@pollyhemlock
Thing is, I don’t believe that deep down OJ really thinks that women such as JKR, Suzanne Moore, Sarah Ditum etc are ghastly transphobic bigots. These women have a long history of advocating for the oppressed. But he is now so entrenched and comfortable in the position he has taken up that he can’t back down from it. At all. And he is constantly affirmed by his followers.
Agreed, but he is willing and arguably eager to throw these women, and women as an identifiable protected class, under the bus. NOT for any reasonable and reasoned vision of equality, however misguided, but to advance his own ... sorry, I don't know what to call it except self-aggrandising lucrative sexist hypercapitalist nonsense.
I personally know many people in Scotland - and yes, I know it's a niche situation - who were debating voting Labour vs SNP in December 2019 in the hope that a straight-up situation of more Labour than Conservative seats, even if no majority, would give Labour first chance to form a coalition government. As it turns out, it wouldn't have. I still think it's interesting that Own Jones's misogynist hypercapitalist shite tipped them SNP (and the SNP are not exactly feminists either).
I think sometimes in the wider UK we don't see the damage misogynists do to the political process because there really is a stark right (CON) vs left (LAB) choice, and they're both virulently misogynist. When CON moves a little toward recognising that women exist, LAB suffers - but then hardens their anti-woman position. It shouldn't be this way, but it is because LAB leadership are cowards, and won't throw out the misogynists in their ranks (but will throw out the feminists).
Own Jones is an opportunist. Yes, he sucks, but he's only relevant because misogynist cowards in the LAB leadership allow and encourage him to be. He's a hack.