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.’

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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

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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

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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,

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

https://twitter.com/HackneyUNISON/status/1747724943016571109

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

https://twitter.com/HackneyUNISON/status/1747782237490139449 https://twitter.com/HackneyUNISON/status/1747878573514395890 https://twitter.com/Kay8615/status/1747987591381516367

“Unison” but not for women.… Read the rest

“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

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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)

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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

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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,

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Will Keir Starmer ever admit that men are not women?

It has been reported that Laura Pascal, the Labour candidate in a forthcoming local council by-election in London, has been suspended by her party. It is believed that this happened after complaints were made against her that she has deviated from the one true faith of transgenderism. “Trans women are not female,” she is reported to have stated on X (formerly known as Twitter). “By definition they are male.” A pinned post on her account reads: “My embodied reality as a member of the oppressed sex class is experienced in a world where biology has a significant impact.” 

It will be of great interest to see what the end result

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This is suitable. The UCSB Resource Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity is having an astrology night! In fact it’s this very night so you could still make it if you hustled!

Join us for an unforgettable evening on Wednesday, January 17th from 5-7pm in the MCC Lounge with Astrologer Afiya Sunflower, where you’ll dive into the mesmerizing world of astrology without the stress.

Astrologer Afiya Sunflower – it just doesn’t get any better than that, does it. And diving into a mesmerizing world of bullshit is what trans-world is all about. Dive in and within minutes you’ll have lost all your critical faculties.

Uncover the mysteries of your birth chart, share insights in a welcoming group discussion, and

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Also, that definition is full of sneaky distortions, aka lies.

Imagine if a group of white people identified as black on the basis of having a feeling of being black (see, e.g., Rachel Dolezal) and then, when black people questioned this, accused the black people of "transracism." pic.twitter.com/53vpcygV8D

— Prof. Gary Francione (@garylfrancione) January 17, 2024

Second sentence. There’s no such thing as “discrimination of.”

Third sentence. No, misogyny is not “the hatred and devaluation of femininity.” That’s a new, manipulative definition sneaked in to make the word “misogyny” apply to men who playact being women. Misogyny is the hatred of women, end of story. Men who playact being women don’t get to help themselves to that word.

Fourth sentence … Read the rest

Trump defies claims that he defamed E. Jean Carroll by noisily defaming her.

As he arrived at a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, Donald Trump’s Truth Social account released an avalanche of posts attacking E Jean Carroll, who is suing the former president for defamation.

A jury in New York City will determine what damages he owes Ms Carroll, whom Mr Trump defamed by repeatedly calling her a liar and denying that he sexually assaulted her.

…

In a series of posts on his Truth Social on Tuesday, as he was arriving in the courtroom and while he was seated with his attorneys, without his phone, Mr Trump repeated false claims that are at the centre

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This is our world now: magazines for teenage girls encourage them to get their healthy breasts cut off.

Liv Hewson Knows That Transphobes Are Just Chicken: "This is who I am, and that's actually wonderful.” https://t.co/slhmZtEUrD

— Teen Vogue (@TeenVogue) January 16, 2024

The article is from last June, but apparently Teen Vogue just can’t get enough of urging teenage girls to cut their healthy breasts off.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on When in doubt, let the men cheat.

Really, the questions shouldn’t focus on “do they have a competitive advantage?” but rather “is there reason to have a category for female athletes?” and “are these athletes female?”. Because they don’t want to answer “no” to the second question, and because they can only think of “performance advantage” for the first one, they get all confused. There are age groups, there are leagues for people who are students at particular schools, and there are few cases where anyone says “Well, this person doesn’t fit the eligibility criteria, but he doesn’t have a performance advantage, so let him participate”.

This is very well … Read the rest

Uh oh.

Ayodhya in the news again:

Frenzied construction work provided the backdrop in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya – a vast centre to welcome pilgrims, arched sandstone gates, a broad corridor leading to a grand new $217m (£170m) temple for the Hindu deity. A multi-billion dollar makeover has seen swathes of the city bulldozed to turn it into what some Hindu nationalist leaders are calling a “Hindu Vatican“.

And that’s a bad thing. “Holy” cities are bad things. Rome, Salt Lake City, Mecca, Jerusalem – all bad ideas, all lead to trouble. Theocracy is not a good political system.

Next week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fulfil a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge by opening the

… Read the rest