Douglas Murray on Guardian's trans war

I suspect there are a number of things behind the preponderance of IT people.

One is the fantasy thing. IT people are also heavily represented in the SCA for example.

I also find many IT people remind me very much of engineers in their thinking. It's very linear and tends to follow simple lines of thought through even to conclusions that don't seem quite right. They tend to assume that what seems logical will be true. They don't always realise that their premises, that the logic is based on, may be less clear than they realise.

The final thing which plays into all of that is the type of education they get., which is largely technical. They, like engineers, consider themselves educated middle class people, aware of current events and research. They also are usually good at logic. But typically they have little or no background in history, the history or philosophy behind the ideas that are widely accepted by society, literature, or anything like that. All the things that are protective of people assuming their own assumptions and logic must be correct, or that widen their experience of reality.

Yes that is always the line. And yet..we all know it is platinum plated bullshit.

I think the stock answer would be they all pass so well you wouldn't know.

How that works in an industry which is predominantly men though, is anyone's guess

Does anyone anywhere have a bunch of TW colleagues?

I've never had one in my whole working life or know anyone who works with a TW. That's why I don't understand why they are gaining so much power and influence. Where are they?

Tbh even if there aren't that many TW working in the IT department, I bet there are enough for them to have colleagues who either genuinely feel they have to "defend" them, or feel pressured to. If you have a bunch of TW colleagues and someone shoves a protest letter under your nose to sign, it's going to be pretty awkward to say "sorry no, I don't think that writer did anything wrong".

It's like comic book writers. When our local ComicCon came I was keen to the the female writers, then realised about 1/3 - 1/2 of those with a woman's name were men. Difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction?

The IT thing is odd. I work in IT and the men are just standard blokes. Partners, wives, kids etc. Women in their lives, in other words.

There can't be that many trans women working in guardian IT!

Only thing I can imagine is that men in that type of role like to feel they identify with outsiders/ underdogs (while in actual fact in my work anyway they are well paid, white, generally straight, respected...

The bit about the list being made up mostly of people from the IT department was interesting. It's been pointed out here before how over represented TW are in that line of work. Shocking really given what a male dominated field it is - what could the connection possibly be?

There's totalitarianism on the left and on the right, definitely, but there is thankfully in the UK still also liberalism on the left and on the right too. (At either extreme L/R you get completely stuffed).

The problem we have now is that left "liberalism" has been taken over by totalitarianism on gender issues and other issues, so it's no longer "liberal" in those areas it's just about telling people what to say and think, closing down dissent, but still (under massive cognitive dissonance) believing itself to be and presenting itself to be liberal.

Reducing censorship problems overall to a left-vs-right issue right now is a bit reductionist, but I think we can safely say that when it comes specifically to feminist perspectives on gender ideology issues, those who have platform or power on the left are guilty as sin.
The right wing platform are supporting their voices even though they would disagree on other issues put forward by the same person, the left is silencing them completely.

Is that a thing? To be honest I wouldn't trust anything that the Grauniad printed. And I am sure that Murray would definitely speak against them - why would he not?

Of course it's a thing. Are you seriously suggesting that the Guardian made the whole thing up? Why not actually read the article and the links and find out a bit more for yourself?

I'm not saying Murray wouldn't speak against them - it's just that I've yet to see him do it. I absolutely despise the current passion for censorship amongst the left, I'm just saying I don't buy into this smug belief that the right are above censorship. History demonstrates otherwise.

There's a paywall; I've already used up my 5 free articles per month. Can someone post the text, please?

For future reference, I was unable to see this until I c&p'ed the URL into an incognito browser. Then I could read the whole of it.

Is that a thing? To be honest I wouldn't trust anything that the Grauniad printed.
And I am sure that Murray would definitely speak against them - why would he not?

Obviously I enjoyed the dig at OJ etc. But I think it's a bit rich of Murray to pretend that only the left has a problem with freedom of speech. Are we going to pretend that historically the right have never tried to silence dissenters?

And then there's this - a concerted attempt by an organisation called Education Watch to intimidate left-wing academics into keeping quiet:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/mar/10/mccarthyism-uk-universities-academics-fear-shaming-for-leftwing-views

Is Murray going to speak out against them?

“only ‘journalist’ in Britain .....other ‘journalist’ I know... that the boy Jones is on the list....”

Thank you that was enjoyable!

Background:

2015 Interesting panel discussion about how media were lobbied (Trans Media Watch/ All About Trans/ IPSO etc)

"Paris Lees, Dr Kate Stone, Owen Jones, Freddie McConnell Peter Tatchell, Munroe Bergdorf and Jake Graf discuss the main issues facing the trans community today, and what we all need to do to ensure we live harmoniously and happily as one society. "

The Guardian Live event took place at Amnesty International on 4 June 2015.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WspvIQEEt4o

April 2018 Dr Kate Stone TedTalk (re IPSO/Sun/Daily Mail)

www.ted.com/talks/kate_stone_the_press_trampled_on_my_privacy_here_s_how_i_took_back_my_story?language=en

January 2018 Helen Belcher Ted Talk 'Changing Media' (re the power of the five people at Trans Media Watch)
www.ted.com/talks/helen_belcher_changing_media

I am surprised little OJ didn't draft the ridiculous protest letter of hate.

'But then what do you do about people advocating revolting ideas like paedophilia, for example?'

Well Peter tatchell got a piece published about how sex with children is fine, quite a few years ago now.

I'm not sure where the line is either. We have seen with the net and press that suppressing or publishing content that many find outrageous both have an undesirable effect.

That was delicious. Thanks OP

I have centre front row tickets to see him in conversation with Andrew Doyle in May and it'll be cancelled for sure now. (I know, it's it's a small disappointment in the great scheme of things)

I must have missed OJ's solo Daily Mail demonstration. What on earth did he do?

'the boy Jones'

Yes and anyone who wants change should prove a change is necessary, how it would work in practice and show that won't harm others on its implementation. Instead were all being told a change is needed. End of. No discussion.

So the problem we have right now is that women campaigning to keep the law as it is are being intimidated.

The left need to learn that free speech is essential in a democracy.