Dennis Prager Show - "When Harry Met Sally"
Aired: 2021-03-23
Duration: 07:06


=== Claims of Mental Illness in Books (03:09) ===

[00:00:00]  I'm Dennis Prager.
[00:00:01]  I'm speaking to and with Ryan Anderson.
[00:00:07]  And he's president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, among other achievements.
[00:00:15]  His book is When Harry Became Sally, Responding to the Transgender Moment.
[00:00:22]  It's taken off a few weeks ago, simply removed after three years, removed by Amazon.
[00:00:29]  No reason given other than...
[00:00:32]  What was their wording again, Ryan?
[00:00:36]  They falsely claim that the book frames LGBTQ identities as mental illnesses.
[00:00:44]  Are there any books out there that claim that Trump's support was a mental illness?
[00:00:52]  I'm sure there must be.
[00:00:53]  Trump derangement syndrome.
[00:00:55]  No, that's our claim.
[00:00:57]  That's the people who hate Trump.
[00:00:59]  By the way, I wonder if anybody who says Trump derangement syndrome could not have his book sold.
[00:01:06]  That's claimed to be a mental problem or mental illness even.
[00:01:11]  What about all of the psychiatrists who said that he was mentally ill and unfit to be president?
[00:01:18]  Are their books allowed on Amazon?
[00:01:21]  The answer, of course, to all of this is yes.
[00:01:26]  I'll ask you two questions.
[00:01:28]  Why do you think this is the third rail now, the transgender issue?
[00:01:34]  Which is a very large question.
[00:01:37]  And the other is, why did they allow Abigail Schreier's book on this subject to remain on Amazon?
[00:01:46]  Those are great questions.
[00:01:47]  On the latter, I have no idea because I think Abigail's book is outstanding.
[00:01:52]  It's excellent.
[00:01:53]  It doesn't pull its punches.
[00:01:54]  I encourage all of our listeners to go out and buy it.
[00:01:57]  You can't buy it from Target, though.
[00:01:59]  Target removed Abigail's book, put it back for a little bit, and I believe just removed it again a couple weeks ago.
[00:02:06]  I don't know.
[00:02:07]  This would suggest that there's some arbitrariness to Amazon's standards.
[00:02:12]  That's what you were getting at.
[00:02:13]  With your question of, you know, are they going to be doing this to anyone who discusses, you know, mental illness, blah, blah, blah.
[00:02:19]  It just seems like they're being arbitrary.
[00:02:21]  They're being selective.
[00:02:23]  They're doing this in a targeted way to try to take someone down.
[00:02:27]  You know, I now run a think tank that was probably the most prominent organization in D.C. opposing the Equality Act last week.
[00:02:34]  You know, the two people who testified against it was Abigail Schreier and was one of our fellows at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
[00:02:40]  So all sorts of reasons why they might be.
[00:02:43]  To your first question, though, and I think that's really the crucial question here, I think to a certain extent, some of the transgender issues actually, they realize how weak their claims are that they can't win in an open, fair debate that ordinary Americans would see through.

=== Admitting Insecurity (04:12) ===

[00:03:03]  The emperor has no clothes on these issues, and so they have to shut down the debate.
[00:03:09]  So actually, I don't think it's a sign of...
[00:03:12]  You know, them being secure in their position, I actually think it's a way that they're admitting some insecurity, that they don't think they can win if all the facts get out.
[00:03:21]  And so they're trying to, you know, prematurely censor the debate from even happening.
[00:03:27]  I think it's a very good answer.
[00:03:29]  Of all their positions, that might be the most self-consciously weak.
[00:03:37]  That men give birth is not easy.
[00:03:41]  For even a leftist to say with a straight face.
[00:03:46]  That's right.
[00:03:47]  And that high school boys should be winning girls' athletic competitions.
[00:03:53]  These track athletes who have lost.
[00:03:57]  These two high school boys who keep coming in first and second place in all the Connecticut state track championships.
[00:04:03]  Joe the Plumber sees that and knows it's wrong.
[00:04:06]  You don't need to be politically conservative.
[00:04:08]  You don't need to be religiously devoured.
[00:04:11]  To say that something's not fair when obvious biological males are competing against girls and wiping the floor with them.
[00:04:19]  I mean, there's an unfair advantage there.
[00:04:22]  And so I think they just want to ignore it.
[00:04:25]  Censor it.
[00:04:25]  Quiet.
[00:04:26]  Stop raising an issue about this.
[00:04:29]  Where is your book available?
[00:04:32]  The best place to get it is going to be direct from the publisher because the publisher has a backbone.
[00:04:36]  They're not going to cancel me.
[00:04:37]  They're not embarrassed about this.
[00:04:38]  It's Roger Kimball.
[00:04:40]  And Encounter Books.
[00:04:42]  And you probably have had tons of guests from Encounter Books over the years because they publish a lot of really good books.
[00:04:48]  And so I would say go to EncounterBooks.com and then look at what else they carry because you're probably going to find three or four additional titles that you might want to read.
[00:04:58]  Is it still available on Barnes& Noble?
[00:05:02]  It is.
[00:05:03]  So I think Barnes& Noble sees this as a market opportunity.
[00:05:08]  With Amazon canceling the book, So far, they have refused to cancel it.
[00:05:13]  They are out of stock, though.
[00:05:14]  And so, unfortunately, what ended up happening was there was the Streisand effect.
[00:05:18]  As Amazon canceled it, more people wanted to go out and get it.
[00:05:23]  Walmart also sold out, and then they started canceling people's orders.
[00:05:27]  So it may actually end up hurting me with book sales because people who went out to buy the book are now getting their orders canceled from Walmart.
[00:05:35]  That just strikes me as a bad business practice.
[00:05:41]  Asked you why you think that there is such an uproar over this issue in particular.
[00:05:48]  And you mentioned, and I think it's a very intelligent response, they in their hearts know it doesn't make sense.
[00:05:58]  That it's not fair to girls to have biological boys compete against them.
[00:06:03]  They know that.
[00:06:04]  They have to suppress it.
[00:06:06]  I think, so I agree.
[00:06:10]  So I'm asking an additional question.
[00:06:13]  Why do you think they've even taken this position?
[00:06:19]  Ideology.
[00:06:20]  I think most politicians who were in favor of gay marriage didn't think twice about what the T in LGBT even stood for.
[00:06:30]  And now you have Joe Biden saying that transgender rights are the human rights issue of our time and we can't compromise over them.
[00:06:37]  I doubt if you were to sit down with him, you know, privately, confidentially over dinner and say, Joe, tell me about, you know, what is a transgender right?
[00:06:44]  Like, what is this?
[00:06:45]  I doubt he fully knows what it means for medicine, puberty, blocking drugs.
[00:06:50]  Well, listen, your center is in good hands with you.
[00:06:55]  It's a very important book.
[00:06:56]  When Harry became, is it became or becomes?
[00:07:00]  I want to get that right.
[00:07:02]  When Harry became Sally at Encounter Books or Barnes& Noble.