This happened:

Letter to the @AmericanHumanist Association from myself (AHA Humanist of the Year 2006) and Rebecca Goldstein (AHA Humanist of the Year 2011) @platobooktour protesting its withdrawal of Humanist of the Year award to @richarddawkins #richarddawkins pic.twitter.com/IVNjbmswHT

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) April 21, 2021

I think there are some complications skipped over in the letter. I think “reason requires that a diverse range of ideas be expressed and debated openly, including ones that some people find unfamiliar or uncomfortable” is true in its way but it steps around some of those complications. I don’t think that reason requires diverse ideas such as “women are stupid” “Jews should be eradicated” “black people should be enslaved” “lesbians and gays are an … Read the rest

A giant of the House.

She just admitted that she hasn't read the bill she's been complaining about…forever. "All 14 pages" pic.twitter.com/Wn2YetyydM

— @fionataylor@writing.exchange (@fionaleslie) April 22, 2021

All 14 pages. My god the sacrifices people are expected to make just to do their jobs as legislators. They’re actually expected to read the bills before voting on them. It’s inhuman.

(Actually, they’re not, at least not by themselves and their higher ups, not all the time, because we’ve seen those genuinely massive (i.e. more than 14 pages) bills whiz from introduction to passage in a few hours when McConnell is cracking the whip.)

Thoughts and prayers to Rep. Greene in these trying hours.… Read the rest

News from Hartlepool:

A registered sex offender has been confirmed as a candidate in the upcoming Hartlepool by-elections.

Christopher Killick, who is on the ballot for the May 6 vote, was sentenced for voyeurism last year for filming a naked woman in a hotel room while she was asleep.

“Sex offender” doesn’t even cover it. That offends privacy, safety, women’s ability to leave the house and exist in public space, the ability to feel like a person among other persons – it turns a woman into a masturbation prop for men, a thing, an object, a tool. It’s funny how the purported feelings of men who say they are women are all-important while the unavoidable feelings of violated women … Read the rest

Leya makes a point I wish people would make more often, and much louder.

See, identities are so much more fun than wages and benefits and hours. So much more sexy, so much more ersatz-clever, so much more about dressing up and haircuts.

Leya goes on:

It is a politics of privilege. It is wholly lacking any reality based analysis re changes that would make a difference to the lives of those facing real hardships & injustices.

The only structural changes arising from woke politics is that institutions can ignore addressing the hard issues in practical & informed ways, & instead perform the right language & forms of signalling & pretend this is making progress.

It is how we

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on In understanding and analyzing any claim.

I think TRAs have kind of weaponised a lot of the shortcut memes which the rest of the left didn’t realise were bad ideas at the time.

I mean “JAQing off”, was originally a criticism of anti-feminists wasting everyone’s time, by asking questions which were unproductive and which had been answered repeatedly over a course of decades.

I think what we didn’t realise was that we had created an ideology which had this neat out from having to answer those questions at all, where asking those questions was an immediate marker of an enemy.

To JAQ off should be to ask questions without reading the basic … Read the rest

Another one.

They say “to view the full category criteria” but they don’t mean it – if you follow the link you don’t find the full category criteria. You have to ask – if you ask they admit it: they don’t mean women.

They haven’t specified any criteria. I emailed to ask an this is the response. pic.twitter.com/fWvfWSF5qU

— wringthonk (@BeavyBee) April 21, 2021

So not an award for women after all.… Read the rest

One of my very good friends who is from the United States has just messaged me to ask if I wish the soap off dishes after washing them, because apparently Americans think that British people don't do that.

I knew about the bad teeth thing, but do they really think we eat soap?

— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) April 21, 2021

But apparently many do.

Do YOU eat soap?!https://t.co/FmQhTqfpRp

— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) April 21, 2021

https://twitter.com/HannahAlOthman/status/1384928453129027588

Ew. You hafta rinse them.

You don't rinse them under the tap after they come out of the bowl?

— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) April 21, 2021

pic.twitter.com/Z3OJLoSrrP

— indefatigable (margaret) (@Indefatigabl_) April 21, 2021

Ew.… Read the rest

Darkly interesting.

I think of that grim relationship between Trump and sickness as I read the latest stories about how so many Republicans continue to refuse COVID vaccines. 2/xhttps://t.co/Lg7kVsAuwh pic.twitter.com/kKbgvUnbp6

— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 21, 2021

… there's an issue of personal responsibility here too. A heroic scientific effort – achieved at huge cost – has delivered vaccines that are astonishingly effective at protecting life from COVID. So effective that we may not need to worry about herd immunity. If so … 5/x

— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 21, 2021

Trump and the Fox leadership have vaccinated themselves of course. But they have a different message for their followers. They have persuaded them that it's a test of

Originally a comment by Sackbut in Miscellany Room 6.

The various discussions about transracialism and transgender ideology spurred some thoughts that I couldn’t quite fit anywhere, so I thought I’d put them here. It’s possible I’ve already related this story before, but it came to mind again.

My father was black, my mother was white, and I am one of those light-skinned people who might be considered black by the One Drop Rule. When I was in high school, decades ago, before all this “identity politics” and postmodern Critical Theory stuff became current, I was considering applying for an Achievement Scholarship, an award from the same outfit that does the National Merit Scholarship, but reserved for black students. The … Read the rest

The AHA statement about Dawkins rejects the interpretation that he was pointing to an apparent inconsistency in the current norms of political correctness, while simultaneously providing an example of precisely the confused thinking that he claims he was pointing out. Discuss.

— Daniel Dennett (@danieldennett) April 21, 2021

My Discuss: of course they do, because they can’t do anything else, because the confused thinking is baked in, because the whole idea is confused and absurd and solipsistic.

Or maybe not? Maybe it’s all just gloriously simple.

Comparing a lady pretending to be black is not the same as someone asking to be identified as man/woman. He’s needs to unequivocally say that those are not the same. He hasn’t done

Scottish Women’s Aid is recruiting:

Do you want to get involved in making Scotland a happier, safer place for young women? Are you interested in learning more about feminist research? Would you like to a shape an exciting national digital campaign? If yes, this advisory panel opportunity is for you!

We want to understand where young women and girls look for support and advice when they are faced with abuse from someone they are in an intimate relationship with, and how Women’s Aid can help them in that situation.

And by “abuse from someone they are in an intimate relationship with” they mostly mean someone male. Lesbians can be abusive too, of course, but the power dynamics are different, … Read the rest

He burned them.

Professor Richard Dawkins has been stripped of an award by the American Humanist Association, after the organisation said his statements on transgender rights “demean marginalised groups”.

Voting to withdraw a 1996 “humanist of the year award”, the AHA said that the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion was no longer “an exemplar of humanist values” after his tweets appeared to question whether people can choose their gender.

Or, rather, their sex.

Dawkins, 80, claimed that the loss of the award would have little practical effect on him because he had never used it. “Apparently the honour hadn’t meant enough to me to be worth recording in my CV,” he said.

That’s the burn. Not … Read the rest

That’s a relief, anyway.

Derek Chauvin found guilty on all charges. https://t.co/RdYLvfcKDu pic.twitter.com/xOSPF9KECa

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 20, 2021

Guilty on all counts. Right result.

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) April 20, 2021

Relief is all it is. The horror remains.… Read the rest

Heh this one is funny to me if no one else.

Serial trolling from 2014: pic.twitter.com/x8U9pxuKA5

— Peter Aldhous (@paldhous) April 20, 2021

I had to look up the dates to make sure: that July 28 1914 2014 pair is the one he perpetrated two days after he co-signed with me that truce-thing saying let’s agree to disagree without abusing each other. He co-signed it with me and posted it on his blog. I wrote it and asked him to co-sign it with me because a hell of a lot of aggressively misogynist men had been exercising their aggression on women and a lot of those men were big fans of his. I had to laugh when he tweeted … Read the rest

People are losing their shit because this happened.

LGB Alliance to be entered onto the Register of Charities.
Read our decision: https://t.co/tmp5dxGduW

— Charity Commission (@ChtyCommission) April 20, 2021

This creepy guy for instance:

As a charity CEO, I am concerned at the reputation damage this will cause to the third sector. It is clear the Commission no longer have rigorous safeguards and due diligence in place, I’m afraid this brings your authority into disrepute.

— Dr Liam Hackett MBE (@DiageoLiam) April 20, 2021

Creepy guy four days ago:

We need to stop normalising the term “gender critical” and refer to it only as transphobia. It is impossible to be critical about the existence and identity of a person or

Originally a comment by Sastra on You may not question.

Are you anti questions?

Yes.

What is “gender?” What is the meaning of the word “gender” in the phrase “gender identity?”

How are you defining “man” and “woman?” What is the difference between a man and woman?

What would falsify the existence of an innate gender identity present from birth?

Why does gender identity outweigh the cumulative effect of DNA, chromosomes, gametes, genitals, and hormones in the womb?

What would change your mind?

I consider these type of questions to be critical in understanding and analyzing any claim, including the claims TRAs are making. They’re basic to both philosophy and science. But the above are known as “JAQing off” … Read the rest

It turned abruptly abnormally hot and dry here a week ago. And…

We've responded to 91 wildfires in one week. It's April. pic.twitter.com/3TO16dPjbx

— Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources (@waDNR) April 20, 2021

It’s another sunny cloudless smoggy day out there.… Read the rest

Reactions to the American Humanist Association’s shunning of Dawkins are not universally admiring.

might as well go back to the notion of humours pic.twitter.com/ECMo03qtyp

— Michael Herbert (@MJHerbert) April 20, 2021

Every other living scientist or rational humanist among the remaining 66 should return their awards. They'll be coming for you, next.

— Adam Hibbert, SDP PPC Sevenoaks (@adhib) April 20, 2021

https://twitter.com/HackneyReSiste2/status/1384408736748523521

Good humanists never ask questions

— Rebecca (@FeministBec) April 20, 2021

https://twitter.com/RustySoF/status/1384437256367353856

2/2 Part II:https://t.co/6SI3qGiwbR

— Dr EM (@PankhurstEM) April 20, 2021

He asked why it was considered offensive to assume a black identity, but not a female one. He didn’t take a stance.

Are you anti questions?

— Dave Baxter (@JustDavidDavid) April 20, 2021

… Read the rest

Al Jazeera reports:

Pakistani police have registered a blasphemy case against organisers of the feminist Aurat Azadi [Women’s Freedom] March in a northwestern city, while a court in the country’s second city dismissed the same charges as having no grounds.

Police in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar registered the First Information Report (FIR) under the country’s strict blasphemy laws, which can carry a mandatory death penalty, on Thursday.

So Pakistan may kill some women for organizing a women’s march. That’s a pretty thought.

In a statement, organisers of the march, which is held annually to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, condemned the allegations as “baseless and false”.

“Since the March, women marchers have been met with

The American Humanist Association has put Dawkins on the naughty step.

Established in 1953, the Humanist of the Year Award is conferred annually by the American Humanist Association (AHA), recognizing the awardee as an exemplar of humanist values. Communication of scientific concepts to the public is an important aspect of advancing the cause of humanism. Richard Dawkins was honored in 1996 by the AHA as Humanist of the Year for his significant contributions in this area.

Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values.

Like women for instance? Dear Muslima? Like the schoolboy from … Read the rest