All entries by this author

Guest post: Burying the go-to explanation

Oct 5th, 2022 5:34 pm | By

Originally a comment by Freemage on A small but important right.

It always blows my mind how swiftly virtually the entire Left forgot about the phrase “Schroedinger’s Rapist”. It was the go-to for the explanation why women couldn’t just trust a random guy, even though he might seem all right – because rapists don’t wear neon signs on their heads, and thus you only know a guy is a threat when he actually reveals himself to BE a threat.

And of course, this was true even though the vast, vast majority of men not only aren’t rapists, but are repulsed and revolted by the idea of rape. The harm that can be committed by the small minority of men … Read the rest



Sonnet 116 it ain’t

Oct 5th, 2022 4:54 pm | By

And Glosswitch shares another narcissistic display from the Globe:

Blah blah blah my right to proudly self-identify blah blah blah my beauty astounds them –

This is not social justice or anything like it. This is just an unholy blend of aggression and conceit. I can’t wait for it to fall over and end.… Read the rest



Sacred AND divine

Oct 5th, 2022 4:41 pm | By

Ah so they’re admitting it.

The Globe’s current pinned tweet:

https://twitter.com/The_Globe/status/1577614239795134466

The dogma has been hinting it for ages, but not quite saying it out loud.

Eye-rolls aside, this is why the “movement” is so terrible and boring and ruinous. This conceit and megalomania and histrionic narcissism. No you’re not “the divine,” you’re just a very naughty cult.

Update: the Globe deleted the tweet so here’s the clip via a different tweet:

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Worse again

Oct 5th, 2022 2:07 pm | By

It started from Sally Hines ranting at Rebecca R-C on Twitter and led to a lot of eye-popping stuff I hadn’t seen before.

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Guest post: It’s not just a yard sign any more

Oct 5th, 2022 11:31 am | By

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on About the emotional stunting.

I think part of the problem is that these pundits live in a different world than the rest of us. I don’t mean just “they’re the elite and we’re the common folk,” though that can be part of it. I just mean that the stakes are different for them, in both directions: they’re often insulated from the consequences of the other side’s policies, yet they feel conflict more sharply because of the work and social circles in which they live.

Example 1: Opinion columnists/pundits. I’m sure Ross Douthat is a swell guy and easy to get along with. He seems nice in the podcasts and dialogues I’ve heard … Read the rest



Funny kind of welcome message

Oct 5th, 2022 8:15 am | By

The misogyny gets more blatant by the day.

It’s a very long thread so I’ll quote some of it, to speed things up.

“Wider context: women … Read the rest



Aka obstinacy

Oct 5th, 2022 7:14 am | By

Meet “belief perseverance”:

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Revelation

Oct 5th, 2022 6:54 am | By

Benjamin Cohen of Pink News is trying to salvage what he can, and it’s not going all that well.

Well of course Mermaids said that, but it isn’t true. “Safety” isn’t helping children ruin their bodies in pursuit of a trendy illusion.

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Not libel if true

Oct 5th, 2022 1:39 am | By

I think truth is a defense in libel cases, no? Trump is suing CNN for “libeling” him by reporting on him.

Donald Trump has sued cable TV network CNN, claiming defamation and seeking punitive damages of $475m, according to a Florida court filing on Monday.

The US cable news station has attempted to smear the former US president “with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler’,” Trump’s lawyers claimed. The lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

I don’t think those claims will be very hard to defend as true. If CNN said he actually is Hitler that could be an issue, but I’m betting they comparedRead the rest



About the emotional stunting

Oct 5th, 2022 1:12 am | By

Victoria Smith in The Critic:

Much is made of Mermaids’ promotion of puberty blockers, which halt children’s physical growth. In many ways I am far more concerned about the emotional stunting. The #NoDebate, #ProtectTransKids message refuses to acknowledge that our identities are shaped through constant negotiation with others. 

By telling children that anyone who does not see them as they see themselves is a threat, Mermaids is preventing the development of mature individuals — adults who understand that we are all defined in the context of our relationships with others, including those with whom we may not always agree. 

Exactly. It’s the worship of The Self that is so stifling and damaging.… Read the rest



He got to know them all

Oct 5th, 2022 12:54 am | By

Trump didn’t study for the exam, in fact he has no idea what the course even is.

He starts with saying he likes Liz Truss, then moves swiftly into claiming he and King Choss are close friends.

Trump said that King Charles would be “different now” and would do “very well” in his new role.

“I know him very well, quite well. And I spent a lot of time when I was over there as president with him. And with his wife [who] was absolutely lovely, by the way, and we had a good time together,” he said.

No he didn’t. He was there for a couple of days and he of course didn’t spend “a lot of time” … Read the rest



A small but important right

Oct 4th, 2022 5:17 pm | By

Deep thought.

https://twitter.com/LouisatheLast/status/1577088253282304000

Yes you do.

Yes, you do. In some circumstances you most definitely do. Not all, but some.

It might make you uncomfortable to have a stranger come into your house uninvited and settle down in your living room, even if that stranger never harmed anything or shouted at you or stole one of the lamps. You do have a right not to be made uncomfortable that way.

The toilets situation is not exactly like that, but it’s not radically different, either.… Read the rest



A pattern too many

Oct 4th, 2022 5:08 pm | By

No.

No. There’s no pattern to see. … Read the rest



People with an attraction to children and adolescents

Oct 4th, 2022 4:39 pm | By

The BBC works hard to minimize it:

A trustee of the charity Mermaids has resigned after reports he spoke at a conference organised by a group that promotes support for paedophiles.

Dr Jacob Breslow quit the transgender children’s charity after the Times revealed he had attended the B4U-ACT conference in 2011, as a PhD student.

B4U-ACT calls for paedophiles to have the right to live “in truth and dignity”.

Do the children get to live in truth and dignity?

B4U-ACT’s website says it holds workshops and gives presentations about the needs and rights of people “with an attraction to children and adolescents”, and runs support groups for both them and their friends and family members.

“An attraction to” is … Read the rest



But this is cancel culture!!

Oct 4th, 2022 3:32 pm | By

If we’d been…

Also…

“Desiring the Child”…and stalking the child, getting the child alone, putting the child on your lap, putting your hand in the child’s pants, putting the child’s hand on your penis…the possibilities are endless.… Read the rest



Foucault redux

Oct 4th, 2022 12:17 pm | By

Graham has an encyclopedic post on the former Mermaids trustee which includes this fascinating item:

I wonder if this will be the end of the road for the fishy ones.… Read the rest



Charity Commission please note

Oct 4th, 2022 12:09 pm | By

“Gender research” scholar resigns from Mermaids under a garish cloud:

A trustee of the transgender charity Mermaids resigned last night after it emerged that he had spoken at a conference hosted by an organisation that promotes services to paedophiles.

Aka child rapists.

Dr Jacob Breslow was a graduate student in gender research at the London School of Economics when he gave a presentation at an event for the US-based B4U-ACT in 2011.

Breslow’s presentation appeared to be a critique of how paedophiles were understood.

You mean as child rapists?

He’s now an assistant professor of gender and sexuality at LSE. He became a trustee of Mermaids in July.

After The Times approached Mermaids about Breslow’s talk, he tendered his resignation

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Guest post: Avoid the poopy-heads

Oct 3rd, 2022 6:36 pm | By

Originally a comment by iknklast on A protean concept.

DiAngelo is following the pattern of other consultants. In corporations, and in academia, it has been a pattern for a long time to hire consultants who tell people if they are unhappy, it’s because they “let” themselves be. Not making enough to buy food for your family? Just think positively! It isn’t the fault of the boss, or the system, but you for finding that problematic.

Bosses ate it up, and hired these consultants to come tell their employees what was wrong with them – the employees, I mean. Wage too low? Don’t ask for a raise, that’s complaining. Figure out why you think it’s too low, and realize it … Read the rest



A protean concept

Oct 3rd, 2022 2:28 pm | By

Hari Kunzru wrote a brilliant piece on “whiteness” for the New York Review of Books a couple of years ago.

One idea inherited from 1960s radicalism is that of “white privilege,” a protean concept that has found its way into conversations about political power, material prosperity, social status, and even cognition. Invoking whiteness can stand in for older leftist ideas about class and power, or it can be a way of modifying those ideas. Whiteness can name a specifically American caste system—a historical product of plantation slavery—or a set of unexamined beliefs about a person’s own centrality, neutrality, authority, and objectivity. It can also take on a transhistorical, even transcendental quality, naming something more like a spiritual condition, a

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Supra dig

Oct 3rd, 2022 1:51 pm | By

A funny item in Pink News last January:

Trans Joy: 23 trans and non-binary people share what’s making them feel hopeful for 2022

Anonymous, Brighton: “In 2021, I and my Sussex Uni peers kicked up enough fuss about TERFism in academia to get the whole nation talking, and I couldn’t be more proud of Brighton’s trans community.

“We’ve started a long-overdue conversation about humanity and dignity that I want to continue throughout 2022 and beyond.”

So much dignity and humanity!… Read the rest