Good piece in Unherd today (following up on the Telegraph piece about crime statistics).

🐘 But who’s talking about the elephant in the room? 🐘

It isn’t just ‘men from war zones’ or ‘foreign-born people’ or ‘non-British nationals.’

There’s something else going on…

🧵 1/ I read @polblonde’s article before I saw Unherd’s promotional post.

Me: “This is an article about higher offense rates per 100K by men from cultures where women are devalued”

Unherd: “This is an article about men who recently arrived from war zones” (just not Ukraine)

🤔

2/

“Don’t feel safe”
“Afraid to travel”
“Trip was canceled”
“In passport purgatory”

🚨 Free advice 🚨
No matter how you dress or what you call yourself, you don’t get to mandate what official documents look like or what data they include.

🧵 1/ 🛎️ There’s a common thread in all of the stories below. It’s one of persecution and ‘see what the government is doing to me?’

🛎️ But let’s look at it another way:
People who claim to be the opposite sex (or refuse to be saddled with the horrid binariness of sex) think that the world should adapt itself to suit them.

This is not how the world works. It isn’t how government documents work. Or how security clearances work.

Some things aren’t (and should not be) up to individuals to decide, hide from the public, lie about, alter, etc. Sex and age are two of those things.

No government-issued document should be changed on a whim, and unless we want to go down the rabbit hole of ‘how often and how soon and how many times can one request a new sex marker on a passport,’ allowing any such changes will be whimsical. If we do stipulate limits/restrictions there will always be someone who feels persecuted if the rules disallow a change.

🛎️ Who wins?
There are solid reasons (border security) for sticking with accuracy in passports.

Trans-identifying people claim there are solid reasons (personal security) for allowing passports to reflect their ‘chosen’ identity.

IF these are in conflict, then which comes out on top?

The safety of entire populations?
Or the feelings of a small number of people who have made life choices incompatible with reality? 🤷‍♀️

🍿 And now…on to stories of unbound cruelty…

2/

One thing the Executive Order Designating English as the Official Language of the US just did…

It made me glad I’m no longer a linguist, nor an academic, nor a member of the Linguistic Society of America!

Ready for some eye-roll-inducing wokeness?

🧵 1/
Why am I turning an important thing like an EO into a conversation about an academic society in a fringe field?

Easy. Because the academy is the REAL PROBLEM.

1. There’s nothing new about government efforts to establish an official language—in the US or elsewhere.

2. Yesterday’s Exec Order seems pretty lightweight:

It states English is the official language of the US, but doesn’t seem to define what that means.

It repeals a Clinton EO from 1980.

It doesn’t require agencies to do anything about existing documents in other languages.

But what the Linguistic Society of America is doing to its faculty and students? 👇

2/

Of all the horror stories in Douglas Murray’s THE STRANGE DEATH OF EUROPE, this was the most horrifying:

A victim of sexual assault lied about the ethnicity of her attackers because she—get this—didn’t want citizens to view the men who attacked her “as the problem.”

🧵 1/ Imagine the poor self image of a woman who would lie to the police to protect the public image of three men who assaulted her.

But it gets worse. Much worse. 👇

2/

Speaking of shifting positions, We the Undersigned, & leftist GC feminists…

A few thoughts on left-shift, derangement syndrome, cafeteria free speech, & misperceptions

🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/tamsinlisa/status/1895493301283021198

Did the ‘Left’ shift position (i.e., move further left)?

Generally speaking, yes.

With respect to the more specific group of left-leaning GC feminists in the UK, I don’t think so. Rather, the Southport riots and Farage’s growing popularity seem to have served as timely catalysts that stimulated an already-left-leaning group to start speaking out against perceived ‘islamophobia.’

In other words, they would have spoken out before, but there wasn’t much reason to.

2/

Hurray for multiculturalism!

May we have some more, please, Sir?

If you aren’t familiar with this recent manifestation of self-hoisting-by-petard à la française, Lionel Shriver wrote a column about it shortly after the squatters—er, invited guests—took over.

🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/thefamousartbr/status/1895383388439355793

“theatre Gaité Lyrique staged a free conference on ‘reinventing the refugee welcome in France’. The organisers literally invited their own downfall: 200 West African migrants who apparently felt very welcome indeed and refused to leave”

2/

spectator.co.uk/article/immigr…

Hi to all my ‘anti-racist’ friends who value free speech when it comes to saying men can’t be women, but not so much when it comes to saying anything hurty about Islam.

I’ve two words for you:

ENJOY THEOCRACY

🧵 1/ From Sainsbury ads to posh Belgravia hair salons to Harrod’s menus—

Ramadan is—apparently—all around us.

2/

More thoughts on Douglas Murray’s STRANGE DEATH OF EUROPE.

Putting aside the myriad problems with unchecked immigration & the equally myriad arguments in support of such, let’s focus the second main facilitator in Europe’s demise:

🚫 ✝️ The abandonment of faith ✝️ 🚫

🧵 1/ 😊 Full disclosure:
I am an atheist. Likely more of an anti-theist, to be perfectly clear. I do, however, have a strong background in Catholicism, and a broad education in theology (not limited to Christianity).

2/

Okay. It’s time to talk about the difference between

BANNING a book

&

Labeling a book INAPPROPRIATE for kids

Because, truly, I am sick of this wah-wah-wah-ing over the fact that some books, no matter how well written ore noteworthy, just aren’t meant for children.

🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/thebookseller/status/1887215707865100612

Background::

The Big Five (translation: the entire publishing industry, effectively) has filed a lawsuit seeking to bar enforcement of Idaho HB 710, which requires books deemed ‘harmful to minors’ to be segregated in an adults-only area.

2/

If you were, say, an author of dystopian novels, you’d need look no further than the Free Speech Union’s weekly roundup of Evil Stuff That Actually Happened in the UK.

No gender ideology in this thread, but I think all my posts should mention trans stuff—just in case. 😉

🧵 1/ Evil Thing # 1:

Former Royal Marine arrested for ‘publishing threatening material with intent to stir up racial hatred’ – a 12-minute Facebook video urging people to stage peaceful protests about illegal immigration

Happy ending: unanimously acquitted by jury in 17 minutes.

2/

While we wait for the legal challenges to Trumps Executive Order keeping males out of female sports, I suspect the main argument will be that discriminating against transgender people is discrimination on the basis of sex.

i.e. arguments will lean on Bostock v Clayton Cty

🧵 1/ Such a challenge looks like it would mirror the Dept of Education’s previous arguments in favor of conflating ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ for purposes of rewriting Title IX, which didn’t enjoy much success if we look at Tennessee v Cardona:

2/

Democrats in November 2024:

“Anti-transgender political ads are dominating the airwaves!”

Want to talk about dominating the airwaves? Let’s take a stroll through several years of companies pushing genderism down our throats.

🧵 1/ Remember when Nike thought it was a good idea to dress Dylan Mulvaney in a sports bra and film him cavorting around like a lunatic? (2023)

2/

https://twitter.com/olilondontv/status/1643692648337686528

Why can’t we just let people be who they want to be?

I’ll tell you why:

That’s EXACTLY what we all were doing for years.

Right up until a bunch of other things started happening.

Like what, you ask? Read on dear reader. Read on.

🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/ivoryscreen/status/1885723455523520968

Four-year-olds are the market for picture books about ‘trans’ teddy bears (2015):

2/

Question of the Hour:

ARE ‘TRANSGENDER’ MEMBERS OF THE MILITARY NON-DEPLOYABLE?

This veteran says they cannot be combat-deployed (he also says they are non-deployable in general). 👇

Let’s think about the issues surrounding trans-identifying people in the armed forces. 🧵

1/

https://twitter.com/robsmithonline/status/1883957912747557046

First, Military Service by Transgender Persons & Persons With Gender Dysphoria: An Implementation Handbook clearly states:

“Service members will deploy if they are medically qualified to do so”

2/

Trump’s latest Executive Action (not an Executive Order, btw) demands the Federal Aviation Administration return to merit-based hiring practices.

This is a good thing. ✈️ 😊

But…the very same DEI policies were in the FAA during Trump’s 1st term! 🧵

1/
The Jan 21 2025 Action states:

“I hereby order the Secretary of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administrator to immediately return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring, as required by law.  All so-called DEI initiatives, including all dangerous preferencing policies or practices, shall immediately be rescinded”

2/

Still being called a ‘fool’ (& worse things) for my tweets about abortion, Federalism, voter turnout in state-level elections, inability to recognize that Roe v Wade spent a half-century being ripe for overturning, & bad understanding of basic civics.

One last ditch effort to engage in a *rational conversation. Read if you like. 😊 

🧵 1/ The meta-question:

To the extent one sincerely believes abortion will be completely banned at the federal level (i.e., no woman will have access to an abortion), exactly how will this ban come into being? What must happen in the federal and state legislatures or in the federal and state courts or in the executive branch of the federal government in order for abortion to be illegal throughout the United States.

2/

Andrew Sullivan is right.
Rachel Levine, @HHS_ASH, must go.

The Assistant Secretary of @HHSGov has been pushing the child butchery known as ‘gender-affirming medicine’ for years, but his recent interference with WPATH age limits is the final straw.

andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/rachel-levin… “WPATH, conferred with Levine. They gave her [sic] an early embargoed version of SOC-8, w/ lower age limits for some treatments, & her office responded, horrified. They feared the listing of “specific minimum ages for treatment…under 18, will result in devastating legislation for trans care”

#FireLevine #LevineMustResign

🎥 The film thread you’ve all been waiting for! 🎥

Here they are, the actors who didn’t need Harry Potter to make them famous (because they already were or would have been anyway), and the movies I associate them with.

Lights! Camera! Action!

🧵1/ Alan Rickman
TRULY MADLY DEEPLY (1990) ♥️ 😢

If this doesn’t drive you to tears, you ain’t human.

2/

A friend asked if I would compile some of the comments made specifically by publishing professionals in either their replies or their quote tweets to the announcement of the @SEENPublishing network.

So here we go. Ready?
🧵
1/

https://twitter.com/thebookseller/status/1805150635827909045

First, I am not naming names or taking (any additional) screenshots at this time.

Rather than call individuals to account, I think it’s more important to focus on the things people in positions of power within the publishing industry have said in reference to GC authors.

2/

Hang onto your hats.

This is going to be a long thread of embarrassing quotes from politicians, athletes, & special interest groups reminding us that the thing that’s happening in San Francisco isn’t actually happening. 🧵

#SaveWomensSports 1/

https://twitter.com/Outkick/status/1748803338542420194

Hakeem Jeffries D-NY / @RepJeffries

“MAGA Republicans are trying to sensationalize an issue that doesn't really exist in the way that they are falsely portraying” 2/

dailycaller.com/2023/04/20/hak…

Our fearless leader @POTUS is certainly busy today with all these proclamations, statements, fact sheets, and round tables!

A short 🧵on the government efforts to make this the best #TransDayOfVisibility ever!

1/ “Today, to hear directly about the joys, hopes, and challenges that transgender children are experiencing, the White House will host a Roundtable on Affirming Transgender Kids”

No information so far on who will be sitting at the roundtable. Feel free to guess.

2/