Can Briahna Joy Gray still be saved?

Looking for a way forward for social media's most tragic character

In his Euripidean epic A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin opens the door to a rogues’ gallery of rebarbative bastards and traitors, none so slimy as the Squid Prince himself, commander of the Sea Bitch, traitor to his family, and the worm that grovels at Ramsay Bolton’s feet—Theon Greyjoy. Seven years ago, I read an article in The Verge titled “Can Theon Greyjoy still be saved? Looking for a way forward for Game of Thrones’ most tragic character.” The article began, “Theon Greyjoy is Westeros’ most popular punching bag.”

This week I was reminded of Theon Greyjoy and that article while watching the Israel debate that took place at the Dissident Dialogues event on May 3. The debate was moderated by

Konstantin Kisin

with Eli Lake and Michael Moynihan defending Israel’s response to October 7 while Jake Klein and Briahna Joy Gray argued against Israel’s actions. Like Theon Turncoat, Gray has become social media’s most popular punching bag, and for similar reasons. The article continued by noting that viewers had witnessed Greyjoy’s transformation “to a pitiable shell of a person,” and that when he was captured and tortured and broken by Bolton, “his misfortune felt karmically fitting.” But since then, “Theon’s punishment has never ceased” and “his story has been the most difficult arc to follow.”

Similarly, Gray fights her own people in the Israel debate, and in general opposes certain principles of Western liberal democracy in favor of revolutionary violence, apparently by any means. She has become a pitiable shell of a person, whose misfortune feels karmically fitting, whose punishment never ceases, and whose story has been the most difficult to follow.

“I always wanted to do the right thing,” Theon Greyjoy sadly confesses in the HBO series adaption. “Be the right kind of person. But I never knew what that meant.” This is also Gray’s fundamental tragedy, because you do get the sense that she wants to do the right thing. Be the right kind of person. But she seems to know less what that means than Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. In a recent post on X,

Konstantin Kisin

responded to one of Gray’s attacks, noting a crucial detail about her demeanor during the debate and the manner in which she departed.

This may seem immaterial since arguments stand or fall on their own, not on the basis of poise or mien, but Gray’s demeanor matters because it tells us something about the nature of her argument and, I think, something valuable about so many on the political left who argue exactly as she does.