Anyone seen the latest from John amaechi?

[resistingreality]

He’s posted on twitter. https://twitter.com/JohnAmaechi/status/1658090759164248066

The ratio doesn’t look good for him which is quite heartening. A while ago I posted here saying I’d been on a panel with him and without saying too much, I was not that surprised to later discover how willing he is to tell women how they should think and what they should accept.

Anyway my point here is that I think many public figures have dug in so deep to this position that they simply can’t back out without losing face. So they dig in deeper. I would say billy bragg is in the same position.

I expect this has been written about elsewhere …. but it seems to me they need some help to extract themselves while maintaining a bit of dignity? What could that look like? Or should we just say stuff them?

No way! So just manipulating the audience for backpats?

@datun I guess. It was unpleasant as I knew the room was with him not with me - but I couldn't go along with the bollocks he was spouting. Anyway as I say he shut me down and only afterwards told me that he agreed with what I was saying. But my strong sense at the time was that he was not interested in what I had to say, he certainly didn't like being challenged, and he was not willing to debate. And nothing has changed my opinion since then.

Dick swinging, then.

As Obi Wan would have said "The misogyny is strong in this one".

*If MNers are unsure why I'm keeping up the Jedi references, he identifies somewhat as a Jedi Knight... y'know...fearless, logical, a champion, a hero.

Too bad he's none of these things. Indeed he's a block-headed man, no more, no less.

Oh .. and this time and on a subsequent occasion he spoke for much longer than his allocated slot (leaving me with very little time). And after the second time, I thought I won't appear on the same platform as him again, if asked (and I haven't been).

So close yet so far! He tantalisingly says that when we ask “what is a woman” we don’t appreciate the difference between sex and gender, but he doesn’t tell us what this mystical “gender” is. He just blocks. And he also seems to be a few years behind on his queer theory: he appears to think that males need hormone therapy and diagnoses in order to be women, and he’s ignorant of the fact that trans people now claim to literally change sex.

The thing is… if nice transwomen who have gone through years of therapy and treatment are transwomen, and nasty ones who assault women are not, then surely he would support some kind of gatekeeping so that only the former are allowed in our spaces. But we’re bigots if we ask for that too, apparently.

He's using his mother's cancer, the vile man. How low can you stoop with this subject?

It sure is a trap for the superficial to display their stupidity. What would he be doing if "activism" hadn't provided him with easy money for talking shite I wonder.

Oh, he'd be one of a million no mark self help gurus, part of the Find Your Authentic Self charlatans.

At best he'd be helping people to speak confidently in public, or getting ahead in business.

Imagine the Alice In Wonderland world where a guy who encourages you as a male to be an ex smoker now encourages you to be a female.

When I've listened to him speak, and seen people moved to tears, I have often wondered how many audience members are thinking like me. I need to be careful what I say here as it's potentially a little outing but sometimes I think of people like him as sort of demagogues. There's no doubt that rhetorically he is powerful. But I have serious doubts about what he actually says.

He's on an identity politics crusade of intersectionality and has been feted for it in the last few years.

Everything is power and oppression to him and he's righteously always on the side of the oppressed.

In this world view trans are the oppressed.

To try to discuss this with him is the same as trying to discuss racism with him: just a sign of your bigotry.
Listen, understand and obey is what is required.

This is why he's totally comfortable not debating and blocking.
He knows he's on the side of the righteous so why bother?

@malaganights And the fascinating thing for me is how the corporate world (particularly leaders) seem mad for it. I have my ideas why and it's something I am writing about in my day job but I think it's partly because it lets them off the hook. Listen to him tell them how oppressive they are, make a few people cry, and then everybody can get right on with whatever they were doing before.

Datun

Yes mate, your mum is a woman.

How do you know? "DID YOU CHECK THEIR CHROMOSOMES?!!

Indeed.

I've never heard of him but he looks to be a pusher of CSJ and all the woo that entails, with a big fat dollop of communal narcissism on top.

Nothing we haven't seen countless tiresome times before.

I'm not quite sure I understand why being a retired basketball player qualifies him to be an expert on transw and their medical and biological quirks, if they have any.

His LinkedIn in profile shows he attended Penn State University, which is the university that entered Lia Thomas in women's swimming races.

Isn’t he a psychologist?

Lots of these guys in sports go on to be motivational speakers when they retire, if they have the charisma to pull it off. Right now the money is in racial bias training, so that's what he is talking about.

I don't think there are any real qualifications for that kind of role.

Helleofabore

Ah, a psychologist - I see! Obviously qualifies him to speak as an expert on physiology, anatomy and endocrinology!