Fresh Air on Tucker Carlson part 2.

DAVIES: One of the things you hear a lot on his show is him looking into the camera, as he does in his opening monologues, and speaks to his audience and says, they don’t like you. They don’t care about you. They want to control your lives. Who’s the they?

CONFESSORE: In Carlson’s telling, in his narrative, they is the ruling class. And the ruling class is pretty much anybody he wants it to be. It’s people who actually are in charge and have power and are elected to office – presidents, vice presidents, people in Congress. It’s pro athletes. It’s Chelsea Clinton. It’s comedians who make jokes about America. It’s pretty

Fresh Air did a conversation about Tucker Carlson of Fox “News” yesterday.

If you follow cable TV at all, you probably know that Fox News host Tucker Carlson is one of the most influential commentators in conservative media and one of the most provocative. He’s known for praising authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and warning his viewers about the dangers of foreign immigrants and elites who want to control their lives. Our guest, New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore, recently wrote a series of articles about Carlson drawing on an analysis of more than 1,100 episodes of his show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” conducted by Confessore and a team of Times reporters as well

The GB News piece behind Tatchell’s “there are two kinds of women” tweet:

Speaking on GB News, Mr Tatchell said: “What I do say is that I think the fuss about the definition protects us from the dignity, rights, welfare and safeguarding of all women, including trans women.”

I think he meant “prevents us from protecting” rather than “protects us from” – that’s just the fumble of commenting live, which is natural. But the claim is idiotic even if we correct the wording. How can we protect the rights of people we can’t define correctly? Suppose we want to campaign to protect the human rights of Uighurs – they certainly need it. Suppose we want to do that and … Read the rest

Tatchell preaches the gospel.

There are two different kinds of women. There is a woman defined by biological sex & a woman defined by gender identity. Both are equally valid. All women, including trans women, suffer from misogyny, discrimination, hate crime & rape. Unite! WATCH https://t.co/d7ITUAlG8i

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) May 13, 2022

No there aren’t. Not in that sense.

It depends on what you mean by “kinds,” for a start. There are millions of “kinds” of women in the sense of human variety, but in the ridiculous sense Tatchell is using, there aren’t. He might as well say there are two different kinds of house, one a building made of wood or bricks or stone for humans to live … Read the rest

Chase goes after infants, privileged little shits that they are.

Also seems like an important moment to revisit how problematic the “breast is best” discourse is and how for so many people because of time, bodily capacity and other factors breastfeeding is impossible.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) May 12, 2022

What is that “discourse”?

Nobody blames women who can’t breastfeed for whatever reason (including personal choice).

That you are willing to tear down such a positive health message for your own ideological goals is utterly appalling.

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) May 12, 2022

Remember that? Boycott Nestlé? Because it markets formula as better than breast milk, thus promoting malnutrition and starvation in poor countries where most people can’t afford to … Read the rest

But this is a very healthy, reasonable, compassionate movement.

Definitely. If you grew up with a violent father – if you were groped or raped by a man in childhood or adolescence – if you were raped in high school or at university – if you’ve been mocked and bullied by men at parties or in bars or on trains or on the street – or anything else along those lines – suck it up, bitch, we’re going to be in all your spaces whether you like it or not. No locks on the door for you, slut.… Read the rest

This is just maddening. White House Roundtable With Lesbian Leaders – and of course you know what’s coming next.

Yesterday [April 26], in celebration of Lesbian Day of Visibility, the White House hosted a roundtable conversation with trailblazing lesbian and LGBTQI+ senior leaders from the White House and the broader Biden-Harris Administration.

So make that with “trailblazing” men bullying their way into lesbians’ day of visibility, just as they bullied their way into Michfest and then pushed all the women out. Lesbian is one thing and T and Q and I and + are other things. Lesbian Day of Visibility should be for lesbians, not men playing games.

The roundtable included lesbian and queer advocates ,community leaders, leaders across

Eliza Mondegreen has a brilliant piece on Chase Strangio at The Glinner Update:

We’re supposed to pretend everything we know about sex is wrong: that legislatures never knew just who they targeted when they denied women the vote. That pimps and johns never knew whose bodies they sold. That the reproductive potential of child brides is pure guesswork. That the burdens of human reproduction settle, if not evenly, then at least mysteriously across the population.

Can be interesting as a thought experiment. As an alternative reality, it’s a train crash. The tottering of Roe makes that all too obvious.

We can argue about whether it makes sense to reorganize society on the basis of individuals’ personal identification with gender

Men telling women what they will allow us to think. Quite the spectacle.

I have no problem if you wish to have that as a belief, provided you don't act it out by denying trans women access to women's facilities.
"Trans women are not women but are entitled to be treated as women" is not an unreasonable position.

— Craig Murray – (@CraigMurrayOrg) May 12, 2022

That “provided.” He’ll allow it, provided we do what he tells us. He’ll allow us to be aware of reality, provided we obey him. All we have to do is ignore everything we know about men’s physical advantages over women and what some men do with those physical advantages.

Also in what world is … Read the rest

Hmm. Who is inciting violence here?

Emergency protest against a transphobic gathering hosted by Posie Parker.

Sunday 15th May
St Peter's Square 12pm

(edited due to typo, whoops!) pic.twitter.com/0rwcXvQXBe

— Manchester Trans Rise Up (@manc_up) May 11, 2022

… Read the rest

A graduate student in philosophy has solved the problem of unfairness to women in sport:

The desire for a protected female sports category is a reasonable one. How could it not be? Males have an unfair physical advantage over females in sports, and we should want everyone – not just men and boys – to have inspiring athletes they can look up to and emulate.

But what follows from here? Should all trans women athletes be banned from female sports because of what their birth certificates say, as Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act entails? I don’t think so.

Why not? He doesn’t say. Trans women are men, so why shouldn’t they be “banned from” (that is, simply by … Read the rest

Lara Bazelon in the Atlantic on the ACLU’s lurch into the void:

[I]n 2018, following the ACLU’s successful litigation to obtain a permit for white supremacists to march in Charlottesville, Virginia, which ended in death and disaster, the ACLU issued new guidelines. Citing concerns about “limited resources” and “the potential effect on marginalized groups,” the organization cautioned its lawyers to take special care when considering whether to represent groups whose “values are contrary to our values.”

Like feminist women for instance. They prefer women who are actually men, or who identify as men.

By “our values,” the ACLU was referring to the progressive causes it has championed with fervor and great fundraising success since the election of

Some replies to the ACLU’s calculated insult to women yesterday:

Abortion bans disproportionately harm:
▪️ Black, Indigenous & other people of color
▪️ the LGBTQ community
▪️ immigrants
▪️ young people
▪️ those working to make ends meet
▪️ people with disabilities

Protecting abortion access is an urgent matter of racial and economic justice.

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 11, 2022

“You may as well just say you hate women at this point and that you are actively working to erase women as a political class. It would be way more honest.”

“Way of disappearing the one, coherent group of people that are solely affected by it: women and girls, female people. Patriarchy has always tried to separate women from one … Read the rest

ACLU even worse if that’s possible.

Abortion bans disproportionately harm:
▪️ Black, Indigenous & other people of color
▪️ the LGBTQ community
▪️ immigrants
▪️ young people
▪️ those working to make ends meet
▪️ people with disabilities

Protecting abortion access is an urgent matter of racial and economic justice.

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 11, 2022

It is possible, and this is worse, because it takes so much more effort to remove “women” from a list of this kind rather than a generic “this is bad for women people” blurt. They really took care over this one, rubbing our noses in it over and over again.

In reality abortion bans disproportionately harm Black, indigenous, and other women of color. They … Read the rest

Again.

Those who need it. They. Them. Sssssshhhhhhhhhh don’t mention you know what.

Our, we, we, us, our. Who? Us. Yes but who? We. Yes but WHO??? Us.… Read the rest

I was browsing Nina Lakhani’s tweets because of this Private Eye story:

According to Private Eye, Guardian employees who cannot stop publicly criticising their colleagues due to their views on transgender activism have been invited to attend life coaching events in which they can talk about themselves and play with plasticine pic.twitter.com/RLxKNHu0P0

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) May 11, 2022

Can you read it? Kath Viner told staff not to attack other staff on Twitter, and the next day Lakhani attacked Hadley Freeman on Twitter – over, of course, Sacred Transism.… Read the rest

Corrections.

Latin American reproductive rights activists vow to protect hard-fought gains in their own territories as they brace for potential ripple effects when the US supreme court overturns Roe vs Wade https://t.co/vVj5MybyNb

— Nina Lakhani (@ninalakhani) May 5, 2022

The Guardian tweet says “Latin American feminists vow to protect abortion rights” and “Women’s movements have fought hard.” Guardian US reporter’s retweet says “Latin American reproductive rights activists.” Correct correct correct, erase erase erase.… Read the rest

God I despise Joe Manchin. Can we just fold West Virginia back into Virginia please?

The Democratic legislation to enshrine abortion rights into federal law looks set to fail in the Senate this afternoon by a vote of 49-51, after the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin said he would cross the aisle and join Republicans to vote no.

Easy for him. Not his body taken over. It would fail anyway because filibuster blah blah blah, but Manchin is plant food.

Manchin, a moderate Democrat, has been speaking with reporters in the Senate hallway, saying he believes the legislation as presented “goes too far”.

Gotta keep those women down some.… Read the rest

I’m seeing a lot of conversations about emotional support dogs and contingencies related to them and who gets to decide und so weiter so I decided to seek basic information via Google. Questions questions.

What does an emotional support pet do?

How do I train my emotional support dog for anxiety?

Can I make my cat an emotional support animal?

Can emotional support dogs fly?

Imagine how supportive it would be if your dog could fly!

But what do you do if your emotional support dog has anxiety?… Read the rest

It seems that unprovoked attacks, like hangings, concentrate the mind. Finland and Sweden are feeling less neutral.

Finland and Sweden could apply for Nato membership within days – a monumental shift for two nations with a long history of wartime neutrality and staying out of military alliances.

Russia strongly opposes the two states joining and uses the expansion of the West’s defensive military alliance as a pretext for its war in Ukraine.

Well, Putin opposes. What Russia thinks independent of Putin is not always easy to know, because Putin doesn’t allow it to be easy.

Putin is all of the totalitarian force and punishment of Stalin, with no trace of any fig leaf of working class solidarity or any … Read the rest