You’re welcome. I am disappointed by all the downvotes floating around. I feel like your question was sincere and my answer is the cleanest cut through the flak of all of these. A reminder to everyone: downvotes are not for disagreements.
The remarks she makes have actual political sway, especially in the UK. She often talks of how “young women” will be permanently deformed by HRT and how we must stop this threat to womanhood. Well, they recently banned puberty blockers there, and I am sure that her influence had a real effect here. Politicians don’t just listen to other politicians.
Something else that I could mention is that despite being only like 50% extreme in what she is saying, she has written a book featuring a transvestite serial killer. On it’s own, that wouldn’t be so bad – I mean, in fiction anyone is allowed to be a villain, not just cis straight white men – but when combined with everything she’s been doing with her anti-transgender activism, it’s kind of telling that she has some actual hatred, it’s not just polite logical arguments. It really makes you wonder what she isn’t saying.
The main problem, as I see it, is not that her literal statements if made policy would be the most extreme in today’s overton window. The problem is that she’s made herself the face of transphobia by putting herself in the center of it. She’s taken her preexisting fame and used it to push her (admittedly not extreme) transphobia. When people say “name a transphobe,” they think of her – and this was her clear intention.
Because she has fame and power, she probably does the most direct damage to trans people overall. More than Jordan Peterson, etc.
Ok, you have my upvote now :p
This is not news. The headline is misleading. They took down an ad-bloated fork of an emulator which is still on the app store. Nobody should find this remarkable in any way except for the fact that Apple actually made the right call for once.
I’m all for taxing the rich. But this image should explain that this would be an annual due, not a one-time thing. Don’t pull your punches.
Let’s all start using AOL and MSN messenger
I do agree that grad students don’t exactly live in luxury, and frequently develop mental health crises. But their contributions and insight are what power their labs. Profs often have to spend so much time teaching and chasing grants that they can’t do much real research. Academia overall is in a sad state.
But Tao is a superstar, and a charismatic blogger. I’d be disappointed to learn he mistreats his grad students. (I don’t know if he even has any tbh)