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The Daily Wire’s New ‘Documentary’ Is Too Transphobic Even for Elon Musk

Corner of a phone with Elon Musk's Twitter profile visible on the screen.

You see them darkening clouds over the internet prairie? You smell that foul stench on the digital wind? There’s a conservative shitstorm a-brewin’, and I’m gonna set down on my porch to watch it and laugh.

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Elon Musk, normally a friend to right-wing pundits, has drawn the ire of Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing (his actual name) for Twitter’s refusal to run an anti-trans “documentary” created by local internet neckbeard Matt Walsh. Twitter backed out of a deal to host the documentary on grounds that it misgendered trans people, a practice which, shockingly, goes against company policy. Boreing lambasted Musk in a Twitter thread, asking why Twitter’s self-appointed king of “free speech” would disallow the documentary from appearing on the site.

The documentary, titled “What Makes A Woman?” is a thinly veiled screed against trans inclusion in society. Journalist Erin Reed jokingly referred to the documentary as being “too anti-trans for Elon Musk” while media reporter Will Sommer foretold of a soon-to-arrive spat between Musk and Ben Shapiro. I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait for the fur to fly.

In a 16-part Twitter thread, Boreing lamented the fact that the documentary, which “fearlessly questions the logic behind a gender ideology movement that has taken aim at women and children,” was somehow labeled hate speech. He began the thread by saying that Twitter canceled a deal to host the documentary for free on the platform due to two instances of misgendering, a word which he placed in presumably mocking quotations.

He then explained that the decision to host the documentary on Twitter would be a celebration of the film’s “already enormous impact.” I’ve literally never heard of it but OK. He cited Twitter’s “recent commitments to free speech” as a green light to go full speed ahead with the transphobic nonsense. According to Boreing, Twitter responded “with enthusiasm” to the proposition—likely the same enthusiasm with which a bank employee responds to a robber while smashing the silent alarm button under the counter. He even said that Twitter intended to promote the transphobic screed to EVERY SINGLE TWITTER USER in the first 10 hours of its release (bullet dodged there). After this agreement was SIGNED, Boreing says Twitter then asked to see the film in order to understand what parts could potentially “trigger” other users. (The whole thing, I’m guessing.)

After Twitter’s people watched the documentary, Boreing claims that they said they could “no longer purchase the package they offered” and would limit the reach of the documentary, labeling it as “hateful conduct.” LOL PSYCH! JOKE’S ON YOU, BOREING.

Boreing then went on to defend the film, saying that the only instances of “misgendering” are when a father misgendered his own child and when a store owner misgendered a trans shopper. That’s enough for me, buddy. Apparently, it was enough for Twitter too. Boreing then “reminded” Twitter that they had removed “misgendering” from their policy while claiming that the term itself “places them on the side of the most radical elements in society – the side opposed to their commitment to free speech.” Oh Jeremy, honey, didn’t your mama ever teach you that “hate speech” and “free speech” ain’t the same?

Don’t go over to team Twitter just yet. Elon Musk personally and publicly responded to Boreing by defending misgendering, saying it “is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws,” as if that were the question at hand. In case there was any doubt, Musk says misgendering on Twitter “is definitely allowed.”

Still, according to Boreing, Twitter gave the team permission to edit the film in order to remove misgendering and release it, even though the central tenants of the film are anti-trans in and of themselves. Boreing then self-owned by declining to edit the film. Twitter told Boreing that the film would fall under the platform’s “speech not reach” policy, and would be shown to followers of the accounts that post it but not promoted.

Boreing then launched into a tirade about the need for conservatives to “debate” the “trans issues” before tagging Musk directly and calling him out. He then lamented the fact that conservatives “aren’t welcome” on Twitter, despite Musk’s recent unbanning of the absolute worst of them. While it’s not known if Musk will allow the documentary to air on Twitter as originally intended, Boreing intends to screen the film with or without the platform’s approval. If it goes the way of past Daily Wire projects, that means basically no one will ever see it, which sounds just fine.

(featured image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

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Jack Doyle
Jack Doyle (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels in crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like... REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They're like that... but with anime. It's starting to get sad.

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