Graham Linehan’s arrest a foolish woke thought crime that will hand culture war ammunition to the right

31 Comments

1. Wonderful.

2. “Fourth Wave Feminists, non-binary activists, trans ally vegan mommy bloggers, Trans activists”

   First rule of Labour electioneering “don’t say trans” except for transport policy and how to tax transnational service payments used by overseas corps and banks to extract NZs wealth.

3. What we see is a clash of two competing essentialisms. They are two incompatible ideas about what characteristics are essential (i.e. must always be present) for a person to be a woman.

   For trans activists, the only essential characteristic is that you genuinely believe you are a woman, and that this is sufficient in all social contexts.
   For gender critical feminists, the essential characteristic is that you were born biologically female, and that this must be the case in all social contexts.

   The only way out of the impasse is to adopt a contextual essentialism*. This means that the characteristics that you regard as essential for a person to be a woman can vary according to social context. You might be happy to regard a trans work colleague as a woman and treat them accordingly in the workplace, but you might want some precautions about trans women sharing public loos with a female relative. Adopting this position will mean that neither side likes you, and it’s not without difficulties and ambiguities in practice. But it appears to be the only way out.

   *Note – some people would see contextual essentialism as a form of anti-essentialism, but the distinction doesn’t really matter here.

   1. Thanks AB reasoned approach to complex question. Usual from you it seems. We seem to have seen it similar before – in 1960-70 uprising of new ideas and cults. Vietnam war seemed to be the starter. Hair was the artistic fad.
      I Got Life was about appreciating oneself.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXCajEDi28

      Funny enough I have just been reading JK Rowling kwtc. Tries to deal with complex situations while being true to oneself I think. So go and transmogrify yourself if you are putting JKR down. It is suitable reading for young one’s looking for adventure in new fields of being etc.

   2. A good summary and position, thanks

      “You might be happy to regard a trans work colleague as a woman and treat them accordingly in the workplace, but you might want some precautions about trans women sharing public loos with a female relative.”

      Interestingly though – this seems to be the position of most of the so-called ‘TERFs’ (aka modern-day witches). Single-sex spaces remain single-sex on the basis of biology, otherwise live and let live. It seems the TRAs can not accept this position though?

      1. That position is generally not acceptable to trans people because it places them at significant risk of harm. At a minimum, being forced to use a facility that is gender neutral or does not align with the gender someone lives as outs them, which can result in that person being subject to discrimination and violence. It can also be extremely dangerous for transsexual people, who have changed their sex traits to those of the desired sex, to be in spaces for their birth gender – This is particularly true for transsexual women (Those born with male traits who acquire female traits), who may be subject to sexual violence from men.

         Also, since at least the 50s, it has been common and legal for transsexuals to use the single-sex spaces of their acquired sex – E.g, transsexual women in women’s toilets. The position of trans people is already the status quo, and what is advocated by gender-critical activists is a massive change.

         1. It’s a tough one. There is no easy solution, and one group or more will feel disadvantaged. Male violence, especially sexual violence, is the key problem indeed, agree with you there – not all men, but there is no reliable way to identify which men.

            1. I do not see how this is tough. Transsexual people already use the facilities corresponding to their lived gender and acquired sex. This has been the case for decades and causes very few problems in practice.

               Evidence shows that placing transsexual women in male spaces will lead to high rates of male violence against them. Expecting them to suffer violence because some non-transsexual women perceive them as threats is not reasonable. It is a profound violation of their right to safety, without a good justification.

            2. The answer to male violence cannot be to allow men to seek safety in females’ single sex spaces.

         2. Yeah, there is no easy solution, and one group or more will feel disadvantaged. Male violence, especially sexual violence, is the key problem indeed, agree with you there – not all men, but there is no reliable way to identify which men.

         3. There is no easy solution, and one group or more will feel disadvantaged.

            Male violence, especially sexual violence, is the key problem indeed, agree with you there – not all men, but there is no reliable way to identify which men.

            1. Pardon the multipost, thought it wasnt working

4. Well I did a bit of genetics back in the day, and objectively nothing will change XY into XX or vice versa, though we transition salmon with testosterone as fertilized eggs, to produce functionally male fish without a y chromosome. Such niceties fly right over the head of trans activists however, and having been dogpiled by them somewhat frequently, I’m inclined to think that if they’re experiencing hatred that would be just karma on their behaviour – I quite liked the trans we knew about back in the day – Frankenfurter, Carmen etc. But the ones who want to kill JK Rowling (who took her current position in defense of rape victim whose assailant subsequently claimed to be trans) should be receiving the same treatment they’ve just had meted out to Graham Lineham.

   As for the politics – there are no votes to be had in trans advocacy, and no human rights either. Only a very stupid party would have anything to do with it.

5. That’s rather speculative Frank, in fact typical ZB like scaremongering. We are currently experiencing a wave of stupid law making under an absolute bunch of dipshits .

   1. With the tide turning in the UK, have they left it too late?

6. More far-right talking points brainwashed slaves for sure

7. Frank the Tank & Prophet is it? Your credibility so far is hovering around zero, so just more idle gossip is about the kindest description of your thoughts.

   1. Given Lineham was calling for people to commit violence against anyone in a toilet these thought may be trans, I’m totally comfortable with him being arrested and charged.

      Why anyone would support Lineham is beyond belief. He’s the most obsessed bigot on social media.

      Let’s try a different category shall we?

      Attack any nuns you see, they could be a man dressed as a woman.

      Punch Jews in the nuts. They’re circumcized therefore support genital mutilation.

      Punch anyone you suspect of being different.

      Lineham is a saddo who made his own bed and shat his own sheets.

      As for “protecting women”, if he hadn’t become an obsessive bigot his own wife wouldn’t have left him. Seems he’s not interested in her thoughts on the matter. So much for listening to women.

8. Actually, he was arrested because the unhinged bully literal went out of his way to attack people who were specifically transgender berating them online employed intimidating tactics relentlessly” posted abusive comments about a teenage transgender campaigner on social media before throwing her phone on the road, that called stalking and is a criminal offense in Aotearoa and intentional damage.

   1. No – he was arrested because a bunch of self-righteous trans activists who have harassed him and ended his career, were able to abuse police powers to further victimize him.

      He has been cancelled already, but that did not suffice to assuage the malice of the activists, who believe that they are entitled to force compliance with their objectively untrue views of gender.

      We see the same kind of malice at work in Australia, in Tickle vs Giggle.

      1. No…
         You’re so very wrong.

         If I were to post on Twitter:

         “Stuart Munro is a threat to women, call the cops if you see him and if they don’t show up you should punch him in the nuts”.

         Would you be fine with that?
         Or would you like the justice system to intervene?

         Because that’s what Lineham has done. Asked all his bigoted fuckwit followers to become toilet vigilantes.

9. When we have the Spinoff claiming “‘woman = adult human female’ [is] a common anti-trans refrain”, you just know this BS is coming here too.

   Ironically, after the UK has reached a tipping point and reality is resuming the ascendency

   Sex is binary and immutable in humans. All else must follow from that

   1. Linehan has been arrested because he advocated for people to commit the crime of assault against transsexual women, and because he has harassed a minor. This is not a free speech issue.

      Also, the reason trans people are so opposed to the gender-critical set is because they argue for significant changes which would endanger trans people. Transsexuals have been using single-sex spaces of their acquired sex for literal decades. Forcing them to use facilities that do not match their bodies outs them, making them vulnerable to violence, and would put them in spaces that are unsafe. This is especially true for transsexual women, who have acquired female sex traits and would be subject to male violence if they were forced to use men’s facilities.

      I can understand objections to certain aspects of modern gender theory, but I think it is irresponsible to treat positions that would cause profound harm to transsexuals if implemented as serious and respectable.

      1. We have to consider this in the light of the enormous numbers of death threats made against JK Rowling, and Lineham himself has received “harassment, abuse, and threats”, with no comparable police action or investigation.

         So it is irresponsible to pretend that trans activists are an innocent party solely motivated by legitimate safety concerns – they want utu, and they will dogpile anyone who points out that their claims are not merely false, but in some instances threaten public safety.

         The extremism of this movement needs to be curtailed – the canard that ‘all knowledge is socially constructed’ cannot reasonably be extended to the point of allowing groups to push children to become castrati like the medieval church.

         1. Why are you so concerned about “trans activists”? You seem very more focused on the behaviour of some nebulous group of people. You don’t seem concerned about the real threats to the rights and safety of transsexuals. I think that’s callous.

   2. Oh dear, another basic biology dumdum. And plenty more of them above.

      So thickies, these people do not identify as female and the medical establishment doesn’t either.

      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19155947/

      So tell me, which toilet should they use?

      Are their pregnancies illusory? That’s what the terfs think.

      And “adult” is simply a legal / administrative term. In the US you can cross a state border and swap from adult to not-adult with a step.

      If you were an adult, you would know this. That’s why it’s a tell for a terf, too obsessed with other peoples bits to engage their brain.

      1. DSDs are different from trans-identifying, right? And none of them change sex?

         1. IDGAF. Why don’t you mind your own business?

            1. That exactly what women are saying to men.

10. The only issue I see here is people not minding their own business.

11. Cheese has slipped off his cracker.
    Get himself turned into a eunuch and all those thoughts go away.

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