Links - 21st August 2024 (2)

Fact Check: Pretty Mike Is Not A Spiritual Leader But A Stunts Man - "Galaxy radio a local FM station in Uganda posted a picture showing two ladies pouring cooking vegetables into a small pan, and with them, a seemingly superficial “Zambia” male  “Chef ” holding a long and sizable aluminium cooking tool, stirring into a pan with a live human (man) in it. The caption on the post implied that he (the authoritative man) was cooking the man to cleanse him of unfaithfulness (infidelity).   “Meet Zambian pastor who cooks unfaithful husbands to make them faithful.” the GalaxyFmUg X post read... In just two weeks after the BBC aired a documentary about a famous church in Nigeria, the Synagogue Church Of All Nation (SCOAN) and its Disciples under the Cult of Prophet TB Joshua.  Many religious and spiritual narratives have sprouted. This particular picture has since resurfaced and gone viral on different social media platforms like Twitter/ X, TikTok, and Instagram although it is not the first time it has appeared online...   The  Tiktok narrator says the man captured in the picture cheated on his wife,who brought him to confess, ask for forgiveness and led him to being cooked by the “pastor”.
 The “Pastor or Prophet”  playing spiritual cleanser of infidelity in the photos is not a Christian spiritual leader, going by  the religious and meanings of who a pastor and a prophet are and what they do.  Our research points to the alleged prophet as Mike Eze-Nwalie Nwogu a Nigerian socialite, entrepreneur and prominent stunt man in Nigeria commonly known by his stage name Pretty Mike.    The picture in question was taken from Warri Pikin’s wedding or vows renewal where Mike made a grand entrance with women carrying spices and vegetables, a cooking pot, a spoon and a man he later “cooked” without fire, with the idea of making a soup dish for the newly weds, in June 2023.  He is neither Zambian nor South African as the different posts purport, and better yet, he is not a pastor or prophet and the his acts are not scientifically proven to be a behaviourial change strategies to stop any one from being unfaithful.  Even though this is not Pretty Mike’s first time making such questionable moves at events"

Meme - "He looks like he's being haunted by the woman he ran over"
Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty wears ₹42,000 Indian label dress at resignation speech. It becomes viral joke - "Akshata Murty, wife of Rishi Sunak, wore a high-necked dress with red, white, and blue stripes—the colours of the United Kingdom’s national flag... the daughter of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy and Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murty wore a dress with arrows pointing down, and the bottom section of the dress was red. The internet users were quick enough to use this as a metaphor for how the election has gone for the Conservative Party, who lost the 2024 general election in the UK to the Labour Party... This internet user said that Murty’s expensive dress reminds him of a “skeleton”... “Even Rishi Sunaks wife’s dress says you’re going down!”"

Thread by @sentientist on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " Childless people invented the idea that it's problematic and an invasion of privacy to post pictures of your children online because they didn't want to lose out in online status games against parents with cute kids. I enjoy and collect cynical explanations for otherwise puzzling phenomena, this one about posting pictures of children online comes from a fan of @SimoneHCollins and I think it's plausible.  Another one that I enjoy, but am not sure about, is that women tell other women they look great with short hair because they actually look worse, or maybe less attractive to men, when they don short hair. I've never read anything that clearly lays out a plausible case for why it could hurt your kids if you post pictures of them online- but I could be persuaded."
Kat Woods ⏸️ on X - "It seems much more likely that it's just another instance of parents being absurdly overprotective of their children nowadays. And then people being terrified of being accused of being a bad parent. The usual mechanism for most crazy parenting practices."

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "In Albanian culture, there exists a tradition of blood feuds known as "Gjakmarrja," where murder is deemed necessary to uphold family honor. These feuds can extend across generations, leaving those who refuse to participate living in perpetual shame and isolation, imprisoned in their homes."

Meme - "How to entertain your cats for hours...a cardboard lizard"

Meme - "GUEST REQUESTS: I will be accompanied by 3 paid female escorts. Each escort will require a pet style "water dish" of their own that I need you to fill with Dom Perignon. This is nonnegotiable. You will, of course, receive a substantial gratuity for accommodating my request."

Meme - "CCK 302 FoodHouse
'Coffee tasted very bad. No coffee taste at all. All I taste is sweet condensed milk and sugar. Feedback to the coffee lady but they refused to accept.... more'
CCK 302 FoodHouse (Owner): 'Ok then don't come back clown'"
Meme - "Ordered from roasted stall and ask for more sauce for my duck and roasted pork rice end up so dry and tasteless. Coleslaw and curly fries from Indulge and the Coleslaw tas..."
CCK 302 FoodHouse (Owner): "Ok don't come back"
Meme - "Economy rice stall staff was quite rude and remarked "too expensive ah" when i asked for the price breakdown - $3.70 for 3 vege 1 rice."
CCK 302 FoodHouse (Owner): "No money ah bro."

Spanish anti-tourism protesters take aim at Barcelona visitors with water guns - "Bystanders dining in restaurants in the popular La Barceloneta neighborhood were soaked when some protesters sprayed them with water guns. Video showed diners being forced to change tables at some restaurants to escape the protests on Saturday, while other restaurants were symbolically taped off by the demonstrators.  Carrying banners reading "Tourists go home," protesters called for a reduction in the number of foreign visitors to Barcelona, stopping in front of hotels and restaurants to confront tourists."
Assault is good when you're "protesting" "rich" tourists

Menorca residents put chains on streets to keep tourists out - "The 195 homeowners of Binibeca Vell, in Menorca, nicknamed the ‘Spanish Mykonos’ for its narrow winding streets amid whitewashed houses, have put up chains to keep visitors out before 11am and after 8pm. In August residents will take a vote on whether to ban tourists altogether."
Xenophobia and racism are good when power relations are involved

Thread by @SpencrGreenberg on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "There’s a really interesting debate raging in the field of genetics about how heritable different human traits are. It could end up overturning 100 years of research: 🧵
First off, what is heritability? It’s the fraction of the variance of a trait (in a particular population) that’s caused by genetic differences.  Everyone agrees that height is at least fairly heritable since, in most populations, much of the variation is attributable to genes. A classical and very commonly used way to estimate the heritability of a trait is to compare how similar that trait is among identical twins relative to how similar it is among fraternal (non-identical but same-sex) twins.  The logic is that… Since identical twins have ~100% of their genes in common, whereas fraternal twins have only ~50% (considering just those genes that are not typically shared between all humans), if identical twins are more similar to each other for a trait, it’s probably due to genetics. This can be formalized with Falconer’s formula, which says that if the correlation of a trait (say, height) is ri for identical twins and rf for fraternal twins, then, under certain assumptions:  heritability = 2 * (ri - rf)  This means that if ri = rf, then heritability is 0. If we use the method of comparing identical and fraternal twins, we get heritability results like those in this image (which I compiled from papers).
However, there is another, very different way to estimate heritability, which the revolution in DNA sequencing technology has made possible. Rather than looking at twins, people’s genetics can be measured, and traits can then be predicted directly from DNA. The more accurate the DNA-based predictions are, the more heritable a trait is.  In the early days of these new methods, the heritability estimates were extremely low compared to the twin studies, which was puzzling. As DNA technology has improved, the statistical approaches for making these predictions have advanced, and the data sets to train these algorithms on have grown in size, the DNA based methods have predicted higher heritabilities than before. But here’s the problem: even with all these advancements, the DNA-based methods still usually predict much lower heritabilities than the twin studies - often less than half of what the twin studies say! This is called the “Missing Heritability” problem.
Why would the different approaches lead to such different results? Well, both approaches rely on assumptions.  For instance, the twin-based method assumes that:
i) the shared “environment” for identical twins is not more similar than the environment for fraternal twins
ii) that there is not a substantial amount of “assortative mating” - where parents end up more similar than expected by chance because they seek out traits that they have, such as people with college degrees seeking out others with college degrees
iii) that genes do not substantially change the probability of being exposed to different environments
On the other hand, the DNA methods make their own assumptions. These assumptions depend on the exact method applied, but a common one is that there aren’t “rare genetic variants” that contribute substantially to heritability.
So, what’s the result? Twin study based methods give us higher heritability estimates than DNA based methods. Is this because twin studies overestimate heritability or because DNA based methods underestimate it? Or does the truth fall somewhere in between? This debate is still contentious. Hopefully, high-quality science will do its thing, and a new consensus will emerge. But if DNA based methods turn out to be more accurate, nearly 100 years of heritability estimates may need to be thrown out!"

Meme - @JirenSlir_: "This reeks of Nazism"
Dexerto @Dexerto: "PewDiePie is truly on his loving husband and father era *White couple with white baby*"
This is why, when the left accuse everyone of being a Nazi, everyone should ignore them

Is the ATM Cash-Dispensing Sound Fake? - "In true Pavlovian form, humans are accustomed to getting excited at the sweet sound of an ATM dispensing cash. But is that sound artificially generated? If so, why?...  Ultra-quiet electric vehicles, for instance, are being outfitted to produce “vroom” sounds so that pedestrians and bikes can hear them coming and get out of the way, if need be. Some sports arenas have artificial crowd noises, and while those sounds are designed to help the home team, they mostly serve as reminders (depressing, sorta creepy reminders) that the arena is three-quarters empty... the ATM machine, with its “comforting whirr of the cash point”... Word of these claims quickly spread online, and in a thread at Reddit, several commenters who say they’ve worked on ATMs for years called B.S."

From Baby Boomers to Gen Alpha: Study suggests generalizations about generational gaps are wrong - "Sociology Professor Martin Schröder at Saarland University in Germany investigated the myths and facts. “A publisher offered me a lucrative book deal if I was able to show that Millennials tick differently than older generations,” he recalled. So he set about analyzing hundreds of thousands of datasets spanning four decades.” He has just published his findings in the Journal of Business and Psychology under the title “Work Motivation Is Not Generational but Depends on Age and Period.” The seven active generations from the beginning of the 20th century are: The Greatest Generation (born 1901-1924); The Silent Generation (born 1925-1945); Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964); Generation X (born 1965-1980); Millennials or Generation Y (born 1981-1998); Generation Z (born 1999-2016); and Generation Alpha (2013-)... “I wasn't able to find anything to suggest that attitudes towards work and career are actually related to the year in which someone was born. The image of Millennials with their 20-hour week sitting on the beach in Bali coding “stuff for the web” or doing “something with media” is at best simply a cliché,” Schröder said... "Of course, as with all clichés, there’s a grain of truth in them, but when you take a closer look, the differences among the generations are not really that great at all. What turns out to be important is which stage of life people are in when they are asked about their work ethic or their attitude to work,” the German sociologist insisted... "It turns out that this is not really a generational issue. What we found is that all of us think and act differently than we did 30 years ago,” said Schröder. “It’s not our affiliation to a particular generation that explains our thinking, but rather which phase of our life we're in when asked about our attitude to work. Today, each of us thinks differently about the world than we did some years ago, and that's as true for the 15-year-old as it is for someone who’s now 60. If you ask different generations at the same time what they think about work, you’ll find their answers are essentially the same.' Put another way, work is no longer quite as important to us today as it was to society 50 years ago – and that's true regardless of whether we are 15 or 50.” Schröder used data from almost 600,000 individuals from the Integrated Values Survey that polled people in 113 countries between 1981 and 2022 to determine their attitudes and values regarding work and career. In addition to examining work motivation, he also mined this huge mountain of data to get a better understanding of the subjective importance of other factors, such as leisure time, good work hours, opportunities to show initiative, generous holidays, the feeling of being able to achieve something, having a responsible job, having an interesting job, having a job that matches well with one's own abilities, having pleasant people to work with and having the opportunity to meet pleasant people in your work. His key finding was that the generational cohort to which a respondent belonged had practically no effect on the answers given... The third reason he gave for tending to assume generational effects where there really are none is that, for some people, this claim is the basis for their livelihood, he said. “Put bluntly, ‘youth researchers’ and ‘generational gurus’ have to ignore scientific findings that contradict their business model because their income depends on continuing to sell ‘generationally tailored’ coaching sessions, books, and lecture series – all of which provide advice and guidance on what is ultimately a myth masquerading as fact.”"

Couple get married in Batam to avoid giving up HDB flat - "A widow and a widower, both from Singapore, chose to get married in Batam, Indonesia, to save their respective HDB flats.  The marriage, considered a secret as the couple did not register their marriage in Singapore, took all of 15 minutes to be solemnised.  Married couples in Singapore are not allowed to own more than one HDB flat between them...   In order to have their union "accepted by the religion" and retain ownership of their respective flats at the same time, the couple opted to get married in Batam in early-2023."

16 days to die at Pearl Harbor: Families weren’t told about sailors trapped inside sunken battleship - "When salvage crews raised the battleship West Virginia six months after the Pearl Harbor attacks, they found the bodies of three sailors huddled in an airtight storeroom — and a calendar on which 16 days had been crossed off in red pencil... Someone was still alive, trapped deep in the forward hull of the sunken battleship. Bang. Bang.  The Marines standing guard covered their ears. There was nothing anyone could do.  When salvage crews raised the West Virginia six months later, they found the bodies of three men huddled in an airtight storeroom: Ronald Endicott, 18; Clifford Olds, 20; and Louis “Buddy” Costin, 21.  But the most haunting discovery was the calendar.  Sixteen days had been crossed off in red pencil. The young sailors had marked their time, not knowing what had happened to their ship or that their country was at war.   For 54 years, their story has been told in hushed tones among the West Virginia’s survivors. It has become a symbol of courage and perseverance for these aging men.  Few people knew the whole truth. The Navy never told the families how long their loved ones had survived. And for those brothers and sisters who eventually found out, the truth was so devastating they kept it a secret. Even from their own parents... the ship had taken at least six torpedoes and two bombs, burned for 30 hours, and settled in the mud of the harbor bottom, its main deck covered in oily water. Cut a hole to get someone out and you’d flood the whole thing. Use a torch and risk an explosion... No one wanted guard duty that put him within earshot of the West Virginia, especially on quiet nights. They would do anything to trade posts so they wouldn’t have to hear the desperate — almost tireless — cry for help...   The clues left in the dry storeroom hinted at a horrifying demise. Flashlight batteries littered the floor. The manhole to a supply of fresh water had been opened. Emergency rations had been eaten."

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "There is a plane that flies above Los Angeles every single day releasing thousands of sterile fruit flies from 2,000 feet in the air to combat the invasive Mediterranean Fruit Fly. Up to 125,000 flies per square mile are released each week in what’s called “biological birth control.”"

Pub group launches 'bottomless crunch' menu with unlimited crisps - "A UK pub group has just launched a Bottomless Crunch offering, where you can stuff your face with as many crisps as you can manage in a 90 minute window.  There’ll be helpings of Walkers crisps dished out for just £5, perfectly pairing with basically any pint you fancy... If you’re in the pub in group, it’s just £12 for a table of four to enjoy the gastronomic delights of a bag of the world’s greatest snacks.  The Bottomless Crunch menu has been launched by Craft Union Pubs, which has boozers all over the UK."

‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ Is a Failure of Representation - The Atlantic - "This idea, that Mormonism is at heart an oppressive and violent religion whose mainstream adherents are ever perched on the brink of radicalization, runs through the series—and the show commits to its thesis... Under the Banner of Heaven is one of the most openly hostile treatments of a minority religious group to appear in popular American entertainment this century. It is also an unqualified hit...  As several historians have noted, there is a long tradition—including in the pages of this magazine—of casting Mormonism as a threat to the American project. In this sense, Under the Banner of Heaven has more in common with 19th-century anti-Mormon propaganda than it does with the sneering silliness of the musical The Book of Mormon... But what stood out most to me as I watched the finale was not its aggressively negative portrayal of Mormonism. It was the fact that no one involved in the show felt compelled to check the customary boxes Hollywood creators have been trained to check in this era of inclusiveness and representation. Black did not hire any practicing Mormons to write or consult on the show. Executives at FX did not put out a statement affirming that Mormons are a peaceful people. When Brenda Lafferty’s sister suggested in an interview that the show’s creators had exploited her story, there was no flood of outrage on social media or rush by the network to control the damage. In fact, the prospect that the show would offend Mormons was played up in the promotional press tour... Black responded to criticism of the show from the Church-owned Deseret News by accusing any Mormons who took offense of secretly sympathizing with the murderous extremists at the center of the show... When The Book of Mormon musical became a phenomenon in 2011, the Church took out playful ads in the playbill: “You’ve seen the play. Now read the book.” As I wrote last year, I was initially thrilled by this response—until a theater critic explained to me the real reason Mormons had to be good sports about such things: “Your people have absolutely no cultural cachet.”"
Not all minorities are created equal

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "In 2009, a Fort Worth call center experienced a mass panic when a mysterious smell, initially thought to be a poisonous carbon monoxide leak, led to chest pains, headaches, and hospitalizations. However, investigators later discovered that the odor was simply perfume, and the panic resulted from contagious fear-people believing the scent was dangerous. The incident showcased how psychological factors can trigger physical symptoms and escalate situations, leading to a mass panic over a harmless fragrance."

Theodore Streleski - Wikipedia - "Theodore Landon "Ted" Streleski (1936) was an American former graduate student in mathematics at Stanford University who murdered his former faculty advisor, Professor Karel de Leeuw, with a ball-peen hammer on August 18, 1978. Shortly after the murder, Streleski turned himself in to the authorities, claiming he felt the murder was justifiable homicide because de Leeuw had withheld departmental awards from him, demeaned Streleski in front of his peers, and refused his requests for financial support. Streleski was in his 19th year pursuing his doctorate in the mathematics department...   Streleski was eligible for parole on three occasions, but turned it down as the conditions of his parole required him to stay away from Stanford campus and to get psychiatric treatment. Upon his release in 1985, he said, "I have no intention of killing again. On the other hand, I cannot predict the future.""

Meme - "That last look at the bed before I leave for work"

Meme - ">Hey guys, Charlie here with another 15 minute video about a random comment I found on Twitter.
>I won't say anything remotely interesting, just sit on the fence so I can keep collecting YouTube shekels.
>I do say DICK and BALLS from time to time in a monotone voice, so I'm kinda funny, right?
>Anyway, this is all for today, see you guys next time."

Madame Web Star Emma Roberts Blames the Internet Memes for Box Office Failure - "The Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) movie notably became a major box office and critical flop when it was released earlier this year, and it was already considered to be one of the worst comic book movies of all time...  the film also received negative reactions from both critics and the audience and it affected the word-of-mouth in its release as it discouraged more people from watching it in theaters."

Gad Saad on X - "I was teaching an MSc/PhD course two years ago that had a large number of enrolled students.  As soon as the semester started, all but one of the students dropped out and I had yet to teach a single lecture that semester.  Hence, it is rather suspicious that all students would drop on the same day.  My course was cancelled and this was the first time in 30 years that I had a course cancelled.  The university is now obliging me to make up that course next summer.  It's never happened before in 30 years.  I recently found out that my undergraduate course on the consuming instinct is likely to be cancelled both semesters in the upcoming year.  I've taught that course successfully for many years.  I've now been asked to teach courses that are completely outside my areas of interest/expertise for the first time in 30+ years.  This will require me to prepare these courses from scratch as though I were a sessional lecturer.  I've been an award-winning professor but apparently, I'm no longer able to fill up classes.  It's getting tough...
[And yes, I expect that haters will now weigh in with "but you are a genocidal Jew so it makes sense that this is happening to you."]"

i/o on X - "There's something of an inverse relationship between quality of life in a country and the percentage of citizens willing to die for their country. Pakistan: 89% Vietnam: 89% India: 75% US: 44% Canada: 30% Germany: 18% Japan: 11% (Gallup, 2015)"
Paul C. Jeffries on X - "Maybe. But I suspect there is another factor also at work: Average Age: Pakistan: 89% 20.6 Vietnam: 89% 32.5 India: 75% 28.2 US: 44% 38.5 Canada: 30% 40.2 Germany: 18% 44.7 Japan: 11% 49.1 Well, well, would you look at that?!"

Nudists call for fewer clothed visitors at Canada's clothing optional beaches - "Visitors to Wreck Beach in Vancouver and Hanlan's Point in Toronto have reportedly been told by naked beach-goers they must disrobe if they want to stay. Toronto woman Cailey Root said she found homemade signs at Hanlan's Point this week, stating that nudity was mandatory at the clothing optional beach.  Root said she and a friend were later approached by two nude men who told them to take off their clothes... The Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN), a national nudist organization, said that while there are several public beaches across Canada where authorities turn a blind eye to nudity, Hanlan's Point and Wreck Beach are the only ones that have been officially designated "clothing optional."  The beaches are intended to be shared by clothed and unclothed people alike... Schout estimates that 90% of Hanlan's Point visitors and 60% of Wreck Beach visitors are clothed. He said fewer and fewer naturists visit the clothing optional beaches each year, because the large number of clothed people there make them feel like they have become a spectacle.  "Right now we're just another show in town," said Schout. "We might as well be a (theatre) production.""
From 2016

BELL: Poilievre says he's a normal guy, the Liberal-NDP are lunatics - "“The NDP-Liberals, the radical woke socialists detest working-class families.  “They don’t like their values. They don’t like the way they live. They look down on people who drive pickup trucks, who raise their kids with traditional values. They think they know how to spend other people’s money better than those people know how to spend it themselves.”  Poilievre has a lot to say on this attitude.  “At the root of the NDP-Liberal ideology, the radical NDP-Liberal ideology of today, is a total disdain for the common people and an obsession with concentrating power and money in the hands of a so-called expert class that runs everything for everyone else because they know better and they’re much more virtuous than the rest of us.”... “What I’ve found about this radical new woke agenda is they always present themselves as the opposite of what they are, precisely the opposite of what they are,” says Poilievre.  Case in point. The apostle of sunny ways. Trudeau.  “Remember when Trudeau was going to help the middle class. Well, now the average middle-class family cannot afford a home. It’s mathematically impossible.”  The Conservative leader speaks of all those living poor, going to food banks every single month, the exact opposite of what Trudeau and his ilk promised.  “Everything is the opposite. Everything.” Examples from the world of addiction.  “Harm reduction. No, it’s harm production. Safe supply. Giving out heroin is not safe. It’s the opposite of safe.  “Everything they say is not only untrue but it’s the exact opposite of the truth.”  It is then Poilievre brings up the great English writer George Orwell and his great novel Nineteen Eighty-Four."
This is a good partial summary of globalism: technocratic and elite-centred rather than democratic and populace-centred, with a dose of wokeism. Plus add global rather than local and national

Allowed on Facebook: Calling People Stupid

"no, links work just fine if you know how to use them. If they block it, use a url shortened site that acts like a proxy. Are you new are just stupid?"

"it's an attempt to overthrow the federal government you fucking goober"

Oddly, Facebook says that you're not allowed to post "Content targeting a person or group of people on the basis of their protected characteristic(s) (in written or visual form): Generalizations that state inferiority in the following ways: Mental characteristics are defined as those about:
Intellectual capacity, including but not limited to: dumb, stupid, idiots."

Links - 21st August 2024 (1 - General Wokeness [including denouncing non-left wing/moderate family])

Oli London on X - "Delta airlines employees have meltdown over only being able to wear American flag pins instead of Palestinian pins. “They also implemented a new policy punishing all the flight attendants saying now we can only wear pins with the U.S. flag only.”"
Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 on X - "Dear @Delta employees, Your uniform is not a means for you to express your identity, or your political views. It is your uniform. Wear your American flag pin and stop crying."
Clearly, it is a hate crime and genocide to refuse to let employees push political opinions at work

EXCLUSIVE: U.N. Elects Iran to Commission on Women's Rights - "UN Watch is calling on U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and EU states to condemn the UN’s election of Iran to a 4-year term on its Commission on the Status of Women, the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”... Though the ballot was secret, UN Watch has determined that at least four of the 15 EU and Western Group democracies on ECOSOC—which include Australia, Austria, Finland, France, Latvia, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—voted for Iran...   In 2017, after a similar secret ballot for the same UN women’s rights commission, a UN Watch campaign led to Belgium’s admission that it voted to elect Saudi Arabia, and to the revelation that the the Belgian government made sure to tell the Saudis that they voted for them.   “This is surreal,” tweeted Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad. “A regime that treats women as second class citizens, jails them for not wearing the compulsory hijab, bans them from singing, bars them from stadiums and doesn’t let them travel abroad without the permission of their husbands gets elected to the UN’s top women’s rights body.”  Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the Australian academic held hostage in Iran for 804 days, expressed astonishment at the election of her oppressor. “Iran’s persecution of women is gross and systematic, both in law and in practice. The UN’s own secretary-general has reported on Iran’s ‘persistent discrimination against women and girls,'” said Neuer.  “Iran’s fundamentalist mullahs force women to cover their hair, with many arrested and attacked daily under the misogynistic hijab law. They require a woman to receive permission from her father to get married. The legal age for a girl to marry in Iran is 13—with even younger girls allowed to marry with paternal and judicial consent.”  “Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime imprisons courageous women’s rights activists, such as Nasrin Sotudeh, Mojgan Keshavarz, Yasaman Aryani, and Monireh Arabshahi, for the crime of peacefully demanding their human dignity.”  “Why, then, did the UN name one of the world’s worst oppressors of women as a world judge and guardian of gender equality and the empowerment of women?” asks Neuer."
From 2021

Into the Memory Hole on X - "The funny thing about Twitter hiding likes?  Now I have "moderates/ normies" following and liking posts about the JQ and heavy posts about race. Say what you want about optics but people who are afraid to openly say you are right will listen so long as you swing a big stick and don't miss. I even have Greg the Krogers cashier scratching off his "coexist" sticker and carving  sonnenrads into bathroom stalls."

Whitney Alese on X - "Just so we are clear: CRT Woke and now DEI are just replacements for the N Word."
NJRepublican1968 on X - "And your point is? All those terms or acronyms were not invented by the right so we didnt coin them but now we are also responsible for how you interpret them if by chance we use them? Got it. Makes sense. I’m sold!"
TroubleShooter on X - "you got that correct. CRT is just racism with clever marketing DEI is also just racism with a good PR campeign if you promote crt or dei you are a racist. this is not a surprise since democrats supported slavery, jim crow, and the KKK."
Weird how CRT and DEI were not just invented by and championed by the left, but used to apply to situations when there're no black people around. "Conservatives" must be really confused people

Meme - Jake Gotta @jake_gotta: Authoritarian Left: "Everything is violence except for actual violence, which is fine"
christoph @Halalcoholism: "Finally, someone wrote a thread about the invisibilized violences of walkable cities. This is so important"

Meme - Tattooed purple haired woman with septum ring and other piercings: "Judging people for their race and sexuality is WRONG! Why can't you CIS white men understand that?"

Science fiction has always been woke
The writer thinks diversity is the same as wokeness, or that exploring political themes is the same as wokeness
"The argument that sci fi was always woke falls flat on the fact that liberals back then could understand conservative worldviews plus they wouldn't be considered very liberal today. Hence traditional trek writing was very nuanced even if left leaning. They took effort to write realistic characters for the other side.  Now woke sci-fi writers are utterly incapable of understanding those on the opposite side of the political spectrum outside of cardboard caricatures designed to be easily mocked and disproven to advance the woke gospel."
"There were complex characters across the political spectrum, esp in classics eg Dune and so on. Yes there's political stuff as well, but its not hamfisted "PROG GOOD OTHRZ BADZ""
"the jedi mind trick here is to attempt to pass off politicised sci-fi as political sci-fi."
"It's like going too an anthropological lecture on religion and belief systems and finding out it it actually an evangelical outreach event, then when you call them out for being disingenuous they say discussion of religion is part of anthropology."

James Kirkpatrick on X - "Any standard, no matter how objective, will lead to nons being disproportionately unable to pass it. Therefore, if you really believe all groups are equal, and you really believe diversity has value, it follows you must abolish all standards. Otherwise you must deny equality."
Bo Winegard on X - "The root of progressivism is equalitarianism. If you think all groups are equal, then outcomes disparities are evidence not of natural differences, but of racism and bias. Meritocracy crumbles because people are afraid to speak honestly about group differences."

Eric Abbenante on X - "Bakari Sellers claims that systemic racism has never been worse for black men. Ben Shapiro: "If I were to say to you as a Jew, that the experience of Jews in the US today is worse than the experience of Jews in Europe in 1939, I would not be stating accurately. It's also not true to say that the experience of black people in 2024 is worse than black men in 1954. That's just crazy." Sellers: "That's intellectually dishonest."
+
Bakari Sellers says that systemic racism can explain differences in mortality in black pregnant women. Ben Shapiro retorts by saying black women have higher rates of pregnant obesity. Ben Shapiro: "There are many confounds when it comes to these particular issues, unless you remove the statistical confounds, you end up with trying to blame vague shadowy figures like implicit bias, which are innately insanely difficult if not impossible to measure." Bakari Sellers: "I don't know what he said."
Ben Shapiro explained to Bakari Sellers that life can be more accurately explained without blaming the vague concept of racism. DEI hire's response: "I don't know what he said." Because his whole life is viewed through the prism of racism."

British Empire must be presented like Nazi Germany, curriculum guidelines insist - "The British Empire should be taught to school pupils like Nazi Germany, curriculum guidelines state.  Guidance created by school support organisation The Key and offered to teachers across the country provides tips on how to make the history curriculum “anti-racist”.  Teachers are advised to present the British Empire to secondary pupils like Nazi Germany, as a power that “committed atrocities”.  Pupils should also not be taught about the balance of “good and bad” aspects of Empire, the guidance states... To increase diversity on curricula, teachers are advised to celebrate “Caribbean, African and Indian soldiers who fought for Britain in both World Wars”. These conflicts were fought when Britain was still a colonial power.  This guidance is available to school leaders who are signed up to The Key, which claims to be “the leading provider of support for schools and trusts” and “trusted by over half of all schools in England”.  The guidance, first made available to schools in 2022, has been presented as an example of best practice to school staff by councils including West Sussex and East Renfrewshire.  It also offers additional advice on making history curricula anti-racist, advising teachers to avoid “‘white saviour narratives’”, which may include a “focus on white abolitionists such as William Wilberforce”. It suggests including black abolitionists. To address how black people are “overwhelmingly presented as victims of history”, the guidance advises teachers to tell pupils about “contributions and achievements” of figures like Crimean War nurse Mary Seacole, and the Oba of Benin.  The Oba ruled the Kingdom of Benin, which generated wealth through the sale of African slaves... The guidance has caused concern among historians, including Prof Robert Tombs, the Cambridge academic and author, who branded the document “blatant propaganda”.  He said: “To assert that the British Empire benefited only the British and only did damage to the colonised is absurd.  “Nothing is said about economic development; nothing about how the Empire suppressed slavery; nothing about peacekeeping and the ending of chronic violence.  “It is a glaring self-contradiction that the document compares the Empire to Nazi Germany and yet wishes to celebrate the many colonial soldiers who voluntarily fought for the Empire.  “It is astonishing that schools are urged to celebrate the ‘contribution and achievements’ of the Oba of Benin, a slave trader on a vast scale. This can only be bad faith or ignorance.  “Almost inevitably, the document accuses Churchill of racism – a baseless accusation. This whole document at best aims at myth-making, at worst aims at creating unfounded resentment and division.” Dr Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, author and director of the campaign group Don’t Divide Us, which has pushed for political impartiality in education, said: “The idea that Britain was a global power akin to the Nazis is a particularly radical socio-cultural belief held by a minority of people for whom the British nation in particular can only be a source of moral sin and political depredation.”"

Konstantin Kisin on X - "People think I am exaggerating when I say that our children are being taught to hate their own society and being lied to about history. I am not."
Melissa Chen on X - "Moral inversion: The people who defeated the Nazis are now to be painted as the Nazis"
Oikophobia strikes again
Let's say it again. Studying history will sometimes delight you. Studying history will sometimes please you. Studying history Will sometimes make you proud.  If studying history always makes you feel ashamed and upset, you probably aren't studying history

Meme - "daily gondor
Problematic Gondor: the White City with the White Tree is friends with the White Wizard... aren't you tired of this?
Farin Jewelmountain
Mordor is the only country on the right side of history or why Sauron should stop playing nice if he wants to win
WALLS WON'T STOP PROGRESS: experts agree victory of Dark Lord Sauron is both 'inevitable and desirable'"

David Aaronovitch on X - "It's pretty obvious that Elon Musk exercises immense power and uses it with complete irresponsibility. He is accountable to no one, it seems. We need to think seriously about how we as a country respond"
wanye on X - "The reason progressives win and conservatives lose is that all these people think about is power — how to get it, who has too much of it, who is too influential, whose platform should be constrained, who is being allowed to say and do what. Power power power power power. They wake up thinking about power and they go to bed thinking about power."

Wilfred Reilly on X - ""Attractiveness predicts conservatism among women, and happiness predicts conservatism among both genders." We make 'spiteful mutants' jokes online, but there's a deep truth that underlies them - people mentally and physically unsuited for success in a given society are the most likely to want to destroy it."
very moisturized on X - "It bears repeating over and over again that the entire leftist project is one borne of resentment towards people they perceive to bear natural gifts. Weak people are obsessed with power, and the entire project of leftists, feminists, any disadvantaged group seeking to subvert the hierarchy is that they have no personal agency and their only way to gain control is through collectivizing. Politics is the only means with which they can seize power because as individuals they are absolute losers - “spiteful mutants”."

Thread by @YasMohammedxx on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "In our talk,@Ayaan spoke about how ISIS caused so many Muslims to denounce Islam. Knowing sex slaves were taken by the prophet and his companions centuries ago is very different from witnessing it today. It’s easier to accept theoretically, but very difficult to accept in reality.  It’s similar to the response I had after 9/11. Of course I knew about jihad and killing infidels and spreading Islam and all the things the Imam yells every Friday khutbah. But it wasn’t real until I watched ppl jumping to their deaths. Having two daughters, it’s too much for my brain to even begin to comprehend. This child and thousands like her were sold and raped. This is acceptable in Islam. Allah sanctions it in the Quran. The prophet and his companions practiced it. There’s no denying the evil inhumanity. Here’s an Imam explaining to his daughter what sex slaves are and why consent is irrelevant"
Gad Saad on X - "Does this imam understand or misunderstand Islam?"

Cori Bush Becomes Second Squad Member to Lose 2024 Primary - "Cori Bush of Missouri, perhaps the most combative member of the U.S. House’s “Squad” of outspokenly progressive Democrats, narrowly lost her seat in an August 6 primary to St. Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell"

Thread by @SwannMarcus89 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Cori Bush may have been a total moron who legitimately is the dumbest human to ever be in congress, but in her defense, she's also a corrupt hypocrite who is under investigation for spending an insane amount of campaign money on private security  Wait where was I going with this?
Fun fact: In 2021, every member of congress who spent more on security than Bush was a Senator, not a House member, and she spent 3 times as much on private security as the second most spent by any other member of the House  And one of the security guards she paid is her husband Also, if you look at the Senators who spent more on security than Bush, there are obvious reasons for most of them to spend so much  Ossoff and Warnock both spent a ton on security because of how insane Georgia got when Trump was publicly threatening every politician in the state "

the contextualized hot dam historian on X - "but the category of white old men who have collectively been brainwashed by decades of fox news is massive and it clearly produced massively uncomfortable/bad relationships with their kids."
memetic_sisyphus on X - "It’s a stunning lack of awareness. Your dad might vote GOP, he might watch Fox News, he may even be disappointed you disagree with him. But he wants you over for thanksgiving, he wants you to get married and have kids so he can play with his grandchildren.   You didn’t lose your dad to fox, you became obsessed with electoral politics in such an unhealthy way that being in the same room with someone you disagree with is too much to handle, even if that someone raised you with love."
Clearly it's conservatives who are intolerant, and you need to cut your family off if they disagree with you politically, because they are "toxic". There is totally no relationship with cults trying to cut off cult members from family and friends to better brainwash them

memetic_sisyphus on X - "There are a ton of comments talking about how a conservative disowned their LGBT child. I’m sure this happens, and I’m sure it’s an incredibly painful experience. That being said LGBT people are less than 5% of the population (being very generous including bis and queer when they don’t actually act on it). They are also disproportionately in liberal areas (totally biological am I right!). So when they bring up a conservative disowning a child they’re talking about a fraction of conservatives dealing with a fraction of one of the smallest minority groups in the country. These cases are used to argue against the 99.999% of cases where a liberal freaks out at their dad because he has Fox News on in the background.   Rainbow flags draped over every public building have really overblown the public’s perception of the gay community’s size. When polled Americans though gay lesbian and trans made up an outright majority! I’m sure this effect is stronger if you actually belong to one of these identity groups."
Mantis Toboggan on X - "I would also like to look more closely at what “disowned” means. If Reddit and twitter libs have taught me anything, it is that not providing immediate, full throated celebration for every single aspect of their lives is basically the same thing as kicking them out of the house"
🇺🇲Big Rooster🇺🇸 on X - "They "disowned" the parents, but claim the parents "disowned" them."

Meme - memetic_sisyphus @memeticsisyphus: "In my experience the liberals view their positions as the default belief. They’re not even viewed as political. Some off handed comment about immigration or blm or whatever gets thrown out like they’re saying it’s sunny out. I think honestly they don’t view it as political, they just view it as part of the world everyone agrees on. And in their world, both irl and online everyone does, no one questions it.   Then they go to a family function, they say some off handed comment that is hyper partisan and are confused when their conservative dad or uncle says “you’re retarded.” All of a sudden they’re in a heated debate about politics and they’re not even sure how or why.   Study after study shows liberals don’t understand how or what conservatives think. They don’t take the time to actually talk about these issues and get blindsided when they set a political land mine off which could be avoided by even a passing familiarity with how half the country views politics."
"No, it's almost always the exact opposite. The relative who's been radicalized by right wing media is constantly trying to inject their angry politics into every family gathering and conversation, while their family tries to steer them to other topics and begs them to be normal."
Peatish @CantonaCorona: "100%. I can't even tell you the number of times I've been in a mutual friend gathering, and someone who knows 10% of the room will add "gawd, white people, gross" etc. The issue is they are also the person lacking social skills to see the room gets uncomfortable"
Paul @WomanDefiner: ""Study after study shows liberals don't understand how or what conservatives think" I would take that on step further. They don't even know why the believe what they believe. They can't even do basic defense arguments for their beliefs."

Meme - Memetic sisyphus @memeticsisyphus: "Lots of very cult like responses. Many saying things like, you hate me for being a good person."
Dr. Stephanie M. Baudelaire, MD, P...: "what these people in their eternal lack of empathy fail to understand is voting to kill someone is Proof Positive that you Hate them
but you already know your GOP Dad Hates you
because he treats you with Hate
for being queer
or being kind
or being fair
it's only ever Hate"

Anything that threatens the left wing agenda is "hate" and anything that pushes it is "kindness". If you tell an alcoholic that alcohol is bad for him, clearly you hate him

wanye on X - "An experience every (even moderate) conservative has had many times is that someone in their life will repeat liberal talking points over and over and over and over again without reference to their audience and then when you’ve finally had enough and offer the slightest rejoinder they freak out and accuse you of being political"
This is why left wingers claim that the left wing position is just being a decent human being and "empathy" - pushing the left wing agenda is the default, and if you disagree you are being political, a bad person and a bigot

Meme - lan Miles Cheong @stillgray: "Kotaku has a new editor-in-chief and he hates white people. Entertainment journalism is so broken."
austin williams @austinxwill: "Working with white people definitely a top five emotionally draining experience."
"White people really are the rudest mfs on the planet."
"I'm in an office full of white people today. Pray for me."

Joe Burgo on X - "Actual sentence from a chapter I'm reading on the neuroscience of gender: "... it is necessary to approach these studies understanding that the research was conducted under the contexts emerging from normative cisheteropatriarchal white European colonialist gender norms.""
James Lindsay, anti-Communist on X - "This is their BS Marxist excuse for dismissing anything that disagrees with their desired conclusions. The wordiness and big, made-up words are just mystification techniques for the intellectual swindle that's going on. It's like three-card monte but with big words."

Thread by @wanyeburkett on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "People rightly ask why I focus my ire on progressives and rarely conservatives and, while there is an idiosyncratic personal history there (I almost solely criticized conservatives for my first 25 years), the real answer is just that conservatives are currently irrelevant.  Conservatives don’t make policy in my area, they don’t set the agenda, they don’t control the message, and there are almost none at any of the companies I would like to work for. Conservatives here can barely even say what they think at a dinner party. It is basically inconceivable that I would ever face personal consequences for saying something “too progressive.” Conservatives are irrelevant. There is no point to criticizing people who are irrelevant.  I grew up in a rural conservative county in a state with Republican leadership and, wouldn’t you know it, I criticized conservatives basically the entire time I lived there. In that milieu progressives were irrelevant. I took the “Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins criticizing religion” thing to its limit. I know every single one of those arguments and I’ve made them 1000 times. It’s just not interesting to me anymore, nor is it relevant to anything currently happening in my life. Because progressives are almost definitionally on the vanguard, they self identify as weak and oppressed, but just as a plain accounting, they are in power everywhere in my life that it matters."

Coddled affluent professional on X - "The degree to which progressives have become interested in the sexual behavior and awareness of children and adolescents is very weird. They’ll hand wave and claim they have authority and expertise but they’re never quite able to articulate what it is they’re actually doing."

John Rain on X - ""Conservatives consistently showed more empathy toward people on the left than people on the left showed toward conservatives." That's the result of a new study from 2023. The Right loses because it's too nice to a Left that hates it."
Empathic Conservatives and Moralizing Liberals: Political Intergroup Empathy Varies by Political Ideology and Is Explained by Moral Judgment - "Empathy has the potential to bridge political divides. Here, we examine barriers to cross-party empathy and explore when and why these differ for liberals and conservatives. In four studies, U.S. and U.K. participants (total N = 4,737) read hypothetical scenarios and extended less empathy to suffering political opponents than allies or neutral targets. These effects were strongly shown by liberals but were weaker among conservatives, such that conservatives consistently showed more empathy to liberals than liberals showed to conservatives. This asymmetry was partly explained by liberals’ harsher moral judgments of outgroup members (Studies 1–4) and the fact that liberals saw conservatives as more harmful than conservatives saw liberals (Studies 3 and 4). The asymmetry persisted across changes in the U.S. government and was not explained by perceptions of political power (Studies 3 and 4). Implications and future directions are discussed."
Liberals see conservatives as evil. This provides empirical support for someone's (I forget who) observation that if you disagree with the right, you are seen as wrong, but if you disagree with the left, you are seen as evil
Weird. We keep being told that being woke and left wing is about "empathy"
Keywords: left wingers see right wingers as evil, left wingers have less empathy

Brianna Wu on X - "If you want to save the progressive movement:
✅ Jettison the toxic identity oppression hierarchy and refocus on mutual respect
✅ Reject the communist freaks and antisemites. They are a cancer and are killing us
✅ Focus on working class people
✅ Stop hating America"

Links - 20th August 2024 (2 - Hamas Attack Oct 2023)

sonofabench on X - "Montreal is being overtaken by the Palestine movement. A Canadian war memorial is being draped in a foreign flag. We have seen that police will not do anything in the Quebec City. But I do ask, is this a desecration of a Canadian Monument?"
Of course, the Freedom Convoy supposedly desecrating the Terry Fox statue (somehow, given that it was with a Canadian flag) meant it was beyond the pale. Because the left didn't support their protest

Netanyahu case will make or break the ICC - "The Israelis complain that the experts Khan relied on in making his decision to pursue warrants have expertise in human rights law but have little background on the laws of conflict. Also, they believe Khan is breaking a key principle governing the court’s jurisdiction. “The Court can only have jurisdiction when local courts are unable or unwilling to act,” says the Israeli ambassador to the EU Haim Regev. “Hamas, it is clear, has no intention of investigating its own atrocities. To the contrary, it sees every civilian casualty — Palestinian as well as Israeli — as a perverse success. Israel, on the other hand, has a rigorous legal system that has proven itself willing and able to investigate and prosecute violations of international law,” he told POLITICO. Regev added, “In fact, Israel’s commitment to maintaining the rule of law was praised by the Prosecutor himself when he visited Israel after the October massacre. He noted that ‘Israel has trained lawyers who advise commanders and a robust system intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.’”... The response from Hamas and its supporters was no less furious. “Hamas strongly denounces the attempts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders,” the group said in a statement... As soon as O’Connell heard the prosecutor had acted and was pursuing arrest warrants, she said her heart sank because of the predictable impact. “What did Khan think was going to happen? We don’t see wars ending because of indictments. We see fighters doubling down because the ICC has done away with any possibility of amnesty,” she said. “I think we can forget about cease-fires now — that’s what I thought as soon as I heard … I thought that’s the end of any restraint on Rafah.”"

Pro-Palestinian protesters block entrances to Foreign Office in London - "Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have blocked entrances to the Foreign Office in London in protest at the perceived failure of the new Labour government to do more to change UK policy towards Israel’s offensive in Gaza. As many as 300 people sealed off access to the Foreign Office on Wednesday morning with a large banner saying “Genocide Made in Britain”."
Clearly, throwing smoke grenades is just peaceful protest. Of course, if you block the entrance to an abortion clinic, you need to be locked away forever

Experts analyze world silence on Russia’s hospital bombing in Ukraine vs. outrage over Gaza - "Throughout the past 10 months of war between Israel and Gaza, 10.7 million posts have been made on Instagram with the hashtag #FreePalestine. In comparison, only 1.9 million posts were made with the hashtag #StandWithUkraine during the two years of war in Ukraine... Kovzhun also accused Russia of funding and training Hamas members and funding pro-Palestinian protests. “When we see such a coordinated chorus, flags of the same size, and professionally printed posters, we understand that this is a simulation of an organic, natural protest. And I am deeply convinced that behind these European, American, and ostensibly pro-Palestinian demonstrations are Russian funds,” he said. According to political scientist Leonid Goldenberg, the different narratives regarding Gaza and Ukraine can be traced back to the Cold War. Leftists understand Ukraine and Israel both to be “proxies of American hegemony,” he told The Media Line. The Russian narrative paints the West as hypocritical for allowing Israel to bomb Gaza but sanctioning Russia for merely “saving its own people,” he said, noting that discourse of this sort “fits well into the left’s anticolonial agenda.”... Kovzhun also criticized the UN for its decision to meet with the Taliban even after Taliban representatives demanded that no Afghan women be allowed to participate in the meeting. Goldenberg said that some UN organizations have been implicated in financing terrorism and that the organization is often biased in its assessment of humanitarian crises."

Clear majority of Canadians agree with removal of anti-Israel encampments, poll finds - "some 70 per cent of Canadians surveyed agreed officials were right to have police and private security dismantle two encampments in Montreal, one at McGill University, the other in downtown Victoria Square... At one point, flyers promoting a “revolutionary summer program” were published online featuring photos of keffiyeh-clad Palestinian fighters brandishing machine guns... the protesters had the support of just 19 per cent of Canadians , earlier Leger polling found... Among students who expressed an opinion on the matter, twice as many favoured removal of the encampments: 40 per cent agreed police were correct to take down the encampments, versus 18 per cent who disagreed. A “considerable” 42 per cent of students in the survey said they didn’t know or preferred not to answer, Jedwab said in an email, “potentially suggesting a high degree of stigma associated with taking a position on either side of this.” But the degree of opposition to the encampments, with just 13 per cent of Canadians of all ages polled disapproving of their removal, suggests the protesters were increasingly perceived as being disruptive, not only to student life but to the broader community, Jedwab said. “For many, they had already made their point, and/or they were not going to achieve their objective, however it was understood — which was also unclear to many Canadians.” The protesters’ goals and objectives “are being seen as increasingly unclear,” he said. McGill’s president and vice chancellor, Deep Saini, called the encampment a “heavily fortified focal point for intimidation and violence,” organized largely by outsiders who used tactics designed to “threaten, coerce and scare people.”... nearly half (48 per cent) of 18- to 34-year-olds also strongly or somewhat agreed with the removal of the encampments at McGill, while 24 per cent somewhat or strongly disagreed. Twenty-seven per cent of that age group said they didn’t know or preferred not to answer."
Terrorism supporters continue to pretend most people support them and their attempt to disrupt society

Canadian knife attack in Israel called 'wake-up call' over problem of homegrown extremism - "The terrorist attack by a Canadian man attempting to stab guards outside of a town in southern Israel is being called a “wake-up call” over growing antisemitic extremism in Canada, and a warning sign of what happens when it is left unchecked. Israeli troops shot the man dead before he could cause any injuries. Israeli media reports published Monday, as well as photos of the dead man’s passport, identified the attacker as Zachareah Adam Quraishi, a Canadian citizen who Israeli media is reporting arrived in the country on Sunday on a tourist visa. Reports suggest the attacker shouted “free Palestine” as he ran towards security personnel at Netiv Ha’asara with a kitchen knife... Canada became a hot spot of antisemitic incidents following the October 7 attacks, with anti-Israel protesters regularly holding demonstrations and rallies in Jewish neighbourhoods around Toronto. Synagogues were vandalized, Jewish businesses have been attacked, and gunshots were fired at Jewish schools. Anti-Israel protests also took root at university campuses across Canada, with hateful and antisemitic messages a common feature at many encampments... Canadian-born Knesset member Sharren Haskel said the news that a Canadian citizen conducted a terror attack in Israel shouldn’t be surprising. “The spread of radical Islam and extremist ideologies in Canada has created major cultural challenges for the country, including a plague of antisemitism that has spread, making it unsafe for Jews and Canadians to live their day-to-day lives without the fear of being attacked verbally and physically,” she told the National Post. “With the lack of law enforcement and a turning a blind eye to the rise of hatred and violence by radical Muslims, Canada has become a hotbed for terrorists who are operating within and outside of Canada.” David Cooper, vice president of government relations for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said Monday’s attack is an example of what happens when governments and officials let hate run unchecked. “While we are relieved that no innocent lives were lost in this attack, we are deeply shocked that a Canadian citizen would travel to Israel and retraumatize the Netiv Ha’asara community already devastated by the 20 lives stolen in Hamas’ murderous rampage on October 7,” he said. “This incident highlights the potential consequences of pervasive misinformation and disinformation surrounding Israel’s conflict with Hamas — where Israel is demonized and held solely responsible, and where Hamas has been absolved of responsibility for the impact on Palestinian civilians of the war they started.” Cooper said CIJA had consistently expressed concerns over the escalating violence and rhetoric commonplace at anti-Israel protests in Canada. “When demonstrations glorify terrorists as martyrs and call for global intifada without condemnation from our political leaders, it sets the stage for tragedies like today’s attack in the Israeli town of Netiv Ha’asara.” Casey Babb, senior fellow with the Macdonald Laurier Institute and adviser to the anti-terrorism group, Secure Canada, drew parallels between this incident and the scores of Canadians who fled to join ISIS. “Canada has a history of having foreign fighters — Canadian citizens go off to distant lands in the Middle East and commit egregious acts of violence,” he told the National Post. “We were a country that garnered, and rightfully so, international attention during allied operations to counter ISIS, because of how many Canadians have gone off to join the caliphate.” Babb said this almost certainly won’t be the last time something like this happens. “You have people calling for the erasure of the only Jewish state standing in front of crowds of thousands calling for the death of Zionists — which is just a code word for Jews, you have decapitated mannequin heads of Bibi Netanyahu being kicked around like soccer balls in Toronto, you have synagogues being burned, you have Jewish day schools being shot at,” he said. “When the overwhelming majority of this goes on without any repercussions, you allow these ideas to take root and become normalized.”"
More Zionist violence! How can they react to pro-Palestinian speech by killing him?!
Violent rhetoric is only problematic when it doesn't push the left wing agenda

Rahim Mohamed: Israel’s successful Rafah offensive proves Trudeau wrong - "Israel’s rapid progress in dismantling Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in Gaza exposes the counterproductive role played by Justin Trudeau and do-gooders of his ilk, who needlessly stonewalled the Rafah operation earlier this year. Israel has made vital strategic gains since breaching the city in early May, pivotally snuffing out Hamas’s smuggling operations along the Philadelphia corridor between Gaza and Egypt. The Israel Defense Forces has also rooted out multiple high-value targets in and around Rafah, recently carrying out a strike that likely killed October 7 mastermind Mohammed Deif. The sustained Israeli pressure in Rafah has reportedly driven a wedge between Hamas’s exhausted military arm and the organization’s top political officials, who have been watching the fighting from their luxury hotels in Qatar over the past nine months. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a demoralized Hamas is close to acquiescing to a new ceasefire and hostage deal... What’s more, the shifting of the conflict’s focus to Rafah has coincided with a sharp decline in the proportion of women and children killed in the fighting — a finding borne out in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Authority’s own data. This welcome trend flies in the face of the Western hand-wringing over Israel’s plans to enter the Hamas stronghold... Trudeau and other alarmists were made to eat their words when Israel safely evacuated almost a million Palestinians from Rafah within days of initiating ground operations on May 6. The ground invasion of Rafah has likely saved Palestinian lives by allowing the IDF to target remnants of Hamas in a more focused, precise manner, relying less on aerial bombing raids."

Palestine protesters block highway on-ramp traffic in Toronto : r/Canada_sub

[Toronto, Canada] little girls soccer game disrupted by hateful people with Nazi symbols and Palestinian flags : r/JewHateExposed

Inside the ‘shocking’ police operation targeting pro-Palestine activists in Toronto
Those approved by the left wing should be free to destroy society and if you uphold the law, you're a "fascist"
I like how when minorities are on the side left wingers disapprove of, they are tokens, right wing mouthpieces, Uncle Toms etc but when Jews support pro-Palestinian terrorism that means it can't ever be motivated by anti-Semitism

Andrew Fox on X - "Hands up. Even I, the arch sceptic of Hamas fatality claims, may have been overestimating the number of civilian casualties in Gaza.  We know the figures Hamas push out don’t include their own fighters. As of yesterday, Israeli Defence Minister Gallant claim 60% of Hamas’ fighting forces have been killed.   Does that stand up to scrutiny? I think so.  Hamas themselves admitted (to Reuters)to losing 6,000 fighters as of February 2023. At the same time, the IDF were claiming 15,000. Let us split the difference and say that Hamas lost 10,500 fighters in those first four months. If the fatality rate has remained steady across the period of operations since October 2023, now, in July 2024, that rate gives us 26,250 Hamas fighters killed.   We know Hamas had roughly 40,000 fighters at the start of the war. That’s 65%. But: the IDF has slowed the pace of operations slightly, with a long pause before Rafah, so 60% would make sense.  60% of Hamas fighters is 24,000.  As of 8th July, Hamas claim 38,193 deaths in Gaza.  That’s before we knock off the 10,000 totally unverified deaths they claim as part of that 38,193 figure.  It’s not difficult, but even if we’re supremely generous and leave the 10,000 on, once you remove 24,000 dead fighters, the approximately 4,500 natural deaths you would expect in a population of Gaza’s size in this time period, and civilian deaths caused by Hamas themselves…  Civilian fatalities are well, well below 10,000.   This blows any genocide nonsense completely out of the water. It kills stone dead any complaints about proportionality.  And, of course, it proves what I’ve been saying all along - the IDF are winning in Gaza, on every conceivable metric. It’s not even close."

Thread by @Aizenberg55 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🧵CNN piece that IDF is far from victory over Hamas is fake news that simply wishes this were true. CNN offers almost no evidence and relies on cherry-picked experts who have been claiming IDF failure since 10/7. Subtext: IDF has killed Gazans for nothing. Full analysis:
CNN starts out slowly: Hamas has rebuilt some fighting capabilities. Fine. Article even admits Hamas is now a “guerilla force.” But authors then speculate, cite other experts who push line that “victory” over Hamas is not in sight, then it becomes “power of Hamas is growing”! CNN’s analysis relies on Hamas “claims” — Really? Despite never admitting any combatant deaths? Hiding Deif & Issa deaths? Also open source data. CNN offers no info from IDF, citing just one unnamed “Israeli source close to military.” IDF officially rejected CNN's thesis. Scant detail CNN reveals is stunning. Definition of Hamas battalion that has “reconstituted,” the main reason why CNN claims Israel is not winning, is “rebuild some military capabilities at least once in the last six months.” ONE time in SIX months = reconstituted battalion! CNN claims only 3 of 24 Hamas battalions are “combat ineffective” but then strangely also says 13 of 24 can only “conduct sporadic largely unsuccessful guerilla-style attacks.” Huh? Sure seems these 13 are also “combat ineffective.” CNN admits IDF calls them "dismantled"! CNN enlisted experts who are long standing Israel defeatists who have been pushing “IDF cannot beat Hamas, they're stronger now” since first week of war. Missing are any contra experts that I cite below, proving CNN had an agenda, not real analysis. Here is the IDF response:
CNN cites Peter Mansoor who has been pushing the “Israel is losing” narrative since day one, of course he’s not going to change course now even with IDF achievements. Already on Oct 2023 he falsely claimed IDF was simply conducting war of “revenge” that would likely fail. In May 2024 Mansoor also claimed Israeli failure, that Israel should not have gone to war, it's only a political matter, Israel is ignoring “root causes” — but real root cause is Hamas’ aim to kill all Jews! Saying Israel only wants revenge undermines his entire view on Gaza. CNN also enlists Robert Pape who has pushed "Hamas is only getting stronger" line from the beginning. Kill them — stronger. Don't kill them — stronger. See how that works? Losing key military chiefs and only lifeline for arms (Egypt) somehow grows Hamas' power in Pape's eyes. Pape has not changed his thinking since day one and no doubt CNN knew he'd provide the quotes needed, that "power of Hamas is growing." @spencerguard demolished his views in discussion below:
Apparently Hamas “recruiting like crazy” points to Israeli defeat. Really? Handing untrained men a rifle while every day IDF is picking them off wherever they congregate is the Hamas rebuilding of forces? Somehow we're to believe that Hamas is actually growing its power? CNN could have brought in other experts with alternative opinions, like from @Mr_Andrew_Fox for a real analysis. They could have let others evaluate the new "data" CNN supposedly has. But CNN and its lead author (more on her below) have an anti-Israel agenda to push. Fox, of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, wrote about his recent visit to Gaza to study IDF action. He addressed this CNN article, explaining that the “IDF is losing” is part of a months long agenda, part of a “desperation” to portray Israel as losing, when it is not. Leading war expert @spencerguard has stated "Israel is, by every definition, winning in Gaza". He recently wrote in Newsweek how the demise of key Hamas leaders are “major milestones to Israel being able to achieve their immediate goals in Gaza.” Another military expert, former US general David Deputa was recently in Gaza and lauded IDF action and success in Gaza, such as in destroying tunnels. CNN notably does not describe ANY IDF successes in Gaza. We also find clues about the agenda driven narrative based on previous writings of lead author @tamaraqiblawi -- she loathes Israel & “Zionism” adding to the evidence that this CNN piece is mostly propaganda, a deliberate distortion of reality. Defeatists, apologists & haters say Israel can’t win because they don’t want Israel to win. Sure, IDF has lots more painful work to do given Hamas’ human shield & baby kidnapping strategy. Bravo Hamas. But to claim they are stronger today is inane, as shown in chart below. END"

Andrew Fox on X - "I’m very proud to have been the Rapporteur for this amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief to the International Criminal Court, against the application for arrest warrants for Netanyahu/Gallant.  If the current UK government won’t do it, let experts do it instead.   It rebuts accusations of deliberate starvation and killing in Gaza, and demonstrates why, from a military perspective, the ICC has not adhered to its own principle of complementarity.  It represents hours of late nights and very early mornings. Primary source evidence, verified in person.  If you want a comprehensive assessment of IDF targeting procedures, military legal mechanisms, humanitarian efforts and civilian protection… Here you go:"

New York Times: “U.N. Clears Half the Aid Workers Accused of Taking Part in the Oct. 7 Attack’ - "Other New York Times headlines include “Much of Pearl Harbor Not Bombed” and “Half of the Glass Was Filled with Water; Only 50% was Poison.”"

UN terminates 9 staffers from agency Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter fundraised for after revelations they participated in Oct. 7 atrocities - "The United Nations finally admitted that nine employees of its agency for Palestinian refugees “may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, an agency that Kamala Harris’ step-daughter raised money for even after the group’s links to terrorism were revealed...   Ella Emhoff, the daughter of Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman of the United States, encouraged her hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers to donate to UNRWA a month after the allegations were made against the agency, and two months after the Biden administration paused funding for UNRWA after seeing evidence of the staffers' involvement in the atrocities.  Harris’ stepdaughter yanked the post after her actions were published by the media. At the time, Harris was advocating that the Biden administration show more empathy toward Palestinians in Gaza. Emhoff had previously raised funds for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund which also has links to bad actors in Gaza."

Andrew Fox on X - "Some of us have been telling you for months that the pro-Palestine protests are driven by antisemitism. Now they’re protesting a musical featuring Jewish characters and Jewish actors. Listen to the language used. Now will you believe us?"

Hillel Fuld on X - "Open your eyes!!
- Israel: “UN workers took part in 10/7!”
The world: “Oh shut up already with that crap!”
The UN six months later: “Um, this is awkward. Yea, so about that…”
- Israel: “Stop lying about us and the made up casualty numbers in Gaza! We did not kill tens of thousands of innocent people!”
The world: “Oh shut up, you genocidal maniacs!”
The UN six months later: “Um, so yea, about that… Pardon us while we quietly reduce the number we previously reported…”
- Israel: “Hamas operates from within civilian infrastructure and uses human shields.”
The world: “Oh shut up already with those lies…”
The UN six months later: “So, there may have been some instances of Hamas using UNRWA schools to attack Israel.”
- Israel: “Hamas committed horrible crimes against humanity on 10/7 including violent sex crimes against innocent women and children.”
The world: “Yea, right. Show me evidence.”
The global press six months later: “So yea, there seems to be overwhelming evidence that Hamas did indeed commit those crimes.”
- Israel: Hamas steals foreign aid to build highly sophisticated terror tunnels instead of feeding the people of Gaza!”
The world: “Again with those tunnel conspiracies?”
The media six months later: “Ok, those are some serious tunnels!”
Israel doesn’t make stuff up. If Israel says it, nine and a half out of ten times, it’s 100% accurate. If Israel reports something that turns out to be anything but 100% accurate, it’ll be the first to admit and apologize.  When Israel says something, you can rest assured that it’s true.  Israel’s enemies, on the other hand. Want to know when they lie? When they open their mouths.  This tunnel to and from Egypt was discovered this week in Gaza. “Egypt didn’t know.” Yea, ok.  Also, I have a bridge to sell you if you’re in the market."

Liza Rosen on X - "Watch: Muslims in Britain say they support Hamas even after it broadcast all over social media the atrocities they committed against Jews in southern Israel on October 7.  Sadly, YouTube continues to censor the Jewish filmmaker Pierre Rehov over his new documentary "Pogrom(s)" which not only exposes the pogroms committed by Palestinian terrorists against Jews in Israel on October 7, but also provides accurate, fair and unbiased information about the historical background of the conflict in the Middle East.  On the other hand, Palestinian propagandists are allowed to use social media including YouTube to spread horrific propaganda videos of dead Hamas human shields to demonize Israel."

Thread by @Aizenberg55 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Australian military expert affirmed tragic death of 7 WCK aid workers was not deliberate, vindicating Israel. He assessed that unexpected gunmen were with convoy and looked like Hamas; but failures still led to mistaken attack. An important independent report, some detail:
The primary reason for the IDF misidentification error was the unexpected presence of armed persons, one of whom fired his weapon into the air on the trailer of the WCK truck, which was deemed “consistent with Hamas hijacking the aid convoy.” The official Australian report by Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin noted that later on several additional gunmen moved around the WCK escort vehicles. According to the Australian assessment, IDF brigade officials “classified” the gunmen “as Hamas.” A key reason for the identification of gunmen as Hamas is that the guards were not coordinated with IDF, and furthermore, the IDF would not have allowed armed guards anyhow. Report admits WCK could have inadvertently hired armed guards with links to Hamas. However there was a situational awareness breakdown and IDF controls failed, which IDF fully admits, which led to errors in decision making and misidentification of convoy as hostile. An interesting revelation: The Australian report noted that the IDF post-incident investigation system is similar to the Australian system. Fake NGOs @hrw @amnesty @btselem and others (falsely) claim that Israel’s post-incident investigations are a sham, do not really happen. The Australian report concluded that Israel’s acceptance of accountability, reporting and response has been “appropriate” and “sufficient” – again, contradicting fake NGO and some media claims that Israel never does these things properly. Report is important as it may be the first time an independent foreign military expert published a public report assessing IDF action. It's also perhaps the only time in history an army has allowed a foreign investigation like this. But Israel is always treated differently. END"

Meme - André Picard @picardonhealth: "Fredericton Pride festival cancelled, organizers cite harassment, safety concerns."
Jonathan Kay @jonkay: "The Fredericton Pride festival turned their event into a Palestinian activist jamboree, predictably pissing everyone off… Now they’re canceling the whole thing, and of course they’re complaining about how they’re victims of harassment and homophobia.
When you read the list of cancelled events at Fredericton Pride, you kind of wonder why they didn’t cancel the whole thing a while ago"
"This panel will explore the interconnected nature of queer liberation work andanti- fascist organizing and will consider how fascism intersects with other systems of..."
"Palestinian flags are welcome during the parade. Any harassment towards community members wearing keffiyehs, Palestinian flags or otherwise showing their support for Palestine will not be tolerated."
"Masks are strongly encouraged at this outdoor event but are not required."
"an hour-long panel on the ins and outs of polyamory. BIO: Leanne Yau is a British award- winning polyamory educator, sex-positive advocate, speaker, and queer therapist in training. After graduating with an Oxford law degree, she founded the social media project Poly Philia in 2020, where she"

Meme - Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby: "This is how the @NYT  reports on the 9 UN employees who have been fired due to their involvement in terrorism.   It is astounding that this is considered to be a legitimate source for news. The NYT has truly outdone itself to prove it’s a joke."
"U.N. Clears Half the Aid Workers Accused of Taking Part in the Oct. 7 Attack"
Terrorist supporter logic: since half were cleared, that shows Israel was lying that all of them took part in the attack

Food Review Flame

It's been a while since I posted one of these:

It's amazing what people get upset about. One restaurants review group I'm in has many people who get upset when less-than-flattering reviews of restaurants are posted. But this one takes the cake:

"This Gabriel dude is an expert on every cuisine known to man. He thinks he's a not dead version of Anthony Bourdain. Read his reviews. He hates everything. He's the type of guy who probably drinks warm urine rather than chilled."

Possible reasons I've come up with about why people (who do not have a vested interest by being affiliated with the restaurants) react so negatively to bad restaurant reviews:

They dont like their favourite places being criticised

They think negative reviews hurt "small businesses" (which are romanticised and fetishised)

They believe in "positivity"

Some people think (small) businesses are entitled to customers' business

An insight into the last point: My friend's ex was a chef. He said it was terrible and irresponsible to leave negative reviews because it hurt people's dreams. I asked how people would know which places were bad. He said you'd know if those places had no reviews.

Then again, I've also reviewed a fruit deal and gotten flamed for pointing out I didn't get the value I was supposed to get, so some people are just crazy and nasty.

Anyhow, what I've learnt from reading a lot of food reviews is that not just do many people have incredibly low standards for food (a lot of places people gush about turn out to be incredibly mediocre - sometimes even bad), but many have incredibly low standards for food reviews (not just do they leave incredibly vague reviews, sometimes it's even worse and there're no photos, or no photos from the start of the meal, and they claim it's because they were too hungry or it was too good so they didn't take photos).

Related:

On having any Criticisms at all of Restaurants

Keywords: Expert in every cuisine known to man, warm piss

Links - 20th August 2024 (1 - Trans Mania)

Thread by @babybeginner on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "So you know that dictionary company that is blocking anyone who says a woman is an adult female human?  Welllll…..this is how they now define female.  “Having a gender identify that is the opposite of male.”  Can they get any more ridiculous?
They have walked themselves into the most ridiculous corner. A female cat has a gender identity now? A female fish thinks about its stereotype identity? A female human is nothing more than a social construct? The more they try to own us all the more they look like petulant children with an unworkable language.  Every accusation is an admission. Remember that. Remember also that their claims that gender is not the same as human biology is just more word salad.  Democrats have a real problem on their hands. They have backed this nonsense and now they want votes. Votes from people who have had it with ALL of this. This toothpaste cannot get back in the tube.  They changed the definition of woman to mean adult female person but then changed the definition of female so THAT word means nothing.  Do not trust any dictionary that plays games like this."
If you don't trust the Neutral Dictionary, you are ignorant

Sall Grover on X - "I’ve been blocked by the dictionary for saying a woman is an adult human female. The dictionary."

Thread by @babybeginner on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Dictionary wars have just ramped up. Merriam Webster is throwing a fit that women came over to tell them that the word woman means adult female human.  Now they put out this smarmy message.  Democrats really don’t know how poorly this is all playing.
For those not caught up yet. This is where it started. They asked this question: "What's the word/grammar hill you are absolutely dying on?"
Hundreds of women and men came over to say something to this effect.  It just shows how much it means to people to have a word that means the adult female human. We should have a word for that, right? It’s a big category. Instead, this dictionary company started hiding the replies. Then they got so many they just started blocking members of the public. Then they deleted the entire thread and posted that snarky video instead."

Thread by @babybeginner on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Let’s examine how much of a joke Merriam Webster has become. Remember when a respectable dictionary wouldn’t dream of using a circular definition?  Well let’s look at these definitions. Female. “Having a gender identity the opposite of male.” So what is male? Why it’s having a gender identity that is the opposite of female, silly.  So the word male means having a gender identity which is the opposite of female which is the opposite of male which is the opposite of female ….  But wait. There is more.
A gender identity is a person’s internal sense of being male (which is the opposite of female which is the oppose of male which is the opposite of female…), female (which is the opposite of male which is the opposite of female…), or some combination or neither. Now they haven’t defined what neither male or female is defined as, and I think we can all thank our lucky stars for that. Because we are already on one never ending feedback loop and one is quite enough. A girl is defined as a person whose gender identity is female. (Which remember means a gender identity that is not male.) But they did change the definition of woman back to an adult female person so they can pretend that they aren’t pushing the gender nonsense. (Except they snuck it in with the definition of female now.) Sex and gender are different. Except when they aren’t. Because one means the other but neither means anything?  This is what gender ideology does to you. It makes you look utterly ridiculous.  But wait. There is one more. Under the definition of s*x they explain it means males and females. They further explain that there is a clear delineation between sex and gender.  Which they seem to have forgotten when they defined the terms male and female.
Imagine making yourself look like THIS bad.  The thing is. I don’t think they know how to think any more. They don’t know why a circular definition is bad. They don’t know they have contradicted themselves. Nor do they know what a female or male is. This ideology warps the ability to think. They must take such ridiculous stances that they paint themselves into a corner of garbled nonsense. Because none of it makes any sense. When you look closely, these gender ideology words mean nothing. Literally."
Weird. Does this mean there're only two gender identities?
Strange. I thought sex and gender were different and only ignorant people didn't know that

Thread by @wokal_distance on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Of all the stories I've heard of people hitting their "woke breaking point" @elonmusk's may be the most heartbreaking.  He was tricked into going along with trans ideology, and in doing so lost his son to woke ideology.  You can feel his pain as he speaks. I can't imagine what it is like for @elonmusk....the pain must be unbearable. I can't put myself in his shoes.  But I do want to give him some encouragement, to let him know that his purchasing of X and his social activism has been effective. So, here goes.... @elonmusk,  your purchase of @x gave a platform to @ChoooCole @onedonebun @thepeacepoet99 @LauraBeckerReal and other detransitioners to sound the alarm and to warn others about the horrors of the woke mind virus, and what childhood transition really does to a person... I would also like to say to @elonmusk that hope is not always lost.  There is an entire community of detransitionsers (you can spot them because they put the 🦎 emoji in their names and bio's) who were sucked into the trans cult and were able to find their way out... They have spread their message, ideas, content, and their stories on @X. They have been able to warn parents, advocate for laws, do activism, and warn about the dangers of childhood transition... The purchase of this platform has helped us spread the word, and served as a place where those of us who want to fight the Woke Mind Virus can get together.  It has no doubt helped many parents to get the information they need to protect their kids from the woke mind virus... And this means that you @elonmusk have helped many parents protect many kids from the horrible damage that comes from getting sucked into the Trans cult.  And I hope that encourages you.  I, speaking only for myself, am very grateful."

Collin Rugg on X - "JUST IN: Elon Musk says his son is "dead" thanks to the woke mind virus after he was put on puberty blockers, says he vowed to "destroy the woke mind virus after that."  🔥🔥  "I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys... This was before I had really any understanding of what was going on."  "There was a lot of confusion and you know, I was told, oh he might commit su*cide..."  "My son Xavier is dead, k*lled by the woke mind virus."  "I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that... and we are making some progress.""

Peachy Keenan on X - "Xavier Musk was transitioned at Crossroads, a famously super progressive private school in LA, and where most of the Hollywood elites, actors and agents, send their kids. Jack Black is an alum.  This is where Seraphina Affleck (now a transman named "Fin") and J.Lo's nonbinary daughter go.   Long before it was trendy, Crossroads was forcing kindergarteners to choose their own pronouns and announce them in class when they spoke. This place is super f*cked up. Epstein Island for the low low price of 70K/yr."

ripx4nutmeg on X - "The BBC has in the last three days published two features about how the cost of living crisis has affected six ordinary people. All six people are cross-dressing men"

Meme - Aoife Bee @Aoife_Bee_: "my cousin is getting married in months and i've decided im going, it's gonna be my debut as trans infront of my entire extended family so we've gotta plan rly hard to show up n make a statement"
Fonty @Fontybits1: "I hope no-one upstages you on your special day."
Meme - "Should anyone present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace."
"I'M TRANS!"
Clearly, there is neo link between trans identity and narcissism and that's a transphobic lie

I Love Wolf-Whistles and Catcalls – Am I a Bad Feminist? - "Last summer I went to Ibiza, where I was catcalled, sexually objectified and treated like a piece of meat by men the entire week. And it was absolutely awesome. It got to the point where I couldn't even be bothered to follow any of it up. Every time some hot guy got fresh with me, I just thought, 'Okay, I could fuck you, but there might be some even hotter stud serving it up later.' I guess it’s like when I used to live by the sea and never got round to going swimming. It was just always there, you know? You forget to get wet."
Totally not a fetish. But it does make some good points
"the letters in “TRANSGENDERISM” can be rearranged to spell “MR. GENT-IN-A-DRESS.”"

Meme - Transman Scott Newgent @NotScottNewgent: "This is the most swollen my hand has ever been. I'm trying to finish my memoir by 8-17, and it's killing me.  This is transgender, gender-affirming health care; this is truth.   This hurts too F@$&ING bad! http://ScottNewgent.com"

REDUXX on X - "GERMANY: Trans activists shut down a lesbian pride march in Berlin on Friday after the lesbians involved were "exposed" for not being sexually attracted to males who "identify as women." The activists destroyed some of the women's signage and issued threats towards them."

Meme - NPC: "Women make $0.75 for every $1 a man makes because of the wage gap!"
Normal person: "What is a women?"
NPC: "Any one who identifies as one!"
Normal person: "So stop identifying as a woman and you'll get paid more..."
NPC: *processing*
NPC: *upset*

Meme - "Most people are satisfied with life after transition. More than 9 in 10 respondents were at least a little more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
Source: 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey Early Insights Report
*classic World War II bomber survivorship bias diagram*"
Not to mention sampling bias

Meme - "This just in: Progs admit that their average male could get beat up by Ellen page."
em @cloudyseance: "elliot page could beat all of us up and im thrilled about it"

Meme - "r/MtF
How can you cope with not being able to get pregnant?
Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing well. I ama trans girl of 5 years and have been on hormone therapy for almost 3 years. In all transparency, estrogen has made me feel very horny lately and my body is currently screaming at me to make babies. As the title suggests, not having a uterus and not having the capacity to procreate is something that pains me a lot. I am currently waiting on approval for srs, but I already know that even after getting the surgery (hopefully), my inability to get pregnant is always something that I'm gonna be sad about, so I wanted to ask you guys about any tips on coping with this kind of pain, since I am very unsure on what to do about it. Thanks in advance, and sorry for yet another nsfw post."
Totally not a fetish

Meme - Robin: "YOU DON'T KNOW ADVANCED BIOLOG-"
Batman slapping him: "YOUR 'ADVANCED BIOLOGY' APPLIES TO SNAILS, LIZARDS, AND FISH!"

Meme - McKaylaRose @McKaylaRoseRed: "The common Christian argument about gay marriage was that it would open the Pandora's box and they would force their lifestyle unto others. 9 years later, after it was legalization, with rainbow flags everywhere, drag shows for all and the transing of kids, the Christians were proven right."

Meme - Soyjak: "Sex and gender are two different things. Gender is a made up construct"
Normal person: "when people have sex reassignment surgeries to present as a different sex, you call it 'gender affirming care'. How does changing your body to look male or female affirm your gender if it's just a made up construct?"

Meme - DramaAlert: ""He's deluded and disturbed and its 100% a fetish." KRIS TYSON'S ALLEGED SISTER SPEAKS OUT!"
STW @stwest3: "Im his sibling. He, and yes I use the correct pronoun, told me that he got fully aroused when he secretly stole my female clothes and put them on. He's deluded and disturbed and it's 100% a fetish. He's narcissistic and professionals have told him he needs a full psych eval"

Mooskina on X - "I was sexually assaulted by Ava Tyson and here is my story: For Context Ava and I are both adults and met each other as adults Ava followed me on Twitter in November of 2022 after seeing my transition timelines on Twitter when I had under 500 followers.🧵"

Toxichoodboys on X - "When i was young i was expecting flying cars in 2023 … Not 72 genders."

Dad wins full custody of son, 4, after child's mother allegedly tried to raise him non-binary - "A California father said he’s been granted full custody of his 4-year-old son following a protracted legal battle with the boy’s mother — who allegedly forced the child to wear dresses and glitter because she wanted to raise him as non-binary.  Harrison Tinsley told “The Daily Signal Podcast” that he prevailed in the years-long court battle to win full physical custody of Sawyer, which the dad likened to “watching a miracle.”...   Tinsley alleged that Sawyer’s mother — who he said identifies as a lesbian and non-binary herself — tried to push her gender ideology onto the child from the time he was a baby. This included a cruel campaign of gaslighting like referring to Sawyer with they/them pronouns over his protestations, and forcing him to wear girls’ diapers, dresses and makeup, the dad claimed.   On a GiveSendGo page raising funds for his legal fight, Tinsley told of his initial joy at learning his then-girlfriend was pregnant in 2019.  “Unfortunately that excitement turned to pain when his mother, who suffers from serious underlying mental health problems, abruptly ended our relationship and prevented me from seeing Sawyer,” he wrote.  After fighting an uphill battle in California’s progressive court system for a year, he was finally able to meet his son for the first time when Sawyer was 15 months old.  But Sawyer’s mother’s gender obsession only grew, and the boy remained subject to all manner of manipulative tactics, the dad alleged...   After learning Sawyer’s mother had been arrested for felony child endangerment, Tinsley filed for full custody in San Francisco Superior Court last year, claiming that she had “slandered and defamed” him for years. The details of that arrest and incident are unclear.  The dad said he presented the court with mountains of evidence — including eight hours of police bodycam footage and over 800 pages of supporting documents — but the court sided with Sawyer’s mother, he said. Tinsley appealed the decision last December, and claims that Child Protective Services in San Francisco became involved following an alleged “incident,” about which he declined to further elaborate.  CPS investigated and recommended Tinsley be granted full custody of the boy, and that the mother be subject to regular drug and alcohol testing, he claimed... “His mom tried to paint me as some right-wing hillbilly from Mississippi or something even though I had nothing to do with the investigation,” he told the outlet.  “And that shouldn’t matter anyway, of course, but in reality I’m just some California dude with long hair and skinny jeans, so that’s ridiculous to make that up about me.”"
Weird. I thought this never happened

Facebook - "Actress, Megan Fox has 3 young sons who are all transgender or nonbinary. Charlize Theron adopted a son who is also transgender. Do you think this is coincidence or were these children influenced? #DLQ"

Meme - Licensed Memes: The Banterbury Tales: "> stage name
> used for literal larping and kayfabe
> "it's literally the same as the thing we promote"
What did they mean by this?"
The Other 98%: "Weird... They referred to him by his chosen name, and not his birth name. I wonder if there are other instances where such practices could be applicable."
"RETIRED WRESTLER HULK HOGAN"

Meme - *Wolverine Remember Meme*
*Elliot Page stroking photo of Ellen Page*

Meme - emo hag @glitterwitchx: "after years spent finding the perfect artist, scheduling session after session, and spending thousands of dollars my Harry Potter sleeve is finally completely blacked out. fuck @jk_rowling and every transphobe and TERF an the planet."
Gene Parmesan @dsonoiki: "wait so in your youth you made a permanent change to your body that you grew to regret???"
emo hag @glitterwitchx: "yes it's amazing how right my dad was about this whole thing"
Lol. No wonder she deleted her account

Meme - "You see, my preferred pronouns are "she/her!""
"Wonderful. My preferred verb is "leave!""

Benjamin Ryan on X - "Erica Anderson holds a unique position in the transgender care field. She is herself a trans woman and was a once leader in the ranks of WPATH, the leading trans medical-activist group. But she has become one of the organization’s most prominent critics for its approach to kids."
Damn internalised transphobia!

'Damning' Info About Trans Activist Group WPATH Causes Stir - "a federal court began unsealing an abundance of subpoenaed internal communications among top members of the group, known as Wpath.  The documents concern Wpath’s recent revision of the chapters in its trans-medical-care guidelines concerning pediatrics, or medical care for children and teens. At stake is the credibility of these widely observed protocols for treating gender-related distress in minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-trait modification surgeries.  The unsealed documents indicate Wpath leadership caved to political pressure from outside groups and quietly crafted its pediatric guidelines with the intent of influencing public policy. Wpath leadership also balked at the potential publication of research findings the organization had commissioned that its leadership believed might negatively impact access to gender-transition treatment.   Wpath’s once-secret maneuverings, now laid bare, have only just begun to backfire... Erica Anderson, a psychologist, transgender woman, and former head of Wpath’s American branch, characterized the recent disclosures as “damaging” to the organization. “The backroom discussions cement the picture of ideological and political capture,” she told the Sun of how she saw her former colleagues as woefully compromised. She said their exposed communications “hardly” portrayed them as “scientists using evidence to develop best practices.” Many Wpath leaders, she added, “clearly have lost their way.”  “I’m already hearing from litigants in many matters who will use this damning information in malpractice and other cases,” Dr. Anderson said, which is keeping with what several attorneys told the Sun.  “It will be a field day.”...   Dr. Cantor’s scathing report disclosed that beginning in the spring of 2022, Admiral Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, pressured Wpath to remove age restrictions on pediatric gender-transition treatment. Dr. Levine, a pediatrician and psychiatrist, particularly emphasized surgeries. At least part of Dr. Levine’s motivation was explicitly political. According to an internal Wpath email, Dr. Levine’s chief of staff, Sarah Boetang, told Wpath that keeping the age restrictions in the treatment guidelines “will result in devastating legislation for trans care.”... The same age limits from the draft of Wpath’s guidelines were in the final document when it was published on September 15, 2022. Then the organization stunned — and baffled — stakeholders by dropping all age restrictions in a revision issued later the same day.  So what happened? In the wake of Dr. Levine’s pressure campaign, the American Academy of Pediatrics had threatened to withhold support for Wpath’s new treatment guidelines, and even come out against them, if the organization didn’t remove the recommended age minimums for surgery. Following a September 10, 2022, call with AAP leadership, Wpath agreed to this demand. The week prior, a policy advocate at the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ-youth suicide-prevention nonprofit, had also urged Wpath to strike the age minimums. Among the Trevor Project’s board members is Dr. Marci Bowers, a transgender woman who is Wpath’s current president and a gender-affirming surgeon who stated in a deposition in the Alabama case that her recent annual surgical income exceeded $1 million.   According to Dr. Cantor’s report, Wpath leaders devised a cover story rationalizing why they had made the sudden change in the guidelines without engaging in their standard scientific process of seeking internal consensus... William F. Jung, a Trump appointee, pointed to Dr. Levine’s pressure campaign and asserted that “at times the HHS position about ‘gender affirming care’ seems to be political.”  According to unsealed internal communications, Wpath also wielded a heavy hand after it in 2018 commissioned from evidence-based medicine experts at Johns Hopkins University a series of systematic literature reviews—the gold standard of scientific evidence—regarding various facets of trans medical care. After some of the Hopkins teams’ findings raised concerns among Wpath leadership that they might “negatively affect the provision of transgender health care,” Wpath compromised the independence of the Hopkins researchers. This included asserting the final say-so on the publication of any systematic reviews. To date, just two reviews have been published. Meanwhile, one Wpath leader acknowledged to colleagues that “we are painfully aware of the gaps in the literature and the kinds of research that are needed to support our recommendations.” Yet in the wake of a British report, called the Cass Review and published in April, finding that the justification for pediatric gender medicine is based on “remarkably weak evidence,” Wpath in public vehemently refuted such a characterization of the evidence base.   The Cantor report further found that Wpath leaders crafted the language of its medical guidelines for the express purpose of influencing insurance coverage, policy and litigation – which according to Dr. Cantor, in at least some points came “even at the expense of scientific accuracy.” He also found that Wpath coordinated on the draft with the ACLU, which is behind many of the suits against state bans of such treatment...   Psychologist Erica Anderson, who positioned herself as WPATH’s Cassandra some years ago, having sought to warn her colleagues that they were steering the organization in a perilous direction, reflected over what it has meant to have, as she sees it, been proved right.  “Many who know of my historic efforts to stem the tide of ideology have proclaimed that I should feel vindicated, but I cannot be consoled,” Dr. Anderson said.   “I am heartsick.”"
If you don't Trust The Science, you're an Ignorant Bigot

Thread by @benryanwriter on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "NEW STUDY: Trans identification has surged in young adults, driven by natal females; increase is greater in whites. From 2014-2022, trans identification:
▶️Nearly quintupled in 18-24 year olds
▶️Quadrupled in 25-34 y/os
▶️Stayed flat or declined in those age 35+
▶️By 2022, 2.78% of 18-24 year-old adults identified as trans, up from 0.59% in 2014.
▶️The increase was driven by those identifying as trans men or gender non-conforming; identification as a trans woman did not change significantly among young adults and declined significantly among all adults.
▶️The increase in identifying as trans was larger among White individuals than among Black or Hispanic individuals.
The study is based on nationally representative data. In a new essay posted on the Yale Law website, researchers in the pediatric gender medicine space such as @Jack_Turban lambasted the Cass Review for saying that trans identification has "increased exponentially." But this new study finds what looks like exponential growth when trans identification is broken down by birth year... The findings in the new study are likely to be fairly accurate, since they are based on nationally representative data and an enormous data set...
This study raises questions:
▶️Why has trans identification surged in young adults but not in middle-aged or older adults?
▶️Why has trans identification surged in natal females but not in natal males?
▶️Why has trans identification risen more in whites?"
Increases in Self-identifying as Transgender Among US Adults, 2014–2022