John McWhorter discusses his new book, Woke Racism, with Nick Gillespie of Reason. How did we get to the Woke Present? This is an hour-long discussion that draws repeatedly on history, connecting the dots from approximately the 1950s to the present.
Glenn Greenwald and Megyn Kelly discuss the racism of Joy Reid. Indeed, what is wrong with MSNBC that they allow unabashed racism to continue on their network?
Naomi Cunningham's article is titled "Why did lawyers try to cancel me over trans rights?" She ends her article on a hopeful note: bullying tactics by trans rights activists seem to be less effective of late.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been writing regularly on the seething controversies around biological sex and gender identity. I’m a barrister, specialising in discrimination and employment law and chair of the new human rights organisation Sex Matters, so I take a professional as well as a personal interest in the subject. My stance is broadly ‘gender critical’. I believe that biological sex is real, and that sometimes has consequences that matter; that there are exactly two sexes; and that although human beings are free to embrace the gendered behaviour associated with the opposite sex, and even to modify their bodies so that they look more like a member of the opposite sex, they cannot literally change sex.
These facts are obviously true, and the vast majority of people believe them. And yet they are now also bitterly contested. Many of those writing and campaigning in this area have suffered bullying, no-platforming, threats to their livelihoods, and even threats of death or rape. The attacks are disgraceful, but I became concerned that they were creating a chilling effect wider than was justified by the real risks in speaking up. So last month, I wrote my own story in a short blog, entitled 'Not Cancelled: I have suffered no serious adverse consequences from my gender-critical writing. The end.’
That’s still true – but in the last few days I have faced quite a serious attempt to cancel me from an event at which I was to speak.
What should we do now that "woke" has become a pejorative term? A) Carefully apply it to refer to only to the things for which woke people advocate. B) Keep using it, because they chose it. They earned it.
On the same topic, see Bill Maher at min 5:25:
There is a much better word for this than "menstruating person." It's the word "women." Ever since J.K. Rowling made this same obvious and common sense suggestion to use the word "woman," she has been subjected to a vile stream of invective and death threats. That is the world we now inhabit.
“First they steal the words, then they steal the meaning.” George Orwell
