Baroness Barker (LibDem) attempts to smear GC women's groups

[MrsSnippyPants]

"Many describe themselves as grassroots campaign groups, and are not registered charities so they don’t have a constitution that sets out publicly how their organisation is constituted or to whom and how it is accountable. And many say that they are funded by supporters, not by government – usually with bank details for people to send in donations."

www.openlynews.com/i/?id=49ee12f8-209a-4e2c-a2ce-7c3a675d9403

A vicious dig at Angela Wild and her research

"Last week, Openly published an opinion piece about a piece of research that claimed it provided evidence of lesbians experiencing threats and intimidation by trans women. Only it wasn’t and it didn’t. It was a set of leading questions, predicated on the assumption that trans women present a threat to lesbians."

www.openlynews.com/i/?id=1d8e4853-fd83-4fbb-b0b4-ebab528f0ac2

Sounds like she'd prefer all political campaigners to be registered and approved by the government. Doesn't sound very liberal to me....

I'm a former paying member and was actually considering voting LibDem in the EU elections, but this has reminded me yet again why I can't support them. They are openly hostile towards women like me, and they don't have a clue about the damage they are causing.

She doesn't seem to think British newspapers should report on charities she likes; did Kids Company completely pass her by?

When the election comes round is there a None of the Above option?

I don’t just mean spoiling the paper, but a positive choice against any of the candidates.

Yes, just damn the general public having minds of their own and organising for themselves when the establishment want to force them to obey.

Not liberal. Not even basically democratic. Not a party you'd want anywhere near power.

She could of course address the issues raised but as ever side steps it completely. A familiar tactic from trans advocates.

Always, there isn't a NOTA option but there is a way of spoiling your ballot paper that records you didn't want to vote for any of the candidates. I posted a thread about it a couple of months ago. It was called Protest Voting for the Politically Homeless. I'll see if I can find it and post a link.

What a pathetic article. A group of lesbians say things I don't like and they organise and demonstrate, what's democracy coming to. Make everyone listen to me instead. My opinion of women in politics couldnt get any lower, she's not even elected.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3523074-Protest-voting-for-the-politically-homeless

Deep sigh..........

*This line of thinking started decades ago with articles and books by academics based on the ideological belief that trans women cannot exist.

It became immaterial how trans women were supposed to function in our society – probably because such people want trans women to disappear from our society. At best they call for segregation – trans people in their own areas, not mixing with anyone else. They completely (and conveniently) ignore how this segregation would be policed, instead relying on promoting unjustified fear.*

If you build your arguments out of strawmen then don't be surprised when it goes up in flames. FFS how many times do we have to explain that pro women does not mean anti trans.

There’s nothing worse than a grass roots organisation funded by its supporters. Obviously.

”They completely (and conveniently) ignore how this segregation would be policed,”

Yet so-called “integration” won’t be policed at all. We all have to pretend invading men in women’s prisons or refuges will magically do no harm, despite all the evidence that suggests otherwise.

She really is a piece of work. One thing to support the trans ideology. Another for a senior female politician to smear grassroots protest groups that are springing up everywhere.

Hasn’t it crossed her mind, even for an instant, that there might be a reason those groups are appearing? That women all over the U.K. and further afield have not suddenly gone mad, or are evil, but perhaps have seen something she’s missed?

Unelected peer who sits in the House of Lords, the second chamber of our Parliament, slags off grassroots political organising by lesbians. Hypocrite.

"Hasn’t it crossed her mind, even for an instant, that there might be a reason those groups are appearing? That women all over the U.K. and further afield have not suddenly gone mad, or are evil, but perhaps have seen something she’s missed?"

There is a good sized chunk of the left that is used to, and I suspect enjoys, the idea that large chucks of grass-roots discontent are about people being stupid xenophobic racists who don't know what is good for them. That sort of attitude is good practice for being dismissive of any other group that seems like they are espousing the wrong opinions.

I can see that Goosefoot. But those of us engaged in this battle are surely not the usual demographic for such protests? Middle-aged women (many of them lesbians) aren’t usually up in arms.

She’s dangerously arrogant and will, if given her head, do enormous damage to the women she should be protecting,

This line of thinking started decades ago with articles and books by academics based on the ideological belief that trans women cannot exist. It became immaterial how trans women were supposed to function in our society – probably because such people want trans women to disappear from our society. At best they call for segregation – trans people women who understand reality in their own areas, not mixing with anyone else. They completely (and conveniently) ignore how this segregation would be policed, instead relying on promoting unjustified fear.

Fixed it. The queer theory academics decided that women are now just a feeling in a man's head, and anyone who believes in biology is an awful witch who should be sent to the gulags.

So I think that's really how this statement should read, if we're going to be accurate about the situation.

Yeah, Any, I am not sure how people talk about this to themselves and justify it.

But if the left can decide the working classes are a bunch of deplorables, with no real beef, I guess they would be able to take the same attitude to any group.

I think for many, they simply dismiss any person or group who doesn't have the right opinion. There is no room for nuance or asking questions or exploration.

I sometimes think that they know at some level that if you bring that kind of approach to questions then al kinds of beliefs they have been taught not to question are also up for examination, including the ones that aren't considered controversial. To me, that does not seem scary - it's not scary to examine critically and carefully something like the idea of racism, because I think it can stand on its merits, and it's not a bad thing anyway to think very carefully about how we conceptualise those terms and ideas - there is more than one way to think about such a complex subject. But I get the impression that for a lot of younger people, these ideas have very little theoretical foundation, they have been taught in a way that is essentially shallow.They can't defend any kind of complex questioning.
And then there are those who are all about thought control, and they love the people who have been taught to think in this way.

She can fuck off with the "self identified lesbian feminists" for a kick off.

Well this is the fecking problem these days - no one understands how to construct an argument and persuade people rationally. The only method employed is 'denounce and throw insults'.

That's why identity politics is such a popular and shallow thing. You don't have to show anyone if your ideas are good, you just gave to claim your label, and scream and point at anyone with the label you don't like.

Until or unless the T is chiselled away from the LGB it will remain politically toxic to speak against it.

Patriarchy and oppression hide behind so many things.
MRAs disguised as TRAs hide behind LGB rights.
Men covering women up with hijabs, niqabs and burkas hides behind 'religious practice'.
FGM hides behind 'cultural practice'.
Having to always cover our nipples due to breast fetishisation hides behind 'modesty'.
Porn and the industrial level exploitation of women's bodies hides behind 'sexual freedom' and 'trade'.
Pressure to shave off your pubes these days hides behind 'hygiene/individual preference'. (We've witnessed this brand new oppression being born and the post-hoc rationalisation women come out with for complying with it - a marketing tour de force as usual, chaps!)

Patriarchy and male oppression have always found a way to disguise their woman-controlling shit as something that can be embraced, defended and promoted at women's expense - even by women themselves.

I think feminists are my intellectual heroines for identifying these disguised issues over and over again despite the monumental continual gaslight that is patriarchal society.

That's why identity politics is such a popular and shallow thing. You don't have to show anyone if your ideas are good, you just gave to claim your label, and scream and point at anyone with the label you don't like.

It's call-out culture. What you say is not directed to the other side to try to change their mind but is actually directed to your own side to show your credentials as a valued member of the in-group.

Like much of the new politics around these days it's about gazing into a mirror. I do hope a less narcissistic form of politics begins to emerge soon.

I hope a LibDem canvasser arrives at my door this upcoming election. I'll add Baroness Barker to my list of things to rant about.

So my list so far consists of:

• Lynne 'if you don't believe that TWAW then you aren't welcome in the LibDems' Featherstone
• the abusive attacks by the LGBT Twitter
• Layla 'see into their souls' Moran
• the hounding of Ms Bird www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lib-dem-trans-activists-hounded-abuse-victim-b6dx39tv3?shareToken=0d628f013bc970c145c3f8d788ce0371
• Baroness Barker's attack against grassroots campaigns

Mainstream British newspapers have run articles critical of organisations that work for trans equality such as Mermaids and Stonewall; organisations that are regulated as charities.

Ha ha ha ha ha

And let's not forget that the LibDems welcomed Aimee Challenor with open arms after Challenor was suspended by the Greens and then found to have failed to notify the party that their election agent father was charged with child rape and torture.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/aimee-challenor-father-rape-election-agent-green-party-investigation-a8725701.html

Aimee is now the LibDems Diversity officer for Coventry