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Owen Jones 🌹 Profile picture
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2 Aug, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Bizarre to note that no-one is more gutted about trans athlete Laurel Hubbard crashing out the Olympics than anti-trans activists.

All their hot takes have to be rewritten. Devastating!

That won't stop them because as far as they're concerned, heads they win, tails they win.
The focus of anti-trans activists on the Olympics underlines their similarity with anti-abortion activists: zoning in on the issues they think force their opponents on the defensive most.

Anti-abortion activists focus on e.g. late stage abortions for the same reason.
When anti-abortion activists focus on late stage abortions, they do so because they believe it underlines everything objectionable about abortion in general in primary colours, forcing pro-choice activists on the defensive.

This is why anti-trans activists focus on the Olympics.
As far as anti-trans activists are concerned, there is no satisfactory outcome that doesn't lead to the banning of trans athletes from the Olympics altogether.

But they also think it helps collapse support for trans rights in general. Same methodology as anti-abortion activists!

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More from @OwenJones84

Owen Jones 🌹 Profile picture
30 Jul
I've always thought that much of the hatred of the left in the British media is really hatred and fear of economically precarious millennials.

I didn't expect a tweet from a Times columnist to sum that up in such primary colours, though!
Last time I criticised Kamm he wrote a long email to my agent and threatened to involve my employer, which I mention because that would be intimidating behaviour to younger people in more precarious circumstances than me and therefore needs calling out.
Following an email from Oliver Kamm, I am happy to clarify that Oliver sent a letter of complaint to my agent which he asked to pass on to me, and then attempted to involve my employer.
Read 4 tweets
Owen Jones 🌹 Profile picture
29 Jul
One of the main problems with the phrase 'culture war' is how it's used to apply 'both sides' logic to issues like racism and trans rights, suggesting there are two groups of noisy extremists on either side, putting supporters and opponents of bigotry on an equal footing.
Let's be honest: the "culture war", in practice, is "backlash against the struggles of various minorities for equality, dignity and acceptance, often fanned by cynical elites who are happy when people aren't angry at injustices caused by the powerful."
When people say, "We need to end the culture war", it reminds me of when people talk about ending the class war, which always makes me think: "OK, sure, but on whose terms exactly?"
Read 4 tweets
Owen Jones 🌹 Profile picture
20 Jul
It doesn't make it easier for trans people right now, but the sheer viciousness of British transphobes is driven by the fact they know they're going to lose.

Why? Because all polling shows a) women and b) younger people and c) particularly younger women most support trans rights
The strongest allies trans people have are women and younger people.

In a generation or so, there'll be a consensus that today's wave of transphobia and all the anti-trans newspaper articles were as shameful as 1980s-style homophobia.

That doesn't make it easier now, of course.
More seriously, there is clearly a particularly big problem with transphobia amongst men, and that's not being addressed properly because a particular faction of transphobes is claiming to speak on behalf of women, which has no grounds in fact as all the polling shows.
Read 4 tweets
Owen Jones 🌹 Profile picture
19 Jul
Oh wow, a massive correction to what was a profoundly alarming and wrong statistic
Presumably this doesn't mean 40% of COVID hospital patients are double vaccinated either? It means 40% have had one *or* two jabs (or perhaps their status is unclear).

That is a whopping big mistake to make, and it has gone viral on social media.
It's also true that as the double vaccinated percentage of the population grows, the double vaccinated percentage of COVID patients grows too - because the small percentage not protected from serious illness ends up outweighing the non-vaccinated proportion of the population.
Read 4 tweets
Owen Jones 🌹 Profile picture
6 Jul
Labour's reinstatement of Trevor Phillips makes a mockery of the EHRC report, smacks of political interference in Labour's complaints system, and shows renewed contempt from the Labour party towards British Muslims.
Trevor Phillips' suspension - before his case was heard by a Labour NEC panel - was lifted without due process, which is a breach of the party's agreed guidance.

The only exception to this rule is mistaken identity, which clearly does not apply in the case of Trevor Phillips.
Any decision to waive this rule would be taken by the Investigations Officer, who happens to be the only Muslim staff member in Labour's Governance and Legal Unit, which handles complaints.

But the Investigations Officer was entirely excluded from the process.
Read 7 tweets
Owen Jones 🌹 Profile picture
2 Jul
This is a massive victory for Kim Leadbeater - a genuinely phenomenal campaigner liked across the constituency - and a local campaign which mobilised huge numbers.

It's also a rout for the Tory-voting Nigel Farage associate George Galloway, who no leftwinger should ever support.
The Batley and Spen result provides breathing space for the Labour leadership, and the test is whether they take that and turn it all around - because as things stand, Labour remains on course for an electoral catastrophe significantly worse than the disaster of 2019.
Oppositions do better in by elections than general elections - that's a basic rule of politics. The genuine relief felt across Labour should not eclipse a basic fact - badly losing one seat won in 2019 and then scraping another means the party is *currently* heading for disaster.
Read 12 tweets

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