Lock up all the Karens
But the lawyer who says we should throw turkeys at the Aunt Karens who fail to agree that men are women if they say they are can stop fretting: soon Aunt Karen’s failure to agree will be a crime, at least it will if she doesn’t keep her damn karen mouth shut.
Activists who promote the view that a trans woman is not a woman will be breaking the law if a court rules their campaign was intended to stir up hatred, the justice secretary has confirmed.
Humza Yousaf said it would not be a crime to express the opinion that sex is immutable unless it was accompanied by behaviour that was intended to stir up hatred, which could include aggressive campaigning.
And aggressive campaigning could include…what? Saying so on Facebook and Twitter maybe? Saying so in blog posts or opinion pieces? Saying so at dinner tables?
It’s just Scotland for now, but it could spread.
Becky Kaufmann says she has been the target of hate crime in the past. She works as a policy officer for the Scottish Trans Alliance, one of several organisations that back the bill.
“All laws are authoritarian, by definition,” she said.
“Laws that tell you what you have to do are constraining your behaviour. In a civil, decent society we have laws that truly recognise what is abusive and offensive behaviour and we don’t criminalise what is not.
She added: “Unfortunately, in this day and age, we have behaviour that climbs above that threshold, and when the behaviour climbs above that threshold, and any reasonable observer could look it and say ‘that’s not on’, then that should be criminalised.”
Ah yes, that clears things up beautifully. If any reasonable observer could look it and say “that’s not on” then there’s your case, open and shut, no room for doubt.
What makes them think any reasonable observer would think that saying men can’t be women is a hate crime? Oh, wait, they get to define who is reasonable. I see.
The dream of misogynistic men for decades…more than a century…making feminism a crime.
Does that “aggressive campaigning” include barring men who want to be women from using women-only washrooms etc?
And I notice also that they don’t have anything to say about my right to claim that I am a giraffe.! So it’s the usual story. What else can we expect?
Omar: Your giraffe-I-tude is a SPIRITUAL matter, I am sure. I am sure your medical insurance (if you have such) would eagerly support your neck extension and spot extension surgeries! It’s a matter of human rights!
It’s so odd how lumps of perfectly sensible reasoning get mixed in with the culty stew of transgenderism.
For example, let’s take flipping the bird: throwing a turkey at someone is truly abusive and offensive behavior. It could be considered assault; we are not allowed to throw things at people because we feel badly. Saying that no matter how many surgeries a man has, no matter how much drugs a man uses, and no matter how he feels, he remains a man is not. It is speech, it is free, and it has the extra benefit of being true.
Papito:
You mean once male always male? Sex IMHO is binary: male or female. Sexulaity is more of a spectrum: males tend to be more masculine than feminine. Females the reverse.
If a man throws a turkey at another man, it is arguably less serious than if he throws it at a woman. Likewise, if a woman attacks a man vs a woman attacks a woman: turkeys at 10 paces in both cases; more serious if a woman attacks a woman IMHO. If the turkey has not been just served up for Xmas dinner, but is alive and gobbling, that adds another dimension yet again. Animal welfare and rights issues then come into it.
Hope this helps. ;-)
Here are some things that are ‘not on’ in the eyes of this reasonable observer:
Putting toothpaste on your toothbrush before wetting it with water. Putting racing stripes on your car. Putting a spoiler on your car. Olives. Giving your child a new-agey name, or spelling an ordinary name in a silly way. Yelling at pets. Very bright clothing that is not high visibility PPE. Taking a photo of your meal at a restaurant. Cutting in line. Voting for certain politicians. And on and on…
These things are now illegal. Thanks.
Agreed. I suspect we’d all be better off voting for uncertain politicians.
Re #7, now I have to clean the coffee off of my screen, darn you.
Re the OP and “aggressive campaigning*, yeah, what does this mean? Trying to convince others that this view is correct? Why should that ever be a problem in and if itself? Shouldn’t there be some aspect of harm involved?
Holms, olives? Seriously? You’ll not only have to fight me on that one, but every Greek restaurant in the country (and probably all the pizza places, too).
But using your technique, I can see that a reasonable observer might acknowledge the banning of peanut butter, yogurt, green beans, and chicken fried steak. Not to mention blocking the aisle in the grocery store to talk on the phone. Text language anyplace other than in a text. Those grocery store carts with the enormous car shaped extension for the kid to “drive”. Using it’s when it should be its. Announcing your pronouns.
**grabbing popcorn to watch Holms vs Iknklast on pay-per-view**
**learns that popcorn is banned**
Damn.
The olive tree is unique in one regard – it is the only plant that defecates. And olives are its poo.
I identify as a botanist.
I’m done with you.
And now I’m going to hold you while iknklast smacks you around.
So as a cis-botanist, I need to bow to your identity? Is that it?
#12
Oops, I see now that I misworded that one. I should have said:
“Failing to wet your toothbrush after putting toothpaste on it.” I tripped myself with that negative framing, I think.
#13
My only pronoun is ‘Professor of Botany’ tyvm.
@14, ok, close call. Now I shall merely watch as iknklast teaches you the olive lesson you so richly deserve. Maybe a full body compress of tapenade?
I’m with Holms on the olives; bastard spawn of avocados if you ask me.
Now, a question, if I may: what the everloving fuck is chicken fried steak? Makes as much sense as buffalo wings or prairie oysters (yes, I do know what they are), or that delicacy from the British south-west, wall fish (answers on a postcard, no prizes will be awarded for right answers).
What is chicken fried steak? It’s delicious, that’s what it is.
Not just the South West, AoS, we had a little household snail farm in the North East.
Are they known as wall fish up there too, latsot, or are you not as squeamish as those southern softies about calling…well…a snail a snail when it’s to be eaten?
We called them snails, but I’ve been aware of the term “wall fish” for as long as I can remember, so I expect it was used too.
Kids today don’t believe me when I tell them we were so poor we had to survive on snails and nettles.
Chicken fried steak is some sort of cheap cut of steak battered and fried. It is nasty as all fuck, and is practically the state food of Oklahoma. You couldn’t get away from it! I got sick the first time they served it in the school cafeteria (three weeks after we moved to Oklahoma) and have never had any desire to eat it since. It is laden with grease, hard to chew because cheap steak is hard to chew, and I would rather eat an old army boot.
Like fish and chips but with a very gristly piece of beef instead of fish, and no chips. The “chicken-fried” is meant to suggest “like fried chicken” but in fact it’s not like fried chicken at all. Not one of the glories of American cuisine.
I recall a crawler headline in the video version of The Onion proclaiming “Chicken-fried steak retains title as America’s favorite meat-fried meat”.
lol
Holms @#11:
I love avocados and also olives. So does my penchant for olives qualify me in your view as some kind of blowfly, as commonly found rejoicing on a fresh dollop of cow shit?
Yes or no? (Und ve haff vays of makink you talk, you know.)
#25
No, just a masochistic person willing to torture your poor taste buds. What have they ever done to you??