Originally a comment by Sastra on Hemantsplaining biology to a biologist.

In a way, trans ideology resembles a religious Accomodationist argument. Trans people, like the devoutly religious, are seen as a uniquely vulnerable, needy group utterly dependent on their belief. It provides them with their foundation for meaning and sense of self. Without the reassurance that there is this one thing they can know and depend on, their life shatters.

It comes back to New Atheism, which as I saw it was a reaction not so much against religion, but against Accomodationism. In Accomodationism, arguing for the truth of atheism was insensitive at best, a cruel intellectual exercise which ignored the grieving widow in need of a future heavenly reunion and the young person in need of the knowledge that God loved them. Dawkins and his book The God Delusion were trying to take this away. Calling their experience a “delusion” was not only disrespectful, but denied their reality. Even if there really is no God, religious people can’t handle the truth, the Accomodationists said. If you can’t reassure them, then at the very least shut up.

A foundational tenet of New Atheism was that no, the religious CAN handle the truth. Life’s meaning and human ethics don’t require supernatural foundations. The Magic of Reality, the Poetry of Reality — Dawkins’ constant theme is that Nature alone is sufficient for everyone. Reason works. The religious aren’t too fragile. They can do without the delusion. They would do better.

Compare this to the Gender Critical belief that the transgender could and would be capable of accepting Nature, too. It’s not true that everything about them as a person depends utterly on their not being the sex they were born as. Therapy, time, and reason could work wonders. Trans people are more capable of resilience than they think they are. They can do without the delusion. They would do better.

Unfortunately, New Atheism’s stance on aggressive religion’s relationship to the religious was often misunderstood. Its premise that ordinary people were being controlled by a toxic religious ideology was often flipped into the claim that toxic people were creating an ideology for the purpose of controlling others. This lead to an Us vs Them mentality where criticizing religion entailed criticizing the religious. The world is thus divided into Black and White: the Good Guys, who is Us, and the Bad Guys, who is Them.

Needless to say, the belief in transgender identities is enmeshed in this demonization of the other side. What Hemant and other former New Atheists took away from New Atheism was an attitude and approach to the Opposition which wasn’t originally there. The Accomodationist position was that the problem with religion is the nasty people in it — condemn them, but give religion a pass because it helps the weak ones who need it.

Somehow, New Atheism inspired some followers to become Accommodationists. If you can’t reassure trans people, then at the very least shut up.

Phoenix has smashed all the records – not in a good way.

A historically intense and long-duration heat wave has spent weeks baking the South and Southwest, bringing dangerous triple-digit temperatures to 70 million Americans. Phoenix, at the epicenter, just logged its hottest month on record — and the hottest month ever observed in a U.S. city.

Phoenix’s average temperature for July was a blistering 102.7 degrees, taking into account average daytime high of 114.7 degrees and overnight low of 90.8.

…

While the heat in Phoenix eased just enough on Monday to end its record-shattering streak of 31 straight days at or above 110, the hot weather is forecast to recharge later this week. Excessive heat watches are in effect from Friday morning through Sunday for the metro area of 5 million residents. High temperatures of 111 to 116 degrees are expected each day…

We’re frying ourselves, and the burner is stuck, and we can’t get out of the pan.

Librarians hiding the naughty books:

Works by authors sceptical of transgender activism became the subject of an internal “grievance” within the library service of Calderdale Council, a local authority affiliated with the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.

The Telegraph can reveal that books critical of gender ideology have been removed from public view by staff at council libraries, and stashed out of sight in an off-limits storage space.

…

Calderdale Council has stated that no books are expressly banned by library services, but information from the local authority has revealed that “following consideration of a formal grievance internally” a number of titles were “placed in the lending store”.

The council has confirmed that while these books could be found in the catalogue and specifically requested by the public, they “are not visible on our library shelves”.

In practical terms that’s not such a big deal, because using the catalogue and requesting items you find there is pretty standard. In terms of principle it’s outrageous.

The books removed from public view are all critical of gender ideology and transgender activism, and include Helen Joyce’s Trans and Prof Stock’s Material Girls, bestselling titles which argue that biological sex is immutable and not altered by self-identification.

Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage, subtitled The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters and dealing with the consequences of “gender-affirming care” including puberty blockers and surgery, was also placed out of sight.

The book Doublethink: Feminist Challenge to Transgenderism by Janice G Raymond is now concealed along with Trigger Warning by Sheila Jeffreys. Both authors have argued that transgender women are seeking to become a gender-stereotyped image of a woman.

Heather Brunskell-Evans’s Transgender Body Politics, which argues that the transgender activism and gender ideology is a “patriarchal” movement which is damaging to women and children, has also been placed out of public view.

It’s The Trans Index.

Originally a comment by Eava on Showing members how to gain children’s trust.

To play devil’s advocate, our laws about consent are legal fictions, not brain development. Legally minors can consent to sex in most states in the US. Depending on the ages of the minor and the adult, in some states a 14 year old can consent to sex with an 18 year old. In some states a minor can consent to vaginal intercourse, but not oral or anal sex, or the penalties are different, creating a disparity between gay and straight minors. There was a big blow up over a State Senator in California who put forth a law to equalize the penalties so a 21 year old who gets a blow job from a 16 year old boy faces the same penalties as a 21 year old who had vaginal intercourse with a 16 year old girl.

In the majority of US states a 16 year old can consent to sex with anyone regardless of how much older they are. I’d like to see a uniform age of consent in the US. It is wrong to me that someone can have legal sex in one state, but cross the state line and they’re now a criminal and their partner is now a victim. I don’t think there is anything illegal with advocating to change or even abolish age of consent laws.

But the height of irony is the organization that once fought to protect the right to spread unpopular beliefs about sex with minors has become the leading censor of spreading the idea that biological sex is real and we shouldn’t encourage children to think they can change their sex.

I think the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was the breaking point for the ACLU. They had advocated for the organizers to get the permits for the rally and the backlash, internal and external, for their role in the rally pushed the organization to try and find some line where it would not find itself complicit in white supremacist intimidation, violence, and murder. They lost a lot of donors, employees were quitting, and I think the leadership was unable to accept that the ACLU was on the side of the people marching with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us” and “Blood and Soil”, marching with semiautomatic rifles and assaulting non-violent clergy, driving a car into a crowd of peaceful protesters.

They adopted a policy where they would not advocate for any organization holding an event where participants were allowed to carry weapons, which seems like a practical line to draw because it crosses from pure speech to intimidation and threats of, if not actual, violence, which aren’t protected. Unfortunately it became a slippery slope for the organization, which turned it from an organization dedicated to protecting freedom of speech to an organization dedicated to protecting “marginalized” groups from the harm of hearing ideas they do not like.

Ah yes, “clucking” – women don’t talk or argue, we “cluck.” Why is that? Because we’re stupid like chickens, obviously; because when we try to talk all that comes out is an irritating repetitive noise.

Also, of course, his claim is just wrong. Lots of trans women do insist – with menaces – that they are women in every sense, that they are women period end of story, that they are women and we had better not say otherwise if we don’t want our lives ruined.

Snerk

I remember when advertising relied heavily on women as both consumers and models. Now it’s…mastectomies?

What’s even the connection? What’s the hook? If your mastectomy scars are bothering you, knock back a coffee to go while surfing?

This is from 23 years ago, but I don’t think I was aware of it until now.

ACLU represents NAMBLA

Citing the First Amendment, the American Civil Liberties Union is defending a group that supports pedophilia against a civil suit filed by the family of a molested and slain Massachusetts boy.

The parents of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking damages from the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) for the 1997 rape and murder of their son…

The suit accuses NAMBLA of inciting Jeffrey’s murder and rape at the hands of Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari through its literature and Web site — which is now offline. Both men were convicted of killing Jeffrey in separate trials and are serving life sentences.

According to the Curley’s suit, Jaynes was a member of NAMBLA under an alias at the time of the slaying. Jaynes, the plaintiffs say, had viewed the NAMBLA Web site shortly before the murder. NAMBLA literature showing members how to gain children’s trust, gain access to children nationwide, and avoid police investigating pedophilia cases were also found in Jaynes’ car and apartment, the lawsuit alleges.

Defendants have a right to legal representation, but they don’t have a right to political advocacy from respected civil liberties organizations. Adults fucking children is not a Civil Liberty.

According to the ACLU, the suit is designed to stifle the dissemination of the group’s unpopular beliefs: advocating consensual sexual relationships between adult men and boys and abolishing age-of-consent-laws that classify adult sex with children as rape.

There’s “unpopular” and then there’s “evil.” Adult men sexually exploiting boys is not a mere “unpopular belief.” There’s a massive power imbalance here, which makes nonsense of talk about popularity and belief.

“There was nothing in those publications or Web site which advocated or incited the commission of any illegal acts, including murder or rape,” said John Roberts, executive director of the ACLU’s Massachusetts chapter. “NAMBLA’s publications advocate for changes in society’s views about consensual sex between adults and minors. This advocacy is political speech protected by the First Amendment.”

But minors can’t consent to sex with adults, so there’s no such thing as “consensual sex between adults and minors.” It’s not just a matter of “society’s views,” it’s a matter of human brain development, which advocacy can’t change. Minors can’t consent because their brains haven’t developed enough to understand what they would be consenting to. Adults who exploit that lack of development are not heroes of civil liberties.

In short, it’s all quite horrifying.

“Why do you even care??!” he shouts.

We don’t. We don’t care in the slightest. Who wears makeup and who wears a muscle shirt is not what we care about. It doesn’t take all that much effort to find out what we do care about. I guess Neil Tyson is too important to bother though.

So this is something we’re doing now? Men in huge expensive climate-destroying cars are swerving to run over migrant workers?

A man driving an S.U.V. plowed into a group of six migrant workers outside a Walmart in Lincolnton, N.C., on Sunday in an “intentional assault,” the police said.

The attack took place just after 1:15 p.m., when the man, who was behind the wheel of a midsize black S.U.V. with a luggage rack, steered toward the group, according to a statement released on Sunday evening by the Lincolnton Police Department.

As one does. One minute you’re placidly driving down the street, and the next you’re barging across the median in order to crash your car into a group of people. Everybody needs a hobby, right?

The good news is that he failed to kill any of them.

“None is in critical condition,” Maj. Brian R. Greene of the Lincolnton Police Department said by telephone. The police have reviewed the footage, he added, which appears to show the driver cutting over a median and into a grassy area between parking spaces, where the migrants were standing.

Well how dare they be standing there? They’re supposed to be in the fields, sweating, not lounging around on a grassy area between parking spaces.

Originally a comment by Laurent on No you’re not.

@YNNB,

It must be mentally exhausting.

Only if you care about reality. My guess is that it’s not mentally exhausting to trans identified folks as it is to naive “allies” or even more to gender critics. Gaslighting is not mentally exhausting to abusers, only to their victims.

If there’s one thing I remember quite well, it’s that becoming gender critical was such a relief. It stopped overloading my brain and confusing my own thoughts over very tedious dissonant details at every step. The transition was immediate and at first sight, so my guess is that the whole thing simply reflects the fact that a dramatic majority of people is simply willing to abuse others if that fits their own political agenda or gladly accept abuse as a socially correct tool.

Hmmm. I wonder if all the people who send money to Trump’s PAC realize he’s spending a lot of their money on his personal legal bills.

Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee, Save America, has spent more than $40 million on legal fees since the start of this year, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The PAC, which raises most of its funds through small-dollar donations from Trump’s supporters, is expected to report to the Federal Election Commission on Monday that it spent $40.2 million on legal costs in the first half of the year – more than double the amount the group spent on legal fees in all of 2022.

…

Trump’s team argues that the considerable amount of money being spent on defending the former president and members of his inner circle is necessary as Trump’s legal troubles mount.

Well it may be “necessary” from his point of view, but that doesn’t make it legit. I don’t know if it’s legal or not, but I do think it’s grotesque. People who are vastly less rich than he is are paying the bills he’s racking up by being such a criminal. Can we call that “sleazy” at least? I think so.

Unbelievable. “For trans and non-binary applicants, interview panels can be intimidating.” So here’s an idea: how about you show them the questions ahead of time. Obviously interview panels are not intimidating to anyone except trans and non-binary applicants, so it would be perfectly fair to let trans and non-binary applicants see the questions in advance while no one else gets such assistance.

People in healthcare don’t need to answer complex questions on the spot. Who knew?!

This will be great, because more trans and non-binary people will get hired in healthcare jobs, including ones who aren’t good at answering complex questions on the spot. More of them in healthcare will mean fewer people who are good at answering complex questions on the spot. Result!!

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Those who hold a certificate.

You know, if there’s a law saying that Xs are Ys when the reality is that Xs are not Ys then that’s the fault of the people who passed the law.

I guess these people need to read up on Canute’s little demonstration to his courtiers of the limitations of human command over material reality. His story is often botched in the retelling, being held up as an example of the hubris of a monarch rather than flattering lackies being taught that the king’s powers are finite. Here we have lawmakers believing that if they say something, it becomes reality.

The stupidity of this with regards to the human sexes should be as obvious as it would be in case of abolishing gravity, or proclaiming the ability to transmute base metals into gold. “Oooh, you’ve got a certificate ! Then I’ll happily accept payment in this genuine, certified gold that you’ve made from lead. It still looks kinda dark grey, but I’ll take your word that it really is gold. Then I’ll toss you out my tenth floor window so you can fly off home. BYE NOW!”

You know, if there’s a law saying that Xs are Ys when the reality is that Xs are not Ys then that’s the fault of the people who passed the law. It’s useless telling people who continue to know that Xs are not Ys that there’s an Act saying Xs who have a certificate are “legally Ys.” Laws aren’t magic. Laws should definitely not be used to coerce the populace into accepting (let alone repeating) a lie.

Stella Creasy please note.

Miracles are real! HRT teaches men to pooch out their lips by way of signifying their dramatic new womanitude!

Ok he looks silly as fuck but we MUST NOT SAY SO.

Unless…

Underneath the Telegraph’s sloppy report on the sinister “investigation” of Louise Chivers is a think piece by Chivers herself titled Social workers must be allowed to think critically. It should have its own url but it doesn’t. It should because it makes an important point.

Every week, social workers have to make decisions on whether people have “capacity” in a whole range of choices.

They then have to make “best interest decisions” if the person doesn’t, which requires critical thinking skills.

Social workers who do not think critically and follow the affirmation dogma will set vulnerable adults on false affirmation pathways.

I’ve heard of social workers in children’s services threaten child removal if parents don’t follow gender ideology and of kids sent straight to gender reassignment clinics after one trip to a doctor.

Social workers need to be aware of the social contagion phenomenon, particularly in teenage girls and the inherent homophobia in telling gender non-conforming youth they can achieve the impossible and “be” the other sex.

Read the whole thing; it matters.

So part 2 of Louise Chivers told she can’t apply for social services jobs pending an investigation after her comments on trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney:

Ms Chivers, a lesbian from Northamptonshire who works in adult social care, said: “On this particular occasion, we had been discussing gender-neutral toilets and I said I wasn’t comfortable using them because statistics show women are eight times more likely to be raped in one.

We don’t know who the “we” there are because the Telegraph never says. The conversation went on to climate protests and Nike clothes and Dylan Mulvaney modeling sports bras and mocking women.

“Afterwards, I was contacted by my managers who demanded to know what I had said. I was then told by the recruitment agencies that I use to apply for jobs that they would not find me work until conclusion of the investigation.”

The Telegraph never explains how and why the managers got involved.

Ms Chivers added: “I do have to bite my tongue in a lot of these training sessions, I once attended an ‘Alphabet Soup’ session run by Cambridgeshire County Council when a member of staff expressed concerns about people misgendering dogs.

“It is getting ridiculous. None of this improves the social work we do. Like a lot of people, I’m fed up with this obsession about gender ideology and just want to get on with my job.”

That is indeed a major part of the problem with gender ideology: it keeps using up all the oxygen. It keeps interrupting absolutely everything in order to talk about itself.

A spokesman for Leicestershire County Council said: “We’re committed to equalities, diversity and inclusion and like other organisations, will take action if we believe legislation or professional standards have been breached.

“The matter has been referred to Social Work England. The recruitment agency has been informed so that they may consider the issues raised.”

Blah blah blah – vapid meaningless generalities instead of grappling with facts and specifics. Somebody said somebody did something so someone else said somebody is being investigated to find out if somebody did something unapproved. You’re welcome.

Gender-critical social worker ‘blacklisted’ for trans views

A social worker with 25 years experience has been told she cannot apply for more work after she questioned whether transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney was the right person to model sports bras for Nike.

Mother of two Louise Chivers, 52, has been told she cannot apply for social services jobs pending an investigation after a manager at Leicestershire County Council suggested there was a risk she “might misgender someone”.

Has been told, has been told – who told her that? Why the passive voice? Why not say up front who did the telling? I do wish news outlets would not be so coy with the basic facts.

She has now been referred to Social Work England, the body that regulates social workers, and the company that recruited her has launched an investigation.

Referred by whom? The company that recruited her, or someone else? Basic facts up front please!

Instead of giving us the basic facts the Telegraph moves to quoting Chivers on the politics; one has to skip many paragraphs to get to who did what.

A spokesman for Leicestershire County Council said: “We’re committed to equalities, diversity and inclusion and like other organisations, will take action if we believe legislation or professional standards have been breached.

“The matter has been referred to Social Work England. The recruitment agency has been informed so that they may consider the issues raised.”

So was it Leicestershire County Council that did the telling, or someone else?

Journalism 101 failure.

Biology professors have to issue warning notes now?