Can The Right Save The Left?

January 20th, 2025 is the date that everything changed. The end of the world as we know it.

 

The world we knew

Since the Obama years, America had been gradually dragged leftwards against the will of the people. Complicit in this were the mass media–including the news agencies Reuters and Associated Press. From corporate boardrooms to elementary schools, wokeness held away, and woe betide anyone who dared to oppose it. People were unhappy but couldn't say a thing for fear of social ostracism and losing their jobs. Cancel culture metastasised while some pundits denied its existence. 

I was all for Obama in 2012. Handsome, urbane, and compassionate, he appeared to embody the virtues I thought a president should have. That was the blue corner.

In the red corner sat the greedy, selfish, religious hypocrites who railed against abortion until one of their politicians knocked up his mistress. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. They made laws that SNAP, the welfare payments cards, were only to be spent on food or seeds for growing food--not soap or toothpaste or sanitary towels. And their candidate was a Mormon with the tact and diplomatic skills of a rabid rhinoceros. 

When they lost in 2012, the Republicans believed that they'd failed because they hadn't made their message clear enough. The truth was, they'd made it all too clear and spent eight years out of power because of it. Their salvation arrived in the unlikely form of the lumbering, crass, and downright creepy p****-grabbing Donald Trump.

Democrats lost after Obama because political correctness, which had always been a fringe craze, became mandatory, enforced with shaming and ostracism. Minorities gained outsized support at the expense of working folk–and nothing was done about the SNAP spending rules on their watch.

Four years of Trump's idiocracy in the White House--which featured his daughter Ivanka flogging her tat from the Oval office and government posts going unfilled–sent sickened voters running back to the Democrats. Biden won on the basis of not being Trump, but in the four years he had in office, two things happened: Biden began to show signs of incipient dementia, and wokeness became a totalitarian straitjacket on public discourse. Trump returned on a wave of hope that his bull-in-a-china shop approach to All The Things would free up speech and put an end to the barbarity of gender identitarianism. 

The game-changer

Politicians make all kinds of promises before taking office–some of which they keep as window-dressing–others fall by the wayside. Remember Bush Senior's “Read my lips–no new taxes”? That didn't last long. Trump, however, is keeping his. And this time, Ivanka and Jared are out of the picture, though it seems that Mr. Kushner is still advising his father-in-law from behind the curtain, as it were.

And this new, more effective Trump administration is already sending shockwaves around the world. The loosening of the woke stranglehold on social media is letting people speak out where they'd usually face being banned for hate speech. British LBGT-alphabet-soup special rights organisation Stonewall is losing all of the once-lucrative corporate sponsorship it used to enjoy. Even the oh-so-woke Green Party has quietly dropped them. As the saying goes: get woke, go broke. Other countries are rethinking “gender-affirming care” as questions continue to arise about the efficacy of this approach to treating distressed kids. Basically, they have no real answer and they can't defend it anymore. 

Hilariously, the American left is having a public meltdown as Trump appointee Elon Musk rampages through USAID shutting down programmes and departments and uncovering scandals. They're not indignant about the scandals, but about putting an end to them. While some of the more outlandish stories spread by Musk himself have proven to be hoaxes, it turns out that there really is no smoke without fire. 

What does this mean for the left?

The influence wielded by colourful characters like Trump and Musk is smothering the Democrats, particularly those on the left. Since they've abandoned their core demographics for political edge cases and unpopular causes, it doesn't matter if Musk is exaggerating–the message they themselves are broadcasting is that they're unfit to govern. The only way out of this epic self-ownage is to demonstrate the ability to serve “we, the people,” not just “cause du jour.” By creating the impression that they can be trusted to serve the American people (whether this is actually true or not), Trump has put them on the back foot.

So then, how can the right possibly save the left? By showing them how service to the people is better than serving pet projects. By demonstrating how being willing to listen to and work with people they disagree with on principle can effect change. And by showing how diversity (of opinion) really is a strength. 

I firmly believe that if the left starts genuinely caring about the Joe Bloggs's of this world instead of engaging in performative virtue signalling, they will win the next election. Until they do, they have no chance. 

BT Is Mugging Its Customers

I've only got a basic broadband and TV deal with BT. My TV box does not play nicely with Amazon Prime.  They charged me for years for a mobile service I had not knowingly signed up for (which took two attempts to close down) and they have the gall to charge me for a full month for a service I won't be using because "them's da roolz." And the cost for what they bill as effectively the Rolls Royce of broadband service (but is definitely not)? £71-odd a month. Hell, no.

Okay, so it's my own fault for not really paying attention. I signed up for broadband with BT over 20 years ago because it was a trusted brand and I wanted TV and a phone service with it. 

Every once in a while, when I noticed my bills creeping up, I'd threaten to move to another provider, which resulted in much grovelling and some improvements. 

I signed up to Amazon Prime a few years ago for cheap TV streaming and immediately noticed issues with streaming via the box. To my great annoyance, BT would replace the box but the problem persisted. The annoying part? It works perfectly well on my mobile devices. It's the BT box that's the problem. So they're charging top dollar (well, pound, as I'm in the UK) for a substandard service with kit that doesn't work well with streaming channels such as ITVX and Amazon Prime. The you-know-what hit the proverbial fan when I started watching Prime more, and was constantly turning the everything off and on again to get a stuttering service, then discovered the size of my bills. I'd expected them to be somewhere around the £45 mark and was astonished to find them so high for what I was getting. 

The clingy customer service really doesn't help. It felt more like getting divorced than merely cancelling a service as they alternated between "t'other lot are rubbish, you will rue the day you left our bosom. They'll let you down, you'll see!" and "please stay, we can offer you a better deal with our amazing technicolor dreamcoat service and kit."

I've booked new provider Hyperoptic to install their new system on 6th September, which is why I'm writing this; BT want me to pay for a full month. Is anyone surprised that I'm annoyed?

Meanwhile, my new Fire Stick Lite has arrived, which will provide the TV service, and even with the cancellation charge of £33-odd, it's much cheaper than those clowns at BT can provide. 

I'll let you know how I get on.

Tickle V Giggle: Australia Is Officially Nuts

The media outlets that claim to counter misinformation are busily spreading it, presenting a man called Roxanne Tickle as a woman scorned who rightfully won justice against an evil bigot.

Just look at the state of them! I'm furious. According to that eejit Judge Robert Bromwich, any man who puts on a skirt and claims a feminine gender identity (which, let me remind you, is merely a personal belief or feelings about oneself) is an actual woman like me. No. That's not how it works. 

Women are human beings in our own right and men have no right to arrogate to themselves the right to define us in their own terms. Let us define ourselves.

I've been lectured over and over again by the vilest of men about how Ts have feelings, etc., but basically, if we express fear or discomfort around male people in our spaces, we are somehow defective. So only they have feelings of fear or discomfort. Only they are vulnerable. Only they are worthy of consideration. 

This is my contention: any man who denies us the right to exclusivity on the basis of our biological sex discriminates against us on the basis of sex. Moreover, he paternalistically arrogates to himself the right to define us and to make choices on our behalf, even when they are against our interests. He basically relegates us to slave status, demanding complete subservience at all times without question in every area of our lives. No. Hell, no.

Sall Grover needs your help to appeal this case. Give what you can, however meagre the amount. Every penny put towards this case asserts that women are a discrete sex class with demands, needs, and rights of our own. To let that man Tickle win lets every woman and girl down. It tells every man that we are nothing, that we're nobody and that only men have the right to make choices for us. 

Sall Grover must prevail!

EDI: We Need To Talk About Retail Fashion

 

What's wrong with this picture? At first glance it looks fine but a peek underneath shows a vast disparity between the idea of a suit for women and for men.

JK Rowling And The Irresponsible Media

 

She was right. They all know she's right but will they admit it? Hell, no. In fact, the left-leaning press is a) doubling down, and b) complaining about how toxic and divisive the subject of trans rights is. But whose fault is that?

Vice News Layoffs -- Get Woke, Go Broke

Vice News, that paragon of woke news blogging, has taken a little tumble off the cliff. But why? I think I know.

Gender Identity Is A Religious Cult: Discuss

 

It's been ten months since I wrote my last post. Since then, more cracks have appeared in the Stonewall dam as more subscribers jump ship and they prove to be a legal liability for those who are daft enough to take its advice. So why are so many people still clinging like grim death to the notion of gender identity?

It's not just Stonewall here in the UK—it's everywhere around the world, even India is getting in on the act. In the age of the internet it defies belief that whole countries are falling for this nonsense even as it wobbles in the West. How can they not know about France, Sweden, and Finland, pulling out of WPATH? Even the Dutch are re-thinking their Protocol and urging caution.

I think they're ignoring all of that because they're in the grip of a religious cult. It's the only rational explanation for the moral panic over "Evil TERFs who want to rob trans people of all of their rights" as exemplified by transgender poster child Katy Montgomerie, and the insistence that any contradiction of the trans creed narrative is an act of stochastic terrorism by disgusting bigots.

What exactly is a cult?

The best definition I've seen so far is,

A cult is a group or movement held together by a shared commitment to a charismatic leader or ideology. It has a belief system that has the answers to all of life's questions and offers a special solution to be gained only by following the leader's rules. - The Tennesseean

The dictionaries tend to describe them as "a system of religious veneration or devotion directed towards a particular figure or object" or "a small religious group... that has beliefs regarded by many as extreme..." 

Whether you're willing go accept this or not, gender identity ideology has a range of cultish aspects that people are increasingly becoming aware of.

Let's take a closer look at them.

1. Veneration or devotion. 

This tends to manifest in a rabidly aggressive response to criticism of any aspect of gender identity ideology or any person who claims a trans identity. While Yaniv is universally despised as a nasty paedophile creep, at least on the surface, woe beside anyone who dares to misgender him.

2. Mangled language/jargon

In her book "Cultish," Amanda Montell explains how cult leaders seek to "establish, through language, a clear way of demarcating between believers and non-believers." They also like to impress upon their members the notion that their tenets are rooted in science, tradition, or something just as authoritative. The difference is, of course that their science, tradition, or whatever, is special and exclusive, known and understood only by them. They're an in-crowd that only the obedient can ever be part of. So they talk about "cis" men and women, or when they really dig in, "cishet" men and women.

3. A creed to repeat

I used to be a member of the Pirate Party but fell out with them over gender identity ideology. I had noticed a tendency in one particular person (who was otherwise decent) to latch on to an opinion and cling to it like grim death no matter what. While his mantra-chanting shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did, the spectacle of others joining him in calling me a Nazi because I can't accept that Phil from Accounts is a woman because he says he is really freaked me out.

The creed: 

• Trans women are women. 
• Trans men are men.
• Non-binary identities are valid.

I know this because he chanted it at me before he blocked me. You don't question gender identity ideology. Ever. Other people have done this to me since then and I still think it's weird. Web designer (and person I used to respect) Ethan Marcotte linked a one line blog post on Twitter at least once: "Trans women are women." He blocked me for pointing out that this is a shibboleth to divide believers from infidels like me. I'm still an infidel, Ethan.

4. A system of religious beliefs 

The Encyclopedia Britannica's definition of religion has done nothing to dissuade me from calling gender identity ideology a religious cult. Read it. I really can't see a difference. Think about it: religions such as Christianity have a set of beliefs that members are expected to accept and live by no matter what; adherence to the faith that their beliefs are true facts is what marks out the faithful from the unbeliever. Well gender identity ideology is no different. I'm amused by people saying there is no such thing. Oh yeah? 

The OED describes ideology as "a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy." Add some metaphysical considerations and you don't get to tell me I'm wrong about it being religious. 

The similarities with Scientology are to do with levels of exposure to the more extreme aspects of the belief system. That there's a fair amount of contradiction within the system is due to the hierarchy; those lower down the chain tend to have a rather Santa Claus-y, rose-tinted fairytale viewpoint while the more committed tend to express outlandish ideas that those lower down the chain disavow when confronted with them. For reasons I don't understand they don't get reprimanded for this as long as they stick to the creed.

The beliefs:

• Trans-substantiation - the idea that a man who has declared a feminine identity, even on a part-time basis, is actually a woman and should be treated as such at all times. 
• People are born transgender (despite the wealth of evidence to the contrary).
• There is "no difference" between "cis" women and transwomen. 
• "Cis" women should never have anything of their own as a group as this is exclusionary in and of itself. However, this should never be said out loud. If anyone asks the question, pull the race card and compare it to Jim Crow segregation. That'll show them!
• Transwomen have been using women's spaces since forever, unnoticed because they "pass." When they don't, play the terrified victim card. 
• At no point do perverted men ever fake being trans to gain access to women and girls. That's a transphobic myth spread by evil TERFs.
• Kids who display behaviour outside of gender norms are trans.
• Kids identified as trans should be put on puberty blockers ASAP to prevent them from committing suicide.
• Puberty blockers are harmless and reversible, a pause button on puberty to give kids time to work out who they are - despite the evidence to the contrary. 
• There is an ongoing conspiracy of hate against trans people; TERFs want to see all trans people robbed of healthcare and/or dead.
• Any attempt to establish a separate status for "cis" women and transwomen is, in and of itself, transphobic. So when "cis" women advocate for their rights on the basis of their needs as a sex class, it's transphobic because it excludes transwomen. 
• Any criticism of men or discussion of male violence is a transphobic dog whistle. 
• There is no such thing as autogynephilia (despite all the evidence to the contrary).
• There is no such thing as gender identity ideology (despite all the evidence to the contrary).
• TERFery/gender critical positions is an ideology. 
• All unbelievers and critics must be punished and/or excommunicated from society and rendered pariahs.

If it walks like a duck and goes quack, it's a duck. Make no mistake, this is an insidious cult whose tentacles reach deep into the corridors of power.

What can we do?

Thankfully the resistance is growing. As our institutions sever ties with Stonewall and its ilk and the excesses of trans ideology are revealed to the public (why sport and not prisons?), it's becoming more acceptable to speak out against gender identity nonsense and to call it out for what it is.

Every court case we win knocks another chip out of the wall. Every voice raised makes people ask questions about how this nonsense even got started and how it got so deeply embedded in our institutions. 

The Cass Report will be out soon enough; surely prosecutions for the reckless experiments on kids will follow.

And we can't legally get sacked for holding or expressing gender critical views as long as we're not abusive when we do.

So speak out. Ask questions. Don't worry if people turn against you, there are thousands more who'll join you. If you're afraid, ask for help. Join women's advocacy groups like Sex Matters and Fair Play For Women. Take part in public consultations and write to your MP. If someone abuses you, don't abuse back; show yourself to be the better person by graciously but firmly disagreeing. The tyranny is coming to an end. Let's speed its demise.