Originally a comment by Mostly Cloudy on Decency and Julia.

Der Durchwanderer @41

If we are to be judged by how our words might one day be used by the spiritual descendents of our current political enemies, then none of us should write anything at all, because that is a game none can hope to win. Unless you are fanatically certain that history does indeed have a singular arc and that you will somehow always land on the correct side of it forevermore, that is.

You have a point there. We know that Martin Luther King, for instance, would not have approved of the politics of Rand Paul, and would be dismayed to hear Paul appropriating his words.… Read the rest

Human rights? You sure about that?

One – get those clapping hands out of my face. Clapping at us is not the way to persuade or convince us of anything.

Two – yes using specialty pronouns damn well is optional. People don’t get to pick out their very own pronouns as if they were a party dress and then force other people to use them. My words are not yours to control.

Three – of course it’s not “a huge form of support, respect & love” – don’t be so ridiculous! Calling a man “her” is neither support nor respect nor love.

Four, why do trans people get their very own special day about 700 times a year now? … Read the rest

Oh good god can you imagine???

A week with Willoughby???

Of course she wouldn’t do it ffs. First of all she has better things to do, obviously, but second plus third through billionth: with Willoughby. Of course she wouldn’t spend a week with Willoughby: he’s a boring rude self-obsessed demanding bad-tempered shallow blob of nothing. What would this fun project have in it for her? Not a damn thing. It would be hell from beginning to end. Of course she “wouldn’t do it.”

And look at how that utter dimwit thinks women spend their time. Clothes shopping and health spa. That’s how profound their idenniny is – they think they’re Barbie dolls.… Read the rest

Prison for pronouns eh?

JK Rowling has said she would happily do a spell in jail if a future Labour government makes it a hate crime to deliberately call someone by the wrong pronouns. The Harry Potter author said she would rather do time for misgendering than submit to “compelled speech”.

She spoke out after The Mail on Sunday revealed that Labour plans to introduce stricter sentences for abuse targeted at transgender people.

This would bring transphobic abuse into line with assault and harassment motivated by hatred on the grounds of race or religion, which are punishable by up to two years in prison.

What does that mean? It’s not “abuse” to use normal pronouns, nor is it harassment. If … Read the rest

Hur hur woman of the year event hur hur

Meanwhile in Ghana:

Awusife Kagbitor paces anxiously on a dry patch of land overlooking her collapsed and completely submerged three-bedroom home in Mepe in Ghana’s Volta Region. She says she saw water gushing into her house from a nearby stream, and within 10 minutes the water level had reached her neck. On hearing that his mother’s home was flooding, her son Kenneth rushed to the scene and swam his way through the rising waters to save his mother and young siblings.

The 56-year-old farmer is one of thousands of victims of the floods in south-east Ghana. It’s a disaster she is struggling to come to terms with. They were taken unawares and couldn’t salvage anything, she tells me as

The Times Scotland:

JK Rowling brands Scottish Greens a ‘disgrace’ over trans protest

Author hits out at politicians who stood beside activists swearing at women

Author doesn’t “hit out at” anyone, of course.

JK Rowling has branded the Scottish Greens a “disgrace” after its councillors stood alongside protesters “campaigning against women”.

The author hit out 24 hours after speaking at a feminist event in Glasgow, organised by Filia, an international organisation campaigning for women’s human rights.

The author did not hit out.

Reacting to video of the protest posted on social media, Rowling said: “That elected officials from the Greens stood proudly beside protesters screaming ‘f*** you’ at women, including those from Afghanistan and Africa, who were meeting in Glasgow to

No matter how hard he tries.

Dylan Mulvaney:

“And some people don’t see me as a woman at all. No matter how hard I try, or what I wear, or what I say, or what surgeries I get, I will never reach an acceptable version of womanhood by those hateful people’s standards."

Understanding that sex isn't an… pic.twitter.com/4D0zWbwdA8

— Reality Enthusiast (@RealityEnthusi2) October 17, 2023

No matter how hard I try, or what I wear, or what I say, or what surgeries I get, I will never reach an acceptable version of tigerhood by those hateful people’s standards.

No matter how hard I try, or what I wear, or what I say, or what surgeries I get, I will never … Read the rest

A thread that’s quite relevant to what I was just saying about the impossibility of believing the dogma, and the strangeness of the fact that the impossibility goes unmentioned.

Going to write a brief thread about the BBC’s strange relationship with the truth on sex and gender.

It won’t start any fires but it might help people understand why the BBC has adopted such an irrational approach.

It was put on the record, but not publicly, in January.

— Cath Leng (@leng_cath) October 17, 2023

Obviously this means that if the truth puts you on one side of the argument, you aren’t allowed to articulate it, and may be disciplined for doing so.

(Btw the age of Verify, Full Fact,

Nathan Williams at The Critic on “queerphobia”:

Last week I wrote an article about the nasty treatment people in the Green Party have faced when they have questioned the prevailing ideology on gender and sex. The exact figure depends on the question asked, but in general a majority of the public agree that biological sex is real and matters (these are known as “gender critical” or “GC” beliefs). The party appears to be calling most of the electorate “bigots”, which is not a great electoral strategy.

But on the upside, it’s such fun.

The Green Party has now issued a document that seeks to correct this, by branding almost the entire population as bigots. Their long awaited Queerphobia

More gag ordering for Trump:

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has put into writing her limited gag order that bars Donald Trump from making public statements about witnesses who might testify against him in the federal election subversion case as well as prosecutors and court staff.

Trump’s public statements pose “grave threats to the integrity of these proceedings,” especially those that could be construed as harassment and intimidation, Chutkan said in the order released Tuesday.

The written order expands upon what Chutkan articulated during Monday’s hearing about restricting what Trump can say while awaiting trial.

I’m seeing a lot of headlines saying it won’t make a damn bit of difference.

Trump has publicly railed against the so-called gag

The rise in pseudo-science is it? Concerned about that are you? All of it are you?

'I am against creationism being taught in schools… I am passionately concerned about the rise in pseudo-science; in beliefs in alternative medicine… It doesn't stand up to empirical evidence.' Agree with our Vice President @jimalkhalili? Become our member today.

— Humanists UK (@Humanists_UK) October 17, 2023

But Humanists UK apparently has no problem with the pseudo-science of magic gender.

In the first in a series of posts from LGBT Humanists where guest authors offer humanist perspectives on issues faced by the LGBT community in the UK, LGBT Humanists Campaigns Officer Kristína Zaťková marks Transgender Day of Visibility (31 March) by looking at

Another university puts out another “statement” full of wild generalizations that can’t possibly be obeyed without creating total havoc.

Trans and Gender Diverse Community

The University is committed to being a Trans-inclusive institution that champions diversity and celebrates the gender identities of students and staff. The University will at no time discriminate against people on the grounds of their gender identity or gender expression. We seek to provide a positive learning and working environment free from discrimination, harassment, or victimisation.

How, I wonder, does the university go about “celebrating the gender identities of students and staff”? And why gender identities in particular? What about all the other precious identities?

Promoting and supporting the diverse identities at the University not only

When the rivers dry up…

Rivers in the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil fell to their lowest levels in over a century on Monday as a record drought upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and damages the jungle ecosystem.

The port of Manaus, the region’s most populous city, at the meeting of the Rio Negro and the Amazon River, recorded 13.59 meters (44.6 feet) of water on Monday, compared to 17.60 a year ago, according to its website. That is the lowest level since records began in 121 years ago in 1902, passing a previous all-time low set in 2010.

Rapidly drying tributaries to the mighty Amazon have left boats stranded, cutting off

Eva Kurilova draws up a partial list of the contradictions of trans ideology. There are so many and they are so contradictory.

“Trans women” are in danger in men’s spaces and that’s why they deserve access to women’s spaces.

Women who worry about their spaces becoming mixed sex are bigots.

…

Trans people are a very tiny minority and so they must be listened to.

Detransitioners are a very tiny minority and so they must not be listened to.

---

Gender is a social construct.

But “trans women” need to be treated as literally female in all aspects of life.

That’s a biggy, isn’t it. The biggy. Women are women via social convention, but trans women really are women and … Read the rest

So Owen Jones thinks Hamas gets its views on gay rights from the British empire?

And if it weren’t for that there would be a gay bar on every corner, yes? Because Islamists are so notoriously broad-minded about such things?

Did the British Mandate Criminal Code also prohibit women’s rights?… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on What would you spend that 9k on?

I have no idea about the health risks, but I think people are underestimating the privacy risks.

Anyone who donates eggs or sperm is incurring the risk that some years down the line, they or their family members will be contacted by the child. I don’t care what privacy protections you were promised when you made the donation, or even what laws exist in your jurisdiction to provide privacy — you don’t know what the law is going to be 20 years from now, and the general direction has been towards “I have a right to know my genetic heritage!”

More importantly, the law may be … Read the rest

Meanwhile, advertising aimed at convincing women that selling their eggs is a fab fun way to pay for a trip.

The fertility industry uses sanitised, colourful and youthful advertising to groom very young women into selling their eggs.

Notice how this ad talks only about the money, and not about any of the risks of egg retrieval, which include ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (fatal in… pic.twitter.com/6p98YBuQBt

— Radicailín (@radicailin) October 16, 2023

… Read the rest

Ah how sweet.

Anita Singh at The Telegraph on Orwell’s misogyny:

George Orwell was a “sadistic, misogynistic, homophobic, sometimes violent” man who wrote women out of his story, according to a biographer of his wife.

Anna Funder said that Orwell was a brilliant writer but a complicated man whose personal life was at odds with the “decency” of his writing.

…

“Decency is such a core Orwellian value. He writes about it. It’s the quality of the ‘proles’ in 1984 that is going to save us. He wanted to be decent, to be seen as decent, by which he meant a man of integrity, the same inside and out,” said Funder.

If that’s what he meant by decency then I … Read the rest