Deliberately provocative: New hate speech laws came into force in Scotland yesterday which, if enforced, will effectively stifle all manner of dissent emanating from woke orthodoxy and could land Harry Potter creator and eminent feminist JK Rowling in prison.
Passed in 2021, the law cracks down on “hate speech” and enshrines all kinds of new protections of minority groups into law. “Transgender identity” is explicitly mentioned in the bill (while gender is not). The law appears to have chilling effects, as conviction for a crime could result in up to seven years in prison.
Rowling has arrived on X (formerly Twitter) with a thread calling attention to how women receive no additional legal protection, but transgender activists, some of whom use violent and threatening rhetoric, do:
Today the Hate Crime Act comes into force in Scotland. Women obviously get no additional protection, but the well-known trans activist Beth Douglas, a favorite of prominent Scottish politicians, falls into a protected category. Phew! 1/11 pic.twitter.com/gCKGwdjr5m
—JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2024
Rowling has long been critical of the ideologies of transgender activists, arguing in particular that one’s natal sex can be changed, as well as the argument that those who have transitioned deserve full access to bathrooms, locker rooms, competitions and to other same-sex spaces. “In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish legislators appear to have placed greater value on the feelings of men interpreting their idea of femininity, however misogynistic or opportunistic, than on the rights and freedoms of real women and girls.” , Rowling wrote.
“The new legislation is widely open to abuse by campaigners who wish to silence those of us who talk about the dangers of eliminating single-sex spaces for women and girls, the absurdity of crime figures if they are recorded violent and sexual assaults committed by men as women’s crimes, the grotesque injustice of allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the injustice of women’s work, the honors and opportunities taken away by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex,” he continued. “Freedom of speech and belief will end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is criminalized.”
She concluded her criticism with a hint of provocation: “I am currently abroad, but if what I have written here qualifies as a crime under the terms of the new law, I look forward to being arrested upon my return.” to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.” (More Here.)
Noticeable absence: “The Scottish government has managed to create a bill that grants greater status and protection to men who dress up than real women,” writes Alex Massie for The Sunday Times. “Being a woman is not a “protected characteristic” and while I doubt this bill is necessary, it seems notable that those who think so have not considered women a category worthy of inclusion in its mandate.”
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF), a staff association representing the police, opposes the very law its members will be tasked with enforcing. “The term hate crime is an increasingly fluid term, as more and more sectors of society demand special status for their particular group,” the SPF writes in a press release.
“The SPF is also concerned that the bill moves further away from police control
(and criminalization) of acts and acts to the potential control of what people
think or feel, as well as the criminalization of what is said in private.”
Rowling has said previously that she would rather go to prison than be forced by the government or activist groups to say something she believes is profoundly false. Unfortunately, this belief may be put to the test.
Your next Zuck: As previously reported here, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has told prospective investors that he is interested in buying TikTok if the US government forces its Chinese owners, ByteDance, to sell (versus an outright ban). But ByteDance put its foot down and said the app will be stripped of its algorithm. Then mastermind Mnuchin started talking about how he’ll just…rebuild the algorithm, no big deal.
But “the idea is so far-fetched that it suggests a lack of familiarity with how tech companies work,” he reports The Washington Post. “TikTok users flocked to the app for its surprising suggestions of videos they could watch, and there’s no guarantee that a Mnuchin-led version could duplicate that success or beat rivals like Meta and Google, which have worked for years to mirror the app experience within their respective apps, Instagram and YouTube.”
So, Mnuchin would have to assemble a team to not only secure the funds to buy the app, but also rebuild its algorithm from scratch. And all over the course of six months, as Congress has set a deadline for the divestment, after which the app will be banned if the legislation passes.
All this, second Pirate threads‘ Mike Solana, “Provide[s] another useful indication of Washington’s view of technology: a bunch of lucky idiots with too much wealth and power, everything the swamp creatures want.”
Scenes from New York: A New York Times survey of the city’s 38 specialized homeless shelters, in numbers, over a four-year period:
- 50 deaths, half due to overdose
- 1,400 combats (of which half resulting in “serious injuries”)
- 40 fires (half of which specially lit)
- Over 40 rapes/attempted rapes/sexual assaults
The shelters, in total, cost about $260 million a year.
QUICK SHOTS
- I kind of like that Donald Trump he pretended to suspend his April Fools’ campaign.
- California could liberalize its assisted suicide laws, following Canada’s controversial playbook. “Introduced in March by a first-term lawmaker, an attorney with expertise in estate planning, the proposal would allow people without a specific terminal prognosis to request terminal medications, a lower threshold than any of the other 10 states that currently allow some form of aid in dying”, he reports Politic.
- The first comprehensive biography of Andy Warhol’s muse, Candy Darling, mentioned in Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.”
- Stupid warning headline: “Big Banks Are ‘Quietly Giving Up’ on Their Climate Promises,” from Bloomberg. Not only is “abandoning altogether” a silly figure of speech that won’t stand the test of time, but big banks have always sought to appease and never actually followed up on climate-related requests.
- “Iran has vowed revenge against Israel after blaming it for a deadly airstrike on its embassy in Syria,” it reports Bloombergdescribing Iran’s move as “a rare confrontation in adversaries’ growing proxy conflict over the war in Gaza.”
- Congressman from San Francisco try to do work emails after hours illegal, as if it were his business.
- The National Organization for Women seems to be quite anti-woman:
Repeat after us: weaponizing femininity against other women is white supremacist patriarchy at work. Making people believe there isn’t enough room for trans women in sports is white supremacist patriarchy at work. https://t.co/SacFuIgpPd
— National NOW (@NationalNOW) March 31, 2024
For 40 years, the city of Los Angeles has required that every new skyscraper install a rooftop helipad based on fire safety. The theory? A helicopter could land on a burning building and evacuate the occupants. pic.twitter.com/0MsEKi5VN8
— M. Nolan Gray (@mnolangray) April 1, 2024
- This shouldn’t catch on:
It’s April 1st. Please tell me the #defund The police mob now doesn’t try to classify “burglary and trespassing” as “quality of life issues.”
That’s how they win you over: by adding a little bullshit at a time to what would otherwise be a normal concept. https://t.co/zNkFQQksZH pic.twitter.com/65WomUHhkN
— Peter Moskos (@PeterMoskos) April 2, 2024