Speaking of ill will and spite…
In our next episode of The War on Feminist Women, we have Index on Censorship publishing an article by a Gender-Special person saying that oh yes Maya Forstater is too so twanzphobic.
I guess Index on Censorship has decided “Let’s just censor her a little bit. To be on the safe side.”
Unfriendliness? Dislike? I can’t wrap my mind around the idea that these are criminalized. If we dislike a person, and say so, that is our right. Even if we use words that might be insulting or offensive. In that case, we are being obnoxious jerks, perhaps, but criminally obnoxious jerks?
Guess they couldn’t stand being without some form of blasphemy law.
I think, the way the statute is written, the dislike, or unfriendliness is punishable only if it is reasonably likely to lead to unlawful violence. Nothing that Forstater has ever said would make any reasonable person think that the statements were intended to, or would lead to, any unlawful violence. It’s ludicrous.
Maya Forstater’s Twitter thread has a comment that says Index on Censorship published a piece by Kathleen Stock in the same issue — with this piece by Phoenix Andrews as an opposing view — so I read this as an edition of Point/Counterpoint (SNL, 1979).
The Phoenix Andrews piece is based on the idea that “hate speech” is defined by anyone who feels offended. I don’t have access to the whole piece, but it seems to serve a purpose by expanding on the idea to show ways it fails.
I always enjoy reading defences of trans dogma that are written to sound sensible and reasonable. It’s easy for people who haven’t thought about it much and think we should just all be kind (PWHTAIMATWSJABK?) to look at someone screeching on Twitter that Maya Forstater is worse than Hitler and shrug them off as an overzealous nutter. But when someone is calm and coherent (using the term loosely) and sums up the issue as “does saying trans women are men constitute hate speech” and then proceeds to argue that yes, it does – I think it might still make people think about it sensibly. Maybe I’m having a bout of optimism, I don’t know.
I’m adding to confirm that Maya Forstater’s screen cap above was from the current issue of Index on Censorship magazine:
The magazine list of contents links to What is a woman? (Kathleen Stock) and This is hate, not debate (Phoenix Andrews) in the SAGE journal Index on Censorship. Both articles are paywalled there, but their links display the complete first page of each article.
Thank you Dave.