Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on Exploiting what looked like a principle of free speech.

We live in a world of finite resources, including credibility. Every time you give someone a platform, you are spending some of those resources, whether it’s the physical space, the staff time, the speaker budget, the attention span of your community, and/or your credibility as an institution.

There are thousands of crackpots out there churning out emails to physicists explaining how they have figured out that Einstein Was Wrong, that their pet Time Cube Theory or whatever explains life, the universe, and everything, etc. etc. And free speech demands that they are allowed to operate their badly-designed web sites without being shut down … Read the rest

Make it stop make it stop make it stop

Guess who's out selling t-shirts today based on his CNN appearance last night?

Very presidential indeed. . . pic.twitter.com/Y0VQTqOwjI

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) May 11, 2023

… Read the rest

Blah blah blah sob sob sob blah blah poor nice lady sob sob why won’t they let her compete sob sob

A 21-year-old sprinter, Halba Diouf, dreamt of running under France’s banner in the 2024 Olympic Games. But as a transgender woman, her hopes were dashed when the World Athletics Council banned athletes like her from competing in women’s events https://t.co/5wv8O9VS8n pic.twitter.com/UQwpdB9jES

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 11, 2023

Halba Diouf “dreamed of” running in competition with women, which would give him a huge advantage. The problem with that is that it’s unfair to the women, so keep your sobs and sympathy to yourselves.

He hoped to cheat; he can’t; end of dramatic story.… Read the rest

The person (or identity) who wrote this ridiculous “pronouns” “resource” for the University of Colorado is barely literate as well as dim.

They/zir provides a whole table of how to use pronouns as if students age 17 and above don’t already know how to speak their own language. They/zir then give a lot of absurd patronizing laughable advice.

Try to introduce yourself with your own pronouns so that everyone you meet knows that you’re a safe space and that you won’t assume a person’s pronouns. It also prompts them to provide pronouns without it being awkward. (Ex. “Hello, my name is Alex and I use they/them/theirs pronouns.”)

What if you don’t want everyone you meet to know you’re a safe … Read the rest

The University of Colorado, you’ll be thrilled to know, has a Center for Inclusion and Social Change (or at least a website that calls itself a Center for etc). It has, of course, a pride office, and it offers, of course, lgbtq resources. You can tell that from the url of that office’s resources’ page on

drum roll

wait for it

pronouns

Pronouns are how you refer to someone if you are not using their name. For example; “Samantha left her keys at my place last night.”

If someone tells you their pronouns, use those! If you don’t know someone’s pronouns, don’t assume gendered pronouns and use gender-neutral ones, like they or ze.

Bad writing; sounds as if they’re saying … Read the rest

God I wish a meteorite would drop on him. I see in the news a meteorite just punched a hole in the roof of a house in Hopewell, New Jersey. I grew up a few miles from Hopewell. I feel a kinship with this meteorite. I urge it to send a message to its comrades to aim for Trump until they score.

"Women let you" — Trump defends his comments about the Access Hollywood tape from his deposition pic.twitter.com/46QFb0buc5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2023

He tells about 17 lies in that one clip, and gets about 50 things wrong.

Send. that. meteorite.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Weeds.

do they agree that wrong-think should be suppressed and never analysed?

Well, “our” opinion about one specific example of one specific view being presented in one specific context doesn’t extrapolate to whether “we” agree that all “wrongthink” should be suppressed and “never” analysed.

For example, most people agree that Holocaust denialism no longer merits the legitimacy of a platform at a respectable academic institution. This isn’t at all because Holocaust denialism is supposedly “wicked” and should be suppressed: it’s because such views have already been aired plenty, and analyzed to death, and there’s by now such broad, overwhelming evidence against them that the subject is done and buried. There’s nothing left to … Read the rest

Trump did a “Town Hall” thing last night, which is to say he did a campaign gig hosted by CNN. Why is CNN boosting Trump? I suppose because $$$.

He may have increased his legal jeopardy though.

The most heated exchange that Mr. Trump had with Ms. Collins was over the special counsel investigation into his possession of hundreds of presidential records, including more than 300 individual classified documents, at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, after he left office.

And it was the area in which he walked himself into the biggest problems.

“I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified,” said Mr. Trump, who has maintained, despite contradictions from his own former officials, that

Oxford students shun the Oxford Union because eeeeeeeeeeek a transphobe.

In its 200-year history as a prestigious debating chamber the Oxford Union has hosted world-famous speakers including Mother Theresa, Albert Einstein and Desmond Tutu. But now it is being ostracised by the University of Oxford’s student union, which has accused it of fostering a toxic environment that has led to bullying and sexual harassment.

The student union voted to sever fiscal ties with the OU, banning it from its freshers’ fair, which could put a strain on the debating organisation’s finances. It is the first time such action has been taken.

It comes as a number of Oxford university colleges voted to oppose the OU’s speaking invitation this month to

The Pulitzer for insulting women goes to…

Andrea Long Chu, a contributor to Artforum and its recently shuttered sister publication Bookforum, has won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. A book critic at New York magazine since 2021, she was honored on the strength of five stories she wrote for that publication last year…

“Each of her subjects is a portal into something broader,” said New York editor in chief David Haskell at the time of her hiring, “and each of her reviews you end up mulling hours after you put them down.” The Brooklyn-based Chu has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, and n+1, among other publications. Her book Females

Then there’s the one about the “you can grab them by the pussy” tape.

here's a clip from Trump's deposition where he comments on the Access Hollywood tape pic.twitter.com/HxrPtH0UYa

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 5, 2023

Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan asks him: “When you’re a star they let you do it, you can grab them by the pussy, you can do anything, that’s what you said, correct?”

Trump: “Well historically that’s true with stars.”

Kaplan: “True with stars that they can grab women by the pussy?”

Trump tilts his head: “Well that’s what – it’s – ya look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true, not always, but largely true.”

Huh. Million years. I wonder how … Read the rest

I’ve been thrashing around for what feels like hours trying to find clean clips of Trump’s deposition – clean in the sense of being just deposition, not 80% talking head commentary and 20% deposition – when I finally remembered Aaron Rupar has them all.

(Why do I want them? To pick apart Trump’s “thinking.”)

CNN just played a clip from Trump's deposition in the E Jean Carroll case pic.twitter.com/VAtNHjgy1M

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 5, 2023

That she’s not my type? Yeah. [squares his shoulders pugnaciously] Because it’s not politically correct to say it [swings his head defiantly] and I know that but I’ll say it anyway.

There, that’s some of his “thinking.” It’s a new, trendy, silly, pretentious, politically … Read the rest

Another man proudly takes what belongs to women.

An Australian Transgender surfer who competes against women has said that “Trans Athletes are Here to Stay”

Sasha Lane Lowerson, the first openly trans pro-surfer, recently competed in the women’s category at the World Surf League’s Manly Longboard Classic.

Lowerson said… pic.twitter.com/K9ZjiAGt0M

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 10, 2023

“Trans athletes” are welcome to stay. Men are not welcome to compete against women.

Lowerson said while competing against men he “didn’t feel safe.”

So he competes against women and makes them unsafe. Seems fair.… Read the rest

The CBC tells us:

N.B. reviews gender-identity policy in schools as supporters accuse minister of caving to anti-LGBTQ pressure

But of course it could be just pressure not to promote trans ideology, as opposed to pressure to hate anti-lesbian gay bi trans queer people. In other words “anti-LGBTQ” is probably a misnomer.

The Higgs government in New Brunswick says it is rethinking its policy on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools because of a backlash against the guidelines.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development confirmed it’s reviewing the policy, designed to support gay, lesbian and trans youth, “after hearing concerns and misunderstandings of its implementation.”

The review was already underway before Education Minister Bill Hogan distanced

The Times sedately reports:

A Manhattan jury on Tuesday found former President Donald J. Trump liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of the magazine writer E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages in a widely watched civil trial that sought to apply the accountability of the #MeToo era to a dominant political figure.

The what of the what? When has it ever been ok for a man to push a woman up against a wall and violently grab her “by the pussy”? Never. That’s never been ok. The fact that some men have thought they get to do it anyway is beside the point.

I don’t believe in this “MeToo era” thing. Sexual assault is … Read the rest

Verdict is in. No on rape, yes on sexual abuse. $2 million in damages.

Correction: 5 million. FIVE.… Read the rest

Safe, joyful, inclusive, all the good things.

I’m sickened by the way the GC movement weaponises victimhood to further their cause, taking personal swipes at anyone that stands up for trans rights accusing them of hating or harming women. It does nothing for equality.

— Dr Katie Nicoll Baines (she/her) (@knicollb) May 8, 2023

Yes isn’t it sickening how feminist women point out why women need feminism. Also: isn’t it impressive how the trans movement never ever ever “weaponises victimhood.” Also what does she mean by “safe, joyful protest”? The “protest” was so safe and joyful that the film was canceled, so the women who went there to see it did not get to see it. Much safe, very … Read the rest

It is, indeed, disgusting.

This has to be one of the nastiest, most disgraceful responses to legitimate concerns about the gender cult ever voiced by a senior Labour politician. And the competition has been stiff https://t.co/3A3RgpOq8a

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) May 9, 2023

… Read the rest

Sonia Sodha is unimpressed by Stonewall’s tantrum.

More on why we should all be glad the EHRC is doing its job rather than adopting wholesale the controversial & discriminatory Stonewall worldview that gender identity should effectively replace sex in law and society.https://t.co/896p2s1nwN

— Sonia Sodha (@soniasodha) May 9, 2023

Dennis Kavanagh same.

1/ Firmly in the category of national joke, Stonewall now determine to become an international one. Domestic irrelevance/laughing stock status means this failing gender borg cube now has to appeal to niche international audiences populated by fellow gendocrats. pic.twitter.com/NsnifpnTPo

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) May 9, 2023

… Read the rest

Stonewall is in a lather.

The UK’s national human rights institution, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), has completely failed to engage with significant recommendations given to it for improvement to their governance and conduct, and is instead doubling down on its attempts to roll back trans rights and to seek trans people’s exclusion from public life, a coalition of leading LGBTQ+ charities has warned.

But of course the all too familiar question immediately arises – how are you defining trans rights?

Being Stonewall, they are of course defining trans rights as doing whatever they want all the time, which unfortunately clashes with the rights of other people, in particular women, lesbians, gay men, children, teenagers…quite a lot … Read the rest