Adam Buxton

[Puppylucky]

Finding myself unreasonablely sad that Adam Buxton appears to have come out pretty heavily against JKR. In his conversation with Billy Bragg a few weeks ago, he referenced her "misguided views" on trans issues and now on his latest podcast with Natalie Wynn (US trans commentator ) he was eagerly agreeing with her stance that JKR was a dangerous bigot.
I am genuinely surprised that someone who I felt would be more thoughtful and sympathetic to the wider female issues at stake would take this stance.

It's now off the main page of threads but there was an earlier one:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4917170-adam-buxton-podcast-and-billy-bragg

Agree. I’m a big fan of his and find his view that conversation is better than division really helpful and positive to listen to, generally.

But there’s no real discussion or challenge here. Is it a people-pleasing aspect to his character, that he doesn’t want to upset guests? Is it being in the public eye that makes him terrified to express any logic or dissent?

Something quite deliberate-seeming about Bragg followed by NW, but I want to give him the benefit of the doubt because that feels like a more productive way to get through all this. Very frustrating, though.

Oh dear this has snow balled a bit. CounterPoint also libelled KJK on the podcast without any pushback from Adam Buxton. KJK is now asking for a right of reply which seems reasonable but it's all dragging AB into an area that I don't believe he had any real intention of getting involved with. God knows what possessed him to poke this particular bear in the first place!

Yes, I can google (and will) but I've no idea who AB is nor how substantial an audience he has.

I can only, as ever, admire JKR's classiness in mostly ignoring these gadflies and taking a pragmatic approach to their nonsense.

but it's all dragging AB into an area that I don't believe he had any real intention of getting involved with. God knows what possessed him to poke this particular bear in the first place!

The idea that he is clueless in all of this is hard to believe.

Counterpoints isnt someone who does the rounds on uk podcasts, and they arent known for anything else other TRA.

True!

I'm a big fan of Adam Buxton and I think I've listened to all his podcasts. I was pretty disappointed about the back-to-back podcasts which allowed unchallenged views on GC women, esp. given the size of the movement on the Left (which he is a member of). AB let BB say unchallenged that GC would go for gay marriage after trans rights, for example. With no examination, for example, of the GC position that medical intervention in young / troubled / neurodiverse children is quite diffident from two adults in love making a decision.
Anyway...
Upon reflection, AB never really challenges his guests - it's always more of a chat, so pretty consistent there. He also must be interested in listening to different opinions on the trans topic as he discovered Contrapoints whilst listening to "The Witch Trials of JK Rowling" podcast.
I have concluded that he's just another privileged man who hasn't given a huge amount of thought to a topic that doesn't really impact him that much. Which is the case of a lot of men with his background, in my experience.

(I meant to post the above on the main thread so have copied across 🤦🏻‍♀️)

I feel like some of ABs earlier podcasts had snippets which showed him to be very worried about cancel culture and saying the wrong thing, in a way that implied he was more GC but couldn't possibly comment. So the Billy Bragg podcast seems erroneous and disappointing from my impression of him. Maybe I was projecting.

He's definitely a people pleaser, and I can see him nodding along with whatever. But then again, perhaps he truly believes TWAW. It betrays a lack of critical thinking either way imo.

He talked about insults with Frank Skinner a few years ago and AB brought up terf. I got the impression he was testing the waters, but I dont remember them saying anything bad about women with opinions.

I wonder if he has children who are at university now, and theyve changed his outlook?

His kids are mid / late teens now I think - and I think one of them is at university in Brighton so that may be part of it. I still think he somehow got dragged into deeper waters than intended - listening to the CounterPoint podcast he seemed more interested in the production values of their YouTube videos and how they were achieved than the content. This still doesn't excuse his (non) reaction to Counter Point and BBs comments though.

In the interest of fairness I'm updating this thread after the Helen Lewis episode which was balanced and fair. You could really tell that he's trying to understand both sides - plus I love Helen Lewis!

@DataPestle I'm a Helen Lewis fan too (although I don't agree with her on everything) and I found their episode really frustrating. It feels like AB is absolutely petrified of saying the "wrong" thing, so won't engage in good faith, just tiptoed round her in a terrified manner, unable to properly listen and converse on her points, just to make noises about how uncomfortable her "wrong" opinions made him so the angry internet people don't come after him.

I would really have liked to hear an intelligent TWAW-er have an open conversation with a figure like Helen Lewis about the points they disagree on, but AB might just be for fun and silliness, rather than proper intelligent conversation. Although he's good at the fun stuff, I'm really disappointed in his gutlessness on this.

His two conversations with Helen Lewis are interesting on this topic. He plays naive "Why-can't-we-all-just-be-nice?"

Ooops haven't RTFT - great minds etc etcetc

Interesting @DataPestle Maybe I was cutting him too much slack as I do agree that he didn't really engage too robustly other than to call HL out for being "mean" about ContraPoints his previous interviewee

What did Helen say about "ContraPoints"?

I suspect AB is another one who is too scared to engage his brain, because he knows what the outcome would be. Gutless is the right description!

She said:

"I don't think I'm a useful idiot for the right wing patriarchy any more than I think Natalie Wynn is a useful idiot for the patriarchy because she puts on a load of make up and is conventionally feminine online"

Adam said the comment had made him feel uncomfortable, the poor dear.

Hahaha she didn't even refer to CP as male. How very precious of AB.

I used to love AB and have been avoiding him as I’m so disappointed in him just now, but will listen to the Helen Lewis one. The statement about CP is a statement of fact, AB is such a wimp.

There was a section in the Marina Hyde interview where he was discussing online radicalisation and I felt he was really trying to talk about Glinner (or perhaps JKR) without naming them but Marina completely side-stepped it and instead gave a really good explanation of cancel culture (which they had also been talking about). She took the wind right out of his sails, it was fairly enjoyable tbh!