JKR's essay wins Russell prize

Another of the nominees (Paul Vallely) seems to be subtly putting his weight behind JKR.

twitter.com/pvall/status/1341025177824595969

He's always seemed a thoughtful and deeply moral bloke so I can't see him issuing a weaselly statement tomorrow.

And these hate filled warriors no doubt pat themselves on the back for calling out transphobia

Never in their wildest dreams did they think being to 'good' guys would be as easy as hurling abuse at women on the internet.

Yeah white dudes shouting fuckyou

The hate is really horrible.

I mean how can people write such terribl3 hate filled stuff in full view

This is a woman who gives and gave so much to differen5 charities

And these hate filled warriors no doubt pat themselves on the back for calling out transphobia

This is final straw for me, the BBC is clearly institutionally transphobic and I’m no longer prepared to give them anymore of my money, license cancelled.

I am sure these people live n another planet. BBC transphobic indeed..

Watch the woke white fellas try to get an Asian man sacked for defending the writing of a woman who disclosed the abuse she'd suffered, expressed her concerns for women and trans people and her worries about the medicalisation of kids. Way to go white dudes.

Not quite so many slurs and insults as usual. I suppose it must be hard finding equivalent hate words for a man.

The article does highlight something. Even though Rajan is framing it as being about the rhetorical power of JKR's essay, it is a key insight into the whole debate.

If you're ever editing copy that seems verbose, go through it and think about cutting syllables while conveying the same meaning. Plain English has power. JK Rowling gets that.

GC people, almost without exception, write clearly.

Their opponents do not.

This made possibly the biggest impression when I first looked into what was going on. If your arguments make sense you don't need to dress them up in bullshit. Sensible ideas, even complex ones, can be explained plainly and without evasion. Clearly one side found itself utterly unable to do this, ever, and this reassured me that their emperor had no clothes.

As nauticant put it beautifully in a recent thread:

A suggestion OP. If you read any of the posts on this thread and find them to be describing things that don't seem to make sense or are incomprehensible feel free to assume that they're actually wrong rather than assuming that there's some profound complexity you don't understand.

“As always, the selection process was watertight, in that nominations were submitted by me, to a rigorous and impartial panel of one, also me, wherein I have self-identified as convenor, founder, chair, president, and - in a new designation for 2020, approved by me - CEO.”

I like Amol Rajan more every minute! Totally unintimidated.

I follow Ian Leslie, he's a good bloke. You forget they exist sometimes on twitter.

Well. She is trending on twitter again. So yes, interest will be piqued.

And 12 months and 1 day since ‘that’ tweet!!!! Already people were retweeting it.

I notice that one of the other writers named, Ian Leslie, defends JKR in his tweets
twitter.com/mrianleslie/status/1341088040362635266

I always thought Amol was a good egg.

I never cease to be amazed and shocked (however many times I see it) at the number of privileged, white males in the media on Twitter with thousands of followers who cannot wait to shit on JK Rowling from a great height.
The misogyny and myth making is a sight to behold. It makes me so angry and makes me doubt anything I read from the media outlets they work for.
It's shocking. I don't know if Jo reads this board but if you do we bloody see them in all their glory.

Or think of the final line from Enoch Powell's most notorious speech: "All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal." [] I'm not endorsing the argument; but the rhetorical power of that line comes from the fact that there are 16 words, the first 15 of which have one syllable, and the last of which has three.

Didn't Churchill deliberately limit his oratory to Anglo-Saxon words, in order to subtly chime with as many people as possible ?

I find myself curious as to how Enoch Powell would have engaged with todays Trans debate, had he so chosen.

I have self-identified as convenor, founder, chair, president, and - in a new designation for 2020, approved by me - CEO.

Well done Amol Rajan. Shed a little more light

I'm nervous he'll retract and repent and grovel but...for the moment....

Oh, and a tweet saying she's being praised for her 'misinformed and inaccurate essay.'

They must have missed that Judicial Review where three high court judges agreed with JKR's stance on the ''treatment'' of gender dysphoric children...

Amol Rajan's name is trending too. God, they're so boringly predictable.

Do these activists ever actually do any activism for genuine issues, or do they just spend all day on Twitter making them up and dictating what people are allowed to think and talk about?

😴😴

Nice one Amol. Always liked the man.

I just hope he holds firm and doesn’t do the grovelling dance of retraction & appeasement

Haven't had much chance to go on social media today but just checked Twitter and saw JK trending and I knew what it would be about. Squeaming stamping erasing most opressed suicide threatening tantrums galore 😅

Well written! I love how the rhythm of language has a psychological impact on our understanding, and you've eloquently explained it.

Thanks, Igneococcus - what an amazing article. Do read it, everyone.

I note from Google that his wife is an academic, and they have very young children, so perhaps he is very aware of the issues! Despite all his
emphasis on not endorsing JKR's views, I think he was brave in including the piece, and I loved his self-identification comment.