Thread by @WardlawSteve

Okay - @thetimes article 1.

The heading is already clickbait. ‘‘FEMALE student faces expulsion…” not just “Student faces…’. So by the 1st word you know that this story is not transphobic but about alleged oppression of women. You rarely see ‘WHITE student in racism row’ (1/8)

Asides from that this one is the usual story – a ‘real’ woman has her views silenced by an overly woke uni - as ever no context – was it a genuine argument? Was she being offensive? Also what is the sanction here? Is is really expulsion?

Importantly there is an acknowledgement from the student herself that she caused offence so let me fix the headline for you:

“Student who admits causing offence faces discipline”

That’s better.

But more importantly look at that quote that is copied approvingly by the Times – “I’m worried that my chance of becoming a lawyer, and making a positive contribution, could be ended because some people were offended.” (4/8)

Er, yes. If I was overtly racist in my law degree (eg, black men are genetically predisposed to crime – NOT my belief of course) then I could be disciplined and could use EXACTLY the same sentence. So the inference here is again what we call the pyramid of prejudice (5/8)

– it’s not okay to be racist or homophobic but okay to be transphobic. My concern as a gay man is the line between the view of ‘acceptable’ transphobia but ‘unacceptable’ homophobia is very thin for many people.

There’s a whole rabbit hole as well where the student asserts her ‘legal right to free speech’ ignoring hate language carve-outs but that’s for another time. In short with the agenda of this paper, this is just another subliminal attack on trans by setting up a trojan... (7/8)

The next piece is WAAY more troubling on what looks like the government's (and their vested interests') attack on the culture of tolerance and equality - this is the state capture of our agenda. I'll get onto this piece this afternoon. (8/8)