A Reddit thread discussing a post on former New York Times editor Bari Weiss's blog which accused pro-trans students of bullying medical school professors into teaching that biological sex is a social construct has been flagged with an 'unreliable source' warning by a woke moderator.
The moderator of the /r/medicine thread penned the warning after the blog post written by renowned lesbian writer Katie Herzog and published to Weiss's Substack on July 27 went viral.
Herzog's piece asserted that professors at some of America's most prestigious medical schools are being pressured to apologize for using terms such as 'breastfeeding' and 'pregnant women' by students who deem those terms transphobic.
The warning on the /r/medicine thread, however, sought to undermine Herzog's claims by stating that Substack is not a reliable source for medical news and further posts from the site will not be permitted.
'This post has generated a large amount of discussion,' moderator 'am_i_wrong_dude' wrote.
'Some of it is useful, but much of the commentary is airing of political grievances that have little to do with medicine, and includes many infrequent or first time commenters coming to r/medicine to attempt to score political points. This has been the typical experience here with posts from the highly political and dubiously sourced Bari Weiss Substack.'
A Reddit thread discussing a post on former New York Times editor Bari Weiss's blog which accused pro-trans students of bullying medical school professors has been flagged with an 'unreliable source' warning by a woke moderator (pictured)
The blog post written by renowned lesbian writer Katie Herzog (pictured) and published to Weiss's Substack on July 27 asserted that professors at some of America's most prestigious medical schools are being pressured to apologize for using terms such as 'breastfeeding' and 'pregnant women' by students who deem those terms transphobic
The warning adds: 'In general, we prefer mainstream and unbiased sources for news about medicine, and peer-reviewed original sources for claims about medical science. Posts copied from other social media sites and blogs are not allowed. Substack is a platform for paid newsletters, but the content of those newsletters do not go through any formal editorial review as an actual newspaper or mainstream internet news site. If the news about medicine is verifiable and impactful, it will be picked up in mainstream news, and that is the article that should be posted here, not a link to a personal blog or newsletter.'
Going forward, the moderator said that Substack links 'will be considered to be equivalent to a personal blog or non-reddit social media post and are disallowed for a top-line post about medical news.'
Author and podcaster Jesse Singal condemned the moderator's decision in a tweet, writing, 'Katie's article on med-school insanity reached the top of /r/medicine, so a mod there had to step in to add a sticky warning readers against believing it -- after all, it didn't go through the famously rigorous "editorial review" all "mainstream" articles enjoy.'
In a follow up tweet, he added, 'The mods hurriedly introduced a new policy -- no Substack posts allowed anymore. This is how internet communities shut themselves off from threats to their beliefs and become cult like. Very familiar w/this dynamic on the right but it's increasingly taking hold in my backyard.'
Author and podcaster Jesse Singal condemned the moderator's decision in a series of tweets
In her piece Herzog cited an interview with a University of California medical student who claimed that professors at esteemed schools are apologizing for using terms like 'male and female' and 'mother and father'.
The student - identified only as Lauren - said instructors are too scared to acknowledge the existence of two different sexes because it 'can be considered transphobic.'
Singal noted in a another tweet that many of the comments replying to the article on r/medicine were from people sharing similar experiences to Herzog.
He wrote, 'Meanwhile, many of the people replying to the post agree with Herzog that this is a problem and are giving first- and second-hand examples. There's obviously a desire on the part of some to aggressively pretend this isn't happening. Common tactic.'
Reddit user 'TotallyNotMichele', expressed dismay at the kind of language Herzog says professors are forced into using. She wrote, 'As a first time pregnant woman, the idea of potentially ever being referred to as 'birthing person' and not 'mother' really saddens me.'
Another Reddit user, named 'pteradactylitis', said that language sometimes needs to be broad, as much as people want to be inclusive, commenting, 'I'm a non-binary physician who teaches genetics in a highly ranked medical school in a large, liberal coastal city and we were just asked to make these changes. I thought about it and came to the same conclusion you do: overly scientific language often dehumanizes the concepts and separates us from the patients and thereby the work.'
The user continued, 'I give a short disclaimer about how not all XX individuals are women and not all XY individuals are men, but most are and therefore most of my examples will be and this is not done to de-emphasizes the socially constructed gender, which may be different, but for ease of teaching biology and then I move on.'
Meanwhile, another Reddit user said that most trans activists have more on their plate to worry about than language wars like replacing 'mother' with 'birthing person.'
User 'Dr_steven' commented: 'We want good insurance coverage, laws preventing discrimination, and whatnot. The language
