Reducing personal consumption is not a new idea. But here's a new framing, borrowing from pandemic precautions: climate lockdown. Read the essay by Marjan Krebelj on Medium: "A Case for an Immediate Climate Lockdown" (July 22, 2022). Another: "The Storm Is Coming and We’re Headed Right Into it" (July 25, 2022).
It was @KnowYrEnemyPod's recent series on "How They Did it" that tipped me off, citing @rickperlstein's Reaganland. If you haven't listened to the podcasts and read the book, I recommend them both.
— david i. backer (@schooldaves) July 27, 2022
The context is the formation of the 'new right'. 1/xhttps://t.co/qUxC6l1rjU pic.twitter.com/OoUOVAHBGI
They cite an essay "The Real Origins of the Religious Right" tracing its origins to a lawsuit filed in 1969 about the tax exempt status of whites-only 'Christian' schools opened to push back against desegregation. 2/x https://t.co/koB0AHMnoS
— david i. backer (@schooldaves) July 27, 2022
Immediately following 1969 desegregation law in Holmes County, some white parents started white-only private schools. They were 501(c)(3) non-profits that didn't have to pay taxes, and donors didn't have to pay income tax on money they donated to these schools. Green v. Kennedy (1970) ruled against these private schools and Nixon changed the IRS code too. Evangelicals like Jerry Falwell were unhappy with the ruling.
Up to this point in USAmerican history, white evangelicals hadn't been a voting bloc, and conservative political organizers realized that this could be a turning point to seize the evangelical vote. But they didn't want to take up the explicitly racist cause of segregation academies, which is what the white evangelicals really cared about in the moment. Instead, they wanted to channel evangelical outrage toward another cause.
That's where abortion comes in. Balmer writes in another longer essay that abortion was the issue evangelicals could fight against as a sort of proxy or trojan horse to win back the loss of their white world. 11/x https://t.co/OuwYDN8MnB pic.twitter.com/NUVPeTI4h1
— david i. backer (@schooldaves) July 27, 2022
I lay it all out here with more detail. And if you want readable socialist analysis of education with a focus on finance, sign up for the newsletter! https://t.co/b4HlecX93r
— david i. backer (@schooldaves) July 27, 2022
Similarly, see also this July 25, 2022 article from FiveThirtyEight: "How The Fight To Ban Abortion Is Rooted In The ‘Great Replacement’ Theory." It says:
"The movement to end legal abortion has a long, racist history... Throughout colonial America and into the 19th century, abortions were fairly common with the help of a midwife or other women and could be obtained until the point that you could feel movement inside... But the dynamics surrounding the procedure changed by the mid-19th century... Laws limiting abortion, it was believed, would ultimately force middle- and upper-class white women — who had the most access to detect and terminate unwanted pregnancies — to bear more white children. ... Declining white birth rates, along with the rising eugenics movement — a now-discredited pseudoscience focused on the genetic fitness of white Americans — were connected to the practice of abortion, and this helped bolster flawed, racist arguments for a total ban of the procedure. ... Their tactics worked. By the 1900s, abortion was illegal in every U.S. state. ... while the [1973] decision in Roe overturned the nation’s remaining abortion bans, it didn’t address the underlying forces that had helped establish them, which brings us to today, as the anti-abortion movement is once again front and center following the court’s decision to overturn Roe."
Jonathan Poletti wrote this for Medium about Charles Stanley:
"The Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism noted that 'as late as the 1970s he had guards stationed outside the church to keep African-Americans out.'
Charles Stanley was an architect of the 'Religious Right.'
He was a founding member of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition. He worked to get Ronald Reagan elected.
I realized: Charles Stanley was not a pastor, really, so much as a political activist with a vision of a white supremacist Christian nation.
* * *
And so ‘Evangelicals’ were born.
It was a movement that surprised Billy Graham himself. But from then on, Charles Stanley was at the wheel."
Christianity Today Editor Rips Republicans For Lacking 'Moral Vision' In Abortion Stances: Russell Moore, who calls himself “pro-life and anti-Trump,” took aim at conservatives who let "declining poll numbers" impact their messaging. Ben Blanchet, HuffPost, Apr 13, 2024
See also: "American history to explain ‘How did we get here?’" (7-minute read) and "The Butter-Pie Effect" (9-minute read). Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.
Today I learned that there is a Shinigami Eyes extension available on GitHub to indicate which internet material is trans-friendly and which is trans-antagonistic.
I hope that's useful. Carry on...
Christopher F. Rufo will be publishing anti-transgender propaganda beginning today and continuing for the next six weeks, concluding his messaging in mid-August just before U.S. kids return to school.
I later wrote more: "'Radical Gender Theory' is Itself a Social Construct". It's a 5-minute read on Medium.
I've showed you their stuff already. This is about to be the driving story across news cycles, and they will get it plenty wrong. pic.twitter.com/3BpRcPhMdl
— Buttered Jorts (fka kelly jensen) 🐱🐰 (@veronikellymars) July 19, 2022
For context:
A history of “wokeness”: Stay woke: How a Black activist watchword got co-opted in the culture war.
Aja Romano. Vox. October 9, 2020.
Also:
These people do not remotely care about facts. All they care about is building political power on the backs of some of the most vulnerable people in this country. And they have so little fear of accountability that they’re willing to admit it in plain sight. Irredeemable. pic.twitter.com/wQOoQ4v5io
— Ari Drennen 🏹 (@AriDrennen) June 17, 2022
On July 28 Jennifer Bilek will be presenting her latest conspiracies about Big Pharma & trans people at the Hillsdale College in DC. It's being promoted by the director of the DeVos Center at Heritage Foundation, which receives $250,000 a year from her host AWC Family Foundation. pic.twitter.com/xHaktjc5mZ
— “Bespoke” Lee (@thatweirdolee) July 25, 2022
Related to that reference to Big Pharma:
Iker Seisdedos, interviewing Judith Butler in November 2024, states: "One of the main criticisms of gender ideology is that the pharmaceutical industry has interests in it..." Butler (at least in what El Pais published) doesn't argue over this use of the term "gender ideology," but instead challenges the claim on two points. First, Butler points out the hypocrisy of the claim by observing that "Pharma has interests in hormone replacement, but my understanding is that hormone replacement therapy for women who are postmenopausal is a much bigger industry. Of course, Big Pharma is an issue for many health issues, including depression..." Second, Butler accomplishes a redirect, saying that Big Pharma's profits are "not the main reason why kids are questioning gender norms, including the version of masculinity that Trump represents." In other words, even if Big Pharma were profiting off trans kids even more than it profits off myriad other people in various situations, this wouldn't entail that it succeeds in motivating kids to want its product for reasons apart from the kids' own desires.
Judith Butler, philosopher: ‘If you sacrifice a minority like trans people, you are operating within a fascist logic’, Iker Seisdedos, El Pais, December 14, 2024
The English are the ones with a "gender ideology" so-called, one they've forced on countless millions through both internal government oppression and the bloody, baby-snatching nightmare of colonialism. They're less a culture than a single giant knot of sublimated self-loathing.
— Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable) April 4, 2023
July 12, 2023: Chris Rufo made a 12-minute video about a "transgender empire":
https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1679143593238462464
I'm not making it a clickable link because he doesn't need the SEO.
Don Moynihan on Bluesky, April 15, 2024: "Rufo is posting dozens of tweets of the NPR CEO, the NYT makes it a story, and Rufo claims victory. They are not falling for his game, they are co-producing it."
Kevin M. Kruse on Bluesky, April 16, 2024: "There's no rational reason for the New York Times to have turned all its editorial decisions over to a right-wing partisan who has been transparent about his bad faith motives. Therefore, I think it's only fair to assume that Chris Rufo has been blackmailing A.G. Sulzberger."
New piece: America’s Elites Fear the Ghost of 1968 Mainstream elites are adopting a reactionary tale about the “leftist” indoctrination of America’s youth that verges on the conspiratorial and is destined to give the Right a major boost. Some key points: 🧵1/
— Thomas Zimmer (@thomaszimmer.bsky.social) May 4, 2024 at 7:04 AM
[image or embed]
The story George Packer presents in The Atlantic is very much in line with what Christopher Rufo has been propagating. A straight line of evil ideas from the “cultural Marxism” of Critical Theory (Marcuse!) to the protests of 2020 – in Packer’s telling: to Columbia 2024. 8/
— Thomas Zimmer (@thomaszimmer.bsky.social) May 4, 2024 at 7:14 AM
Bryn Nelson gives this history:
"Far-right activist Christopher Rufo, who once worked for the anti-evolution Discovery Institute, has repeatedly trotted out the disingenuous narrative that educators should teach diverse viewpoints in the supposed interest 'of reasoning toward truth,' while recommending a newsletter that promotes scientific racism and eugenics. Simultaneously, he has led a crusade against academic fields and ideas he opposes, like gender studies and critical race theory, and incited a cynical moral panic by reinforcing a 'deep story' that portrays drag queens and transgender individuals as sexual predators.
Fox News has aided the effort by helping to resurrect and amplify the long-debunked homophobic slur that LGBTQ+ people are pedophilic 'groomers.' The stubborn lie has now become a one-word mantra providing cover for anti-trans and antigay laws. Some far-right activists have even begun pairing the 'groomer' slur with words like 'contagion' or 'social contagion.' Many of the same peddlers of disinformation, like Fox’s Laura Ingraham and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, repeatedly minimized the actual contagion of COVID—remorseless dishonesty that arguably contributed to hundreds of thousands of excess deaths among Republicans in the pandemic."
— We Must Face Down the Expanding Anti-Reality Industry: Exposing the antiscience playbook reveals the antiregulatory motives of its deep-pocketed bankrollers, Bryn Nelson, Scientific American, May 24, 2024
September 2024: Rufo perpetuating a lie that people are eating cats. Is he a credible source? No.
Chris Rufo is a paid operative for billionaires and corporate interests. He’s not some maverick journalist-turned-activist. He’s paid. To protect the interests of elites.
— Walker Bragman (@walkerbragman.bsky.social) October 21, 2024 at 1:31 PM
[image or embed]
"Erin Reed, a journalist and activist who tracks LGBTQ policy, described it [North Carolina's 2016 bathroom bill] as "an unmitigated disaster for the Republican Party in the state."
By 2017, the bill was rolled back.
"And so, following that," explains Erin Reed, "there was a good four year period where anti-trans legislation sort of took the back seat. They kind of licked their wounds and they stepped back. And they started planning."
At first, Republicans across the country tried to distance themselves from the issue. In 2016, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized the North Carolina bill during a TODAY Show town hall.
A year later, he rescinded guidance that offered legal protections to transgender students who want to use bathrooms that conform with their gender identity.
"There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate," he said at the time.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Florida Family Council GOP gubernatorial forum in 2018 that "Getting into the bathroom wars — I don't think that's a good use of our time."
But five years later, DeSantis signed a bill making it a crime for transgender people to use public restrooms that do not correspond with their sex assigned at birth."
Transgender bathroom bills are back, gaining traction after past boycotts, Deena Prichep, NPR May 6, 2024
Reddit moderators recently notified users that randomly slandering LGBTQ people as being "groomers" violates the platform's policy against targeted harassment. Twitter should follow their lead.
— Ari Drennen 🏳️⚧️ (@AriDrennen) July 19, 2022
By @MiaGingerich: https://t.co/zgM3YV6L2A
Painting the entire LGBTQ community as a whole as "pedophiles" and "groomers" is literally what "gays against groomers" entire grift is. If that slur is banned, they can't continue their grift and sell merch. pic.twitter.com/shc34j09UP
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) July 19, 2022
Image of elf ornament from Wikimedia Commons. Taken by Jelene Morris. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
“You can’t be born in the wrong body, that’s not science!”
— Caelan Conrad 🌘 YouTuber (derogatory) (@CaelanConrad) July 19, 2022
I know sweetie, we were trying to make it simple so you’d understand 🥰
Like when your mommy told you that you came from her “tummy”.
You know she didn’t believe that right? That was a little phrase just for you! 💕
I referenced this tweet in "Gödel is Sure Bach, and Trans People Are Sure Their Gender". It's a 6-minute read on Medium. Medium lets you read a certain number of stories for free every month. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.
Trans 101 DEI trainings about pronouns are not only a shallow introduction to trans identities but frequently a counterintuitive one. They compel empathy instead of justifying it.
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) March 17, 2023
I've sat in plenty of trainings that say "you don't have to understand someone's identity to respect it"--which is true! But it misses an opportunity for a stronger sense of solidarity built around shared values and interests, instead opting for surface-level compliance.
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) March 17, 2023
i think we've all got to let go of the dehumanizing fantasy that interactions with other human beings are some kind of skills test that we can "win" at by saying everything exactly "right". you can know all the right words and still be totally loathesome to be around
— Typer Durden is more active on tumblr (@drdevonprice) March 14, 2023
This is horrible. The GOP just released a national anti-trans bill. It will not pass this year, but this shows their intentions if they win.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) July 14, 2022
HB8170 would force teachers to:
- Misgender trans students.
- Out trans kids to their parents.
- Withhold affirming trans kids in therapy. pic.twitter.com/TEex2PHawr
The full bill text is linked here. The GOP intends to go full speed ahead against trans kids nationally. This is not a "don't say gay" bill. This is a "don't be trans bill."
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) July 14, 2022
This is a disaster if they win.https://t.co/NRH8SWDIoU
Fascists do this because they are upset by "the agility of the future".
Even though:
New research in the Journal Pediatrics finds that transgender youth are NOT suffering from social contagion and that transgender people are not identifying as transgender in order to "trans away the gay"/escape homophobia. pic.twitter.com/CtK9a3p9dj
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) August 3, 2022
See "Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition" (Pediatrics, July 13, 2022). They examined 317 children, at an average age of 8, who identified as transgender at the beginning of the study. "We found," the authors write, "that an average of 5 years after their initial social transition, most "identified as binary transgender youth (94%)...and 3.5% as nonbinary." Only 2.5% "identified as cisgender."
Update: California is a sanctuary state for trans kids. This law took effect Jan. 1, 2023. SENATOR WIENER’S HISTORIC BILL TO PROVIDE REFUGE FOR TRANS KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES SIGNED INTO LAW
However: "A newly formed group is petitioning to put an anti-transgender measure on the 2024 California ballot. The so-called Protect Kids of California Act of 2024 would ban gender-affirming care for minors, require school faculty to out students to parents, and repeal pre-existing protections for trans students." (Parents in California Are Petitioning to Get an Anti-Trans Initiative On the Ballot, James Factora, them, December 11, 2023)
Update: Maine may become a refuge state too. On January 15, 2024, there was a hearing on a bill "to ensure that transgender individuals and their families, who seek safety and medical care in the state, are not compelled to return to their home states by extremist attorneys general, possibly under the threat of arrest. It would also make arresting the parents of trans youth pursuant to out of state warrants the 'lowest law enforcement priority.'" Furthermore, Erin Reed explains:
"Importantly, this provision does not not imply, as some conservative accounts have proclaimed, that the state will 'take away trans kids from non-affirming parents.' Rather, this provision merely gives judges temporary jurisdiction over a kid present in the state. The state would still have to prove to a judge that a transgender teen is at risk of abuse or neglect if returned to their family in the exact same way the state would have to prove similar things about a cisgender kid....this clause enables parents in Maine to present their case to a judge and argue that gender-affirming care is in the child's best interest. The bill does not require the judge to rule in favor of the parent; it merely allows the court to consider the argument."
This info may be helpful: "Mental health benefits of gender-affirming hormones for teens persist for two years in new study" (Jan 18, 2023, Stat News)
People will be like "it's my protected human right to not believe in gender ideology"
— Mallory Moore (@Chican3ry) March 15, 2023
And, my dear sir or madam, that's fine but you work in a fucking gender clinic. It's like being a pro lifer at Planned Parenthood. You are in the wrong job, fuck off.
This is the myth that led my parents to reject me in 2003. Its original author was basically the only person writing on trans kids then and my parents mistakenly believed him. The 80% myth embarrassingly conflates gender nonconformity with transness. It has no place in discourse. https://t.co/ObXbcGteXs
— Eli Erlick (@EliErlick) March 19, 2023
It took 10 minutes to uncover the teacher "sacked for using wrong pronouns" has a social media footprint which compares being Trans to "child sacrifice" &"cannabalism", accuses Mermaids & others of "grooming" & clearly states a desire to leave teaching. It is never just pronouns. pic.twitter.com/DqcBdIiTyZ
— TransSafetyNow (@DadTrans) September 25, 2022
I've held back publicizing this but Google has failed to act and is actively putting people in harms way. Anti trans activists have created a map of LGBTQ community centers, gender affirming care clinics, and non profit orgs. This is a page out of the anti abortion playbook. pic.twitter.com/r8et6FG8Li
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) September 25, 2022
If these ghouls were acting in good faith they would *want* social transition! Their entire argument is that kids who ask for gender affirming medical care can't possibly know whether they're "really" trans.
— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) September 25, 2022
Social transition is how they find out! https://t.co/rMmcB55aOS
. @assigned.bsky.social reported in depth on the fucked up Finnish model of "care" for trans youth and the doctor behind it who's consulting for red states. n.b. Evan pitched this piece to larger outlets; that none picked it up is absolutely shameful. www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...
— Jay Edidin (@edidin.bsky.social) Aug 1, 2024 at 10:13 AM
[image or embed]
One big idea behind the "separate the LGB from the TQ" memes is to discourage gender nonconformity.
Fitting for pride month https://t.co/3QfrO49f95 pic.twitter.com/N5KBiqh7qS
— Pink 🍚 (@PinkWug) June 17, 2023
"Humanity is on track to cause one million species to go extinct, according to UN report." A new study projects that at least one million extinctions are going to occur as a result of climate change. Matthew Rozsa. Salon. July 17, 2022.
One thousand are mammals. See this HuffPost article
2021 octubre, New York Times: biodiversidad y extinción, en español
"We face an existential crisis.. the greatest loss of wildlife since a meteor wiped out the dinosaurs. Climate breakdown is accelerating. Our civilisation, our children’s health and wellbeing, and the future of much of the life that remains on our planet, hangs in the balance."🧵
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) April 10, 2023
A long Twitter thread with powerful scientific images about the current heatwave in Europe. By Karl Mathiesen, the senior climate correspondent for POLITICO Europe.
The coming days in Europe are likely to see one of the continent's most extreme climate disasters. I'll try to track as many of the heat records, public statements, scientists, fire warnings and reporting here.
— Karl Mathiesen (@KarlMathiesen) July 16, 2022
Europe's hottest week — a THREAD
70% of crops died in Italy's Po River Delta: Video
Video: Pasajeros quedaron en medio de incendio en tren, provocado por ola de calor en España https://t.co/lOTCSJ72a4
— RCN Radio (@rcnradio) July 18, 2022
Our pyroscape has become deranged, with fire taking on new shapes, visiting new places and consuming new fuels https://t.co/3sl4PAxtPx
— The Guardian Long Read (@gdnlongread) July 18, 2022
By the way:
The cooling effect of a single, young street tree is the same as 5 room-sized air conditioners operating 20 hours/day.
— Jon Burke FRSA 🌍 (@jonburkeUK) July 17, 2022
If every London borough had delivered the 50% increase in street trees that I did as a Hackney Cllr, we may have prevented the U.K’s first 40C+ heatwave. pic.twitter.com/5BI33cZxTc
Also FYI:
Today Politics Live spent ten minutes debating trans people and zero minutes talking about climate change – during the first ever red warning for extreme heat. I just cannot.
— Ellie Mae O'Hagan (@elliemaeohagan) July 15, 2022
NEW:
— Climate Crisis Advisory Group (@ClimateCrisisAG) August 25, 2022
Latest @metoffice data shows the record-breaking heatwave experienced across Europe will be considered an 'average' summer by 2035.
It finds that, according to current predictions, an avg. summer in central Europe by 2100 will be +4°C hotter than the pre-industrial era. pic.twitter.com/QVoADNzykI
Scorching and it is only April. Heatwave in North Africa and Iberia is shattering records by large margins.
— Scott Duncan (@ScottDuncanWX) April 27, 2023
Córdoba airport in Spain 🇪🇸 just recorded 38.7°C, pulverizing previous monthly record by nearly 5°C. This provisionally breaks the European hottest temperature in April. pic.twitter.com/CKGcMTKlR2
The survivor species: Having lost many of their cattle, traditional herders are trying out a milk-producing animal that is more resilient to climate change," Chico Harlan, Rael Ombuor and Malin Fezehai, Washington Post, April 17, 2024
The New Statesman (July 2022) has a boring anti-transgender article. As of 16 July, the online article has the headline "The Tories are right to debate the trans issue – it’s not a distraction," but in the social media preview, it's "trans question," not "trans issue." Also, they put the term "trans question" in the URL, "the-tories-trans-question-essential." Because the phrase "the trans question" parallels "the Jewish question," that word choice got a little attention on Twitter. But the article itself is boring.
The article begins by saying that "a single issue – where the candidates stand on the definition of a woman" is the top priority in the British contest for Conservative leadership. We should "debate gender," says Joan Smith. The problem? "Changes to language and public facilities...have happened with next to no consultation...raising questions about democratic consent."
Consultation of whom?
If someone says they're from Dallas or that they've converted to Catholicism, I treat them as the expert on their identity, and I let them live their life. There is such a thing as truth or falsehood. If I find out that they only spent a week in Dallas and they've never been inside a Catholic Church, it seems I've debunked their claim and I may be skeptical of what they tell me in the future. But the meaning of truth here has got nothing to do with "democratic consent." There's no consultation or consent involved in someone actually being from Dallas or actually being Catholic. They don't need to ask my permission to be who they are.
Smith goes on: "So much of what has happened, from organisations like Stonewall arguing against single-sex spaces to the creation of an atmosphere where feminists are thrown off Twitter for 'liking' gender-critical tweets, has occurred by stealth." No further context is provided, and as it stands, this statement is nonsense, since it implies that it's quite important to be able to have a Twitter account and yet it's not very important to refrain from approving of others' bad tweets. Exactly what is meant by being "thrown off Twitter" is, of course, not stated. (If the original tweet didn't fall afoul of Twitter policies, then Twitter wouldn't penalize others for "liking" the tweet.) If it means the freedom to have controversial interactions that publicly demean a group of people with no one from that group publicly criticizing you in reply — no.
It is an "overdue debate," she says, though it has been going on for years. Tthe Conservatives are doing the right thing by openly debating what has happened to women’s spaces, rights and free speech," and "they are right to insist that biological sex matters," while Labour "refus[es] to give clear answers to questions about biological sex." So "the Tories are limbering up to campaign as a right-wing party that knows what a woman is, up against a bunch of centre-left politicians who are terrified to give a clear answer."
The whole article is disingenuous because she implies there is a clear answer to the question of what qualifies someone as a woman or man (and that answer is their biological sex), yet she says it needs to be "debated" in the political arena, chiefly by forcing the center-left to say it.
Confirmed at "Britain's Conservative party leadership race is turning into a transphobic spectacle." Tara John, CNN. July 17, 2022:
"Britain's Conservative leadership contest kicked off this week, a weeks-long process that will result in the country's next prime minister. Besides the standard pledges of tax cuts or a slimmed down state, there has also been an enthusiastic promotion of anti-trans positions, potentially marking an intensification of the current government's "war on woke."
Leading the pack of hopefuls is Rishi Sunak, Britain's former Chancellor of the Exchequer whose resignation from the government last week contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. After the second round of voting among Conservative Party lawmakers earlier this month, Sunak topped the list of the five candidates who remain in the running.
One of Sunak's first policy pledges, after he announced his intention to run, was protecting "women's rights," he wrote in a Twitter post, linking to an article in which an unnamed Sunak ally was quoted as saying the lawmaker was "critical of recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, gender-neutral language.""
The CNN article also talks about junior minister Penny Mordaunt:
Mordaunt has spent a lot of time this week rowing back on her past pro-trans views. She told online newspaper Pink News in 2018, for example, that "trans women are women."
In a 10-part Twitter thread posted last Sunday, Mordaunt u-turned, stressing that trans women might be legally female by law but "that DOES NOT mean they are biological women, like me." She added: "I am biologically a woman. If I have a hysterectomy or mastectomy, I am still a woman. And I am legally a woman."
"Dr. Mark Goulston on why Democrats keep losing: They're afraid of their own anger. Psychiatrist Mark Goulston says Democrats are traumatized and eager to hide their rage. To win, they will need it." Chauncey DeVega. Salon. July 11, 2022.
Here's an excerpt from the introduction to the interview:
"In a recent essay at Medium, Dr. Mark Goulston, a leading psychiatrist, former FBI hostage negotiation trainer and the author of the bestsellers "Just Listen" and "Talking to 'Crazy,'" offers a provocative explanation for the Democratic Party's weakness. He argues that Democrats are "highly conflict avoidant" and that such a temperament has made them "mincemeat to the vast majority of the GOP who is allegiant to Donald Trump."
In my recent conversation with Goulston, he expanded on this analysis, arguing that Democrats keep losing to the Republicans because they refuse to speak passionately, clearly and in declarative terms to the American people. He warns that Republicans, especially Trump loyalists, are bullies who embrace and welcome conflict, and that Democrats do not fight back effectively because they refuse to acknowledge the reality that bullies must be confronted and cannot be negotiated with or defeated with rational arguments. Goulston further explains that Trump's followers remain loyal to him precisely because of his antisocial and anti-human behavior, not despite it.
Goulston also explains that many members of America's political class and the news media are naive or in denial about the nature of human evil, and therefore continue to express shock and surprise at each new revelation about the obvious crimes of the Trump regime. At the end of this conversation Goulston shares the advice he would give to Biden and other Democratic leaders about how to break their pattern of self-defeating behavior and formulate a winning plan to defeat the Republicans and preserve American democracy."
You can check out the article at Salon.
Also:
Professor @esglaude warns that American society is mired in death and grieving from the covid pandemic and neofascism but is profoundly immature and unable to grapple with reality because of white racial innocence and other delusions.https://t.co/T5bYPL0f9E
— chauncey devega (@chaunceydevega) July 18, 2022
Also, telling extremist people that their ideas are within normal and acceptable bounds may just embolden them to become more extreme. It's as if you're giving them permission.
The New York Times sent a newsletter today:
"In Times Opinion’s latest video, we’ve dissected pledges from three companies that produce quantities of emissions so large, they could single-handedly influence the future of the planet. Their targets are set years, even decades, into the future and are contingent on technology that’s not available at the scale required. Today, “net-zero emissions” seems more like clever marketing of science fiction scenarios than a reachable goal."
"New Climate Promises, Same Old Global Warming." Video by Agnes Walton and Kristopher Knight. New York Times. July 12, 2022.
That's my subscriber gift link so you can view the video for free.
And here's a CNN video. "Climate expert: Fossil fuel companies could fix climate crisis 'within a generation'." Amanpour. "Climate modelling expert and Oxford professor Myles Allen tells Amanpour heatwaves searing Europe will continue breaking records until countries reach zero-net emission targets."
At Drawdown Labs, one of our goals is to serve as a testing ground for groundbreaking new approaches to corporate climate action. So today, we’re thrilled to announce new implementation partners who will support our biz members in aligning with drawdown. Learn more about them!👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/vuKsYPZb3C
— Jamie Alexander (@jabeckx) August 15, 2022
From a Washington Post editorial, "Twitter’s case against India is crucial to the internet’s future," July 10, 2022:
"Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has been chipping away at free expression online for some time, most notably with the passing of a law last year extending the executive’s censorship powers. Now, the government can demand that news and information providers remove certain material within 36 hours of receiving a request, and it can initiate criminal proceedings against a designated company grievance officer located in the country if these mandates are rebuffed. These threats don’t appear idle: Twitter’s top executive was summoned by police in one state for failing to take down a violent video; armed forces once showed up at the company’s offices as part of an investigation about a matter as anodyne as a tweet having been labeled “manipulated media.”
Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that while Twitter has in the past resisted blocking the posts of Indian journalists, activists and politicians, the company acquiesced this month after apparently receiving a noncompliance letter. The firm geographically restricted tweets from writers including Post Opinions contributor Rana Ayyub as well as advocacy organization Freedom House."
"Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology" (Trisos et al.) was published a couple months ago. The authors recommend "five shifts" for academics in ecology:
Per Nature.com, the paper abstract is:
Ecological research and practice are crucial to understanding and guiding more positive relationships between people and ecosystems. However, ecology as a discipline and the diversity of those who call themselves ecologists have also been shaped and held back by often exclusionary Western approaches to knowing and doing ecology. To overcome these historical constraints and to make ecology inclusive of the diverse peoples inhabiting Earth’s varied ecosystems, ecologists must expand their knowledge, both in theory and practice, to incorporate varied perspectives, approaches and interpretations from, with and within the natural environment and across global systems. We outline five shifts that could help to transform academic ecological practice: decolonize your mind; know your histories; decolonize access; decolonize expertise; and practise ethical ecology in inclusive teams. We challenge the discipline to become more inclusive, creative and ethical at a moment when the perils of entrenched thinking have never been clearer.
— Trisos, C.H., Auerbach, J. & Katti, M. Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 1205–1212 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01460-w
If you support the Muckrake podcast on Patreon, you can hear this full episode 75: "Big State Governors Moving In On The Presidency", July 8, 2022, in which Jared Yates Sexton says:
"DeSantis is picking up every Never Trump donor — every major Never Trump donor — and most of the Trump donors at the same time. He's consolidating power and, as we predicted, ding ding ding, the Republican Party's already saying: He's not Trump! We're done with Trump! Look at that criminal buffoon! We're ready to go to someone serious." (30:10–30:32)
"Meanwhile, what is he doing as governor? [The] university system of Florida just pushed this thing where you're going to have to start registering — as students and faculty — your political opinions. He has a police force that's going to basically take over elections. You name it: Up and down the line, this guy has more authoritarian principles and ideology than Donald Trump and everybody's moving over to that side of it." (30:43–31:05)
(There's an abbreviated version of the episode on Apple podcasts.)
The law was approved in March. During the following month, "references to pedophiles and 'grooming' rose by more than 400 percent... Researchers said they reported 100 of the most hateful tweets they saw to Twitter. Only one was removed."
Update: In March 2023, DeSantis is expanding Don't Say Gay. It'll be through Grade 12 now.
The Tikvah Fund organized a New York City appearance by Ron DeSantis on June 12, 2022. The event was held at an event venue called Pier Sixty, which put out a statement two days in advance saying that "we could not disagree more strongly with many of Ron DeSantis' actions in office," and that, while they've "never controlled the content, program or speakers" at the hundreds of events they've hosted, in this particular case they would send all funds from Tikvah to LGBTQ+ causes.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage refused to allow DeSantis to speak at an event during pride. So Chelsea Piers stepped in and created a platform for him. https://t.co/8lM8tiZJVc
— Shamus Khan (@shamuskhan) June 12, 2022
MORE: Teachers are now required to report to parents if a student says they are not straight and they must use pronouns assigned at birth, regardless of parent input.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 29, 2022
OCPS says they are “erring on the side of caution” because the state law is so vague. https://t.co/lsVZ2mAhZe
Florida would also like to impose gender on kids:
florida https://t.co/ZyEiVXuFLV
— Daft (@finaldaft) April 20, 2022
Let me Google that for you. https://t.co/iw3fMQAQgd
— Archmaster (@Archmastr) April 20, 2022
A similar lawsuit was filed in Tallahassee, Florida. The plaintiffs in that case spoke in favor of the Don't Say Gay bill at the bill signing with DeSantis. https://t.co/ObXVpbcLpq
— Alejandra Caraballo 🇵🇷🏳️⚧️ (@Esqueer_) April 15, 2022
By the way, an August 2022 update: A July opinion poll of a hypothetical 2024 presidential matchup found Trump beating DeSantis by 30 points (53%–23%), and then, in August, the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago gave Trump a sympathy boost, so the gap widened to 40 points (57%–17%). But a lot of the Republican establishment wants DeSantis. And Trump might be indicted. So DeSantis might become president.
An October 2022 update:
Florida passes a statewide rule change that mandates schools "alert parents if students are allowed to use bathrooms not separated by their sex at birth."
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) October 20, 2022
NO Bathrooms are "separated by their sex at birth" legally. Trans people have rights to bathrooms.
Some schools still do. pic.twitter.com/v6vdk5s8Pd
Marjorie Taylor Greene calling on the Supreme Court to end hundreds of thousands of happy same-sex marriages because of “the Bible” while her and her husband are divorcing is one of the best summations of Republican hypocrisy I’ve ever seen.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) October 12, 2022
The FL Board of Medicine is refusing to hear public comments from most trans activists in the audience.
— Robin 🏳️⚧️ (@RobinWittFL) October 28, 2022
The audience is almost entirely trans activists and others opposed to the proposed rule.
Don't wait to speak. They wont give you the chance. Just speak!
Covenient that the video feed of the Florida Board of Medicine banning gender affirming care for trans youth in Florida is having "technical difficulties" this morning.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) November 4, 2022
Florida is anticipated to vote on final language and effective date today on banning gender affirming care. pic.twitter.com/gAgr1n5g9m
A dark day for trans youth.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) October 28, 2022
Florida Board of Medicine has just voted to ban gender affirming care for all trans teenagers.
They cut the hearing early and told activists to "email them."
I cry for Florida's trans youth. This was a sham hearing with fake experts. pic.twitter.com/JORaHN4uFA
Yesterday in Florida when activists realized the board was not listening to them and was bought and sold, so they didn’t leave quietly. “We will not be silenced, stonewall was a riot.”
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) November 5, 2022
We need this energy and MORE all over the country. They take advantage of liberal complacency. pic.twitter.com/vj6haLfUml
January 2023: It's happening in the UK.
It’s happening now. A petition to remove LGBT content from the education curriculum.
— Thomas Willett (@ThomasWillett9) January 23, 2023
To all those who deny the homophobia arising from the trans moral panic: WAKE UP.
They want Section 28 all over again. When our trans siblings suffer, the entire LGBTQ+ community suffers. https://t.co/CQiFMmb5R4 pic.twitter.com/eCjtvv74CA
February 2023:
"...Gov. Ron DeSantis requested all public universities comply in delivering data from student health services on transgender students who sought gender-affirming care at the institutions.
DeSantis asked to see a breakdown of the medical data of students who received gender-affirming care from public entities. This includes anyone in the general public who sought gender-affirming care at the hospitals located at these public universities. In addition, he wants their ages and the dates they received gender-affirming care. The deadline to submit those records was February 10.
Insider has confirmed that University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, Florida A&M University, Florida International University, and the University of North Florida have complied with the request, but has yet to hear back from the rest."
— "Ron DeSantis requested the information of trans students who sought care at Florida's public universities. Now students are planning a statewide walkout." Annalise Mabe, Insider, Feb 16, 2023
Florida has introduced the Empower Bigots Act, HB991.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) February 22, 2023
It would classify accusations that someone engaged in discrimination as defamation per se with $35k minimum in damages. If it involves LGBTQ people and someone's beliefs, truth is no defense.
This is absolutely chilling. pic.twitter.com/sTjxNd255h
Ron DeSantis is moving to suspend the liquor license of the Hyatt Regency for hosting a drag queen Christmas in December and allegedly having minors present. They couldn't even substantiate the allegations. This is the only evidence they have. It's pathetic. pic.twitter.com/d8T7noZyEy
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) March 14, 2023
Florida Replicans have introduced a late amendment to implement a criminal ban on pride events throughout the state of Florida if anyone present is dressed in drag. pic.twitter.com/RVHnpf0yww
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 4, 2023
"President Joe Biden called efforts to restrict transgender rights in Florida 'close to sinful' in an interview released Monday [March 13, 2023], suggesting federal laws should be passed to protect those rights in all states." — CNN
BREAKING: Former Florida State Rep. Joseph Harding has pleaded GUILTY to wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements. He faces 20 yrs max for first count. Harding was the sponsor of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill (dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics). pic.twitter.com/2pLZVLaDGi
— Mike DeForest (@DeForestNews6) March 21, 2023
A Tallahassee principal was forced to resign after people said 6th graders had been exposed to pornography.
— Santiago Mayer (@santiagomayer_) March 23, 2023
The kids were learning about a Michelangelo statue…
Anti-trans expert witness Sophie K. Scott, who worked with Paul Conrathe in Bell v. Tavistock, now states she worked with Paul Conrathe to oppose coverage of transition treatment in Florida as well https://t.co/MAT1EO9Pmb pic.twitter.com/joDNvFTrow
— 🌼 Zinnia Jones 🐍 Judgment Snake (@ZJemptv) April 7, 2023
Florida Republican Rep. Webster Barnaby directly compared trans people to mutants in X-Men and called the trans people, including children, present in the room "demons and imps."
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 10, 2023
This was during debate for HB1421 that would criminalize trans people using bathrooms. pic.twitter.com/y5VsCKeAfJ
Equality Florida has issued a Travel Warning to all LGBTQ people to avoid coming to Florida due to risks posed to their health, safety, and freedom.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 12, 2023
Florida is no longer safe for LGBTQ people. pic.twitter.com/xWOKHTyIJd
While defending his bill in Florida that would ban drag and pride events, @VoteRandyFine said that "if it means erasing a community, because [LGBTQ people] have to target children, then damn right we outta do it."
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 12, 2023
This is one of the most bigoted statements I've ever heard. pic.twitter.com/MBSFlwjtBc
Yes, it happened (HuffPost, May 18, 2023):
"An LGTBQ+ pride event usually held along the riverwalk in Tampa, Florida, has been canceled after hard-right Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bevy of anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law this week.
Tampa Pride President Carrie West confirmed to several local news outlets that the event, called Tampa Pride on the River, would not go ahead in September because it features drag performances at a public venue."
Florida is currently debating SB 1438, a bill banning drag shows. Senator Yarborough, the chief sponsor of the bill admits that the bill would apply to live performances of Rocky Horror Picture Show. pic.twitter.com/klRKy0dFp8
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 4, 2023
This bill doesn’t ban drag— it censors it with vague, subjective terms threatening misdemeanor crimes, $10K fines, + license revocations.
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) April 6, 2023
LGBTQ-friendly businesses + cities are already fearful of welcoming drag and being targeted by Ron DeSantis.
That’s the point of censorship. pic.twitter.com/CfZkYJ5FYA
“The committee will meet if there are formal challenges for books to be removed district-wide.”
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) April 7, 2023
If informal challenges are brought, like in the case of ANNE FRANK’S DIARY, it’s left up to one administrator with political and financial pressure to remove. https://t.co/krYaUnGppA
This bill just passed the Florida Senate today.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 12, 2023
https://t.co/rsmvRJywuG pic.twitter.com/Xl7OpY624a
Florida State Representative Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay) has no problem funding burlesque shows for charity — shows that children can attend too — as long as they feature cis women and not gay men or trans people. FL GOP Rep Who Wants to Outlaw Drag Queens Funds Straight Burlesque James Finn, April 17, 2023. If you're paywalled out, please become a member.
In May 2023, someone rewired an Orlando traffic sign to say KILL ALL GAYS.
A parent who had indeed signed permission for their kid to watch PG movies in school complained because the teacher showed a Disney movie.
"Florida just banned everything I teach at the university level." — Dr. William Horne. See the unrolled thread.
"Gay Floridians Are Leaving in Droves, Says Pride Organizer." Daily Beast. May 29, 2023.
A trans Vet in Florida was kicked out of the bathroom at a VA hospital.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) June 17, 2023
The Florida bathroom ban is not in effect yet and does not affect federal facilities.
Her gender is legally changed.
It is about to get very bad in Florida. pic.twitter.com/33erN5ZPvY
July 20, 2023: A Los Angeles Times profile of a trans woman preparing to leave Florida.
July 23, 2023: The DeSantis campaign shared a video with a sonnenrad (sunwheel), which is Nazi imagery.
Following DeSantis's May 2023 signing of a law on gender-affirming care that banned it for children and restricted it for adults, he appeared in the December 6, 2023 Republican presidential candidate debate and said: "I did a bill in Florida to stop the gender mutilation of minors. It’s child abuse and it’s wrong." CNN gave context:
"Gender affirming care...is not 'abuse' or 'mutilation' according to the medical community. It is a recommended practice by most major medical associations. The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry – agree that gender-affirming care is clinically appropriate for children and adults."
Additionally, minors were rarely getting surgery to begin with. "Some adolescents may choose what’s commonly called top surgery...that removes breast or chest tissue, but the surgical choice would be rare. Generally, experts say, these are not procedures adolescents would need. The Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines say that genital reassignment surgery should be reserved for adults only." — Fact checking the December GOP debate, Jen Christensen, CNN, December 7, 2023
Donate: Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project
The Trans Youth Emergency Project was
"created by the Campaign for Southern Equality after Mississippi passed the first ban on youth gender-affirming care in January 2023. Our goal was to connect families of trans youth in Mississippi to out-of-state gender-affirming care providers, and offset the financial burden of traveling to access care. At the time, my coworkers and I believed that youth gender-affirming care bans would pass in a handful of conservative Southern states. Since then, 27 U.S. states have passed a ban on gender-affirming care for youth, including nearly every state in the South.
As gender-affirming care bans have spread, our program has grown. Just a few months ago, we expanded our project from only states in the South to any state with a ban."
— Trans Southerners Can’t Wait for Healthcare. Here’s How to Help Them Get It Out-of-State: The Trans Youth Emergency Project provides grants to help families of trans youth travel for care. Emma Chinn, Them, October 9, 2024
"Florida’s situation is the result of multiple different strands of the far-right, some of which are tacitly at odds with one another. ... [Florida is] one of the few places having a resurgence of organized and blatant neo-Nazism, this time in the form of the Goyim Defense League, Order of the Black Sun and others who are doing explicitly antisemitic flash mobs, banner drops, and other in-real life actions. These include signs that say things like “Have You Thanked Hitler Today?” and are really Jewish focused, demanding the hanging of Jews, openly saying that Jews are the center of all that is wrong in modern society. There have been a lot of large actions (large for them), coming from the Nazi crowd and we should think of this as qualitatively different than the world of Trump or DeSantis, who each have their own crews. The Nazis are explicitly revolutionary and therefore see both candidates as anathema, and the various neo-Nazi crews have made explicit in their messaging just how much they hate DeSantis. That said, the rhetoric of both Trump and DeSantis normalizes racism and therefore primes potential recruits to be more vulnerable to neo-Nazi messaging."
— Shane Burley, interviewed by Kelly Hayes, "Fascism in Florida, The State of Antifascism and Thinking About Electoral Defense." Organizing My Thoughts (Substack), Sep 19, 2023.
"The Escambia County School District, located in the Florida panhandle, has removed several dictionaries from its library shelves...
HB 1069 gives residents the right to demand the removal of any library book that "depicts or describes sexual conduct," as defined under Florida law, whether or not the book is pornographic. Rather than considering complaints, the Escambia County School Board adopted an emergency rule last June that required the district's librarians to conduct a review of all library books and remove titles that may violate HB 1069 [the May 2023 law]."
— Florida school district removes dictionaries from libraries, citing law championed by DeSantis, Judd Legum, Popular Information, January 10, 2024
In fact, Escambia County removed "more than 1,600 titles for mentions of 'sexual conduct' that could violate a 2023 state law."
Florida law led school district to pull 1,600 books — including dictionaries, Justine McDaniel and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, January 11, 2024
"Lake Arrowhead shop owner shot to death over Pride Flag" Detectives learned the suspect made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag hanging outside the store before shooting the owner, Brody Levesque, Los Angeles Blade, August 19, 2023
"With the explicit and tacit encouragement of the Florida Department of Education, the law was broadly interpreted to mandate the banning of library books with LGBTQ characters, the cancellation of Pride Month, and the removal of rainbow flags. It also created confusion about whether it was permissible to discuss LGBTQ people in any context in Florida classrooms." — Judd Legum, Popular Information, March 13, 2024
However, as Legum goes on to explain, in March 2024, "the State of Florida agreed to settle a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality" of the law. Now, "the only aspect of the law that remains is a prohibition on classroom instruction about 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity.' Per the terms of the settlement, an example of this would be 'teaching an overview of modern gender theory.' This is not something that happens very often, if at all, in K-12 education."
"After the principal held a formal faculty meeting about the law, Wood felt she had no choice but to comply. She erased “Ms. Wood” from her blackboard and wrote, “Teacher Wood.”"
Teacher fights Florida anti-LGBTQ+ law, says ‘state can’t deny my existence’, Rhonda Sonnenberg, SPLC, June 28, 2024
"In Tallahassee, Florida, a federal judge has ruled [here's that ruling] that a transgender woman teacher no longer has to be referred to as “Mr.” or “teacher” in the classroom, citing first amendment protections. Instead, she can use “Ms.” and female pronouns. This decision follows the passage of HB1069 in Florida, which mandated that teachers could not use pronouns that “do not correspond to his or her sex.” Judge Mark Walker enjoined the state from enforcing the law against her...
* * *
This case is not the only recent legal action addressing this topic. Two weeks prior, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that repeated and intentional misgendering could constitute a hostile work environment. Similarly, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that teachers do not have the religious right to misgender transgender students."
— Erin Reed, "Florida Has A 1st Amendment Problem" - Judge Rules Trans Teacher Can Use "Ms.", April 9, 2024
For Florida's LGBTQ teens and teachers, the law is a moving target: NBC News followed LGBTQ teens and teachers for one year under the state’s expanded parental rights law, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Jo Yurcaba and K.C. Wassman, nbcnews, June 27, 2024
ByThe alternate history novel To Climates Unknown by Arturo Serrano was released on November 25, the 400th anniversary of the mythical First ...
