I like that interview better than I expected from the way that it started out, with Hankinson being paranoid that Glinner would use the interview as material "for his next book". Is he even writing one?
It was neither a hit-piece nor a hagiography and Hankinson was honest about having some of his misconceptions dispelled, eg. his assumption that Glinner was at home at night playing online games and doom-scrolling social media into the early hours when he was actually out at a Casino playing poker!
I did get weary of was what seemed to be Hankinson's "sealioning", an undercurrent of "concern" that Glinner had just not STFU by now.
He repeatedly challenges Glinner with negative takes but Glinner comes out of this well because he is not defensive and does not attack in return. It made me think of the comments by the judge in the recent court case about his honesty and integrity:
"Whilst robust in his views, I did not find that the defendant was seeking to mislead the court and appeared to be a generally frank and honest witness."
By contrast, Hankinson's "balanced" approach seems to be summed up pretty well by himself:
"My income depends on people who don’t know me very well giving me work; what if they don’t like what I think?"
Hankinson said he aimed to be transparent and there were some revealing snippets:
"But can’t you just be nicer, Graham?
Some don’t like what he’s fighting for; others don’t like how he fights. I remember not liking his tweets about New Zealander Laurel Hubbard, who competed in women’s weightlifting at the Olympics in 2021. I thought Hubbard was wrong to enter the competition, but all the pile-on felt far too much for an individual to bear.
“They’re a public figure during the Olympics,” says Linehan now.
Yeah, I mutter.
“That’s weak,” he replies. “This is a man who stole medals from Indigenous women from New Zealand. The current [Masters] world record is held by him, not by a fucking Indigenous woman. They trained their whole lives to do that stuff and he …”
"In 2019, the BBC ran a story about a rugby player who transitioned from a man to a trans woman in their 30s. I couldn’t understand how someone who had lived as an adult man – who knew how it feels to be bigger and stronger than almost all the women around you – could suddenly decide it was OK to play rugby against women.
A lot of us were still trying to work out where we stood back then, how to cause the least anguish to the fewest people. I remember discussing that story with a close friend, who said they didn’t see a problem with it, but I knew this person well, and I didn’t believe they believed what they were saying. I remember it made me feel completely alone. I ask Linehan if that’s what he’s experienced, but multiplied. “Oh, my God,” he says. “Absolutely.”
However, I liked the article more for what I learned from it about Glinner rather than what I learned about Hankinson.
I love the ending! 😂
“I’m very happy to be here,” he adds. “It’s so calming. It’s so quiet. There’s no drama of any sort.” After finishing his coffee, he wanders off into the sunshine. A lot of people might assess that life and think: “I’ll stop now.” But he won’t.
A few hours later, he sends me an example of how he’s been using AI. It’s a “hidden role deduction” game he’s working on. At the top is the prompt he put into ChatGPT: “You are five blind lesbian adventurers out for a good night out. Slaying dragons and whatnot. But one of your number is a hulking great troll pretending to be a woman. Find the troll lesbian and then devise an amusing punishment without giving him an erection.”
😂