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He’s adding his voice to calls

Besties fall out already.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has distanced himself from Elon Musk’s support for jailed far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson. The tech multi-billionaire added his voice to calls to release Yaxley-Lennon, who was jailed in October after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee.

Farage has been proud to show off the support of Musk, flying to Florida to meet the owner of social media site X, who helped President-elect Donald Trump win the US election. But Musk’s support for Yaxley-Lennon is uncomfortable for Farage, who has made it clear over a number of years that he does not want him in his political party.

Welp, thieves … Read the rest

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He’s adding his voice to calls
By Ophelia Benson, January 4, 2025

Besties fall out already.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has distanced himself from Elon Musk’s support for jailed far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson. The tech multi-billionaire added his voice to calls to release Yaxley-Lennon, who was jailed in October after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee.

Farage has been proud to show off the support of Musk, flying to Florida to meet the owner of social media site X, who helped President-elect Donald Trump win the US election. But Musk’s support for Yaxley-Lennon is uncomfortable for Farage, who has made it clear over a number of years that he does not want him in his political party.

Welp, thieves … Read the rest

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

He’s adding his voice to calls 

Besties fall out already.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has distanced himself from Elon Musk’s support for jailed far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson. The tech multi-billionaire added his voice to calls to release Yaxley-Lennon, who was jailed in October after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee.

Farage has been proud to show off the support of Musk, flying to Florida to meet the owner of social media site X, who helped President-elect Donald Trump win the US election. But Musk’s support for Yaxley-Lennon is uncomfortable for Farage, who has made it clear over a number of years that he does not want him in his political party.

Welp, thieves … Read the rest

Putting the welfare of children first 

A puberty blockers resignation:

A councillor has quit the Labour Party in a row over its transgender policies. Zoe Hughes, Exeter City Council member, said the party’s support of a ban on puberty blockers for under-18s questioning their gender identity was “a policy I refuse to stand by and accept”.

So she’s confident it’s a good thing to tamper with teenagers’ puberties? She’s that sure it’s better to stop normal physical maturation than it is to let it proceed without interference? It’s an odd thing to be that confident about. It’s not as if being frozen physically at age 12 or 13 has no consequences.

The Labour Party said it was putting the welfare of children first and its

… Read the rest
Ford on steroids 

Not surprisingly, Musk’s insults and interventions aren’t all that popular in Germany.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling in second place at 20% and has seen prominent support by multibillionaire Elon Musk.

The South African-born entrepreneur, 53, is seen as having intervened directly in the election campaign, as well as making provocative attacks on the leaders of Germany’s highest democratic institutions: first the chancellor and then the head of state, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. 

“Steinmeier is an anti-democratic tyrant!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X. “Shame on him.”

In sharp contrast to Donald Trump, yeah? Nothing tyrannical or anti-democratic about him, right?

Musk’s latest remarks came after he published an opinion piece in a German daily supporting the far-right AfD. A German

… Read the rest
Friends in high places 

Trump seeks clemency for…TikTok.

The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court late on Friday to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay implementation of a law that would ban popular social media app TikTok or force its sale by Jan. 19.

Last week, Trump filed a legal brief arguing he should have time after taking office on Jan. 20 to pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The court is set to hear arguments in the case on Jan. 10. The law, passed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest the platform’s U.S. assets or face a ban. TikTok did not immediately comment.

The DOJ said in its filing that Trump’s request could only be

… Read the rest
Musk usking 

Musk is throwing his weight around more by the hour. It’s more than slightly alarming.

Musk has feverishly spent the past few days boosting disinformation and divisive rhetoric on X about Muslim grooming gangs in the UK, posting almost 200 times, a WIRED review of the centibillionaire’s output has found.

These “grooming gangs” reference an organized child sexual abuse scandal that came to light in 2014 involving gangs of British Pakastani men who abused an estimated thousands of girls in several towns in the north of England over the course of several decades.

It is in fact an important subject, but Musk doesn’t really give a shit about thousands of girls in working class cities, he gives a shit … Read the rest

Holes of various shapes 

Dawkins is in good form in the Spectator:

In a recent interview, I imprudently said I was a “cultural Christian”, and I haven’t heard the end of it. I find myself unwillingly counted in the Great Christian Revival (translation, “We don’t actually believe that stuff ourselves, but we like it when other people do”) which is the subject of so much wishful thinking these days.

Of course I’m a cultural Christian. Always have been. Packed off to Anglican schools, I was confirmed when too young to know better. Large chunks of the English Hymnal were imprinted in my long-term memory, and duly pop out when I’m fooling around with my electronic clarinet. I know my way around the Bible,

… Read the rest
Pants on fire 

Behold: an ethicist. “Friendly” Atheist tells us:

The following is a guest post by Aaron Rabinowitz, the ethics director of the Creator Accountability Network and host of two philosophy podcasts: Embrace the Void and Philosophers in Space.

Awesome, a philosopher of ethics at last; now all will be plain.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently faced criticism for posting and then removing an editorial by Jerry Coyne entitled “Biology is Not Bigotry,” which he wrote in response to an FFRF article by Kat Grant entitled “What is a Woman?” In his piece, Coyne used specious reasoning and flawed research to argue that transgender individuals are more likely to be sexual predators than cisgender individuals and that they

… Read the rest
Government by X 

Thanks for the help Mr Musk but we’re the professionals so go away.

Elon Musk’s attack on the government’s handling of grooming gangs is “misjudged and certainly misinformed”, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.

Tech multi-billionaire Musk has posted a series of messages on his social media site X, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute gangs that systematically groomed and raped young girls, and calling for safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to be jailed.

Lots of people say lots of things, but Musk has a very large amount of money so what he says must be important. Whether it’s accurate or not is another question.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a full national public inquiry into what

… Read the rest
Without a hint of irony 

Sarah Haider on atheism and gendertheism:

I have never seen anything like it. In amazement, I watched scores of people I respected add pronouns in their emails, flags to their bios, and repeat circular mantras like “trans women are women”. The same people who laughed at religious credulity accepted the idea of a “gender” fully and without question, and worse–they suppressed all open discussion. Overnight, the same people who campaigned against blasphemy laws enacted their own version without a hint of irony. I watched long-standing figures in the movement be cast down for this crime of doubt; first by insane radicals on social media, but as the disease progressed, also by the most prominent organizations we had.

In other

… Read the rest
Saying no=a demand 

Insight! As the New Agers liked to say.

Yes, yes that is a good insight. We are not allowed to say no. Not ever, not to anything. We’re not allowed to have our own views, or to reject the views of the Enlightened Ones. It doesn’t matter how absurd it is to think of India Willoughby or Freda Wallace as enlightened; we’re still not allowed to say no. Shut up, curtsy, and sweep the second-best drawing room. … Read the rest

Sez who? 

Oh is that so.

“Inclusivity comes first – and fairness, I’m afraid, is affected by the drive towards inclusivity.”

Who says “inclusivity” comes first?

And what kind of “inclusivity” are we talking about anyway? The word as I understand it means not excluding people for bad reasons. It can’t mean including everyone in everything. We can’t include everyone in everything; there isn’t room.

Furthermore we … Read the rest

Nobody has joined the dots 

Oh those rape gangs.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a full national public inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal”.

It comes after Home Office minister Jess Phillips rejected Oldham Council’s request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation – saying the council should lead it instead.

Why? I’m guessing the government has more resources than a local council, so why shouldn’t the government investigate? Is it too…trivial?

Posting on X, Badenoch said: “Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.”

There have been numerous investigations into the systematic rape of

… Read the rest
Freedom fries 

Let’s read Ron Lindsay’s Free Inquiry piece on the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s abrupt rude apology-free deletion of Jerry Coyne’s reply to a laughably silly article titled “What is a woman?”

In case you have not heard, here is a concise summary of the situation: The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) published on its website an essay by Kat Grant titled “What Is a Woman?” in which Grant concluded that “A woman is whoever she says she is.” Along the way, Grant argued that there is no biological basis for distinguishing men from women.

Jerry A. Coyne, an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago and, at the time, a member of FFRF’s honorary board, requested permission to post a

… Read the rest
Free inquiry 

A new chapter:

I wonder how much yelling and screaming there is among the staff at CFI.… Read the rest

Defeating the purpose 

You have got to be kidding.

The Daily Mail (because the Guardian and the BBC are looking fixedly in the opposite direction):

Police forces are allowing trans officers to carry multiple warrant cards depending on the gender they choose on a given day.

At least 11 forces in England and Wales use the policy, blasted as dangerous by women’s groups.

Trans officers can receive two warrant cards, or more if they are ‘gender fluid’.

Police officers use warrant cards to identify themselves and they must be shown before using powers including stop and search.

Which is, surely, so that people being stopped and searched can be assured it’s a cop interfering with them and not, say, some random guy who … Read the rest

62 percent 

The Telegraph reports:

Almost two thirds of transgender prisoners who identify as female are convicted sex offenders, it has been revealed.

Out of the 245 trans women inmates, who are legally recognised as male, a total of 151, or 62 per cent, had committed at least one sexual offence.

Now…if you were a man who enjoys committing sexual offences against women, would you find trans ideology a generous gift to you and men like you? Wouldn’t you simply race to take advantage of your new “right” to pretend to be a woman in all situations at all times? Wouldn’t you be just thrilled to bits about your new opportunities?

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Well over 90

… Read the rest
The obsessiveness 

Mostly Cloudy alerted us to a piece by “a clickbait-spewing hack called Katherine Alejandra Cross” who disapproves of Jesse Singal. There’s this one bit in the piece…

Your average New York Times subscriber is not Extremely Online but is increasingly being fed opinions and ‘analysis’ from writers who are, and who find themselves increasingly angry at all the annoying people who spoonerise their names and troll them on platforms.

Trans people are a good example of this. Some small group of angry trans people harangues a journalist—rightly or wrongly—for being a bigot, and then this feeds a resentment that others like Jonathan Chait or Matt Yglesias give shape and form with plausible, lib-pleasing moderate language that, in turn,

… Read the rest
War between the faces 

Steve v Elon: when ratbags fall out.

Donald Trump’s one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon warned Elon Musk Tuesday that he and other MAGA diehards are going to “rip your face off” unless Musk smartens up and stops pushing visas for skilled foreign workers to take good-paying [well paid] tech industry jobs away from Americans.

He told Musk to sit back and study. That sounds very likely, doesn’t it. Both Musk sitting back, and Musk taking orders from Bannon.

“They’re recent converts,” Bannon said Tuesday on his War Room podcast, referring to Musk and other tech-world Trump supporters.

“We love converts,” Bannon noted. “But the converts sit in the back and study for years and years and years

… Read the rest
The asymmetry 

Laurence Krauss joined the people reposting Jerry Coyne’s heretical piece, and a reader named Maria Comninou added a valuable comment:

For me, the asymmetry in the debate about transgender rights, i.e., the fact that it focuses on or originates from transwomen and requires biological women to define their womanhood is indicative of covert misogyny, perpetrated even by those who expound their transgender rights credentials. I do not see articles asking “what is a man?” or answering “I do not know what is a man”. Some of the transactivist language towards biological women conceals an effort to denigrate or erase them and is consistent with male behavior towards females. It betrays the very masculinity they want to deny. 

It’s true … Read the rest

The countless ways 

As promised or threatened, continuing with Mister Friendly and his hostility to people who don’t fervently endorse every claim of every branch of trans ideology.

He insisted sex is binary, that trans women are more likely to be sexual predators (using misleading statistics) etc etc…

Along the way, he just ignored the countless ways the trans community is under attack, largely by people making similar arguments.

Notice that trans people are called a “community” while people who interrogate broad claims about what being trans means are not. Mehta might as well talk about the white hat people and the black hat people, or the good people and the bad people, or the angels and the vermin. Or even the … Read the rest