Robin Ince quits working for the BBC over his support for men in dresses and terrorists

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

Shame really he’s a nice guy, a huge bibliophile, met him a few times at book signings, the last live show of his I saw he did shoehorn in “and of course trans women are real women” or some such nonsense.

guessing the infinite monkey cage is cancelled now, that was in my top five podcasts.

can’t do a popular science show and think women can have a penis though. Wonder what Brian thinks?

the video of his love resignation , presumably at the end of a monkey cage recording, is here
https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1plg02g/bbc_presenter_robert_ince_claims_he_has_been/

notably he doesn’t say how men in dresses are being treated badly. Everyone has a blind spot.

For some reason a lot of people are taught that it means "believing in something that there is no evidence for.

Because that is a definition of faith provided in many dictionaries, and faith is not always synonymous with religion.

Have they made an announcement about the future of the Infinite Monkey Cage?

Absolutely! Although not even “I’m sorry he feels this way, and we will miss him” is quite telling in itself!

I'm not convinced by that. If an omnipotent God does exist, couldn't such a God step in the halt extreme terrible scenarios, but otherwise leave people be? People analogise to a parent letting a child make mistakes to learn, but most parents would step in if their child was about to make a horrifically evil decision. Such a decision wouldn't mean the child had no free will or choice over what to do in other situations.

Plus 'free will' doesn't explain natural evil like floods etc. Personally if God did design the universe & oversee evolution, I'd like to know the reason for the obstetric dilemma : a better design (which surely an omnipotent God could come up with) would have saved the lives of the huge numbers of women who died in childbirth.

Personally I'm currently agnostic, and lean to the finite God theory, which Rabbi Harold Kushner & some Christian theologians believed, among others. If there is a God, and one wholly good, then I think this God must be unable to intervene and therefore not all powerful.

Different religions have different ways of conceptualising this ofc. Eg. Hinduism is complex but some variants argue that both good and evil come from the Supreme Being,. The OT God is much more morally complex. Ideas of evil powers, but still weaker than God, could also be used to explain. Overall though I'm doubtful at this kind of defence, which often argues good cannot exist without evil. I can see the point, but surely an omnipotent God would be able to choose the laws the universe is based on?

Brian's silence speaks volumes!

There's a Christmas Day episode of infinite monkey cage that's just started.

I'm assuming it's pre recorded so before his flounce but set on Xmas day.ive not really listened to it before but it seems like RIs function is to be the slightly sneering comedy foil half taking the piss out of Cox.

Ie hes the mediator for the terrible geek that Cox represents. His banter so far is quite "I'm being funny, look I made a jibe about particle accelerators to Cox"

There's quite a lot on this topic in Christianity, right from the earliest patristic sources to the present.

You have a discussion of what "omnipotent" could actually mean - does it mean being able to accomplish logically contradictory aims? Most theologians would say no - god can't create something that has logically contradictory attributes, like being both light and heavy at the same time in the same sense. That wouldn't be omnipotence, it would be some sort of chaos where nothing was possible. If that's the case, it is not at all clear that it is possible to have any kind of real freedom while also removing all consequences of that freedom.

The question of natural disasters and natural suffering is also addressed from quite early on, all are seen as tied together with suffering due to willed bad intentions, and with things like decay, death, etc. Because things are not independent, they are interrelated. It's a bit like the idea in Buddhism that until all beings are free from attachment and suffering, none will really be free, including animals, plants, rocks, etc.

Thanks, this is a very interesting reply. I'd like to write more later. For now- to clarify, I wasn't thinking of a God who would remove 'all consequences of that freedom'. I was thinking more of interventions in really extreme situations like huge war, genocide, etc Intervening in those wouldn't necessitate intervening in less extreme evils.

' The question of natural disasters and natural suffering is also addressed from quite early on, all are seen as tied together with suffering due to willed bad intentions, and with things like decay, death, etc. ' - thus particularly interests me : how are willed bad intentions, decay etc seen as causing natural disasters?

Are there many other BBC presenters who've quit them for political reasons? There Gary lineker and a lot of other journos who left .

Blind item on Popbitch this week:

>> Big Question <<
Who’s asking what this week?

Which social media-friendly star has been loudly claiming that they resigned from the BBC for noble reasons related to their political views? In reality their cancellation is less of a free speech issue and more of a personality one; due to a massive falling out with the wife of their co-star along with a tendency to be horrible to female members of staff that had made them roundly disliked.

That definitely sounds similar to what was circulating on X after his flounce.

It's well known that there was a falling out with Prof Brian Cox's wife.

Yes, but the Oxford English dictionary, for example, provides 14 definitions for ‘faith’. And if you look at the learner’s edition, your ‘no evidence’ definition isn’t in there.

That definition you quote is in Merriam-Webster. 2b.

But how do dictionaries define words? And the answer is, by useage. Books, media, spoken language. So a particular group starts a definition of ‘faith’ with a particular meaning, they get it into enough books and media, it gets into the dictionary.

All it ‘proves’ is that you’ve been relatively successful in changing one of the (14) meanings of a word. It’s actually the same tactic TRAs use to try and redefine any word that refers to women.

Note that ‘female’ is now being stretched to include ‘man in a dress’

Yet another example of an actor who thinks being able to speak other peoples words and not knock over the scenery means that their own words are of enormous value and must be listened to , valued and obeyed at every opportunity.

If he didn’t have a public platform he would be sitting in the corner of his local and innocent passers by would be warned off sitting at his table because “Old Robin, he’s got some funny ideas and will bore your ears off as well as cadging drinks off you. Best stand by rhe bar and try to ignore him.”

An odd approach to rely on dictionaries, given Augustine's definition of faith as, "believing what you do not see"; or Aquinas, "thinking with the giving of assent", or Tertullian's "credo quia impossibile est"; or Kierkegaard's leap into the "absurd", just for starters.

Distinguishing between faith & belief is pretty much the Enlightenment project, a project under open attack from the zealots of Queer Theory, who would prefer us to take on faith the catechism, "TWAWTMEMNBIAV" than to interrogate its content or require it to be sufficiently evidenced.

Ince has confirmed the blind item in Popbitch is about him and posted on Bluesky.

As Popbitch resurrected the rumour from the anti trans that I treated women badly on Monkey Cage, I’m sharing what happened - this is from Normally Weird & Weirdly Normal - it was actually far worse for me than this version but I wanted to save other people from the glare and blame
https://bsky.app/profile/robinince.bsky.social/post/3meovvqzwas26

And quote posted that post a day later, adding this:
Later on I found out who gaslit me with the “we think you have mental health” issues and it did not surprise me - all those years of making monkey cage and sad to see who forgot all that and was ready with silence or worse

https://bsky.app/profile/robinince.bsky.social/post/3meovz425h226

Of course the suggestion he's horrible to female production staff means he's actually being bullied because he's neuro divergent.

Do these men see or hear themselves?!

“Oh yes my fellow XY small gamete producing cock bearers can colonise the XX sex, and be protected in doing so. Because despite our collective long-standing and enduring violent domination and controlling behaviour towards that half of our species - they really really want to, and it would be mean to say no.

So everyone must suspend their disbelief, reason, science & history (and sense of self protection), to accommodate these males. Regardless of the evidence that 1. you cannot actually change your sex, and 2. socially many persist in uniquely male patterns of violent & aggressive behaviour after colonisation/transition.”

Imagine that being the hill a supposed man of science is willing to die on. Goes to show how insidious misogyny is. What a dick.

Greg Wallace anyone?

"Keep being you Robin" (makes heart sign with hands)

Didn’t read further than “Am I an Arsehole”. Yes. Yes you are.

I’m none the wiser after reading that.

Disappointed in PJ Harvey’s comment.

I don't understand how that has anything to do with his alleged behaviour towards female staff. He doesn't have any explanation of that at all. Or are we going with: "I'm neurodivergent, therefore I'm allowed to be rude to women?"

It does sound that his new found confidence could look like a middle life crisis at best, or more likely a breakdown to anyone not wacky.

Going to Slapstick festivals and being the guest lead singer of an all female Fall tribute band, isnt something that just happens to us normies.

It's not the PJ Harvey. This is from their profile.

I'm not Polly Jean But I am an author of SFF novels, even if I happen to be unpublished so far. I'm also autistic, so any help on the ol' networking front for someone who can't do anything else but write engaging character-based stories is appreciated.