Links - 2nd November 2024 (3 - Feminism)

Why do feminists hate Men's Mental Health Awareness Month being brought up? : r/MensRights - "Because if people think of men as human then lots of the shit femenists try to pull starts making them look like the bad guys."

Norwegian research: Lesbian marriages most unstable - "59.1 per cent of the marriages between women in 2003 had ended in divorce by 2018. That is reported by Aftenposten and Dagen.  During the five years of marriage, lesbian spouses have twice the risk of divorce compared to heterosexual marriages. Only after 25 years of marriage this difference seems to be gone, the study shows. Same-sex male couples only have an 8 per cent higher chance of getting divorced than heterosexual couples in that same period. Senior researcher Ruhne Zahl Olsen is not surprised by the results. They have been the same in other countries"
Damn patriarchy!

Sann on X - "Reporter: What do you think about women earning less than men in tennis?
Rafael Nadal: I don’t know. Why do women earn more than men in the fashion world? #RafaelNadal"

The State of Online Harassment - "Overall, men are somewhat more likely than women to say they have experienced any form of harassment online (43% vs. 38%), but similar shares of men and women have faced more severe forms of this kind of abuse"
This result replicates - men are more likely to have been harassed online. But of course people only care about women

Billie Piper says misogyny and violence against women won’t end by ‘telling boys they’re awful’ - "Billie Piper has said that “shaming” or “dismissing” young boys can only be counterproductive towards tackling misogyny and violence against women... When asked about how young boys and girls can foster healthier relationships from an early age, Piper told the audience that she is hugely concerned and worried about the external influences facing young boys, referencing the output of the misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate. “I think it is incredibly important that we educate our sons as well as our daughters in how to treat each other respectfully [and] equally,” she said. “The education [on domestic abuse] has to extend to young boys. You can’t dismiss them or somehow shame them in a way that pushes them further towards these really toxic figures, because that’s really easily done.”"

Meme - SurrogacyConcern @SurrogConcern: "This “throuple” have had two children with surrogate mothers.  All three men appear on the birth certificates.   Naturally, the mothers do not."
Feminists cheer the Handmaid's Tale in real life

Meme - Delusional Takes: "She missed the point Imao"
End Wokeness @EndWokeness: "Cable installer- 95% men
Road builders- 96% men
Construction- 94% men
Garbagemen- 95% men
Iron workers- 94% men
Coal miners- 96% men
Electricians- 96% men
Firefighters- 88% men
Plumbers- 99% men
Combat- 84% men
Feminists: *sleeping*
Woke activists: *sleeping*
Gender academics: *sleeping*"
AidaBell @adiboaron94: "Makeup artists - 87% women
Kindergarten teachers - 98% women
HR specialists - 75% women
Dental hygienists - 98% women
Therapists - 82% women
Flight attendants - 77% women
Nannies - 99% women
Seamstresses - 95% women
Lactation consultants - 100% women
Bridal shop owners - 99% women
Men's rights activist: *sleeping*
Equality advocate: *sleeping*
Gender scholars: *sleeping*"
She doesn't see the point, probably because she accepts feminist hypocrisy in being selective about gender disparities for jobs women don't want to get DEI-ed into

Pacific Spirit on X - "“Not all women want to be mothers” Says the girl who calls herself a plant mom, or who calls her dog her baby, or who diverts all of her maternal instincts into fighting for social justice."

Yuan Yi Zhu: Debunking the myth of the Persons Case - "It is not uncommon for a country to mark the anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote. Not so in Canada, where, instead of commemorating 1917 as the year when women were enfranchised at the federal level, we have Persons Day, which, according to the official mythology, commemorates the 1929 Edwards v. Canada decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) that women are human beings. In fact, Edwards did nothing of the sort. When it was decided in 1929, Canadian women had voting rights at the federal level on the same basis as men, as well as in eight of Canada’s nine provinces (Quebec would hold out until 1940). By 1929, Agnes Macphail had been a federal MP for almost eight years. And three of the Famous Five — the plaintiffs in Edwards — had served in provincial legislatures, one had been a police magistrate and one had served as a cabinet minister in Alberta. If Canadian law in 1929 did not recognize women as persons, allowing them to serve in most public offices would have been strange. As a matter of fact, the Supreme Court’s initial judgment in the Edwards case, which nobody today seems to have bothered reading, begins with the following remark: “There can be no doubt that the word ‘persons’ when standing alone prima facie includes women.” What was at stake in Edwards was the far narrower question of whether women could be “qualified persons” for the purpose of being appointed to the Senate under the British North America Act. To be sure, to rule that women were not “qualified persons” for that purpose smacks of sexism. But most of Canada’s men in 1929 were not “qualified persons” either, being under the age of 30 or not owing the requisite $4,000 worth of land. If the Senate discriminated against women, it also discriminated against plenty of other groups, which was after all its true purpose. Another aspect of the Persons Case that is usually ignored is the fact that Prime Minister Mackenzie King could simply have asked the British Parliament to amend the BNA Act to make clear that women could sit in the Senate, just as they could sit in the House of Commons. Arthur Meighen, the Conservative prime minister, had promised to do so if he won the 1921 election; King made similar promises but failed to live up to them. The British, who did not particularly care about how Canada was run, would likely not have refused. Alternatively, King could simply have appointed a woman to the Senate and dared her colleagues to throw her out. But King, in time-honoured Canadian fashion, preferred to kick the issue to the judges. Like so many Canadian prime ministers, he had become stuck in the quicksand of Senate and constitutional reform, and did not relish the idea of introducing a small Senate reform when many on the left were clamouring for its abolition. And so, King asked the Supreme Court to deal with the mess, washing his hands of his earlier promise to amend the Constitution. Another possible factor for King’s decision to send the case to the courts was that several of the Famous Five were Tories — a far greater disability in King’s eyes than their sex. Even after Edwards, none of the group ever became senators. King’s sole female appointment to the upper house was Cairine Wilson, a senior Liberal organizer from Ontario — in other words, a perfect Liberal senator. If the Persons Case has come to occupy such a central place in Canada’s national mythos, it is in no small part because it provides one of the foundational myths of Canadian judicial power: the idea that only courts, and not legislatures, are able to secure our rights and freedoms. And it was in Edwards that Lord Sankey coined the famous “living tree” metaphor, which has since been abused by Canadian courts in order to assert an unlimited right to reshape the Constitution by judicial fiat, all in the name of the law’s organic growth. By contrast, the road to women’s suffrage, an objectively far more important achievement for Canadian women than the possibility of being appointed to a club for superannuated political hacks, was also far messier... Progress is not linear, nor is it always proclaimed, Moses-like, by the Supreme Court’s nine judges. The story of how Canadian women came to become enfranchised, hold the nation’s highest offices and achieve full equality is far too interesting to be reduced to the cipher of the Persons Case, or even the myth that women were not human beings under Canadian law less than a century ago, a slur on a generation that was far more open-minded than most people give them credit for today."

Gen Z boys and men more likely than baby boomers to believe feminism harmful, says poll - "Boys and men from generation Z are more likely than older baby boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than good, according to research that shows a “real risk of fractious division among this coming generation”. One in four UK males aged 16 to 29 believe it is harder to be a man than a woman and a fifth of those who have heard of him now look favourably on the social media influencer Andrew Tate, the polling of over 3,600 people found... The bestselling author and Canadian academic, Jordan Peterson, is also seen favourably by 32% of 16 to 29-year-old men, compared with 12% among women of the same generation. Peterson speaks up for “demoralised young men”... On feminism, 16% of gen Z males felt it had done more harm than good. Among over-60s the figure was 13%. The figures emerged from Ipsos polling for King’s College London’s Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. The research also found that 37% of men aged 16 to 29 consider “toxic masculinity” an unhelpful phrase, roughly double the number of young women who don’t like it. “This is a new and unusual generational pattern,” said Prof Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute. “Normally, it tends to be the case that younger generations are consistently more comfortable with emerging social norms, as they grew up with these as a natural part of their lives.”... Ethnic minority men are most likely to follow Tate, with more than a third agreeing he “raises important points about real threats to male identity and gender roles” compared with 12% among white men"
Naturally, this cannot be due to them realising the truth about feminism. And of course, they have to slime Peterson since he opposes the left wing agenda
How can white people be blamed for how minority men are more "misogynist"?

Who Is Happiest? Married Mothers And Fathers, Per The Latest General Social Survey - "Social media and mainstream media are replete with stories suggesting marriage and parenthood are not fulfilling, especially for women. Not surprisingly, many Americans now believe the key to being happy is a good education, work, and freedom from the encumbrances of family life-not getting married and having a family... 2. Men and women who have the benefit of a spouse and children are the most likely to report being "very happy" with their lives, according to the most recent GSS.
3. The 2022 GSS shows that a combination of marriage and parenthood is linked to the biggest happiness dividends for women...
Among married women with children between the ages of 18 and 55, 40% reported they are "very happy," compared to 25% of married childless women, and just 22% of unmarried childless women. Nevertheless, it is important to note that unmarried mothers are the least likely to be very happy: with just 17% of them indicating they are very happy. These results parallel findings from 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic... These results parallel other recent research from the University of Chicago indicating that for both men and women, marriage is "the most important differentiator" of who is happy in America. Meanwhile, falling marriage rates are a chief reason why happiness has declined nationally, according to that same study. The research found an astounding 30-percentage-point happiness gap between married and unmarried Americans. Other factors do matter-including income, educational achievement, race, and geography-but marital status is most influential when it comes to predicting happiness in the study. What's more, other research indicates that the United States is witnessing a growing happiness divide between the most educated and least educated Americans, and marriage is likely the biggest driver of that decline. Social psychologist Jean Twenge attributes the growing happiness divide in America along class lines to a faster decline in marriage among those with less education and income."
This doesn't stop the feminists from pushing the myth that single childless women are happier, because they hate marriage and hate men, which is why they keep citing Paul Dolan's misinterpretation of the data

True Discipline on X - "Another feminist claim you hear endlessly. This reddit article has a good discussion of the lit. TLDR the claim is flawed, and there is also research that shows the opposite."
Inquisitive Bird on X - "A widely reported 2015 study purported to show that men are highly likely to divorce their wife if she falls sick. However, it was actually retracted quickly by the authors themselves because of one serious error: People who fell out of the study were miscoded as divorces."
RETRACTED: In Sickness and in Health? Physical Illness as a Risk Factor for Marital Dissolution in Later Life, 2015
Inquisitive Bird on X - "My summary of the findings: (1) elevation of divorce risk following illness is smaller than I expected. (2) Sex differences are not big (no "6-fold sex difference"). (3) To the extent sex differences exist, the largest studies seem to suggest the opposite of original claim."

Meme - ! pooky: "i make a chart that shows how feminists are smater then some other people :) (edited)"
*Bell curve IQ meme*
Left: "Andrew Tate fans"
Middle: "Feminists" *brain* *book* *strong woman*
Right: "Republicans"
Ironic.

Meme - "BEFORE FEMINISM
> happy inside
> smiles when someone compliments her
> lives a normal life
> values morals and fidelity
> has a boyfriend
> will raise a family
AFTER FEMINISM
> angry inside
> thinks she is being raped when compliments her someone
> always on the look out for oppression
> proud slut
> hates men
> won't raise a family"

Gavan Tredoux on X - "An entire industry has been built around the idea that Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace was a great mathematician and the world's first computer programmer. Both of these claims are based on verbose notes she made to her 1843 translation of an 1842 paper by Menabrea about Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, an analog cogwheel-and-pinion computer which existed mostly on paper only (see https://drive.google.com/file/d/16qxC5R3Nr8FhET006LNe0sFeU8QDZ-29/view?usp=sharing). Both claims are entirely false. Here I will address the issue of her mathematical abilities.
Dorothy Stein was the first to point out in 1985, based on reading Ada's correspondence with Mary Somerville and Augustus de Morgan that Byron's daughter appeared to have very weak mathematical abilities. She could not do simple algebra. It is easy to verify this, without resorting to her manuscripts, by actually reading her published 1843 notes to Menabrea, a step few if any people ever seem to have taken the trouble to do. After all they're very long and use a lot of symbols. Here I will address only those on the Bernoulli numbers and their supposed calculation (see Note G in the paper). But this is just the basking seal on top of the iceberg, so to speak: the whole paper is riddled with bellowing nonsense, of which more later... none of the traces given in the paper for terms involving n could ever have been produced by Babbage's machine. More on that later. And on Ada's information that one can calculate a divergent (or indeed oscillating) infinite series on a computer, term by term. And why Babbage chose to use Menabrea and less successfully, Ada, in the first place. Not to mention what Babbage meant by The Enchantress of Number (hint: it was not Ada). Do not adjust your set."

Gavan Tredoux on X - "Ada Lovelace continued.   A common feature of the Ada industry is to latch onto things she is stated to have done and use them to walk her with famous scientists and advanced ideas, a sort of name-dropping by proxy on acid. Thus some "mathematics education" acolytes at Oxford gratuitously enrolled her in the company of Hamilton and quaternions (!) but that's a story for another day.   The technique often involves attributing to Ada things which were actually originated by Babbage and his vehicle Menabrea, who had already written up the core of the Analytical Engine before Ada got near it. Babbage had communicated these ideas to Menabrea in 1840, and corresponded extensively with him until they were finally published in 1842, in French at Geneva. Only then did Ada get involved, first as a translator, then as an author of notes, again under Babbage's (initial) supervision, which were only published in 1843.  Few who attribute things to Ada bother to check whether Menabrea's paper already contains whatever it is (insert very advanced idea here) that she is supposed to have originated or suggested.   This has become so egregious that in Babbage's Complete Works (1989), the Menabrea paper is attributed solely to Ada Lovelace! An extraordinary violation of scholarship. A blushing footnote admits, but does not explain why, this departs from previous practice (which has Menabrea as the author, Lovelace the translator and annotator, and matches how the text itself is written). If the editors wanted to clarify authorship they should have listed Babbage as primary author, Menabrea secondary, and Lovelace a distant third. Because we know that Babbage directed both Menabrea and Ada's notes and supplied a list of worked examples to both that he had been building for years. Instead the editors confused LLMs training on their nonsense forever after. A pox on them."

Meme - Lunkhead @Antweegonus: "I know they’re irrelevant and it doesn’t matter, but I am curious what kind of marital arrangement radfems envision  Should I put my wife on my payroll? Tip her when she cooks or washes dishes? Should I make her pay rent because my job pays for our house? Give me the specifics @ladielabrys2"
L K: "She took her free domestic labor with her" Lunkhead: "Still one of the most insane things I've ever seen posted on this site"
free feminist books link in bio !: "she's literally right you sexist piece of shit"
Psyche @LateForTea5: "I'm terrible at gardening- not everyone can do it. He might also be genuinely too old. Grief makes me depressed and unable to do things, so I'll cut this guy a break."
free feminist books link in bio ! @ladielabrys2: "does that mean that he is owed unpaid labor? fuck off"
süni elder @faszon1: "You know the very real possibility either he, or both of them equally did the gardening and after his wife's passing he just lacks the motivation to continue on his hobby, because it all feels very meaningless"
free feminist books link in bio !: "have you considered the possibility that the original poster was speaking generally on how married women are treated as unpaid maids and used for their free labor, and wasn't targeting the man in the photo in particular? god you fucking people."
süni elder @faszon1: "I agree with what you're saying but posting this over an old retired widower who's lost a big reason for him to go in is borderline psychotic wtf"
free feminist books link in bio !: "it's really not. what's really psychotic is how women are exploited for their free labor as housewives. fix your priorities. the old man will be fine."
On "she took the flowers and colors with her"

Meme - pagliacci the hated 🌝 @Slatzism: "libfems do the “we hate men” dance but the approved list of men they’re allowed to hate keeps getting shorter.  they aren't allowed to hate brown men, or men in skirts, or leftist men, or even criminal men.  they’re only allowed to hate Steve. so Steve gets 100% of their hate. *cis straight white guy*"

Meme - "Because you did it to yourself bitch"
"I'm a single mother - want to give me a hand with the groceries?
As I haul multiple shopping bags from my boot, while my toddler skitters between parked cars, my neighbour nods hello from his back porch, while ashing his cigarette. Each week - despite knowing that I am a solo mother by choice with a donor-conceived son and no partner at home - my neighbour watches me teeter inside, a leaning tower of motherhood with hefty bags and a yelling child attached to my shins. I smile brightly and say hello, but my mind is a static of expletives: why doesn't he offer to f------ help?!"
Weird. Feminists keep claiming no one chooses to be a single mother, and that all they want is equality

Meme - Wilfred Reilly @wil_da_beast630: "The idea that women - or Blacks, Asians, etc - "took" rights from a terrified society (of early-20th century Anglo warriors) is facially absurd.   In one of the great moral beau gestes of history, American/Western society opted to give rights to these previously disenfranchised groups, who had no way to obtain them by force.  Good for the USA!"
The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial: "*heckles from the audience*  THE 19TH AMENDMENT WAS RATIFIED BY MEN"
Salty Mermaid @Jenn_H_Scott: "*taps mic* *leans in* Men did not "give" women voting rights. They withheld them. Then women fixed that shit."

'Little Rascals' Child Star Is Slammed For Calling His Son His 'Heir' And His 4 Daughters 'Dishwashers'
As usual, feminists have no sense of humour

Meme - Tradwife: "I don't agree with feminist ideals"
Crying Daddy's Girl: "SHe wAnTs mALe aPpRoVaL"

Meme - Wilfred Reilly @wil_da_beast630: "This actually is not gender banter: during exactly the era of later-wave feminism - earlier-"wave" increases in access to voting, jobs, and orgasms had a good effect on these metrics - rates of depression and prescription drug use have roughly doubled among women. 46% of young white women are technically mentally ill.   Why?"
Lulu Solomon @lulusolomo86641: "Women have been liberated from male oppression so why are we still so crazy? A 1973 study showed housewives did overly use drugs but not as much as feminists claim. Yet compare it to current rates of Female drug use- 25% now are on prescribed psych meds & 10% on amphetamines."
Feminists claim that women used to take a lot of drugs in the 50s and 60s, so that shows they were oppressed and had a terrible life and feminism has improved their lives. But now women take even more drugs. The cope is that this is due to reduced stigma, greater access and seeing how terrible the world really is. But they just beg the question. Feminism can never be at fault

Meme - "*2 men holding hands with Handmaid in background* Our "maternity" shoot
@newyorksurrogate We did a "maternity" shoot and it came out great! #surrogacy #gestationalsurrogate #photography"

Omolola❤️ on X - "Notice how “girls mature faster” is never used as a reason to give women higher positions of power? It is only used as a reason to hold women to higher accountability than men"
Girls mature physically faster. Therefore adult women must be taller than adult men
Feminists have really poor comprehension skills

Meme - Megha @meghaverma_art: "Feminists become the worst mothers because they shift gears from victimizing themselves from men to victimizing themselves from their own, helpless babies. You competing with a literal toddler?? This is why you deserve LESS."
"POV: you stopped letting your toddler eat off your plate because you deserve to eat and it's not your fault if they decide not to eat their own food"

It’s Time to Abolish the Absurd (and Slightly Racist) Concept of “Visible Minorities”

This is not even getting into how problematic "indigenous" is as a concept:

It’s Time to Abolish the Absurd (and Slightly Racist) Concept of “Visible Minorities”

"No other country in the world divides itself along racial lines as we do in Canada. According to federal legislation, our country consists of three distinct race groups: Indigenous people, whites and everybody else. Members of this final catch-all category are officially deemed “visible minorities” and defined in law as “persons, other than Aboriginal people, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” Canadians can either be native, white or non-white. How’s that for inclusivity?

The term “visible minority” was invented in 1975 by black activist Kay Livingstone, founder of the Canadian Negro Women’s Association, as the means to unite disparate immigrant groups at a time when Canada was overwhelmingly Caucasian. By 1984, the phrase had gained sufficient currency to play a starring role in the final report of Judge Rosalie Silberman Abella’s Commission on Equality in Employment, and was later enshrined in law via the federal Employment Equity Act of 1986. This law requires all public and private sector employers to improve the job prospects for visible minorities, women, Aboriginals and people with disabilities through the elimination of barriers and creation of various “special measures,” such as targeted hiring. Today, this dichotomy of “able-bodied white males versus everyone else” still forms the basis for myriad policies and regulations meant to impose greater diversity in the workplace and throughout society.

While Abella’s report was instrumental in cementing the concept of visible minorities in federal law, she recognized at the time that lumping everyone who isn’t white into a single generic category could create complications... the future appointee to the Supreme Court of Canada figured a solution would eventually appear...

Nearly four decades later, Canada no longer suffers from an absence of race-based data. We are, in fact, inundated with it. And the evidence arising from this flood of racially-focused statistical work is clear and unambiguous: the entire concept of visible minorities – along with the superstructure of policies and laws that support it – makes no sense in our pluralistic 21^st century Canada. It’s time to abolish this outdated, imprecise and subtly racist idea.

Among the Trudeau government’s many indulgences to the cause of social justice has been the creation of the Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics at Statistics Canada. Reports from this branch of our national statistical agency focus almost exclusively on dividing Canadian society up into ever-smaller slices by race, gender and other attributes (a recent effort tracks the educational attainment of bisexual people) and frequently serve as fodder for activists intent on claiming Canada is rife with systemic discrimination and racism whenever a gap is identified. Yet a gap-filled study released last month examining how various racial groups within the visible minority category are doing in Canada’s labour market received surprisingly little attention from the media or within activist circles. This may be because most of the gaps it reveals aren’t the sort that give rise to claims of racism.

The results of the study by Statcan researchers Theresa Qiu and Grant Schellenberg will come as a shock to anyone expecting to find whites sitting atop the labour market. Rather, the best earners are Canadian-born Japanese males, who earn an average $1,750 per week. This compares to $1,530 earned by white men. Chinese, Korean and South Asian (from India, Pakistan etc.) males also take home more than whites. Among women, whites are out-earned by a majority of groups within the visible minority category, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, South Asian and Southeast Asian (from Vietnam, Thailand etc.). At $1,450 per week, the average Canadian-born Korean woman earns $330 more per week than the average white woman. For both men and women, the two lowest-earning categories are blacks and Latin Americans.

While clearly contrary to current narratives declaring all of North America to be a bastion of white supremacy, these findings are not unusual for either side of the border...

The researchers further refined their work by adjusting for university education and other demographic characteristics. Here South Asian men were found to do significantly better than white men. Blacks and Latin Americans again did worse. Among women, several visible minority categories statistically outperformed whites, and no group – not even black women – did worse.

Do such results bolster the loud and widespread narrative that Canada is a systemically racist country? According to one labour market expert, such a declaration is impossible to make despite the large gaps in performance seen across the visible minority subgroups. “There is absolutely no way to infer any conclusion from this data about whether there is racial discrimination in the labour market,” says Mikal Skuterud, an economist at the University of Waterloo, in an interview. “Some groups are clearly outperforming whites, but no one would interpret that as evidence of discrimination against whites, or for Canadians with Chinese, Korean or Japanese ancestry.” ...

Skuterud is troubled, however, by the poor results for blacks and Latin Americans... another Statcan report found the rate of lone parenthood, a factor strongly associated with poverty and poor educational outcomes, is nearly three times more common among black mothers than in Canadian society at large. “Black immigrant populations stand out for their prevalence of lone mothers compared to the rest of the Canadian population,” the 2020 report observed. It is hard to imagine this not being a significant factor when it comes to the jobs market.

Taken at the broadest level, Qiu and Schellenberg’s results can be seen as a thorough dismantling of Livingstone’s nearly half-century-old claim that the term “visible minority” describes a single coherent category unified by the lack of whiteness of its members. This “group” now includes both the highest and lowest-earning racial categories in Canada, a fact that stretches diversity to the point of absurdity. The exceptional outcomes for Canadian-born Asian men and women strongly suggest factors other than discrimination – primarily education, family and socioeconomic status – are driving the divergence in earnings across race. And if skin colour is not a useful explanation for performance in the labour market, using it as a basis to set employment targets, as is the case within the federal public service, becomes a perversion of good policy.

In a column in the Globe and Mail nearly a decade ago, Carleton University economist Frances Woolley declared that, “There is something almost racist about the assumption that whites are the standard against which anyone else is noticeably, visibly different.” Her opinion hasn’t changed much since then. Asked today if it still makes sense for Canada to enshrine the concept of visible minority in law given the recent Statcan results, she shoots back, “Did it ever make any sense?”

The current system, Woolley observes in an interview, is entirely arbitrary in its binary conception of people as either white or not. “The word white is very imprecise,” she notes. According to Statcan, for example, Greek Canadians are European and part of the dominant white, mainstream society. Yet anyone who traces their roots to Turkey, right next door, is considered West Asian and hence a visible minority. As a result, one neighbour is eligible for special measures and one is not. Plus, “a lot of people who consider themselves white – such as Lebanese Christians – are identified as visible minorities by the Census,” Woolley adds. The U.S. classifies most Arab ethnicities as Caucasian.

The rise of individuals with multiple or competing racial identities due to the rapid growth in interracial marriages further complicates the notion of colour-coding Canada’s population. The share of mixed-race relationships has more than doubled over the past decade and now comprises 7.3 percent of all marriages and common-law relationships in this country. As these couples have children, it will get progressively more difficult to sort Canadians into separate racial baskets of white and non-white. (Aka oppressors and victims.) 

Then there is the issue of how nearly everyone can end up being considered part of a minority group and thus deserving of special treatment. Visible minorities currently comprise 22 percent of Canada’s total population, based on 2016 Census data, a figure that will undoubtedly rise with the release of updated 2021 Census data later this year. In some urban centres such as Surrey, B.C. or Markham, Ontario, visible minorities already constitute a clear majority. Indigenous people make up another 5 percent of Canada and people with disabilities are estimated at 22 percent. Finally, women represent 50 percent of all other groups. “Designated groups [under the Employment Equity Act] are now an overwhelming majority in the labour market,” says Woolley. “Surely we can all agree that’s problematic.”

The only slice of the Canadian population not offered special treatment under this framework is that of able-bodied white men. Yet the notion that white men stand astride the Canadian economy like a Colossus is both outdated and unfair. As Qiu and Schellenberg reveal, white men have one of the lowest rates of university completion across all racial groups, at 24 percent. This is significantly lower than black women at 36 percent, and only slightly higher than black men, at 20 percent. Given the importance of education to future earnings, low rates of university education in any racial group should be a troubling matter for fair-minded policy-makers.

Whites, both male and female, are also much more likely to live outside urban areas, another factor Qiu and Schellenberg found to be associated with lower earnings. And as a group, whites are noticeably older than those within the various visible minority subcategories. All of which suggests whites, and in particular white men, are likely to face strong headwinds in the future. They may, in fact, be more deserving of government attention than many other identity categories. “The real question,” insists Woolley, “is how can we make the system fair for everyone, not just designated groups.”

Faced with the obvious folly of the entire visible minority concept, the progressive activist community appears focused on changes of nomenclature rather than substance. Linguistic constructs such as BIPOC or “racialized individuals” are more commonly used these days... Consider BIPOC, an imported American acronym for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. But aren’t black people also people of colour? And if so, why include them twice? As for “racialized,” the word appears derived from an invented verb: to racialize. But that suggests identity is dependant on the views of others, rather than a permanent, self-conceived state.

Any real commitment to tackling the inconsistencies inherent to the uniquely Canadian concept of visible minority must do more than just fiddle with terminology. In its 2020 Fall Economic Statement, the Trudeau government announced plans to review and modernize the Employment Equity Act. The most attractive solution would be to scrap it altogether and recuse the federal government from any further involvement in private-sector hiring practices. A competitive job market driven by need and focused on merit has no apparent problems hiring well-qualified candidates regardless of race, as the Asian experience ample demonstrates. Yet such a hands-off, market-driven and colour-blind approach seems extremely unlikely.

In the absence of simple economic logic, one immediate remedy would be to stop using whites as the reference group. Given evidence that whites no longer command the highest wages or best jobs, it makes more sense to shift to a simple Canadian average in future Statcan reports. This would resolve Woolley’s complaint about the implicit racism of making whites the standard by which all others are measured. “If you tested everyone relative to the Canadian average rather than whoever is considered ’white,’ I think that would be a good thing,” she says. “It would mean we are no longer taking the white experience as aspirational, or the norm.”

Then again, any system that continues to examine performance by race, regardless of the comparator, perpetuates the fiction that racial identity is the ne plus ultra of the job market – if not personhood itself. While a fixation on skin colour has lately come to define public policy in many troubling ways, doing so embeds the concept that Canada is a collection of disparate racial groups constantly in conflict with one another. It would be far healthier for society to simply accept that we all share a common identity as members of a pluralistic Canada. Full stop.  

Plenty of evidence suggests Canadians don’t care nearly as much about race as the media or political classes constantly claim they do. Consider the 2019 federal election, which featured those potentially damning images of a young Justin Trudeau in blackface. Most Canadians simply shrugged it off. As author Christopher Dornan observed in his book recapping the election, “The issue of racism – overt and latent, deliberate and unwitting, systemic and extrinsic – simply did not take hold in the election discourse.”

Achieving a colour-blind labour market would require shifting away from a preoccupation with race to focus on more important factors. Poverty would be a good place to start. Says Woolley, “If your family income is a million dollars a year and both your parents have PhDs, then the colour of your skin doesn’t matter. The same goes if you grew up in foster care and have struggled all your life.” Disadvantage and hardship can occur in families of all races and ethnicities. Yet under Canada’s visible minority framework, needy individuals can be ignored while others with a different skin tone get a leg-up they don’t deserve. “We need a fair process and fair procedures,” Woolley asserts.

A fairer system, Woolley says, should “try to get at socioeconomic measures of disadvantage rather than assuming that identity” is the crucial factor. As an example of such a system, she points to the fact many universities around the world that now use socioeconomic status (SES) measures such as family income, rather than race, to determine entrance qualifications for disadvantaged students. Such “class-based” or “race-neutral” standards have a successful track record in Israel.

SES factors are also widely used in the U.S., although they remain a work in progress. The reason many American schools rely on SES is that they’ve been forbidden from accepting students based solely on race due to court rulings on constitutional grounds. In many cases, however, the universities manipulate their allegedly colour-blind SES rankings in order to sort students by colour regardless of what the courts say... Regrettably, even plans meant to ignore race somehow end up becoming fixated on race.

The final word on ending to racial employment laws should go to the great human rights advocate Martin Luther King, Jr. King strongly opposed race-based quotas and other affirmative action measures because he anticipated their divisive effect on social harmony. In 1964 he wrote, “It is my opinion that many white workers whose economic condition is not too far removed from the economic condition of his black brother, will find it difficult to accept…special consideration to the Negro in the context of unemployment, joblessness etc. and does not take into sufficient account their [own] plight.” He argued against different treatment based on race because he thought help should be provided to all who need it, regardless of their skin colour. In other words, he dreamt of a truly just and fair world. We’re still waiting."

Links - 2nd November 2024 (2 - Trans Mania)

Meme - "r/MtF
My transphobic car.
This is gonna sound, unhinged.  But I am lucky enough to during my time as a masculine person have accumulated enough wealth to have bought a BMW. Now for those who don't know; When you enter your BMW, it displays "Hi, [name]" on the screen.  I changed the name on the app a few weeks ago, from deadname to Lucy. And the car started saying Hi Lucy, a nice bit of affirmation to start the morning.  A few days later, my name switched back and "Hi, [Deadname]" started appearing on the screen again. It took me aback a little, because it happened while I had friends in the car, some of which didn't know me by my previous name. I was a little upset, but thought nothing of it.  Until today, I found when I logged in to switch it back to Lucy. My legal name was set as my name, and my real name, Lucy, was set as my "nickname".  Now, I know the car dealership has access to these systems, as I never setup my name there originally and it was misspelt. I don't want to be like, "car dealership saw and was transphobic". But on the other hand, wtf...  I don't know, I don't really want advice, just venting tbh. Anyone have weird experiences like this with apps and such?"
Ugly crying MtF: "My name is Lucy and I use she/her pronouns!!!!"
Car: "Hi, Larry."

Meme - "A BIG FAT ZERO! Congratulations to all the women who vote Democrat! ZERO House Democrats voted to pass the protection of women and girls in sports act. Republicans 219 Democrats 0"

German Pedophile Rights Group Calls For Members To Watch Film About A "Trans Kid," Claim Children Must Be Allowed To "Self-Determine" Sexuality - "A notorious German pedophile lobby group has endorsed the new gender self-identification law, stating that “trans kids” are “politically important” for advancing pedophile rights. Krumme-13, also known as K13, are also directing its members to watch a movie about an 8-year-old boy who is transitioned to live as a “girl.”... “Why is gender identity also politically important for pedophiles/pedosophists?” K13 asks. “Gender and sexual identity does not only begin on the 14th birthday, when the so-called protection age limit ends. Children can and want to experience their childhood sexuality self-determined beforehand.”  The post continues: “Child sexuality as a whole must no longer be a taboo. Because pedosexual relationships are not conceivable without self-determined child sexuality.”"
Weird. I thought this was a right wing conspiracy theory
Keywords: pedophilia, trans rights

Thread by @astor_charlie on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - ""I IDENTIFY AS A WOMAN"
The thing Trans Rights Activists say will never happen happened last night in a club in Leeds, England.  In the early hours of this morning (Tues 24 Sep 2024) this man entered the women's bathroom. It is Fresher's Week in Leeds and the bathroom was full of young women - many away from home for the first time, in a new city.  The brave among them demanded this man get out but he would not leave.
When this man refused to leave the women's bathroom, this brave young lady confronted him.  His response?  "I identify as a woman."
Trans Rights Activists have long argued that no-one is using trans-identification and gender self-ID laws to enter women's spaces for sexual exploitation.  This had always been a laughable statement given the propensity for sexual fetishes among men who identify as women. But as gender critical feminists have asserted from day one, sexual predators will use any means they are presented with to gratify themselves.  This man has imbibed the culture. He has learned, if you play the "trans card", people will be too frightened to further challenge you. Better still for the predator, others may leap to your defence, and justify your being in women's spaces on account of your being "trans".  As this young woman says, the argument of GC feminists is not theoretical it is happening now.
I encouraged the young woman who entrusted me with her story to contact the Police to register a complaint of sexual harassment.  These days, the British Transport Police and Sadiq Khan classify that glance that lasts a second too long as potential sexual harassment. Yet, when she spoke to @WestYorksPolice, they said, "There is no crime reported."
Whilst neither her or I expected anything to come of this one report, this young women knew the significance of recording incidents to corroborate any allegations other women may be forced to make in the future.  A man who acts as brazenly as this one will surely re-offend? If he does, @WestYorksPolice will be responsible for the complete and unnecessary suffering of women who cannot rely on being safeguarded from men who would stalk, harass, and harm them.
Thankfully, the bouncers at @Warehouse_Leeds did not let political correctness get in the way of protecting these young women from this predator.  But can women rely upon a good man to be around in every instance?  @_connieshaw is correct to ask, "Where do we draw the line?"... Whilst it is not illegal for men to be in women's spaces, a stable legal framework is needed to enable women to prosecute men who exploit self-ID to abuse and assault them.
A young woman describes her frightening experience of a man using gender self-ID to loiter in the women's toilets at a nightclub and this trans activist decides to attack her rather than the man who exploited trans self-ID to malign ends.  How telling..."
This never happens

Moustached man refused to leave female nightclub lavatory because he 'identifies as a woman' - "A moustached man refused to leave a nightclub’s female lavatory because he “identifies as a woman”.  Connie Shaw, 20, was attending a club night for students at the Warehouse in Leeds, West Yorks, on Monday when she confronted the man in the women’s lavatory.  The University of Leeds undergraduate said the man, who has not been identified, refused to leave and told angry revellers: “I identify as a woman.”  A bouncer was then alerted to the situation and kicked out the man, who was sporting a moustache and black T-shirt. Ms Shaw told The Telegraph: “He said straight away, ‘I identify as a woman,’ because he knows and other men know that that is what will get them into women’s spaces.”... “He wasn’t queuing, he was just standing there with his back to a cubicle just watching, he didn’t seem to be looking for anyone.” Ms Shaw, who is writing her dissertation on gender, reported the incident to West Yorkshire Police but the force told her it was not a crime and it was “down to the establishment to deal with”... Ms Shaw said: “It makes me angry because trans activists say that this never happens – that terfs [trans-exclusionary radical feminists] fear-monger and make these things up.  “I can’t believe I saw it happen and what are the chances of that actually happening and where it happens to me on the first night of freshers week?”  She added: “There’s a reason why we have separate toilets, especially in a nightclub.  “We’re regressing. We’re harming young women in particular and violating women’s rights to have safe spaces where they know that they don’t have to worry about coming into contact with men.  “In a club especially, where you’re more likely to be assaulted in general, there needs to be somewhere for women to have a space.”"
I'm surprised the nightclub wasn't prosecuted for "transphobia"

Ben Appel on X - "This is truly remarkable. SNL airs a sketch about the 16th century practice of castrating young male singers to block their natural puberty and preserve their high voices. And yet this is precisely what “gender-affirming care” clinicians are doing to young boys today: chemically castrating them with puberty blockers and estrogen, and then surgically castrating them when they’re in their late teens. And they’re applying the exact same reasoning! Block their puberty —> keep them feminine. How did staff members  at @glaad  and @hrc  react to this sketch? Did they think it was funny? Or did they turn the channel, because deep down they know that they’re advocating for the same practices today? How about @SecretaryLevine ? Did Levine laugh? How anyone at @nbcsnl  could put this together without thinking about the blatantly obvious and horrifying connection to today is beyond me."

Woman to get payout after being hounded out of rape crisis centre over gender critical beliefs - "A woman who was hounded out of a scandal-hit “trans-inclusive” rape crisis centre run by a biological male is to receive £35,000 in compensation.  Roz Adams, who was a support worker at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC), is to receive the “substantial” figure for injury to feelings in a “stark recognition of the gravity of harassment” she suffered for her gender critical beliefs, her lawyer said.  An employment tribunal has previously found that Mridul Wadhwa, a male who identifies as female and was chief executive of the centre, had presided over a “heresy hunt” against Ms Adams because of a suspicion she was transphobic.  Ms Adams had been subjected to a “Kafkaesque” disciplinary process after questioning how to respond to female survivors who asked about the sex of another employee who said they were non-binary and adopted a typically male name. While the sum of £35,000 has been agreed between the parties, Ms Adams is also calling on the tribunal to make a series of recommendations after claiming that support services overseen by Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) are still failing women... A definition of woman is crucial as ERCC and RCS have operated self-ID policies, meaning a male who claims to identify as a female could gain access to women only spaces and services.  Ms Adams claimed that deliberately “muddy” language and policies around the issue meant that women seeking help could not make an “informed choice” about accessing services.  “I don’t know how any organisation can claim to have women only spaces or services while not defining what a woman is or what female means,” Ms Adams said.  “A survivor can’t give informed consent if they don’t know what they’re giving informed consent to."

Meme - "Pregnant Men"
"Atheists who promised a better, more intelligent & rational world without religion"

Meme - Andy Ngo 🏳️‍🌈 @MrAndyNgo: "“N—ger, n—ger, n—ger!…I have a picture of your kid on here by the way.”  Trans activist Jonathan Yaniv, also known as Jessica Yaniv and now Jessica Simpson, hurled racial abuse at a black female reporter for @RebelNewsOnline  in Vancouver, Canada:"

Female athlete injured by transgender player slams Dem lawmakers who dismissed dangers - "Payton McNabb, a former North Carolina high-school volleyball player who suffers from long-term physical and mental injuries caused by a biological male who identifies as transgender during a match in 2022, called out Democrat lawmakers on X for denying the harm that trans women cause in sports. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wa., said during a House Judiciary Committee markup on Thursday nearly in tears that "it is a tiny portion of people across the country that identify as trans, and not a single one of them is doing anything to harm you or your family." "Stop it, we have better things to do in Congress," she said... "Just getting back from my second doctor appointment this week, a year and a half later, I’m definitely going to have to disagree," McNabb said on X in response to Jayapal's remarks. "My life is forever changed because of an injury by a boy. So yeah . . . men have harmed women in our sports. But as long as your feelings don’t get hurt, right?" In the same markup, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said that "men do not compete in women sports," before the committee passed H.R. 7187, the Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, which would ban biological men from competing on any women's sports teams."
As usual, "this never happens"

America should follow England’s lead on transgender care for kids - "Calm discussions of transgender medicine are rare. “There are few other areas of health care where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views,” argues Hilary Cass... It is essential to guard against “the creep of unproven approaches into clinical practice”. This may be hard in an area that has become so politically contentious. It may also be harder in health systems where private doctors are paid for each intervention, and thus have an incentive to give patients what they ask for."

Drag queen story time should always be optional in schools - "The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has given parents an opt-out clause allowing their children to attend other activities when drag queen story time is being performed... But perfectly sensible policies don’t cut it with the left. According to critics quoted by the Toronto Star the policy is “outrageous,” “dangerous” (because it “others” 2SLGBTQ+ people), harmful and in breach of Ontario’s human rights code. Rico Rodriguez, a teacher who works at the TDSB and is also a drag queen, was incensed. “All the work that I have done myself personally and that others did before me has been destroyed, just by that statement that you can opt out, and that’s not right,” he told the Star. And, of course, opting out is hateful. (Why is it that something that might be merely slightly irritating to one person is a fully-fledged hate crime for the left?) School trustee Debbie King was quoted by the Star as saying, “A communication providing parents the ability to opt out of drag queen story time activities at school, while based on guidance from the Ministry of Education, rightfully raised concerns about emboldening environments and acts of hate.” Those engaged in furthering the gender war, of trying to shift cultural and social mores, are often accused of behaving like religious fanatics. Here they have adopted the idea of committing sins by omission — parents are guilty of errant behaviour by not sending their children to the event. There are already demands for an apology, and no doubt an act of penance will also be demanded later. What will not follow is any forgiveness. For the left, it’s always a matter of black or white, never an acknowledgement that perhaps tolerance can go in more than one direction; you either opt-in or you’re out; you’re either with us or against us; it’s either our way or the highway to hell... Justifying his terror, Robespierre said, “If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid revolution it is at the same time both virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.” Prompt, severe, inflexible justice sounds exactly what the gender activists are demanding. But it should be remembered that Robespierre found himself on the receiving end of Madame Guillotine’s “justice.”"
Someone claimed that the fact that there was an opt out meant that it wasn't compulsory. But that pretends that there was never a time when it was mandatory

Opinion: When it comes to drag queen storytime in schools, Ontario should look to its long history of compromise - The Globe and Mail - "In the past, schools have permitted different exemptions out of respect for families’ religious or moral beliefs. For decades, Ontario’s public schools were staunchly Protestant. At one point in time, daily opening exercises for children in public schools included reciting the Lord’s Prayer. At the same time, school regulations stated that no public school pupil was “required to take part in any religious exercise objected to by his parents or guardians.” Parents could exempt their children from opening exercises and from two weekly class periods of Christian religious instruction as well. Exempted children left the room at these times. (This was all in public schools. Roman Catholic separate schools taught Catholic doctrine.)  These exemptions were an effective compromise. They acknowledged that not all public school pupils were Protestant and that public schools should not force any doctrine on non-believers. At this time, moral instruction was practically inseparable from religious education. Exemptions, therefore, were also an act of recognizing moral instruction as an area where families had an important role to play, admitting that schools and parents shared a say in what moral lessons children were taught. By the 1980s, with the introduction of state-supported multiculturalism and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, religion in schools, moral education, and exemption policies were revised. In the 1988 Zylberberg v. Sudbury Board of Education decision, the Supreme Court of Ontario struck down the requirement for pupils to recite the Lord’s Prayer in opening exercises. Two years later, in the 1990 case of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association v. Elgin County Board of Education, the same court struck down the two weekly periods of Christian religious instruction.  On both occasions, the court ruled these practices unreasonably infringed non-Christians’ Charter rights to freedom of religion. (It was not a matter of separation of church and state, always a more American notion than a Canadian one.) Both rulings were further affirmed by the Charter’s Section 27, which states: “This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.” To have only Christian or Protestant opening exercises and religious instruction did not respect the fact that, by this time, many public school pupils were Jewish, Muslim, Catholic or atheist – as were, variously, the families represented in the Zylberberg case. With the court rulings in the Zylberberg and Elgin County cases, the previous exemptions to the Lord’s Prayer and religious classes became irrelevant. But public schools carried on compromising. Provincial regulations retained exemptions for those who objected to other aspects of schooling for religious or moral reasons. Under Ontario Regulation 435/00, parents may to this day exempt their children from singing O Canada as part of opening exercises. Some Jehovah’s Witnesses, for whom recognizing the state’s authority is contrary to their religious beliefs, use this exception. Ontario Policy/Program Memorandum 162 permits exemptions as well, from sex education (which can be interpreted as a form of moral instruction, based on religious beliefs) for children whose parents believe they are the “primary educators” when it comes to these matters."
The left wing cope is that they know what is objectively moral, unlike the benighted ignorants in the past who thought exactly the same but were wrong, and thus it's a moral imperative to force the left wing agenda on everyone
Left wingers claim this is a right wing newspaper, but it excoriates "bigots". Of course, anyone to the right of the far left is "far right"

Drag queen called 'Miss Gin' snared by paedophile hunters who fooled him into thinking he was talking to a teenage boy is jailed for 34 months - "A drag queen snared by paedophile hunters who fooled him into thinking he was talking to a teenage boy has been jailed for 34 months.  Andrew Way, whose stage name was Miss Gin, believed he was sending explicit messages to a 14-year-old boy.  The 61-year-old Pride organiser pretended he was 27 and began contacting the 'teenager', not realising a paedophile hunting group had set up the profile and trapped him.  Way - who appeared on Judge Rinder's ITV show in 2019 - was reported to police after their decoy trapped the predator... He had been organising the first-ever gay Pride event for Welshpool, Powys, before being snared and had appeared in Pride events in Cardiff.  Way was already subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order at the time of the incident after being convicted at a court in Bristol back in November 2007."
I still see left wingers boasting that drag queens were never on "To Catch A Predator"

Andrew Doyle on X - "This article for @TheOxfordMail  is extremely disturbing, both in terms of the content and what it tells us about the ideological corruption of the media class.   The headline reads: “Witney woman accused of threatening to stab teen near Waitrose”. The defendant has been charged with forcing a child to perform sexual acts at knifepoint.  And yet the reporter behaves as though she were writing an Agatha Christie novel, only revealing the “twist” in the last few paragraphs.   Yes, you’ve guessed it. The accused is a man.   This is not journalism. This is propaganda."
Witney woman accused of threatening to stab teen near Waitrose | Oxford Mail

Volleyball team risks forfeiting a championship to stand for the ‘future of women’s sports’ - "The women of the University of Nevada at Reno volleyball team plan to defy their school by refusing to compete against a team with a biological male player.   “We are risking our main goal, which is a Mountain West championship,” University of Nevada women’s volleyball team captain and outside hitter Sia Liilii told The Daily Signal. “A team is a group that bands together to reach a common goal, and that is the purpose of our spot-on the team. No one wants to lose and put that at risk, but this is bigger than wins and losses.”  “It is the future of women’s sports,” she explained.  The majority of the Nevada volleyball team voted to forfeit its Oct. 26 game against California’s San Jose State University, where biological male volleyball player Blaire Fleming has led an almost undefeated season...   North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered a concussion and neck injury in November 2022 after a transgender opponent spiked the ball in her face at an estimated 76 mph.  The net in men’s volleyball is more than 7.5 inches higher than in the women’s game to compensate for the increased velocity, jump height, and power men have. Even men would be more likely to get concussions if they played volleyball against each other with a women’s net height, according to Marshi Smith of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports.   The mother of a Nevada women’s volleyball player told The Daily Signal she is proud of her daughter’s team. The mother asked to remain anonymous for her daughter’s privacy.   “I’m dumbfounded how the trans group asks for ‘tolerance,’ yet when biological females ask for safe places in our locker rooms (which is supposed to be a given under Title IX), fair competition, and safety on the court,” the mother said, “we are denied and labeled hateful and transphobic.”"

Beth Bourne on X - "I haven't followed too closely the discussion around @jessesingal  and @ThePosieParker  but I just wanted to share my deepest gratitude for Jesse's courage in publishing his pivotal 2018 piece "When Children Say They are Trans." 🏳️‍⚧️   My daughter's psychiatrist shared it with me soon after its release. See 11/21/2018 email. It gave me the courage to tell my daughter's Kaiser Permanente docs that she would not be doing anything medical (blockers, hormones, surgeries) until she was 18. She was only 13 at the time and started desisting around 17."
Benjamin Ryan on X - "A mom says that @jessesingal’s 2018 @TheAtlantic article on gender transition treatment for kids inspired her to refuse such treatment for her gender dysphoric kid, who desisted by age 17 in the end."

Ashley St. Clair on X - "ELON ON TRANS KIDS: “Any one that goes through puberty is going to have an identity crisis. We should tell kids ‘If you’re confused, that’s okay, it’s coming of age.’ We shouldn’t convince them that they’re something they’re not…. We should tell kids that it’s normal to live with uncertainty, and don’t make any permanent decisions.”"
Wesley Yang on X - "What Elon says is both empirically correct — confirmed by more than a dozen studies — and self-evidently true without any need for verification, reflexively understood by all human adults at all times prior to the current institutionalized mania. It took massive coercion and propaganda to make people forget their humanity."

Meme - "r/MtF
It seems like there are more newbies (like me) here than, let's say, veterans; where do all the veteran trans people go?
I'm very new to the hrt part at only around 2 months in, and over the past few months I've heavily lurked this sub (I've been coming here for years, but I wasn't as attached since I wasn't on hrt), I've noticed that this sub feels disproportionately high in newbies. Do yall know where they're going or am I just trippin?"

Meme - India Willoughby @IndiaWilloughby: "l'll never view Camilla as Queen."
J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling: "Doubt the monarchy can survive this."
Caz @Moodleland: "What if she gets a certificate that says 'I am legally the Queen' will that change his mind?"

Meme - "THIS IS ANNE, SHE IS A LEFT WING LESBIAN WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN LEFT WING POLITICS FOR HER ENTIRE ADULT LIFE" *normal woman*
"THIS IS TOM, A 50 YEAR OLD TAXI DRIVER WHO HAS DECIDED TO BLOW UP HIS MARRIAGE AND FAMILY IN ORDER TO LIVE HIS FETISH. HE CLAIMS TO BE A  NAUGHTY LITTLE GIRL AND A 'HOT SLUT'" Ugly MTF in lingerie, stockings and heels*
"ANNE DOES NOT AGREE THAT TOM IS A WOMAN"
Anne: "ER... NO"
"ANNE IS NOW "FAR RIGHT" AND A NAZI. SHE ALSO GETS DEATH AND RAPE THREATS FROM MEN WHO SUPPORT TOM"

Meme - "When you want to prove that you're not mentally ill so you cut your dick off and kill yourself"

Meme - "Be yOur Child's first hero. *Man with woman, with man using scissors marked 'strong father figure' to cut the trans wings of child*
Trans wings: "Degeneracy. 41% Suicide Rate. Genital Mutilation"

Meme - ✨Rian Sygh✨🏳️‍🌈 @RianSygh: "Terfs are the Flat Earthers of Gender"
Grizabella Tchotchke @NKDavila: "And the KKK of feminism"
No surprise those deluded about their gender are also deluded about other things

Meme - Ian Thomas Malone: "A woman in the elevator asked me why I wasn't wearing a bra. I said I didn't work from home to wear the clothing of my oppressor. She said she could see my nips. I told her it was okay since I was biologically male. She said it's not fair that mine were bigger than hers. I told her we could share. Two girls, B cup."
Autoerotic gynephilia requires affirmation

Promoting Sex with Migrants / Thoughtcrime in the UK / Cats Being Eaten

"GERMANY. BELGIUM. FRANCE *textbooks for children with brown men having sex with white women* *brown baby in white woman's womb*"

Related:

Naomi Seibt on X - "Why is it always the women who are white sleeping with dark-skinned men?"

David Atherton @DaveAtherton20: "Head of the Met Police Sir Mark Rowley warns even people abroad will be arrested for mean posts. He seems to infer also @elonmusk . With the First Amendment I don't think an extradition request it'd get past the most under qualified lawyer."
Mike Benz @MikeBenzCyber: "the way this turd in a badge smiles with impish glee when he says “we will come after you” — they love this new expansion of state power at their fingertips, it makes each one of them feel like a God"
✨😇 Composite Man 👹✨ @slimbo_klice Fight thoughtcrime, comrade innit: "*British Propaganda Poster* "True Misinformation Is A Danger To All. Confess Your Thought Crimes Today""

*Cats being grilled on a grill in the US*
Smug Soyjak: "But how does this affect you PERSONALLY??"

Links - 2nd November 2024 (1)

Meme - "Ready to eject Lynda? This action cannot be undone. Flight attendants will eject Lynda from the plane mid-flight. Don't worry, your arrival time will not be impacted. Eject Lynda $2,703.50. Lynda will be able to counter your ejection bid."

Seeing the Mind Behind the Art: People Can Distinguish Abstract Expressionist Paintings From Highly Similar Paintings by Children, Chimps, Monkeys, and Elephants - "Museumgoers often scoff that costly abstract expressionist paintings could have been made by a child and have mistaken paintings by chimpanzees for professional art. To test whether people really conflate paintings by professionals with paintings by children and animals, we showed art and nonart students paired images, one by an abstract expressionist and one by a child or animal, and asked which they liked more and which they judged as better. The first set of pairs was presented without labels; the second set had labels (e.g., “artist,” “child”) that were either correct or reversed. Participants preferred professional paintings and judged them as better than the nonprofessional paintings even when the labels were reversed. Art students preferred professional works more often than did nonart students, but the two groups’ judgments did not differ. Participants in both groups were more likely to justify their selections of professional than of nonprofessional works in terms of artists’ intentions. The world of abstract art is more accessible than people realize."

Meme - Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes: "WHEN I GROW UP, I'M NOT GOING TO READ THE NEWSPAPER AND I'M NOT GOING TO FOLLOW COMPLEX ISSUES AND I'M NOT GOING TO VOTE

THAT WAY I CAN COMPLAIN THAT THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T REPRESENT ME.
THEN, WHEN EVERYTHING GOES DOWN THE TUBES, I CAN SAY THE SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK AND JUSTIFY MY FURTHER LACK OF PARTICIPATION."
Hobbes: "AN INGENIOUSLY SELF-FULFILLING PLAN."
Calvin: "IT'S A LOT MORE FUN TO BLAME THINGS THAN TO FIX THEM."

Urban Farming Has A Shockingly High Climate Cost — Here’s How Growers Can Bring Carbon Down, According To Scientists
Oops. So much for "sustainability"

Urban Farms Are Supposed To Solve Our Food Woes. The Reality Is Not So Simple. - "While the interest in urban farming might be strong, there are mixed and incomplete data on the success of urban farms... two-thirds of urban farmers are not making a living from farming.  “Farming is a hard business and it’s hard to make it profitable,” admits Claire Turner, partnerships and marketing manager for Brooklyn Grange, which is a for-profit enterprise. “And there are added challenges in New York City because of the cost of real estate. When the founders started the farm, they were tempted to make it a nonprofit, which is what a lot of urban farms do … but they wanted to see if they could make urban farming a successful business.”... “If you’re not a large-scale farm, you’re just not going to be able to compete in the market. An urban farm by necessity is small,” Dimitri says... environmental advantages can be overplayed, according to the Johns Hopkins report. The vast majority of emissions from food come from production rather than transportation, it says, and sometimes bigger farms can be more efficient thanks to economies of scale.  Furthermore, farms that produce continuously in a controlled atmosphere, such as a vertical farm, can be enormously resource-intensive. A 2015 study found that during summer months, the vertical farm it modeled generated a carbon footprint that was five times higher than conventional field-grown crops. And while hydroponic production (where plants are grown without soil) leads to higher yields and uses around 12.5 times less water than conventional agriculture, it requires around 82 times more energy, according to a 2016 paper."

Meme - "Imao my mate went as psi Lara Croft for Halloween and she killed it *pokey angular breasts*"

Meme - "So...a crazy woman just sent me a text telling me I was the dad of her child... was about to block her when she sent me a pic of her daughter and she's so beautiful! Daddy already loves you sweetie! *busty woman in bikini with child*"

Jogger left bloodied, dazed and crying after getting mauled — by a gang of otters - "The unidentified victim had reportedly been jogging through Tanjung Aru Recreation Park in Sabah when she was beset by eight of the beasts... the woman, who was wearing dark pink running tights and a black shirt, is pictured sitting on the curb in tears with blood visible on her arms and head and several gouges in her legs.  The victim was transported to a hospital, while a wildlife team was dispatched to the park to keep tabs on the otters... In 2021, a Singapore resident was hospitalized after getting accosted by a gang of the ferocious water frolickers, which reportedly bit him 26 times in 10 seconds.  “I actually thought I was going to die – they were going to kill me,” otterly-devastated victim Graham George Spencer recalled."

The Invention of Fettuccine Alfredo: A Love Story - "A history of Italian pasta can only start here, with the legendary fettuccine Alfredo. A very simple dish, with just three ingredients, that has been wildly successful: it turns up in over 800 American cookbooks published from 1933 to the present. So why will your Italian friends tell you they’ve never heard of the stuff?  It’s not their fault. Alfredo is by no means a household name in our country, which is why those of us who have heard of it put it in the same category as spaghetti and meatballs—which we’ve only ever seen in Lady and the Tramp—or carbonara with bacon, garlic, mushrooms and cream: some shoddy imitation of an Italian dish, seemingly unrelated to our traditional cuisine. This goes to show that fame has a way of ruining old friendships. Because although the average Italian may not know it, the “original” fettuccine Alfredo goes back centuries, and is actually the most ancient pasta dish in our tradition...  its early history is surprising, because it takes us to the heart of Italy at the dawn of the twentieth century, when a cook discovered—or rather, rediscovered—a fabulous dish that uses a few simple ingredients to magical effect. Believe it or not, in those days Rome had not yet developed the pasta recipes we all know and love. Amatriciana was just starting to appear in a few eateries; cacio e pepe was not yet considered a local speciality; and carbonara and gricia had yet to be invented. Back then, the most famous pasta dish in the Eternal City was—you guessed it—fettuccine Alfredo. Alfredo di Lelio, inventor of the fettuccine that bears his name, was born in Rome in 1883 and got his start at the family restaurant in Piazza Rosa... After giving birth, the mother, Ines, was so weak that Alfredo strove to come up with a food that would be nourishing yet easy to digest, to help get his wife back on her feet.  So here’s what he did: “he personally prepared some fettuccine, using a semolina dough, and mixed it with very fresh butter and parmesan cheese. Then he said a prayer to St Anne (patron saint of new mothers) and served it to Ines, saying, ‘if it’s not to your taste, I’ll eat it!’”  It was to her taste, all right.  So much so that she suggested putting the dish straight on the menu of their little trattoria. A simple recipe, with butter and parmesan perfectly blended to create a velvety sauce enveloping the fettuccine. What was so special about it, as opposed to just dumping butter on noodles? The quality and freshness of the ingredients, of course, but above all the method of emulsification used by Alfredo, whose skilled hands imparted an extraordinary texture to the sauce.   Two years later, his parents’ restaurant, where fettuccine Alfredo first saw the light of day, disappeared as the city underwent all kinds of transformations. But in 1914 Alfredo managed to open a new restaurant—also in Rome, but this time in the very central Via della Scrofa—which he named after himself. Just how the fame of his dish travelled so far outside the Italian capital and rippled across the Atlantic is still a mystery. To be sure, some part was played by the fact that foreigners were enthralled by the histrionics of the owner, and that his fettuccine perfectly suited American tastes in pasta."

Meme - "Who's the Most Dangerous Human Alive Right Now?"
"My cousin Randy posts a lot of pictures on facebook of skeletons riding motorcycles and stuff with captions about how loyal he is but if you betray him he can be your worst nightmare so probably him"

Meme - Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion: "Lots of people claim that Europe is as rich as America once you take differences in work hours into account.  But this is only true of a couple of extremely rich, extremely small European countries. Overall, European workers are much less productive than American workers."
Shyam Sankar @ssankar: "America is richer than Europe on a GDP per capita basis.   The EU is both less productive and work less hours.  Ouch."

Meme - "Sorry automation took away your mom's job
ON GOVT. DUTY
CUM SUCTION MACHINE"

Meme - Dr. Parik Patel, BA.... @ParikPatelCFA: "The CEO of Google is Indian. The CEO of Microsoft is Indian. The CEO of Adobe is Indian. The CEO of IBM is Indian. The CEO of Chanel is Indian. The CEO of FedEx is Indian. The CEO of Palo Alto Networks is Indian. But according to X, all we are known for is that we smell bad"
"You can be a CEO and still smell bad..."
"Have you ever smelled those CEOs?"

British 'Disinformation' Unit Shared Speech-Monitoring Techniques with U.S. Officials, Docs Show - "A British government unit devoted to fighting online “disinformation” gave high-ranking U.S. officials a detailed presentation on their efforts to pressure social-media platforms into censoring speech, newly disclosed documents show... The British government works with international partners in Europe and North America to prioritize the fight against “disinformation,” training governments and NGOs on how identify and curtail the allegedly harmful content. Additionally, the presentation has slides on British legislation empowering companies to strictly enforce content moderation and empowering the government to take action against companies that fail to comply with the government’s online speech regulations...   “The Biden-Harris Administration’s desire to silence speech and control what information Americans are able to obtain is so extreme, so pervasive, and so over-the-top that they are willing to listen to foreign governments explain ways to better violate core constitutional rights of the American people,” said America First Legal executive director Gene Hamilton... Notoriously, the FBI’s warnings ahead of the 2020 presidential election influenced Facebook and Twitter to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, a decision Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted was a mistake in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee. Zuckerberg also said that pressure from Biden administration officials influenced Facebook’s decision to restrict Covid-19 related speech, a central aspect of the Missouri v. Biden censorship case that the Supreme Court threw out due to the plaintiffs lack of standing.  The House Judiciary Committee’s investigative pursuits have further illuminated how government agencies such as the FBI, State Department and Department of Homeland Security worked with nonprofits and social-media platforms to restrict speech leading up to the 2020 election and have continued to do so since then. Former DHS disinformation czar Nina Jankowicz was one of many partisan analysts in the field who spread false claims that the Hunter Biden laptop story resembled a Russian disinformation operation."

Churchill as Bricklayer - "Urging the Chancellor to become a unionized bricklayer, Lane noted that when William McKinley was President of the United States, he had to become a member of the appropriate craft organization before he could lay a foundation stone...   Union branches protesting his admission as a “Brother” argued that Churchill’s application had not been completed properly, that the proposal hadn’t been seconded, that his cheque had not been cashed, and, most importantly, Churchill had not given any details of the length of time he had worked at the bricklaying trade.  Although it was recognized that the matter was never intended to be taken too seriously and had been “viewed generally in a wrong light,” the Executive Council decided to act and reverse its initial decision"

Elon Musk on X - "Why are so many people raging FOR the machine? 😂"

Sydney homeowner’s ingenious solution to people peeing in his driveway - "For far too long, Stephen Bodnar from Waverley in Sydney has had to deal with inebriated individuals using his driveway as a place to relieve themselves. Men and women alike have stumbled from nearby pubs The Charing Cross Hotel and The Robin Hood Hotel and onto his property for years, leaving an unpleasant reminder of their visit... the electrician decided to install a $3,000 sprinkler and CCTV system to keep any perpetrators away - and it’s so far working like a charm. The deterrent includes a motion detector which triggers a light and then a three-minute downpour between the hours of 6pm and 6am."

Mogul sues real estate firm for allegedly hiding Jeff Bezos was purchaser of his $79 million home - "Everyone wants to get top dollar in a real estate sale — and that even goes for the extremely rich. Businessman Leo Kryss is suing real estate company Douglas Elliman over the $79 million sale of his Florida mansion, a 7-bedroom, 11.5-bathroom home located in what his lawsuit calls "the most prestigious and exclusive area in Miami, Indian Creek Village." In his lawsuit, Kryss claims he asked Douglas Elliman CEO Jay Parker point-blank if Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was behind the purchase. Parker allegedly "misleadingly assured Kryss that Bezos was not behind the offer and was not the purchaser," according to the lawsuit, filed in July in the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. Parker also allegedly asserted that the buyer would not pay more than $79 million for the home, versus the $85 million listing price, the lawsuit claims. Because of the assurance, Kryss allegedly agreed to discount the property's price by $6 million, settling on the sale price of $79 million... Kryss speculated that Bezos might be behind the offer on his home because the Amazon founder had previously acquired 11 Indian Creek Island Road, a property adjacent to his mansion, the lawsuit notes. It added, "Kryss believed that it was highly material to his negotiations and his decision on the ultimate sales price of the home to know whether Bezos was interested in his home and if Bezos was attempting to anonymously acquire the home in order to assemble it with the adjoining property that Bezos already purchased." Kryss' property "would be significantly more valuable to Bezos than to other potential buyers," the lawsuit claims."

'She is dying': Lawsuit asks Lake Winnipeg to be legally defined as a person - "A court has been asked to declare Lake Winnipeg a person with constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of person in a case that may go further than any other in trying to establish the rights of nature in Canada. “It really is that simple,” said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Manitoba Southern Chiefs’ Organization, which filed the suit Thursday in Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg. “The lake has its own rights. The lake is a living being.”"
Killing Christianity did not kill superstition

Man brandishes knife in Yishun kopitiam after being told to pay for straw, gets 1 month's jail - "a 54-year-old man caused a scene in a kopitiam in Yishun after being told he had to pay ten cents for a straw Ismail Bin Abdul Rahman reportedly brought a beer from a convenience store and then went to a kopitiam located at Block 285, Yishun Avenue 6, to ask for a straw, telling the owner that he was accustomed to drinking beer with one. The 59-year-old stall owner then informed him that he had to pay ten cents for the straw since the beer was not purchased from the stall."

Google & Facebook partner admits it can listen to device microphone to serve ads - "A media firm that has worked with the likes of Google and Meta has admitted that it can target adverts based on what you said out loud near device microphones. Media conglomerate Cox Media Group (CMG) has been pitching tech companies on a new targeted advertising tool that uses audio recordings collected from smart home devices, according to a 404 Media investigation. The company claims it is partners with Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing. In a pitch deck published in November 2023, CMG referred to the technology used for monitoring and active listening as “Voice Data.” The firm also mentioned using artificial intelligence to collect data about consumers’ online behavior... In one section, CMG candidly states, “Yes, Our Phones are Listening to Us,” while explaining how businesses can leverage this data to more effectively target ads."
Weird. We kept being told that this wasn't happening, and that we were crazy for thinking it was

EU faces kebab identity crisis as Turkey and Germany clash - "Turkey demands that döner kebab be protected in the European Union (EU). Germany opposes this, arguing that "various methods of preparing the dish should be preserved" as it reflects the country's diversity... In April 2024, Turkey submitted a request for döner kebab to be protected under the status known as "guaranteed traditional specialty". This status provides less protection than the "protected designation of origin," which is applied to products specific to a geographical region, such as champagne from the region of the same name in France. Nevertheless, it could impact kebab shop owners, their individual recipes, and customers in Germany. "Döner" is a traditional meat product prepared by stacking thinly and horizontally sliced pieces of beef, mutton, or chicken onto the horizontally oriented stainless steel skewer called "döner" and then cooking them by rotating the skewer vertically around its axis in front of a fire," the Turkish application states. According to the proposal, the beef used for döner kebab must come from cattle at least 16 months old. It should be marinated in specified amounts of animal fat, yogurt or milk, onions, salt, and thyme, as well as black, red, and white pepper. The final product should be cut from the vertical skewer into pieces with a thickness of 3 to 5 millimetres. "The term 'döner' refers to the traditional cooking technique, not a geographical area," Turkey argues... In Turkey, this dish was originally prepared with lamb and served exclusively on plates. In the 1970s, Turkish immigrants in Berlin decided to serve it in pita bread and modified the recipe to attract Berliners... If the EC approves Turkey's application, popular kebabs in Germany with vegetables, turkey, and some veal kebabs will not be allowed. The issue is that these are not mentioned in the application, which would cause confusion in the German food industry. "Everyone should have the opportunity to decide for themselves how it is prepared and consumed in this country. We do not need guidelines from Ankara," wrote Cem Özdemir, the German Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, who has Turkish roots, on social media platform X. According to the Berlin-based Association of Turkish Döner Manufacturers in Europe, this industry generates annual sales of around $3.3 billion in Germany alone and $5.2 billion across Europe. "From the government to the streets, everyone eats döner kebab," admitted Deniz Buchholz, owner of Kebap With Attitude, who is not worried about potential restrictions. "We will go the Berlin way and find a solution to call it something else," he said, adding that one name could be "vegetarian sandwich."
Kebabs have recently come into the spotlight due to price increases. In recent months, the prices of kebabs in Germany have doubled. Not long ago, one had to pay €4 (about $6), but now rates are $10-$14 (€7-$10). Due to the high prices of kebabs in Germany, there was even a proposal to implement a maximum price. This move was suggested by the far-left party Die Linke, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused."

Dave Rudden on X - "Bartending at Longitude and a kid swaggers up with a very impressive ID that shows his age at being squarely 17. I point it out and he says 'Fuck you're the first bartender I've met that can do maths.' 10 minutes later he walks by with a pint and gives me a thumbs up"

National Ignition Facility - Wikipedia - "The NIF was used as the set for the starship Enterprise's warp core in the 2013 movie Star Trek Into Darkness."

Meme - Wolf of X @tradingMaxiSL: "17. In Australia, your tax return document shows where your tax money was spent"

How Elmer Fudd Became A Hunter - "Initially Elmer didn’t have intentions to hunt Bugs Bunny. He came to the country to photograph wildlife. In the cartoon from 1940 “Elmer’s Candid Camera” Elmer reads “How to Photograph Wild Life,” gets his camera kit and heads into the countryside.  He comes upon a sleeping rabbit and wants to take photos of him. The rabbit is Happy Rabbit, the predecessor of Bugs Bunny. Elmer sets up his camera and that’s when he realizes that that won’t be an easy task.  Before he could take the first photo, Happy Rabbit wakes up and then the real trouble starts for Mr. Fudd. In Elmer, Happy Rabbit found a convenient victim to harass just for the fun of it.  At first the rabbit is seemingly helpful, but his various antics are driving Elmer insane, causing him to jump into a lake and nearly drown. Happy Rabbit saves him and ensures that Elmer is OK.  After he was sure that Elmer is all right he kicks him back into the lake and throws Elmer’s photography book (“How To Photograph Wildlife”) on his head. That is the end of this cartoon and the start of the endless chase between Elmer J. Fudd and Bugs Bunny."

Meme - Sign: "Fiber Optic Cable Does Not Contain Copper"
Doge: "This sounds exactly like something a copper cable would say"

Meme - "elsa for kids *Elsa from Frozen*
elsa for adults *Elsa Jean*"

Former SAF regular gets jail and caning for raping 13-year-old girl, cries in the dock - "Muhammad got to know the victim in 2020 on chat application Telegram, when they were both in a group chat with more than 1,000 members.  He initiated a private conversation with the girl, introducing himself as "Crimson". She told him she was 13 and they began chatting.  Muhammad made sexually inappropriate comments to her and sent her an unsolicited photo of his private parts.  The girl felt uncomfortable and uninstalled the app from her phone to stop communicating with him.  However, when she reinstalled the app in July 2021, Muhammad sent her a message apologising for his behaviour. The girl forgave him and they continued chatting. Muhammad lied to her, saying that he was an 18-year-old polytechnic student named Zachary.  After chatting online for some time, they began exchanging sexual communications and engaged in "phone sex", with the girl sending Muhammad photos of herself at his request.  He got the girl to meet him twice in July and August 2021.  On Aug 20, 2021, the pair met at a playground at about 6.20am before heading to a staircase landing on Muhammad's suggestion as it was raining.  The girl told him she was worried about her science examination paper which she would be taking later. During their conversation, Muhammad touched her and complimented her handwriting in her study notes.  He then got her to perform a sex act on him. The girl said she had to leave for school but Muhammad persuaded her to stay and continue.  At about 7.10am that day, a 47-year-old American man who lived nearby looked out of his flat and saw the victim in her school uniform performing a sex act on Muhammad.   He called the police, saying he saw a schoolgirl engaged in a sex act and that she "does not look happy ... doing it".  The girl rushed off for school but received a phone call from her mother in the afternoon, saying someone had lodged a police report about her.  The girl's mother instructed her to unblock Muhammad on Telegram - which the victim had done after declining an invitation to his home after her lessons that day.  Using the victim's account, the girl's mother contacted Muhammad.  Suspecting a police report had been lodged against him, Muhammad later confronted the victim and told her he felt betrayed, before removing his profile picture and deleting his messages."

Russia to spend over half a billion dollars to bolster internet censorship system

Yeah, But No, But Yeah: The Strange Tale Of 3 Million Hacked Toothbrushes - "A news story about the hacking of three million smart toothbrushes to create a massive botnet used to launch a distributed denial of service cyberattack against a Swiss organization has gone viral. However, many in the information security industry, including myself, have trouble finding evidence to support the story... the headlines certainly raised a few eyebrows within the information security community online, not least as there is very little by way of specifics in any of the reports and a distinct lack of technical explanations as to quite how such a massive botnet, one of the biggest on record, was created...   One highly-respected industry veteran, Kevin Beaumont, better known as GossitheDog online, was quick to claim the story wasn’t true. Others such as Robert Graham, ErrataRob on Twitter/X, also called BS on the claim.  Meanwhile, at my request, Dirk Schrader, vice-president of security research at Netwrix, and a native German speaker, took a look at the original article that appeared in the Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung. Schrader told me that the original article doesn’t mention any type or model of toothbrush, the name of the victim or the suspected perpetrator, or the motive behind the distributed denial of service attack.   “It appears to be a rather generic tale warning of the need to protect any device, large or small, connected to the internet,” Schrader says, “my feeling is that this is a theoretical and poorly explained example, later in the same piece there’s another such example of how to use open-source intelligence to infiltrate an organization.” Most smart toothbrushes are Bluetooth Low Energy enabled rather than connecting by WiFi, although some do have that capability. However, whether it’s feasible that three million could have been hacked is highly debatable"