Laurel Collins is an NDP MP for Victoria. She has a long bonkers thread on Twitter listing all the things we must do to rescue trans people from the edge of a cliff over a pool of sharks. I’ll just quote it because too much Twitter is too much.

The rising hate directed at trans people is terrifying, and Conservative leaders are stoking this hate with dangerous discriminatory policies. We need to better support trans & gender-diverse people. [trans flag trans flag]

Here are 29 concrete things we’re fighting for:

29 Concrete Steps: 1 on supporting organizations 2 to 8 on gender-affirming healthcare 9 to 13 on hate & violence 14 to 16 on identity documents 17 to 19 on

Billy Bragg is even more disgusting than I realized.

The only gender ideology that actually exists is patriarchy, which poses a threat to women, girls and trans women alike https://t.co/Bc2U4EkO7X

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) September 11, 2023

No. Wrong. Patriarchy does not “pose a threat” to trans women the same way it poses a threat to women. Trans women may well be subject to bullying from men, but that’s not the same as the relegation to second class status that women are subject to from birth.

I see people exercising their right to protest. Do you believe that people have that fundamental right or do you think that these women are bullies too? pic.twitter.com/m1P9RMR081

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) September 11,

The glaciers are melting.

Once, there were 29. Now at least one is gone, maybe three. Those that remain are almost half the size they used to be.

Mount Rainier is losing its glaciers. That is all the more striking as it is the most glacier-covered mountain in the contiguous United States.

It doesn’t look as if it’s losing its glaciers from down here in Seattle. It still looks like a giant ice cream cone. But appearances can deceive.

Mountain glaciers are vanishing as the burning of fossil fuels heats up Earth’s atmosphere. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, total glacier area has shrunk steadily in the last half-century; some of the steepest declines have been in the 

This stands for so much – what they get wrong, how very wrong they get it, how obvious it is why they get it so wrong.

No you wouldn't. You aren't worried about trans people at all. If you saw someone you thought was trans you would start abusing them. You'd feel powerful and superior

— Katy Montgomerie 🦗 (@KatyMontgomerie) September 12, 2023

If you, a woman, saw a man you thought was pretending to be a woman, you’d feel powerful and superior.

That is so fucking stupid it takes my breath away. A lone woman doesn’t ever feel “powerful and superior” in the presence of a random man displaying weird behavior. She might feel morally or intellectually superior, but … Read the rest

The rules: We can say whatever we like; you are a fucking sociopath if you say whatever we don’t like. Got that?

First:

A startlingly cruel and hateful person https://t.co/h0XvlbPmdS

— Dorian Lynskey (@Dorianlynskey) September 11, 2023

That’s fine. Fine fine fine. It’s fine for Dorian Lynskey to call Helen Joyce “a startlingly cruel and hateful person.”

Other people however…

How dare Rachel say he isn’t too keen on strong, outspoken women.… Read the rest

What a nauseating display.

Filed under “Transgender News”:

Labour councillor Alison Thomson of Brighton & Hove City Council apologises for engaging with transphobic posts on social media

Brighton & Hove City Council councillor Alison Thomson, of Brighton & Hove Labour Party, has apologised for engaging with transphobic posts on social media, as reported by Scene magazine. The Labour councillor was slammed by community groups for reposting or liking a series of tweets supporting the anti-trans TERF movement, which is spearheaded by controversial figures such as JK Rowling and Julie Bindel. 

Millions of womenphobic “posts on social media” appear every day without any male reporters getting all breathless about it, let alone openly fantasizing about women getting … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on Detrimental clothes.

It sounds like the scars of Japanese occupation have not healed for members of the older generations. It was a brutal occupation targeting the civilian population with rape and murder. Here’s an article aobut it,  and the disastrous role that Chiang Kai-Shek played in losing the second Sino-Japanese war of the 20th century.

During the eight years of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), China suffered continual crushing and humiliating defeats at the hands of Japan and was subject to a devastating, brutal occupation of much of the nation. Japanese behaviour in the conflict was the principal factor which distinguished the occupation from other wars of recent memory. Not since medieval

Ahahahahahaha so there shitheads!

Roisin Murphy’s new album set for chart success after puberty blocker comments

Nyah nyah.

Roisin Murphy will claim the second spot on the UK albums chart for her new album Hit Parade, released after the Irish singer-songwriter became embroiled in controversy.

The former Moloko frontwoman, 50, was forced [bullied] to apologise last month after facing criticism for comments that appeared to condemn the use of puberty blockers by transgender children.

There’s no such thing as “transgender children.” There are only children who have been misled by a stupid fad.

According to Planned Parenthood, these are medical treatments that can be used to “help your body better reflect” your gender identity.

What’s Planned Parenthood got do … Read the rest

Bad bad bad bad move.

Law enforcement in the US city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will no longer report the biological sex of crime victims, a decision made after "discussions the department had with members of the LGBTQ+ community."

Wisconsin has the nation's 8th highest rate of domestic violence… pic.twitter.com/AnkoahqIkj

— Genevieve Gluck (@WomenReadWomen) September 11, 2023

Law enforcement in the US city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will no longer report the biological sex of crime victims, a decision made after “discussions the department had with members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

Wisconsin has the nation’s 8th highest rate of domestic violence homicides (wherein women are killed by men), which have skyrocketed by 300% over the past decade.

“Every four and a half

It’s kind of amusing to read about Tucker Carlson’s relegation to being just another talker. Last April

Fox News, after settling a defamation lawsuit for $787m, gave Carlson the boot.

The move was as unexpected as it was sudden, and left viewers and pundits wondering what Carlson, who had used his position to push far-right conspiracy theories and elevate rightwing figures, would do next.

So far, the answer has been: use a new Twitter show to push even more conspiracy theories and give a platform to even more bizarre people, which culminated with a new low this week, as Carlson revived a debunked claim that Barack Obama smoked crack and had sex with a man many years ago.

Dress normal god damn it!

In the 1980s, people in China could land themselves in trouble with the government for their fashion choices.

Flared pants and bluejeans were considered “weird attire.” Some government buildings barred men with long hair and women wearing makeup and jewelry. Patrols organized by factories and schools cut flared pants and long hair with scissors.

I kind of know the feeling. I’m extremely judgmental, and

[by the way I’m so judgmental that I’m annoyed that “judgmental” isn’t spelled “judgemental” because ffs people without the e the g is pronounced as in gun or gone or gulp]

because I’m very judgey I often do have a censorious opinion about what other people are wearing. Yoga pants for … Read the rest

Women=fascist scum. Not just terfs, but women in general, women as such. We’re all fascist scum.

While we were inside the museum talking about human rights the crowd were outside chalking threats on the pavement

ADULT HUMAN FEMALE NOUN: FASCIST SCUM pic.twitter.com/BiquUET6Du

— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) September 11, 2023

… Read the rest

I’ve seldom read anything more wounding. A Guardian autobiographical tale of a UK teenager who longed to go west:

I applied to US colleges I had heard of in films. I studied SAT books and got a good enough score to attempt the admissions process. Things started to happen. I bunked off sixth form to attend interviews. In films these are huge moments of plot development…

The campus was eerily pristine; if there was a leaf on the ground it would be swept up almost immediately. No wonder, because the campus was literally a film set. This was where Buffy the Vampire Slayer went to college and Elle Woods checked into Harvard in Legally Blonde. Hip-hop dancers had dance-offs

Paul Murphy is TD for Dublin South West. TD=Teachta Dála, a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). 

He did this today.

A legislator put a target on a reporter’s child on social media.… Read the rest

Whoopsie, the Pope let the mask slip.

The Vatican sought to defend Pope Francis on Tuesday after he sparked fury in Ukraine by praising Russia’s imperial rulers — a history President Vladimir Putin has invoked to justify his ongoing war.

The Kremlin delighted in the controversy, which stemmed from comments the pontiff made to a group of young Russian Catholics urging them to see themselves as the heirs of a “great” empire.

No no no, Mister Pontiff, that’s the part you’re not supposed to say out loud. You’re not supposed to admit it’s about power and domination. Big big no-no.

“Don’t forget your heritage. You are the descendants of great Russia: the great Russia of saints, rulers, the

Still doing it, is he? Guy who likes to tweet enhanced photos of his 58-year-old male self, calling women frumps and old relics? Guy who has been around for 58 years and still hasn’t caught on that playground-bullying isn’t a good look on an adult?

Pakistan Willoughby says:

The entirety of the Helen Joyce ‘Gender Critical’ movement meeting in a Manchester museum for old relics today. Wow. Around 1,000 cis women outside, standing WITH the trans community, opposing GC bigotry and hate. Terf now stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Frump.

With photo of actual women rather than the pretend kind.

H/t Rob for the link after Willz tried to hide.… Read the rest

Hmmm.

Beatification for Polish family murdered for sheltering Jews

A beatification Mass service has been held in Poland for a Catholic family murdered by Nazis for hiding Jews during World War Two. Poland’s president and more than 30,000 pilgrims attended the outdoor service, led by Pope Francis’ envoy. This was the first time an entire family has been beatified, a great honour and a step towards sainthood.

They were executed in 1944 with the Jews they sheltered in south-eastern Poland, after they were betrayed.

That’s all very nice but the BBC fails to murmur so much as a word about the Catholic church’s relationship to Nazism and Anti-Semitism. The Catholic church was not a beacon of resistance to Nazism in … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Most don’t have a grounding.

So I can only guess that being incomprehensible is the point – it’s supposed to be inaccessible to the plebs.

Keeping things in house, acting as interpreters, gatekeepers and guides gives merchants of obscurantinism control over the narrative. Would Judith Butler be as influential if she wrote simply and understandably? She takes adantage of the all-too-common belief that things that are complex are difficult to understand, and there “must be something to it” if it’s coming from a professor.

But there’s a difference between specialized vocabulary (which can involve a lot of technical jargon), and obfuscatory bullshit. The core of genderism is that “gender identity” … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Coel on Most don’t have a grounding.

One reason science papers are inaccessible is the language of science requires a vocabulary most people don’t have. [iknklast]

Agreed, and to add to this, it is not just a matter of using different words (as if they were using every-day concepts, but talking in German rather than English). Rather, each of these jargon words represents a concept that is not present in everyday life.

Thus someone could be familiar with the car-mechanic’s word “carburettor”, but still not understand how a carburettor combines with other components into an engine. Imagine explaining that term to an intelligent and educated person from the 14th century.

There are physicists writing books

This seems like a very insane thing to do to young children:

Kids in a primary school have been told to refer to their gender-neutral teacher as “they” in the classroom. The Third Class pupils returned to school last week to be informed their new teacher wants to be referred to by first name only, or the pronoun “they”.

The children from the Dublin Educate Together school – aged 8 and 9 – were told this on their first day back, according to parents. They have since been corrected by the teacher for saying “she” and taught to say “they” instead.

Look, these are children. They’re still learning the language. It’s idiotic to teach them a wrong version … Read the rest