Owen Jones is still desperately trying to defend Hamas.

There is a video doing the rounds related to Hamas’s barbaric pogrom of 7 October that is difficult to watch. It is making viewers wince and recoil. It shows the madness that can flourish when people retreat from reason. I am speaking, of course, about Owen Jones’s reaction vid to the footage of Hamas’s atrocities; that arch Guardianista’s 25-minute YouTube musing over what he saw Hamas do. It is a disturbing watch. It provides the starkest proof yet of the collapse of moral reason and plain decency that has occurred on the middle-class left these past seven weeks.

And it doesn’t help that it’s Owen Jones doing it – the … Read the rest

Originally a comment by guest on We like to live in the just world.

All of these comments are making me realise what an excellent course this would make – a history of the causes of the Industrial Revolution/justification for current global economic inequality, from the canonical roll-call of clever Englishmen (and Scotsmen) through naturalistic, cultural and institutional explanations to the story emerging today based on new research methods, connections among disciplines and information sources. I cannot possibly be the first person to think of this (though you never know, I’ve been surprised before) – over winter break I’ll ask around and see if I can find people who have done this/are doing this, and if I do come … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on Nasty snobbish gatekeepers.

iknklast:

In order to provide equity and justice in medicine, we must be aware of sex, ethnic background, country of origin, and other characteristics. We do not need medicine centered on those characteristics, though. We need medicine centered on medical expertise.

You’d think that obvious, but this ideology-first movement has been in action for a while now. Sort of like how the warnings of (some) lesbians and (some) feminists regarding nascent Genderism went unheard, so too have the warnings regarding the spread of Social Justice Lysenkoism. Here’s a Boston Review article from March 2021 entitled “An Antiracist Agenda for Medicine” that argues for “medical restitution”. One … Read the rest

More everything means the opposite of everything news:

Britain’s human-rights watchdog could be downgraded and blocked from United Nations rights bodies over its recommended definition of sex. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is set to undergo a “special review” by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (Ganhri). This process could mean the removal of the EHRC’s accreditation as an “A status” National Human Rights Institution, meaning it would not be able to sit on the UN Human Rights Council.

The review comes after 30 LGBTQ+ and human-rights organisations expressed concern to Ganhri about the EHRC.

Let me guess. It’s because they know men are not women, isn’t it.

The EHRC’s role is to provide guidance

Just for fun.

Deborah Cameron explains exactly what was so enraging about that disembodied legs ad the other day.

The installation consists of five large display boards arranged in a line. Mounted on each of the middle three boards is a disembodied pair of crossed female legs. They’re like the legs you see on mannequins in the hosiery sections of department stores: long, slender, and carefully positioned for aesthetic effect. They begin at the top of the thigh and end in Barbie-style feet wearing high-heeled court shoes. They are “diverse” insofar as they represent a range of skin colours, but there is no diversity in relation to age, body-size or personal style. The imaginary woman these legs belong to is clearly young, slim,

Originally a comment by guest on Over in seconds.

Chipping in late, as I was away :)

The issue of slavery as a generator of wealth (which provides the ability to take advantage of ‘innovation’) has been considered at least since the 1960s.

Research is still ongoing – the initial findings of the Legacies of British Slavery project give the subject a surprisingly superficial treatment.

But I and others beg to differ – there is a lot more to say about the magnitude and direction of the ‘giant pool of money’ from slavery ‘compensation’ funds suddenly available for private investment in the 1830s. I believe a young man named David Turner is currently working on this.

With respect … Read the rest

Let’s replace expertise of all kinds with equity n inclooosion!

Warning

EDI can be bad for your health! In this internal document from the @Royal_College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, there is a proposal from the EDI group to prioritize social justice over medical expertise. This is bonkers.

A new model of CANMEDS would seek to centre values such as anti-oppression, anti-racism, and social justice rather than medical expertise, they say.

Relationships rather than the individual physician as a gatekeeper of professional knowledge, they say.

It seems unlikely that anyone in a position to act on this will pay any attention to it, but still, you have to wonder how people manage to be so absurd and stupid and … Read the rest

Allo allo!

My laptop dropped dead late last night so I dashed out and got a new one this morning and it’s clearly going to be WEEKS before I get used to all its novelties. Just so you know. Posts will probably be sparse for a bit. But I haven’t vanished off the planet yet.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Freemage on Will they cover mild distaste?

Generally, US Hate Crime laws work very well, to the extent that they’re applied as written. It can be easily understood that, for instance, vandalism is one thing (a nuisance property crime), but a swastika on the side of a Jewish cultural center is another (an active threat, meant to cause fear to a segment of the community). Similarly, a violent attack to gain the victim’s wallet, and an equally violent attack against a person solely because of his skin color are different beasts–again, the latter is deliberately meant to terrorize not only the victim, but also any others sharing his skin color in that neighborhood. More victims = … Read the rest

Philip Bump in The Washington Post last February:

Fox News’s incessant focus on “critical race theory” (CRT) over the past few years — a term derived from an academic discipline that has been inflated to cover a wide range of race-focused issues — has evolved along with the discourse to focus on “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI). The thrust of each, in the presentation of Fox News and its allies, is that the toxic left is seeking to divide the United States by race.

Critical Race Theory is not the same thing as Diversity Equity Inclusion. Yes the same brand of excitable zealot is often enamored of both of them, but all the same they don’t go together like … Read the rest

Well it’s kind of futile (as well as intrusive and dictatorial and so on) to pass laws against hatred. How would you enforce them? How would you know when they’d been broken?

Reuters tells us:

Ireland’s prime minister pledged to modernise laws against hatred in the coming weeks after 34 people were arrested for rioting in Dublin on Thursday night.

Modern or medieval, they’re still futile.

“We will pass new laws in the coming weeks to enable the Gardai (police) to make better use of the CCTV evidence they collected yesterday, and also we will modernise our laws against incitement to hatred and hatred in general,” Varadkar told a news conference on Friday.

Incitement is one thing and hatred … Read the rest

In London today:

Tens of thousands of people have marched through central London at a demonstration against antisemitism. Organisers estimated 60,000 took part in the first march of its kind since the Israel-Gaza war began, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Er, make that “Organisers estimated 60,000 took part in the march, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It was the first march of its kind since the Israel-Gaza war began.”

The rally comes amid a steep rise in hate crime, especially against the capital’s Jewish community. English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson – who was asked not to attend by organisers – was removed by police.

But Tommy Robinson is a member of the English Defence community, so … Read the rest

The Times:

The Labour MP Rosie Duffield is being investigated by her party for liking a tweet which it claims is antisemitic, but allies fear she is being targeted because of her views on transgender issues.

Allies can see she’s being targeted. The “antisemitic tweet” claim is utterly ludicrous. But also – the Times? Even the Times??

She was branded transphobic for “knowing that only women have a cervix” and campaign[ing] against people with male genitalia who identify as women being allowed to enter female-only spaces such as changing rooms.

Excuse me? Since when does the Times say “people with male genitalia” when it means “men”? Since when does the Times substitute the ridiculous “”people with male genitalia” for … Read the rest

Charming headline:

Doctor Who’s first 60th anniversary special is a Terf’s worst nightmare

Yay let’s throw stones at radical feminists some more.

Doctor Who not only has a trans character, but an entire trans storyline – and not even that, but trans joy.

What’s trans joy? Misery that identifies as joy?

Rose as a character isn’t simply put there to make up a quota, Doctor Who thought her identity is worth celebrating – her being who she is literally saves the world.

Sounds like a plausible plotline.

Doctor Who has always had a massive queer fanbase; it has always been progressive, and showrunner Russell already had a quote ready for the people who predictably will have an issue over

More on Trump’s plans for when he returns:

Donald Trump’s talk of punishing his critics and seeking to “weaponize” the US justice department against his political opponents has experts and former DoJ officials warning he poses a direct threat to the rule of law and democracy in the US.

Trump’s talk of seeking “retribution” against foes, including some he has branded “vermin”, has coincided with plans that Maga loyalists at rightwing thinktanks are assembling to expand the president’s power and curb the DoJ, the FBI and other federal agencies. All of it has fueled critics’ fears that in a second term Trump would govern as an unprecedentedly authoritarian American leader.

And a second term is looking way too likely.… Read the rest

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela points out a certain gap in the discussion of October 7.

Many feminist organizations rushed to express support for the Palestinian cause while eliding the plight of Israeli victims. The organization UN Women issued a four-page report last month exclusively addressing the impact of the war on women and girls in Gaza but made only a brief condemnation of the Oct. 7 attack that made no mention of the sexual violence that had been reported. A group of prominent scholars circulated a letter under the title “Feminists for a Free Palestine,” without explicitly condemning the sexual violence against Israeli women.

So some women deserve it? War crimes are not war crimes if you hate the victims? … Read the rest

It’s not a book advocating genocide, or torture, or apartheid, or rape, or colonialist exploitation, or slavery, or racism, or sadism, or eating babies, or speeding up global warming, or burning down the Blue Mosque or the Forbidden City or the Sydney Opera House. And yet…

The “sensitive content”:

A nice little earner.

As a royal author, I have come across plentiful examples of royal greed. It is standard practice for the royals to seek to minimise their personal expenditure while maximising their income from other sources, normally the public purse.

I think by “minimise their personal expenditure” he means not “spend less” but “spend other people’s money.”

But the revelation that King Charles III’s personal slush fund, the Duchy of Lancaster, is having its already bulging coffers augmented by the estates of people who die in parts of England with historical links to the royal estate plumbs new depths of disgusting avarice.

Like many so-called traditions, the feudal hangover that is bona vacantia should have been

Tech bros are weird.

Unlike their forebears, contemporary billionaires do not hope to build the biggest house in town, but the biggest colony on the moon. In contrast, however avaricious, the titans of past gilded eras still saw themselves as human members of civil society. Contemporary billionaires appear to understand civics and civilians as impediments to their progress, necessary victims of the externalities of their companies’ growth, sad artefacts of the civilisation they will leave behind in their inexorable colonisation of the next dimension. Unlike their forebears, they do not hope to build the biggest house in town, but the biggest underground lair in New Zealand, colony on the moon or Mars or virtual reality server in the cloud.