it has been an exercise in how a directed propaganda campaign can be highly effective, and seeing otherwise liberal people fall for it has disgusted and outraged me. People who lived through and fought against an extremely similar campaign of homophobia in the early 1980s, even!

elia ayoub@ayoub.bsky.social · 2w ago

Worth adding some numbers to this. The British press decided to make trans rights into an issue. It just wasn’t an issue before. This was a top-down decision. shado-mag.com/articles/opi...

We’re rapidly approaching a situation in which it becomes legally hazardous to express any criticism of “gender critical” views. The combination of well-funded lawfare and well-funded media moral panic is extremely dangerous to free speech for everyone, as well as obviously to trans people’s rights.

Alex Says Stuff@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social · 3w ago

"unearthed by The Times" "Published in May and available on Amnesty's website"

They will not stop until it's illegal to be trans. They will have to be stopped.

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 3w ago

JK Rowling through her TERF organization, Beira's Place have sent Amnesty International a demand letter seeking a full retraction of their report, a public apology, and a bar to future criticism of gender critical groups as anti rights orgs. If they don't comply, they'll commence legal action.

It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.

You were moved to do this by pride and by hate. Is it any wonder the result was ruin?

I'm in Vyshneve. I'm not doing well, to be honest. Half the streets are closed and smoke is still waiting through the town. Most buildings don't have power.

Romeo Kokriatski@vagrantjourno.bsky.social · last mo.

Five streets and hundreds of building in the Kyiv suburb of Vyshneve, where I live, have been heavily damaged by the Russian attack overnight on July 5-6. Power and water supplies are unstable.

Old Soviet joke about Kaliningrad: Why has Kaliningrad oblast produced more cosmonauts than any other part of the union? Because space is the furthest away you can get from Kaliningrad.

open all borders. stop having them be closed 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@dov.bsky.social · last mo.

re: the 'germanesque' buildings in the back. basically all of the ones that look rather shiny new are fake

An interesting thing about Westerners is how they will mention something like "Russophobia" and their best example of that is that people are saying you should stop reading Dostoevsky (you should) Meanwhile, Ukrainians who barely escaped mass murder are discriminated against in several EU countries

I see Putin's useful idiots in Stop The War are being useful idiots again.

Euan Healey@euanhealey.bsky.social · last mo.

These are not serious people

Mona Khalil, Lebanon’s most well-known sea turtle conservationist, died of her wounds today after being injured by an Israeli strike I feel sick

Megaphone News@megaphone.news · 2mo ago

Mona Khalil spent over 20 years protecting sea turtles on Mansouri Beach. After she was injured in an Israeli attack, activists continued her initiative at Rmeileh Beach, where they protected the first loggerhead nest of 73 eggs on Thursday. youtu.be/fbBKzK4JNRc

Anglophobia is the American left’s comfort blanket

You're not going to believe this but I think Anas Sarwar should resign. The best time for him to resign was immediately after losing a second Holyroor election after running a presidential campaigm. The second best time is now, after "legitimate concerns"ing race riots.

RDCK98@comradekenobi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Used the ol' "legitimate concerns" about the pogrom last night

This is *such* a consistent feature of living in the UK - the actual day to day experience of people in this country is so much nicer than what the press or our leadership cadre would have you think - it is remarkable in a somewhat destabilising fashion just how stark the difference is.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The media & political classes (left + right) tend to guess wrong about the public - who have a *much* stronger common sense consensus on civic "inclusive nativism" than most of the commentariat seem to realise

I come with empty hands and the desire to unbuild walls.

#HowDoTheyRiseUp #Glorious25thMay #Discworld

accidentally ordered tokusatsu instead of tonkatsu at this restaurant and now this guy won't stop doing stunts. The waiter can't even take him back because whenever he tries the guy strikes a pose and a bunch of explosions go off behind him

The guidance issued yesterday is a disgrace, and shows just how low Labour have sunk since the days when they believed in equality and human rights. But this is far from over. Legally, politically and practically, this can and will be fought. greens.scot/news/ehrc-gu...

EHRC guidance update is a troubling rollback on inclusivity

EHRC guidance update is a troubling rollback on inclusivity  - The Scottish Greens will continue to stand up for trans and non-binary people’s rights today, tomorrow and always.

greens.scot

helen lewis has an article in the atlantic today begging everyone to read discworld and I am going to suggest she start by rereading monstrous regiment and think about how that might apply to trans issues

Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part.

Wow: “The tooth’s hollow had been scooped out by a stone drill rather than by natural decay or wear… The findings indicated that the prehistoric patient underwent a deliberate Stone Age root canal, a discovery that pushes back the earliest evidence of intentional dentistry by more than 40,000 years”

Neanderthal Dentistry, and the Scientist Glad Not to Have Experienced It

nytimes.com

This. Normies urgently need to understand that this country is becoming an extreme outlier on trans rights and they can't rely on the domestic mood music in the media and online to judge where "normal" is any more

Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera@pantibliss.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Trans people have been around your whole life. You’ve been sharing bathrooms with them your whole life. They’ve been in your communities your whole life. They’ve even been playing sport your whole life. And you didn’t care *at all* till a few years ago when every right wing org decided you should

this Labour Government has largely presided over the sharpest uptick in racial, religious, and LGBT+ violence in my lifetime and it's hard to really stress just how much Labour actively chose this

This is just open, naked transphobia. I simply hope the Labour party dies. It serves no purpose anymore. I don't believe hell exists which is fortunate because if it did every single one of you monsters would end up burning there for eternity alongside Maggie Thatcher.

Jordan@jordanpfot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is insane.

Trans men can be excluded from both men’s facilities and women’s facilities.

Cruel and entirely, entirely impossible to implement. This is going to be an absolute disaster.

Jordan@jordanpfot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

‘Trans women must be barred from female toilets, changing facilities and sports teams, new official guidance is to state’ www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

It's worth adding that Kyle is also one of the most thoughtless AI evangelists in government. His judgement across the board seems to be appalling

Tom Roberts@tpgroberts.bsky.social · 3mo ago

To be clear, this is a decision taken by Peter Kyle, genuinely one of Labour's worst MPs, that he's now trying to offload onto Ed Miliband even though he has nothing to do with it because they all get it looks horrific.

Of course it was fucking Peter Kyle. What a waste of fucking space.

Tom Roberts@tpgroberts.bsky.social · 3mo ago

To be clear, this is a decision taken by Peter Kyle, genuinely one of Labour's worst MPs, that he's now trying to offload onto Ed Miliband even though he has nothing to do with it because they all get it looks horrific.

hmmmm is there any group that Wes Streeting has actively worked to try and make into second-class citizens, I wonder?

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Wes Streeting tells the Progress conference that "the fight for Britain's freedom" was a fight against fascism won by those of every ethnicity and faith from Britain and the Commonwealth. "There are no second class citizens" ... "the flag belongs to us all"

"we're willing to trade kidnapped children for POWs" is a completely insane admission of guilt

UNITED24 Media@united24media.com · 3mo ago

🤯 Russia had proposed adding abducted Ukrainian children to prisoner-of-war exchange lists, Ukrainian FM Sybiha says. 🔗 united24media.com/latest-news/...