Rod Liddle: Trans twerps rewrite the facts of life, and even the Tories lap up their fiction

Surely the point that people who are so opposed on so many things come together on this is part of our strength. Suggesting we can’t be on the same side as people who we consider to hold odious views is pushing towards ideological purity and is foolish.
Exactly.
The ability for people across the spectrum to say "we disagree fundamentally on so many things but for this cause we agree" is the sign of sensible debate and rational thought.

Much better than the hysterical blocking, echo chamber building and no platforming that the left seem to be in love with at the moment. I was talking to a friend about this and he was saying that he's very much old Labour left, but can't stand the way the left is carrying on with its no platforming and claims of literal violence. If I think someone has abhorrent views then they should have the right to speak and be challenged. Unfortunately the radical TRA bubble is all about shouting to adoring fans on social media and blocking anyone who doesn't give you a gold star and have their pronouns listed in their Twitter bio.

Rod Liddle offends everyone at some point.

He will flippantly label anything that is in is opinion absurd, often in an amusing manner, and also when he doesn't know much about it except he's read something and he thinks it's a crock of shit.

He's easily seen this trans thing for the crock of shit it is and is saying so. Amazingly he also sees that it is a dangerous crock of shit for women, even though he will also say when he thinks some feminists are talking a crock of shit.

If after all this trans debacle we cannot see that free speech above all else is sacrosanct, as without it we have very easily slipped into a oppressive thought control nightmare, then I'm not sure what level nightmare you will require to understand that you should be cheering from the rooftops every time you get to read a columnist you disagree with.

And I'm with Breastfeedingclownfish:
"I think it makes us look like reactionary right wingers)
What is this 'us' shit ocelot41? I don't know you or your politics and you don't know mine. And I couldn't give a fuck either.

Several posters seem to be using the Ben Shapiro tactic of framing the debate and shaming; by pretending to believe that discussing and article means you align your politics with the person who wrote it.

iii.thruhere.net/misc-files/how_to_debate_leftists_and_destroy_them.pdf

"I think it makes us look like reactionary right wingers)
What is this 'us' shit ocelot41? I don't know you or your politics and you don't know mine. And I couldn't give a fuck either.

This is a single issue and it needs as many voices to shout against it as possible.

And I don't need organising or told what to think or who to 'align' with thanks.

It's this bollocks political tribalism that got us into this mess in the first place, where people are being told what to think and being punished for not having the 'right' opinions. Fuck that.

God, he's an asshat, but that's a bloody brilliant read

And as for 'It harms your cause...'
I thought the cause in question was the safety and dignity of women?
It extends to left wing women, right wing women, apolitical women and (apologies for mangling Andrea Dworkin) women I don't agree with or even like.

Nice article- to the point. There is no left wing press for me any more.
They don’t say anything.

*Lass
*
Access to books in prisons perhaps?

Yes and the removal of some court fees.

I’d like to think my husband has more interst in my opinions than Liddle’s however needs must when the devil vomits into your kettle I suppose

If i am in the street being hassled by a bunch of men and Rod Liddle told them all to fuck off and leave me alone, I'll say 'thanks Rod' not 'oh Rod, it is a shame it is you. I'd rather be assaulted by these men that have you bat them away as you are no ally to women'.

Spot on. When did saying, 'This is worth reading' come to mean the same as 'aligning with'?

Showing DH the photos of pip Bunce as one of the top business women was handy here!

Errol wtf?!

Have a look at the section 'safe space sickness' too

Most people are right about some things and wrong about others. He’s right about this, as well as some other stuff (the pus that has infected the Labour Party for example). He is wrong - idiotically, comically wrong - about Brexit and as a human being he is a scum bag.
It is a vice of the modern left to attack the person making the arguments rather than the arguments and it should be resisted.

It pithily lays out many of the current issues - including, in the last paragraph the incongruity of the fact that bellos and he may have similar views on them.

To me it's sexist to argue that women here are lining up with Rod Liddle. They aren't. That's an argument I see often on twitter to shut women up, finding some far-right Christian group who opposes trans people for instance and falsely accusing gender critical women of being their allies. If anything, he is lining up with gender critical feminists on this one issue.

It's clear from the article that he is no feminist and never will be. No one here would want to hold hands and run through fields of wildflowers with him. His usefulness, as others have noted, is peak transing conservative male readers of The Times. That's it.

What lang said upthread 100%. Excellent post.

661 words and he coveredthe absurdity in :
the Bellos/Kendal prosecution
the billboard
the Girl Guides
males in women's prisons
gender stereotyping and hormones in young children
males in female sport

I read and enjoyed and agreed with his article. I usually do. On the other hand I started reading KataraJean's post and was bored by the end of the first paragraph.

Politically I'm close to his views on most issues other than he is for Brexit and I'm not. There are posts on here which are laughably blind to the fact it is ridiculous identity politics which is responsible for this mess.

Liddle is fighting this battle out of a concern for freedom of speech, not a concern for women. So what, the freedom of speech element is a concern to me too. I don't agree with his views on women, I do agree with his views on censorship. I don't feel in the least compromised by this.

Anyone who’s staunch labour (I’m not) should be extremely grateful for this article, he’s pointed out that actually the tories do have some culpability here. We are well on the way to the Loony Left being blamed for this shitshow and the adults we’ve all been waiting to step in being revealed as Gove, Rees-Mogg, Boris et al. Labour will then spend an entire generation in the wilderness thinking about their lack of critical thinking skills and how they prevent entryism in the future.

Put it another way:

gc feminist: we have a right to make a case for political representation and protections in law

Liddle and his bros: hahahah victims, yeah keep talking as long as you destroy each other

women in this thread: well he said it was OK for us to speak out ...

Janice Turner is an absolute legend.

But she can't do this alone. Having the sinister lunacy of what's happening pointed out from different positions on the social and political spectrum can only be a good thing.