Varsity did an interview with Arif Ahmed last May…on the subject of free speech.

In an interview with Varsity, Arif Ahmed, an outspoken philosophy lecturer at Gonville & Caius College, said that “free speech is deeply radical and progressive”, but is currently under threat in Cambridge.

…

He believes such training is necessary because “it is a very natural impulse to try and suppress the views of people you don’t agree with.”

The philosopher is no stranger to defending free speech in Cambridge.

In 2020, he led the charge against the University’s plans for a new “free speech” policy which Ahmed wrote would have “required all of us to ‘respect’ the opinions and ‘identities’ of others” – plans which

Cambridge students will get some training in not trying to suppress every opinion they dislike.

Students at the University of Cambridge will be given free-speech training in an effort to tackle so-called “cancel culture” against guest speakers.

The sessions by two academics will aim to teach undergraduates to tolerate views that they disagree with and could be rolled out to more universities if successful.

Note that what’s meant here by “tolerate views” is not agree with them or accept them or even try to understand them, it’s just allow them to be heard. That’s not asking all that much. Cambridge isn’t likely to invite professional racists to spew racist abuse for half an hour, so maybe the students can actually … Read the rest

Wait a little longer.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. temporarily halted the release of former President Donald Trump’s tax records to a congressional committee, and called for more briefing in the case by Thursday.

Without the Supreme Court’s intervention, the records were set to be turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.

And we can’t have that, can we. Trump must be protected. Not that this has anything to do with partisanship at all.… Read the rest

Mike Pence has written a memoir.

A post-election meeting at which advisers led by Rudy Giuliani attacked campaign lawyers and urged Donald Trump not to accept his election defeat was “a new low” for a president “well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates”, Mike Pence writes in a forthcoming memoir.

That is, a president who is a notorious crook and cheat and bully, whose every act is a new low because everything he does and says is low so each new item is automatically a new low. Mike Pence was part of the crook’s team, so it’s way too late for him to be talking about new lows.

Of the meeting in November 2020, the former vice-president writes: “In the end,

Ah the ol’ tax returns – you know, the ones he couldn’t release because he was being audited, even though being audited doesn’t in any way prevent the release of tax returns.

Former President Trump on Monday filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to temporarily block a House committee from obtaining his tax returns.

The ones he could have released back in 2015 if he hadn’t been such a crook. It’s not required, but presidential candidates have been doing it for years, and he was the first to refuse in all those years. Why would he do that? Same reason he’d take the 5th, probably, but in this case we get to draw conclusions from the refusal. My … Read the rest

New boss just like the old boss. Again.

There are many new and constructive conversations to be had, but my view is clear: Stonewall will not invest time arguing with groups who are working to remove trans people’s rights or deny them their dignity.'

— Iain Anderson (@iain_w_anderson) October 31, 2022

But what is he calling “trans rights”? What are the rights that are specific to trans people? Do they conflict with other people’s rights? Do they conflict with women’s rights? If they do, why does he refuse to discuss the issue?

Same old same old same old. We have to assume that all demands by all people who call themselves trans have to be met without question and without … Read the rest

Siva Vaidhyanathan is underwhelmed by Elon Musk.

It took less than 48 hours for Elon Musk to reveal just how dangerous his new toy can be to this world. Replying to a tweet from former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the man worth more than $210bn with more than 112 million Twitter followers spread a dangerous conspiracy theory intended to distract people from an attempted political assassination just one week before a major US election.

Clinton had warned that “the Republican party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories”, in response not just to the attack on home and spouse of Nancy Pelosi but a slew of attempted kidnappings and threats against elected officials

A man tells the world what a magnificent, subversive act it is for a man to sing a song about how much better than women he is and then get naked on live tv.

To everyone who was so bothered by my support for #JordanGray and her stripping off on live tv that they needed to let me know. (Everyone else don't bother – you're already living in the 21st century): pic.twitter.com/SFLfMft9o4

— Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) October 31, 2022

Maybe the problem is that the naked body was transgender? he says. And/or that he called Jordan’s penis and boobs magnificent?

I called them that because their very exposure felt like a magnificent, subversive act, saying as it did, “Here I

A piece of good news! “Teresa,” the woman in the Princess Grace Hospital fuckup, is having her surgery today. Also, she doesn’t want to sue and she doesn’t want compensation.

The following thread is entirely written by Teresa, the woman who found her life-saving operation at Princess Grace Hospital had been cancelled because she requested single-sex nursing care. She asked for it to be posted this afternoon, and it contains excellent news: 1/16

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) October 31, 2022

I’ll just quote the rest of the thread to avoid twittershock.

I’m sending this message which I hope will travel far and wide through Nutmeg to offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has given me support since Princess Grace Hospital

Imagine my surprise: another report on how indifferent police departments are to misogyny in the ranks.

A former police officer says she has lost all faith in Police Scotland’s capacity to tackle bullying and misogyny within its ranks, as an ex-colleague awaits sentence for sexually assaulting her more than four years after she initially made a complaint.

Gemma MacRae says she was targeted by a “boys’ club” of colleagues at Forres police station, in Moray, after she accused her ex-partner, also a police officer, of domestic abuse, and that as the intimidation grew worse her superiors “did nothing to protect me”.

Boys stick together.

MacRae told Elgin sheriff court that Scott Gallop, who was allowed to continue working after

The new owner of Twitter steps up.

Three days after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the billionaire posted a tweet that advanced baseless allegations about the recent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

What could possibly go wrong??

On Saturday, Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, posted a tweet assailing Republicans for spreading “hate and deranged conspiracy theories” that she said had emboldened the man who attacked Ms. Pelosi’s husband, Paul, inside the couple’s home in San Francisco early Friday.

Mr. Musk’s tweet was later deleted, and it was not immediately clear who had deleted it.

In a reply to Mrs. Clinton’s tweet, Mr. Musk wrote, “There is a tiny possibility there

There’s a surprise – Bolsonaro lost.

Challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won Brazil’s election after defeating incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro in a razor-close vote.

According to the country’s election authority, Lula secured 50.8 percent of the vote compared to 49.2 percent for Bolsonaro on Sunday.

So we can expect Stop the Steal agitation and violence, with Trump egging it on. Bad moon rising.

It remained to be seen if Bolsonaro would concede defeat. Without proof, he has described the voting system as fraud-prone, raising concern he may not concede, following the example of his ideological ally, former US President Donald Trump.

Bad moon.

What’s left of the Amazon hangs in the balance.… Read the rest

“Just get it right, and you won’t have to get sprayed.”

If I did this to my mother she would burn the world to the ground. A fully grown woman attempting to train her own mother like she’s a naughty puppy. The audacity is beyond me. pic.twitter.com/jxQHy7YZ9H

— Slarty Bartfast (@Poppy_yyyyyyyy) October 29, 2022

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Just a reminder.

Apart from the sting of invalidation, how are transmen and enbies hurt if abortion is treated as a women’s issue?

I think the real pushback against the framing of abortion as a women’s issue is from TiMs. Campaigns for “inclusive” language that erase women by reducing them to body parts and functions is not equally applied to men. That tells you all you need to know about the politics and optics of this “movement.” Men are the Standard; women are the Other. The Other is defined by, and in contrast to the Standard. Can’t go messing with the Standard now, can we? There’s no telling where that… Read the rest

Very normal. Not at all catastrophizing or narcissistic, no no.

He’s “been asked to comment” – he is just that important. Asked by whom? Modesty forbids. It was probably the pope, or the UN, or Amnesty International.

The Human Rights Act can't stop him and, anyway, its survival in UK law, and our membership of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, is pretty contingent.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) October 29, 2022

Of course Jolyon is too important and too much asked to comment to pause to tell us what rights he’s talking about.

I am not complacent. What is being done to trans people in the United Kingdom is awful. I have no words,

Willoughby illustrates.

Willoughby of course is not at all desperate. Placid as a stagnant pond, he is.

Updating to add his not at all outrageous retort.

That’s not racism Sonia. It’s the truth prickling you. As someone from a minority that has had the same nasty demonisation projected on to them, why are YOU now doing it to a marginalised group? Unlike you, I stand up against all discrimination. Bigotry is bigotry.

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) October 30, 2022

Uh huh. White man Willoughby claims persecuted minority status for himself. Very convincing.… Read the rest

More ways to make it a crime to feminism:

New laws will criminalise incitement to hatred against transgender people and those with a disability, the [Irish] Cabinet agreed on Tuesday when approving a Bill intended to make prosecutions for hate speech and hate crimes easier.

The Bill will add gender, including gender expression and identity, as well as disability to a list of “protected characteristics” which already include race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnicity or national origin and sexual orientation.

But not sex. Being a woman is not a protected characteristic, while being a man who pretends to be a woman is. Women can be punished for not agreeing that men are women, but men are free to incite hatred … Read the rest

The BBC on The bleak reality behind the red light district:

Behind Amsterdam’s red light district hides a secret world of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. What is viewed by many as little more than an edgy tourist attraction is in fact an area rife with crime.

“Edgy” here refers to men renting women. Right up there with a canal ride or a visit to the Rijksmuseum.

With the advent of mass tourism, the situation has become even more out of hand. Throngs of tourists flood the narrow streets and alleys. In a bid to combat the problems, and create better working conditions for the sex workers, the mayor of Amsterdam has proposed a plan to close the windows

The FFRF (or its Twitter wrangler) didn’t answer my question about what they meant by “queer” in tweeting

“In Nebraska, kids were getting the same Sex Ed. their grandparents received. We finally updated the curriculum.” — NE State Sen. Megan Hunt, first queer woman elected to district

so I looked it up. Voterly tells us

Megan Catherine Hunt (born May 9, 1986) is an American entrepreneur and politician serving as a member of the Nebraska Legislature. A member of the Democratic Party, Hunt represents the 8th legislative district in Omaha, consisting of the midtown neighborhoods of Dundee, Benson, and Keystone. She succeeded term-limited Nebraska State Senator Burke Haar. She identifies as bisexual, and was the first openly LGBT person elected

Originally a comment by Sackbut at Miscellany Room 9.

Picture shared by Abortion Access Front (used to be Lady Parts Justice League):

Just a reminder… All gender identities get abortions! (And have since the dawn of time)

I beg to differ.

A reminder? No, a claim, and a false one at that.

All gender identities get abortions? No. Women get abortions. Women may or may not claim to have gender identities, these gender identities don’t’ get abortions, the women do. Men don’t get abortions. Men may also claim gender identities. The idea that the set of gender identities claimed by men (for example, “cis male”) is a subset of the set claimed by women strains credulity. So this fails … Read the rest