This, coupled with the pandemic, has made me more dependent on the internet to heal, find solidarity, and build affirming community. When I take breaks from it, I feel myself slip back into gender dysphoria, lost in my own negative thoughts about myself. Being around others helps who accept me not only escape those negative thoughts, but replace them with self-acceptance.

Imagine being this dependent on validation from others. Only reason why anyone would be is if they know what they believe in isn't actually true.

But with all of that affirmation has also come unwanted communication. In the past nine months, I’ve experienced blatant sexism, overt transphobia, unwanted sexual advances from trans chasers, and numerous dogpilings on Twitter from mobs of strangers when I demand basic things like equal treatment under the law. I get dozens of emails that deadname me every day, and messages from strangers invasively asking about my past and my body. There’s a good chance that by the end of each day, I’ll have shared a bit of solidarity with other trans people and allies, but I’ll also feel ignored, attacked, and defeated by bullies. Many days end in tears.

Yikes. Imagine being this fragile.

My news feed will be full of informative, insightful journalism about social justice, but also conservative news stories, which thoughtlessly question the need for social change.

Note how he makes a distinction between "informative, insightful journalism" and "conservative news stories." Also, how dare anyone "thoughtlessly question" the obviously infallible theory of social justice. Adopt my ideology, bigot.

All of these threats have required me to be far more thoughtful about my information filtering. If I have to be on the road, I’m more mindful about which stores I go to and which towns I travel through. On the internet, I studiously block bullies on Twitter, and defriend transphobic, homophobic family members on Facebook. I dislike stories from news sources that seem to derive from the premise of my inhumanity. I am, in essence, constructing a very carefully designed filter bubble—one that affirms me, while preventing harm.

A person spiraling down into neurosis and paranoia in real-time. Amazing. What a horrible way to live. No wonder TRAs are always so angry.

People in my trans community have written me advice on how to manage the psychological assault that comes from being out as trans online.

If he was a "normal woman," why not keep that information hidden in certain places? Dating and such is one thing, but if you go on a forum about some band or chat on Discord, there's really no pressing reason to disclose you're trans. Also, way to go attacking assault victims by equating someone criticizing you on the internet to an act of violence.

But neither of these positions, or the mainstream commentary on them, address the need for speech to be minimally safe and humane. My filter bubble, and more broadly, my resistance to debate about civil rights and my aggressive ostracizing of those who deny them, isn’t about limiting free speech. It’s about not crying every night, not hating myself, and not feeling safe in public, while still being able to engage with my communities.

Well, I'm glad somebody at least admits it. That these are narcissistic, mentally ill men who demand that literally the entire world walk on eggshells just to avoid their mental disturbances from flaring up too much.

Moreover, what about my speech? Constant debate about whether I deserve equal rights, even for the most basic things, like having my name used in academic publications or having the right to use a bathroom safely, chills my speech.

See, trans people just want basic rights. Like being given access to the other sex's bathrooms. Nevermind those people in africa who don't have access to clean water. This right here are real problems.

Is it any coincidence that most people asking for open public discourse without consequences are white, cis men, who rarely suffer such harms? What possible harm could come to them from debate, aside from public censuring?

Nice how he just ignores all the women and minority people who call for an end to cancel culture. And what they have to deal with isn't just "public censuring" - unless that's another leftist orwellianism standing for them having their entire careers destroyed and prevented from ever being given work again and flooded with death threats and sometimes physical attacks as well and constant character assassination through lies.

In extremely rare circumstances, they might lose their job and their platform

"Extremely rare" my butt.

but that won’t stop them from getting another.

...Which the leftists then want gone as well.

Anyone that faces some kind of oppression or exclusion in our racial, gender, class, and ability hierarchies who speaks up to defend themselves from unwanted communication faces emotional, existential, sometimes mortal risks.

Funny. Right now it seems like it's mostly far-left activists who are the ones killing people (including black men.)

To some—my republican cousins, my evangelical uncles, the entirety of the conservative United States—I am a snowflake. A weak, emotional mess, too easily triggered by words, and proof that the progressive left are a bunch of sensitive, entitled socialists. What they see, from their balcony above, is someone who refuses to take responsibility for their own suffering and plight, and lazily demands that others change in order to appease their weak constitution. When they ask what would Jesus do, their apparent answer is to spit upon me, pity me, refuse to lend a hand, call me names, and reject my humanity and demand for equal treatment. Of course, what they cannot see, or refuse to see, is that I don’t have the power to stop them. Only they have that power, but they refuse to use it, because doing so would mean taking responsibility for my suffering, and they’re too weak and too selfish to take on that burden.

"I refuse to take responsibility for my life... and that's entirely your fault." Amazing.

filter bubbles are a necessary refuge. I will use them to isolate myself from harm when I need to. I will block and report communication from people who share hate speech. That will have the unfortunate effect of excluding me from debate that I actually want to participate in, and sheltering me from opinions that I’d like to hear. It will limit my civic and scholarly participation, and sever me from my communities and their support. But like any refuge, my filter bubble will not be a permanent home. I will use it to stop crying, to heal, to be reassured by friends and family, and to let my heart stop racing. When I’m ready, I will come out of my filter bubble, ready to self-advocate again, reminding myself that most of the debates that harm me are not motivated by something as mundane as preserving free speech, but rather by my erasure. And I will brace myself, knowing that even those debates that come from good faith will demand that I put my pain on the table for all to see and discuss, before they are ever to be convinced of my humanity.

This is why I'm honestly not really afraid of a leftist revolution. These people are so fragile, any actual conflict would just leave them a quivering slobbering mess on the floor.