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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The Big Questions yesterday.

11 replies

MrsSlocombesPussy · 24/02/2020 10:51

Did anyone watch the Big Questions yesterday? They were talking about 'Is woke a religion', talking about current intolerance. Titania MacGrath's alter ego was on, talking about the Harry Miller case and non-crime hate incidents.
I only managed to catch a bit of it but I'm glad to see this issue is getting talked about more.

OP posts:
ZuttZeVootEeeVro · 24/02/2020 12:10

I saw a bit of it.

I thought Andrew Doyle came across really well and measured. There were two others who I suppose were on the woke side who seemed to do lots of eye rolling and threw accusations at him that he didn't make.

I think it came down to the usual debate, where some are convinced that they are correct and everyone else who questions them are borderline racist/sexist/transphobes.

One thing that is obvious, though, is free speech is not seen as important to many.

MrsSlocombesPussy · 24/02/2020 12:20

I thought the eye rollers were minimising too, as in, it's not an important issue, so why are we wasting time talking about it

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MaMaLa321 · 24/02/2020 16:50

I started watching it but it was so awful, I had to give up.
I thought Question Time was terrible, but this is even worse. It's so obvious that the presenter is only interested in whipping everybody up into a froth.
Andrew Doyle was, of course, perfectly reasonable, but hardly got space to say much.
I realised that I was becoming infected by the general tone when I wanted to bang his neighbour in blue's head against a wall. Her with the eye rolling. Time to turn off. That's one programme I won't be watching again.

CaptainKirksSpikeyGhost · 25/02/2020 09:55

it's not an important issue, so why are we wasting time talking about it

This seems to be the current tactic, it's been cropping up a lot this week.

NonnyMouse1337 · 25/02/2020 10:58

I find these sort of programmes can be a bit pointless because there's not a lot of time and there are so many angles and perspectives to cover on such topics. Everyone feels rushed and that they have to talk quickly to get their point out before someone else interrupts and interjects.

I'm starting to prefer programmes like the ones by Joe Rogan and the Triggernometry guys because they get someone on and then they have an hour to articulate their thoughts. The host can ask probing questions or challenge them on certain points, but overall, they get the space to explain their viewpoint even if it seems a bit controversial or upsetting in some aspects. By the end, you've got a better understanding of where they are coming from and why they think the things they do even if you might not agree with everything that's been said.
That seems more productive than several people speaking over each other at once or not being able to answer a question to the extent that they would like.

It was really good to see the difference of opinion between the two black men in how they conceptualised racism. Too often in 'progressive' or 'woke' politics, ethnic and religious minorities are classed as some homogenous, oppressed and sensitive group and sweeping assertions are made about them and their 'community' as if everyone thinks and feels the same way.
It's really important that people from ethinic and religious minorities have the space to publicly disagree or contradict one another.

Good points from Andrew Doyle and Shereen from Edinburgh university on the topic of wokeness being a sort of religion.

What I found ironic (and I wished someone pointed it out) was the woman who liked to dismiss people's concerns as rare, individual cases that have been blown out of proportion and is not indicative of a wider problem..... When the whole basis of identity politics / oppression Olympics / intersectionality approach is using individual cases as evidence for insisting that systemic islamophobia, racism or transphobia etc exist and are of serious concern. That the entire country is overrun by racists and transphobes and islamophobes because the majority voted for Brexit or the Conservatives.

If she can easily wave her hand and dismiss story after story of people being affected by so called social justice warriors hounding and harassing them, then why shouldn't another person dismiss stories of racism or prejudice towards other groups as simply unfortunate, individual cases that are being blown out of proportion?

morningtoncrescent62 · 25/02/2020 18:39

It's worth watching to the end of the programme - they get some decent points in during the last 5 mins.

I'm torn about programmes like this. On the one hand, they bring the issue to a wider audience, including people who may have no idea that there's anything happening. But inevitably they're very superficial, and it would be easy to totally give the wrong impression. I did think that on Sunday's programme Andrew (Titania) and Shereen came across as the most knowledgeable and measured, and the people who were arguing that it didn't matter came across as unreasonably angry, especially the guy who was glad Andrew'd had death threats because nothing else counted. Confused Hopefully anyone watching will have picked up at least that there's something to be worried about, and maybe just one or two will want to go and find out more.

TheRealMcKenna · 25/02/2020 18:51

NonnyMouse1337 I won’t rub your nose in it (too much) by telling you I’m going to see Triggernometry live interviewing both Titania McGrath and then Andrew Doyle on Sunday in London....

I love Joe Rogan’s interviews. The one he did with Tim Pool and Jack Dorsey was brilliant and incredibly worrying.

Question Time was a joke. They just seem to want to get the most extreme voices on so that clips get retweeted as much as possible. The only amusing part of Thursday was hearing Ash ‘literally a communist’ Sarkar unwittingly using the well-known catchphrase of one of America’s most right-wing commentators.

Of course, the free speech crisis is a right-wing conspiracy according to the Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/22/university-free-speech-crisis-censorship-enoch-powell

AutumnRose1 · 25/02/2020 18:53

I like listening to Andrew Doyle but can’t face that show. I’ve seen the clips he posted on his Twitter feed.

Tbh I didn’t know the show was still on till he tweeted, I thought it finished years ago.

Chrysanthemum5 · 25/02/2020 19:08

I thought Andrew and shereen made great points (and that the other guests were pretty bad mannered) but I can't take Nicky Campbell seriously. All I can see when he speaks is Mrs Merton saying 'Lets have a heated debate'!

NonnyMouse1337 · 25/02/2020 19:10

NonnyMouse1337 I won’t rub your nose in it (too much) by telling you I’m going to see Triggernometry live interviewing both Titania McGrath and then Andrew Doyle on Sunday in London....

They do live interviews now??? 😭

TheRealMcKenna · 25/02/2020 20:04

They do live interviews now???

I think it’s a one off at a comedy pub. All of them do comedy shows as part of Comedy Unleashed, but I think this is a small event.

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