Nones are the majority.

When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check ‘none.’

A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated – a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular” – is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They’re more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).

Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew’s new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically.

Better late than never, yeah?

Pew asked respondents what – if anything – they believe. 

Well that’s a silly way to put it. Everybody believes countless things; we couldn’t function if we didn’t. We believe the next step we take won’t plunge us into a black hole.

Most Nones believe in God or another higher power, but very few attend any kind of religious service.

If there’s a higher power, why doesn’t it do something? Take away our car keys for instance?

Wow, powerful argument.

Being used to the body you’ve always been is not an idenniny, it’s just being used to what you’ve always been.

Idenniny is much more magical and profound and meaningfulish than mere being used to what you’re used to.

He’s not kidding about the shit cartoons part.

Mermaids is doing what now?

Dennis stepped in.

Yet another one. I may find myself doing these for years to come – there’s so much of it.

[High squeaky contemptuous voice]: You suggest everyone thinks like that.

No, not everyone, because we know there are fools like you, but certainly most people, you absolute monster of a smug censorious heartless last person who should be working for a rape crisis center goon. Everyone did “think like that” until about ten years ago, and now a small but intolerable minority of people have allowed themselves to become confused about it.

Even worse, in a way, is the “we are transinclusive service and that is what we do.” Well that’s not supposed to be what you do. You’re supposed to be a service for victims of rape. Being “transinclusive” has nothing to do with that.

Is this happening everywhere? Bakeries? Public transportation? Plumbing? They’ve all stopped baking or driving buses or installing new toilets and are instead busy being transinclusive?

More.

What is “ownership of their own identity”? This fool seems to take it to mean “people are what they say they are” – which is an abjectly ridiculous claim. No people don’t “own” their idenniny in the sense that if they say they’re a mouse then they’re a mouse.

We own very little, in fact. We’re thrown into the world, as the existentialists put it. We can change, we can acquire talents, we can curl our hair, but the range is pretty narrow. That’s just reality.

Yeah it’s like chocolate – some people like it, some don’t.

So policy is to lie to raped women, to tell them they’ll be seeing a woman when in fact they’ll be seeing a man. How enlightened.

Shameless lie after shameless lie.

The BBC in July 2018:

More than 300 transgender children a year are now starting on a course of puberty-blocking drugs, figures seen by the Victoria Derbyshire programme show.

One of the transgender children we have been following for four years has now begun her treatment, which gives youngsters time to decide if they want to live as a man or a woman. “I’m happy I’ve been given [the drugs] because now I know that I won’t grow facial hair. I just don’t want a beard – I’m a girl,” says 11-year-old Jessica.

So the BBC is admitting it started “following” this deluded child when he was seven years old.

The UK’s main centre specialising in gender issues in under-18s is the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, based in London and Leeds. The number of under-18s who visited the clinic in the last year has risen by 25% to 2,519 – around 50 a week.

Doctors there say there is no single explanation for the increase but there is growing recognition of transgender people in society and more awareness of treatment options.

In large part thanks to institutions like the BBC that actively promote the “treatment options” aka medical malpractice.

Isn’t it shocking how the BBC doesn’t devote any time to trans people especially trans women.

The studios teaching trans women how to be more feminine

Trans woman Nicole Thornbur goes to specialist studios to learn how to become more feminine.

Privately-run Born Studio in Manchester offers services including make-up lessons and voice coaching to people in the trans community.

BBC reporter William Lee Adams went with Nicole to the studio to find out more.

Nicole is built like a brick shithouse but whatever.

Remember Zoe Williams (Guardian columnist) yesterday saying this?

Genuinely think that if Woman’s Hour is going to give this much uncritical airtime to GCs, then for balance the BBC should have a Trans Ally hour where we get to complain about them _the entire time_.

Yes? Well, about that…

More wisdom from KT age 23:

NC: Miren said this am that she could not think of any expression of GC / sex realist beliefs that is not transphobic. Do you agree with that? Any expression is necessarily transphobic?
KT: I’ve not heard every sex-realist view expressed, so, can’t say all transphobic. Too simplifying to say that.
NC: Can you think of an expression of it you would not regard as transphobic?
KT: Not sure what you are looking for. 

NC: Do you understand what I mean by SR beliefs? Know what they are? Sex is binary, 2 sexes; everyone is M or F; you can’t change between them; sometimes sex matters. Is that transphobic?
KT: Yes the way those views expressed are often at the expense of trans people.

“Those views.”

NC: The way I just said them. Was that transphobic?
KT: Making judgement on just a few sentences – lacks any nuance. 

Nuance ffs.

This isn’t poetry, it isn’t art, it isn’t the wonderful world of creativity. It’s just reality. Humans are not rabbits; plants are not stones; houses are not bicycles. We don’t need nuance every time we say something – often we need the opposite of nuance, i.e. complete clarity. “Did you order the Code Red?” is not a quest for nuance.

From the tribunal:

[NC is Naomi Cunningham, KT is Katie Horsburgh, 23-year-old board member of ERCC]

NC: Discussion here of having NB ppl in women-only organisation.
KT: There are no men at ERCC. Open to all genders
NC: Am talking about staff
KT: I think website says we create women-only place.
NC: Says no men
KT: Correct 

Still playing stupid games. “There are no men at ERCC; ERCC is open to all genders.”

NC: You are aware some ppl think being man or woman is matter of biology. Can’t change. Some ppl think yes
KT: Yes they do
NC: So you are being unclear when you say “no men”.
KT: Disagree. T-I policy is on website. And we have a meeting to match ppl to support worker. 

Stupid stupid stupid games.

NC: Are you saying that saying “no men” plus publishing TI policy, that means all SUs will be clear that there might be TW employed?
KT: We don’t employ any men –
NC: Not asking that. Asking if clear to all SUs
KT: In combination – policies, initial meeting – yes, clear. 

In other words we play stupid games but we say so on the website and in the initial meeting so that’s fine then.

NC: Can you imagine an SU [service user] may be without your educational privileges, who might *not* understand that?
KT: We have diverse highly trained team, match the service standards, to put with right support worker 

“Do you realize some people might not understand your stupid games?” “Oh we have a highly trained team to explain our stupid games to the peasantry.”

The smug malice of all this just makes my skin crawl.

Scotland embraces its own:

An arts company based in Edinburgh is launching a new show about JK Rowling and her part in the transgender debate called TERF CUNT.

Civil Disobedience, which has its roots in the Edinburgh Fringe and was launched by Barry and Josef Church-Woods in May 2016, described it as a “vital think-piece on Joanne, exploring just what could motivate a person with such privilege to take such a divisive stance on issues that affect her fans”.

Ah yes, two men do civil disobedience by calling a woman a cunt as publicly and showily as they can. And while they’re at it they patronizingly call her “Joanne” as if she were four years old and they were her nanny. And they whine about her “privilege” when it arises entirely from the fact that she writes exceedingly popular books. And they call it “divisive” to defend women’s rights while they don’t call it “divisive” to trample all over women’s rights. A pair of privileged male idiots and no mistake.

It has been written by Joshua Kaplan, a “queer screenwriter and playwright”, and will be performed at The Actors Studio in New York City on Thursday, February 8. The plot involves Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson staging an “intervention” with Rowling.

Oh get a grip. Three talentless movie actors who owe their fame entirely to Rowling. They’re not seers, they’re not thinkers, they’re not very bright. Why not get Donald Duck and Goofy and Bugs Bunny to stage an intervention with “Lia” Thomas instead?

The synopsis for the show continues: “Joanne led a blessed life – for a woman. Billionaire. Literary phenomenon. Natural ginger. And most importantly, beloved. Completely beloved. Until she blew it all to hell.”

Stupid little piggies. They carefully leave out the pre-Potter part of her “blessed life” – the part where she was a single mother who’d escaped a violent husband.

I hope the first performance on February 8 is also the last.

What could go wrong?

Ram Mandir Day: With the upcoming Pran Pratishtha ceremony at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya scheduled for January 22, 2024, preparations are not only in full swing in India but are also making waves globally. In a notable gesture, the towns of Oakville and Brampton in Ontario, Canada, have officially declared January 22, 2024, as “Ayodhya Ram Mandir Day.”

The mayors of Oakville, Rob Burton, and Brampton, Patrick Brown, acknowledged the long-standing aspiration of the Hindu community and emphasised the cultural, religious, and historical significance of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir inauguration on this date. Describing it as a testament to values of peace, unity, and harmony, the local governments have chosen to commemorate January 22, 2024, as a special day in honour of this momentous occasion.

So they’ve simply never heard of the intercommunal riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid? In which thousands of people were killed? Those values of peace unity and harmony?

After a wait of 500 years, the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is set to take place on January 22, 2024. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Pran Pratishtha ceremony, marking the culmination of centuries-old dreams and aspirations.

Who wrote this bilge? Modi himself?

H/t Seanna Watson

Here’s an interesting bit from the tribunal. (It’s tricky reading the live tweets, because of course they have to be done at speed so a lot is left out and some is scrambled, but it’s worth the effort.)

KM is Katy McTernan, a member of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre’s senior management.

“What problem?”

Really. Really. A man was “the best candidate” to head a rape crisis centre. REALLY???

That second “rape crisis centres” must be a mistake, and should be something like “trans activism” or campaigning or something along those lines. Anyway…”that’s not what was happening”? Oh really? Why else would a man apply for that job?

NC If its OK for a man to be appointed at CEO of rape crisis centre and the world accepts that's OK bc TWAW then no space left is there for a woman who wants to say I don't want to be measured for a bra by someone who looks like Eddie Izzard

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) January 23, 2024

Wadwha was appointed head of a rape crisis centre because he’s a woman, not because he’s a trans woman. But of course he’s not a woman, so that can’t be why. What KM means is that he was appointed to make the point that he “is a woman”…at the expense of all the women the rape crisis centre is there to help. He damn well was appointed because he’s a trans woman, because there is absolutely no other reason for him to have been appointed. It was and is a calculated deliberate “fuck you” to women for the sake of “trans inclusion.”

Thread by @tribunaltweets on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App

The Telegraph on the Jo Phoenix win:

The Open University “feared” being seen to support gender-critical beliefs when it failed to protect a professor from harassment, a judge ruled.

But the Open University apparently didn’t fear being seen to throw feminist women to the wolves.

Why is that?

Why is opprobrium from team luxury gender so much more terrifying than opprobrium from feminist women? Why do the small number of men who pretend to be women matter so vastly much more than half the population?

A ruling found that the Open University’s failure to protect her from harassment from colleagues and trans activists was motivated by “fear of being seen to support gender-critical beliefs” and “fear of the pro gender identity section” of the university.

So how do we get institutions to fear us even more than they fear trans activists? How do we get more scary? Halloween masks? Brandishing swords? What?

The tribunal heard that in June 2019 The Sunday Times published a letter signed by Prof Phoenix and other academics registering “disquiet over a perceived inappropriately close relationship between the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall and UK universities”.

Her views were described as “problematic and scary” by senior lecturer Dr Deborah Drake, the hearing was told and another staff member demanded she be punished.

In October 2019 Prof Louise Westmarland reduced Prof Phoenix to tears when she raised her gender-critical views in a meeting.

“Prof Westmarland said to [Prof Phoenix] that ‘having you in the department was like having a racist uncle at the Christmas dinner table’,” the tribunal found.

I wonder if Louise Westmarland ever apologized. I wonder what she’s thinking now.

Trump tells us how very very very intelligent he is.

Guardian columnist Zoe Williams says what now?

THIS MUCH uncritical air time to gender critical feminists? THIS MUCH? WHAT “this much”? They’ve given a lot of uncritical air time to men who pretend to be women and very god damn little to women who say men can’t be women.

Also note that because Woman’s Hour talked about a gender critical feminist on one episode Williams thinks trans enthusiasts should get a Trans Hour for “balance.” One episode for Woman’s Hour, an entire daily hour-long program for Trans Hour. “Balance.”

What a contemptible antifeminist backstabbing creep.

There’s also the tribunal. “SU” is service user.

Updating to add: Background and initials at Adams vs Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.

Why in HELL would a rape crisis center employ “nonbinary” people? Other than because a man who pretends to be a woman is the boss and he told them to?

Note the scrupulous rule about “not disclosing sex information about staff” coupled with the complete lack of scrupulous concern about the women they’re supposed to be helping. It’s sick.

A biological woman!

What a nightmare.

Meanwhile in good news –

Open University academic wins tribunal case over gender-critical views

A professor of criminology, who was compared with “a racist uncle at the Christmas table” because of her gender critical beliefs, has won an unfair dismissal claim against the Open University.

Prof Jo Phoenix, a lesbian who set up the Gender Critical Research Network (GCRN) at the OU, was also found to have suffered victimisation and harassment, as well as direct discrimination.

She becomes the latest in a series of gender critical feminists, who believe sex is biological, immutable and should be prioritised over gender identity, to win employment tribunals.

“Should be prioritised over gender identity” is a funny way of putting it. Gender idenniny is irrelevant to sex. It’s like saying sex should be prioritized over lipstick. Lipstick isn’t the same kind of thing as sex! Sex is more than accessories.

Phoenix resigned from the OU in December 2021. The tribunal found that she was constructively unfairly dismissed because the university breached the implied terms of trust and confidence in her employment contract and the duty to provide her with a suitable working environment. Remedies will be determined at a later date.

Hurry up.

Wait.

Being trans isn’t a belief system?

Then what is it???

Of course it’s a belief system. Without that it’s nothing: just a vacancy.

Saying otherwise is like saying being Catholic or Muslim or Mormon is not a belief system.

Unless, perhaps, RMW is being nitpicky about the “being” bit. Being or calling yourself trans (or Mormon etc) isn’t itself a belief system, it’s trans or Mormon ideology that’s the belief system, but I really doubt RMW was being that nitpicky. I think he was saying trans ideology is not an ideology. Ha. It so is.

The Guardian cautiously explains:

Westminster city council and Social Work England last week became the latest to join a list of organisations – including Arts Council England, a barristers’ chambers and a thinktank – found to have discriminated against a female worker because of their gender-critical beliefs.

No, her gender-critical beliefs. Just four words past “a female worker” we get the terrified “their” – how pathetic is that?

The social worker Rachel Meade’s win against the council and her profession’s regulator means she joins a select but growing group of gender-critical feminists who have successfully brought discrimination claims on the basis of their beliefs.

Their “beliefs” ffs – as if it weren’t something everyone knew until about ten years ago.

Gender-critical feminists believe sex is biological and cannot be changed…

No we don’t “believe” that; we know it. Everyone knows it, but a small set of people pretend not to, and try to force everyone else to pretend too.

On Monday, a tribunal began hearing a constructive dismissal claim from Roz Adams against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. Next month, Kenny McBride’s case against the Scottish government is due to be heard in Glasgow, while judgments are pending in a claim from Prof Jo Phoenix against the Open University and that of the Green party’s former deputy leader Shahrar Ali against the party.

In all four cases – and more in the pipeline – the claimants argue they were discriminated against because they hold gender-critical beliefs.

…

Lewis said there would always be “bad eggs” but compared the situation to legal cases on manifestations of religious belief at work, such as wearing a cross.

But we’re not the ones with the religious belief! We’re not the ones wearing a fucking cross. We’re the ones who refuse to lie about who is what sex.