It would have been so informative to have seen Rupert, Hannity, Carlson and the rest in the dock. As the linked article alludes to, there was certainly some interesting inside info on Fox revealed in discovery.
If the testimony Rupert gave is useable elsewhere it could go beyond the dominion settlement.
Crikeys lawyers would be looking to leverage it as he effectively admitted they knew it was BS but didn't want to disappoint their viewing base with the truth.
That would be great. The big problems occur if she is a Starmer in my opinion. At 8% the Greens can't afford to lose about half their vote share over a factional dispute.
any kind of significant internal problems being made public during the election campaign will most likely harm the Green vote, because the MSM would go hard against them, and because people want competency and it's a relatively easy switch from G to L.
The Greens always suffer when it comes to public perception. Many people would probably quite easily agree and subscribe to the Greens’ values, principles, and ideology but balk at the idea of voting for and/or the Greens’ candidates. To me, it often sounds like people hating France because there are too many French living there [no offence to France or the French] – it is illogical and irrational. So, it is a perception problem, i.e., a people problem of people having a problem with people. ACT figured this out a long time ago but the NZ Greens are still in their political nappies when it comes to political PR & management – I hope they don’t spit the dummy and start crying in public.
what do you think that ACT came up with? Better PR?
I've never understood why the GP PR and comms has had such holes in it (not being a comms person myself). But part of it is that the Green kaupapa isn't well understood. Current example is them doing an internal investigation into the EK messages and people mocking them for that. But it was clear to me that a) there was more going on than just EK calling CW a cry baby, and b) how MPs, exec, staff, GP members treat each other is a core principle, you can't function in a group with the kinds of processes that the GP uses if you have people being mean to each other or nasty behind their backs.
All parties in NZ can learn a thing or two from ACT with respect to PR and political management. Possibly the only exception is Winston Peters. ACT runs a tight ship and keep its nose clean, in case you haven’t noticed.
Consistent well-prepared PR, no internal party conflicts spilling into the open (good Party management), articulate likeable Leader with high public profile, mature Policy platform, keeping powder dry for battles to come (good political management), good rapport with Media, and so on and so forth. Do you follow NZ politics at all??
Fuck off Incognito. I don't know what your problem is atm, but I was interested in your thinking and thought that I might learn something (which I did).
Making naïve statements, IMO, and asking naïve questions, IMO, which I’ve tried to answer anyway to a degree, begs the question what your game is here with others and me. You say you want to foster robust debate. The irony that’s the same dream as I have. So, why are you and I clashing mostly over one singular topic here? Is it because I have fundamental objections to your cause? No, I don’t. Is it because I have picked one side over another? No, I haven’t. Is it because I have ‘a problem’? No, I don’t. You can fill me in, if you wish, in the front- or back-end, I really don’t care anymore where.
seriously, I wanted to know what you saw about ACT that was different from the GP. Maybe I am naive, if by that you mean not knowledgeable. It's not a game. I ask people questions because I want to know what they think. No-one is obliged to answer, and there is nothing wrong with asking.
It wasn't about the gender/sex wars, or robust debate on TS. I am in fact interested in how comms works in political parties as I don't know that much about it.
But maybe the Greens suffer from public perception because of who they are and what they say.
E.g a polticial party who puts on the social media that they are off to fight some Nazis, when there were no Nazis associated with the Let Women Speak event.
The Minister of Violence Prevention at a protest where there was violence and intimidation towards women who didn't condemn the violence and then blamed Cis white males for causing all the violence.
I think this is what Marama and other members of the Greens really think. So citizens hear that and draw their own conclusions.
Acts MPs performance has to date been faultless (although if anyone wants to correct me on this, please do).
I am looking for grown ups to run the country, not people who engage is name calling their own ("cry baby") and apparently have a big split in the party
I am looking for grown ups to run the country, not people who engage is name calling their own ("cry baby") and apparently have a big split in the party
What big split in the party? This is pretty tame stuff by general NZ political party standards. EK looks like a liability, but that's not unusual either (hence the Sharma reference).
Some people have said that Elizabeth and Riccardo are one faction and they have their supporters in the party and those supporters were who EKs "crybaby" text was meant for.
I guess some evidence that supports this was EK s text. At the very least it seems like EK has some level of contempt for CS.
“This is no time for half measures. By signing the Declaration on Forest Land Use, New Zealand, as a major consumer of deforestation-linked products like PKE, has committed to doing what it can to protect forest ecosystems. This is a great step forward. Now the Government must put its money where its mouth is and stop the use of PKE in New Zealand for good,” says Teanau Tuiono.
Nah, voters know which side their croissant is buttered. This will be a cookie-cutter bread & butter election. So, watch out for populist propaganda by demagogues and snake-oil men (and women).
National's bonfire regulations policies were responsible for the leaky houses of the nineties costing many homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars.
National acts first and thinks later.
If it moves deregulate it, if it doesn't sell it off.
I’m really starting to think that most in National really don’t care, one way or another.
Politics is or should be a contest of ideas and trying to make a difference, e.g., even something as lofty as leaving the World in a better place. At present, it is anything but like that and rather the opposite. Even so-called ‘progressives’ lose sight & track of the big(ger) picture and let themselves dragged into rabbit holes bogged down by trivial topics and sideshows.
The bigger problem is that many people have stopped caring or they are caring too much (!) about singular issues that they consider existential to them and mostly them-only. You can see the polarisation kernel right there. All this plays into the hands of the usual ‘suspects’ but as soon as one tries to call this and/or name it for what it is all Hell breaks loose and words & meanings get twisted swiftly to win arguments and control the narrative.
The external narrative is crucial because it influences our internal narratives and stories we tell ourselves about the World, others, and ourselves. In other words, control the narrative and control the minds, so to speak.
Personally, the key is detachment, which is hard on a good day, but next to impossible when you’re treading water whilst caught in the middle of fierce shit-storms.
USA too has problems with children learning to read.
About one in three children in the United States cannot read at a basic level of comprehension, according to a key national exam…..
Science of reading advocates say the reason is simple: Many children are not being correctly taught…..
A popular method of teaching, known as “balanced literacy,” has focused less on phonics and more on developing a love of books and ensuring students understand the meaning of stories. At times, it has included dubious strategies, like guiding children to guess words from pictures.
Research shows that most children need systematic, sound-it-out instruction — known as phonics — as well as other direct support…
Many children are not being correctly taught….. as well as other direct support…
Do an increasing number of parents expect schools alone to fully develop literacy and numeracy skill for their children, and don't realise that it's important to support these skills from a very young age at home as well? how important it is to read to them, and help them read, and to bring numeracy into everyday conversation?
Many working parents are time short and screen time unconsciously becomes an embedded part of parenting, which almost always won't involve improving literacy or numeracy skills.
If there is one thing I've learnt as a parent and grandparent, it's that learning these skills has to be a partnership between schools and parents.
When I was teaching Infants to read I used context then chose a word for closer study including the phonics connections. The bottom line was the enjoyment of reading whereas the previous phonic system tended to kill a love of reading. For some it was reading the words but not understanding what the text meant. Sad.
Most kids learn to read easily but it is true that a small minority do need special specific teaching. Lets not throw out the gains and skills of the good readers for the sake of those who need special help.
My wife's sister is over from Australia. She is a teacher over there.
She was saying that they have a very program proposed by National in that there are similar requirements for minium hours per day to be spent on maths and english.
Also, parents get regular feedback on how children are progressing according to expected standards.
you have a pattern of making suggestions to authors and mods eg that we email you, or that it would be better if criticisms were taken offline, or that we have to provide facts/instances. All of that is requiring mods to do more work, instead of you listening to what we are saying and asking for clarification if needed.
"To set the tone and disclose the intention, I strongly believe that the last paragraph should have been the first one:
By understanding such frameworks, we can move the discussion away from hysteria and fear, towards increased understanding and reconciliation."
I agree.
If this was the first (and last) paragraph, I wouldn't have wasted time reading such waffle from someone with a superficial understanding of what concerns have been raised.
Not by hysterical fearful people, but by people with a clear understanding of impacts who retain the capacity to say "No", to those who insist they are the arbitrators of kindness, and that everything else is just people saying silly stuff.
The main thing Mr Hoban has right is that this belongs in the realms of theology. We don't require others to share our beliefs in various varieties of immortal souls so why should we be required to share beliefs based on the possession of a gendered soul?
He is certainly familiar with earlier versions of homophobic and misogynistic cults so I am surprised he does not see this one for what it is. But you don't get published for saying that.
"Cults, on the other hand, can also refer to a group of people who follow a charismatic leader. This may include religious concepts, beliefs, and practices that can easily turn dark and threatening when followed through to the extreme."
The charismatic leader doesn't apply though, although the rest does.
There is an Irish women that wrote well about the religious angle in the UK. I'll see if I can remember her name, and find some of her writings.
People from all these religions and belief systems permitted me to enter their worlds with no compulsion on me to participate or to believe. Yet today, in Ireland, when it comes to gender identity theory, it is becoming difficult to adopt the phenomenological perspective as there is increasing pressure to accept this theory uncritically.
Although there is no concept of the divine in gender identity theory, there are elements that could be considered religious. There are symbols, chants, flags, parades, and ‘holy’ days. There is a belief in what could be termed transubstantiation where the substance of the body is believed to change from one sex to another. A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul.
The idea of a heretic or infidel is also relevant. People and organisations who don’t subscribe to gender identity theory, or who publicly criticise or even question it, have been denounced or ostracised, and products and publications boycotted. Detransitioners, who no longer subscribe to the theory, are akin to apostates…
Re the 'cult' and/or 'religion' of gender and gender identity 'ideology':
Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time. https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1
Imagine 'problematic' self-IDing transgender people didn't exist, then ask:
Would gender critical folk still be critical of gender and/or gender identity 'ideology'? If so, then why?
Would anti-gender folk still look askance at females and males whose behaviours, roles and freedoms/rights didn't align with and partition strictly according to traditional (binary) sex-based divisions? If so, then why?
Gender is dynamic for all people [14 November 2022] This paper has presented three aspects of gender’s dynamism: that the meaning of gender has changed over time; that there are significant cultural differences in the meaning of gender; and that one’s own gender and relationship to it can change, evolve, weaken, and galvanise across a lifetime.
Imagine 'problematic' self-IDing transgender people didn't exist, then ask:
do you mean
non problematic self IDing trans people exist, but the problematic ones don't?
trans people don't exist?
self ID doesn't exist, but trans people do?
Would gender critical folk still be critical of gender and/or gender identity 'ideology'? If so, then why?
Gender critical feminists would be, because they already were before gender identity ideology started impacting on our rights. Are you familiar with feminist critiques of gender? The reason is because gender is how the patriarchy controls women. Note that the whole pink for girls and blue for boys is a feature of both the patriarchy and gender ideology (which is another reasons why the latter is considered regressive nonsense).
Would anti-gender(ism) folk still look askance at females and males whose behaviours, roles and freedoms/rights didn't align with and partition strictly according to traditional (binary) sex-based divisions? If so, then why?
What? GCFs are completely ok with gender non-conformity, many of them are gender non conforming.
You seem confused about what the GC objections to gender identity ideology are. Right wing religious objections to transness aren't usually gender critical, because RW religious people usually want to uphold traditional gender roles. GC people fall into two broad camps. Those that object to the impact on women's and children's rights (GCFs and allies), and those that object to queering of culture (people who think that sex is real and matters and that transing kids is abuse). I'm generalising (it's more complex than that), because too many people are referencing the religious right and thinking that's what GC is.
non problematic self IDing trans people exist, but the problematic ones don't?
trans people don't exist?
self ID doesn't exist, but trans people do?
Thanks weka for your questions/options. Noting that my 'problematic' was in inverted commas (trans people being problematic to some people only), I meant (effectively) '2.', since all trans people self-ID, just like everyone else (to some degree, no?) – or perhaps you could answer a good faith question prompted by your good faith questions: Can trans people exist without (personal) self-identification?
Are you familiar with feminist critiques of gender? The reason is because gender is how the patriarchy controls women.
See the paragraph (anti-gender folk looking askance at adopting behaviours/roles out of kilter with traditional sex-based assignments) after my second question. My answer to my second question would be 'No', because (as you rightly observe), patriarchal anti-gender folk want to control more than just the ability transgender people to self-ID.
I asked two questions, the first relating to the perspectives of gender critical folk, and the second relating to the perspectives of anti-gender folk. You began your response to my second question (about anti-gender folk) with a reference to GC feminists – wouldn't that response be better suited to my question about GC perspectives?
You seem to believe that I'm confused, and not for the first time. I can only assure you that I don't feel confused, and hope that you will accept my personal assurance in this regard. I would also like to assure you that many comments on TS relating to these 'problematic' issues serve to clarify my personal thoughts on gender, gender-critical, gender ideology, and gender ideology-critical PoVs.
I'm also confused, but I think it may be because your idea of gender critical is not related to a gender critical perspective, but because you think gender critical is only related to criticism of gender ideology, and not a separate stand-alone perspective.
With that in mind, are you able to just ask your two questions simply without reference to any links?
(Because they seem to diffuse rather than focus your queries)
ok, but who here would find trans people 'problematic'? I don't know why you would need to write it that way if what you meant was trans people generally.
Let me try something.
You said,
Imagine 'problematic' self-IDing transgender people didn't exist, then ask:
Would gender critical folk still be critical of gender and/or gender identity 'ideology'? If so, then why?
which could be rewritten as,
Imagine trans people didn't exist, then ask:
Would gender critical folk still be critical of gender and/or gender identity 'ideology'? If so, then why?
to which I would still say, yes feminists have a critique of gender that is outside the sex/gender wars. But also, if trans people didn't exist there would be no critique of gender identity ideology because GII wouldn't exist.
I'm not sure that all people do self-ID btw. But where you ask,
Can trans people exist without (personal) self-identification?
I would say it depends what you mean by trans people. If you mean gender non-conforming people, then yes, they exist irrespective of self-ID. If you mean people with gender dysphoria, then again, yes although I suspect that gender dysphoria is a consequence of living in a society that punishes GNC, so I'm not convinced dysphoria is inherent in humans.
Are you familiar with feminist critiques of gender? The reason is because gender is how the patriarchy controls women.
See the paragraph (anti-gender folk looking askance at adopting behaviours/roles out of kilter with traditional sex-based assignments) after my second question.
honestly, I can't follow all your quotes. I just ignore them and read your own words. Trying to go back now and figure out what you mean is impossible. Also, one of your quote/links is basically gender ideology, so I'm not going to accept it as a reference at face value.
My answer to my second question would be 'No', because (as you rightly observe), patriarchal anti-gender folk want to control more than just the ability transgender people to self-ID.
I asked two questions, the first relating to the perspectives of gender critical folk, and the second relating to the perspectives of anti-gender folk. You began your response to my second question (about anti-gender folk) with a reference to GC feminists – wouldn't that response be better suited to my question about GC perspectives?
Here are the two questions
Would gender critical folk still be critical of gender and/or gender identity 'ideology'? If so, then why?
Would anti-gender folk still look askance at females and males whose behaviours, roles and freedoms/rights didn't align with and partition strictly according to traditional (binary) sex-based divisions? If so, then why?
Which I would rewrite as,
Would gender critical folk still be critical of gender and/or gender identity 'ideology' if trans people didn't exist? If so, then why?
Would conservative people still look askance at GNC people? If so, then why?
If I were answering them, my GCF would inform both questions.
You seem to believe that I'm confused, and not for the first time. I can only assure you that I don't feel confused, and hope that you will accept my personal assurance in this regard.
You use the term anti-gender when referring to religious conservatives (If I have understood). That's one thing that is causing confusion. The anti-gender people are the feminists. The religious conservatives are pro-gender/pro-gender roles, and anti-trans or anti-GNC.
ok, but who here would find trans people 'problematic'?
@weka – another good question. Please accept an assurance that I would be amazed indeed if anyone "here would find trans people 'problematic'". I didn't, however, intend my hypothetical ("Imagine…") to be limited to Standardistas, but can see how you might have taken it that way.
Can trans people exist without (personal) self-identification?
I would say it depends what you mean by trans people.
On reflection, that's certainly possible. I know hardly any trans people personally, so would be interested in evidence that there are adult trans people who do not self-identify as trans – perhaps because they are either unaware, or in denial ("in a society that punishes GNC") about that aspect of their identity, just as some homosexuals and members of other minorities (continue to) deny various aspects of their identity, and rarely to the good of themselves or others, imo.
I'm a stale male, and yet aspects of my identity continue to be revealed to me – some good, some not so good, and some (fortunately and/or unfortunately) subject to change. I would guess that most, if not all people who know they are trans and are not in denial would (self-)identify as trans, but that's just an assumption.
The anti-gender people are the feminists.
So some feminists are anti-gender (hopefully not too many?) and some feminists are anti-gender stereotypes, and some feminists are gender critical, and some feminists are pro-gender, and some feminists are pro-trans, and some feminists might be trans activists (possibly not to many).
The religious conservatives are pro-gender/pro-gender roles, and anti-trans or anti-GNC.
It seems that your definition of “pro-gender/pro-gender roles” is in close alignment with Wikipedia’s definition of anti-gender! So many factions; so much friction.
Molly, anyone can opine on what they think I think, but on this occasion, 'no cigar'. I accept that GC perspectives can be broader than simple criticism of gender ideology, assuming that's what you meant – all we have (in this forum) is our words.
Regarding your request, it is regratable that the links make my queries appear more diffuse to you, but, if it's all the same to you, I will retain the right to include links that I consider relevant to my comments, as they help to focus my mind.
If my queries appear too diffuse, then maybe just scroll on by. I know I do.
Many of us are aware of the "This may include religious concepts, beliefs, and practices that can easily turn dark and threatening when followed through to the extreme."
I enjoyed the links to Colette Colfer and more critiques on the 'gendered soul'
To be kind to this author I am assuming that the article he submitted was a much better version than what has appeared in Stuff. It may have been cut down and had a great deal of persuasive theological material removed. As it is is skeletal and disjointed.
I was intrigued that the article was grasping at straws and, to me, did not seem particularly well based on theological scholarship. It was not knowledgeable on some items on which he has based a case eg Nazis/neo nazis.
It is lightweight in comparison with some of the informative links that we were treated to during the earlier discussion on Womens issues etc.
It also missed the elephant in the room, ie what the visit of KJM was all about. That is women's issues and the female response, based in antiquity, to having a concern about unknown people, particularly men in areas that they should not be.
Straws
Cleanliness purity idea, though women in ages past have been classed as 'needing cleanliness' because of menstruation and childbirth/products of childbirth*. So we get this 'the debate is linked to distorted beliefs about religious purity, cleanliness, and sexual propriety (specifically, the belief that unmarried men and women should be kept separate when naked)' So we are pulling a cleanliness/purity card and that is the reason for concern. So people are concerned about transgenderism because of purity issues?
Churching of women – now regarded as a celebration of childbirth and welcome back to the church.
Nazis link. This linking has been rebutted/explicitly denied on many occasions. As Jo Bartosch said on The New Flesh interview with Ricky and Jon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUhUlpAl-gs (about 2.5-3mins in) the concept of Nazis has moved from 'guilt by association' vis a vis the Nuremberg trials to 'guilt by proximity' as per Melbourne etc with neo nazis standing around. She mentions how Moira Deeming has been hounded because she attended a gathering that Neo-Nazis had gatecrashed.
The missing elements……the concerns of women. I have always believed that the Christian church in relation to its views and treatment of women can be a force for good or a force to be used against women. Some churches allow women to minister and to give Holy Communion. Others do not while others maintain an intrusive concern about the sexuality of women.
But having missed the point of what KJM is all about the author has missed an opportunity to actually bring some theology into it.
What is the theology around grossly trying to change those that God has made in his own image?
Genesis 1:26-28 announces that human beings are made in the image of God:
New International Version
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
People who seem to be either man or woman
Adam and Eve are the Bible's first man and first woman.
According to the Bible (Genesis 2:7), this is how humanity began: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." God then called the man Adam, and later created Eve from Adam's rib.
or do we drop all this Old Testament stuff and look at the often kinder, calmer New Testament?
Matthew 7:12. "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." The Good News: This is literally "the golden rule" of the Bible. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
This did not seem to have been honoured by the protestors.
So bearing mind that the arguments made by women are about women's safe spaces is there guidance in the scriptures? I have not been able to find any links but there are any number about modesty. and the expectation that modesty will be maintained by a woman.
This is a good precis on some of the issues about opinions….not all from the NT.
This one I think is important not only from a theological point of view. It is apt here as the author has not done as is suggested. Rom. 14:5
Again, the Bible does not require one side to change their opinion and join the other side in “disputable matters.” What the Bible requires is that we know what we’re talking about. “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” If we’re going to have an opinion, make sure it’s an informed and sound opinion. Opinions can be and often are wrong; so we need to get things right and settled through sound reason as best we can.
The author has not correctly interpreted the reasons for KJM's visit or the concerns of the women who sought to see and share ideas with her. So it does not meet this criteria. 'If we’re going to have an opinion, make sure it’s an informed and sound opinion'.
Instead he seems to be labelling KJM and the people who wanted to see & listen to her as a cult? While people who wish to deny their children a childhood by transitioning them body and mind instead of safe guarding them (another concern of KJM's) are not mentioned. Why is this?
I would have liked possibly** to see a theology based view on transgenderism or fundamentally changing the image of the God body we have been given, and the events of 25/3 from a women's perspective. This article by Russell Hoban is not it.
** but then the Bible/psalms/prayers can be brought to bear & give an opinion on so many ideas, 'all things to all men etc' that perhaps something wishy washy as we have been presented with is all we can expect.
*Churching of women – now regarded as a celebration of childbirth and welcome back to the church.
For some reason the linking * in the Straws presumably because it was at the start of a sentence has been transformed into a dot. I will resist making some pun about transforming, transubstantiation etc.
I would have liked possibly** to see a theology based view on transgenderism or fundamentally changing the image of the God body we have been given, and the events of 25/3 from a women's perspective. This article by Russell Hoban is not it.
Exactly so Shanreagh. There is definitely scope for such an argument from the biblical text and some pretty substantial currents in philosophy.
Despite modern claims that God's pronouns are He/Him, in the original OT languages (Hebrew/Aramaic) YHWH is not gendered (AFAIK). And there are passages like this in the NT
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
As for philosophical arguments, the gender movement has really obvious parallels to Gnosticism, which has a long history as a heresy that's been associated with Christianity since the year dot. It's an esoteric collection of "hidden" beliefs only available to "enlightened" souls, the most common of which is that the body is crude material prone to sin and decay, but our true essence is beings of light and spirit. It's an easy mistake to make and many Christians hold some variation of this belief about human nature.
(Other Bible scholars will tell you that Gnostic dualism is deeply contradictory to the Hebrew understanding of human nature, which is embodied (physicalism), embracing life and celebrating its joys, and when we die we "fall asleep", we don't float off to Heaven. But we look forward to a day of resurrection when the final trumpet sounds)
Some people are not allowed to bring their own understandings and views to ‘the debate’, that much is clear. Tightly controlled views and expressions of opinion don’t belong on a blog site that aims at robust debate that is inclusive.
Your response was textbook and reminiscent of Bomber over at TDB. I’m actually surprised that you decided to be triggered and read ‘such waffle’, but this was perhaps the small step needed to climb on your high horse for knocking down another person’s opinion with which you don’t agree. I note that you haven’t addressed one single thing in the Opinion piece, only denigrating it.
Your last sentence was a real doozy – did you have assistance from ChatGPT-4, by any chance? \sarc
how has anyone not been allowed to bring their own understandings and views to the debate? You made a comment, others have responded. Does the fact that Molly was blunt and critical mean you can't bring your own understandings forward? How so?
I note that you haven’t addressed one single thing in the Opinion piece, only denigrating it.
She did address things in the piece. She said that it presented superficial concerns of the issues for GC people (that's being kind imo, I think the piece is very skewed by both ideology and ignorance to the point of missing what the whole thing is about).
She also pointed out that the concerns have been raised by people who know what they are talking about. Characterising them as fearful and hysterical really was getting off to a bad start.
The ideas about purity and such are interesting, but it's hard from a GCF position to respond to them seriously when women have been written out of the debate. in the piece itself. I mean, I could write a whole piece about western purity and the relegation of female to dirty and male as pure and how this has impacted on women for 500 years, but it's still having to be on the defensive because of the framing that piece used.
Nope, it was a typically defensive comment with some generic ‘criticism’ and the default dismissal with a few disparaging remarks. Nothing new there.
Re. the purity stuff, this was clearly to provide context to “the crew who line up to sail with them” and understand why and where those are coming from and associated with (and interested in) the GC stuff.
The ideas about purity and such are interesting, but it's hard from a GCF position to respond to them seriously when women have been written out of the debate. in the piece itself. I mean, I could write a whole piece about western purity and the relegation of female to dirty and male as pure and how this has impacted on women for 500 years, but it's still having to be on the defensive because of the framing that piece used.
Snap Weka. Out of my long piece I removed a long link to the history of churching of women after childbirth tracing the need to bring them into the church because of uncleanliness (10th Century) to now celebrating safe & happy childbirth etc. The purity argument as advancef d by Hoban was not very convincing.
The highlighted paragraph in your comment was a conclusion reached with no supporting evidence in the article. The use of hysterical and fearful, by the author indicate a certain bias and predetermined outcome, arrived at through meandering through visits to other disconnected ideas.
Hence: waffle. You might consider it a more nutritious food for thought. Our dietary needs on this may differ.
For something I consider palatable, I posted another article on the same topic and with the same religious framework in my response to visubversa:
(Read it, scroll on, critique or ridicule it as you wish. Forcefeeding is not an intention.)
"Your last sentence was a real doozy – did you have assistance from ChatGPT-4, by any chance? \sarc"
No. It was a example of personal humour.
To be clear, women who raise issues of concern should not be assumed to be hysterical, fearful, speakers of silly stuff or some form of artificial intelligence.
(In regards to the latter, we are the real deal…nothing artificial at all.)
Anybody who raises any issue of concern in good faith and with genuine interest in robust debate that is inclusive and open-minded ought to expect a response without prejudice but not necessarily a warm welcoming hug. I can’t see it.
I am aware you are unable to see good faith on this issue.
For me, that seems obvious from your exchanges here.
However, many will continue to voice their concerns, and perhaps one day you will understand what they are, and see how consistently people offered them in good faith and prepared for the robust debate you seek.
At present, I see such good faith comments receiving derision, redirection and dismissal. Very little understanding of what is being said, little to no links to robust evidence, and/or deferrals often to lightweight opinion pieces.
For instance:
More and more evidence is accumulating about the harm of the social and medical transition of minors, that we provide here in NZ under the protocol of "affirming healthcare"?
This approach has no clinical evidence base, and are significant (and often permanent) interventions.
affirming healthcare … has no clinical evidence base
This is an unevidenced assertion but let's assume you're correct, what alternative treatment protocol does the gender critical movement think should be used in the treatment of trans youth?
Well for a start you have made a presumption that the youth are trans. Molly stated 'minors.'
Jordan Peterson. whose views I have had many a long tussle with in times past has a very clear and thoughtful interview with a woman who has detransitioned. His professional knowledge about best practice in this issue is clear.
He said about 25 hours of counselling over 6 months should be the minimum for those showing the twin 'illnesses' of
gender dysphoria and psychiatric illness notably depression.
These two often go hand in hand and if the maxim of 'first do no harm' is to be followed then counselling for depression should be commenced.
I read figures that if the 'first do no harm' proponents treat children without surgery or puberty blockers that about 2/3 when grown are same sex attracted.
affirming healthcare … has no clinical evidence base
It was a deliberate decision not to put too much into a comment that was an invitation.
There is a lot of information regarding the lack of clinical evidence for the affirming healthcare model.
I have OIA'd the Ministry of Health for their evidence base, who said they follow the guidelines of PATHA and WPATH.
PATHA is based on WPATH, so that organisation is a good starting point. AAP is another, and so is the Endocrine Society.
Many countries – follow the guidance of these three organisations.
WPATH – World Professional Association Transgender Health
WPATH is advocacy based in their guidelines – not evidenced based. Many of their contributors are not medical or research professionals. Eg. Susie Green – Former CEO of Mermaids.
Current WPATH – Standards of Care 8 released last year
The state of Alabama (like many countries) is reviewing the care for minors and as part of court injunction when they passed a Bill that ceased affirmative care, testimony was given from the three organisations listed above. When they were asked for evidence, they refused:
On Monday, Burke ruled in favor of the state on a motion made in March related to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)
In their arguments, plaintiffs have repeatedly cited information from The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), WPATH and the Endocrine Society to validate their claims.
All listed organizations offer full support for "gender-affirming care" and encourage "social transitioning" at any age and medical transitioning in early and late teens.
When the state requested discovery on internal documents from those groups, the organizations filed a motion to quash.
A subpoena has been issued, so it'll be worthwhile to see what is produced:
A major reason for this is the capture of institutions such as the AAP. Last year a resolution was submitted to the AAP’s annual leadership forum to inform the academy’s 67,000 members about the growing international skepticism of pediatric gender transition. It asked for a thoughtful update to the current practice of affirmation on demand.
Even though the resolution was in the top five of interest based on votes by members cast online, the AAP’s leadership voted it down. In their newsletter, they decried the resolution as transphobic and noted that only 57 members out of 67,000 had endorsed it. The following year, however, when only 53 members backed a resolution that supported affirmative intervention, the AAP allowed the motion to go through, saying that the previous year’s measure was “soundly defeated” while this year’s received “broad support.” When members submitted another resolution to conduct a review of the evidence, the AAP enforced for the first time a rule that shut down member comments, effectively burying it.
The Endocrine Society commissioned two systematic reviews for its clinical practice guideline, Endocrine Treatment of Gender-Dysphoric/Gender-Incongruent Persons: one on the effects of sex steroids on lipids and cardiovascular outcomes, the other on their effects on bone health.3233 To indicate the quality of evidence underpinning its various guidelines, the Endocrine Society employed the GRADE system (grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation) and judged the quality of evidence for all recommendations on adolescents as “low” or “very low.”
Guyatt, who co-developed GRADE, found “serious problems” with the Endocrine Society guidelines, noting that the systematic reviews didn’t look at the effect of the interventions on gender dysphoria itself, arguably “the most important outcome.” He also noted that the Endocrine Society had at times paired strong recommendations—phrased as “we recommend”—with weak evidence. In the adolescent section, the weaker phrasing “we suggest” is used for pubertal hormone suppression when children “first exhibit physical changes of puberty”; however, the stronger phrasing is used to “recommend” GnRHa treatment.
“GRADE discourages strong recommendations with low or very low quality evidence except under very specific circumstances,” Guyatt told The BMJ. Those exceptions are “very few and far between,” and when used in guidance, their rationale should be made explicit, Guyatt said. In an emailed response, the Endocrine Society referenced the GRADE system’s five exceptions, but did not specify which it was applying.
As you can see, these are just some of the concerns held about the three main authors of affirmative healthcare.
If you wanted to talk about specific treatments or the adoption of the Dutch Protocol I can provide some links about those if I have them.
"What alternative treatment protocol does the gender critical movement think should be used in the treatment of trans youth?"
I would think it'd be the same as anyone else. High-quality, evidenced based care that avoids the risk of iatrogenic harm for those receiving it. Do you honestly think that gender critical people do not want the best care for others, particularly minors?
What level and quality of evidence would you like to see for the "gender affirming healthcare" model, given its significant disruption to psychological states, the endocrine system, and possible surgical disruptions to sexual health, reproduction, and urinary functions?
So the thing is, you're not correct, we have the evidence, gender affirming healthcare is the best care model:
I'm a physician-scientist who studies the mental health of transgender and gender diverse youth. I also spend a lot of time on Twitter. And yes I know, that's my first mistake. I've noticed there seem to be hundreds if not thousands of Twitter accounts that will repeatedly post that there is no evidence that gender-affirming medical care results in good mental health outcomes for transgender youth.
Sixteen studies to date have examined the impact of gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.
Existing evidence suggests that gender-affirming medical care results in favorable mental health outcomes.
All major medical organizations oppose legislation that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender adolescents.
So, if we do in fact 'want the best care for others' then we wouldn't be trying to get involved in or try to prevent the provision of that care to others right?
Arkie, I would put far more store on the finding of NICE, The National Institute for Clinical Excellence. They review studies, exclued many because case numbers are too low or theirs no control group or they are retrospective. The studies quoted mostly fall into these categories.
FFS these drugs, puberty blockers, are not licenced to treat gender. dysphoria. You do realize that these are the drugs that Alan Turing was put on to chemically castrate him because he was gay?
Arkie and others on this site, if you geniuely want to know a therapeutic approach that helps these kids, please read the link below. Unless you are a therapist, I suggest you skip the first eight pages, because it is pretty technical.
On page 9 begins a case study of a therapist working with a teenager, Peter, who identifies as a women. Its a very moving account of how this boy is helped by a very skilled therapist who has his best interests at heart.
Jack Turban is a well-known purveyor of low quality, but strong conclusive data that is often picked up by unquestioning media.
Here are a couple of the critiques published after his article.
You'll have to read them if you want to assess if that criticism is justified. I think it is. You can decide for yourself.
Leor Sapir: The Distortions in Jack Turban’s Psychology Today Article on ‘Gender Affirming Care’
For those not following the debate over pediatric gender medicine, Dr. Jack Turban is one of the leading proponents of the controversial protocol known as “gender affirming care” and has been outspoken in the American media promoting puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to manage gender-related distress in youth. He is quoted widely and frequently by mainstream, left-of-center outlets including the Washington Post and the New York Times. This, despite the fact that he is fresh out of his residency and has far less clinical experience than many of the experts with whose more cautious approach to managing gender dysphoria in youth he disagrees.
One of Turban’s most widely cited articles is the one published by Psychology Today back in January of this year. The article, it should be noted, was published after health authorities in Sweden, Finland, and the U.K. had conducted systematic reviews of evidence for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and concluded, unanimously, that the risks and uncertainties outweigh any known benefits. Sweden and Finland have already severely limited the practice, and the U.K. seems to be moving in the same direction following the damning Cass Report.
Jesse Singal: Researchers Found Puberty Blockers And Hormones Didn’t Improve Trans Kids’ Mental Health At Their Clinic. Then They Published A Study Claiming The Opposite. (Updated)
Critique of Study16 – Tordoff et al
It isn’t just the publicity materials; the paper itself tells a similar story, at least a few times. The “Key Points” box found to the right of the abstract reads, “In this prospective cohort of 104 TNB [transgender and nonbinary] youths aged 13 to 20 years, receipt of gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones, was associated with 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality over a 12-month follow-up.” The body of the paper also contains at least two sentences clearly claiming that the kids who went on blockers and hormones experienced improved mental health over time:
Our findings are consistent with those of prior studies finding that TNB adolescents are at increased risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidality and studies finding long-term and short-term improvements in mental health outcomes among TNB individuals who receive gender-affirming medical interventions.
…
Our study provides quantitative evidence that access to PBs or GAHs in a multidisciplinary gender-affirming setting was associated with mental health improvements among TNB youths over a relatively short time frame of 1 year. [endnotes omitted]
What’s surprising, in light of all these quotes, is that the kids who took puberty blockers or hormones experienced no statistically significant mental health improvement during the study. The claim that they did improve, which was presented to the public in the study itself, in publicity materials, and on social media (repeatedly) by one of the authors, is false.
Jesse Singal: The University of Washington Is Putting Trans Kids At Risk By Distorting Suicide Research
Both the paper and the supplementary materials suffered from a notable dearth of very basic statistical information. When I initially reached out to the lead author, Diana Tordoff, then a PhD student in the epidemiology department at UW, she said she and her team were sharing the data for transparency’s sake. When I pointed out that, in fact, the data was not available where it should be, she stopped responding. “Jesse, contacted the team, and they have no further comment at this time,” said a PR person when I followed up. “They decided to let the methods section speak for itself.”
As a result of my work and inquiries, UW slightly walked back some of its PR claims, particularly language about how depression and/or suicidality had “dropped” or “plummeted” in kids who went on GAM, when the researchers’ own supplemental table appears to show those kids didn’t meaningfully improve over the course of the study.
"So, if we do in fact 'want the best care for others' then we wouldn't be trying to get involved in or try to prevent the provision of that care to others right?"
I am someone who has supported someone through many years of unresolved pain and surgeries because of iatrogenic harm and had someone close die of it. My trust in medical systems therefore has a higher degree of skepticism than perhaps someone that has not seen how despite all the safeguards in place, sometimes treatments or protocols are adopted that are harmful.
Do you not have any concern that the three major medical associations that provide the guidelines for affirmation only healthcare, not only failed to provide the clinical evidence when asked, but resorted to lawyers to avoid having to do so at all?
Do you not have any concern regarding the failure of the AAP to listen to members and review the guidelines that were adopted without examination?
Given the significant health impacts of a poorly functioning endocrine system, are you not concerned that The Endocrine Society's own grading of the evidence for their guidelines is "low" or "very low"?
I don't understand how this lack of evidence is not ringing alarm bells for those who claim to have the health and well-being of minors at the forefront.
The alternative you asked about could be that while high-quality evidence is gathered, to increase and improve the access to mental health services, and investigation and treatment of any co-morbidities.
This approach, called watchful waiting, often gave children and minors time to be treated for co-morbidities and often resolve their gender dysphoria by the time they reached their early twenties. Many of these children discovered they were same-sex attracted.
(However, the data from those previous studies references a significantly different demographic from the high number of adolescent girls presenting today, so it's unlikely to be of use in terms of comparison.)
One of the clinicians who conducted watchful waiting for many years at a Canadian clinic, was Dr Kenneth Zucker. He was an author of previous WPATH SoC and a long established clinician.
This is what happened to him when the medical protocols changed:
The changes that take place medically and surgically are significant interventions, not merely aesthetic, and also impair or completely disrupt major functioning systems in the body.
The evidence for such risky procedures or medications should be overwhelming and robust clinical evidence. Not the "low" or "very low" bar that seems to be the case.
Jack Turban is a well-known purveyor of low quality, but strong conclusive data that is often picked up by unquestioning media.
Two can play that game; Leor Sapir is a less well-known conservative political scientist involved in anti-transgender political action, Jesse Singal is a journalist, their critiques are noted as is their relevant 'expertise'.
You said there is no evidence, this is your opinion on the ‘quality’ of the evidence not a statement of fact; there is evidence, it is a small but growing list, due to the fact that gender affirming care is relatively new as is the wider acceptance of trans individuals.
Ultimately what healthcare people receive is really their and their providers business alone, I trust medical professionals and the individuals themselves to achieve the best results possible for themselves as patients.
when you link to a TS comment or post, can you please put a full stop (or any character) immediately before the URL? There is a bug that makes internal links embed weirdly without that (and stops people from reading the comment). Mods are having to manually fix each comment with an internal link, so it would be appreciated if commenters could prevent the problem, thanks.
Thanks for that paper regarding the Gender Exploratory Model.
It was an interesting read, and similar to what many of the detransitioners relate in terms of missed exploration into sexuality, and other co-morbidities.
"So, if we do in fact 'want the best care for others' then we wouldn't be trying to get involved in or try to prevent the provision of that care to others right?"
I'll ignore the assumption that care for others must be shown by supporting demands for unevidenced medical interventions, and answer this as matter of factly as I can:
The Karolinska Institute in Sweden has just published a short article on the dilemma of providing the best care, after their systematic review of clinical literature did not support the promoted "affirmative healthcare" model.
They have created a checklist model to ensure the collection of good clinical data.
Importantly, such studies need to follow patients for many years”, says corresponding author Professor Mikael Landén, at Karolinska Institutet and University of Gothenburg. “Against the background of almost non-existent longterm data, we conclude that GnRHa treatment in children with gender dysphoria should be considered experimental treatment rather than standard procedure. This is to say that treatment should only be administered in the context of a clinical trial under informed consent”, he adds.
“We found substantial limitations in earlier research on gender dysphoria, and the few longitudinal observational studies were hampered by small numbers, and high attrition rates”, adds Ludvigsson. “For that reason we created a checklist, the GENDHOR checklist, that we hope will facilitate and increase the quality of future research in this field.”
(A plethora of links about the Swedish clinical review can be found on this Standard post – and comments – from last year:
Found a bookmark that provides another author – Jennifer Block – and an article published in BMJ in February 2023, that consolidates the information I had regarding WPATH, AAP and the Endocrine Society.
It may be an easier read – more cohesive and informative:
Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement
Joshua Safer, director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and coauthor of the Endocrine Society guidelines, told The BMJ that assessment is standard practice at the programme he leads. “We start with a mental health evaluation for anybody under the age of 18,” he says. “There’s a lot of talking going on—that’s a substantial element of things.” Safer has heard stories of adolescents leaving a first or second appointment with a prescription in hand but says that these are overblown. “We really do screen these kids pretty well, and the overwhelming majority of kids who get into these programmes do go on to other interventions,” he says.
Without an objective diagnostic test, however, others remain concerned. The demand for services has led to a “perfunctory informed consent process,” wrote two clinicians and a researcher in a recent issue of the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy,39 in spite of two key uncertainties: the long term impacts of treatment and whether a young person will persist in their gender identity. And the widespread impression of medical consensus doesn’t help. “Unfortunately, gender specialists are frequently unfamiliar with, or discount the significance of, the research in support of these two concepts,” they wrote. “As a result, the informed consent process rarely adequately discloses this information to patients and their families.”
For Guyatt, claims of certainty represent both the success and failure of the evidence based medicine movement. “Everybody now has to claim to be evidence based” in order to be taken seriously, he says—that’s the success. But people “don’t particularly adhere to the standard of what is evidence based medicine—that’s the failure.” When there’s been a rigorous systematic review of the evidence and the bottom line is that “we don’t know,’” he says, then “anybody who then claims they do know is not being evidence based.”
"Two can play that game; Leor Sapir is a less well known conservative political scientist involved in anti-transgender political action, Jessie Singal is a journalist, their critiques are noted and as is their relevant 'expertise'."
Yes. I know Leor Sapir has critics just as Jack Turban does.
So I read ALL I can of Jack Turban and Leor Sapir, and Jesse Singal and Tordoff et al etc, and I try to determine whether what is being said is justified.
Did you consider that the points made in the articles are completely unjustified?
Arkie are you able to please let me know what the objections are to helping a child with gender dysphoria and the often accompanying mental health problems, with the concepts behind 'first do no harm' and watchful waiting?
Weka set out some of the issues that often sit alongside gender dysphoria
ie ‘ (mental health/depression, sexual abuse, autism, being lesbian in a homophobic environment, being a girl in a misogynistic environment etc)’.
What are the reasons why these concepts plus intensive counselling would not help a child?
Why is there the rush to treat with horrible chemicals or equally horrible surgery on sexual organs? From what I have read it is not easy for a reversal to take place that returns a body to what it was before.
It all just seems so cruel and unnecessary to rob a child of their childhood, granted pre puberty/puberty are often hard times but shouldn't the focus be to come through this challenging time, with help aplenty and then see if the landscape is the same in 5 years?
I know children's views change over 3, 5 10 years. I mean as a 4 year old I told my father I was planning to always carry a gun in my purse, but this never lasted, I was given a small broken cap gun that I was told would be useful.
I was a tomboy, strong and tall for my age …..It would just horrify me to think that my parents might be complicit in something that could have very sad effects. Why would parents not be attracted to the concept of watchful waiting plus counselling?
It just seems that children are not the best judge of what the best is for them and that's one of the reasons that they are looked after while young in societies and why parenting is so important to guide, discuss etc.
I did link to an interview by Jordan Petersen with Chloe who has detransitioned. She seemed to be saying she had no concept of what growing up might entail, what the chemicals might do and felt she was too young to consent.
In some respects I see Vitamin D as a proxy for something that lies in plain sight, yet overlooked almost all of the time – that many modern chronic mal-adaptions of our biology have a root cause in the fact of us now living for several generations almost exclusively indoors.
The relative paucity of UV-B and Near-IR exposure, the lack of thermal challenge to our bodies, reduced exercise and increased exposure to airborne pathogens are all unwelcome consequences of our modern lifestyle. Yes it is more comfortable inside, but it may well come with a cost we are only just beginning to count.
I already have a veritable Watership Down of rabbitholes to keep track of…., however, that link is interesting – so, thank you.
I agree our evolutionary adaption processes may have been left behind in the wake of our technological advances that have resulted in our mostly sedentary and indoor modern lives.
When I was looking into various impairments to learning and children's behaviour a (long) while ago, one of the aspects of many of those with autism was a restricted diet. Autistic children often limited their food intake to those they found acceptable. There were a couple of studies on the digestive system of autistic children that found that either their diet was too restrictive, or their ability to metabolise nutrients was different, or the system of metabolism itself was impaired.
So they were often nutritionally deficient.
Anyway, I'll go off and explore the link further.
A lot of interesting avenues to travel along in that warren of studies.
I think Molly means affirmation only approaches (maybe she can clarify). Affirmation only means prioritising affirmation of the new gender above all else, including sometimes ignoring issues that sit alongside gender dysphoria (mental health/depression, sexual abuse, autism, being lesbian in a homophobic environment, being a girl in a misogynistic environment etc).
The key in that is that the usual support and treatments are replaced by affirmation, instead of the usual supports and treatments being the default and then if needed looking at transition.
If you would like to understand this better, including which kids do well from affirmation and which don't, I highly recommend following #detrans on twitter. There are many first hand accounts of people who transitioned in their teens via the affirmation only model and later realised it was mistake. They talk about the treatment they weren't offered that they needed.
Here is another interview from Dr Jordan Peterson with Dr Miriam Grossman who is concerned at the pressures put on parents when a child feels they want to transition.
I am aware you are unable to see good faith on this issue.
For me, that seems obvious from your exchanges here.
You see, you and I are talking about rather different issues, or topics rather, which you still don’t seem to realise. Why not? Although you came close when you mentioned the robust debate I seek.
Do you like to be called ignorant, ridiculed, or dismissed? Yet this is what a few others and you are doing, sometimes in a subtle way, sometimes rather blunt bordering on rude & condescending. As you have done again in this reply – it is a good example of the typical passive-aggressive replies.
People treat others the way they treat them. I could go on, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference because my comments will meet a wall of rejection and deflection.
Why do others and you always revert back to the same groove in these threads?
For instance:
Please don’t try and pull me into your narrative and divert away to your issue of interest. It only confirms that you are conflating the two issues and only want to talk about yours.
After reading your comment, all I can see is yet another long admonishment, and nothing offered to discuss.
If you feel ignorant, ridiculous and/or dismissed – it it up to you to determine whether you are. You might be one of the first two, and/or the dismissal might be real. I haven't seen many accusations of ignorance or ridiculous being offered, though I have seen repeated avoidance of addressing points made multiple times by various people, and make the assumption that has to be deliberate. Could be wrong.
Anyway, did you have anything you wanted to discuss? Or is that not the purpose here?
Berating adults and avoidance of the issues is not the way to foster debate and interest in topics.
Of late the personal anti factor against us on these issues seems to be hyped up as well. I am to refrain from raising concerns by email so I will leave just one thought/concern. Meant carefully and caringly. And in the spirit of as my dad would say 'we've given up shooting people for expressiing a view/thought/care'. So here goes…..
A boss, my next door neighbour and my Dad showed uncharacteristic grumpiness, impatience and less of an ability to see the point of another in the weeks before they had serious heart failure. Illness and particularly heart related illness can have grumpiness as a precursor. My dad said he could feel being impatient, hated it but said it seemed to be what it was.
I have friends in nursing, so I know your anecdote holds truth.
My thoughts on this impasse are fairly straightforward – when you start looking into the impacts past the #BeKind exhortations, then you often really want to have discussions around the issues you find concerning.
If you have decided to #BeKind or have friends or family that you love that you feel need to be protected, ANY discussion around gender ideology is to be suppressed and avoided.
As that suppression takes place in various ways, the discussion seekers – try various ways to open dialogue.
The discussion suppressors – increase their efforts as well.
It depends on how much energy exists in the individuals in either of those groups on whether full, open discussion takes place at any one time.
Yes aside from a possible ill health manifestation then another reason for avoidance is the family situation.
Perhaps it was the 1970/80s 'assertiveness training' I had as a woman but one point was that if you do not want to discuss a topic or have boundaries within a topic then the responsibility to set your boundaries & to communicate them lies with you yourself.
For women it was to give them power to own a decision.
I see nothing wrong with making personal uncomfortableness being owned by oneself and not foisted on unsuspecting others who don't have the boundaries and just want to discuss things.
At work I saw a few instances where this worked very well and that people making comments would either not say them out out respect, or frame them by saying 'I know people may be offended by this reference, it is relevant……'
Wholesale grumpiness and pushing back without a reason as we seem to be experiencing puts whatever uneasiness on us instead of the actual person who is uneasy. Hence we face a 'walking on egg shells' approach not knowing when or why we are going to offend.
I am being very careful but the idea of a response of the kind I have been getting has a chilling effect. I am trying to limit my time on TS as a result.
For instance it was only when I saw that you and Visubversa had commented on the article that I decided to comment. Up until then I felt diffidence in coming forward to comment.
I just figure that on this platform we're adults who choose to engage in robust debate – or not.
I prefer to exchange with those who along with disagreement offer insights or information, but do enjoy reading the back and forth of those skilled at other forms of contributions.
I was not talking about or referring to myself, but thank you for your concern.
Yes, you are wrong – alleged ignorance has been weaponised in debate as the definitive put down of others, sometimes accompanied by sage advice of listening to those who know best here. [no sarc tag]
As expected, I hit the wall of rejection and deflection – my purpose & intention bounced right off you, again.
Still, I see some change & improvement in the discourse here over the last couple of days, so perhaps all this effort has been worth it after all – I sincerely hope so and would like to move back into the background.
What/who is this in response to please……you don't quote the posters you are replying to or use @.
is it this?
Incognito…
19 April 2023 at 11:57 pm
When a thread gets so long that the comments no longer have numbers these tips are helpful.
For instance this seems not to have a context in either Molly’s or my comments in response to your points, at least I cannot see where we have raised it?
‘Yes, you are wrong – alleged ignorance has been weaponised in debate as the definitive put down of others,”
By understanding such frameworks, we can move the discussion away from hysteria and fear, towards increased understanding and reconciliation.
I'm guessing that Hoban is unfamiliar with how the word hysteria has been used against women historically. This makes sense given he seems almost wholly ignorant of the conflict between women's sex based rights and gender ideology.
However ignorance is no excuse for dismissal of politics that keep women safe. All that is required is listening to women and putting some effort into understanding GC politics. Pity we don’t have an event where he could hear what women have to say 🤔 Or he could just go and ask the myriad of GC women to explain it to him.
The theology student was not preaching to the converted nor did he want to convert any over to his ideological position. He offered his opinion for consideration and discussion, not instant dismissal.
Drawing parallels and providing a different context and PoV are not welcome, obviously, and diminished at the first suggestion of incomplete understanding and/or adherence to a certain group-think.
If he wanted it to be considered he probably shouldn't have written women out then 🤷♀️
As I said, I would have found the purity angle interesting if the whole piece hadn't been problematic from the start. This isn't about group think, it's about women being really sick of the misrepresentation of the issues in the context of No Debate. Writing women out of the issues in that context is always going to get push back. I'm not sure it's possible to talk about the purity frame if women are not part of the analysis.
I'm not sure it's possible to talk about the purity frame if women are not part of the analysis.
This is the issue that others and I have been talking about here for some time and some have for years (with disappointing outcomes that still linger & fester).
I have no idea whether you truly accuse the theology student of ‘writing out women’ in his Opinion piece, but it would be misunderstanding (and mischaracterisation) of the place & role of Opinion pieces in MSM. My take is that the author wished to be considered by anybody who was willing to consider his opinion.
If you want to define & control the rules of your debate, you may want to consider a dedicated (daily?) Post with stricter rules than provided on TS by the standard Policy. The current way ain’t fit for your purpose, IMO, because it leaves too little wriggle room for diverging views & opinions.
This is the issue that others and I have been talking about here for some time and some have for years (with disappointing outcomes that still linger & fester).
What is the issue? You haven't actually said. I'm pretty sure you are not saying that the issue is "I'm not sure it's possible to talk about the purity frame if women are not part of the analysis.", so what is it? Spell it out.
I have no idea whether you truly accuse the theology student of ‘writing out women’ in his Opinion piece,
Then just ask.
but it would be misunderstanding (and mischaracterisation) of the place & role of Opinion pieces in MSM. My take is that the author wished to be considered by anybody who was willing to consider his opinion.
I'm sure he does. But his framing eliminates women from the issue, when it's women that are at the centre of it. This is common in two ways in the gender/sex wars. It's done deliberately by TRAs, who try and frame the war as being far right against queers. It's also done by people who are relatively ignorant of the issues and how they impact on women.
There is nothing on the piece that includes women's concerns about our sex based rights. He references someone saying that single sex toilet concerns are based in distorted puritanical beliefs about bodies and sex, and makes. no mention whatsoever that we have single sex toilets for women because women fought to have them so they could take part of society.
The only other reference to women is where he asks why Nazis are attracted to the LWS, as if women haven't been explaining this for the past month. Nazis might have ideas about purity, but that's nothing to do with women.
If he wanted his frameworks to be understood (and like I said, the purity angle is interesting), then there needs to be some connection to how the politics are in the real world.
If you want to define & control the rules of your debate, you may want to consider a dedicated (daily?) Post with stricter rules than provided on TS by the standard Policy. The current way ain’t fit for your purpose, IMO, because it leaves too little wriggle room for diverging views & opinions.
I'm not the one that has the problem with the debate here. You put up a short comment, and link to a problematic piece, and not a lot of explanation, but included a quote using the term hysteria. Women have responded with their thoughts and now you are complaining about them not responding the way you wanted them to. Sounds like you are the one that doesn't like how debate goes here. And that's fine, sometimes it doesn't go the way we want. But I'm not trying to control the rules here, I'm making my arguments exactly how we've always done it.
Make your own argument Incognito. Explain why you think the purity and theology angles are important, and relate to things that we've been discussing here on TS.
Why do you think that knowing that the word has been used over the centuries and notably by the so-called fathers of modern psychiatry to 'explain' many concerns of women?
'Throughout history hysteria has been a sex-selective disorder, affecting only those of us with a uterus'.
and
'In essence, Freud believed that women experienced hysteria because they were unable to reconcile the loss of their (metaphoric) penis. With this in mind, Freud described hysteria as ‘characteristically feminine’, and recommended basically what every other man treating hysteria had through the years- get married and have sex'.
Why would anyone positing a way through by seeking rapproachment write such an article that includes incorrect facts and smears.
Even if it is for the good, speaking from a position of ignorance does little to enthuse others. It is as if speaking to him and others like him, we might 'see the sense' and 'oh sorry, we got it wrong about women's safe spaces.'
He is just in the vernacular, 'slagging off'. He differs from many of those in the crowd of 2000 wanting to crush the women wanting to talk about womens issues on 25/3 by being published.
The more I have reflected overnight the more I feel that how did this commentator get so far through this life without being aware of womens issues from the vote in NZ, UK suffragettes, to the abortion debates of the 1970s, through to the concern about systemic sexism in the 80s,90s etc. How has he been so blind that these events of current affairs or recent history have zoomed over him?
Stuff and nonsense. It’s a bad faith clickbait piece crafted to drive engagement not to shed light on the substantial issues in the debate. You can tell the author is dishonest when he starts off with a straw man, making a list of assorted fringe groups, but no mention of one particular group: Women. Nor does he show any awareness of serious academics like Emma Hilton, Kathleen Stock, Jane Clare Jones, Colin Wright, Holly Lawford-Smith and many others who critically examine every aspect of the new gender movement.
But since his background appears to be in theology, let me make my own theological observations. Sex is an objective biological reality. Humans are inseperable from their bodies – we are not brains in a jar. Human psychology is a complex phenoimeon and equally culture and religion have an insight into a spiritual world. This may be labelled as the collective unconscious, the shadow self, the id, ego, soul or whatever.
A fundamental error made by the gender movement is that the soul is separate from the body – this arises from too much time online and loo little time “touching grass”. Another is that we have to believe people are who they say they are. This is an open door for abuse. Another concering aspect of human nature that the gender movement denies is that their own side is capable of error or malevolent motives. They are all too willing to accuse others of awful crimes but prefer an airbrished version of reality for their own side.
It’s next to impossible to debate people who are in such basic denial of reality. The gender movement is akin to a new religion in that way. Its most obnoxious advocates are not interested in discussion or consideration of others point of view. There is a dangerous trend of escalating violence and cancellation of academics and feminists. And the NZ media is all singing from the same song sheet. Not everyone critical of the government is a conspiracy theory cooker. Framing legitimate dissent as fascism is a failure of journalism that does not serve to inform the public, only stirs up mobs.
Just extraordinary to me that the womens rights activists get accused of hysteria and violence without any evidence.I don't see lesbians or feminists picketing trans jamborees with placards saying kill a trans, or yelling and screaming and shutting down trans speakers, or holding them hostage , or pelting them with food items.
We have become so divorced from nature and disembodied that now we imagine we can change sex by sheer belief.(The magical thinking required by those transwomen who swear they are having their period is a trifle scary.How did we get so insane?
It's an issue that touches a few family members and friends directly. Kids with autism and other undiagnosed issues are being transed and choosing to avoid the difficulties associated with female puberty. I can't imagine how crazy it is for young women these days, all the most toxic stereotypes are on blast via TikTok. It's a generation experiencing unprecedented levels of mental illness. Social media is uniquely isolating and kids share a bizarro superficial fantasy world that is purely about image and groovy beliefs.
And on that note a 20 year old male will appear in court tomorrow charged with assaulting a 70 year old women who was part of the Let Women Speak Event
John Key was a ‘shuffler’, Judith Collins a ‘crusher’, and Chris Luxon is a ‘hustler’. Another day, another breeze of hot halitosis air from the National Leader. He’s flapping, he’s floundering, he’s flatulating, so what’s got the poor man to do to get a lift in the polls, a rocket?
The National Party tactic is that they don’t need to present answers or solutions, just a perception of having them ready when the time comes and knowing what they’re doing when it matters, i.e., fake it until you make it. It will be an absolute shambles, of course, but it will have been 6 years and the voters have plenty to moan about. Falling house prices, rising CoL, and major wedge issues will seal the deal. I’d better start reading up on the ACT policies.
Misinformation by mainstream media such as Stuff's opinion on our massive trade deficit ignores the cause and is basically National Party propaganda the cost of Oil imports isn't mentioned once in what is effectively a free election advertising for National. The Cost of Oil imports is up by $1.2 billion dollars per month over last year which no doubt is up on previous years. We need to reduce oil use.Stuff says we need to stop red tape in farming ie pollution enviromental degradation,Safety,Labour exploitation{slavery}.Stuff need to be called out on their fact free articles!
"Oh dear, you never seem to get my jokes. If you’d read my comment properly you’d have realised that nothing made sense what I wrote.".
Now I understand what you mean. I have carefully read this comment, studied what you said yesterday about how to recognize your humourous remarks and it is quite obvious that you mean this as a joke. It fits your description perfectly. All is now clear.
Labour's Nash lobbying and the National/Act faux outrage.
It may have been discussed here previously.
The conservative parties in the world are totally beholden to their lobbyists. Big business, farming etc. I would venture to suggest that the current opposition caucuses spend most of their non-parliamentary time being conferenced, wined, dined or entertained by one or more of their donor sectors. And they formulate policy to match the everyday conversations and lobbying they have. Even when they venture to the sporting clubs (golf/rugby/bridge etc) you can bet what conversations they will be having.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
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Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
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NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 2 The Life of Dai by Dai Henwood and Jaquie Brown (HarperCollins, $39.99) 3 A Life Less Punishing by Matt Heath (Allen & Unwin, $37.99) 4 Waitohu by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin Random House, $35) ...
Rupert Murdoch and his filth pump media channel Fox News whimped out at the last possible moment in the Dominion Voting Systems case…
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/fox-dominion-settlement
It would have been so informative to have seen Rupert, Hannity, Carlson and the rest in the dock. As the linked article alludes to, there was certainly some interesting inside info on Fox revealed in discovery.
Annoying!
Sure hope the Smartmatic case doesn't fold.
If the testimony Rupert gave is useable elsewhere it could go beyond the dominion settlement.
Crikeys lawyers would be looking to leverage it as he effectively admitted they knew it was BS but didn't want to disappoint their viewing base with the truth.
Fresh legs.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/18/fox-dominion-settle-us-defamation-lawsuit
Nice. Mr Trump’s “we wuz robbed” line caused so much real life disruption including Jan 6 2021, that it cannot be allowed to go down the memory hole.
Hopefully Smartmatic owners aren't as ethically challenged as the private equity owners of Dominion.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1648429103744421888
Anyone who complains about the Green internal antics, just respond "Gaurav Sharma".
Kerekere as a Sharma? 👀
That would be great. The big problems occur if she is a Starmer in my opinion. At 8% the Greens can't afford to lose about half their vote share over a factional dispute.
any kind of significant internal problems being made public during the election campaign will most likely harm the Green vote, because the MSM would go hard against them, and because people want competency and it's a relatively easy switch from G to L.
The Greens always suffer when it comes to public perception. Many people would probably quite easily agree and subscribe to the Greens’ values, principles, and ideology but balk at the idea of voting for and/or the Greens’ candidates. To me, it often sounds like people hating France because there are too many French living there [no offence to France or the French] – it is illogical and irrational. So, it is a perception problem, i.e., a people problem of people having a problem with people. ACT figured this out a long time ago but the NZ Greens are still in their political nappies when it comes to political PR & management – I hope they don’t spit the dummy and start crying in public.
what do you think that ACT came up with? Better PR?
I've never understood why the GP PR and comms has had such holes in it (not being a comms person myself). But part of it is that the Green kaupapa isn't well understood. Current example is them doing an internal investigation into the EK messages and people mocking them for that. But it was clear to me that a) there was more going on than just EK calling CW a cry baby, and b) how MPs, exec, staff, GP members treat each other is a core principle, you can't function in a group with the kinds of processes that the GP uses if you have people being mean to each other or nasty behind their backs.
All parties in NZ can learn a thing or two from ACT with respect to PR and political management. Possibly the only exception is Winston Peters. ACT runs a tight ship and keep its nose clean, in case you haven’t noticed.
Yes, but I'm asking what they actually do in that regard. Specifically.
Consistent well-prepared PR, no internal party conflicts spilling into the open (good Party management), articulate likeable Leader with high public profile, mature Policy platform, keeping powder dry for battles to come (good political management), good rapport with Media, and so on and so forth. Do you follow NZ politics at all??
Fuck off Incognito. I don't know what your problem is atm, but I was interested in your thinking and thought that I might learn something (which I did).
Making naïve statements, IMO, and asking naïve questions, IMO, which I’ve tried to answer anyway to a degree, begs the question what your game is here with others and me. You say you want to foster robust debate. The irony that’s the same dream as I have. So, why are you and I clashing mostly over one singular topic here? Is it because I have fundamental objections to your cause? No, I don’t. Is it because I have picked one side over another? No, I haven’t. Is it because I have ‘a problem’? No, I don’t. You can fill me in, if you wish, in the front- or back-end, I really don’t care anymore where.
seriously, I wanted to know what you saw about ACT that was different from the GP. Maybe I am naive, if by that you mean not knowledgeable. It's not a game. I ask people questions because I want to know what they think. No-one is obliged to answer, and there is nothing wrong with asking.
It wasn't about the gender/sex wars, or robust debate on TS. I am in fact interested in how comms works in political parties as I don't know that much about it.
I know next-to-nothing except the little I gleaned from reading the news and TS, mainly. This Election Year is going to be a learning moment for me.
Perhaps naivity is in the eye of the beholder, which is why I twice added “IMO”.
But maybe the Greens suffer from public perception because of who they are and what they say.
E.g a polticial party who puts on the social media that they are off to fight some Nazis, when there were no Nazis associated with the Let Women Speak event.
The Minister of Violence Prevention at a protest where there was violence and intimidation towards women who didn't condemn the violence and then blamed Cis white males for causing all the violence.
I think this is what Marama and other members of the Greens really think. So citizens hear that and draw their own conclusions.
Acts MPs performance has to date been faultless (although if anyone wants to correct me on this, please do).
I am looking for grown ups to run the country, not people who engage is name calling their own ("cry baby") and apparently have a big split in the party
QED
Have a nice day.
What big split in the party? This is pretty tame stuff by general NZ political party standards. EK looks like a liability, but that's not unusual either (hence the Sharma reference).
RE the "split" I did say apparently.
Some people have said that Elizabeth and Riccardo are one faction and they have their supporters in the party and those supporters were who EKs "crybaby" text was meant for.
I guess some evidence that supports this was EK s text. At the very least it seems like EK has some level of contempt for CS.
The National Party bonfire of regulations is back and burning bright again promising us that brighter slightly scorched future.
The farmers don’t just want more labour, they want more cheaper labour with fewer rights & protections than others have.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131805911/national-promises-to-double-rse-worker-cap-ban-foreign-investment-in-farmtoforestry-conversions
Jeez, what about animal exploitation–“winter grazing” in mud–and cleaning up the waterways, talk about priorities.
And moving from industrial dairy to more plant based?
Ban palm kernel now.
https://www.greens.org.nz/ban_import_of_palm_oil_by_products
Party vote Green.
Leaky homes, national standards, wadeable waterways, asset sales, ecan, chch rebuild etc
People just need a reminder of the blighted future the last 2 nat govts delivered with special mention of rortney and shonkys supershity clusterfk.
Nah, voters know which side their croissant is buttered. This will be a cookie-cutter bread & butter election. So, watch out for populist propaganda by demagogues and snake-oil men (and women).
National's bonfire regulations policies were responsible for the leaky houses of the nineties costing many homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars.
National acts first and thinks later.
If it moves deregulate it, if it doesn't sell it off.
I’m really starting to think that most in National really don’t care, one way or another.
Politics is or should be a contest of ideas and trying to make a difference, e.g., even something as lofty as leaving the World in a better place. At present, it is anything but like that and rather the opposite. Even so-called ‘progressives’ lose sight & track of the big(ger) picture and let themselves dragged into rabbit holes bogged down by trivial topics and sideshows.
The bigger problem is that many people have stopped caring or they are caring too much (!) about singular issues that they consider existential to them and mostly them-only. You can see the polarisation kernel right there. All this plays into the hands of the usual ‘suspects’ but as soon as one tries to call this and/or name it for what it is all Hell breaks loose and words & meanings get twisted swiftly to win arguments and control the narrative.
The external narrative is crucial because it influences our internal narratives and stories we tell ourselves about the World, others, and ourselves. In other words, control the narrative and control the minds, so to speak.
Personally, the key is detachment, which is hard on a good day, but next to impossible when you’re treading water whilst caught in the middle of fierce shit-storms.
Can you prove rse workers get less money than a comparable kiwi worker, ??
By Law the base rates are supposed to be the same as for Kiwis. You know this, don’t you?
USA too has problems with children learning to read.
Do an increasing number of parents expect schools alone to fully develop literacy and numeracy skill for their children, and don't realise that it's important to support these skills from a very young age at home as well? how important it is to read to them, and help them read, and to bring numeracy into everyday conversation?
Many working parents are time short and screen time unconsciously becomes an embedded part of parenting, which almost always won't involve improving literacy or numeracy skills.
If there is one thing I've learnt as a parent and grandparent, it's that learning these skills has to be a partnership between schools and parents.
When I was teaching Infants to read I used context then chose a word for closer study including the phonics connections. The bottom line was the enjoyment of reading whereas the previous phonic system tended to kill a love of reading. For some it was reading the words but not understanding what the text meant. Sad.
Most kids learn to read easily but it is true that a small minority do need special specific teaching. Lets not throw out the gains and skills of the good readers for the sake of those who need special help.
Joe Bennett on impersonating Joe Bennett.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131798336/some-good-news-about-intelligence-artificial-and-otherwise
I have to confess that I actually quite liked the AI’s writing, but I would say that, wouldn’t I?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/300855664/photographer-reveals-prizewinning-image-was-aigenerated-turns-down-award
I did not particularly like that award-winning photo though, which looked fake & false, but I would say that, wouldn’t I?
On the AI photo…. the hands were strange, and mothers put an arm around not on when they are related and close
It was a soulless depiction. It lacked humanity for me before I read the text, I thought "you must be kidding, the winner??"
Oh that explains the stiff depiction.!!
My wife's sister is over from Australia. She is a teacher over there.
She was saying that they have a very program proposed by National in that there are similar requirements for minium hours per day to be spent on maths and english.
Also, parents get regular feedback on how children are progressing according to expected standards.
I have clearly not explained myself very well.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
from here https://thestandard.org.nz/3508173-2/#comment-1946229
you have a pattern of making suggestions to authors and mods eg that we email you, or that it would be better if criticisms were taken offline, or that we have to provide facts/instances. All of that is requiring mods to do more work, instead of you listening to what we are saying and asking for clarification if needed.
👍
Without prejudice, I link to this Opinion piece (by a male theology doctorate student at University of Auckland):
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131801818/whats-up-with-the-obsession-over-other-peoples-gender-identity
To set the tone and disclose the intention, I strongly believe that the last paragraph should have been the first one:
"To set the tone and disclose the intention, I strongly believe that the last paragraph should have been the first one:
I agree.
If this was the first (and last) paragraph, I wouldn't have wasted time reading such waffle from someone with a superficial understanding of what concerns have been raised.
Not by hysterical fearful people, but by people with a clear understanding of impacts who retain the capacity to say "No", to those who insist they are the arbitrators of kindness, and that everything else is just people saying silly stuff.
The main thing Mr Hoban has right is that this belongs in the realms of theology. We don't require others to share our beliefs in various varieties of immortal souls so why should we be required to share beliefs based on the possession of a gendered soul?
He is certainly familiar with earlier versions of homophobic and misogynistic cults so I am surprised he does not see this one for what it is. But you don't get published for saying that.
Second to last paragraph almost got there…
The charismatic leader doesn't apply though, although the rest does.
There is an Irish women that wrote well about the religious angle in the UK. I'll see if I can remember her name, and find some of her writings.
Found her – Colette Colfer:
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2022/04/26/colette-colfer-a-new-religion/
Your irony is off the scale!
Molly means that Hoban's description of the cult is a good fit for gender identity ideology, apart from the charismatic leader bit.
One size fits many.
I don't know what that means sorry.
It means that if the shoe fits it applies equally to other ideological groupings.
Re the 'cult' and/or 'religion' of gender and gender identity 'ideology':
Imagine 'problematic' self-IDing transgender people didn't exist, then ask:
Would gender critical folk still be critical of gender and/or gender identity 'ideology'? If so, then why?
Would anti-gender folk still look askance at females and males whose behaviours, roles and freedoms/rights didn't align with and partition strictly according to traditional (binary) sex-based divisions? If so, then why?
do you mean
Gender critical feminists would be, because they already were before gender identity ideology started impacting on our rights. Are you familiar with feminist critiques of gender? The reason is because gender is how the patriarchy controls women. Note that the whole pink for girls and blue for boys is a feature of both the patriarchy and gender ideology (which is another reasons why the latter is considered regressive nonsense).
What? GCFs are completely ok with gender non-conformity, many of them are gender non conforming.
You seem confused about what the GC objections to gender identity ideology are. Right wing religious objections to transness aren't usually gender critical, because RW religious people usually want to uphold traditional gender roles. GC people fall into two broad camps. Those that object to the impact on women's and children's rights (GCFs and allies), and those that object to queering of culture (people who think that sex is real and matters and that transing kids is abuse). I'm generalising (it's more complex than that), because too many people are referencing the religious right and thinking that's what GC is.
Thanks weka for your questions/options. Noting that my 'problematic' was in inverted commas (trans people being problematic to some people only), I meant (effectively) '2.', since all trans people self-ID, just like everyone else (to some degree, no?) – or perhaps you could answer a good faith question prompted by your good faith questions: Can trans people exist without (personal) self-identification?
See the paragraph (anti-gender folk looking askance at adopting behaviours/roles out of kilter with traditional sex-based assignments) after my second question. My answer to my second question would be 'No', because (as you rightly observe), patriarchal anti-gender folk want to control more than just the ability transgender people to self-ID.
I asked two questions, the first relating to the perspectives of gender critical folk, and the second relating to the perspectives of anti-gender folk. You began your response to my second question (about anti-gender folk) with a reference to GC feminists – wouldn't that response be better suited to my question about GC perspectives?
You seem to believe that I'm confused, and not for the first time. I can only assure you that I don't feel confused, and hope that you will accept my personal assurance in this regard. I would also like to assure you that many comments on TS relating to these 'problematic' issues serve to clarify my personal thoughts on gender, gender-critical, gender ideology, and gender ideology-critical PoVs.
I'm also confused, but I think it may be because your idea of gender critical is not related to a gender critical perspective, but because you think gender critical is only related to criticism of gender ideology, and not a separate stand-alone perspective.
With that in mind, are you able to just ask your two questions simply without reference to any links?
(Because they seem to diffuse rather than focus your queries)
ok, but who here would find trans people 'problematic'? I don't know why you would need to write it that way if what you meant was trans people generally.
Let me try something.
You said,
which could be rewritten as,
to which I would still say, yes feminists have a critique of gender that is outside the sex/gender wars. But also, if trans people didn't exist there would be no critique of gender identity ideology because GII wouldn't exist.
I'm not sure that all people do self-ID btw. But where you ask,
I would say it depends what you mean by trans people. If you mean gender non-conforming people, then yes, they exist irrespective of self-ID. If you mean people with gender dysphoria, then again, yes although I suspect that gender dysphoria is a consequence of living in a society that punishes GNC, so I'm not convinced dysphoria is inherent in humans.
honestly, I can't follow all your quotes. I just ignore them and read your own words. Trying to go back now and figure out what you mean is impossible. Also, one of your quote/links is basically gender ideology, so I'm not going to accept it as a reference at face value.
Here are the two questions
Which I would rewrite as,
If I were answering them, my GCF would inform both questions.
You use the term anti-gender when referring to religious conservatives (If I have understood). That's one thing that is causing confusion. The anti-gender people are the feminists. The religious conservatives are pro-gender/pro-gender roles, and anti-trans or anti-GNC.
@weka – another good question. Please accept an assurance that I would be amazed indeed if anyone "here would find trans people 'problematic'". I didn't, however, intend my hypothetical ("Imagine…") to be limited to Standardistas, but can see how you might have taken it that way.
"Trans people" is shorthand for 'transgender people', meaning (to me) people "whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth." I would like to rewrite my question as: Are there trans people who don't (self-)identify as trans? That question is relevant to your comment:
On reflection, that's certainly possible. I know hardly any trans people personally, so would be interested in evidence that there are adult trans people who do not self-identify as trans – perhaps because they are either unaware, or in denial ("in a society that punishes GNC") about that aspect of their identity, just as some homosexuals and members of other minorities (continue to) deny various aspects of their identity, and rarely to the good of themselves or others, imo.
I'm a stale male, and yet aspects of my identity continue to be revealed to me – some good, some not so good, and some (fortunately and/or unfortunately) subject to change. I would guess that most, if not all people who know they are trans and are not in denial would (self-)identify as trans, but that's just an assumption.
So some feminists are anti-gender (hopefully not too many?) and some feminists are anti-gender stereotypes, and some feminists are gender critical, and some feminists are pro-gender, and some feminists are pro-trans, and some feminists might be trans activists (possibly not to many).
It seems that your definition of “pro-gender/pro-gender roles” is in close alignment with Wikipedia’s definition of anti-gender! So many factions; so much friction.
Molly, anyone can opine on what they think I think, but on this occasion, 'no cigar'. I accept that GC perspectives can be broader than simple criticism of gender ideology, assuming that's what you meant – all we have (in this forum) is our words.
Regarding your request, it is regratable that the links make my queries appear more diffuse to you, but, if it's all the same to you, I will retain the right to include links that I consider relevant to my comments, as they help to focus my mind.
If my queries appear too diffuse, then maybe just scroll on by. I know I do.
Many of us are aware of the "This may include religious concepts, beliefs, and practices that can easily turn dark and threatening when followed through to the extreme."
A mild example from today:
https://twitter.com/JohnJamesNI/status/1648285053271650304?s=20
Good points Molly & Visubversa.
I enjoyed the links to Colette Colfer and more critiques on the 'gendered soul'
To be kind to this author I am assuming that the article he submitted was a much better version than what has appeared in Stuff. It may have been cut down and had a great deal of persuasive theological material removed. As it is is skeletal and disjointed.
I was intrigued that the article was grasping at straws and, to me, did not seem particularly well based on theological scholarship. It was not knowledgeable on some items on which he has based a case eg Nazis/neo nazis.
It is lightweight in comparison with some of the informative links that we were treated to during the earlier discussion on Womens issues etc.
It also missed the elephant in the room, ie what the visit of KJM was all about. That is women's issues and the female response, based in antiquity, to having a concern about unknown people, particularly men in areas that they should not be.
Straws
The missing elements……the concerns of women. I have always believed that the Christian church in relation to its views and treatment of women can be a force for good or a force to be used against women. Some churches allow women to minister and to give Holy Communion. Others do not while others maintain an intrusive concern about the sexuality of women.
But having missed the point of what KJM is all about the author has missed an opportunity to actually bring some theology into it.
What is the theology around grossly trying to change those that God has made in his own image?
Genesis 1:26-28 announces that human beings are made in the image of God:
New International Version
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
People who seem to be either man or woman
Adam and Eve are the Bible's first man and first woman.
According to the Bible (Genesis 2:7), this is how humanity began: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." God then called the man Adam, and later created Eve from Adam's rib.
or do we drop all this Old Testament stuff and look at the often kinder, calmer New Testament?
Matthew 7:12. "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." The Good News: This is literally "the golden rule" of the Bible. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
This did not seem to have been honoured by the protestors.
So bearing mind that the arguments made by women are about women's safe spaces is there guidance in the scriptures? I have not been able to find any links but there are any number about modesty. and the expectation that modesty will be maintained by a woman.
This is a good precis on some of the issues about opinions….not all from the NT.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabiti-anyabwile/12-strategies-accepting-one-another-opinions-differ/
This one I think is important not only from a theological point of view. It is apt here as the author has not done as is suggested. Rom. 14:5
The author has not correctly interpreted the reasons for KJM's visit or the concerns of the women who sought to see and share ideas with her. So it does not meet this criteria. 'If we’re going to have an opinion, make sure it’s an informed and sound opinion'.
Instead he seems to be labelling KJM and the people who wanted to see & listen to her as a cult? While people who wish to deny their children a childhood by transitioning them body and mind instead of safe guarding them (another concern of KJM's) are not mentioned. Why is this?
I would have liked possibly** to see a theology based view on transgenderism or fundamentally changing the image of the God body we have been given, and the events of 25/3 from a women's perspective. This article by Russell Hoban is not it.
** but then the Bible/psalms/prayers can be brought to bear & give an opinion on so many ideas, 'all things to all men etc' that perhaps something wishy washy as we have been presented with is all we can expect.
*Churching of women – now regarded as a celebration of childbirth and welcome back to the church.
For some reason the linking * in the Straws presumably because it was at the start of a sentence has been transformed into a dot. I will resist making some pun about transforming, transubstantiation etc.
Exactly so Shanreagh. There is definitely scope for such an argument from the biblical text and some pretty substantial currents in philosophy.
Despite modern claims that God's pronouns are He/Him, in the original OT languages (Hebrew/Aramaic) YHWH is not gendered (AFAIK). And there are passages like this in the NT
As for philosophical arguments, the gender movement has really obvious parallels to Gnosticism, which has a long history as a heresy that's been associated with Christianity since the year dot. It's an esoteric collection of "hidden" beliefs only available to "enlightened" souls, the most common of which is that the body is crude material prone to sin and decay, but our true essence is beings of light and spirit. It's an easy mistake to make and many Christians hold some variation of this belief about human nature.
(Other Bible scholars will tell you that Gnostic dualism is deeply contradictory to the Hebrew understanding of human nature, which is embodied (physicalism), embracing life and celebrating its joys, and when we die we "fall asleep", we don't float off to Heaven. But we look forward to a day of resurrection when the final trumpet sounds)
Just found out there is a follow up to this Broadsheet article.
It was submitted and accepted for publication in The Irish Times, but was pulled without explanation:
https://twitter.com/ColetteColfer/status/1607384828638539776?s=20
Some people are not allowed to bring their own understandings and views to ‘the debate’, that much is clear. Tightly controlled views and expressions of opinion don’t belong on a blog site that aims at robust debate that is inclusive.
Your response was textbook and reminiscent of Bomber over at TDB. I’m actually surprised that you decided to be triggered and read ‘such waffle’, but this was perhaps the small step needed to climb on your high horse for knocking down another person’s opinion with which you don’t agree. I note that you haven’t addressed one single thing in the Opinion piece, only denigrating it.
Your last sentence was a real doozy – did you have assistance from ChatGPT-4, by any chance? \sarc
how has anyone not been allowed to bring their own understandings and views to the debate? You made a comment, others have responded. Does the fact that Molly was blunt and critical mean you can't bring your own understandings forward? How so?
She did address things in the piece. She said that it presented superficial concerns of the issues for GC people (that's being kind imo, I think the piece is very skewed by both ideology and ignorance to the point of missing what the whole thing is about).
She also pointed out that the concerns have been raised by people who know what they are talking about. Characterising them as fearful and hysterical really was getting off to a bad start.
The ideas about purity and such are interesting, but it's hard from a GCF position to respond to them seriously when women have been written out of the debate. in the piece itself. I mean, I could write a whole piece about western purity and the relegation of female to dirty and male as pure and how this has impacted on women for 500 years, but it's still having to be on the defensive because of the framing that piece used.
Nope, it was a typically defensive comment with some generic ‘criticism’ and the default dismissal with a few disparaging remarks. Nothing new there.
Re. the purity stuff, this was clearly to provide context to “the crew who line up to sail with them” and understand why and where those are coming from and associated with (and interested in) the GC stuff.
Snap Weka. Out of my long piece I removed a long link to the history of churching of women after childbirth tracing the need to bring them into the church because of uncleanliness (10th Century) to now celebrating safe & happy childbirth etc. The purity argument as advancef d by Hoban was not very convincing.
Hey Incognito
The highlighted paragraph in your comment was a conclusion reached with no supporting evidence in the article. The use of hysterical and fearful, by the author indicate a certain bias and predetermined outcome, arrived at through meandering through visits to other disconnected ideas.
Hence: waffle. You might consider it a more nutritious food for thought. Our dietary needs on this may differ.
For something I consider palatable, I posted another article on the same topic and with the same religious framework in my response to visubversa:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-04-2023/#comment-1946277
(Read it, scroll on, critique or ridicule it as you wish. Forcefeeding is not an intention.)
"Your last sentence was a real doozy – did you have assistance from ChatGPT-4, by any chance? \sarc"
No. It was a example of personal humour.
To be clear, women who raise issues of concern should not be assumed to be hysterical, fearful, speakers of silly stuff or some form of artificial intelligence.
(In regards to the latter, we are the real deal…nothing artificial at all.)![wink wink](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png?x42494)
Anybody who raises any issue of concern in good faith and with genuine interest in robust debate that is inclusive and open-minded ought to expect a response without prejudice but not necessarily a warm welcoming hug. I can’t see it.
I am aware you are unable to see good faith on this issue.
For me, that seems obvious from your exchanges here.
However, many will continue to voice their concerns, and perhaps one day you will understand what they are, and see how consistently people offered them in good faith and prepared for the robust debate you seek.
At present, I see such good faith comments receiving derision, redirection and dismissal. Very little understanding of what is being said, little to no links to robust evidence, and/or deferrals often to lightweight opinion pieces.
For instance:
More and more evidence is accumulating about the harm of the social and medical transition of minors, that we provide here in NZ under the protocol of "affirming healthcare"?
This approach has no clinical evidence base, and are significant (and often permanent) interventions.
Do you have concerns about this situation at all?
This is an unevidenced assertion but let's assume you're correct, what alternative treatment protocol does the gender critical movement think should be used in the treatment of trans youth?
Well for a start you have made a presumption that the youth are trans. Molly stated 'minors.'
Jordan Peterson. whose views I have had many a long tussle with in times past has a very clear and thoughtful interview with a woman who has detransitioned. His professional knowledge about best practice in this issue is clear.
He said about 25 hours of counselling over 6 months should be the minimum for those showing the twin 'illnesses' of
gender dysphoria and psychiatric illness notably depression.
These two often go hand in hand and if the maxim of 'first do no harm' is to be followed then counselling for depression should be commenced.
I read figures that if the 'first do no harm' proponents treat children without surgery or puberty blockers that about 2/3 when grown are same sex attracted.
It was a deliberate decision not to put too much into a comment that was an invitation.
There is a lot of information regarding the lack of clinical evidence for the affirming healthcare model.
I have OIA'd the Ministry of Health for their evidence base, who said they follow the guidelines of PATHA and WPATH.
PATHA is based on WPATH, so that organisation is a good starting point. AAP is another, and so is the Endocrine Society.
Many countries – follow the guidance of these three organisations.
WPATH – World Professional Association Transgender Health
WPATH is advocacy based in their guidelines – not evidenced based. Many of their contributors are not medical or research professionals. Eg. Susie Green – Former CEO of Mermaids.
Current WPATH – Standards of Care 8 released last year
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644
The state of Alabama (like many countries) is reviewing the care for minors and as part of court injunction when they passed a Bill that ceased affirmative care, testimony was given from the three organisations listed above. When they were asked for evidence, they refused:
A subpoena has been issued, so it'll be worthwhile to see what is produced:
http://files.eqcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/219-D-Response-to-Motion-to-Quash-Subpoenas.pdf
AAP – American Academy of Pediatrics
The state of Florida has also had to subpoena AAP to get their evidence for their recommendations.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/27/american-academy-pediatrics-florida-lawsuit-transgender-children/
Membership are unable to raise the issue despite attempts to do so:
https://archive.ph/ivI08#selection-353.0-357.697
The Endocrine Society:
Guidelines can be found here:
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/102/11/3869/4157558?login=false
Recent BMJ article:
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382
As you can see, these are just some of the concerns held about the three main authors of affirmative healthcare.
If you wanted to talk about specific treatments or the adoption of the Dutch Protocol I can provide some links about those if I have them.
"What alternative treatment protocol does the gender critical movement think should be used in the treatment of trans youth?"
I would think it'd be the same as anyone else. High-quality, evidenced based care that avoids the risk of iatrogenic harm for those receiving it. Do you honestly think that gender critical people do not want the best care for others, particularly minors?
What level and quality of evidence would you like to see for the "gender affirming healthcare" model, given its significant disruption to psychological states, the endocrine system, and possible surgical disruptions to sexual health, reproduction, and urinary functions?
So the thing is, you're not correct, we have the evidence, gender affirming healthcare is the best care model:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/political-minds/202201/the-evidence-trans-youth-gender-affirming-medical-care
tldr:
So, if we do in fact 'want the best care for others' then we wouldn't be trying to get involved in or try to prevent the provision of that care to others right?
https://segm.org/NICE_gender_medicine_systematic_review_finds_poor_quality_evidence
Arkie, I would put far more store on the finding of NICE, The National Institute for Clinical Excellence. They review studies, exclued many because case numbers are too low or theirs no control group or they are retrospective. The studies quoted mostly fall into these categories.
FFS these drugs, puberty blockers, are not licenced to treat gender. dysphoria. You do realize that these are the drugs that Alan Turing was put on to chemically castrate him because he was gay?
Arkie and others on this site, if you geniuely want to know a therapeutic approach that helps these kids, please read the link below. Unless you are a therapist, I suggest you skip the first eight pages, because it is pretty technical.
On page 9 begins a case study of a therapist working with a teenager, Peter, who identifies as a women. Its a very moving account of how this boy is helped by a very skilled therapist who has his best interests at heart.
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/IESOGI/Other/Rebekah_Murphy_TowardsaGenderExploratoryModelslowingthingsdownopeningthingsupandexploringidentitydevelopment.pdf
Jack Turban is a well-known purveyor of low quality, but strong conclusive data that is often picked up by unquestioning media.
Here are a couple of the critiques published after his article.
You'll have to read them if you want to assess if that criticism is justified. I think it is. You can decide for yourself.
Leor Sapir: The Distortions in Jack Turban’s Psychology Today Article on ‘Gender Affirming Care’
https://www.realityslaststand.com/p/the-distortions-in-jack-turbans-psychology
Post rest in different comment…
Jesse Singal: Researchers Found Puberty Blockers And Hormones Didn’t Improve Trans Kids’ Mental Health At Their Clinic. Then They Published A Study Claiming The Opposite. (Updated)
Critique of Study16 – Tordoff et al
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/researchers-found-puberty-blockers
Follow-up to previous article:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-04-2023/#comment-1946342
Jesse Singal: The University of Washington Is Putting Trans Kids At Risk By Distorting Suicide Research
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/the-university-of-washington-is-putting
"So, if we do in fact 'want the best care for others' then we wouldn't be trying to get involved in or try to prevent the provision of that care to others right?"
I am someone who has supported someone through many years of unresolved pain and surgeries because of iatrogenic harm and had someone close die of it. My trust in medical systems therefore has a higher degree of skepticism than perhaps someone that has not seen how despite all the safeguards in place, sometimes treatments or protocols are adopted that are harmful.
Do you not have any concern that the three major medical associations that provide the guidelines for affirmation only healthcare, not only failed to provide the clinical evidence when asked, but resorted to lawyers to avoid having to do so at all?
Do you not have any concern regarding the failure of the AAP to listen to members and review the guidelines that were adopted without examination?
Given the significant health impacts of a poorly functioning endocrine system, are you not concerned that The Endocrine Society's own grading of the evidence for their guidelines is "low" or "very low"?
I don't understand how this lack of evidence is not ringing alarm bells for those who claim to have the health and well-being of minors at the forefront.
The alternative you asked about could be that while high-quality evidence is gathered, to increase and improve the access to mental health services, and investigation and treatment of any co-morbidities.
This approach, called watchful waiting, often gave children and minors time to be treated for co-morbidities and often resolve their gender dysphoria by the time they reached their early twenties. Many of these children discovered they were same-sex attracted.
(However, the data from those previous studies references a significantly different demographic from the high number of adolescent girls presenting today, so it's unlikely to be of use in terms of comparison.)
One of the clinicians who conducted watchful waiting for many years at a Canadian clinic, was Dr Kenneth Zucker. He was an author of previous WPATH SoC and a long established clinician.
This is what happened to him when the medical protocols changed:
https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/fight-over-trans-kids-got-a-researcher-fired.html
The changes that take place medically and surgically are significant interventions, not merely aesthetic, and also impair or completely disrupt major functioning systems in the body.
The evidence for such risky procedures or medications should be overwhelming and robust clinical evidence. Not the "low" or "very low" bar that seems to be the case.
@Molly
Two can play that game; Leor Sapir is a less well-known conservative political scientist involved in anti-transgender political action, Jesse Singal is a journalist, their critiques are noted as is their relevant 'expertise'.
You said there is no evidence, this is your opinion on the ‘quality’ of the evidence not a statement of fact; there is evidence, it is a small but growing list, due to the fact that gender affirming care is relatively new as is the wider acceptance of trans individuals.
Ultimately what healthcare people receive is really their and their providers business alone, I trust medical professionals and the individuals themselves to achieve the best results possible for themselves as patients.
@arkie
Sorry, I just noticed I replied on the wrong comment.
My reply to you is here:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-04-2023/#comment-1946349
when you link to a TS comment or post, can you please put a full stop (or any character) immediately before the URL? There is a bug that makes internal links embed weirdly without that (and stops people from reading the comment). Mods are having to manually fix each comment with an internal link, so it would be appreciated if commenters could prevent the problem, thanks.
@Anker
Thanks for that paper regarding the Gender Exploratory Model.
It was an interesting read, and similar to what many of the detransitioners relate in terms of missed exploration into sexuality, and other co-morbidities.
Have bookmarked.
@weka
Yes. Will do.
"So, if we do in fact 'want the best care for others' then we wouldn't be trying to get involved in or try to prevent the provision of that care to others right?"
I'll ignore the assumption that care for others must be shown by supporting demands for unevidenced medical interventions, and answer this as matter of factly as I can:
The Karolinska Institute in Sweden has just published a short article on the dilemma of providing the best care, after their systematic review of clinical literature did not support the promoted "affirmative healthcare" model.
They have created a checklist model to ensure the collection of good clinical data.
https://news.ki.se/systematic-review-on-outcomes-of-hormonal-treatment-in-youths-with-gender-dysphoria
(A plethora of links about the Swedish clinical review can be found on this Standard post – and comments – from last year:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/why-sweden-is-changing-its-gender-transition-policy-for-children-and-young-people/
This links to the review itself, the appendices show the review selections:
https://www.sbu.se/342 )
Found a bookmark that provides another author – Jennifer Block – and an article published in BMJ in February 2023, that consolidates the information I had regarding WPATH, AAP and the Endocrine Society.
It may be an easier read – more cohesive and informative:
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382
Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement
@arkie
Yes. I know Leor Sapir has critics just as Jack Turban does.
So I read ALL I can of Jack Turban and Leor Sapir, and Jesse Singal and Tordoff et al etc, and I try to determine whether what is being said is justified.
Did you consider that the points made in the articles are completely unjustified?
Arkie are you able to please let me know what the objections are to helping a child with gender dysphoria and the often accompanying mental health problems, with the concepts behind 'first do no harm' and watchful waiting?
Weka set out some of the issues that often sit alongside gender dysphoria
ie ‘ (mental health/depression, sexual abuse, autism, being lesbian in a homophobic environment, being a girl in a misogynistic environment etc)’.
What are the reasons why these concepts plus intensive counselling would not help a child?
Why is there the rush to treat with horrible chemicals or equally horrible surgery on sexual organs? From what I have read it is not easy for a reversal to take place that returns a body to what it was before.
It all just seems so cruel and unnecessary to rob a child of their childhood, granted pre puberty/puberty are often hard times but shouldn't the focus be to come through this challenging time, with help aplenty and then see if the landscape is the same in 5 years?
I know children's views change over 3, 5 10 years. I mean as a 4 year old I told my father I was planning to always carry a gun in my purse, but this never lasted, I was given a small broken cap gun that I was told would be useful.
I was a tomboy, strong and tall for my age …..It would just horrify me to think that my parents might be complicit in something that could have very sad effects. Why would parents not be attracted to the concept of watchful waiting plus counselling?
It just seems that children are not the best judge of what the best is for them and that's one of the reasons that they are looked after while young in societies and why parenting is so important to guide, discuss etc.
I did link to an interview by Jordan Petersen with Chloe who has detransitioned. She seemed to be saying she had no concept of what growing up might entail, what the chemicals might do and felt she was too young to consent.
Molly,
You might find this rabbit hole interesting:
https://vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=14355
In some respects I see Vitamin D as a proxy for something that lies in plain sight, yet overlooked almost all of the time – that many modern chronic mal-adaptions of our biology have a root cause in the fact of us now living for several generations almost exclusively indoors.
The relative paucity of UV-B and Near-IR exposure, the lack of thermal challenge to our bodies, reduced exercise and increased exposure to airborne pathogens are all unwelcome consequences of our modern lifestyle. Yes it is more comfortable inside, but it may well come with a cost we are only just beginning to count.
Dammit, RedLogix.
I already have a veritable Watership Down of rabbitholes to keep track of….
, however, that link is interesting – so, thank you.
I agree our evolutionary adaption processes may have been left behind in the wake of our technological advances that have resulted in our mostly sedentary and indoor modern lives.
When I was looking into various impairments to learning and children's behaviour a (long) while ago, one of the aspects of many of those with autism was a restricted diet. Autistic children often limited their food intake to those they found acceptable. There were a couple of studies on the digestive system of autistic children that found that either their diet was too restrictive, or their ability to metabolise nutrients was different, or the system of metabolism itself was impaired.
So they were often nutritionally deficient.
Anyway, I'll go off and explore the link further.
A lot of interesting avenues to travel along in that warren of studies.
I think Molly means affirmation only approaches (maybe she can clarify). Affirmation only means prioritising affirmation of the new gender above all else, including sometimes ignoring issues that sit alongside gender dysphoria (mental health/depression, sexual abuse, autism, being lesbian in a homophobic environment, being a girl in a misogynistic environment etc).
The key in that is that the usual support and treatments are replaced by affirmation, instead of the usual supports and treatments being the default and then if needed looking at transition.
If you would like to understand this better, including which kids do well from affirmation and which don't, I highly recommend following #detrans on twitter. There are many first hand accounts of people who transitioned in their teens via the affirmation only model and later realised it was mistake. They talk about the treatment they weren't offered that they needed.
Here is another interview from Dr Jordan Peterson with Dr Miriam Grossman who is concerned at the pressures put on parents when a child feels they want to transition.
In answer to your question Arkie, Gender Exploratory Therapy. I will try and find a link.
You see, you and I are talking about rather different issues, or topics rather, which you still don’t seem to realise. Why not? Although you came close when you mentioned the robust debate I seek.
Do you like to be called ignorant, ridiculed, or dismissed? Yet this is what a few others and you are doing, sometimes in a subtle way, sometimes rather blunt bordering on rude & condescending. As you have done again in this reply – it is a good example of the typical passive-aggressive replies.
People treat others the way they treat them. I could go on, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference because my comments will meet a wall of rejection and deflection.
Why do others and you always revert back to the same groove in these threads?
Please don’t try and pull me into your narrative and divert away to your issue of interest. It only confirms that you are conflating the two issues and only want to talk about yours.
After reading your comment, all I can see is yet another long admonishment, and nothing offered to discuss.
If you feel ignorant, ridiculous and/or dismissed – it it up to you to determine whether you are. You might be one of the first two, and/or the dismissal might be real. I haven't seen many accusations of ignorance or ridiculous being offered, though I have seen repeated avoidance of addressing points made multiple times by various people, and make the assumption that has to be deliberate. Could be wrong.
Anyway, did you have anything you wanted to discuss? Or is that not the purpose here?
Good points Molly.
Berating adults and avoidance of the issues is not the way to foster debate and interest in topics.
Of late the personal anti factor against us on these issues seems to be hyped up as well. I am to refrain from raising concerns by email so I will leave just one thought/concern. Meant carefully and caringly. And in the spirit of as my dad would say 'we've given up shooting people for expressiing a view/thought/care'. So here goes…..
A boss, my next door neighbour and my Dad showed uncharacteristic grumpiness, impatience and less of an ability to see the point of another in the weeks before they had serious heart failure. Illness and particularly heart related illness can have grumpiness as a precursor. My dad said he could feel being impatient, hated it but said it seemed to be what it was.
I have friends in nursing, so I know your anecdote holds truth.
My thoughts on this impasse are fairly straightforward – when you start looking into the impacts past the #BeKind exhortations, then you often really want to have discussions around the issues you find concerning.
If you have decided to #BeKind or have friends or family that you love that you feel need to be protected, ANY discussion around gender ideology is to be suppressed and avoided.
As that suppression takes place in various ways, the discussion seekers – try various ways to open dialogue.
The discussion suppressors – increase their efforts as well.
It depends on how much energy exists in the individuals in either of those groups on whether full, open discussion takes place at any one time.
Thank you Molly.
Yes aside from a possible ill health manifestation then another reason for avoidance is the family situation.
Perhaps it was the 1970/80s 'assertiveness training' I had as a woman but one point was that if you do not want to discuss a topic or have boundaries within a topic then the responsibility to set your boundaries & to communicate them lies with you yourself.
For women it was to give them power to own a decision.
I see nothing wrong with making personal uncomfortableness being owned by oneself and not foisted on unsuspecting others who don't have the boundaries and just want to discuss things.
At work I saw a few instances where this worked very well and that people making comments would either not say them out out respect, or frame them by saying 'I know people may be offended by this reference, it is relevant……'
Wholesale grumpiness and pushing back without a reason as we seem to be experiencing puts whatever uneasiness on us instead of the actual person who is uneasy. Hence we face a 'walking on egg shells' approach not knowing when or why we are going to offend.
I am being very careful but the idea of a response of the kind I have been getting has a chilling effect. I am trying to limit my time on TS as a result.
For instance it was only when I saw that you and Visubversa had commented on the article that I decided to comment. Up until then I felt diffidence in coming forward to comment.
I will get onto Twitter.
@Shanreagh.
That's interesting.
I just figure that on this platform we're adults who choose to engage in robust debate – or not.
I prefer to exchange with those who along with disagreement offer insights or information, but do enjoy reading the back and forth of those skilled at other forms of contributions.
My mood and thoughts were pretty dark for 3 or 4 weeks after getting Covid.
Probably a general effect of cardiovascular stress
I was not talking about or referring to myself, but thank you for your concern.
Yes, you are wrong – alleged ignorance has been weaponised in debate as the definitive put down of others, sometimes accompanied by sage advice of listening to those who know best here. [no sarc tag]
As expected, I hit the wall of rejection and deflection – my purpose & intention bounced right off you, again.
Still, I see some change & improvement in the discourse here over the last couple of days, so perhaps all this effort has been worth it after all – I sincerely hope so and would like to move back into the background.
What/who is this in response to please……you don't quote the posters you are replying to or use @.
is it this?
Incognito…
19 April 2023 at 11:57 pm
When a thread gets so long that the comments no longer have numbers these tips are helpful.
For instance this seems not to have a context in either Molly’s or my comments in response to your points, at least I cannot see where we have raised it?
‘Yes, you are wrong – alleged ignorance has been weaponised in debate as the definitive put down of others,”
Response was to this: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-04-2023/#comment-1946392.
I'm guessing that Hoban is unfamiliar with how the word hysteria has been used against women historically. This makes sense given he seems almost wholly ignorant of the conflict between women's sex based rights and gender ideology.
However ignorance is no excuse for dismissal of politics that keep women safe. All that is required is listening to women and putting some effort into understanding GC politics. Pity we don’t have an event where he could hear what women have to say 🤔 Or he could just go and ask the myriad of GC women to explain it to him.
I’m guessing the h-word was deliberate.
The theology student was not preaching to the converted nor did he want to convert any over to his ideological position. He offered his opinion for consideration and discussion, not instant dismissal.
Drawing parallels and providing a different context and PoV are not welcome, obviously, and diminished at the first suggestion of incomplete understanding and/or adherence to a certain group-think.
If he wanted it to be considered he probably shouldn't have written women out then 🤷♀️
As I said, I would have found the purity angle interesting if the whole piece hadn't been problematic from the start. This isn't about group think, it's about women being really sick of the misrepresentation of the issues in the context of No Debate. Writing women out of the issues in that context is always going to get push back. I'm not sure it's possible to talk about the purity frame if women are not part of the analysis.
This is the issue that others and I have been talking about here for some time and some have for years (with disappointing outcomes that still linger & fester).
I have no idea whether you truly accuse the theology student of ‘writing out women’ in his Opinion piece, but it would be misunderstanding (and mischaracterisation) of the place & role of Opinion pieces in MSM. My take is that the author wished to be considered by anybody who was willing to consider his opinion.
If you want to define & control the rules of your debate, you may want to consider a dedicated (daily?) Post with stricter rules than provided on TS by the standard Policy. The current way ain’t fit for your purpose, IMO, because it leaves too little wriggle room for diverging views & opinions.
What is the issue? You haven't actually said. I'm pretty sure you are not saying that the issue is "I'm not sure it's possible to talk about the purity frame if women are not part of the analysis.", so what is it? Spell it out.
Then just ask.
I'm sure he does. But his framing eliminates women from the issue, when it's women that are at the centre of it. This is common in two ways in the gender/sex wars. It's done deliberately by TRAs, who try and frame the war as being far right against queers. It's also done by people who are relatively ignorant of the issues and how they impact on women.
There is nothing on the piece that includes women's concerns about our sex based rights. He references someone saying that single sex toilet concerns are based in distorted puritanical beliefs about bodies and sex, and makes. no mention whatsoever that we have single sex toilets for women because women fought to have them so they could take part of society.
The only other reference to women is where he asks why Nazis are attracted to the LWS, as if women haven't been explaining this for the past month. Nazis might have ideas about purity, but that's nothing to do with women.
If he wanted his frameworks to be understood (and like I said, the purity angle is interesting), then there needs to be some connection to how the politics are in the real world.
I'm not the one that has the problem with the debate here. You put up a short comment, and link to a problematic piece, and not a lot of explanation, but included a quote using the term hysteria. Women have responded with their thoughts and now you are complaining about them not responding the way you wanted them to. Sounds like you are the one that doesn't like how debate goes here. And that's fine, sometimes it doesn't go the way we want. But I'm not trying to control the rules here, I'm making my arguments exactly how we've always done it.
Make your own argument Incognito. Explain why you think the purity and theology angles are important, and relate to things that we've been discussing here on TS.
Why do you think that knowing that the word has been used over the centuries and notably by the so-called fathers of modern psychiatry to 'explain' many concerns of women?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480686/
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-quackery/history-hysteria
'Throughout history hysteria has been a sex-selective disorder, affecting only those of us with a uterus'.
and
'In essence, Freud believed that women experienced hysteria because they were unable to reconcile the loss of their (metaphoric) penis. With this in mind, Freud described hysteria as ‘characteristically feminine’, and recommended basically what every other man treating hysteria had through the years- get married and have sex'.
Why would anyone positing a way through by seeking rapproachment write such an article that includes incorrect facts and smears.
Even if it is for the good, speaking from a position of ignorance does little to enthuse others. It is as if speaking to him and others like him, we might 'see the sense' and 'oh sorry, we got it wrong about women's safe spaces.'
He is just in the vernacular, 'slagging off'. He differs from many of those in the crowd of 2000 wanting to crush the women wanting to talk about womens issues on 25/3 by being published.
The more I have reflected overnight the more I feel that how did this commentator get so far through this life without being aware of womens issues from the vote in NZ, UK suffragettes, to the abortion debates of the 1970s, through to the concern about systemic sexism in the 80s,90s etc. How has he been so blind that these events of current affairs or recent history have zoomed over him?
* Still a common approach by some medical people
Stuff and nonsense. It’s a bad faith clickbait piece crafted to drive engagement not to shed light on the substantial issues in the debate. You can tell the author is dishonest when he starts off with a straw man, making a list of assorted fringe groups, but no mention of one particular group: Women. Nor does he show any awareness of serious academics like Emma Hilton, Kathleen Stock, Jane Clare Jones, Colin Wright, Holly Lawford-Smith and many others who critically examine every aspect of the new gender movement.
But since his background appears to be in theology, let me make my own theological observations. Sex is an objective biological reality. Humans are inseperable from their bodies – we are not brains in a jar. Human psychology is a complex phenoimeon and equally culture and religion have an insight into a spiritual world. This may be labelled as the collective unconscious, the shadow self, the id, ego, soul or whatever.
A fundamental error made by the gender movement is that the soul is separate from the body – this arises from too much time online and loo little time “touching grass”. Another is that we have to believe people are who they say they are. This is an open door for abuse. Another concering aspect of human nature that the gender movement denies is that their own side is capable of error or malevolent motives. They are all too willing to accuse others of awful crimes but prefer an airbrished version of reality for their own side.
It’s next to impossible to debate people who are in such basic denial of reality. The gender movement is akin to a new religion in that way. Its most obnoxious advocates are not interested in discussion or consideration of others point of view. There is a dangerous trend of escalating violence and cancellation of academics and feminists. And the NZ media is all singing from the same song sheet. Not everyone critical of the government is a conspiracy theory cooker. Framing legitimate dissent as fascism is a failure of journalism that does not serve to inform the public, only stirs up mobs.
like, wtf.
https://twitter.com/riley_gaines_/status/1644206766165737472?s=61&t=4nyjBVbo16PbRZPJZdlgag
https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1644279982443601921?s=61&t=4nyjBVbo16PbRZPJZdlgag
Thanks Roblogic.
Just extraordinary to me that the womens rights activists get accused of hysteria and violence without any evidence.I don't see lesbians or feminists picketing trans jamborees with placards saying kill a trans, or yelling and screaming and shutting down trans speakers, or holding them hostage , or pelting them with food items.
We have become so divorced from nature and disembodied that now we imagine we can change sex by sheer belief.(The magical thinking required by those transwomen who swear they are having their period is a trifle scary.How did we get so insane?
Thanks again for your post
It's an issue that touches a few family members and friends directly. Kids with autism and other undiagnosed issues are being transed and choosing to avoid the difficulties associated with female puberty. I can't imagine how crazy it is for young women these days, all the most toxic stereotypes are on blast via TikTok. It's a generation experiencing unprecedented levels of mental illness. Social media is uniquely isolating and kids share a bizarro superficial fantasy world that is purely about image and groovy beliefs.
And on that note a 20 year old male will appear in court tomorrow charged with assaulting a 70 year old women who was part of the Let Women Speak Event
Well, there goes another wishful-thinking urban myth.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/131801260/number-of-investment-properties-selling-plummets-up-to-83
No sell-off because they just raise the rent.
An unintended consequence, what a surprise!
They can only do this once every 12 months, and it is pseudo-uncapped.
I'm crediting or blaming the brightline rule
https://www.ird.govt.nz/property/buying-and-selling-residential-property/the-brightline-property-rule
John Key was a ‘shuffler’, Judith Collins a ‘crusher’, and Chris Luxon is a ‘hustler’. Another day, another breeze of hot halitosis air from the National Leader. He’s flapping, he’s floundering, he’s flatulating, so what’s got the poor man to do to get a lift in the polls, a rocket?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/get-ready-for-the-luxon-hustle
The National Party tactic is that they don’t need to present answers or solutions, just a perception of having them ready when the time comes and knowing what they’re doing when it matters, i.e., fake it until you make it. It will be an absolute shambles, of course, but it will have been 6 years and the voters have plenty to moan about. Falling house prices, rising CoL, and major wedge issues will seal the deal. I’d better start reading up on the ACT policies.
Yep, the upcoming six months of tough times will make it hard for Labour at election time.
Wedge issues won't help either.
Misinformation by mainstream media such as Stuff's opinion on our massive trade deficit ignores the cause and is basically National Party propaganda the cost of Oil imports isn't mentioned once in what is effectively a free election advertising for National. The Cost of Oil imports is up by $1.2 billion dollars per month over last year which no doubt is up on previous years. We need to reduce oil use.Stuff says we need to stop red tape in farming ie pollution enviromental degradation,Safety,Labour exploitation{slavery}.Stuff need to be called out on their fact free articles!
Yesterday you told me
"Oh dear, you never seem to get my jokes. If you’d read my comment properly you’d have realised that nothing made sense what I wrote.".
Now I understand what you mean. I have carefully read this comment, studied what you said yesterday about how to recognize your humourous remarks and it is quite obvious that you mean this as a joke. It fits your description perfectly. All is now clear.
Halitosis is no joke!
Labour's Nash lobbying and the National/Act faux outrage.
It may have been discussed here previously.
The conservative parties in the world are totally beholden to their lobbyists. Big business, farming etc. I would venture to suggest that the current opposition caucuses spend most of their non-parliamentary time being conferenced, wined, dined or entertained by one or more of their donor sectors. And they formulate policy to match the everyday conversations and lobbying they have. Even when they venture to the sporting clubs (golf/rugby/bridge etc) you can bet what conversations they will be having.