking to his public statements. So that’s different too.

So his description doesn’t fit me; I hope he finds this demon who stalks him. Although: as well as sometimes commenting on trans issues, I occasionally send mild insults his way, e..g. (paraphrasing): “Adolph Reed is “dogmatic and sectarian”? No, you’re dogmatic and sectarian”. (Well, maybe that was a little too harsh. Still, truth is defense here.)

But with Maria Farrell, I’m deeply sympathetic to his plight, and all who receive vicious harassment; in his case, it sounds like, the harassment of polite disagreement. I know @crookedfootball joins me in sympathizing with, for example, Kathleen Stock or J. K. Rowling, even if their situations pale in comparison to his, with the mild chastisement they have received from @crookedfootball’s gentle-souled confreres.