How Politics Affects Your Reputation

Aaron Coleman is a nineteen year old lad who just won the Democratic nomination for state representative. Last night he became the subject of a tug o' war between the Woke and the Right over which belief set is the best, I kid you not. Let's take a closer look.

TERF Wars: The Balance Of Power

Have you ever wondered why an innocuous statement such as "A woman is an adult human female" can get you labelled a bigot and Mumsnet is referred to as a hate group? Look up the word "TERF." Your search will no doubt bring up images like the one on the left. Let's talk about it and what is behind it. Warning: I'm GC. Govern yourselves accordingly.

Rape Culture: When Do We Let Bygones Be Bygones?

Yesterday I asked when we can talk about reputation following a tragedy. The answer was, per Sam Klein, "At least wait till the families have been informed." Today I want to talk about grace and letting go — and how damn hard it is to do so. WARNING: Controversial content.

When Can We Discuss Reputation Following A Tragedy?

When is it okay to talk about grievances against an individual or group if a tragedy affects them? WARNING: I'm not going to pull my punches. If you're easily offended, hit the back button.

Where Does The Incel Movement Come From?

Tonight I'm going to tackle incels. If you're easily triggered or offended, hit the back button; the snark is strong with this one, hence the pic of the be-moobed monstrosity.

Predator Shaming: Where Due Process Rights Go To Die

I'm a communitarian conservative with a fair amount of sympathy for some progressive positions. That said, this blog post is going to offend someone one way or another so if you're likely to be triggered, etc., hit the back button and look at pictures of adorable kitties instead.

Happy New Year 2018: My Hopes And Fears For The Year Ahead

Last year I wrote thirty nine posts, twenty two of which were about Brexit, twenty three featured US president Donald Trump, nine were about freedom of speech, and the rest were about a mixed bag of issues that caught my attention. Let's take a trip down memory lane and see if any of my predictions came true.

Rape Culture: Where The Left Lets Us Down

In my last post I pointed out that rape culture is a patriarchal problem and that the Right, which claims to uphold traditional values, is dreadfully hypocritical, to say the least. But is the left any better? Trigger warning: Go read something else if you're easily offended; the snark is strong with this one.

Rape Culture: What Can We Do To Stamp It out?

Following the revelations about disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, sex abuse victims are coming out of the shadows to tell their stories and as a result, more bad guys are going down. Can we talk about this?

Warning: I don't pull my punches so if you're easily offended, get off my lawn blog.

Jackie Coakley, Rolling Stone's Rape Culture Icon, Is A Liar

It's only the right wing sites that are using her full name but the media is unanimous: a libel court found that Jackie Coakley lied when she alleged she had been gang-raped at a frat party at the University of Virginia. The trouble her lying caused goes much further than the ruin of a journalist's career. Let's take a look at the issues.

WARNING: if you're easily upset, hit the back button now. I'm not going to pull my punches.

Brock Turner Case: Why It Won't Go Away

I thought the Brock Turner case was dead and buried with a bit of hysterics at the wake, but I was wrong. His six-month sentence is but the beginning of an unfolding nightmare in which the black hole of rape culture is sucking people in, chewing them up, and leaving their reputations crunched to rubble. So far this iteration has claimed a band and a judge, with lawyer and blogger Andrew White getting a hammering on the Mimesis Law blog for trying to call the mob off of Judge Aaron Persky.

What's going on and why won't this just quietly fade away?

Is Violence A Patriarchal Thing?

This post was going to be about Brock Turner, rape culture, and how social attitudes help shape the minds of people who carry out such heinous deeds, but the Orlando shootings just changed its direction. I've realised that the violence inherent in rape culture is not confined to rape culture; violence or abuse to "correct" behaviour extends to anyone or anything that challenges the norms of our patriarchal society. Let's take a closer look.

**Warning: I do NOT pull my punches. If you're particularly sensitive or easily offended, hit the back button now.**

Political Protectionism, Special Snowflakes And Social Justice Warriors: Four Ways They Wreak Havoc

The Atlantic's Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt knocked it out of the park when they took on the out-of-control PP culture in American universities that has resulted in professors being fired for swearing in class and trigger warnings being demanded for books and lectures, etc. What on earth is going on and what can we do about it?

Perceptions And Perspectives: What Freedom Really Means

It's trendy in left-liberal circles to celebrate "the right to offend" as if defending it is a sacred trust. However, if you're not in a "protected group" you're unlikely to get much in the way of support. In tonight's post I'm going to discuss how the right to offend can actually chill freedom of speech and expression, not enhance it.

Authoritarianism Is Not The Answer To Social Problems. Four Pirate Solutions

I keep seeing conflicting statements in my Twitter feed about social problems and solutions. They tend to fall into two groups: advocates for normalising behaviours and attitudes that many of us find downright offensive, and those who think it best to bring down the banhammer on them. For the record, I think they're both wrong. Allow me to explain why, and to suggest workable solutions.

Blogger's Ban Binned: Why That's A Good Thing

I first learned about the proposed Blogger ban on sexually explicit content on Techdirt, my go-to site for tech news. I was somewhat concerned for the future of On t'Internet at the time because I sometimes write about the culture wars. Controversial subjects tend to come up in my posts which could have led to my being obliged to put the e-quivalent of a brown paper bag over the site by setting it to private.

Freedom Isn't Free: Why Political Partisans Get It Wrong

Since we're all influenced by American political thought, which is more polarised than ours, I tend to represent the struggle for supremacy between its duopoly with a picture of their mascots pushing against each other. Notice how I've got their background colours intertwined and merging? That's to represent the authoritarian nature of both sides. A recent story brought to my attention by following Nick Hanauer on Twitter highlights the promises and failures in both ideologies and serves to illustrate the value of a pragmatic, centrist, market-inclusive approach to "all the things."

Rape Culture: Women Who Cry Wolf

Well it seems that the story of the UVA fraternity rapists isn't actually true. I had wondered how I could identify any attackers in a pitch black room and how well they would manage to carry out an assault while kneeling on broken glass. I also wouldn't consider anyone who was more concerned about their opportunities to party than in getting me to hospital a friend. In any case, rolling around struggling on broken glass for three hours would have left me torn to ribbons. I wouldn't have been able to sleep it off and try to forget about it.

Rape Culture: How The Media Frames And Shapes The Debate

While I'm pleased to see the media working to address rape culture, I'm surprised to note that they're not really digging deep to get to the bottom of the mystery of why rape is so reviled in public while we privately enable it because we'd rather not rock the social boat. I want to talk about that disconnect, the cognitive dissonance that pretends that guns can protect you from rape on campus if martial arts fails you while ignoring or downplaying the fact that most victims know their attacker and are unlikely to go to a frat party with a gun. Seriously, search the internet using the terms "frat party rape gun" and let me know what you come up with.

Mission Creep: First They Censored The Pornographers...

I've already blogged on this matter from the point of view of protecting kids from porn but our Glorious Leaders are still riding on the coattails of moral panics to find things to ban. So now it's terrorism. Rape culture is sure to follow next, followed by copyright. Wait, we're already there, and with no due process. Welcome to Police State USA/UK.