It’s psychological cult capture, that’s what it is.

Would you say that Scientologists who believe that "body thetans cling to their body because they have lost their free will as a result of events in their past lives" have a psychological condition? Or would you say that they have been subject to cult indoctrination?

Buying into…

— Amy E. Sousa (@KnownHeretic) September 20, 2023

Would you say that Scientologists who believe that “body thetans cling to their body because they have lost their free will as a result of events in their past lives” have a psychological condition? Or would you say that they have been subject to cult indoctrination? Buying into the thinking that leads you to believe you

How utterly revolting.

A new sculpture believed to be the first of its kind in the world will be unveiled next month to celebrate women who wear hijabs.

The Strength of the Hijab was designed by renowned sculptor Luke Perry and will be installed in the Smethwick area of Birmingham in October. It is believed to be the first sculpture in the world of a woman wearing the head covering, worn by many Muslim women.

The sculpture is five metres tall and weighs around a tonne.

It’s not a “head covering” that is “worn by many Muslim women.” It’s a bandage that wraps the hair and neck leaving only the middle of the face exposed, and it is imposed… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on More to a woman.

Anna Funder’s book is a brilliantly written and forensic analysis (she is a trained lawyer, and acutely sensitive to words and what they don’t say, but nevertheless express) of Orwell’s bullying & abuse – sexual & otherwise – of women, including his wife, and his moral cowardice where those women closest to him were concerned. As I read, I found myself almost trembling with rage at times, racked with guilt at my own deficiencies toward others, but, above all, appalled throughout at the manipulativeness, cruelty & furtive hypocrisy of Orwell.

I am not, as it happens, a great admirer of Orwell, apart from ‘Animal Farm’, the idea for … Read the rest

Now there’s a headline.

Doctors say transgender women should be allowed to compete in female sports because it boosts ‘their mental health and self-esteem’

Yes and adults should be allowed to compete in children’s sports because it boosts their mental health and self-esteem.

I’ll be boring and spell it out. Why does the mental health and self-esteem of men who pretend to be women matter more than women’s mental health and self-esteem? Why does the former in fact simply cancel the latter? Why should men be allowed to trample women into bleeding fragments to boost their own mental health and self-esteem? Why do men count while women are so much garbage?

Researchers at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, said participating in

A gender-atheist academic writes:

And now children, here's your bedtime story:

A French philosopher named Michel Foucault, who was alleged to have abused young boys in Tunisia, was primarily responsible for a theory that came to be known as postmodernism. This theory was adopted by mediocre academics who were…

— Prof. Gary Francione (@garylfrancione) September 20, 2023

A French philosopher named Michel Foucault, who was alleged to have abused young boys in Tunisia, was primarily responsible for a theory that came to be known as postmodernism. This theory was adopted by mediocre academics who were unable to do any serious thinking. These academics came up with a number of bizarre ideas, including but not limited to, that sex was not

The Guardian last month on Orwell and women:

George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, made his work possible at the cost of her own by taking on the household drudgery and typing up his writing instead of completing her master’s in psychology. But Wifedom, a remarkable new book by Anna Funder, shows there was much more to a woman who appears only fleetingly in her husband’s work and is poorly served by his biographers. Shortly before meeting Orwell she wrote a dystopian poem titled End of the Century, 1984; she suggested that he write an animal fable instead of an essay denouncing Stalinism; and she noted her husband’s “extraordinary political simplicity”. In Homage to Catalonia, Orwell mentions a

Aw, sad – Vivian Wulf had to close that petition to tell Peter Tatchell to shut up, because The Wrong People found it. I’m embarrassed and ashamed and queasy that I am one of those Wrong People – I found it, I shared it, I made fun of it. Oh dear, I seem to be making fun of it again, even now. What is wrong with me?

SEP 20, 2023 — Contrary to their bleating on social media GCs clearely love having Tatchell on air if it means trans people don’t ge a voice. He is the perfect strawman for them. They can attack trans people by attacking him and simultaneously his presence helps keep trans voices out of the

Deepities flying.

Yes, while I was a student at Rutgers.

No, it does not “deny biology.” It acknowledges when biological “facts” are choices rather than actually as the material realities they are said to describe.

No one in this space “denies biology.” They just reject the normativity of it.

— Look at This Cool Ben Shapiro Being Stabbed Tattoo (@ShapiroTattoo) September 19, 2023

Ah the normativity of it. It’s so normative (and white and cis and Republican) to say that ospreys are not mammals or that whales are not plankton. Don’t be like Norman Normative; reach for the stars; call your dick a girl-dick and live on Cloud Freedom forever.

Challenging the objectivity of descriptions of reality, yes. Absolutely.

Not

On the one hand, women standing up for women’s and lesbians’ rights. On the other hand, men (and some women?) screaming at them “You’re fucking fascists!!”

#TeamTERF: We support lesbians. #Trantifa: YOU’RE A FUCKING FASCIST! #TeamTERF: We’re also against rape culture. #Trantifa: FUCK YOU! pic.twitter.com/7WuvdE5ghc

— Kara Dansky (@KDansky) September 19, 2023

… Read the rest

Crisply said.

Nonsense, Andrea. People who identify as trans have the exact same rights everyone else has. The problem is that at least some who identify as trans seek a privilege–to require others to accept trans beliefs and to give up their rights to accommodate those beliefs. That is… https://t.co/9W8GIavuQn

— Prof. Gary Francione (@garylfrancione) September 19, 2023

The whole thing without the irritating break at the end:

“Nonsense, Andrea. People who identify as trans have the exact same rights everyone else has. The problem is that at least some who identify as trans seek a privilege–to require others to accept trans beliefs and to give up their rights to accommodate those beliefs. That is something NO other group gets. … Read the rest

Another stanza of the epic Men Are Better at Everything:

Missouri High School Crowns Male Student as “Homecoming Queen”

It’s tempting to say “Let them have that one” because wtf is a “homecoming queen” anyway? There is no homecoming king, nor are there beauty pageants for men in general, so why does this creaky antiquated “all women can do is stand around and look pretty” brand of competition keep hanging around?

But, it does keep hanging around, so it is just one more insulting theft for men to insert themselves into such contests.

A high school in Kansas City, Missouri, is facing mockery after crowning a trans-identified male student as “Homecoming Queen” this past weekend. After the news hit social

That’s funny.

Truer than he (Brand) perhaps intended – Orwell was indeed a shit to women.… Read the rest

Drop whatever you’re doing and listen up: there’s a Statement:

ETFO strongly condemns anti-2SLGBTQ+ protests

Today, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) issued the following statement responding to 1 Million March 4 Children protests that are scheduled to take place across Canada this week:

“Any actions or events that seek to undermine the rights and dignity of the 2SLGBTQ+ community must be denounced. As such, ETFO strongly condemns this week’s planned protests, and calls on the government and school boards to do the same.”

What about actions and events that do in fact undermine the rights and dignity of women, of lesbians and gay men, of children and adolescents and adults, of people who can recognize bullshit when they … Read the rest

A petition!

The trans community calls for Peter Tatchell to shut up and let us speak for ourselves

Says Vivian Wulf.

Peter Tatchell is everywhere speaking for us.

On several occasions he has offered opinions contrary to what the majority of trans people believe.

He scolds trans activists for things he considers “bad optics”.

He has a history of questionable statements that could lead one to believe he supports pedophilia making his “optics” less than ideal.

He has used the threats and harassment trans people receive as an excuse for why he is always the person called onto TV shows rather than an actual trans person saying that trans people won’t do it so he has to. This is a

Well…

I don't ask for much.

I just want transgender people to be accepted in every single way that other people are.

To be able to live their lives equally to anyone else.

To grow old, have families, make mistakes, laugh, cry, and love.

To have the same opportunities as everyone…

— Dr Helen Webberley she/her (@HelenWebberley) September 19, 2023

Ok let’s try to figure this out.

“I just want transgender people to be accepted in every single way that other people are.”

What does that mean though? What does “be accepted” mean? Nobody is “accepted” in every possible sense, so what are we even talking about?

Where and when we have to “accept” trans people actually is an issue, … Read the rest

Apparently one thing Trump has been doing with all those stolen classified documents is cutting them into “note cards” on which he tells his employees their tasks for the day.

One of former President Donald Trump’s long-time assistants told federal investigators that Trump repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House that were marked classified, according to sources familiar with her statements.

As described to ABC News, the aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that — more than once — she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials — with visible classification markings — used to brief Trump while

Debbie Schipp of the Daily Telegraph (Australia) on Russell Brand’s blatant contempt for women and how long it went unrebuked:

I don’t know if Russell Brand is guilty of the specific rape and sexual assault and harassment claims being levelled against him. I do know I’m surprised that it’s taken this long for him to be called out as an allegedly predatory and controlling creep.

I do know that when I walked out of a one-on-one interview (actually, there was one of me, and then him and the tittering entourage he played to in the room) with Brand more than a decade ago, I’d just met a very unprofessional and decidedly ordinary human being.

I’d been witness to — and

Who you callin’ mentally fogged?

Donald Trump has long attacked Joe Biden, his likely opponent at the polls next year, as “Sleepy Joe”, portraying the 80-year-old president as too old and too mentally fogged to occupy the Oval Office.

Trump, on the other hand, is just plain stupid.

Trump is 77 but polls show significantly fewer voters think he is too old to return to power. 

But is he too stupid? Too vicious, too reckless, too self-dealing, too corrupt, too law-breaking, too sexist, too racist, too xenophobic, too rude, too trashy, too sadistic, too ignorant? Hell yes.

Biden says he is fit to serve. So does Trump, telling NBC in an interview broadcast on Sunday “there should be a competency”

Gaby Hinsliff on why it matters when a sleb dude is revealed as not entirely a feminist:

The most haunting moment for me of last weekend’s joint investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, the Sunday Times and the Times wasn’t the admittedly horrific allegations of rape and sexual assault (which Brand denies, insisting that even at his wildest all the sex was consensual). It was the way Dispatches spliced footage of Brand onstage – joking about his enthusiasm for rough sex, for blowjobs that left women choking and gasping and with mascara running down their faces – together with footage of a woman named only as Alice, describing how she allegedly experienced just that with Brand when she was only

It’s never at all about narcissism though, never never never.

Found a disabled toilet … not the most fun I've had. pic.twitter.com/UQFzxPvNVt

— Heather Herbert (@HeatherHerbert_) September 17, 2023

… Read the rest