Sorry in advance, everyone, I got sucked into a dark hole and I’ve got to purge myself onto you. Somehow, I stumbled onto this unsavory character, Edward Dutton, who calls himself the “Jolly Heretic” — he’s not very jolly, and he seems to have embraced good ol’ mainstream 19th century pseudoscientific racism, so he’s not very heretical, either. Here’s a brief bio:
Edward Dutton is a prolific vlogger and author whose books have been published by Arktos Media, a Budapest-based white nationalist publishing house, and Richard Spencer’s Washington Summit Publishers. Dutton is listed as part of the “Editorial Circle” for Spencer’s online publication Radix Journal. He also sits on the advisory board of Mankind Quarterly, a pseudo-academic journal that traffics in scientific racism.
Unsurprisingly Dutton was denounced as a “white supremacist” in an op-ed for The Gaudie, the student newspaper of Dutton’s alma mater Aberdeen University, over his racist rants and associations with antisemites and white nationalists. Indeed, Dutton has made appearances on multiple white nationalist shows where he’s claimed white people have higher IQs than nonwhites and fretted over declining white birthrates.
In a jovial discussion of racial differences during a Dec. 2020 livestream with Richard Spencer, Dutton claimed that “white-Black” marriages are the “least likely.” He explained that “Black females are penalized because they are not particularly feminine looking,” but that “it’s Asian women that of course everyone wants” because they “have these child-like features” which are a “sign of good genes.”
Of course he’s on YouTube. He has over 50,000 subscribers.
He calls himself “Professor” Dutton, which was hard to believe — what legitimate university would hire someone this disreputable? Apparently, though, he actually is an adjunct professor of the Anthropology of Religion and Finnish Culture at Oulu University in Finland, and is also a professor of evolutionary psychology at Asbiro University in Łódź, Poland. How he got these appointments is a mystery, but I’ll just guess that there are racists lurking in all the odd corners of academia, and he got these presumably nominal appointments through friends in very low places.
What also got my interest is that this screamingly vile racist pig not only has a successful YouTube channel, and some peculiar academic appointments, but has also cultivated associations with transphobes. It’s so amazingly repellent that I couldn’t look away. Would you believe Ray Blanchard appeared on Dutton’s channel? I’d never heard of Dutton before, but Blanchard…there’s a guy beloved by transphobes, and also possessing genuine credentials as a professor at the University of Toronto. Why would he agree to appear with a known white supremacist and all-around repugnant racist? What’s the connection?
During the Feb. 25, 2021 livestream Blanchard promoted his claim that trans women — whom he repeatedly referred to as “biological males” — can be divided into two basic categories.
The first category, Blanchard said, consists of trans women who “could be thought of as just extremely effeminate homosexual males who went the extra step to conclude that they actually are women, and that they want to be living as women.” He further described them as “drag queens who take their work seriously.”
The second category, according to Blanchard, is made up of people who begin as “fetishistic crossdressers” who, at a young age, engage in “masturbatory activities around women’s clothes,” a practice which “gradually gives rise to a more generalized sense of being … women.”
Blanchard coined the term “autogynephilia” to describe this latter category, though it is not widely accepted as a reason for why trans women experience gender dysphoria or choose to transition.
So that’s why Blanchard was willing to hang out with a flaming racist: it was an opportunity to peddle his bogus, discredited ‘theory’ of autogynephilia to a a gullible, biased host who’d happily let him babble, and would nod in agreement. I’d say “ugh”, but I guess it’s good that slime attracts slime and make each other even more disgusting.
Also bizarre was this little interlude:
Later in the livestream Blanchard defended asking transgender people invasive questions about their genitals.
“As far as them being touchy about people asking questions about their genitals, all I can say is there are many shibboleths around that transsexuals impose because they have a fragile story that they want maintained,” Blanchard said. “And if people ask too many pointed questions it becomes threatening.”
Blanchard told Dutton that he had seen “many, many times the outrage you’re describing when people wonder what genitals a transsexual has,” and that “their rant is always ‘How dare you wonder what my genitals are.’”
He added, “In reality, 99.99% of normal, straight normies who meet a transsexual are wondering ‘Gee, what’s between their legs?’ That’s what’s going on in the head of most people. But transsexuals don’t want this question raised, and so they act as if it’s some gross breach of etiquette that only you and your stupidity were ignorant of.”
I, a straight normie, must be in the elite 0.01% because no, that’s not going on in my head. I also don’t ponder the genitals of cis people I meet. I particularly don’t quiz anyone, cis or trans, about the appearance of their genitals, and would consider it a gross breach of etiquette if you were to start asking about mine. That’s not mere prudishness: my interactions with almost every other person on the planet simply don’t involve genitals, so it’s an irrelevant concern, and obsessing over them is an alarming social signal. So why is Ray Blanchard focusing on them?
Is it because he’s a perverse creep?
He also can’t be all that bright. He apparently didn’t even consider the optics of so blatantly merging his transphobic cause with far-right racism. I do wonder if all the JK Rowling fans out there are at all perturbed by this association, or if they’re just all going to coalesce into a whirlwind of indiscriminate hate?
I believe that he’s confused a normal canine greeting with human discourse.
Are you sure he isn’t just passing as a human?
Asbiro University, the only university where all tutors are businessmen.
So says THEIR website.
Not what actual academics consider a real university. Even in Poland or any other country.
Meanwhile, in Finland, I think that it is also just as in the USA, where adjunct or visiting for a professor can mean a dude was hired at least one semester, to teach at least one course, with no guarantee of a second course or second term. But the term also applies to some people granted permission to use their library. It’s better than just having a library card. Woo-Hoo!
The Asbiro CLUB network of entrepreneurs has a coordinator person in a dozen or more cities in Poland, including one in Łódź. I presume it is real because it has its own Facebook group page.
So far, no evidence yet that the Jolly Heretic has had a real job.
If I was gay, straight, or transgender, I, too, would be outraged if someone interrogated me about my genitals.
Oulu University in Finland Is a science university that is almost as old as PZ, But they’ve been teaching humanities since 1965. But I guess they still haven’t needed any full-time evolutionary psychologist entrepreneur religion culture professors yet. Too bad for the Jolly one.
Any thoughts on the birth order / older brothers claim Blanchard makes about gay men? The wiki page is clearly edited by him or an acolyte.
My wife and I are both trans, and Blanchard is a known quantity in our life because he has done so much harm to our community. His coining the term autogynephilia has longstanding effects. When my wife started her transition, she needed a therapist to sign off on getting on estrogen. The first therapist she talked to was a Blanchard disciple and went all-in on the autogynephilia disaster. It was awful for my wife.
It does not shock me in the slightest he hangs with racists. I find the Venn diagram for transphobia and racism has an enormous overlap.
I just read about Arktos in Ronald Beiner’s Dangerous Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Return of the Far Right (which I highly recommend).
:(
@6 there’s this suggesting Blanchard is skewing the data and is working to spin press and wiki.
https://www2.psy.uq.edu.au/~uqbziets/Zietsch%202017%20Reasons%20for%20caution%20about%20the%20fraternal%20birth%20order%20effect(1).pdf
No doubt.
There would also be an enormous overlap with misogyny, fundie xianity, and in the USA, the GOP and Donald Trump.
It’s polykookery and crank magnetism.
The right wingnut lunatic fringes are one stop package deals.
This guy is an obvious creep and needs psychological help.
He also needs to be kept away from normal people.
I’m surprised he isn’t in jail already as a sex offender.
“salacious” — (adj.) having or conveying undue or inappropriate interest in sexual matters
These folks probably don’t realize how much their obsessions reveal about themselves.
Venn diagrams…. I am sure the venn diagrams in the heads of far-right people show a huge overlap between atheists and satanists (sark).
Also, zee joos. If this guy hangs out with Arktos publishing house I can almost guarantee he thinks ze. Ijoos are behind (insert bad stuff of choice).
wzrd1 that was perfect!
The only response I can come up with is “Eeewwww!?!”
PZ, I’m worried about you. I don’t think it’s healthy when your lovely wife goes away. Have you thought of taking up a hobby? Exposing oneself to crap like this is masochistic. These guys fall into the category of people I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire.
Spiders are my hobby, and some people seem to think that’s unhealthy, too.
He looks more creepy than “jolly”. I definitely wouldn’t sit on his lap and ask for a present, and I won’t even try to picture his belly shaking like “a bowlful of jelly” when he laughs. (OK, now maybe I should read the rest of the post. This called a “hot take”, no?)
me@17 OK, I read it and I’ll just add that I am also not interested in knowing what’s between his legs. There’s a reason they call them private parts.
The last time I spent any time looking and talking about what was between some stranger’s legs it was a horse.
Finnish universities do indeed grant nominal titles for “adjunct professor”, which in Finnish context is a fancy translation for dosentti, or docent, meaning simply recognition as an accomplished researcher. The title can be granted for visiting lecturers, and it gives you some privileges with regard to possible future teaching and supervision at the university.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docent
Thanks, lumipuna. That’s kind of what I expected, that it was a purely honorary title that doesn’t grant the recipient any funding or significant role in the university. Interesting that it is irrevocable…they may come to regret that if more racist frauds take advantage of it.
@7
Stumbling on Blanchard’s nonsense as an egg fucked me right up. Took me years to move past it and come out
He looks like Jigsaw.
But that’s an insult both to the character, who had an intense bus definitive moral code, and to Tobin Bell, who just plays the part.
Looks like University of Oulu already regrets granting the docentship to Edward Dutton. They had an investigation on research ethics on him in 2016, and found him guilty of plagiarism. Dutton claimed that the university had no jurisdiction because he published the article independently, but apparently he also used the name of the university in the article.
Also, there’s this tweet from the university: https://twitter.com/unioulu/status/1176446514803159045
Translated: Edward Dutton does not work or teach for the university. It is not possible to revoke a docentship according to current legislation, however.