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OPINION

Megyn Kelly and the Platinum Rule

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
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Dr. Tony Alessandro is a very smart man, a well recognized author, speaker and consultant whose books provide a wealth of insight for corporate managers and executives. One of his better known books is entitled The Platinum Rule. Published in 1998, it offers a twist on the Golden Rule, which many of us learned as children: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

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The Platinum Rule, on the other hand, advises leaders to treat others as they want to be treated. As a management practice, this makes some sense. I used a variation of this approach in private sector management for years, long before Alessandro comprehensively articulated it. People have different personalities, and managers ought to understand and respond to those personalities in pursuit of motivating them to excellence. 

It’s a bit like reading the room - find out what stimulates different people and then interact with them in a manner that recognizes and better connects with their individuality. But can the managerial use of the Platinum Rule be applied across the broader culture? 

Megyn Kelly followed the Platinum Rule. The former network TV journalist explained her rationale earlier this month in one of her podcasts saying, “I was an early proponent of using preferred pronouns as far back as the early 2000s. Of saying ‘she’ when I knew the truth was ‘he.’ It seemed harmless and I had no wish to cause offense.”

That’s the Platinum Rule - treat others as they want to be treated. Kelly continued with her explanation for using false pronouns instead of true pronouns. “I complied. I went along with it. I didn't see the harm.”

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Kelly didn’t see the harm of the Platinum Rule until she did, and her reason for ceasing to observe it was blunt. “Because it isn't true. And we know it's not true,” said Kelly. “And to pretend that it is true is to foster a lie that's hurting too many people - almost all of them girls. Women and girls.”

In recent years, the Platinum Rule has been hijacked by ideologues seeking to use it to advance a political agenda rather than improving business relations and productivity as designed. Increasingly, advocates of transgender ideology are using this concept to coerce normal people into agreeing with them. It’s hard to imagine that a leadership technique intended to recognize individuality in a professional setting was ever intended to deny reality in a social or cultural context, but that’s what is happening.

Transgender ideology demands we repudiate truth, and not doing so can have consequences. People can lose their job for using the wrong pronoun. College students can be expelled for misgendering in their speech or receive failing grades for calling biological women biological women. Teenagers can be punished for noticing that “guys are guys and girls are girls.”

These people and others like them are being punished because they do not follow the Platinum Rule. If we refer to a man, pretending to be a woman, as a man, we are not treating him as he wishes to be treated, and that is not tolerated. 

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Not content with hijacking the Platinum Rule, some transgender ideology advocates are trying to redefine the Golden Rule. In denouncing the “hate speech” of referring to men as men and women as women, Dawn Ennis writes for GLAAD that we should “Follow the ‘Golden Rule’ - Treat Trans and Nonbinary People How You Would Want to Be Treated.” This proposition is entirely fair. 

If I have been deceived into believing an ideology that is absolutely unsupportable or suffer from clinical delusions, I would hope somebody sits me down and explains it to me. If I wanted to surgically mutilate my body or disrupt my endocrine system by pumping it full of foreign or unnatural levels of hormones, I would hope somebody talks me out of it. If I wanted to agitate for sexualizing grade school kids or use the ladies locker room, I would hope somebody dissuades me from such perversions. This is how I wish to be treated - with honesty, compassion and truth.

The Platinum Rule can work well in business but it only goes so far. Yes, managers should recognize and empathize with the unique characteristics of their employees and customers; it’s good for morale and the bottom line. But it ceases being a useful tool when it validates untrue, selfish or unreasonable things. 

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There is no aspect of militant transgender ideology that comports with truth, natural law or civil society. If people wish to behave in this manner privately, they’re free to do so. But when they inject themselves into cultural and political spheres with the goal of intimidating and coercing people into agreement, that’s a problem. If transgender ideologues want others to follow the Golden or Platinum Rule, they should practice it themselves. 

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