Not taking stock, but talking Stock.
Feminist writer Kathleen Stock was invited to speak at the Oxford Union, the famed university’s debating society, and all hell broke loose. The controversy glued Britons to their TVs, with even the Prime Minister getting involved, and it ended with a transgender activist glued to the floor of the famed debating room.
I wrote earlier this month about how the Oxford Union caved somewhat to the alphabet activists by agreeing to provide counseling to students whose mental health would be harmed by the existence of people with different views. But despite the intense pressure that eventually led to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking up, the Union did indeed hold the event yesterday.
OXFORD UNION – The mob greet Professor Stock, to terrify her for opinions that the majority agree with.
Women have been here before & that hysteria led them to be burned as witches.
The narrative sees born women as witches. It’s terrifying.
— Bernie's Tweets (@BernieSpofforth) May 30, 2023
The event wasn’t pulled off without drama. First Ms. Stock was forced to endure hordes of protesters outside the debating hall, and as she spoke transgender activists interrupted her by screaming and, in one case, an activist gluing themselves to the floor.
Because nothing says you are totally sane like gluing yourself to the floor.
Riz Possnett, they/them — who stalked me around Oxford a couple weeks ago — has now glued her hands to the floor of the Oxford Union debating chamber, where Kathleen Stock is speaking.
Riz wants struggling children to be told they are born wrong, to be sterilized, and to have… https://t.co/GSTBOvqx2Q
— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) May 30, 2023
Perhaps, you might think, that Stock is a radical who wants trans kids dead. That is, after all, the very claim that the activists are making. Were that so you might think that more than a little upset is worth it to express disgust as such a vile set of ideas.
Kathleen Stock, the gender-critical feminist whose forthcoming address to Oxford university students on Tuesday has prompted planned protests, has insisted that she is a “moderate” and has a right to upset people.
Before her contested appearance at the Oxford Union, Stock said it was her trans activist opponents, who want the event cancelled, who were extreme.
On Monday night, the prime minister backed Stock. Rishi Sunak told the Telegraph: “University should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled. We mustn’t allow a small but vocal few to shut down discussion. Kathleen Stock’s invitation to the Oxford Union should stand.”
Stock, a former university professor who argues that transgender people cannot expect all the rights afforded by biological sex, said: “We have to have freedom of speech, we have to be able to talk about this.”
Ms. Stock was interviewed on Good Morning Britain to explain why the fact that she is upsetting people is not sufficient reason to shut her up. Her explanation was pretty simple and obvious: people get upset when issues are unsettled, and the only way to address those issues is to discuss them. A heckler’s veto only means that the people who scream the loudest always win arguments, no matter the merits.
This is, of course, a blindingly obvious point in a rational world. Important issues on which there is disagreement upset people. Slaveholders were upset when abolitionists challenged their right to hold slaves. Should they have shut up?
What an absurd position. But totally in line with how the Left argues. After all, not agreeing with Leftists is literally genocide or something. Silence is violence. Pick your stupid slogan.
The person who glued they/themselves to the floor of the Oxford Union has a long thread explaining why they/them did this stupid and offensive thing, and as usual, it is filled with catastrophism.
The consequences of Stock’s message and the broader media hate campaign are extensive. Trans people in the UK are stigmatised, threatened, and harassed. Life-saving gender-affirming healthcare is near impossible to access, and the process is consistently degrading.
— riz (they/them) (@rizpossnett) May 30, 2023
“Life-saving” gender-affirming care is a myth. That is why it has gotten harder to access, not pushback against alphabet ideology. Thousands of people are suing over the Tavistock scandal, and will likely get hundreds of millions of dollars, if not their lives back. There is no media hate campaign, and trans people are among the most celebrated in society right now. All of this is complete BS, but typical of the rhetoric you find on the Left.
Aware of the consequences of Stock’s speech, particularly affecting the wellbeing of trans students in Oxford, JCRs voted to condemn the Union’s invitation of her, as did the Student Union. Multiple democratic student votes were made to urge the Union to rescind the invitation.
— riz (they/them) (@rizpossnett) May 30, 2023
I don’t know what the statistics in England are, but those in the US are very clear: there is no hate crime epidemic against trans people in the US. Given that the alphabet people claim that “silence is violence,” they count your not licking their toes as violent toward them. Gay dating apps are even tossing lesbians off the platform if they refuse to date transgender “women,” despite having specific sexual preferences that obviously do not include penises.
Trans lives and rights should not be up for ‘debate’, but the Union did not even provide that. My goal was to show the other side, to ensure everyone who listened to Stock’s talk also considered the dangerous consequences of those views for trans people, particularly trans youth.
— riz (they/them) (@rizpossnett) May 30, 2023
As for stopping Stock from speaking, Riz clearly did try, and fail, to stop her speaking. And she even says here that there should be no debate. I am unclear how preventing Stock from either appearing, as the alphabet people tried to do, or shouting her down is respecting free speech. But then again I don’t live in this alternate universe.
How committed is Riz and they/them’s ilk to free speech?
We grieve for our trans siblings who have lost their lives on waiting lists, we grieve for those who have been murdered, and we grieve for those who died without ever having the freedom to live as their true selves. No more.
— riz (they/them) (@rizpossnett) May 30, 2023
All this, in short, is a mishmash of BS that apparently works for the supporters of alphabet ideology. There is, literally, no reasoning with them because they do not have reason. The best we can do is wait for them to violate the law and punish them.
Unfortunately, Riz here is apparently already out of jail and ranting on Twitter, which is totally on-brand for the 2020s.
That should stop. Given how often they break the law, these people are begging to be martyrs and clearly want to be in jail. We should oblige them.
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