Dear Joel,

Thanks for sharing Matt Walsh’s utterly stupid post about gender during one of the gravest humanitarian disasters the US has ever seen. For those who missed it:

Above, a man wearing camouflage pants and a baseball cap carries a woman holding a child through the water that Hurricane Harvey deposited in Texas. Two men stand in the background by a small boat. Further behind, a car sits, mostly submerged in water, as a highway overpass rises in the background.

Walsh is a conservative Christian blogger on the younger side. His website’s tagline–“Absolute Truths (and alpaca grooming tips)”–let’s us know that he’s both hip (alpacas!) and a cocksure ass. He’s a Catholic opposed to abortion, Democrats, cultural relativism, women priests, and humility. You can tell because his BLOGS about “Absolute Truth.”

I’m skeptical about absolute truth anyway, but I’m confident that it’s not going to be delivered to us via a blog. And, for certain, probably not by a blogger who also contributes to The Blaze, a conservative rag not known for its journalistic integrity.

Oh, Matt, Matt, Matt… You don’t get to call yourself “sayer of truths.” Something like this is like a nickname, something others bestow on yo

I’m rather skeptical, too, that Walsh has ever had a meaningful interaction with a gender studies professor. I doubt he’s ever approached one with the humility that I imagine someone seeking Absolute Truth would display.

So, having once served as the director of a Women’s and Gender Studies program, I’ll fill in the blanks. What would this gender studies prof say about the photo above?

That Walsh has no idea what is happening here. We aren’t told what the relationship is between these three people. Husband, wife, and child? Or maybe he is a helpful stranger? Or a member of a trained rescue team? Good students look for the context clues, but when they aren’t sufficient to make a claim, they don’t make claims the evidence doesn’t support.

That Walsh is willing to exploit other people’s tragedies to gin up outrage at gender studies professors, who are, like, the easiest targets in the world for right-wingers. Who do they hate more than gender studies profs? Hillary Clinton? Black Lives Matter Activists? Really, this kind of tweet is just lazy. C’mon, Walsh! You gotta do better than this if you’re going to distinguish yourself from the other conservative knuckleheads on Twitter. Of all the lessons to learn from Harvey, including some ones about human kindness, this is where he goes. Lazy. Just lazy.

That, should Matt Walsh, ever be drowning, or trapped in a burning building, or in need of the Heimlich maneuver, slightly over 50% of the US population can safely ignore him without feeling any bit of guilt. He’d want it that way.

Rebecca