Anthony McIntyre thinks it was unwise for a Sinn Fein TD to apologise for remarks he made when he could have used them to spark a discussion around a matter which the censorious hope to create a new blasphemy culture. 

Free inquiry requires that we tolerate diversity of opinion and that we respect the right of individuals to express their beliefs, however unpopular they may be, without social or legal prohibition or fear of success." -- Paul Kurtz - "A Secular Humanist Declaration.

The feet of Sinn Fein have been held to the fire recently over the tweeting behaviour of some of its prominent figures. The sense of ridiculous at times found in the party’s attempts to defuse criticism has been enhanced by one TD saying the Party should not be apologising and then going on to apologise for 9/11 conspiracy theory rants he had shared on Facebook. While a discerning mind might glean the balancing act Martin Browne was trying to perform, for the most part he has been made to look buffoonish. 

The heresy hunters have been busy poking their stick in the smouldering embers of Twitter to see what scandal can be fanned into life. In one case the posse found something dating back to February where another Sinn Fein TD, Chris Andrews, was ‘liking tweets which transgender rights campaigners have said are “transphobic", when in fact they amount to little more than concern or dissent which the Wokerati are, through the phobia tag, seeking to pathologise

The tweet read:

Imagine if your daughter sacrificed her whole youth to get to the Olympics to win a gold medal and then this guy grows his hair long, says he's a woman, and shows up and mops the floor with her.

Andrews also liked a tweet, which said:

Definitely should have a transgender category. You could obliterate women from sport if this becomes more frequent.

All of this came on the back of controversy arising from a New Zealand transgender weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, who took two gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa. It has caused angst amongst people not remotely hostile to the Trans community that women who have never been biologically anything other than women are immediately disadvantaged. 

What should worry society is not what was said but that attempts are being made to have them unsaid. Concern, like heresy, has to be burned at the stake, so when the enraged began to pour out of Censorship Central, at their head brandishing a torch was Transgender Equality Network Ireland chair Sara Phillips

I would be very disappointed that he has liked and shared those tweets, but Chris has been supportive of trans rights in the past. I would hope to at some point get some context from him and discuss with him as to why he feels he should be liking and sharing those tweets.

That is how bishops used to talk to people: as if they had some innate right to chide us and delude themselves that we should be accountable to them because we don’t think the way they think we should think, to borrow a memorable phrase from Ernesto Laclau. The forcing back of one mob of self-righteous was not an invitation to another to step into the breach.

Armed with indignation Philips had pursued Andrews under the Prevention Of Errorism Act whereby it is a serious offence to supposedly err in public and which can only be atoned for by a ritual chant of mea culpa. Andrews duly obliged and beat his breast in public rather than stand his ground and defend what is arguably a substantive concern around a matter of public interest.  Seemingly he was a stranger to the sagacious words of Hiram Mann.

No man survives when freedom fails, 
The best men rot in filthy jails, 
And those who cry 'appease, appease' 
Are hanged by those they tried to please.

Andrews has been burned before because of his tweeting, but seems to be a slow learner.  In 2012 while still in Fianna Fail he used a fake account to slag off both Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein and its then leader Gerry Adams, one of which was:

Was it not corrupt to bury mother of 10 Jean Mc Conville. Is that acceptable to you. Selective outrage I thinks.

He was caught at the time and issued an apology. Now he is back apologising again. 

Nevertheless, Andrews is undoubtedly right in his assertion that "there is a lot of misinformation about transgender participation in sports, and it needs to be addressed head on.” Nor will there be any dearth  of the usual suspects lining up to put the boot into the Trans community, simply because their narrow minds don't have the bandwidth to deal with it rationally. 

Addressing it head on, however, does not mean the suffocation of alternative views or dismissing real concerns as phobias.  It can only be addressed head on by a thoroughgoing discussion of the ideas around it rather than waving the woke wand. Sara Philips might wish to wax disdainful of people’s misgivings that centuries of struggle by women for equality risks being compromised by the reinvention of men as women, but those with questions and concerns that women are being shafted are not going to roll over just that easily. Trans people should have every right and access to sports or any other sphere that society can afford them. But like the rest of us they have no right to quell the expression of concerns or dissent, where a new culture of blasphemy is being put in place and enforced by the dictatorship of the Woketariat.

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Tweet Police

Anthony McIntyre thinks it was unwise for a Sinn Fein TD to apologise for remarks he made when he could have used them to spark a discussion around a matter which the censorious hope to create a new blasphemy culture. 

Free inquiry requires that we tolerate diversity of opinion and that we respect the right of individuals to express their beliefs, however unpopular they may be, without social or legal prohibition or fear of success." -- Paul Kurtz - "A Secular Humanist Declaration.

The feet of Sinn Fein have been held to the fire recently over the tweeting behaviour of some of its prominent figures. The sense of ridiculous at times found in the party’s attempts to defuse criticism has been enhanced by one TD saying the Party should not be apologising and then going on to apologise for 9/11 conspiracy theory rants he had shared on Facebook. While a discerning mind might glean the balancing act Martin Browne was trying to perform, for the most part he has been made to look buffoonish. 

The heresy hunters have been busy poking their stick in the smouldering embers of Twitter to see what scandal can be fanned into life. In one case the posse found something dating back to February where another Sinn Fein TD, Chris Andrews, was ‘liking tweets which transgender rights campaigners have said are “transphobic", when in fact they amount to little more than concern or dissent which the Wokerati are, through the phobia tag, seeking to pathologise

The tweet read:

Imagine if your daughter sacrificed her whole youth to get to the Olympics to win a gold medal and then this guy grows his hair long, says he's a woman, and shows up and mops the floor with her.

Andrews also liked a tweet, which said:

Definitely should have a transgender category. You could obliterate women from sport if this becomes more frequent.

All of this came on the back of controversy arising from a New Zealand transgender weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, who took two gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa. It has caused angst amongst people not remotely hostile to the Trans community that women who have never been biologically anything other than women are immediately disadvantaged. 

What should worry society is not what was said but that attempts are being made to have them unsaid. Concern, like heresy, has to be burned at the stake, so when the enraged began to pour out of Censorship Central, at their head brandishing a torch was Transgender Equality Network Ireland chair Sara Phillips

I would be very disappointed that he has liked and shared those tweets, but Chris has been supportive of trans rights in the past. I would hope to at some point get some context from him and discuss with him as to why he feels he should be liking and sharing those tweets.

That is how bishops used to talk to people: as if they had some innate right to chide us and delude themselves that we should be accountable to them because we don’t think the way they think we should think, to borrow a memorable phrase from Ernesto Laclau. The forcing back of one mob of self-righteous was not an invitation to another to step into the breach.

Armed with indignation Philips had pursued Andrews under the Prevention Of Errorism Act whereby it is a serious offence to supposedly err in public and which can only be atoned for by a ritual chant of mea culpa. Andrews duly obliged and beat his breast in public rather than stand his ground and defend what is arguably a substantive concern around a matter of public interest.  Seemingly he was a stranger to the sagacious words of Hiram Mann.

No man survives when freedom fails, 
The best men rot in filthy jails, 
And those who cry 'appease, appease' 
Are hanged by those they tried to please.

Andrews has been burned before because of his tweeting, but seems to be a slow learner.  In 2012 while still in Fianna Fail he used a fake account to slag off both Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein and its then leader Gerry Adams, one of which was:

Was it not corrupt to bury mother of 10 Jean Mc Conville. Is that acceptable to you. Selective outrage I thinks.

He was caught at the time and issued an apology. Now he is back apologising again. 

Nevertheless, Andrews is undoubtedly right in his assertion that "there is a lot of misinformation about transgender participation in sports, and it needs to be addressed head on.” Nor will there be any dearth  of the usual suspects lining up to put the boot into the Trans community, simply because their narrow minds don't have the bandwidth to deal with it rationally. 

Addressing it head on, however, does not mean the suffocation of alternative views or dismissing real concerns as phobias.  It can only be addressed head on by a thoroughgoing discussion of the ideas around it rather than waving the woke wand. Sara Philips might wish to wax disdainful of people’s misgivings that centuries of struggle by women for equality risks being compromised by the reinvention of men as women, but those with questions and concerns that women are being shafted are not going to roll over just that easily. Trans people should have every right and access to sports or any other sphere that society can afford them. But like the rest of us they have no right to quell the expression of concerns or dissent, where a new culture of blasphemy is being put in place and enforced by the dictatorship of the Woketariat.

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

7 comments:

  1. 0.42% of the population identify as 'trans' but point out the obvious fact that if a biological born male has had the advantage of testosterone pumping through their bodies for years before they transition to what they consider 'female', they could end up really hurting a natural born woman in sport.

    This has nothing to do with hurt feelings and everything to do with actual damage that could be inflicted on a person. But raise it and the screams of phobia drown out reason.

    There's a person down here called Hannah Mouncey who plays womens AFL. They used to be a 6'2" male and built like a brick wall. They have taken a course of female hormones but have still not removed the testes. I encourage you to google the name and tell me if you would bet against them when they face a natural female.

    Commonsense is in danger of being drowned out by the whining of the PC, but why is commonsense such a thorny issue, and why aren't the individual Shinners allowed to express private views that the Party doesn't have to support?

    Especially one's that are coherent and logical? What are Sinn Fein afraid of?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve - I am not sure SF policed this one but in general your point holds. It has long been a party ruled with the ethos of the army. I guess that can't hold as the party widens its appeal and grows its membership. New people are not going to want to be told what to do by some whisper merchant with a Belfast accent sitting at the back of the room.
      I would never intervene in the freedom of Trans people to be what they want. Nor would I allow the loudest voices within the Trans movement to shout me down and intervene in my freedom to both have and express an opinion on the matter.

      Delete
    2. How long do you think it will be before the Army doesn't rule the Party?

      Delete
    3. I don't think it rules it at the minute but would have an input. I don't see how a party that big can be built and flourish under a stifling autocratic structure. With the handover of the reins there was always going to be a change in dynamic. It will continue to have an input but I imagine its control is greatly diminished.

      Delete
  2. Do you think the solo runs by members are what's frowned upon by the AC, specifcally the need to exert military dicipline? Or the actual content of what's said?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. is there anything to show AC involvement? I guess it is more a result of the culture the AC created whereby locals think nothing wrong about going to somebody's house with the Verboten notice. I imagine that has to decrease. Not out of respect for alternative viewpoints but because it is impossible to impose on a party growing at the extent SF is. People come into it believing there is no heavy hand from the North and they are not going to roll over every time somebody taps their own shoulder and whispers out of the side of their mouth.

      Delete
  3. Please use a handle when posting as Unknown

    ReplyDelete