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Transfolk & The Principle of Least Astonishment

Apr 022024

The interesting thing about the Trans Day of Visibility accidentally (to state the bloody obvious, Easter keeps moving around so such accidents are inevitable) colliding with Easter Sunday is that it has caused all the really fucking nasty shits to come out of their hutches spitting lettuce everywhere.

And yes you are really fucking nasty shits.

According to the last UK census only 0.5% of the population are transfolk; you could spend your entire life without encountering one. And transfolk are quite probably the most bullied minority there is – one report referenced by this guide suggests that 34% of young transfolk have attempted suicide. That’s probably higher than the suicide rate (one estimate puts it at 25%) amongst Nazi concentration camp inmates.

Now that is attempted suicides but it is still astonishingly high and points to a horrendous level of alienation and indeed bullying.

That needs fixing. And part of that fix is to tell the really fucking nasty shits to keep quiet.

One of the dumbest things that the nasty shits want is to force transfolk to use the public toilets marked for the gender they were born with. In other words they want people who to all appearances are women to use the mens facilities; and they want bearded blokes to use the ladies.

Now I don’t especially mind ladies (or transwomen if you insist) using the gents toilets although it does cause a double-take and a moment wondering if I’ve mistaken the sign on the door. Especially with those “fun” signs.

Oh and that “principle of least astonishment”? If you have gender segregated toilets, you expect to find those who look like men in the gents and those who look like women in the ladies.

But can you imagine the reaction if someone with all the appearance of a bearded bloke walks into a ladies? There have apparently already been women assaulted in toilets for looking too masculine by the ‘gender police’.

You don’t have to understand gender dysphoria to feel sympathy for transfolk – I don’t. It’s completely incomprehensible to me. And the really fucking nasty shits who criticise transfolk? Well they’re probably really fucking nasty shits in other ways too. So figuratively slap ’em down every time they raise they heads.

Because they deserve it.

JK Rowling Denying The Holocaust

General No Responses »

Mar 242024

There is currently a furore about JK Rowling having denied that the Nazis targeted transfolk with a comment specifically stating that the poster should “check their sources” which becomes amusing …

For the record, the historical suppression of the world’s first institute covering trans healthcare is a matter of record. And although I’m not going to chase down threads to verify this, there is very little doubt in my mind that transfolk would have been sent to concentration camps as homosexual men were.

Now the average person might be forgiven for being ignorant about the suppression of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft; after all those who aren’t interested in the subject will make an assumption that the “Holocaust” was just about the killing of the Jews.

It is true that non-Jewish victims are somewhat less publicised and that most groups weren’t targeted for annihilation as the Jews and Roma were, but being worked to death in a concentration camp with random and brutal punishment up to and including murder isn’t a kind fate. And certainly qualifies as repression.

Any public figure should be more careful about denying that something did or did not happen.

I have just seen a video claiming that JK Rowling isn’t a Holocaust denier because the word Holocaust refers specifically to Jewish victims. Well, there’s a discussion to be had about that – but it should be noted that the Jewish have a specific word for what happened to them (Shoah), which some people believe leaves the word “Holocaust” free to use in reference to all of the victims of the Nazis; it certainly works better than “Nazi crimes against humanity”.

B&W Picture of the entrance to Winchester's Great Hall — Entering The Great Hall

Diesel Generating Electricity for Electric Cars

General, Politics No Responses »

Mar 042024

I recently came across a post talking about how insane it was for a diesel generator to be generating electricity for an electric car charging station. Well, yes but it might not be quite as bad as it seems.

The first thing to bear in mind is that very few cars will charge here unless they really need to – most car users will charge at home and will only use public chargers when they have no other choice. And this one is undoubtedly in a remote location where a suitable electrical feed is not available. As a remote location, it’ll get even fewer users than most public chargers.

Probably only those who haven’t properly charged their car overnight and are ‘caught short’.

The second thing to bear in mind is that although it’s a more polluting solution, it is still almost certainly far less polluting than using a petrol car. For a start, most of the electricity used in an electric car is off the grid which whilst not completely clean is at least getting cleaner (the UK is currently generating 36% with renewables and is in late winter when demand is quite high).

Next, a diesel generator is a very efficient device – far more so than a diesel vehicle because it can always run at its most efficient (assuming a sensible load and it’ll have been picked to supply the load for an electric car).

But hopefully it is just a temporary solution until someone has enough nous to set up a solar farm and a battery backup.

The USA Isn’t The Best Country In The World

General No Responses »

Feb 182024

Nobody likes to hear their country isn’t the best country in the world – especially when said by a filthy foreigner. But the USA isn’t.

The USA is ranked 59th by life expectancy.
The USA is ranked 7th by GDP per capita.
The USA is ranked 123rd by pregnancy mortality ratio (there are 180-odd positions and the lowest rate is best).
The USA is ranked 12th by the World Freedom Index.

I could go on, and probably there’s a metric out there where the USA is #1. But I doubt reeling off metrics showing the USA isn’t the best is going to convince many.

But here’s another reason. Assuming your country is the best leads to complacency, which eventually leads it it not being the best country in the world. So even if your country is the best country in the world, pretend it isn’t and always strive to make it better.

The Remembrance Poppy

General, Politics No Responses »

Nov 112023

I don’t usually wear one of those red poppies – not out of a lack of respect for the war dead or veterans of wars, but because of “poppy fascism“. It’s all very well choosing to wear the red poppy, but it should also be fine to choose not to wear the red poppy – even the Royal British Legion supports those who don’t choose to wear it: “If the poppy became compulsory it would lose its meaning and significance.”

Just look at the abuse those in the public eye who choose not to wear it receive.

And some of the reasons for not wearing it are perfectly reasonable – some politicians do use it as a means of promoting war and nationalism. Distasteful in the extreme. And very much associated with the far-right – the very kind of people many of the war dead were fighting against.

On the other hand, some of the reasons for not wearing it can sometimes seem inappropriate. It’s all very well being against some of Britain’s wars and even against some of the actions of British soldiers (such as Bloody Sunday), but the poppy is about remembering the war dead and veterans. A group who very rarely had any choice about where they were sent.

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