Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

It's not often that a prominent figure will admit he's wrong about a hot-button cultural issue,

but that's exactly what author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell did recently.

On the Real Science of Sport podcast, Gladwell confessed that when moderating a panel back in 2022, he'd been cowed, that's his word, into agreeing that men should be allowed to compete in women's sports.

He knew at the time, he said, that it made no sense to claim that men have no advantage over women in sports, so Gladwell remained silent. He now thinks that 90% of the

audience, even back then, knew the same truth, but only 5% were brave enough to say that. Today,

he thinks, the social pressure has changed. Quote, if we did a replay of that exact panel, he said,

it runs in exactly the opposite direction. It would be

near unanimity in the room that trans athletes have no place in the female category. I don't think

there's any question. The reason I'm ashamed of my performance at that panel is because I share

your position 100%. And I was cowed in a dishonest way. I let a lot of howlers pass without comment, end quote.

It was when a trans advocate who was sitting on the panel said,

you have to let us win, that Gladwell says he realized that the whole conversation was truly about something else.

Quote, the trans movement, they're not asking for a place at the table.

They're not asking to be treated with respect and dignity. What they're asking for is no one to question their considerable physiological

advantage they bring to the sport. When I heard that, I was like, this is nuts. And yet, I didn't say

anything, end quote. Well, Gladwell's admission here is the latest chapter in our so-called vibe shift

specifically about this issue of transgender ideology. And he certainly wasn't the only one cowed

in the last decade or so, but that someone of his prominence and his influence could still be

intimidated shows us just how powerful social pressure can be, and also the consequences of remaining silent.

To paraphrase Francis Schaefer, people often will catch their ideas like they catch a cold.

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