Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug at Miscellany 6.

I recently finished reading A Lot of People Are Saying – The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy by Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum. In it the authors make a distinction between “classical conspiracy theories” and what they call the “new conspiracism” which they describe as “conspiracy without the theory”. Where the former were at the very least attempts to explain real events and appealed to supposedly “scientific” data and “rational” arguments (e.g. the obsession of 9-11 truthers with the temperature of burning jet fuel and the melting point of steel), the new conspiracisms don’t attempt to explain anything (more often than not, there isn’t even anything to … Read the rest

Queen’s University promotes Gegi the leering unicorn, which is perhaps less surprising when you see that one of the “researchers” behind Gegi is at Queen’s University, and that the author of the promo is Julie Brown, Queen’s University Media Relations Officer. In other words it’s a literal promo.

Queen’s researcher Lee Airton has created Gegi.ca, an online resource that helps students advocate for their gender expression and gender identity human rights.

But why do students need to “advocate for their gender expression and gender identity human rights”? God only knows what that even means, but in any case why do they need to advocate for whatever it is?

I don’t think there’s any such thing as “gender expression human … Read the rest

Hmm.

.@gegi_ca is an online resource for K-12 students & educators seeking info about gender identity & gender expression human rights protection developed by @LeeAirton & @kylekirkup & their teams at #queensu & @uOttawa.

Learn more https://t.co/1NUHv0EeX3 | #QueensuResearch #OntEd pic.twitter.com/ic63Ipos8K

— Queen's University (@queensu) May 5, 2021

That looks…kind of creepy. Also K-12? The content looks too old for the younger ones and the style looks too young for the older ones.

But also…

What?! That’s a new one to me, but if true…well, one wonders what the thinking is. (It doesn’t come up on the top results on Google.)

Scrolling through its tweets it seems to be about pushing “gender expression” in schools, because … Read the rest

Won’t someone spare a thought for the exiled and silenced Josh Hawley?

Since Jan. 6, when the Missouri Republican was photographed fist-pumping his support for some of the very fine people who would later storm the United States Capitol, Hawley has been all but banished from the media. Other than his frequent appearances on some of the most popular cable news shows in the country, his biting Twitter account, the Instagram account where he posts family snapshots and clips from cable hits, and his YouTube page collecting his nearly every utterance on the Senate floor, Hawley has suffered the worst fate known to a modern American politician: cancellation.

But as Nelson Mandela wrote while imprisoned on Robben Island, “Difficulties

Sex Matters live-tweeted another judicial hearing on whether or not men can force themselves on women. R is respondent, J is judge.

R: it may be justified to exclude trans people, but that question would have to be asked 

The proportionality test will always depend on the particular facts. How could you possibly decide that every women’s refuge and every women’s changing room must always exclude transwomen? 

Well that’s easy. You could decide it the way you decide that every women’s refuge and every women’s changing room must always exclude men, because that’s what calling them women’s refuges and changing rooms means. If you don’t exclude men then they’re not women’s any more. We already know that women … Read the rest

More fawning coverage of “Laurel” Hubbard’s successful cheating:

Weightlifting has been at the centre of the debate over the fairness of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, and Hubbard’s presence in Tokyo is set to attract huge media attention as well as criticism from fellow lifters and coaches.

Her gold medal wins at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, where she topped the podium ahead of Samoa’s Commonwealth Games champion Feagaiga Stowers, triggered outrage in the island nation.

Australia’s weightlifting federation sought to block Hubbard from competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast but organisers rejected the move.

In other words organisers said a big “fuck you” to women in weightlifting.… Read the rest

Stark raving mad.

A 25-year-old from Huddersfield has implored people to help them become comfortable in their own skin by donating money for life-changing gender reassignment surgery.

Pan Hollingworth, who was born in Leeds and moved to the West Yorkshire town in 2010, came out as non-binary 10 years ago after previously identifying as genderqueer.

They realised during childhood there was a “disconnection” with either gender as they did not conform to being male or female. After researching online, they then found a term which they could relate to.

“I was online quite a lot as a 16-year-old and I just came across this phrase,” Pan said. “I came out as genderqueer first as I knew I wasn’t a

Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre – the one that just made a trans woman its CEO – offers no women-only services.

We respect the courage and strength it takes to speak out about your experience whether it has been a recent assault or it happened a long time ago. When you contact us we will offer you a face-to-face support session. You can use this time in any way you choose, and we can talk through what support we offer. 

Our specialist trauma-informed support services are open to women, all members of the trans community, non-binary people and young people aged 12 – 18 who have experienced any form of sexual violence at any time in their lives, by abusers

The new Jesus and Mo –

“You’re either non-binary or you’re not”… Read the rest

No room for radical feminists in the feminist movement. Interesting. I wonder what they think feminism is, exactly.

(I don’t really wonder. I don’t think they think much at all, I think they just parrot the slogans they’re told to parrot.)

There is no room for TERFs in the feminist movement.

Join us and 100+ feminist and social justice organizations in declaring your support for trans inclusion and liberation: https://t.co/BFpMjhX2qT pic.twitter.com/7RS9ApDRaf

— Action Canada (@actioncanadashr) May 4, 2021

Supporting the rights of trans people really isn’t essential to protecting all women. It’s beside the point. The rights of trans people appear to be 1. the right to force everyone to agree that you are the sex you … Read the rest

Well, “make history” is one way to put it. The Guardian gushes:

Trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard set to make history at Tokyo Olympics

Laurel Hubbard is a man, and what he’s set to do at the Tokyo Olympics is steal a medal from a woman. The Guardian doesn’t admit that.

History and controversy is expected to be made at the Tokyo Olympics this summer after the transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was effectively guaranteed a place in the women’s super heavyweight category.

Why controversy? Because he’s a man, so it’s cheating. Blatant, shameless, piggy cheating.

It means Hubbard, who won silver at the 2017 world championships and was sixth after a severe injury in 2019, is almost certain to become the

Last July Stonewall posted some advice on “how you can better support non-binary people.”

Is this a reciprocal type thing? Is there advice to non-binary people on how they can better support binary people?

And what is it to “support” people anyway? When it’s parents of minors, for instance, it means paying their expenses. When it’s non-binary people…?

So let’s see what Stonewall tells us.

There are many ways to be inclusive of everyone, regardless of their gender identity. Our language and the way we speak is often embedded with hidden gendered cues.

So to support non-binary people we should get rid of all those embedded hidden gendered cues, yes? Only, then, won’t trans people wonder what happened to our … Read the rest

Another item from the annals of “kink” –

A man was today found guilty over the death of his partner after a bondage game went wrong at a North Wales holiday resort.

That is, a man killed a woman during sex.

Warren Martin Coulton, 52, tied-up Claire Wright, 38, during a drug and drink fuelled session at a luxury lodge.

However, he fell asleep while she was still restrained and she suffocated to death.

Coulton found her dead when he woke up but fled the scene.

During his seven day trial, the court heard Coulton had put a sock in her mouth and may have taped it up.

In other words he killed her.

Ms Wright’s body was found in

Trump is hopping with fury at Facebook and Liz Cheney.

Donald Trump has just released a new statement, but the former president focuses his ire on congresswoman Liz Cheney, not the Facebook oversight board.

“Warmonger Liz Cheney, who has virtually no support left in the Great State of Wyoming, continues to unknowingly and foolishly say that there was no Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election when in fact, the evidence, including no Legislative approvals as demanded by the U.S. Constitution, shows the exact opposite,” Trump said.

He’s still illiterate as well as a liar. “Unknowingly” is not the right word there. Most of the words are wrong or in the wrong place or lies or all three. He … Read the rest

Sure but they got away with it anyway.

Judge says Barr “misled” aka lied about the Mueller investigation.

A federal judge in Washington accused the Justice Department under Attorney General William P. Barr of misleading her and Congress about advice he had received from top department officials on whether President Donald J. Trump should have been charged with obstructing the Russia investigation and ordered that a related memo be released.

That’s a terrible opening sentence/paragraph. The Times should worry less about wiping out the Oxford comma and more about a too-long one-sentence opening paragraph with too much context-free information lumped all together with no punctuation. I know the idea is overview first then details but the overview in this … Read the rest

Heeheehee Trump has a blog. I bet mine is better.

His retro webpage, billed “From the Desk of Donald J Trump”, appears at DonaldJTrump.com/desk and features a small photo of the 45th president writing in a book on his desk.

Which is funny because he barely knows how to write.

Twitter announced it had banned Trump permanently after the US Capitol attack for breaking its “glorification of violence” rules.

Facebook also banned him, with its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, saying “the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great”.

But Facebook’s independent oversight board is expected to announce on Wednesday whether it is overturning the suspension.

In the meantime

Big news – another open letter saying eeek transphobia eeek. Great, because there haven’t been enough of those yet.

A group of individuals from across the books industry has written an open letter to The Bookseller which has warned “transphobia is still perfectly acceptable in the British book industry”, arguing that what is needed is “quiet statements of acceptance from companies and organisations within our industry”. 

But how are these individuals defining “transphobia”? It tends to mean just not agreeing with the magical dualist claims of trans ideology.

The three-page letter, entitled ‘The Paradox of Tolerance’, is signed anonymously from a number of trade figures, including publishers, writers, illustrators and booksellers. It is published below this article. The Bookseller

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on So, Dan.

How on earth do they get from one to the other?

Leap of faith.

Call me paranoid, but I think there’s more to it than that. They look like two serarate, but connected moves.

Opening girls’ sports to boys who claim to be girls will only result in a tiny number of trans girls joining teams anyway so it’s not a problem”

First, minimize the the imposition. Make the problem look small; make the reaction to it look extreme and unreasonable. “It’s only a few, what’s the harm? You’re over-reacting!” And this is setting aside the fact that however “few” boys are admitted to teams, at least that … Read the rest

A woman wonders, very tentatively, if there’s anything at all sexist about the ever-escalating trend (aka pressure) for women to spend much of their time and money repairing putative flaws in their faces breasts genitals buttocks legs arms hands feet nails teeth hair.

It’s nothing shocking now for women of my age (30) and younger to seek out anti-ageing procedures. To feel troubled by this puts you in strange territory.

I feel sometimes there is a feedback loop in feminism. Issues first raised by second-wave feminism – and perhaps broached too prescriptively – were later reconsidered under the idea that feminism should allow women to do what they want. Take body hair removal. Quite rightly, feminists over the years have

Frank Bruni at the Times says Tucker Carlson is trying to be the new Trump – i.e. the new guy who says stupid shit to rile people up. Grab some popcorn, kids, it’s another episode of Who’s the Biggest Troll?

Case in point: Carlson’s endlessly denounced, exhaustively parsed jeremiad against masks on his Fox News show on Monday night.

“Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid at Walmart,” Carlson railed. “Call the police immediately. Contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives. What you’re looking at is abuse. It’s child abuse.”

So what we should do, no doubt, is deny him the … Read the rest