Does anyone else not quite get James O’Brien

[ACatCalledPushka]

I listen to LBC a lot - I work from home and enjoy the company of Nick Ferrari, James O’B, the amazing Shelagh and the lovely Tom, (only catch Ian Dale on days I’m taking my daughter to football).

i don’t share all their political views but I enjoy their shows and respect their viewpoints.

But I get so frustrated with James. He speaks about misogyny, how women learn from an early age to appease men, couch things in a certain way for male recipients of an email, how many of us hold keys between our fingers to protect ourselves against potential male attackers etc. it seems seems that he really understands why women are on their guard against potential male abuse.

Until of course he discusses trans issues. And then when a male says he’s a woman we’re all supposed to let down our guard and say ‘come on over sister’ when that male has had all the male privilege that JOB talks about and still has male attributes (and usually genitalia too). He spoke about how he found a unisex toilet absolutely fine (of course he did, he’s never had a stupendously heavy period when you’ve got blood on your hands, never been abused by a male, not of a religion that means you can’t share toilets with males).

Sorry just need to rant after his show today - he thinks there’s misogyny in Whitehall, without realising he’s part of the patriarchy. He really needs to leave these conversations to Shelagh.

Yes I agree with this

something very uncomfortable about how he pulls someone in then enjoys shouting them down and trying to trip them up

you can play devils advocate without the shouting down

is he doing a slow reverse ferret there? I thought a few years ago he was 100% beardbrained on this topic, not remotely equivocal.

I found this bit quietly hilarious:

but he seems to be saying that he can argue people out of a fear of gay people or immigrants using logic, but not transgender people.

Is it really surprising that he’s learned to
say ‘the right things’ about women’s fear of male violence and has also learned to say ‘the right things’ about trans issues, but hasn’t actually given any real thought to any of it?

I am blissfully unaware of who this James O'Brian person is, so have no clue why he feels so strongly that real women must be forced to accept transwomen as being real woman too.

I do know that some men who find transwomen sexually alluring are emotionally invested in convincing everyone (themselves included) that transwomen are women, because they want to continue thinking of themselves as heterosexual.

It's a little nugget of knowledge that tends to float to the surface whenever I watch angry (beardy, shouty) men railing at women for their perceived meanness in excluding men-who-claim-a-female-identity from female only spaces.

He thinks he’s God’s gift to talk radio.

He is sorely mistaken.

Apollo441 · Yesterday 20:20
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He's a twat. Look no further for an explanation”

Completely disagree. Each to their own.

I love James o Brian. I think he is an extremely intelligent guy that asks the questions no one else does. He ties people in their own words

You can always call in and put your points across

I quite like listening to him but do find that he can get a bit twitchy and interrupty if he feels the person he's talking to isn't agreeing with him. I was listening the other day and he was basically saying he was surprised to find that during the covid enquiry Dominic Cummings wasn't quite as bad as he'd thought. People were taking exception to that and pointing out lots of stuff and get kept getting all sniffy because they weren't agreeing with him about this one, tiny aspect of DC that maybe wasn't AS bad as the others. He kept trying to "ring fence" this one point but couldn't seem to understand that people don't want to ring fence ONE thing. A serial killer can still be kind to cats....

I agree with @DarkDayforMN I think he is backing down from his very strong TWAW stance. The interview with Posie Parker dates from 5 years ago. I think he might be rethinking his ideas:

“I just don’t want to call anybody a liar,” he says. “So if someone believes that they were born in the wrong body, I don’t want to call them a liar. And if somebody believes that their personal security is threatened by that person using the same amenities that they use, I don’t want to call them a liar either.”

He's sitting on the fence but he's come a long way from the patronising bully talking over Posie Parker in that previous interview.

Maybe if Labour change their stance then so will follow JOB and the like, eg Billy Bragg. I agree with JOB on most stuff, except trans issues. Similar to Suella & co, I disagree with mostly all they stand for and their policies, except this issue. And JOB on this issue. Very disconcerting I have to say

Yeah, that's exactly how he comes across to me too. He seems to 'get it', till it comes to the trans debate - which makes me think he doesn't get it at all...he's just learned the lines 'nice men' are supposed to say.

I remember listening to him blabbering on about TW in sport and he tried to equate the unfairness of male bodies competing against females with swimmers who have big feet having a competitive edge over those with smaller feet

Excluding TW from women's sports is exactly the same as excluding big footed swimmers, apparently! 🙄

as the saying goes - it’s very difficult to make a man believe something when his livelihood depends on him not believing it

he knows exactly what a woman & he’s not stupid either, he knows the equivalence he cites in sport is bollocks but how can he continue to be ‘the voice of the left’ on LBC if he admits that?

He's definitely a TWAW in the streets, TERF in the sheets type of man, probably while wearing one of those "this is what a feminist looks like" t shirts.

The Telegraph pithily describes his new book as "Remainiac foghorn schtick" 😅

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-james-obrien-how-they-broke-britain/

Sorry...what exactly male privilege does a trans woman have? If anything she is seen as less than any cis person, male or female and has less privilege other than being abused and no medical care. You really have no idea.

Oh mishy you’re always good for a laugh

trans women are men - do tell me how while middle aged middle class men who have used male privilege to have careers, marry woman, father children are the most oppressed evah when they decide that they need to wear women’s clothes?

as always I’m equally embarrassed for you whilst grudgingly admiring your tenacity at pushing this nonsense

The very fact that some trans women tell, no demand, that women should accept males into female only spaces is the very epitome of male entitlement

and it’s often bullying behaviour too

There’s always one.

Off the top of my head...

Dylan Mulvaney - direct access to the president of the US just for being a "woman". There's billions of women in the world, so what is special about Dylan's womanhood?

Rachel Levine - U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps first woman four star officer. Amazing how she was able to triumph against the drawbacks of being trans and a woman when all the boring female women didn't make it!

Matilda Simon, 3rd Baroness Simon of Wythenshawe - inherited a peerage despite having an older sister - how does that happen?

And let's not forget the amazing achievements of trans sportswomen who go from mediocre male placings to winning female races - such a weird coincidence!

The fragrant Eddie Izzard - amazing how she succeeded in the notoriously sexist world of standup!

And let's not forget the poor dears also had to struggle with not-being-overlooked-for-promotion-in-case-they-get-pregnant, not-having-random-men-demand-their-attention, not-being-discouraged-from-STEM, not-wasting-their-mental-effort-placating-male-egos...

Sorry Mish - the person who has no idea is you. Just like trans women, you have no idea what women's lives are really like. Just like all male people, all you know about womanhood is the construction you have created from the outside.

No medical care?

Gosh,every day's a school day on Mumsnet.

I think its as simple as the fact that he likes to side with the most fashionably oppressed as defined by the left at the time...

Women are old news, we've been banging on about our oppression for aeons. We're frankly, a bit too boring for the great JOB to truly hitch his feathers to our mast...

But transwomen, well they're where the woke points are. See also immigrants.

This man doesnt care about anyone or anything, apart from the sound of his own chianti soaked vocal chords.

He's disingenuous in the extreme and would have made a better thespian than quasi political raconteur. I really do struggle to see how anybody takes him seriously.

ChelseeDagger

I Absolutely agree

He's a total nobber. I listen to LBC a lot, really like a lot of the presenters, especially Shelagh and Iain Dale. I don't always agree with them but they're obviously decent people. O'Brien I turn off every time he's on and put Times Radio on. I despise him.

He’s a grandiose, condescending prick who cannot accept that someone could have a different view that is equally as valid or, god forbid, right. I can’t stand him.

The way he talks over and ridicules some of the people who call in is tantamount to bullying.

Anyway, I’ve added nothing to the subject you’re talking about but much as he’ll never miss an opportunity to congratulate himself, I’ll never miss an opportunity to call him a knob.