Daily mail article on JK Rowling

[Anxieteaa]

A surprisingly good article

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8466711/amp/ANDREW-DOYLE-JK-Rowling-row-shows-Britain-grip-frightening-new-kind-religion.html

What's your AIBU?

What's your AIBU?

He's being very unreasonable, not least for posting links to the Daily Mail.

YANBU - it is a surprisingly good article for the Daily Mail.

Oh, and JK Rowling is a goddess.

And she is too big to cancel - she is she who cannot be cancelled.

And people are FURIOUS about that. She talks compassionately about reality and sense.

It’s not a good article. It’s extremely racist, and the 869,374th attempt by right wing extremists and white supremacists to align racism with the gender critical movement.

I’m biracial and GC.

You will NOT convince me that being a feminist means being racist, or that I should align myself with white supremacy on some spurious “we should be friends because wokesters hate both of us” argument.

I am also deeply concerned that whoever is pushing this whole “GC feminism = Racism” groupthink has an insidious agenda to try to discredit feminism by painting us as racists.

People exploiting us in order to promote racism are NOT our friends. Don’t fall for their lies and manipulation.

The comments are interesting

It’s a “surprisingly” good article because it’s written by Andrew Doyle, the alter ego of Titania McGrath.

Andrew Doyle is left wing isn't he?

Well, taking him at his own word, he is.

For an alleged left winger he’s certainly doing an excellent impression of Katie Hopkins.

Out of interest, because I'm no particular fan of andrew Doyle, and certainly not one of KH - can you quote me the passages that you think sound like her?

The extreme left aren't anyone's friends either. They have an idealisation that is almost Hitler like but on the opposite end of the scale. A scary and nasty bunch of people as well as the extreme right.

This article though, I do see elements of siding with the extreme right. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but that opinion must not discriminate against or belittle anyone on anything they were born with/can't do anything about. I don't think JK Rowling is discriminating, she's just using facts. She's quite happy to refer to a trans woman as she/her and accept them as a trans woman but they are a trans woman. If we start messing with reality, who knows what will be next.

I personally don't see someone being racially abused as even on the same level as a trans woman being told they are a trans woman, not a woman but accepted as a woman in society but in law and formally, a trans woman. The two are totally different. Why would they be considered in the same bracket? One is hateful and illegal, the other is just how things are in reality. The article seems to be saying people are being stopped from free speech. Some of that free speech is racist and the person just doesn't know it

I've re-read - Is it this? "It advances a modern-day equivalent of Original Sin in the form of concepts such as ‘systemic racism’, ‘whiteness’ or ‘unconscious bias’: unproven theories that are nonetheless asserted as truth."

I absolutely agree that there is systemic racism in society. I missed this sentence because it was in between an ad and a photo.

Yeah - I'm pretty sure JK would agree there is systemic racism too - so he's drawing a parallel between JK's assertion that biological exists, and people saying systemic racism doesn't exist. No, I don't agree with that.

But as far as JK Rowling, and any other woman being vilified and abused for stating that biology exists- and that "women menstruate" - he's right.

JK Rowling has been called a "transphobe" for what she wrote - well everything's transphobic now isn;t it? Saying biological sex exists, the words woman, breastfeeding, mum-to-be, dogs, Halloween, the hot weather- all of it.

What's shocking is that her accusers also call her homophobic and racist too - when she has not, nor has she ever expressed anything homophobic or racist. It's the holy ghost of accusations now - if you're accused of transphobia, you'll be called homophobic and racist too.

@JemimaShore

And she is too big to cancel - she is she who cannot be cancelled.

And people are FURIOUS about that. She talks compassionately about reality and sense.

Love this ha so true

JemimaShore the claims in the article that racism does not exist, and the repeated attempts to conflate anti-racism with being gender critical via use of inflammatory buzzwords and concepts appropriated from the GC movement, like “purity spiral.”

Believing that racism exists, and being against racism, is not a “purity spiral.” The idea that if you are against “purity spirals” and “wrongthink” then by definition you must be pro-racism is a worrying manipulation of words and ideas.

Many women in the GC movement have articulated the ways in which the TRA have manipulated language and weaponised thought control, and how Orwellian this is. The Neo Nazi/white supremacist movement is actively co-opting those exact phrases and concepts to try to attack and discredit anti-racism and to align themselves with feminism.

Ironically the author of this article is doing exactly what TRA does: try to manipulate words and invoke the concept of “wrongthink” to brainwash people into thinking they must hold certain “acceptable” opinions. It’s basically Donald Trump’s entire campaign strategy: “those stupid lefties want to steal your guns and let Mexicans take your jobs, are you gonna let the liberal elite tell you what to do??” Only here it’s, “those stupid wokesters are telling you that men can become women and that black people have historically been oppressed. You gonna let a bunch of blue haired Goldsmiths brats tell you what to think?!”

Weaponising political partisanship, encouraging people to latch their identity onto ‘their’ political party, demonising the rival political ‘side’, then trying to align anything you want to make a hate figure with the rival party is one of the oldest tricks in the book. And both sides do it. Both Left and Right have good and bad in them.

It's the holy ghost of accusations now - if you're accused of transphobia, you'll be called homophobic and racist too
That’s it - the holy trinity

Academic theories about racism - systemic racism, privilege, white fragility - these come out of Critical Theory, as does a lot of identity politics, including the bits that have infiltrated/infected feminism.

Just because people say words that seem correct doesn't mean that they are making claims or connections that are true. There is a tendency for some reason or people to think anyone who disputes these approaches must be ok with racism, but that's simply not true.

As I thought when I re-read, Cathy - thank you for articulating so well , that was a beautifully written post x

I can see both sides...
systematic racism is a real issue.
The ‘original sin’ of being white is also a real thing I think.
You see it on here, people dismissing GC views as ‘white feminism’, as if brown women can’t be GC.
Funnily enough, it’s mostly said by white men!
At least that’s how I’ve taken it, maybe I’ve misunderstood

Also... historically the right wing have treated women pretty badly. The right wing are not anti-trans because they care about women’s rights. And in some countries it’s actually far right extremists who are financially supporting trans legislation and treatment as a way of sterilising gay people. So it’s not as simple as Left=Pro trans Right = GC.

I consider myself to generally be very liberal (supporter of gay rights, pro-environmentalism, support the welfare state). I disagree with the militant TRA because it conflicts with my feminists beliefs, and being a “leftie” is what made me a feminist and a gay rights campaigner in the first place, during an era where the right wing were homophobic and sexist.

But right now the Left in this country are dealing with a problem of systemic racism (antisemitism) and also with ingrained sexism and homophobia. This doesn’t magically mean the Right have magically become bastions of tolerance. It reminds me of all those people saying Labour’s antisemitism had convinced them to vote Tory, ignoring all the Tory antisemitism.

Right wing - women are a man's private property.

Left wing - women are public property.

Since I first heard it, I've always felt this was true.

My politics have always been left-leaning, now I'm not sure. No political side cares about women's righs too much.

Thank you, JemimaShore

Goosefoot I call it the “Kicking Puppies” phenomenon. Binary partisanship is so dangerous people make being Left/Right/Democrat/Republican a crucial part of their identity, to the point if the rival side said “kicking puppies is bad” they’d feel morally obligated to kick a puppy. Because they’re the Enemy so anything they do or say is wrong by default.

ChurchOfWokeApostate honestly I think elements on both sides screw up and misbehave in terms of misrepresenting what the concept of “privilege” means, in order to foster divides.

This isn't an AIBU - bugger off back to the feminism threads

Also, YABU for linking to a racist article.

I am firmly left wing and completely reject his idea that systemic racism is unproven. There is plenty of proof that it exists. I am also GC. I don’t like the way the right wing is trying to co-opt GC feminists in this way. There is no equivalence of being GC and denying racism FFS

Hi there,
We've moved this as per your request.