Cutting edge political analysis.

A lot of British culture war discourse is comfortably off middle-aged "centrists" who see themselves as progressive, who have been driven to incandescent rage by younger people who very loudly don't think they are at all.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) November 3, 2021

So…it’s the young who get everything right, and the middle-aged and older who are the smug comfortable clueless Wrong people who stifle all the youthful rightness and ruin everything.

I wonder if OJ can see a downside to that way of looking at it. What downside? The fact that if that’s true then we might as well all give up, because nothing can ever improve. Why? Because young people become middle-aged people (OJ … Read the rest

Our new overlords let us know what we’re allowed to think.

But how is he defining “transphobia”? And “anti-trans behaviours”? And “being transphobic”? What does it mean to say that all are “prohibited from being transphobic”? Is it even true? I don’t think so. I don’t think laws are formulated that way, not least because they would be unenforceable. The law deals with acts, including speech acts; it can’t deal with being. The first Queen Elizabeth said “I have no desire to make windows into men’s souls.” The people who tried to make such windows in the 16th century did it via torture, which is not a very reliable method.

It wouldn’t matter except that Breslow is an … Read the rest

And there’s this:

Anne-Marie Angelo has (of course) now protected her account. Fucking Stalinist.… Read the rest

Julie Bindel also interviewed Doc Stock today, but they’re friends, so it’s different. (I thought Emma Barnett was ok though. I expected her to be a little disapproving, but I don’t think she did.)

I have known Kathleen since 2018, when I discovered her research on gender identity and women’s sex-based rights. We have remained close since then, and I have looked on with horror at the abhorrent treatment she has been forced to endure in recent months.

…

[T]o implement self-identification without question is to ignore a key safeguarding problem. As Kathleen puts it, “Self  ID policies trade on a fantasy that suddenly putting on a dress or saying ‘I’m a woman’ will change your basic nature. But,

Speaking of that disgusting article by Grant Buttars, Kathleen shared her view of it hours ago.

Now it’s discrimination in banking. No bank account for you, bitches! Get back in the kitchen!

We are strong advocates of human rights and are committed to equal treatment, equal opportunities and equal rights for all people. We believe in the power of diversity and do not tolerate any discrimination. 1/3

— bunq (@bunq) November 3, 2021

Your organisation does not stand behind these values, which is in contrast with what bunq is and represents. In light of this and due to complaints we’ve received concerning your activities, we’ve reserved our right to terminate the contractual agreement with you. 2/3

— bunq (@bunq) November 3, 2021

We’ll be happy to support feminist organisations, but do not tolerate discrimination against trans

Yet more poisonous bullying from people who fancy themselves comrades:

He’s president of Edinburgh UCU. His “little something” explains why it’s good for a union to throw a member to the wolves.

When is it right for a union to support dismissal?

Transphobic philosophy professor Kathleen Stock recently resigned from her position at the University of Sussex, shortly after tweeting that the Sussex branch of UCU ‘effectively ended’ her career by releasing a statement in solidarity with trans and nonbinary communities at the university. Stock has not been a UCU member for some time. Before her resignation there would have been a clear case for the union to support her dismissal even if she were a member.

First word … Read the rest

It was only a month ago that Liam Hackett verbally abused Kathleen Stock on Twitter.

So deeply disappointing that @SussexUni are still enabling this dangerous extremist. I remember warning them quite clearly that the lives of queer/trans students would be deeply affected by this lecturer. Appalling and tragic. Listen to your students #ShameOnSussexUni https://t.co/MJizlw5vSD

— Dr Liam Hackett MBE (@DiageoLiam) October 7, 2021

Hi @SussexUni, if you doubt the experiences of your trans/queer students when they tell you how toxic your lecturer is, check the responses to my last tweet to you, where you’ll see the toxicity a mear suggestion of her attracts from her radicalised followers. #ShameOnSussexUni

— Dr Liam Hackett MBE (@DiageoLiam) October 7, 2021

This barely … Read the rest

Interesting development.

Dramatic stuff on @BBCWorldatOne where veteran Tory @PBottomleyMP interrupts his own interview on another matter to issue impassioned support for @Docstockk, who has made the main headlines after her interview with @Emmabarnett…

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

What a difference it makes when @BBCWomansHour gives an issue the coverage it has so long been crying out for

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

Sir Peter Bottomley seems to have been talking about Liam Hackett, the youngest person to hold an honorary doctorate from @SussexUni and who did indeed use those words about @Docstockk. So, @SussexUni, what do you say? pic.twitter.com/oNVY2WGXhg

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

… Read the rest

Could anything go wrong?

Twelve trans prisoners convicted of violence or sexual crimes have been accommodated in Scottish women’s jails within the past 18 months, according to figures released under Freedom of Information laws.

The writing is annoyingly imprecise. Are the trans prisoners male? Probably, but it’s important to make it clear. “Trans prisoners” does not make it clear.

A long-awaited review by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) into Scotland’s transgender prison policy will consider ending the rare practice of transitioning male inmates demanding a move to female housing.

Only one of the prisoners had completed transition and the other 11 were self-identifying as female, it has emerged.

Finally we get clarity. We shouldn’t have to wait until the third … Read the rest

All very normal.

At the site overlooking where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated nearly six decades ago, scores of QAnon believers outfitted with “Trump-Kennedy 2024” shirts, flags and other merchandise gathered. They forecast the president’s son John F. Kennedy Jr., who has been dead for over 20 years, would appear at that spot, emerging from anonymity to become Donald Trump’s vice president when the former president is reinstated. The prophecy foretold online, of course, did not come true.

When 12:30 p.m. came, the time when Kennedy was shot, they recited the Pledge of Allegiance, journalist Steven Monacelli reported. The crowd lingered, some for more than an hour, eventually trickling away, a few vowing the Kennedy known as

Kathleen Stock is on Woman’s Hour.

Listen now: In an exclusive interview, Professor Kathleen Stock @Docstockk speaks to @Emmabarnett about resigning from her post at the University of Sussex, her experiences while still at the university and the concept of academic freedom https://t.co/mz4H8FwEUE pic.twitter.com/DgVd93eF6l

— BBC Woman's Hour (@BBCWomansHour) November 3, 2021

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on How can Manchin.

…like everyone else, he is unable to imagine a life different than the one we live.

Well, if we just wait a little, we won’t have to imagine at all: it will be here.

I tell people the economy is man-made, the ecology is not. The ecology is more complex by orders of magnitude than the economy, and we understand it far less. Which one should we be thinking about changing?

Very well put. Our global economy is a pale, weak imitation of the exchange of energy, information, and elements that happens in nature, which we have been inerfering with and disrupting to our shame, and at … Read the rest

If this is true…

Wow. In order to join @LGBTLabour, a lesbian – same-sex oriented – woman has to find two blokes to confirm she doesn't reject the possibility of male sexual partners. In other words, that she isn't lesbian https://t.co/WUdK4P0DxK

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) November 2, 2021

So lesbians can’t be in LGBT Labour, because of being lesbian. If they want to be in LGBT Labour they have to promise they’re not lesbian, and get two men to vouch for them.

SERIOUSLY?

And does this rule apply, mutatis mutandis, to gay men? Hello? Are we still connected?

Originally a comment by iknklast on How can Manchin.

It’s fine to be optimistic, but since we’ve already passed several tipping points, it is probably unfounded. We can’t solve all our problems with solar panels and wind farms because emissions control will not solve our problems. Global warming isn’t the problem, it’s the fever that tells us there is an underlying problem. We can fix emissions all we like and still careen to ecological disaster at a breakneck pace. And, even if I thought we would reduce our emissions, we needed to do it a long time ago, say, about the 1980s…earlier would have been better, but there was still time to fix things by the end of … Read the rest

They just don’t see it. They just don’t see that it’s her idenniny, and thus unassailable.

Among those quoted by CBC was Janet Smylie, a health academic of Métis heritage at the University of Toronto, who wrote a chapter in a 2017 book on Indigenous parenting edited by Bourassa.

Smylie told the broadcaster she had done her own research into Bourassa’s ancestry. “It makes you feel a bit sick,” she said. “To have an impostor who is speaking on behalf of Métis and Indigenous people to the country about literally what it means to be Métis … that’s very disturbing and upsetting and harmful.”

But it’s her iden

Ok I’ll drop the sarcasm now and ask straight up: if … Read the rest

An investigation challenged her claims.

A Canadian official and academic specialising in Indigenous health issues has been placed on administrative leave from her university after an investigation challenged her claims of Indigenous ancestry.

Carrie Bourassa, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, has described herself as having Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit heritage. In 2019 she appeared at a TEDx talk wearing a blue embroidered shawl and holding a feather, where she identified herself as “Morning Star Bear”.

However, an investigation by CBC television alleged that Bourassa was entirely of European descent.

But how would the CBC know better than Bourassa? How does the CBC know she doesn’t identify as of indigenous descent? We know that identifying as is all … Read the rest

I wrote about Biden’s visit to the pope for The Freethinker.

It’s appalling that it’s become some kind of normalized tradition that US presidents are supposed to drop in on the pope, even if they’re not Catholic. Trump did it and he’s not Catholic or Protestant or atheist or anything else, he’s just empty, but still he toddled along. Obama did it, and he even let the pope return the favor.

Not appropriate.… Read the rest

Helen Joyce NAILS it. No we can’t have dialogue, no we can’t get together for a good searching conversation that will lead to a truce, no we can’t split the difference, we just have to win, that’s all.

Best clip I've seen in a long time. Can we find compromise & dialogue? @HJoyceGender: "No. I think we just have to win, that's all. The only way that we can actually get male people out of women's prisons and women's domestic shelters and so on is to actually win against them." https://t.co/2jM1Vkf2Us

— Arty Morty (@artymortyarty) November 1, 2021

… Read the rest

Whence all this drivel about the authentic self?

Also throw in Hume. Specifically, the Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part IV, Section VI: Of Personal Identity.

1. There are some philosophers, who imagine we are every moment intimately conscious of what we call our SELF; that we feel its existence and its continuance in existence; and are certain, beyond the evidence of a demonstration, both of its perfect identity and simplicity. The strongest sensation, the most violent passion, say they, instead of distracting us from this view, only fix it the more intensely, and make us consider their influence on self either by their pain or pleasure. To attempt a farther proof of this were to weaken