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controversial scholars from their posts, indicating that the problem of progressive authoritarianism is likely to get worse in the coming years’. The report specifically notes the hostility directed at ‘gender-critical feminist’ scholars, stating that only ‘28 per cent of American and Canadian academics would feel comfortable having lunch with someone who opposes the idea of trans women accessing women’s shelters’.

Lawford-Smith has been targeted for abuse before. Since she began publicly to question the impact of gender ideology on women’s sex-based rights, she has been subjected to an onslaught of vitriolic harassment and silencing attempts. She has been undeterred and has new political supporters at her back, including Senator Claire Chandler and Louise Staley MP.

But ultimately, whether Lawford-Smith and her allies are correct in their stance is not the primary issue. A bigger question remains: how did such a niche cause as transgender ideology so rapidly capture institutions and minds across the world, to such devastating affect?

Indeed.

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[Photos © Daniel Kordan]

On Instagram, where you can read about the technical details.

Neville O'Riley Livingston, aka Bunny Wailer, the last surviving member of the Wailers, died yesterday aged 73. Here's a tribute video on YouTube:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPjnULNnufc&w=550&h=309]

He's the last surviving member by a long way. Bob Marley died from cancer in 1981, and Peter Tosh was murdered during a 1987 robbery.

The Wailers in 1973, on the Old Grey Whistle Test:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf8GjhXvOjU&w=550&h=309]

And here he is in 2017, 44 years on and still the baddest:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOLGcsCzUZM&w=550&h=309]

A life in pictures.

he posturings of the uber-woke. Seeing this, the trans community needed to bail out quickly – and so, hey presto, the term becomes transphobic. 

Then again:

Others have branded this a "marketing stunt", suggesting that the hype and attention caused by the term is exactly what those behind the initiative wanted.

Stroud Green:

I linked last week to David Hirsh's short piece in the JC on Bristol University's David Miller. Hirsh now has a longer article at Fathom on The Meaning of David Miller.

An extract:

David Miller includes his own Jewish students, anyway those who participate in their Jewish Society or UJS, as part of the Zionist project to prevent anti-Black racism and Islamophobia from being taken seriously, and to subvert UK public institutions on behalf of Israel….

What David Miller is doing here is defining members of UJS and the Bristol J Soc – that is to say his own students – as ‘Zionist’, by which he means racist, imperialist and dishonest. He has imposed the identity onto them without their consent. They may or may not define themselves as ‘Zionist’, and each may have a unique different understanding of the meaning of the Zionism that they themselves embrace. The Zionism of UJS and of J Socs has nothing in common with the demonising identity that Miller thrusts upon them. In truth, for the overwhelming majority of Jews, some kind of relationship to Israel, where half of the world’s Jews live, is a part of their Jewish identity. But that does not make them racists or unpatriotic to their country, or to whatever other identity Miller thinks they should be loyal.

David Miller’s work is reminiscent of the writing of the classic antisemite who sets himself up as an expert on ‘the Jews’. Miller warns Muslims at the East London Mosque to beware of Jews doing ostensibly innocent interfaith work with them. He constructs intricate diagrams which illustrate in copious detail the connections, which he claims his work uncovers, between Jewish individuals and institutions which he designates as ‘Zionist’. He portrays his work as shining a light into the hidden dark world of the racist and murderous conspiracy.

But sociology is fundamentally an empirical discipline. It starts with a rigorous and structured investigation of the world. Only then does it move on to create concepts and theories which may help to understand and make sense of what has been observed. Conspiracy fantasy works the other way round. It starts with the sense that is to be made, and then it proceeds to find the invented and fantastical patterns in the external world….

But read it all.

e=”font-size: 11pt”>Not so much heading into a bright socialist future as returning to the worst conditions at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

Back then unions were formed to protect and improve the safety and working conditions of the labour force. If a society's now been created that's explicitly based on the triumph of the working class, then, ideologically, exploitation of the labour force is simply no longer possible. Problem solved. It can't happen. And therefore, in official media, doesn't get reported.

is no dispute over the term, but [Iran] controls [Iraq] in terms of the security, politics, and economy. The main driving force behind this is the concept of the Rule of the Jurisprudent. The Rule of the Jurisprudent is one of the things that have destroyed the Iranian people, in particular, as well as other countries in the region such as Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. […]

"Does it make sense that the Iranian people, who experienced openness under the Shah, and at the time was considered to be close to the Europeans… Does it make sense that in a short period these people became completely religious? Does it make sense that all the women [suddenly] wear hijab in the street? Many religious scholars and thinkers have been either imprisoned, placed under house arrest, or executed. Members of the opposition have been executed. […]

"This tyrannical rule is being implemented by the Rule of the Jurisprudent in Iran."

It's nothing less than the truth. The Iranian theocratic revolution, as the man says, is destroying Iran, as well as helping to destroy Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. The foundation of the state of Israel, by contrast, has, apart from the Palestinians who continue to make the worst possible fist of their situation, had minimal impact in the Middle East – outside of its usefulness as a scapegoat. It's encouraging that people are beginning to see and articulate this obvious point.

or the ambitious current governmental Polish journey of heroism. It was, in fact, the State of Israel that initiated the title of Righteous Among the Nations on behalf of the Jewish people, and the rigorous research-based process each and every case must follow before being awarded this most coveted recognition. Attributing the courageous actions of Righteous Among the Nations to the whole Polish nation, while omitting the much more prevalent acts in which Poles blackmailed, persecuted, informed upon, and murdered Jews, is nowhere near a reflection of the complicated reality that existed in German-occupied Poland. It only fits the current wishful thinking of PiS.

Third—Irena Sendler, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, and Wiktoria and Józef Ulma were indeed noble people whose heroism has earned them the appellation of “Righteous Among the Nations,” and rightly so. Yet it might be worth mentioning that all of them were forced to hide their courageous actions for fear of revenge attacks by local Poles; and that the Ulma family was murdered only after being denounced to the Germans by a fellow Pole. Despite Witold Pilecki’s heroism in the struggle against the Germans, the Jewish issue was a marginal dimension in his activities, and one of his deputies, Dr. Władysław Dering—a Polish underground hero—committed horrific crimes against Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz. History is complex, and some so-called “Polish heroes” turned out also to be monstrous tormentors of Jews. […]

It is important to note that the Polish nation of the mid-20th century was not (solely, or even chiefly) responsible for the tragedy of the Jews during the Holocaust, even though many Poles did take an active part in it. Yet the current Polish government, and its many agencies, are defiantly responsible for trying to “control” the uncontrollable past, which reveals the not insignificant complicity of Poles in the Holocaust, by using lies and not a small measure of anti-Semitism.

so feel for the trans student concerned. What messages have our university and students' union sent them about how to behave out in the world after they graduate? We've either set this person up to act inappropriately like this for a very long time, or we have set this person up for a very rude awakening at some point.

And one more:

Checking in from the University of Edinburgh. The postmodern thought and language police are very active in my subject area. Their latest is an instruction to check our course materials for 'cis-normative' assumptions and monitor ourselves, our students and each other for 'micro-invalidations'. We're supposed to use all the Stonewall-approved terminology, and talk about sex being assigned at birth and people having a true gender and so forth. I'm in a junior role and on a temporary contract, and my life wouldn't be worth living if I was to object out loud – there are people on my team who could do quite a lot of damage to my career prospects. Between the thought police, the authoritarian bullies of the Staff Pride Network and UCU branch, and the managers who nod approvingly from their rainbow-themed zoom backgrounds, it's all very unpleasant. 

Of course, as these testimonies are (necessarily) anonymous, there are no checks possible on accuracy. You just have to take it in good faith. 

But yes, as I said before, it's like reading Soviet-era samizdata smuggled out to the West.