Ben Burgis vs. transgender people

Ben Burgis is an American philosopher and anti-transgender activist.

Burgis has been critical of identity politics, claiming the movement deprived the left of appealing to the working class. Burgis also believes that resisting anti-trans bigotry is to “morally condemn” working-class people with whom one should be building alliances.

Background

Benjamin Alan “Ben” Burgis was born on April 7, 1980 and grew up in East Lansing, Michigan. Burgis earned a bachelor’s degree from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids in 2003. Burgis then earned a master’s degree from Western Michigan University in 2005 and a doctorate from University of Miami in 2011.

Burgis has taught at several schools, including Georgia State University, Morehouse College, and as an adjunct professor at Rutgers University.

Aimee Terese, Adam Proctor, and Burgis hosted the podcast Dead Pundits Society.

Anti-trans activism

Burgis has appeared on several conservative and anti-transgender podcasts, including Heterodorx, Blocked and Reported, and The Joe Rogan Experience.

In discussing Joe Rogan’s endorsement of Bernie Sanders, Burgis writes:

Joe Rogan has some views on trans issues that anyone on the Left should oppose. Unfortunately, at least half the country holds similar views. The issue isn’t whether Bernie Sanders should compromise with such positions. As a matter of principle, he can’t and shouldn’t do that. The question is whether the best way to build a movement that appeals to rather than alienating the tens of millions of Americans who have reactionary views on at least some issues is to moralistically condemn them for those views or whether it’s to welcome them in an open and compassionate way while continuing to educate them, and while sticking to our own principles.

Kate Doyle Griffiths contextualizes Burgis’ anti-trans activism within the ethos of Jacobin:

[F]or a minority viewpoint in terms of socialist or even progressive opinion, a kind of
class-first or class-reductionist politics that is aggressively anti-trans and anti-black, pro-natalist
and which entertains even positions (such as the pro-life socialism of columnist Elizabeth
Bruenig) that would seem well beyond the pale of even the most milquetoast leftism has
maintained a surprising resilience despite its general unpopularity, bolstered by the exigencies of
electoral coalition-building and majoritarianism in the context of a second Bernie Sanders
campaign. Initially represented in an editorial, The New Communists by Connor Kilpatrick and
Adaner Usmani that kicked off Jacobin’s 100th anniversary issue on the Russian Revolution, an
aggressive stance towards ‘identity politics’ is a theme that has been repeatedly revisited. Melissa
Naschek’s review of Haider, The Identity Mistake, was another such broadside, and with respect
to trans issues most clearly addressed in Its Good that Joe Rogan Endorsed Bernie. Now We have
to Organize by Michael Brooks and Ben Burgis.

In 2021, Conrad Hamilton reviewed Canceling Comedians While the World Burns. Hamilton summarized Burgis’s view:

Drawing an analogy with the left’s advocacy of transgender rights usually favoured by the right, Burgis applies the structures of formal logic to demonstrate that it’s inconsistent to support transgendered persons while vociferously attacking transracial ones.

While Burgis holds a number of anti-trans positions, Burgis has also been critical of laws banning gender affirming care for minors.

References

Hamilton, Conrad (June 2021). Moralism & Its Uses. &&& https://tripleampersand.org/moralism-and-its-uses/

Griffiths, Kate Doyle (2021). Queer Workerism Against Work: Strategising Transgender Labourers, Social Reproduction & Class Formation. In Gleeson, Jules Joanne; O’Rourke, Elle (editors). Transgender Marxism. Pluto Press, ISBN 9780745341668

Moore, Mallory (August 1, 2023). Identitarian garbage and Cisgender “division.” https://chican3ry.medium.com/identitarian-garbage-and-cisgender-division-c2a4561ac738

Selected publications

Brroks, Michael; Burgis, Ben (January 26, 2020). It’s Good That Joe Rogan Endorsed Bernie. Now We Have to Organize. Jacobin https://jacobin.com/2020/01/its-good-that-joe-rogan-endorsed-bernie-now-we-have-to-organize

Burgis, Ben (October 12, 2021). A Long and Annoyingly Nuanced Take on Dave Chappelle’s New Special. Medium https://benburgis.medium.com/a-long-and-annoyingly-nuanced-take-on-dave-chappelles-new-special-5710009c0ee0

Burgis, Ben (March 3, 2022). Texas Republicans Trample Their Own Principles to Attack Trans Kids. Jacobin https://jacobin.com/2022/03/texas-republicans-transgender-kids-abbott-child-abuse-dfps

Burgis, Ben (2021). Canceling Comedians While the World Burns. Zer0 Books, ISBN 9781789045475

Burgis, Ben (2021). Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters. Zer0 Books, ISBN 978-1789047455

Conrad Bongard Hamilton, Matthew McManus, and Marion Trejo (2020). Myth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson. Zer0 Books, ISBN 9781789045536

Media

Andrea Rovenski (February 25, 2022). SAD: Ben Burgis Goes On Joe Rogan’s Podcast, Fails To Counter Gross Transphobic Conspiracy Theories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-iHP6FJHiQ

Bennie Carollo (August 2, 2023). Picking apart Ben Burgis’ terrible takes on trans people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoPmx4AMUFc

Joe Rogan (March 9, 2022). Joe Rogan and Ben Burgis Talk About Trans Kids Going on Puberty Blockers and Anti-CRT Laws

Heterodorx (November 26, 2022 ). Episode 83: Ask A Marxist! with Ben Burgis. https://www.heterodorx.com/podcast/episode-83-ask-a-marxist-with-ben-burgis/