All entries by this author

Guest post: More in the spirit of Mao than of Mill

May 2nd, 2025 5:17 am | By

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on What we don’t like makes us special.

All a diagnosis of gender dysphoria tells us is that a patient is in distress and is ruminating about his or her body. That by itself should only be the beginning of a proper clinical assessment, but far too often it’s treated like a conclusion. [Artymorty]

Exactly. One of the most evil things that gender ideology does is to claim that dysphoria = trans, skipping right past the phenomenon of “desistance”*. The motivation to fast track children into “social transitioning”, puberty blockers, surgical procedures, etc., is to short-circuit and pre-empt desistance by pretending it doesn’t exist, because the alternative is that “transness” doesn’t … Read the rest



Opus Dei is watching you

May 1st, 2025 4:10 pm | By

Seems worth noting.

Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president and the architect of Project 2025, the conservative thinktank’s road map for a second Trump presidency, has close ties and receives regular spiritual guidance from an Opus Dei-led center in Washington DC, a hub of activity for the radical and secretive Catholic group.

Roberts acknowledged in a speech last September that – for years – he has visited the Catholic Information Center, a K Street institution headed by an Opus Dei priest and incorporated by the archdiocese of Washington, on a weekly basis for mass and “formation”, or religious guidance. Opus Dei also organizes monthly retreats at the CIC.

Perhaps to be continued.… Read the rest



What we don’t like makes us special

May 1st, 2025 11:38 am | By

Reading something that mentions “gender dysphoria” I come to a stop to think about the label for a sec (not, of course, for the first time). It strikes me all over again what an absurd concept it is. You could use it for anything. I don’t like very hot summer days; is that Hot Days Dysphoria? No, wait, Thermal Dysphoria – so much more sciency and thus convincing.

I don’t like mosquito bites, and neither does anyone else; are we all mosquito bite dysphoric?

I detest Trump; am I Trump dysphoric?

We could play this boring game all day and never come to the end.

We all dislike some things. It’s the human condition – it’s the animal condition. … Read the rest



The Scottish Green candidate who

May 1st, 2025 11:15 am | By

SOLIDARITY WITH OUR TRANS SIBLINGS

Or

maybe something else.

Tough choice.

https://twitter.com/LoisMcLatch/status/1917962274188222674

Well…ok, but…isn’t he still our trans sibling? I mean she – isn’t she still our trans sibling?

Trans people are the most vulnerable people of all, don’t forget.

Being trans is the equivalent of being 172 women in terms of who has the most Oppression Points.

So, you know, little quirks like trying to get into the pants of underage girls become just another way trans women are fabulous and also more vulnerable than anyone else by miles.… Read the rest



Rights azza

May 1st, 2025 6:42 am | By

Irish Independent:

Jenny Maguire: If my rights as a trans woman can be removed in an instant, what does that mean for yours?

Well what are your “rights as a trans woman”?

You mean your “rights” to be in women’s spaces and take jobs set aside for women and play in women’s sports? That kind of “right”?

Well, kid, if those “rights” that aren’t rights are removed then they are restored to women, and I’m a woman, not the pretend kind, so that’s what that means for mine.

That’s not what you mean though. You think you have a right to take what belongs to women. Well guess what: you don’t. It doesn’t matter how cute you look when … Read the rest



FA spits on women

May 1st, 2025 4:19 am | By

Jeezus. Talk about grudging, resentful, one-sided, hostile.

FA update following the recent Supreme Court transgender ruling

As the governing body of the national sport, our role is to make football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by UEFA and FIFA.

Our current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.

How was that policy “based on this principle”? Their policy made football inaccessible to the women displaced by men pretending to be women, and to women who didn’t want to play against men because they didn’t want to get smashed up by men. If the FA’s … Read the rest



But you don’t

May 1st, 2025 1:27 am | By

They’ve got a nerve.

Amnesty International pisses all over women every chance it gets. Amnesty International drives a tank through women’s rights because it finds fictitious “trans rights” more glamorous and exciting. Amnesty International wants to be down with the kids. Never was a Readers added context more richly deserved.

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Guest post: Once you see it

Apr 30th, 2025 10:30 am | By

Originally a comment by Patrick on Junior engineers say it won’t collapse.

One of the classic argumentative styles of the era goes like this. I’m going to number it out because I’m a nerd.

1. Your opponent says X. But you believe Y.

2. State, or at least imply, that these options exist in binary opposition such that either one or the other must be the case.

3. Restate X such that it is very specific. Keep Y vague for now.

4. Offer a variety of undercutting defeaters for X. “It’s more complicated than that,” is an evergreen attack because most things are more complicated than the short, specific statements to which you have reduced your opponents position.

5. … Read the rest



All the varieties of awkwardness and denial

Apr 30th, 2025 9:17 am | By

Well you see we can’t say anything about the trans religion because we might get yelled at. You can’t expect a satirical magazine to risk getting yelled at!! Duh!!!

You might think that a Supreme Court ruling confirming the obvious fact that the word ‘man’ means ‘man’ and the word woman means ‘woman’ is a ripe subject for a satirist.

You might, unless that particular obvious fact had been magically transformed into a taboo enforced by sadists – sadists who rejoice in trashing people’s lives for saying men are not women.

Interlude for comparisons:

You can say apples are not carrots. You can say a hammer is not a wine glass. You can say France is not Idaho. You can … Read the rest



Guest post: Feel the vibes, maaaaan

Apr 30th, 2025 8:25 am | By

Originally a comment by Mark on Defy the reality.

Just as many conservatives dislike something solely because it is popular amongst the Left, there are those on the left who like something solely because the right dislike it. I believe the trans-rights movement is, in large part, a byproduct of such thinking.

I am someone who has loathed right wing, religiously driven thinking for most of my life, but just because my ideological opponents hold a position on an issue, it does not follow that I must have the 180 degree opinion on it. We all know the saying about broken clocks.

The “socialist” aspect of trans rights is, for many of them, simply because they know the right … Read the rest



Defy the reality

Apr 30th, 2025 6:57 am | By

Just a couple of questions.

What’s socialist about this?

What’s worker about it?

https://twitter.com/socialistworker/status/1914674384947622158… Read the rest


Palm Beach approximation

Apr 30th, 2025 6:10 am | By

I just want to start the day with this one paragraph from an Atlantic piece on Trump by Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer.

He had announced plans to pave over part of the Rose Garden, and he had redecorated the Oval Office—gold trim and gold trophies and gold frames to go with an array of past presidential portraits, making the room look like a Palm Beach approximation of an 18th-century royal court.

Small and yet so very…… Read the rest



Junior engineers say it won’t collapse

Apr 29th, 2025 5:00 pm | By

Oh really?

Doctors brand Supreme Court trans ruling ‘scientifically illiterate’

Really? Then why haven’t all doctors always known that men are women if they say they are?

The subhead perhaps hints at a reason:

Junior medics claim binary divide between sex and gender ‘has no basis in science’

Ah. Junior medics. The ones who don’t want to be called harsh names by their friends.

The British Medical Association’s (BMA) resident doctors – previously called junior doctors – have voted to “condemn” the judgment, which ruled that trans women were not legally women.

Of course “legally” is not the same as “medically” so one wonders why doctors are butting in anyway. The Supreme Court is not a medical body, … Read the rest



Our pubs and cafes

Apr 29th, 2025 3:25 pm | By

So let’s read the Stonewall mush about the tragic fate of those poor sad vulnerable cherished people who just happen to think they’re not the sex they are.

The headline:

Following the Supreme Court ruling we must remember compassion and humanity

To whom? Women?

Hahahaha that’s hilarious, right? No of course not to women. Women are bitches, women persecute the poor helpless fragile men who claim to be women. Women don’t deserve compassion and humanity.

Trans people are our families, friends, neighbours, and colleagues; we share our workplaces, our communities, our pubs, cafes and places of worship with them. They are worried and frightened by the legal implications of the ruling, and its unknown consequences. 

Women are also our families, … Read the rest



We muss remember compash

Apr 29th, 2025 3:02 pm | By

Surprise surprise – Stonewall’s mission creep has crept so far it’s below the horizon.

Read the rest



Hello!

Apr 29th, 2025 2:26 pm | By

I’m baaaaack!… Read the rest



Guest post: Comparative days

Apr 23rd, 2025 5:39 pm | By

Originally a comment by maddog1129 on Is this the day?

“You go out of the house thinking ‘is this the day that someone is going to shout at me, attack me?’”

Right. And women go out of the house thinking,

“Is this the day a man is going to kill me?”

“Is this the day that an entitled man is going to rape me in what’s supposed to be a women-only space?”

“Is this the day I’m going to become an involuntary porn actor with my image permanently on the internet, because men were allowed in women’s spaces to set up hidden cameras?”

“Is this the day that a male player will severely injure me when he participates in women’s … Read the rest



Is this the day?

Apr 23rd, 2025 3:54 pm | By

Ah yes “Emily” Bridges, the man who forced his way into women’s cycling. ITV thought he would be a good person to chat with about issues that affect women.

Emily Bridges, Britain’s best known transgender athlete, says last week’s Supreme Court ruling on gender has “painted a target” on the back of trans women.

Who says he’s best known?

If he is best known it’s for being a man who cheats by racing as a woman.

“It increases levels of vulnerability,” she told ITV News. “You go out of the house thinking ‘is this the day that someone is going to shout at me, attack me?'”

Oh really? Is that what it does? Now think about what it does for … Read the rest



Confessio fidei

Apr 23rd, 2025 6:54 am | By

Does he believe? Yes or no?

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer does not believe transgender women are women, his official spokesman has said. It comes after the UK Supreme Court ruled last week that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

In March 2022, when he was leader of the opposition, Sir Keir told the Times that “a woman is a female adult, and in addition to that transwomen are women, and that is not just my view – that is actually the law”. Asked if Sir Keir still believed that a transgender woman was a woman, the PM’s official spokesman said: “No, the Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality

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Feeble

Apr 23rd, 2025 6:13 am | By

Talk about phoning it in – what a worthless contribution to discussion of the ruling:

Making trans women use male spaces will cause distress

Yes, thanks, we’re aware of Line One of the Trans Dogma Commands: they’re what we dispute and reject. We do not agree that men’s “distress” when women say no is a compelling or even halfway decent reason to let men take what belongs to women. Men’s presence in women’s toilets and organizations causes women distress, so how’s about you focus on that for a minute. You are a woman after all. Have some self-respect.

Plenty of people will perceive this clarification of meaning — or change of interpretation, as maintained by Melanie Field, who oversaw the

Read the rest