Malcolm Gladwell said the quiet part out loud.
Obviously, a lot of people have been in the same boat–having to choose between social acceptability and telling the truth, and when faced with such a choice, they almost always choose the former over the latter.
Gladwell has been in a uniquely powerful position–he is one of the most celebrated intellectuals of our age, whether he deserves it or not. I happen to think that the answer to that is both “yes” and “no.” He has been an effective popularizer of interesting ideas, which is a valuable service; he has also been seen as a man whose answers should be taken as gospel, which is a terrible thing.
In any case, he had the capacity to break through to the midwit crowd in a way that few others could–a known liberal, a “thought leader,” and a guy with access to The Best™ media outlets, yet he consciously decided to say things he knew were not true under social pressure.
🚨 Malcolm Gladwell says “trans athletes have no place in the female category.”
He admits he was cowed into saying that it was ok.
He knows it’s not.
He was bullied into it and he’s ashamed that he gave in.
Good for him. Mad props. pic.twitter.com/GGm1oCiNbv
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) September 2, 2025
His story has been duplicated countless times, although for most people, the decision to go along with the fiction that men can be women was made subconsciously rather than as a conscious decision. Most nice liberals accepted the absurdity that men can be women, that puberty blockers were totally safe, and that confused children should be the ultimate authority over their “bodily autonomy” because they were basically told that this was the Moral™ decision.
Unlike Gladwell, the “thought leader,” they accepted the opinion assigned to them without question. They probably had private doubts, but went along with the crowd. They accepted that the Emperor’s clothes really were splendid under social pressure, and felt they genuinely should because Pravda told them to.
Our latest podcast: Malcolm Gladwell opens up about sport, covering topics including:
– Trans eligibility
– Youth sport & the compression of childhood
– Mistakes & misunderstandings on talent
– Fixing Track & Fieldhttps://t.co/PZEaq4lYD9Also on YouTube: https://t.co/RJBOhdNAqW
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) September 2, 2025
It was the same with COVID, Biden’s mental capacity, the various Trump hoaxes, and the current hysteria over deportations. Does anybody believe that, had Biden’s administration chosen to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, anybody would even have heard of him? An opinion was assigned to them, and they went along.
Smarter people, like Gladwell, are intelligent enough to know that the “consensus” was suspect, but they have gone along because the social pressure to conform has been enormous. The same is obviously true with climate change and, most certainly, most commonly accepted opinions.
They are not arrived at through thought, but through absorption for most people. The smarter set either know that the “consensus” is suspect or they accept it as the consensus of people who are more familiar with an issue. That is why The Science™ is so important–it gives the midwits and relatively smart people permission to give in to the social pressure without feeling too bad about it.
It’s dispiriting to know that vast numbers of people think what they are told to think; it’s even more dispiriting to know that intelligent people will buckle to the social pressure to conform, even when it means sacrificing children to the woke gods.
COVID should have served as a warning signal, but what we learned during and after the COVID hysteria is that few people “wake up,” and even fewer people pay a price for having perpetrated a hoax.
When the alphabet ideology fever ultimately breaks, you can be sure that few, if any, people will pay a price for stoking a hysteria. People like you and me will be enraged that Fauci and company have gotten away with the fraud, but get away with it they will.
At least Gladwell apologized and feels shame. That is a start.
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Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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