Originally a comment by Artymorty at Miscelllany Room.

I wish there was one single all-encompassing, factual, non-polemical book about this. So far, there isn’t one. (But I’ll be honest: I’d love to write one myself.)

Helen Joyce’s book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality is fantastic — analogous to Dawkins’s The God Delusion in the sense that it’s a broad overview of the definition of trans and how the concept is not backed by science — just like Dawkins did with the concept of God.

But Joyce’s (excellent) book sticks to the facts, and lacks a broader analysis of the social and political context, which has so much to do with why this nonsense idea has become so popular so … Read the rest

Yes but.

Tensions within CNN over coverage of former President Donald J. Trump burst into the open on Thursday during an internal call with the network’s journalists, as an executive candidly questioned the approach of the channel’s new chief executive, Mark Thompson.

CNN aired roughly 10 minutes of Mr. Trump’s victory speech after he won the Iowa caucuses on Monday before cutting away. The decision to cut him off prompted derision from the former president and his allies, although critics on the left questioned why CNN had taken Mr. Trump live in the first place, given his tendency to spread falsehoods and conspiracies. MSNBC chose not to take any of his remarks live.

Mr. Thompson opened his morning conference

Is your dog Mormon or Catholic or Independent Fundamental Baptist?

An agency that supplies animals to the media has asked owners whether their pets are gender neutral or non-binary in a drive to be more “inclusive”.

Urban Paws, which describes itself as the leading animal talent agency in the UK, included four gender options on the application form owners are required to complete to register their pets: male, female, gender neutral/non-binary and prefer not to say.

Well it’s an animal talent agency, so it’s wall-to-wall lovvies, so it makes perfect sense. The kind of people who want their pets to make it in show biz are the kind of people who think “non-binary” is real and that it applies to … Read the rest

Yes it’s just unfathomable that women would want to be away from men in some circumstances isn’t it. It’s like saying crocodiles speak French.

Sex based rights create division, so women should not have any rights. Seems fair.… Read the rest

Sums it up.

This is from the cross-examination of an employee at Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, which is headed by trans-identified man Mridul Wadhwa. This poor sap has to pretend not to know that declaring yourself NB doesn't mean you don't have a sex!" Gender BS rots people's brains https://t.co/Ern2ATw2xi

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) January 19, 2024

So MR, a member of the board of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, doesn’t know whether a “non-binary” person has a sex? She isn’t qualified to answer that question? She would have to ask advice before answering it?

Then what is rape? If you don’t know the most basic facts about what sex humans are how can you understand what rape is? What are … Read the rest

My Twitter is heavy on the bizarre claims at the tribunal today.

Well well well https://t.co/JTunGIbGfO

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) January 19, 2024

“Confused” as in [cough] not being over-scrupulous about the truth.

These posts are jaw-dropping. When did telling a human being's sex become a matter requiring specialist knowledge? https://t.co/UeulXOSi88

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) January 19, 2024

Do NBs get to “present as male”? What does that even mean? Where did all these brains go when they left people’s heads?

Why are some people so happy to allow themselves to look as thick as porridge? https://t.co/XqvjPQBism

— Dr Karen Ingala Smith (@K_IngalaSmith) January 19, 2024

MR is Mairi Rosko and she’s quite the piece of work.

Mairi Rosko

Originally a comment by Artymorty on This novel should be about something completely different.

Talk about Not Getting it. Here’s yet another example of Canada becoming a global joke because it’s full of goody-two-shoes bureaucratic busybodies. I can’t imagine any other country treating its own literary legacy the way we do. If Lucy Montgomery wrote characters as annoying as Canadians appear to be today, no one would have bothered with the books.

It’s infuriating. Anne of Green Gables is surely Canada’s most famous book, and that’s because because Anne’s story has resonated with girls (and maybe a few boys, ahem) around the world, across cultures. It was never about ethnic or religious cultures, it was about a girl and … Read the rest

Oh come on.

Federal commemoration of Anne Of Green Gables will be reworked with “new narratives” from Indigenous, Black and French perspectives, Parks Canada said yesterday. 

Look, if you dislike Anne of Green Gables because it’s too white then don’t commemorate it, but if you are going to commemorate it then leave it the fuck alone. It’s a brilliant work, and really very progressive in a lot of ways.

Novels depicting the red-haired orphan raised by a white, English-speaking Presbyterian couple on Prince Edward Island have been bestsellers since 1908…

WRONG. They’re not a couple, you dumbfucks, they’re sister and brother.

‘Cultures not currently presented, e.g. Acadians, Black, Indigenous and people of colour, will be shared with visitors.’

Sicker and sicker and sicker.

We’ve heard so-far of one female service user who was turned away because she wanted to deal with female counsellors, and now we see that staff who didn’t believe that TWAW would be given their P45. It’s all about him. Thanks a lot, Nicola pic.twitter.com/C7MAs6k8Dv

— Girls To The Front (@obsolete__units) January 18, 2024

Believe men can be women, or convincingly pretend to, or else you’re terminated. From a rape crisis centre run by a man. You couldn’t make it up.… Read the rest

When it’s not pronouns it’s “respect” for clerics or bosses or royal personages.

A Thai court has sentenced a man to 50 years in jail for comments deemed to have defamed the monarchy – the highest ever sentence handed down under the country’s notorious lèse majesté law.

Thirty-year-old Mongkol Thirakot was originally sentenced to 28 years for posts he made three years ago on Facebook. But on Thursday an appeals court added an extra 22 years to the sentence.

50 years ffs.

The lèse majesté law criminalises any negative comment about the monarchy. The law, which has been widely criticised, is still in force despite the election last year of a civilian government for the first time in 10

Odd choice.

ANNOUNCEMENT: We're thrilled to announce Helen Pluckrose (@HPluckrose) has joined our advisory board. Helen Pluckrose is a political and cultural writer and commentator who highlights and opposes ideological capture in vital institutions. Helen. above all, just wants people to… pic.twitter.com/1lMmr8AN3b

— Genspect (@genspect) January 16, 2024

Helen. above all, just wants people to value evidence-based epistemology and the free exchange of ideas.

Pluckrose said she still agrees with this. She does not believe women are in need of class protections because she doesn’t believe females are materially vulnerable, but she does believe “trans” are a vulnerable class. She has no political framework to recognise women’s rights. pic.twitter.com/EIkn8W4OLH

— Edie Wyatt (@msediewyatt) January 17, 2024

… Read the rest

Just say no.

It is “highly, highly unlikely” that a trans woman with a history of violence against women will be sent to a female prison, MSPs have been told.

Never mind the highly highly; just don’t do it. Ever.

Teresa Medhurst, the head of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), said such a move would only happen in “exceptional circumstances”, after a “fairly in-depth analysis of the individual’s life history.”

Oh well if it’s fairly in-depth that makes it fine.

The SPS boss was being grilled by MSPs over the service’s new Policy for the Management of Transgender People in Custody, published at the end of last year. It was developed following the row over trans rapist, Isla Bryson,

Unison is supposed to be a labor union aka a trade union. It bills itself as the union for public service workers. And yet…

Did she offer an apology during the nomination vetting process? Or just in response to her suspension and investigation that followed?

— HackneyUNISON 🇵🇸 (@HackneyUNISON) January 17, 2024

The Hackney branch of this labor union bashing the local Labour candidate for not believing that men can be women. Solidarity Forever eh???

Don't agree with your analogy. It does matter when the apology was made – did Labour's vetting processes pick this up during nominations process? Did they choose to ignore them? Does Laura renounce it all and now agrees with Hackney Labour's values (https://t.co/qq4zbbAOIE

“Community” seeks to banish the witch:

Kauai’s Bethany Hamilton is a surfer, author, mother, and shark attack survivor. 

She recently gave birth to her fourth child, competed in the Vans Pipe Masters, and was invited to attend the Oshkosh Women’s Fund’s Annual Power of the Purse event as the keynote speaker in Wisconsin. 

But in light of Hamilton’s stance on transgender athletes, the event’s been met with backlash as community members demand that she be replaced. 

Yeah what stance is that? Does she pile them up and stand on top of them?

The controversy stems from Hamilton’s early 2023 announcement that she would officially withdraw from future World Surf League competitions in response to its policy on

The Adams vs Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre tribunal continues. Nicole Jones is testifying now. MW=Mridul Wadhwa, the man who runs ERCC.

NC: Can you describe the event
NJ: Event was called 'Inclusion is beautiful but including is ugly" with MW, organised by a university network. MW talking about his work, his journey coming to work at ERCC and making it more inclusive. About his life really.

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) January 18, 2024

Man in charge of rape crisis centre burbles about himself and his journey.

NJ: Much talk of TERFs and transphobes. Whether or not MW had GRC was called a "transphobic" question. Talk of Beira's Place – said it was a very different organisation.

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets)

How to turn feminism inside out and gloat in public about the clicks you’re getting as a result:

transphobes are having a field day over @TeenVogue's profile of Liv Hewson and their top surgery. it's cool we're getting clicks as a result! Liv and I actually talked about this:

"Your squeamishness is not what the world turns on; it doesn't matter."https://t.co/m5eti9FKxM pic.twitter.com/x1t72xux0L

— Lex McMenamin (they/them) (@leximcmenamin) January 17, 2024

Liv Hewson clearly has no idea what “misogyny” means. It’s not hatred of women to say that teenage girls who get their breasts cut off for a fad belief in magic switchable gender are making a mistake. I don’t hate the girls who make that mistake, I hate … Read the rest

Please go soak your head.

Please read Laura's statement pic.twitter.com/gaxWHrnV71

— Hackney Labour (@HackneyLabour) January 17, 2024

What are we to conclude? That it’s a mistake to “cause offence” to a few hundred men who claim to be women but not a mistake to insult millions of women by knuckling under to petulant men who claim to be women.

Why are a few men more important than millions of women?

No one has explained that yet.

What did she say?

Laura Pascal was announced to be running for the position by Hackney Labour back in December. In recent weeks, tweets have been found from the potential councillor where she states that trans women are not women.

They’re not.

So she … Read the rest

Newsweek:

 transgender woman in Oregon was recently arrested after posting photos showing several guns and speaking about being angry over transphobia.

FBI agents in Oregon arrested Elizabeth West last week after reviewing several social media posts that included photographs of guns, a criminal complaint reviewed by Newsweek said. West was accused of interstate threatening communications, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint states that on September 26, 2023, FBI agents in Eugene, Oregon, received a tip regarding a social media post made by West in a “Trans Woman Support Group” page on Facebook that showcased two guns and mentioned being bullied by “trans phobic” individuals.

“Well, I wish I had better news to tell but what I’m writing to

It’s about a culture of intolerance.

My article for the Free Press about why I left Harvard was published today. Thanks to @bariweiss who encouraged me to write about my experience, and to the editorial staff at @TheFP who made it shine.

I wanted to use my story to explain that "cancel culture" is not mainly…

— Carole Hooven (@hoovlet) January 17, 2024

I wanted to use my story to explain that “cancel culture” is not mainly about being fired or even losing a platform; it’s about a culture of intolerance and its effect on free speech. When one’s own institution abandons its founding values, it abandons those who are working to uphold them. Being personally attacked for that work,