Author, geek, ageing raver, cultural appropriator. I write about sex, censorship, science, identity politics. YouTube: https://t.co/xP9wWmav5i
Sep 22, 2020 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
As a leftie, I used to lean towards cultural relativism, though coming from a family of immigrants, and living in inner London, I was always a sceptical about it. It's a cool idea if you only hang around with "nice", white, middle-class people. But doesn't translate to reality
As a Jew, the first thing to deal with growing up was that Germans (and Poles, French, Hungarians) had managed to wipe out a large proportion of my family. While the Danes, Brits and Irish had protected us. Were we to believe that these were equally good cultures?
Sep 17, 2020 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
For no particular reason, here's a short thread on how my book Porn Panic was born, in difficult circumstances...
I had long planned to write a book on the politics and economics of pornography. In 2012, my business closed and my partner got pregnant (the former wasn't planned, the latter was). I always enjoyed solo travel, and realised this might come to an end when my son was born
Sep 10, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The kids are finally back at school. 🍾 (thread)
Without exaggeration, a lot of parents I've met this week (here in one of London's poorest areas) are traumatised by the last 6 months. Teenagers have gone missing and been returned by police - some of them recruited by drug gangs
Domestic violence has been widespread. Children are suffering anxiety. The dread that classes might close again if there's a single case of Covid is often expressed. People, especially single mothers, and especially those with mental health issues are beyond breaking point 2/6
Sep 9, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Predictably: as time progresses, Sweden looks ever more like a winner. Our governments (almost all of them) need to admit they got it wrong, and go to Stockholm for advice
Comparatively, this is what you get when you lock down
Sep 2, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I lost good friends when BLM was founded. They were often religious people whose religion was weakening. They switched their old cult for a new one. BLM offers the equivalent of prayer. Raise a fist for a fallen martyr - Eric Garner, George Floyd, whoever...
These friends were not political activists. They didn't dig into BLM's manifesto, or the views of its founders. They took the slogan as its programme. For me to reject BLM meant (to the cult) that I was rejecting the proposition that black lives matter...
Aug 22, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
How anti-sex feminism plus wokeism = Apartheid... a thread
The pioneers of radical feminism, most obviously Andrea Dworkin, tried to establish the idea that all (straight) sex was a violation of women's rights...
They reasoned as follows: given that their mythical Patriarchy ruled the world, then all sex was between the ruler and the subject, or the coloniser and the colonised. Therefore it could never, ever, be consensual...
Jul 6, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Woke people aren't racist. They just find mixed relationships "problematic" because of "power imbalances"
Woke people aren't anti-sex... They just find sex "problematic" in almost every case, and believe consent can be withdrawn decades after the act
Jul 2, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The toppling of a statue of the Ethiopian dictator Haile Selassie in a London park raises interesting questions, in the current content.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-532594…
The statue was there because he lived locally, after being deposed and claiming asylum in the UK. So it's a piece of local interest.
Jul 1, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
We also got a letter from school about BLM. So we'll have the sickening spectacle of mostly white teachers teaching mostly non-white kids about "racism"...
My kids are mixed Jewish/Nigerian. Their heritage is diverse and complex. We've always taught them that colour doesn't matter much. And now the state is going to teach them the opposite. The new racist orthodoxy that race is everything...
