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Fannies by gaslight

Posted on July 01, 2020 by

So something quite interesting just happened, and we don’t mean this race:

What’s interesting is specifically the video.

When we uploaded it in September last year, it was pulled within minutes by YouTube for copyright violation, as very often happens if you post even really short clips of any kind of current or current-ish sporting event for any reason.

So we filed a fair-use defence, but as those can take weeks to be resolved we tweeted the video on our now-banned Twitter account instead, where it got over 1.5m views.

We never got any notification about it, but clearly the defence was accepted at some point and the video quietly went live again, long after the moment had passed, and we thought no more about it. We can’t remember ever linking to it or mentioning it, though we might have embedded it in a post at some point.

Then today we noticed it had 2.3m views and almost 12,000 comments.

That outstrips by a margin of over 300% the stats of our previous most-viewed video, the infamous Nick Robinson “he didn’t answer” clip, which has been watched 522,000 times. But it doesn’t explain why, because as far as we can tell nobody has actively linked to the athletics video.

What appears to have happened is that YouTube’s algorithms picked it out a couple of weeks ago and started putting it in people’s automated recommendations. Almost all of the traffic dates from the middle of last month. We suspect that might be because the title of the clip tied in with JK Rowling’s much-publicised comments around the same time about the existence of biological sex, although there’s no way to be sure.

But that’s not the interesting thing either.

Because anyone who’s been following the transgender debate even a little bit will at this point quite reasonably be presuming that those 12,000 comments are a toxic bin fire of hatred. But (while we haven’t by any means read all of them yet), it doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, there’s a distinct lack of rancour in them, to the point where it’s almost freakish. This is YouTube. This is the internet. No rancour or hatred, especially on a usually highly controversial subject? What? 

Lots of people make videogames jokes, especially relating to Sonic The Hedgehog or Super Mario Kart. Quaintly, some old-fashioned 1970s-style sexists show up to rather gently mock feminists for claiming women are equal to men because the video clearly shows that in an athletic context they’re not. But there’s a palpable shortage of people screaming “BIGOT!” and “NAZI!” and accusing others of being literal murderers.

And we suspect the reason is that specifically because the video hasn’t been linked to by either side in the trans debate, the comments reflect what the general population thinks, not those actively involved in the fight. And to the general public, it’s still almost farcically obvious that men aren’t women.

It simply doesn’t occur to most normal people that there’s even an argument to be had here. Everyone knows human beings can’t change their sex. Everyone knows there aren’t really 178 different “genders”. Everyone knows that taken as a class men are far stronger physically than women. Everyone knows that women don’t have penises and men can’t be lesbians. Normal people treat the idea that you can “identify” into or out of a biological fact as being so stupid as to not be even worthy of taking seriously.

That, of course, is partly why the transcult has been so successful. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled, as Keyser Soze so memorably put it, was convincing the world he didn’t exist. If you try to explain the madness of transgender ideology to normal people they look at you as if you were telling them the Earth was not only flat, but made of cheese by tiny goblins and carried through space by a giant purple armadillo. People simply don’t believe what’s happening, which is why it’s able to happen.

As a topical case in point, Yes-movement social media has been dominated this week by a ludicrous fantasy constructed by one of the SNP’s Twitler Youth.

The completely fictitious account of “transphobic abuse” suffered at a branch meeting in Bearsden – which neither of the male “victims” had complained about at the time or for four months afterwards – was treated as unquestioned gospel truth by a long string of SNP representatives, including MPs Hannah Bardell and Mhairi Black, backed up by Westminster leader Ian Blackford, to the absolutely extraordinary point where it was used as evidence of institutional transphobia within the party.

(The trans advocates had tried to stop feminist branch members from hearing about or attending the event, in order to prevent any critical voices challenging their position and maintain the illusion that their view is shared universally in the party. Another then-member of the SNP’s trans youth wing, a male transwoman, cancelled his appearance at a similar event the same evening when he got wind of the fact that people with an opposing view might dare to also be present and raise their concerns. “Safety” in transcult-speak means “never being disagreed with”, and “flooded the branch” means “turned up to an event held by a party they’re members of and are entitled to attend”.)

To anyone with even the slightest command of either current affairs or their sanity, calling the SNP “transphobic” is akin to attacking the Pope for being “too Protestant” – a falsehood of such breathtaking magnitude and audacity as to be almost admirable.

The phenomenon is widely known as “gaslighting”, a term this site has always hated because it’s a terrible word whose meaning is completely opaque and impossible to discern from context unless you happen to have seen a particular 1930s movie that nobody in the real world has heard of. We’ve had the term explained to us 100 times and immediately forgot again every time – it’s taking a supreme effort of concentration to remember it now.

But what it basically means is telling people, over and over again, that the evidence they can clearly perceive with their own eyes and ears and know to be definitely true is in fact merely a sign that they’re insane and paranoid.

Gaslighting can only be effective if you isolate your intended victim, separating them from anyone who might support them, enabling you to wear them down by relentlessly bombarding them with tried-and-tested brainwashing/grooming techniques until they crumble under the pressure. It’s a tactic beloved of domestic abusers and cults, and is increasingly aggressively and openly deployed on social media by trans-captured tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, RedditYouTube and most recently Google.

Such cults operate by leaping on things in a planned and organised way to make the extremist views of a tiny minority look like a groundswell of support, aided and abetted by pathologically weak politicians who basically serve whoever shouts the loudest.

(The UK government currently shows signs of possibly being an unusual exception to this rule, or maybe the feminists and reality fans just shouted louder.)

But mob intimidation only works when the mob is aware something’s happening. When our video was pushed into the public sphere by YouTube’s automated processes, they didn’t know about it, so they didn’t mobilise their online armies, and so the comments are full of the actual everyday public behaving normally, in all their great diversity, and largely saying the sort of obvious common-or-garden things that everyone knows are true without being screamed down and cowed into silence by unimaginable torrents of abuse from the “progressive” left and “the right side of history”.

That public view is backed up by every opinion poll ever conducted on the subject. But opinion poll findings regularly get shouted down too, dismissed as being manipulated by “bigotry” or “leading questions” – even when the questions are being asked by hyper-trans-friendly organisations like Pink News – or for being “meaningless” because they typically only ask 1000 or so people.

So it’s always reassuring to see a completely spontaneous illustration happen “in the wild”, just in case you’re ever in danger of being gaslighted by a bunch of wee fannies.

.

OTHER RESOURCES

Peak Trans

ForWomen.scot

Women And Girls In Scotland

Women Are Human

Claire Graham (intersex voice silenced by Twitter)

Miranda Yardley (dissenting transwoman silenced by Twitter)

Meghan Murphy (Canadian feminist silenced by Twitter, also here)

RadFem Rebecca (Feminist silenced by Twitter)

4th Wave Now (US parents group silenced by Twitter)

Trans Crime UK

The War On Women

Pronouns Are Rohypnol

List of gender-critical feminists suspended by Twitter

Things that only happen to biological women

Statistics on the advantages held by biological males in women’s sports

The huge financial interests behind transgenderism

The alarming culture of misogyny at social-media and tech firms

Two collections of violent threats from TRAs to women

A representative random selection of TRA quotes

Things men have pretended to be to gain malign access to women and children

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  1. 01 07 20 14:56

    Fannies by gaslight | speymouth
    Ignored

205 to “Fannies by gaslight”

  1. Stuart MacKay
    Ignored
    says:

    This is the clear winner for “Title of the Year”. Awesome.

  2. Muscleguy
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    says:

    Excellent post Rev. If anything the video other than emphasising male athletic superiority is an indictment on the state of men’s 400m sprinting in Poland which meant a woman was faster than all but one Polish male 400m runner. I wonder if all the Polish male 400m runners now identify as women which is what male athletic also rans the world over seem to be doing.

    I’m a runner, I ran 400m’s as a kid when it was in essence a middle distance race. Moved out as I got older. But I know what it is to race one. I run them in training as well. I am not fast. The idea I might self ID as a woman to boost my chances of winning a race would never have occurred to me ever and I would never contemplate it. For a start my legs are too well muscled and my shoulders far too wide and hips far too narrow to ever carry it off.

    But that doesn’t stop fat bearded blokes in women’s underwear claiming to be women. Which should be prima facie evidence of manifest mental delusion requiring being sectioned. That it doesn’t is an indictment of how one particular mental delusion is privileged over all others by being pandered to by actual qualified psychiatrists and psychologists.

    I’m glad I’m just a physiologist so I don’t have to be ashamed. Deeply, so profoundly ashamed. At least in the case of the Tavistock the turnover of clinical staff who find their consciences so worn down is something in their favour. There is hope.

  3. Yona
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    says:

    This is why we love ya Stu.
    Missing ye on Twatter. ??

  4. Margaret E
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    says:

    I am surrounded by people (actually mostly marine biologists) who cannot take this situation seriously because it is simply too crazy for words. They cannot believe that anyone in the 21st century, who has even the remotest knowledge of molecular biology, can entertain, far less promote, such utter rubbish.

  5. susan
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    says:

    Excellent article Stu, lays it out clearly.

  6. Dave Beveridge
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    says:

    WTF is a “non binary” person? An analog one???

    I’ve completely lost track of what I’m supposed to believe in or be offended by.

  7. Bob Mack
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    says:

    Politicians are the pits. Woke politicians are a level below that.

    Will common sense ever prevail?

  8. schrodingers cat
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    says:

    http://www.holyrood.com/editors-column/view,on-reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act_15200.htm

    “More than half of Nicola Sturgeon’s ministerial team privately admit the proposed reforms are a complete mess, unlikely to stand up to legal scrutiny, never mind get through the committees or win a parliamentary vote. One told me that the hope was that the coronavirus would overtake events and any bill would be kicked into the long grass. Others have just said they ‘can’t go there’.”

    it looks very likely that this bill will not get through. good

  9. Robert Graham
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    says:

    Clearly delusional people with severe personality disorders , Why of Why are they getting so much attention , is that what is is they crave attention , OK you think you are different and Special now please take a ticket and stick it up your collective arses, assuming you can find them .

  10. schrodingers cat
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    says:

    i cannot understand why so much time and energy is being spent on an issue which affects a vanishingly small number of people, at the expense of women

    the good news is that the bill will fail and we can get back to discussing issues that affect all of us, brexit, indyref2 etc

  11. Doreen A Milne
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    says:

    Great piece, just what I needed, Stu. Oh, you’re so missed in that hell hole, man. The Posie Parker thing knocked me right down yesterday and I had to remind myself they, TRAs, are not the real everyday world. This is a great piece to strengthen that knowledge. Cheers. Hope you’re well and keeping busy. xx

  12. Breeks
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    says:

    … and aren’t we all so lucky that these happy ‘individuals’ decided to adopt Scottish Independence as their carrier wave, to reach the masses with their vitriol and poison?

    Can those in the know maybe give us a name check, err, …correction, let’s make that a letter of the alphabet check, whether the conspirators who sought to smear Alex Salmond with orchestrated accusations of rape and sexual assault, are the same letters of the alphabet who are now fabricating stories about things which didn’t happen at the meeting in Bearsden?

    Asking for a friend….

  13. Breeks
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    says:

    Sorry yet again Stu. I used the r*** word again. I’m over here in the moderation bin…

    Will I never learn??? Don’t type the r*** word…

  14. Merkin Scot
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    says:

    Powerful stuff Stu.
    Can’t disagree.

  15. Polly
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    says:

    Very good title. I’m one of the few then who likes old films. Good If the boil is being lanced but lanced boils usually ooze pus for quite a bit and can reoccur so here’s hoping sense prevails and antiseptic is applied in good season. Glad your video is back up, hope other things are rescinded for you too.

  16. Janet Pontin
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    says:

    The second best thing about this post is that I’m expecting Mabel and Olive to take over on the final stretch.

  17. Ruglonian
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    says:

    Thanks Stu for an interesting insight.

    I’d urge folk to click on the link “completely fictitious”, that’s under that Teddy’s statement, and read the SNP’s Women’s Pledge statement to the contrary since it’s not given the same prominence here with an image!

  18. Rev. Stuart Campbell
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    says:

    Man, everyone’s a critic.

  19. frogesque
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    says:

    The Trans debate, on this issue only I must stress, has made me grateful for those stalwort ladies in the Conservative Party.

    They at least, like the Kinks ‘Lola’ know what a man is!

  20. Sensibledave
    Ignored
    says:

    As you say Rev, outside of the hotbeds of social media interaction, blogs and some news and current affairs outlets, real folk are often completely unaware of the “culture wars” being fought. Whether its GRA or BLM or whatever, ordinary reasonable people (like me), if they do become aware of the debate, look on in amazement and confusion.

    Black lives matter very much and of course Trans people should be treated respectfully and have rights – is the view of the vast majority of ordinary folk in the UK (be it Scotland or England). When they do find out BLMUk’s BLM’s official political “manifesto” and understand that self ID means humans with penis’s have the right to enter women’s changing rooms and enter female only sporting compatitions, etc – they draw a very reasonable line in the sand and say, “enough”.

  21. Capella
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    says:

    Excellent piece and shows how the organised hate cohorts need to be triggered by their organisers, as many women have found out.

    The SG has shelved the GRA reform bill until after the pandemic. However they still think it essential to repeal the ancient Scottish Blasphemy Act. The last prosecution for blasphemy in Scotland was in 1843. Nevertheless this is a top priority in these unprecedented times.

    Oh, and we’ll just slip in this amendment making it a hate crime to upset the TRAs. People could be imprisoned for 7 years for saying anything that upsets a TRA.

    It affects very much more than a small section of society and it is by no means shelved.

  22. Baronesssamedi
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    says:

    I’ve seen that film. It’s actually terrifying.

  23. Muscleguy
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    says:

    If you follow the right people on twitter it becomes apparent that there is an epidemic of Munchausen syndrome mothers who have gaslit their kids into thinking they’re trans in order to get the woke cacet of having a Trans child getting medical attention which garners sympathy. It’s all about the mother.

    But the professionals are not allowed to make anything about that on risk of losing their jobs. They know what’s happening. What should be happening is a referral to social services, their kids taken into care and psychological help for the mother. Instead the kids, who cannot consent get permanantly damaged and sterlised by puberty blockers.

    Future generations will look back at this time and think we’ve lost our minds. Just like we do with the devil worshipper panic of the late ’70s.

  24. Muscleguy
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    says:

    All this has driven me to do two things I swore I would never do. Your banning from twitter Rev caused me to join twitter and the whole thing has caused me not just to be determined to vote ISP on the List next year but I joined the party.

    It just goes to show what feeling so strongly about something can force you to do.

  25. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ frogesque – true. Conservative peer Emma Nicholson, who has done sterling work recently in protecting women’s rights from the trans lobby, has incurred their wrath. They demand she is sacked from the board of the Booker prize – which her husband set up and financed.

    She is transphobic and homophobic they say. But they provide no actual evidence. Only vitriol and organised bullying.

    http://archive.fo/aedrm

  26. Confused
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    says:

    “fannies by gaslight”
    – I thought you were talking about the BTL for the past several days …

  27. L. Campbell
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    says:

    As soon as you open your mouth to say something, you are accused of hate – no debate, no exchange of views, no reality. Mhairi Black is a clever girl, but she is doing herself no favours with this flat earth ideology.

    I have no problems with boys or men who want to be girls or women, or vice versa, so long as they make some effort to transition even though body dysphoria is an illness, in most opinion.

    What no women should tolerate is being told that physical men are women and should have access to everything that women have access to because they say so. Self-ID without any kind of medical assessment is madness. It will be unworkable because the law cannot be manipulated to serve patent untruths or it will become unworkable. Women should sue if they are hurt in any way, physically or psychologically by a trans women who is physically a man. If there is anything that scares politicians more than being on the wrong side of trans, it is being sued.

    Trans people have the same rights as everyone else, but they want more than anyone else. They want all their own rights and also women’s rights, too. It seems to me that replacing women is the agenda of the most extreme ones.

    You have to think like that if you say that women are less intelligent because they are women, which is, scientifically, untrue, and can be proved to be untrue, albeit women and men will have slightly different intelligences.

    At the beginning of the 20th century, male scientists were trying to prove that, because women had smaller brains, they were closer to apes than to human males until someone pointed out that their brains were just more compact, but carried out identical functions, albeit, occasionally, in a different way.

    If a trans person is claiming to be a woman, then, by implication a trans person is saying, according to that trans person’s own philosophy, that all trans women are less intelligent, because, again according to their philosophy, men are more intelligent than women. Ergo, circular argument: they must be men even by their own definition of intelligence, which, in itself, is fatally flawed precisely in that trans claim to be superior to born-women. The Emperor’s clothes are missing in more ways than one, not to mention a whole boxful of screws.

  28. Gaelstorm
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    says:

    Illuminating piece, and out of nowhere!

  29. Quinie frae Angus
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    says:

    This is a cracker of a post, Stu. Lots of threads neatly collected and collated. Thank you.

  30. Caroline Wilson
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    says:

    What an article (superseded only by its title) – not least because Stuart is finally compelled by events, to acknowledge the concept of ‘gaslighting’). I look forward to it setting the cats amongst the pigeons.

  31. silverbuick
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    says:

    ‘gaslighting’…..believe me or your lying eyes

  32. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    update – the Booker board cave in – Emma Nicholson “cancelled”.

    http://archive.fo/ewCKm

  33. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    Was East Germany not famous for using men in the women’s field athletic events?

  34. defo
    Ignored
    says:

    How much does 2m views pay Stu?
    I’m looking for a new career
    🙂

  35. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    TRAs intend to have Emma Nicholson cancelled form the HoL too.

    Munroe Bergdorf, the model and transgender activist, said she was referring Nicholson to the Parliamentary Standards Conduct Commissioner over Nicholson’s posts on social media about the trans community.

    From the Guardian article above
    http://archive.fo/aedrm

  36. Bryan Weir
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    says:

    “the SNP’s Twitler Youth.”

    Was this really necessary? I thought you were trying to clean up your act?

  37. JGedd
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    says:

    I don’t know any sensible feminist who claimed that women were exactly the same as men. Anyone was aware that once past puberty, males went down a different path physically from females.

    There were profound skeletal and muscular changes in males (in females not so dramatically) which produced a different body shape. ( It is obvious when you look at boys and girls before puberty and compare that to post puberty. Body shape in juveniles is pretty much similar but after puberty there are obvious and often dramatic changes in appearance.) In other words, for all the obsession with genitalia and secondary sexual characteristics, which in our society are not usually particularly visible in everyday life(!), humans can easily recognise potential mates even from a distance and even fully clothed.

    These are signals to the opposite sex – not so fantastic as the peacock’s tail – but just as effective. We have been attuned to these from the deep evolutionary past – and leaving out the idea of romantic love – which is a modern invention, it is what has driven human coupling for many millenia. It works whether you are gay or heterosexual. In that sense we are not so much in control of our choices as we think – we are in the grip of biology.

    The essential message, I understood from serious feminism, is that apart from these biological truths, the equality of modern humans should not be dependent on simplistic ideas like who is physically stronger or faster. After all, we no longer live in the environments which set the course of human biology where it was important for hunters to be strong and fast, to have bigger lungs and hearts and denser skeletons.

    There are other qualities in humans which – I would suggest – are more important in a modern age where we don’t have to go out and bring down game. So those sexists who think it demeans females because males can outrun them or outplay them on track or field are missing the point and in more ways than one, are living in the past.

  38. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘The UK government currently shows signs of possibly being an unusual exception to this rule,’

    Considering only 4 countries worldwide have adopted gender self id, that’s overstating the UK government’s case a bit.

  39. ScotsRenewables
    Ignored
    says:

    Great post, but it does tend to prove what I have said all along – that this issue is obsessed over and deliberated by a vanishingly small number of people.

    Hopefully the SNP leadership will read this and think about it carefully.

  40. Frazerio
    Ignored
    says:

    Anyone know where can I place a bet that the ‘nature’ of the BTL comments on the Youtube athletics clip might now ‘change’ in tone somewhat once a certain section read, share and pile on.

  41. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    o/t
    I made the mistake of looking at the comments on the BBC Scotland website re the virus in Scotland , strangely open to comments I wondered why, then it became clear it was a platform for the green ink lot and Scotland in Union nut jobs to vent their bile and hatred , oh my it’s all getting to much for them and sanity has gone right out the bleedn window .
    The threat of Indy ref 2 must be getting to them oh dear how sad , put another log on the fire Nicola wind the fkrs up .

  42. Scozzie
    Ignored
    says:

    Mhiari Black, Alyn Smith (and your wee lackeys), Ian Blackford, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Rhiannon Spears, Mhairi Hunter et all….you are cookoos in the nest. Your wokeness needs driven out the SNP.

    If you believe in biological reality – please stand up and call this out.

    If you believe that women have sexed based rights – please stand up and call this out.

    If you believe that women need female only safe spaces – please stand up and call this out.

    If you believe that women should not compete with with transwomen in elite sport – please stand up and call this out.

    If you believe that children should not be medicalised if they have dysphoria – please stand up and call this out.

    Trans people have human rights, but their attempt to colonise the opposite sex is not their right. Transmen or transwomen are just that – they are not the opposite sex and can never be.

    This is a rabbit hole that will have dire consequences for society.

  43. David
    Ignored
    says:

    Good comment btl on that youtube video:
    “It’s funny how 99.9% simply acknowledge men and woman are different, but the 0.1% is all you hear about.”

  44. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @J Gedd,

    Indeed human roles have changed. However I would simply argue that women still today have safety issues at a deeper level from predatory or aggressive males

    That is pretty basic no matter how evolution has changed us.

  45. Polly
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella I was as angered as you about Baroness Nicholson’s treatment by the board for speaking up for women. Reading her bio she seems a remarkable woman.

  46. liz
    Ignored
    says:

    Also the appalling treatment of Allison Bailey.
    It’s actually terrifying where this is all coming from.
    There are far too many useful idiots in the SNP being taken for mugs.
    https://twitter.com/BluskyeAllison/status/1278317988429561857

  47. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘The UK government currently shows signs of possibly being an unusual exception to this rule,’

    Come to think of it,that wild overstatement along with the incessant SNP bad on GRA on here may be construed as gaslighting.

    But this is a pro Scottish independence site, so that’s completely impossible.

  48. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘But this is a pro Scottish independence site,’

    Should have said supposed to be a pro Scottish independence site.

  49. Andrew F
    Ignored
    says:

    Some things stumbled upon in the last week or so:

    “What Abbas and Shtayyeh are ultimately hoping to achieve is a repeat of an earlier episode that followed the admission of Palestine as a non-state member of the United Nations General Assembly in 2011. Salam Fayyad, who served as the Authority Prime Minister at the time, also waved the card of the unilateral declaration of statehood to force Israel to freeze the construction of illegal Jewish settlements.

    Eventually, the Palestinian Authority was co-opted by then-US Secretary of State, John Kerry, to return to another round of useless negotiations with Israel, which won the Authority another ten years, during which time it received generous international funds while selling Palestinians false hope for an imaginary state.” – Ramzy Baroud, 23 June 2020

    “For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

    ? Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail.

    Terrific post Rev Stu, a real blinder.

  50. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ dakk – you misunderstand gaslighting. Pointing out reality, backed up by facts, which others are at liberty to contest, is not gaslighting.
    Lying to people e.g. saying that SelfID won’t impact on women’s rights, which is demonstrably a lie, and yelling “NO DEBATE” whenever someone points out the facts, is gaslighting.

  51. susan
    Ignored
    says:

    Why do you want men to have access to female only places dakk?

  52. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ dakk – also on the subject of the conservatives positioning themselves as defenders of women’s rights and banning the “gay cure” i.e. invasive hormone treatments – from ITV:

    At the same time, the Government was said to be preparing to set out new safeguards to protect female-only spaces – including refuges and public lavatories – to stop them being used by those with male anatomy.

    http://archive.fo/p1rkM

  53. Scozzie
    Ignored
    says:

    Dakk @ 3.25pm
    How is this so called ‘SNP bad’ on GRA reform gaslighting? The SNP wokeness is out on display for all to see – they are gaslighting us. They are the ones trying to manipulate our biological reality in the drive towards ‘progressiveness’.

  54. P
    Ignored
    says:

    Black, Blackford, Bardell
    The 3B’s – and that’s not a reference to a pencil
    Sickened by their support for “poor wee teddy” – gaslighting must pay well?
    Keep up the good work Stu and thank you

  55. JGedd
    Ignored
    says:

    Bob Mack @ 2.56pm

    I agree with you but this is such a big subject I would have had to write a long essay. No one has patience for that so I confined myself to Rev Stu’s remark about sexists.

    Unfortunately, as a result of proposed legislation women are having to confront the reality of biology and the fact that those with a male anatomy can cause them harm, without their former protections, something that the trans activists refuse to acknowledge. I do not think that women are at risk from genuine trans people but there are obviously predators out there who are ready to take advantage of the access they can gain through any new legislation by merely self-identifying.

    Instead of scorning and silencing those with real worries it would befit those who wish to make changes to have a genuine debate about these issues for the sake of those trans people, to protect them and women and children from the bad actors. These attitudes to debate are not progressive but authoritarian and regressive.

  56. Breeks
    Ignored
    says:

    OT But it’s nipping my head.

    Not much comment about it, but the deadline for an extension to the Brexit deadline has expired. 31st December it is, with or without any deals.

    So I had a wee question pop into my head about Brexit…. a question I’d like every one of you to think about.

    Just suppose there wasn’t a Scottish Government, or rather, there wasn’t an SNP government and it was a coalition Government being run by red and blue Tories. Say too, it wasn’t Nicola Sturgeon as FM, but it was Jackson Carlaw in the driving seat, delivering Boris his Brexit unopposed, and selling out Scotland’s vote to remain in Europe.

    Tell me honestly, especially all you SNPr’s, would you be serenely jogging alongside the Tories, as they gaily dismantled Scotland’s Sovereign Constitution, or would you be fighting to prevent it happening?

  57. Soda
    Ignored
    says:

    I recieved a twitter ban because i said this to a trans activists regarding the use of derogatory terms against women who speak out against these MEN…

    “Anyone who resorts to the use of derogatory terms while discussing this matter is a cunt…”

    Not only did the little bitch fail to spot the glaringly obvious contradiction in my statement and offer a decisive retort, he immediately reported me, blocked me and i copped a ban for ‘Being terribly hateful…’ or some such bollocks.

    They offered me a reprieve if i agreed with them or i could appeal. I told them to ram it.

  58. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    Pointing out reality, backed up by facts, which others are at liberty to contest, is not gaslighting’

    What is factual about saying UK gov are one of the few exceptions when that is patently untrue.

    Only 4 countries out of the over 200 countries of the world have adopted gra self id.

    How can that make UK gov even remotely exceptional.

    It’s not even close to being true unless you’ve been gaslighted.

  59. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘Why do you want men to have access to female only places’

    I don’t, why, do you?

  60. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @JGedd,

    I’m all for debate, but too often it ends up as you see above where the Trans lobby resort to horrific abuse because a female has genuine concerns.

    They also meticulously work to shut down those who express a viewpoint on social media.

    Debate seems far away from those currently steering their movement.

  61. ALANM
    Ignored
    says:

    This is essentially a women’s rights issue so why not just leave it to our feminist friends to sort out? I personally can’t see any advantage in men getting involved; we only end up being fired at from all sides.

  62. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    ot
    would the power for the sg to close our border need to be devolved from wm? and if it refuses, what can nicola actually do?

    maybe she cant do anything, in which case the only people who can actually close the border is us?

    civil disobedience anyone?

  63. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Dakk – Stu did not say that the uK government is an exception to every other government in the world. You are quoting him out of context. He said:

    (The UK government currently shows signs of possibly being an unusual exception to this rule, or maybe the feminists and reality fans just shouted louder.)

    The rule in question is – The transcult works by leaping on things in a planned and organised way to make the extremist views of a tiny minority look like a groundswell of support, aided and abetted by pathologically weak politicians who basically serve whoever shouts the loudest.

    Is this your attempt at gaslighting?

  64. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @SC,

    I see they have this problem around the Borders just now.

    Cases increasing they suspect, via English visitors.

    What to do ?

  65. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @breeks

    i would be fighting against it

    thats a no brainer

    the argument is how?

  66. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @boab

    What to do ?

    good question

    is there anything the sg can actually do? if not

    who and what can be done?

  67. callmedave
    Ignored
    says:

    By sheer coincidence The X-word in the National I did this morning at 7D had ‘gaslight’ as the answer.

    Anyhoo!

    Boris has again postponed his ‘air bridges’ announcement but raged on today about there is no such thing as a border between Scotland and England.

    But the cross-border virus outbreak (9 new cofirmed cases) announced by the FM this morning in Dumfries and Galloway must have weakened his hand enough to ponder a little before trampling over public safety concerns.

    Tricky decision to impose a WM policy in the colony which is a pain in the ar@e.

    Figs today: Official

    Scotland………..today…..01……Total…..2486….BBC
    Wales…………..today…..06……Total…..1516….BBC
    N. Ireland………today…..00……Total……551….BBC
    England…………today…*56 hosp..Total…*28759…*SUN
    ==========================================================
    UK……………..today….176…….Total…43906..WM-Gov

    Auntie BBC does not do ‘England only figures’ as we all know
    but the SUN posts them. 🙂

  68. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Alan M,

    So the next time my wife and daughters ask me to !end my support to them over this issue, you can bet your last dollar I am not going to reply “It’s a female only issue. I’m out”

    That is the road to perdition.

  69. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu did not say that the uK government is an exception to every other government in the world

    Well why not say,the vast majority of the world’s governments are possibly an unusual exception then, instead of blowing the UK govs trumpet for them?

  70. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    if auob can organise 100k folk to march in glasgow, could they organise 10000 cars to block the x border roads?

    would those complaining of snp inaction participate?

  71. dakk
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘Is this your attempt at gaslighting?’

    Lol. If I could I would.

    To get independence,believe me 🙂

  72. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m starting to take a right scunner to Mhairi Black, she’s challenging the SNP, with claims of transphobia within its ranks, when clearly Black’s real intentions are to shout down any voices who feel the current SNP trajectory on self id, is flawed, of which a majority of folk think it is.

    Along with Mr Hope, Black, appears to be desperately trying to steer the heirarchy of the SNP, away from logical thinking on the matter, and towards prioritising the LGBTQ+ needs and desires above everyone elses, by using the victim status and rampant transphobia slurs, which in reality is anyone who holds a different view to theirs, on these matters that don’t concur with their views.

    Of course I agree that the LGBTQ+ community does suffer from transphobic remarks, just as the ethic or Catholic communities do, the latter two probably more so. However, we cannot allow Black, Hope and the ultra woke within the party to dictate how things should be handled on the matter, and in the process marginalising our natural born women.

    Sturgeon must tread very carefully on this matter, drop the self id nonsense for starters.

  73. Famous15
    Ignored
    says:

    There is no border between men and women.

    Oops!

  74. Astonished
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu- Could you do the SNP and Scotland a(nother) favour and ask every SNP MSP and MP their voting intentions on the GRA bollix and Hamza Yusef’s seven years for calling transwomen -men nonsense ?

    Asking for a lot of folk who want independence.

  75. Dr Jim
    Ignored
    says:

    Public health is a devolved matter to Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland, each country has the authority to close its borders on that basis, as does public health England if there were to be an outbreak in Scotland or Wales

    35 areas of England are on the danger list of being locked down again because the infection rate is moving out of control, the Burgh of Westminster is one of those areas

  76. B Griffiths
    Ignored
    says:

    When are you coming back to Twitter Rev? Your posts are sorely missed.

  77. callmedave
    Ignored
    says:

    Coronavirus: Johnson ‘astonished’ by idea of Scottish quarantine.

    http://archive.vn/PW3aM

  78. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    Dr Jim

    unless this is bojos attempt to create a division between wm and hr and an excuse for him to shut down holyrood?

    he can read the same polls that we do. he knows that no amount of uj’s on packaging or bbc tv programes about british backing and vera lynn between now and the 2021 he is going to stop a landslide for the indy supporters

    how else can he avoid this senario playing out?

  79. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    “Scozzie says:
    1 July, 2020 at 2:49 pm
    Mhiari Black, Alyn Smith (and your wee lackeys”

    Scozzie.

    Alyn Smith bumping his gums today he’s the SNP Foreign Affairs lead at Westminster, which is just another handle for, I get told on foreign affairs what the British government wants me to know and nothing else.

    Anyway Smith is toeing the Westminster line today by attacking China, over Hong Kong and the Uighur population in China. Smith however remains tacit on what Westminster did to the Chagossian people, and the fact that Westminster is deliberately flouting International law on it.

    I’d have thought more of Smyth, if he’d railed against the end of the EU extension date, rather than doing Westminster’s bidding on China today.

  80. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Dr Jim@ 4.45pm.

    Boris Johnson said at PMQs today that there is no border between England and Scotland, and thinking there is one is shameful.

    As I said on the previous thread with regards to this matter, if Leicester can be locked down and Victoria in Australia, then, I’m sure its perfectly plausable that there could be border restrictions between England and Scotland put in place to stop cross border infections, which is the case in Dumfries and Galloway.

    This highlights beautifully why Scotland must become an independent nation, if not we risk all manner of events crossing our border from our nearest neighbour.

    Incidentally thousands have signed a petition to close the border.

    http://archive.is/uLkps

  81. susan
    Ignored
    says:

    When I went to Glasgow to study I had my highland accent taken the piss of. Am I a special oppressed minority? Can I shout “abuse”? No I’m not a fkn snowflake looking for woke points and police prosecutions/ sackings. They are sad fks who need psychiatric help not affirmation.
    And no I do not want males in female only spaces. That includes ” transwomen” ( trans identifying males) because they are MEN.

  82. susan
    Ignored
    says:

    Hey guys, open up your lives, expand manhood to include”transwomen”.

  83. A Person
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev-

    Not to be sycophantic, but thank you for speaking up about all this. It would probably have made your life a bit easier not to have bothered and never to have uttered a word of criticism of the SNP, but you are made of sterner stuff!

  84. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    Republicofscotland

    we would still need wm’s permission, ie the powers devolved down, as they have done with leicester before we could do that

    im pretty certain that bojo wants to manufacture a constitutional crisis between hr and wm before the 2021 HE

    can we afford to take this risk?

  85. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    “And no I do not want males in female only spaces. That includes ” transwomen” ( trans identifying males) because they are MEN.”

    What Susan, you mean you don’t want a big fat bloke with a beard in a dress with ruby red lipstick on, wearing bovver boots with a hairy back and shoulders and covered in tattoos,sidling up to you at the wash hand basins in the ladies toilets, and giving you a sardonic grin, why ever not.

    Only joking Susan, that would put me on edge,in the gents toilet never mind the ladies.

  86. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Schrodingers Cat@ 5.13pm.

    You’re correct, Johnson’s handling of this pandemic has seen his popularity plunge into the negative, whilst Sturgeons remains consistently high on the same matter.

    There’s probably nothing more than Johnson would like, is to see a resurgence of the virus in Scotland, and for that to damage Sturgeon, and of course our ability to handle such events as a independent nation. Sturgeon must tread very carefully on this one, and if need be to impose a blockade on all but essential traffic into Scotland, if the virus looks like it is regaining a larger foothold within the population.

    Johnson is of course playing mind games when he says there’s no border between England and Scotland, Sturgeon must focus on Scottish interests on this matter where ever that leads us to, a clash with Westminster might be inevitable.

  87. North chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    Bojo says “no border“ between Scotland & England . Why do we have a Parliament in Holyrood then ? Thin end of the wedge ? Bojo obviously thinks Holyrood is not required . Is our FM now finally contemplating a “ showdown “ . Propaganda news channels totally preoccupied by “ border issue “ between Hong Kong & China . Go figure ? Perhaps Beijing might offer us citizenship?

  88. Blair Paterson
    Ignored
    says:

    Don’t, waste time talking about these people the truth is they are freaks of nature pure and simple as the Yorkshire people say ther is nowt as queer as folk ??? OT so Boris is going to allow 3million Hong Kong people to come here to live puting our hospitals schools houses at risk of being overwhelmed and us who paid for them all waiting in line to use them and this is because china say did not honour their promise made to Britain how dishonourable of them ???but what about the VOW made by Cameron Milliband Clegg etc.,or is that a different kind of dishonour because it was only made to Scotland ???

  89. Allium
    Ignored
    says:

    A superb article and overview, it effortlessly knits so many strings together.

    Was this all a sort of team effort between many parties to get a bit of zeitgeist and momentum back into the TRA agenda in Scotland after JK Rowling’s timely interventions? It doesn’t seem to have reclaimed the narrative yet, perhaps there are other parts of the tale/strategy to come.

  90. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    Republicofscotland says:
    a clash with Westminster might be inevitable.

    i think that’s a racing certainty

    however, i would like to see an election where indy wins by a landslide with 54% of the votes before the heavy handed tactics from bojo start.

    if it is bojos intention to make sure the holyrood election in 2021 doesnt happen, and i think that it might be, perhaps we need to wrong foot him

    could nicola end this holyrood parlaiment and call for a holyrood election in Oct? would the lockdown phase be over by then?

    bojo reads the same polls we do, if this face off is coming, why would he wait until after the 2021 he when the polls are telling him that a huge indy majority is very likely?

    he is all out of other moves, he cant stop this senario playing out by eg calling a ge

    i sense danger here

  91. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Confused
    I hope you’re not alluding to myself?

    THE AUTHENTIC AND INAUTHENTIC SPORT IN THE
    HERMENEUTIC AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

    Summary:
    The philosophical concept of hermeneutics presents the opposite pole of human mental activities than positivism. Phenomenology, together with hermeneutics, also presents a kind of opposition to the positivistic reduction of learning the world.

    This paper focuses on the topic of authenticity of sport from these two (hermeneutic and phenomenological) approaches. As a basic theoretical platform Martin Heidegger´s book Time and Being is used. The authors develop a specific kind of categorization of the social groups engaged in sport events via the ancient concepts of “TECHNÉ ATHLETIKÉ” and “TECHNÉ GYMNASTIKÉ”.

    Two different phenomena: sport and “sport” are examined within the next part of the paper. There are some reasons mentioned in conclusions coming from the hermeneutic and phenomenological approach which help us to understand and accept the opinion that a kind of return to “techné gymnastiké” can support the authentic modes of being in human approach to sport.

    Keywords:
    Sport; “sport”; TECHNÉ GYMNASTIKÉ; TECHNÉ ATHLETIKÉ; authenticity

    https://content.sciendo.com/downloadpdf/journals/afepuc/58/1/article-p1.pdf

  92. ALANM
    Ignored
    says:

    @Bob Mack

    You’ve missed the point so let me clarify it for your benefit…

    If there’s nothing to be gained by men getting involved then what’s the point of men getting involved?

  93. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    North Chiel.

    The absurdity of the British government is plain to see with Johnson’s latest endeavour, as he vows to allow three million Hong Kong citizens into the UK, whilst forcing out immigrants and making life difficult for EU citizens.

    This doesn’t even take into account the Windrush scandal, the Grenfell scandal and the Go Home vans scandal.

    Do I believe Johnson when he says he’ll allow three million Hong Kongers into the UK? Certainly not, the evidence suggests otherwise.

  94. callmedave
    Ignored
    says:

    @North chiel
    Beat me to it there with that pertinent observation.

    Two days in a row no FM to be heard on big Auntie news speaking her thoughts on the air bridge policy.

    Only a BBC ‘Scotland’ spokesperson saying what FM says (but not all the truth).

    Big Auntie BBC on the soft peddle with this one while Boris comes up with a ‘Cumming’ plan.

    It’s all about negotiating deals with Greece that’s the hold up…Aye!

    Boris will do it though…but will the S-Gov screw their courage to the sticking place. Hmmm! 🙂 or 🙁

  95. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    Watched a bit of PMQs again. You might not like Starmer but he is destroying Boris. And can we please get J Cherry representing the SNP as she is far more effective than Blackford’s nasal whine? QCs are a joy to watch, with the calm and sickeningly lethal delivery.

  96. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Joanna Cherry urges Nicola Sturgeon to plan legally binding indyref2

    Cherry, a QC and the SNP’s home affairs and justice spokeswoman at Westminster, warns internal critics “the words #nodebate should have no place in the SNP lexicon” as she stresses the need for discussion on the route ahead.

    http://archive.fo/fQZDx

  97. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Beaker – I’ve always admired Keir Starmer’s skill in using what is usually referred to a QC’s “forensic” questioning. The Labour Party would have been mad not to elect him as leader. But that’s about all I admire.

  98. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @capella

    we are in the end game of this goat rodeo, i think discussions on the way forward are vital

    i wonder if the catalunians, with hindsight, regret the route they followed

  99. Mike d
    Ignored
    says:

    Schrodingers cat. 4.19pm. I would imagine civil disobedience for most scots would be refusing to buy any veg at asda’s or tesco.lol.

  100. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Schrodingers Cat @ 5.38pm.

    Your scenario depends on Sturgeon accepting there’s a need for a Plan B and implementing it, so far that hasn’t been the case.

    I fail to see how Johnson could stop next years elections without being seen as a dictator by the international community. No better to find a way to rig the vote if you decided to go down that road, or somehow blacken Sturgeons (and by default independence) character, the Salmond bombshell could inadvertently or for that matter directly do this.

    Johnson is of course blowing his trumpet on his plan to spend, spend, spend however its just moving money around, with no added consequentials for the devolved nations, basicially its nothing more than smoke and mirrors for the masses.

    Our number one goal should be to hope that Sturgeon uses next years elections as a independence referendum.

  101. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    callmedave says:
    will the S-Gov screw their courage to the sticking place. Hmmm! ? or ?

    it isnt a question of courageous moves but of the right moves

    unfortunately im no clairvoyant, more’s the pity, so it will be left to history to decide whether we made the right moves or foolhardy ones

  102. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ ALANM – men are already involved. They call themselves Transwomen, Trans Rights Activists, Trans Allies and so on.
    You will be just as guilty of a Hate Crime by e.g. misgendering a transwoman, as I would be.

  103. Merkin Scot
    Ignored
    says:

    You’ve got to love the Beeb.
    .
    Just listened to the R4 presentor asking a question that suggests the new lockdown in Leicester is down to the workplace there – he didn’t actually say sweatshops – which might encourage the virus.
    What?
    He then went on to talk about the Oxford vaccine being ‘The Great White Hope’ that ‘we’ are all waiting for.
    .
    Nothing new there.

  104. North chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    “Schrödinger’s cat says @ 0538 pm “ is Bojo even going to be around by 2021 Holyrood election . Could he possibly “ bail out “ after Dec “ No deal Brexit “ ? The Westminster establishment would appear to be “ lining up “ most favoured and esteemed “ Labour” knight of the realm as next PM at the head of the usual 2nd eleven Britnat government . He has all the required credentials including his recently restated “ support for the Union etc. “ . With an economic crisis now imminent and further economic damage coming with a hard Brexit , might it not be conceivable that Boris will “ manage” to engineer a spring election which the Tories “ could lose” . How convenient for Bojo? Not only that but a WESTMINSTER election would also completely overshadow any Holyrood poll , why not even have it on the same date ? . Remember the Tories have form on “ snap elections” ? Catching the SNP “ on the hop” ?
    Perhaps Nicola “ senses danger” also “ Schrödinger’s cat” ??

  105. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ SC – the Catalans signed up to the Spanish Constitution – albeit under duress. That is much harder to change. But, yes, the evidence is that they went down the wrong path with an illegal vote.

    We, on the other hand, can have a legal vote, in Joanna Cherry’s opinion. The EU may well support Scotland in holding a referendum and rejoining the EU. It is England that wants to break away. Quite a different situation from the Catalans where the member state, Spain, has no plans to leave the EU.

  106. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    Republicofscotland says:

    I fail to see how Johnson could stop next years elections without being seen as a dictator by the international community.
    ——————————

    nicolas plans are one thing, bojos another, im trying to understand his position and what options are left to him.

    since 2016, the tories have done everything to delay indyref2, from ignoring deadlines to calling 2 ge’s in an attempt to delay indyref2 until the he in 2021

    he is out of ammunition now so what options are left to him?

    spain did this and no one said boo? why wouldnt bojo consider this option? and if he is considering it, why would he wait until after the he in 2021?

    nicola planned for us to have a vote before we left the eu, that didnt work out,

    this isnt a game of solitaire

    winning only happens when you pre-empt your enemy’s next move

  107. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @Capella

    you make valid points, scotland and catalunia are not the same.

    however, that distinction may well be lost on others in other countries as a minor detail.

    as for the legal option. im not a lawyer but i did read a lallans
    peat worrier article on the subject, he wasnt very hopeful about this route.

    also, regarding the eu’s reaction…. havent i already warned you about making plans which include the eu as security?

    i want scotland to join the eu, betrayal by the eu could poison the scottish voters willingness to do so… ask the catalunians what they think of the eu

  108. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @North chiel
    i honestly cant see what mechanism will bring about another wm ge?? bojo has an 80 seat majority

    i take your point about how after a 1st jan hard brexit things will go badly for him but any backbench rebellion would take months to form no matter how badly the economy was doing. remember, the old tories were cleared out in dec and replaced with kippers

    so i think the threat of another wm ge is unlikley

    the question remains, what options are left open to him?

  109. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Cat, Scotland is not Catalonia, so away and learn some constitutional law before telling us all what’s what. TA. 😉

  110. Ottomanboi
    Ignored
    says:

    Re Hong Kong.
    The British admin in HK was not democratic. Its rulers were appointees. The Beijing régime has a least granted what is actually now Chinese sovereign territory a fair degree of popular autonomy. The trouble is the Brits are still stirring it with notions that HKers are special. Even giving support to the notion of HK becoming a second Singapore. Naturally Beijing isn’t buying that.
    Rightly the Chinese do not trust the opium pushing Brits.
    Were the Brits to encourage the secession of Orkney and Shetland from a sovereign Scotland I feel the reaction would rather similar.
    That does not alter the fact that the Uyghurs and Tibetans are repressed under the current neo-corporatist nationalist régime and that ‘the world’ seems to have left them to their fate.
    Nothing new there, let HSBC (and similar) flourish.

  111. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    re closing the Scottish border and civil disobedience. Here’s a legal opinion.

    A Phenomenology of Justice and the Case for Civil Disobedience
    http://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2721&context=law-review

  112. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    no

    the only options left open to bojo are

    1. too continue to ignore us, regardless of the result in may 2021 but in the likely event of a huge indy majority of 50%+ it will become increasingly difficult for anyone to justify wm’s refusal, including the scot tories who have bet their shirts on defeating the snp in may 2021.

    or
    2. shut down holyrood. if this is what he is planning. he wont wait til may2021. i wouldnt

    have i missed something? are there any other options he can try?

  113. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @cam

    read what i wrote

    schrodingers cat says:
    1 July, 2020 at 6:13 pm
    @Capella

    you make valid points, scotland and catalunia are not the same.

  114. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    schrodingers cat
    That’s not how I read your narrative, perhaps I was mistaken. Your positioning is all over the place, so it’s hard to see where you’re coming from, tbh.

  115. North chiel
    Ignored
    says:

    “Schrödinger’s cat @0620 pm “ . A week is a long time in politics. I don’t underestimate the scheming Britnat establishment . If they “ require” a “ major event “ to save the “Precious precious Union “ then make no mistake they will “ manage outcomes to suit” . ( up to and including war & peace) . Nothing would surprise me in this supposed “ United Kingdom”

  116. Rm
    Ignored
    says:

    If Scotland had only fought for Scotland during brexit what a great position we’d be in now, leaving aside the virus, why were they fighting for england instead, canna see what the logic is unless they want the same thing, the dividing line could have been drawn forever if we had fought only for Scotland.

  117. liz
    Ignored
    says:

    Kirsty Blackman stepping down as deputy.

    She has been taking some flack over her definition of woman, female.
    Also recently found out on twitter, one of her staffers has been defaming a women’s group and justifying VAW.

    I always did feel she wasn’t a strong personality,
    There are too many nice wee lassies in the SNP in positions of power IMO

  118. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @North chiel

    as far as rancid old empires go, the brit establishment is one of the most devious

    to win, we must be every bit as devious

    our only saving grace is bojo has his hands full down south with his own 2nd wave starting to break, if what i hear is true, he may have no option but to lock down the whole of england again

  119. Andy Ellis
    Ignored
    says:

    @Capella 6.06pm

    The Catalans are just as entitled to exercise their self determination as Scots, Quebecois or any other people. The fact they participated in previous vote on the Spanish constitution doesn’t give Madrid a perpetual veto on the exercise of that right, which is a jus cogens under international law.

    No “metropolitan” power can rely on the argument that secession is illegal, unconstitutional or against the territorial integrity of the larger unit, because self determination is a peremptory norm under international law. It is folly for any nationalist (Catalan, Scottish or any other flavour) to accept that legal referendums are the only route in independence and that they are in the gift of the metropolitan ruler.

    The Catalans mistake was in shooting their bolt before they had a demonstrable majority. Joanna Cherry (or Martin Keatings) may very well be right about the legality of #indyref2 without a S30 order, but the case has to be won first. The $64,000 question is what happens if that case is lost? What happens to Joanna’s pious hope then?

    Unless she has a “real” Plan B, she’s not got anything more than Pete “I believe in fairies” Wishart’s airy assurances that British nationalism will somehow be overtaken by an attack of reasonableness if only we trust him and give the SNP yet another mandate. I’m not buying that snake oil, sorry.

  120. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    Rm says:
    If Scotland had only fought for Scotland during brexit what a great position we’d be in now, leaving aside the virus, why were they fighting for england instead, canna see what the logic is unless they want the same thing, the dividing line could have been drawn forever if we had fought only for Scotland.
    ————————-
    cos support for indy fell to 38% in the ge of 2017
    the voters decided the direction

    bastards

  121. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    Andy Ellis

    thats very true, the legality issue, is, at the moment a matter of opinion a court ruling would make it a matter of fact

    i have little faith in the fairness of the supreme court towards us.

    it can be argued that the legality issue should, for the moment, a matter of opinion.

    what isnt subject to legal challenge is our right to hold an election in may 2021, or before should nicola chose to do so

  122. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    The Catalans mistake was in shooting their bolt before they had a demonstrable majority

    i agree with this too

    the polls are now sitting at 54% support for snp/yes

    having the opportunity to demonstrate this via a referendum or an election is critical

    thats why i think bojo will consider stopping it happening

  123. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    The culture of Parliamentary sovereignty is being used to separate Scots from the legal protection we are currently provided under the EU’s charter of Fundamental Rights, though we don’t actually gain full access to this legal protection, as Westminster considers itself above international law. So Scotland has no defense against authoritarian English Torydum, as Scots law is subordinate to Westminster and English legal culture, apparently. And so a nation is consigned to history, as a result of legal parochialism and a rejection of Natural Law.

    Constitutional Law and the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights: An Attempt at a Synthesis
    https://journals.openedition.org/revus/1441

  124. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ SC – but kudos on changing the topic.

  125. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    “nicolas plans are one thing, bojos another, im trying to understand his position and what options are left to him.”

    Schrodingers Cat.

    Options for Johnson, are summed up in one, keep saying no to a S30, it costs him nothing to do so, and so far its worked beautifully. Of course this strategy relies on our FM’s acquiescence in doing nothing on the independence front until Johnson agrees to issue the S30, that’s why Sturgeon needs to make the first move, preferably using next years elections as a independence referendum.

    With no real money coming to Scotland from Johnson’s spending plans and asking Westminster for extra borrowing powers being a fiscal trap, combined with the real possibility of a no deal with the EU, the SNP heirarchy must strike whilst the independence (54%) iron is hot. Wisharts damascene moment on Plan B should really set the tone between now and next May.

  126. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @capella

    🙂

  127. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella
    That’s easily sorted, I’m not a total dafty. 😉

    Feminist State Theory: Applications to Jurisprudence, Criminology, and the Welfare State
    https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.641

  128. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    thing is ROs

    if we did win the election with 54% of the constituency vote,
    would there even be a point to holding a referendum straight after?

    from either sides POV?

    if bojo did continue to refuse to accept the settled will of the people of scotland, i think we could honestly say to everyone that we had reach the end of the democratic “woad to independence” 🙂

    this movement would then move into a phase of civil disobedience

  129. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    nobody has replied to any of yer posts so far cam

    but hey

    fill yer boots cam 🙂

  130. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Andy Ellis – I agree that the Catalans have the right of self determination. But their constitutional situation is different and needs a different strategy (easy to say with hindsight I know). Building a secure majority would have taken time and, as you can see in Scotland, politicians who spend time doing that get written off as closet unionists.

    I suspect that the leadership of the SNP already know the answer to the court question. I don’t. But there can only be two outcomes. If it’s NO we have a major conflict with the UN.

    We need partners. I suspect we have already had discussions with the EU. I don’t expect any plans to be broadcast in the MSM. But the UK government removed Nicola Sturgeon’s diplomatic support for a reason IMO.

  131. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @capella

    dont encourage him

    he needs no encouragement

  132. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    @Schrodingers cat

    It would take some time for even Johnson to get legislation through abolishing the Scottish Parliament. Would there be enough time to call a HE election, I believe it needs a 2/3rd majority and if this is so what way would Labour fall, protection of Scotland or abolition.

    If not they cannot stop a vote on it in 2024, in which case NS would be sitting for WM possibly even with AS by then, who knows.

  133. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    If anyone is permitted to say they are a different sex
    To what their DNA and Body shows then what happens
    In these circumstances that regularly occur-

    Girls of 12 is the best player in her Primary football team.
    Current rules state that she can no longer play regulated
    Football in a male orientated team.

    For me if your good enough you are in the team but this SFA
    rule could no longer be applied if the girls says she is a boy.

    Police stop what appears to be a man that fits the description of
    Someone reported as carrying a knife.

    If he says he is a woman the male police officers cannot search the suspect.

    At airport security some people get frisked randomly
    If I as a man fancy a female member of security can I
    Say I’m a woman to have her run her hands over me?

    Would the above see female security refuse to frisk what she
    Perceives is a man. Would she be sacked for refusing?

    Some shops offer Bra fitting by a personal shopper.
    If a man without a bust wants this service must the
    Female staff member go along with it or be sacked?

    The whole thing as it stands is complete nonsense.

  134. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @capella

    Building a secure majority would have taken time

    yes it would have, i dont know what the polls in catalynia are saying at the moment but i suspect that after the spanish polis and madrids reaction they will only continue in one direction

    this has been the snp’s position, heavily criticised by some but it appears to have been successful, the polls are now showing a majority for yes

    we should all find comfort in that stat

  135. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Getting back on topic. This debate is a very partisan affair, so it’s just as well I have a relevant legal perspective. Trans-women already have the same legal protection as biological women, under international law. Redefine “sex” to “gender”, is legal trickery intended to undermine the legal rights ascribed to womanhood. So the proposed GRA reforms would strengthen patriarchy, which hurts the poor and destroy the planet. 😉

    van Domselaar on Moral Remainders & Virtue Jurisprudence
    https://lsolum.typepad.com/legaltheory/2020/06/van-domselaar-on-moral-remainders-virtue-jurisprudence.html

  136. mike cassidy
    Ignored
    says:

    Merkin Scot

    They didn’t really describe the vaccine as “the great white hope”

    Did they?

  137. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    jfngw says:
    It would take some time for even Johnson to get legislation through abolishing the Scottish Parliament.

    ————–

    im not sure thats correct, bojo could easily manufacture a crisis which he could use emergency powers to close down holyrood. wm law has 1000’s of arcane laws dating back to the middle ages which get regularly wheeled out when needs must (henry8th springs to mind)

    if bojo is planning to shut down hollyrood, he will do it before may2021

    only thing holding him back at the mo is the virus

  138. Robert Dickie
    Ignored
    says:

    Trans only exists (if ever so) in the mind, not the body. Let’s take the mind onto more relevant, important and constructive things. It’s not all about (s)he……

  139. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Scotland needs to decide if it want’s to enjoy the benefits of democracy, or remain bound to nationalist tradition. One respects natural law, the other rejects natural law. I know which is the rational choice but it’s not rocket surgery, is it?

    Immanence and Irreconcilability:
    On the Character of Public Law as Political
    Jurisprudence

    http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/87573/1/Bomhoff_Immanence%20and%20Irreconcilability_Author.pdf

  140. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    As far as I can remember, there are already two different pieces of legislation which could be used to shut down Holyrood.

    One is from 1914 , but the other is from 20__?

  141. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    @schrodingers cat

    I presume we could imagine a no deal Brexit being classed as a crisis, it’s already in the planning, and would need a united UK response. The devolved parliaments are not being abolished but put in hibernation until WM decides the crisis is under control then they can resume. The hibernation is then slowly forgotten about and they never reopen.

  142. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @jfngw,

    Legislation was also just passed for Brexit which gives the Secretary of State for Scotland the power to overrule Holyrood on any decision,devolved or not.

    It’s setting the scene.

  143. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    I don’t want to appear flippant, but given what appears to be looming in the GRA, what happens if someone decides to define themselves as hermaphrodite (medically intersex) or androgynous?

  144. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    I think I might have already posted this, but I’m determined my human rights are not going to be further impaired as a result of legal parochialism.

    The British constitution is being misused in order to support right-wing authoritarianism. Somebody please give us the chance to get out of Dodge, pronto.

    HORIZONTALITY REVOLUTION IN CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE: THE SPLENDOURS AND MISERIES OF POSTMODERN CONSTITUTIONALISM
    http://www.bbcj.eu/horizontality-revolution-constitutional-jurisprudence-splendours-miseries-postmodern-constitutionalism/

  145. Scot Finlayson
    Ignored
    says:

    Kirsty Blackman (twitter)
    @KirstySNP

    “I have taken the difficult decision to stand down as
    the SNP Deputy Leader in Westminster.

    Like many others, I’ve struggled with the impact that lockdown has had on my mental health. In order to prioritise my constituency and my family, I have made the difficult personal decision to step down from my Leadership role.`

    would like to see her replacement from Kenny MacAskill,Deidre Brock,Drew Hendry,Angus MacNeil,Alison Thewliss,Philippa Whitford,Joanna Cherry and would have included Amy Callaghan (hope she is recovering ok),

    the front bench needs a strong personality and someone that can think on their feet,

    the rest are decent backbenchers with a fair few (male and female) misogynists thrown in(should be thrown out).

  146. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    Beaker says: at 8:07 pm

    “…what happens if someone decides to define themselves as hermaphrodite…

    They can go fuck themselves…

    #TheJoysOfSex

  147. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    schrodingers cat
    Are you still hostile to a respect for natural law? If so, here’s a source that suggests you’re judgement should not be trusted.

    The proposed GRA reforms are antagonistic and hostile towards natural law, so are incompatible with liberal constitutionalism. Pick the bones out of that, cat. Get your party sorted before telling us what’s what. TA.

    The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
    https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199270972.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199270972

  148. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    the he 2021 could go ahead and even if we got 54% of the constituency vote, the tories could continue to say no. this is very possible

    however, it would be very difficult for jackson carlaw to defend this position and we would have a democratic right at that point to move into a campaign of civil disobedience.

    one can only continue down a democratic route if there is an end point.

    it will also be the end of the road for the snp or any other indy political party, there will be nothing more we can demand of them

    a movement in scotland that can organise 100k people to a march in glasgow can and will create real problems for wm.

  149. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    “if we did win the election with 54% of the constituency vote,would there even be a point to holding a referendum straight after?”

    Schrodingers Cat.

    Why would we need to hold a independence referendum after, a majority of votes for independence minded parties at Holyrood would count as a clear result and win for independence, it would run concurrent with the elections.

    The beauty of this Plan B is Westminster would play no part in it other than its shady deceitful propaganda that most are now accustom to, and we’d have given Johnson ample time to agree to the referendum which he currently denies our democratic right to, and in the process we could show the international community that we gave Westminster every chance to follow the democratic process which they’ve constantly ignored on a independence referendum.

    But will Sturgeon rise to the occasion and use the elections next year as a independence referendum that’s the big question.

  150. Clare
    Ignored
    says:

    Great post.Thank you for keeping on.Can I suggest one other useful Twitter thread for your list:
    Things men have pretended to be in order to rape, assault or gain access to women and children
    https://twitter.com/bunifoosh/status/1234230311564840960?s=21

  151. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    @Dan says:
    1 July, 2020 at 8:32 pm
    Beaker says: at 8:07 pm
    “…what happens if someone decides to define themselves as hermaphrodite…”
    They can go fuck themselves…
    #TheJoysOfSex

    I fucking walked right into that one 🙂

  152. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    @jfngw

    i think that this is a real possibility, there are no limits to what excuse they will use,

    the real question isnt how they will do it but if we believe they will?

    if we believe its a racing certainty they will do this then we we should plan ahead accordingly

    if england goes back into lockdown and scotland continues to improve, could we be in a position to out manouver bojo and call a snap election ?

  153. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    Boris Johnson is playing to the audience offering around 3M HK citizen the chance to come to the UK, he’ll shit himself if even 100 take up his offer. It was another squirrel to make sure the end of the extension request period didn’t make it onto the news outlets.

  154. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    @schrodingers cat

    There are only two ways to achieve an election to my knowledge, the 2/3rd majority I mentioned earlier, this needs a unionist party to play along, Labour in fact as LibDem’s don’t have enough MSP’s. Or the SNP government to resign, but this takes longer as the other parties are given 14 days to form a government (so six weeks in total to an election).

    Of course the second option gives BoJO an in to claim he needs to take control as Scotland cannot form a government, as they have done in NI. It’s three dimensional chess when dealing with WM.

  155. Sinky
    Ignored
    says:

    BBC Scotland Nine fails to challenge Miles Briggs on Tory politicians wanting “Borders” area to come out of lockdown before rest of Scotland. Or that UK gov didn’t consult with Scottish gov on quarantine proposals.

    Also he says that UK can have quarantine but dismisses it for Scotland.

  156. callmedave
    Ignored
    says:

    Dundee is NOT the 4th most infected area in the UK because English authorities are not counting all the test results

    https://archive.is/kbUGR

  157. shug
    Ignored
    says:

    has anyone seem any work getting done to the Stranraer lorry parks in preparation for border checks going from Scotland to Ireland

  158. Sinky
    Ignored
    says:

    The wonderful Devi Sridhar (@devisridhar) tweeted at 4:44 pm on Wed, Jul 01, 2020:

    8 new cases, 1 death. If Scotland & N.Ireland can push for zero COVID, then England & Wales can also definitely do it too. But needs leadership, clear strategy & strong messaging instead of accepting thousands of cases & hundreds of deaths each day.

    Health in Wales is rub by Labour and here’s what Plaid say
    Welsh Government should move to an explicit #Covid19 eradication strategy in Wales rather than simply managing it. Many countries across the world have suppressed the virus to near-zero cases. A Covid free Wales is a realistic aspiration and surest way to avoid a second wave.

    Also this is a very informative article
    https://www.newscientist.com/article/2247462-scotland-could-eliminate-the-coronavirus-if-it-werent-for-england/

  159. schrodingers cat
    Ignored
    says:

    mmm

    i misunderstood you earlier, i thought you were talking about a ge in westminster

    surely a minority unionist new grand coalition wouldnt work, they wouldnt get a budget through, and labour would need to go into a coalition with the tories?

    3d chess right enough, but the idea is to force the issue and ensure we have the election before bojo can shut us down. the only other option is to sit and wait for it to happen

  160. anadventure
    Ignored
    says:

    I wish you were back on twitter as well. You have the best and wittiest takes on things – a true critical thinker.

  161. Andy Ellis
    Ignored
    says:

    @jfngw 9.08pm

    I always thought the second option could be a smart route, but have little faith the current gradualists in power have the bottle to do it. If only they’d had the guts to legally settle the S30 Order question, they could have called engineered a plebiscitary election at any point since brexit.

    I give no credence to the idea that BoJo has the guts or desire to shut down Holyrood. It would back fire massively, and more to the point….why would he bother? It’s not really a threat given the supine nature of what passes for the leadership of the Yes movement.

  162. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    Interesting report by Civitas “The Corrosive Impact of Transgender Ideology”. Arguing that the protection of women’s rights is impossible with acceptance of Trans ideology. Argues for scrapping the GRA reforms.

    http://civitas.org.uk/content/files/2454-A-The-Corrosive-Impact-of-TI-ppi-110-WEB.pdf

  163. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    @Schrods cat

    I assume the mmm reply was me. There is no chance of a coalition, the FM needs the approval of the MSP’s and unless the Green’s jump into the union camp they could never get one elected. It still delays the election though.

  164. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Getting back on topic, this is what the radical left-wing colonisation of the SNP is driving Scotland away from. Just as Westminster rejects a respect for natural law in British constitutional practice. I find this hard to imagine being the result of a random coincidence of events and circumstances. There is a lot going on though, that is hidden from view.

    This is why a post-foundational legal epistemology is preferable to the anti-foundation epistemology demanded by gender-ideology.

    The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Phenomenology
    Sex, gender, and embodiment

    https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199594900.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199594900-e-12

  165. callmedave
    Ignored
    says:

    Jings!

    West Ham score in last minute to win 3-2 tight game against Chelsea…blue moon tomorrow!

    So to bed. 🙂

  166. Bob Mack
    Ignored
    says:

    @Capella,

    That report is pretty damning. Very well researched and put together. It is everything we have discussed here on Wings.
    I hope they take notice at Holyrood.

  167. Brian Doonthetoon
    Ignored
    says:

    From Twitter…

    “Friends Of Wings Retweeted
    Neale Hanvey MP
    @JNHanvey
    ·
    9h
    The ‘no-border’ and use of ‘administration’ instead of Scottish Government must not go unchallenged. #PMQs”

    Perhaps we should start referring to the “westminster administration” (non-capitalised)?

  168. jfngw
    Ignored
    says:

    @B DTT

    I already consider him the English Prime Minister and Westminster England’s parliament. It’s just waiting for the people of Scotland moving to release us from this westminster lockdown to start celebrating.

  169. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Dave Beveridge
    You were wondering what the feck non-binary is. I wouldn’t worry about being a bit puzzled, it’s one of those things you tend to know about, if you need to know. 😉

    Phenomenology of Gender: Deconstructing the Binary
    Society has come to accept gender as a determined binary of male and female with strict guidelines, norms and practices prescribed to each of these categories, which are enforced through punitive response. However, from the phenomenological standpoint, gender cannot be categorized, especially not into a binary, because it is a lived experience and a performed embodiment that is never fully determined, stable or complete; it cannot be contained within a system.

    Through the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Judith Butler, it becomes clear that the instability and indeterminacy of gender is not a failure, as so often assumed, but rather a positive experience that can allow us to demonstrate greater acceptance with regard to genders that deviate from traditional gender norms, as well as those that exist within the traditional gender framework, but whose existence still cannot be boiled down to a strict number of categories and attributes.

    The gender binary, a mere creation of society, may then be deconstructed through the works of Jacques Derrida, in order to create a space in which gender may be experienced without preconceived divisions or notions of ‘true’ or ‘correct’ gender. Following deconstruction, the phenomenological approach can then allow us to see the experiences of gender-nonconforming individuals as they are, in their lived and embodied richness and nuanced complexity.

    Understanding gender as an embodied, transitional doing and becoming that can never be fully determined, can allow us, as a society, to understand gender in a way that is grounded in lived experience and less repressive and more accepting of those experiences, which do not comply with traditional normative gender standards.

    https://www.academia.edu/25459070/Phenomenology_of_Gender_Deconstructing_the_Binary?auto=download

  170. Liz g
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella @ 9.42
    I’m only partway through Capella,but I just popped in to say that’s a bloody good read…great find,I’d absolutely recommend anyone interested in the issues take a look.
    Even men,as of course it affects them too,probably in more ways than they realise at the moment…and …. As your link explains that may be because of the ” general ” make up of their brains 🙂 …. Wee sowels…lol

  171. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Liz g
    I keep on forgetting I’m a step ahead than most, on this issue, but I’ve been pointing to the brain science of biological sex, for quite some time. Men and women perceive the world differently, and are considered different but equal in law. It’s this legal settlement that the TRAs want to undo in Scots law.

    Phenomenology & Practice, Volume 7 (2013), No.1, pp.5-21
    The Significance of Gender in
    Phenomenological Nursing Research

    https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/pandpr/index.php/pandpr/article/view/20109/15543

  172. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Liz g – thx – I haven’t finished reading it myself but think it deserves to be circulated. Even the brief summary spells out the basic essentials.
    I know it’s a crying shame about the male brain. But I think we can cope with that. 🙂

  173. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella
    Oi, we’re not that different, though neither sex will ever be able to truly experience “being” the opposite sex. 😉

    Gender as Lived Time: Reading The Second Sex for a Feminist Phenomenology of Temporality
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hypa.12386

  174. Liz g
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella @ 10.43
    LoL a budy can but try … 🙂

  175. TJenny
    Ignored
    says:

    Would the Scottish Tories agree to giving up their posts if BJ closed Holyrood? Jings, whatever would Murdo et al do?

  176. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ CBB – many lives Arjuna 🙂

  177. Dan
    Ignored
    says:

    @Capella & Liz g

    Pfft! I have to say brain performance is less to do with female / male biology and is more influenced by astrology.
    I mean everyone knows Sagittarius FTW! 😉

    Can one be TransStarSign?

  178. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Dan – as it happens I’m Sagittarius – best sign in the universe!
    Not particularly modest. Well why hide your light under a bushel. Eh? 🙂

  179. Confused
    Ignored
    says:

    @5.38 CBB
    well, Cameron, a bit yes and a bit no; there’s been an obvious influx of disruptors, who you seem to enjoy playing whack a mole with, which is a service of sorts (- sensible canny handle it, its funny); then the not too bright, going round for the n-teenth time, and the quantum feline all of a sudden looking for a fight, like the lion in wizard of oz – put em up, put em up …

    I don’t like having a go at anyone I would consider a genuine nationalist, but there’s something a bit OCD about your style, like – you cannot stop, even if you wanted to. Like you drink 20 red bulls a day, just to be here.

    I dunno, all these “scholarly” articles – fact is, academic writing sucks, and most people feel a disgust towards it, probably from their uni days. It is hard to quantify, but i found this –

    http://gunning-fog-index.com/index.html

    – the score is a measure of how clear your writing is : 10-15 is about the sweetspot; getting to 20, its becoming tricky. Your PDFS typically are 30 pages of 20+ “fog” – which is unpleasant, even if substantive.

    A little gift for you – the winner of the first bad writing awards, the towering intellect of judith butler, that mad chick who writes all the tranny bollox.

    The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power[.]

    The FOG INDEX score : 48.66

    – superstar. This is why we are not professors at Berkeley. Obscurantist logorrhea pays.

    Having said that, I think everyone eventually reads a Brodie link and gets something from it – you posted List, some time ago, good find.

    Go easy – just tell us what you think, its much simpler.

  180. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Confused – brilliant – love the Judith Butler word salad. Explains the bizarre multiverse of trans culture. Nobody understands it.

  181. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Confused
    I’m simply trained in science, ethics, and law, and how to use them to defend democracy, which I think needs a lot of support right now.

    We differ in our views on post-structuralism, which was essential in stimulating the drive towards a phenomenological sensitivity in how gender issues are handled in law.

  182. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    P.S. That Butler passage is perfectly understandable and meaningful to me.

  183. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    P.P.S. I’m not making this stuff up.

    Sticky Masculinity: Post-structuralism, Phenomenology and Subjectivity in Critical Studies on Men
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1097184X14539510

  184. Capella
    Ignored
    says:

    @ CBB – IIRC the reading age for The Sun is c 7. For most official documents it’s about 10. For a University degree it’s about 18. But for the Judith Butler fog it is probably about 140.

    That’s why people buy The Sun.

  185. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Capella
    That’s why I’m trying to provide a professional insight.

    The phenomenology of gender dysphoria in adults: A systematic review and meta-synthesis
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735820300635

  186. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    A long comment copied from the National which IMO exposes the fraud we are subjected too

    Alastair Stephen Hosey 1st July 6:38 pm

    The primary legislation that forms the UK of GB is Article 1 of the 1707. Now, only two nations form this ‘union’, Scotland and England, and thus, it is a 1-1 ratio union. Or put another way, an arithmetical and legal 1-1 ratio ‘union of equals’, acknowledged many times by successive UK Prime Ministers. That’s a given.

    Westminster is merely the seat of ‘power’, and is not a third party to a union of two. WM is merely a meeting place for these two nations to discuss union business. However, parliament holds sovereignty, in England, while The People of Scotland have loaned their sovereignty to WM, but ownership of that sovereignty remains with The People of Scotland. If you lend a your paint brush to your neighbour, it doesn’t mean that he or she then owns your paint brush, does it ? Similarly, ownership of Scotland’s sovereignty is eternally retained by The People of Scotland.

    London accepted that Scotland can END the union, END being the operative word, and so London simultaneously accepted that since Scotland can END it, then the union must therefore exist on a 1-1 ratio. It then begs the question – from whom should ‘permission’ be sought, and from whom shall ‘permission’ be ‘given’, in a 1-1 ratio union of equals, already conceded by the UK government and English lawyers themselves, in the Scottish Referendum of 2014, where Scots, alone, could END the ‘union’ of two ?

    Further, England accepted that ONLY the Scots could END the union, and England could not remove Scots from the UK union. Why is this important ? Well, since England cannot remove Scotland from the UK of GB, how then can England remove Scots from the European union, a UK membership of which relies entirely on the UK of GBs existence in the first place, as a part signatory to the UK of GB and NIs membership of the European union.

    Further, ahead of the Scottish referendum in 2014, the UK government and English lawyers told Scots that they alone could decide not only their own UK fate, but also, their own EU fate as well. Here – ‘A vote for Scottish independence, IS A VOTE TO LEAVE THE EUROPEAN UNION’.

    The UK government and English lawyers then conceded that the Scots could decide their own UK, and EU fate, which they did, with UK government and English legal advice still ringing in their ears on 18th September 2014.

    UK legal precedent was then set. The Scots decided their own UK, and EU fate. How then can England now decide the Scots EU fate for them ? Brexit is illegal, not only from this standpoint, but also from a clear 1-1 ratio union standpoint as well. The 1-1 was conceded, since Scots can END the ‘union’.

    And what is more, the UK government, English lawyers, UK media and unionist parties all told Scots ahead of the SIR that – ‘The ONLY way for Scots to remain in the EU, is to vote for the UK’, thus conceding once again that the Scots could not only decide their own UK fate, but also, their own EU fate.

    Clear as day.

    Scotland does not need ‘permission’. ‘Permission’ is not England’s or Westminsters to ‘give’, nor Scotland’s to receive.

    A 1-1 ratio ‘union’ of two has been established beyond all reasonable doubt. Scotland – 1. England – 1. As per article 1 of the 1707.

    Somewhere along the way, the English have now got Scots believing that the ‘union’ is/was a democratic choice, and in choosing to remain in a ‘union’, Scots thus relinquished their Scottish Sovereignty, which is far from the truth.

    Finally, WM is merely the seat of ‘power’, not a third party with a final ‘say’. The UK, the UK parliament, UK law and the UK Supreme Court only exist in the first place, as long as the UK itself exists, and the UK itself only exists, with OUR SCOTTISH CONSENT. See Scottish Referendum of 2014. Cart – Horse, springs to mind.

    Scottish Sovereignty is lent to WM. It can be withdrawn at any time of the Scots’ choosing.

    Ultimate Scottish Sovereignty remains eternally with The People of Scotland – ‘and only the will of the registered Electorate in SCOTLAND, can change the Status Quo’ – Lord Cooper, McCormick v The Lord Advocate, 1953.

    Cooper not only reaffirmed ultimate Scottish Sovereignty, but also, he acknowledged a Written Scottish Constitution. Here. ‘The unlimited sovereignty of the Westminster parliament, is a distinctly ENGLISH principle, which has no counterpart in (wait for it) ‘Scottish Constitutional Law’.

    Since laws are necessarily written, then it follows that Scotland has its own Written Constitution.

    Scotland was hoodwinked into a ‘parliament of its own’, but this is illegal in a 1-1 ratio union of equals since England does not enjoy parity. There is no ‘english parliament’.

    There is no ‘england acts’ either in parity, and thus, the ‘scotland acts’ are illegal also.

    There is no ‘english secretary of state’, so disparity is all too apparent there also.

    We must stop believing England’s or WMs ‘rules’.

    We must instead apply simple reasoned logic, simple arithmetic, and simple deduction.

    Where there is disparity, a union of equals cannot possibly exist, but where a union of equals is clear, disparity cannot exist.

    ‘Permission’ is not required. Brexit is illegal. The ‘scottish parliament’ is illegal. The ‘scotland acts’ are illegal. The ‘secretary of state for scotland’ is illegal.

    Scotland and England is in a ‘union’ called ‘Great Britain’. It is a 1-1 ratio union of equals. It is a united monarchy, not ‘nation’ or ‘country’.

    Disparity cannot exist, in a ‘union of equals’.

    Proof, right there. And here..

    In anyone’s language, one plus one equals two. Or, 1+1 = 2.

    Walk into the ECJ or UN with this equation. Slap down a pen, a piece of paper and a calculator in front of the judges, and then walk straight out of the door which will still be swinging on its hinges, on your way back out again.

    Two things in life one cannot argue with.

    1. Simple reasoned logic, that is universally accepted.

    2. Simple arithmetic, that is universally accepted also.

    Scotland should canvas international support for a simple indicative poll of 50% plus. Publish the names of supportive nations to give Scots the confidence to actually go for it.

    Hold the IP on 1st Nov or a date close-by. And on a favourable YES, then simply declare Scotland to now be an independent country on the 30th November 2020.

    St Andrew’s Day.

    IPs are not illegal. WM held three over Brexit, only last year.

    Ms Cherry, stop believing in illegal ‘permission’, illegal ‘scotland acts’ or illegal ‘brexit’. You are playing by England’s ‘rules’, that in reality, don’t exist.

    Sorry for the long post, folks. It’s rather difficult to condense 313 years, in one post.

    Last Updated: 2 hrs ago

  187. Nicky
    Ignored
    says:

    Excellent article. Second the Title of Year award. The sneak passing of the GRPB is scary as hell. As is the GRA reform, proposed hate laws, Stonewall in schools & Maya’s case. Where’s the $$$ coming from?

  188. Liz g
    Ignored
    says:

    Twathater @ 3.27
    Don’t apologise fur the long post …LoL..
    In three hundred and odd year’s “The Union” has never been explainable : -)
    That they still try is evidence enough that it needed justifying and that it can’t be explained beyond feudal ownership….introduce a vote for everyone,then it becomes a vague,mystical thing.
    They couldn’t clarify and codify it then and they can’t do it now.
    Even their best chance just after the 2nd world war could not be taken…. To change that Treaty,means to end that Treaty and draw up a new other one.
    To do that means to negotiate a new one,to negotiate means dealing with the Scots and no new Treaty would do for England what the old 1707 one did…and… No Scot would sign it.
    WE are the reason England can’t have a written Constitution.
    WE are the reason England can’t hold it’s parliament to account and bring it into the 21at Centuary.
    WE are the reason their Monarchy can’t be modernised.
    WE ARE THE CAN OF WORMS that the rich of England dare not open!
    I hope beyond hope the English People wake up to this right soon.
    Our leaving will be the best thing that ever happened to them.. eventually… Their Elite..not so much! 🙂

  189. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Gaslighter chimes with Gauleiter. And it’s eerie how a gas lighter (who had to go into dark places ) was called a leerie. And they were all men too!

    Mnnn? – need to apply some serious Woke thinking about this. Where have all the leeries gone. The electric light has a lot to answer for in modern Scotland.

    Got to get our priorities right.

  190. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Yes, and whilst we are being serious have a think about the saying ‘ I would like to meet him up a dark close ‘

    Note the word ‘ him’ and then ask yourself about whom the saying was predicated upon and why.

    Serious stuff – because where have the dark denizens of the close gone in these enlightened times.

    Mnnn?

  191. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Right, last piece of nonsense, or should I say deepest woke thinking but is it acceptable to ask a ‘ black or white ‘

    I mean that’s binary and it’s surely discriminatory to ask a binary question. Are you a man boy? – was a typical question which on reflection was deeper than was maybe appreciated. But simple binary response, usually yes, denied the underlying deeper question.

    Fifty three percent fanny, forty one percent baws, four per cent other and two percent undisclosed would be the answer today. Based of course upon self assessment!

    Ah ha, interesting times as we focus on the Wokus. What else would attract our attention.

  192. Jacqueline
    Ignored
    says:

    Great read. Miss you on twitter but you’ve still got a handle on what’s going on.

  193. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Ah Rev, one last question about the video and the performance of athletes.

    There is a vernacular saying in Scotland that says ‘ man up, grow a pair ‘ Exactly what type of perverse£ thinking is it to say something like that. I mean being endowed with a set of baws by birth, by nature, is hideous. And you allude to that in the title of the video.

    But there is hope in these dark times where we seek to throw off the shackles of biology. To exactly who is being referred to when the phrase ‘ hey you, fanny baws’ is being used. Do we have a new biological species.

    Mnnn? Nuff said. Must dash.

  194. Liz g
    Ignored
    says:

    Willie @ 7.03
    I believe the sayin is…. I WOULDN’T like to meet him up a dark close!?
    And I think it’s been pretty much established Black or White is no the issue here.
    What is it your actually sayin?
    Cause I’d be really interested in who here actually agrees with ye?

  195. Liz g
    Ignored
    says:

    Jacqueline @ 7.15
    Well Twitter is no everything and yer more than welcome here!

  196. Achnababan
    Ignored
    says:

    The tactics of trans activists are not exclusive to their ‘movement’

    All kinds of people use the ‘accusation’ of something or other to further their interests.

    For example, in my workplace there was a colleague who regularly claimed victim-hood over the perceived behaviour of other colleagues toward her. She constantly referred to male ‘aggression’ and ‘intimidation’ during conversations but in all cases she was the provocateur….. she would set ambushes in public places to goad other staff – especially males and then wait several weeks before making public statements about an individual’s behaviour.

    She was a real peach – ended up going to our Chief Executive and tried to get everyone sacked….. thankfully she moved on to blight some other workplace.

    Sadly this is now becoming the new normal and I can see good people being stitched-up and sacked by manipulative people with their own agenda. One common feature of these people is that they always gain from making a fuss – enhanced promotion, salary, influence etc because their bosses are terrified of them.

    Thank goodness I am retired

  197. Andrew Morton
    Ignored
    says:

    Twathater @ 03:27

    That’s all very well and legal but I’m pretty sure the U.K. government’s position will be the same as that of the Roman General Pompey:

    “Stop quoting law, we have swords!”

  198. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “Great post.Thank you for keeping on.Can I suggest one other useful Twitter thread for your list:
    Things men have pretended to be in order to rape, assault or gain access to women and children”

    Excellent point, adding in.

  199. Athanasius
    Ignored
    says:

    Slam dunk, Campbell. I can see why you’re so popular in certain quarters.

  200. Wee Chid
    Ignored
    says:

    Thanks Rev. You’d get on well with my OH. He’s always telling me that these folk are in the minority and that they just shout louder than anyone else. Being more pessimistic I just keep feeling I’m fighting a losing battle – especially when I see the “clever” people who seem to support the big biology denial scam. Even worse when folk like Jakey and other unionist mouthpieces seem to be on the same side as me over this issue. Makes me question my sanity at times.

  201. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    Well spotted Liz G. The old saying was indeed that … I wouldn’t like to meet him up a dark close and not ‘ I would like to meet him.up a dark close “

    As to Black and White not being the issue you miss the point. Black and White is binary, whereas life is not. I thought we all knew that now. The use of the words was nothing to do with racial skin tone, which incidentally is not photochromatic.

    Do I expect anyone to understand me. Well yes I do because if they do, they will be as perplexed as me, which is quite a few.

    I hope I make myself clear.

  202. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    I really do wish Mhairi Black would just fuck off forever, I really do. I used to say she should be the next FM a few years ago, impressed by her oratory skills. Christ, do I feel like a moron now. What a vacuous, idiotic, angry clown, representative of nobody but her own tiny wee cabal of hetero-hating, narcissistic wackjobs and weirdos. Allowed by Ms. Sturgeon, of course, for whatever reasons may be the skeletons rattling in her own closet.

    A sweet, sick joke.

  203. Lennie
    Ignored
    says:

    I wonder if trans “women” who claim to be lesbian would have no issues getting it off with another trans “women” who also claimed to be lesbian, or if it’s only female lesbians who are not allowed to like penises in their world.



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