ABUSE BY GASLIGHT

There is a big debate due in Holyrood for that reason I am republishing this excellent article from 2021 which remains highly relevant.

A guest article from my friend Sally Hughes.

I was a front line Police Officer for 25 years, all of it on the beat.  I retired last year.

I’ve been a supporter of Scottish Independence forever.

And like many an Indy supporter, this Gender ‘stuff’ when it first appeared on the radar, at first seemed unconnected, a distraction, divisive even.

Sadly though, and worryingly, the concerns initially raised, proved to be all too real, and in many respects, the tip of the iceberg.

We are due a huge debt of gratitude to Wings Over Scotland’s creator and Investigative Journalist par none – the Rev Stu Campbell.  How I wish though, just once in a while, I wish he would get it wrong.

In my time on the beat, there was seldom a day, and certainly not a full shift went by when I was not dealing with domestic abuse.   Almost all of it – a female victim, a male perpetrator.

And not once, not once, in 25 years, did I deal with a hate crime inflicted on a transgender person.  And having asked long time-served colleagues, they too have no incidents to recollect.

For the 1st 15 years of my service, female cops on the shifts, including me, were always the ones to note rape statements. CID officers, in my area, there were 4 teams of 4 plus a sergeant for each team – there were 2 women in total (neither were Sergeants) and neither of them ever left the office – they were desk bound, while the ‘real’ Sweeneys were out and about on the swagger.  God’s gift in their own tea break (I was uniform by the way, in case you hadn’t figured).

Female cops noting the initial rape statement was not out of any respect for women’s’ dignity, but because it takes a minimum of 4 hours to note such a statement (and then follows the medical), like babies they always get reported just as you were about to go off duty, and they were often emotionally, complicated enquiries not often with a ‘clear cut’arrest at the end of it. (All cops are simple souls at heart, give them a nice clear-cut story with a goodie and a badie, and a simple trail of evidence, leading to a straightforward arrest, and they’re happy.)

A female victim, with a history of being sexually abused as a child, and an adulthood of drink and drug abuse, one abusive partner after another, and her own children taken into care…. On the one hand (and something that is often overlooked) on the one hand she is the most attractive victim – because no-one will believe her – and on the other she is the most infuriating witness, because trying to get a clear account, a comprehensive statement from her is often a nightmare.

It’s not like the movies folks – people in the real world have messy, messy lives.

A powerful male institute such as the Police does not have a good history in dealing professionally with these complainers, and women know it.  That lack of trust often leads to a delay in reporting, a delay in reporting leads to a loss of evidence, and so on and so forth.

I did not often deal with child abuse complaints or offenders, but of course there were times, being a response officer when I dealt with some, as first point of contact.

And that is really the purpose of this essay.  In my experience, the extreme domestic abuser, the rapist, the child molester – they all had one intrinsic trait in common…. GASLIGHTING.

Many, many times I’ve heard the point made, that concerns about Self Identifying males to females would pose no threat to women and children and that somehow to raise concerns is to besmirch those transgender people with GR Certificates and label them as predators.

This is clearly an apples and pears argument.

So, if I may, I’d like to swap that viewpoint around, completely.  Let’s approach this from the opposite end.

Imagine you WANTED to attract male sexual predators; how would you do that?  What would be your marketing strategy?  Hmm.  How would you rally them to your banner?

I’d suggest that if you made, front and foremost, GASLIGHTING, as an intrinsic part of the package – you would have to beat them off with a stick they would be so keen.

You see, for a sexual predator, GASLIGHTING, is the foreplay and aftersex cigarette all rolled up into one, mindfucking on steroids, with the added bonus (if successful) of undermining your victims confidence and credibility.

So, in such context, a biologically fraudulent statement, such as ‘Transwomen ARE Women’, and bending all the states arms of legislation and administration to your will, is the biggest mindfuck of all.

Gaslighting by daylight.

……..

There has been some seriously, seriously brave campaigning going on for this issue.  Maya, Stock, Miller, Cherry, Burrell…. And Father Ted’s author Graham Lineham.  Women For Scotland, And others.

And while expensive, stressful court rulings have been won – landmark cases that are essential to tackling this nonsense… recently – just as the women’s movement have built up momentum, just as the dangerous reality of this ideology has started to get out there to the general public – recently I’ve heard talk of, victory, and ‘stonewall’ retreat.

I’m going to caution against such thinking.  Tactically it’s likely that the foot is being taken off the accelerator in order to take the wind out of the gender critical movement’s sail.  They have far too much money invested, for it to be over just now.

But that’s an essay for another day.

In the meantime, to all the many good cops out there (most of them as it happens – even the CID wankers), the many transgender people who just want to live and let live, and the many males and females out there who have found themselves in the firing line for stating biology is real.  Peace and love.

And one last point to make, about 10 years ago, Police policy changed, any person reporting a rape now, will have the initial statement noted by a Sexual Offence Liaison Officer, one who has received specialist training.  They will still be a cop on the beat, and depending on who’s on duty and where they are serving, it might take a while for them to get to the station to note the complaint, but they are there.  And the complainer will be asked if the sex of the officer noting the complaint is suitable for them, and every effort made to accommodate that.  For, what should be obvious reasons – most of the SOLO’s are female.

MY COMMENTS

My thanks to Sally for a this article and for sharing her 25 years experience on the frontline with us. I think Sally is right I detect a growing awareness amongst the electorate about GRA and Self ID. I can imagine the Woke, who have spent the last few years driving these issues in secret, hidden as much as possible from public view, are realising there is huge kickback coming if it all becomes common knowledge. So keeping a low profile is the new tactic. We need more like Sally to speak out so this divisive and dangerous nonsense and those responsible for it are removed from the Independence debate and the entire YES movement can unite on the real priority of delivering Independence.

i am, as always

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79 thoughts on “ABUSE BY GASLIGHT

  1. Sally is right. EVERY politician uses some variant of “trans people are (one of) the most vulnerable and marginalised groups is society”. Whilst it is true that trans people can face verbal abuse and low level vandalism (and that isn’t acceptable), no trans person has ever been murdered in Scotland. Or Wales. Or Northern Ireland. I read elsewhere there are more trans people currently in jail for murder than have been murdered in the UK in the least 5 years.

    You don’t have to be a former policeperson, social worker, prison officer etc to know that it is women and girls who face the greatest danger in society of sexual and physical violence. That’s why we had single sex spaces in the first place. When appropriate in the past transsexuals (full reconstruction surgery) could use these spaces, but not always and not anyone self identifying.

    Now we have a biological and legal man running a Rape Crisis Centre telling service users they are “relatively privileged” and having a research interest of “orgasm during rape”. And instead of this sickening people, it is defended. Scotland has 12 trans prisoners in the women’s jail – only one has a GRC. The prison service refuses to tell us what offences they have committed but recently released women have told of sexual assault and rape in Cornton Vale. This is what self id brings, when you remove safeguarding and gatekeeping, predators will predate. This harms women and also harms genuine trans people who just want to live their life as best as they can but will take part of the blame when this hits the mainstream.

    As the transsexual women Seven Hex said in a interview with Denise Findlay – if anyone can be trans just by saying so, what does that make me?

    This was the issue that led me to spoil my constituency ballot paper in May. It’s the issue that means I’ll never vote SNP again (well unless a new leader comes in and restores the link to material reality). If I’m not going to get independence from the new SNP then I’ll be damned if I’ll vote for my own erasure.

    Liked by 28 people

    1. Well said PP, I echo every single word. I too spoiled my ballot paper for exactly the same reason. I have already written to my SNP Councillor telling him, come May it’s a no vote from me.
      Ian, thanks for hosting Sally’s most excellent article.

      Liked by 18 people

    2. I dearly wish I had spoiled mine but I did as Alex said and gave that vote to the SNP – I will not be making that dreadful error again.

      Liked by 16 people

      1. The upcoming Council elections polls (Scotgoespop) indicate how far Sturgeon has divided the YES movement. The SNP voters do not intend to rank Alba High in the ranking and I suspect that many Alba supporters will struggle to put the SNP or Greens high in their selection. I am not critical of anyone struggling to vote for a Party that has policies they disagree with. Let me be clear on that!. Unfortunately the Unionists are not hampered by such critical thinking and Labour, LibDems and Tories will rejoice at the division that Sturgeon has achieved as they share in the spoils by coming through to victory in the 5th. Or 6th. Round of the voting.

        Liked by 12 people

      1. Well maybe research interest is too strong a phrase but they certainly talk about it in interviews. Hard to track down the primary source, however the excellent “you’re kidding right” channel did a piece about it. I’m sure Wings covered it too.

        Starts quoting an interview Wadwa did with a student newspaper at 3.50 mins in if you don’t have time to watch it all.

        Liked by 4 people

  2. I checked up upon the meaning of the term “gaslighting” and realise that my understanding had been extremely vague. Armed with this information and re-reading Sally’s superb article I now know that our much loved politicians, Johnson and Sturgeon, are masters in the art.

    Liked by 17 people

    1. Gaslighting, if it has any other meaning than illumination, means making tiny imperceptible changes to cause fear, uncertainty and doubt in a victim. It does not and can never mean telling straight out and easily disproven lies.
      Epic fail from the authoress.

      PS. If in 25 years you never saw a male victim of domestic abuse then it just shows the matriarchal bias in policing. Men make up 50% of all victims yet are never believed. It was, and still is even if they deny it, policy to remove a man from his home even if he was the one reporting being attacked. At which point the locks are changed, lawyers involved and he is homeless. Thanks to misandrists like her.

      Like

      1. Seems a pity that before you wrote this you did not read the article properly, it never stated in 25 years of policing she never came across a case of male domestic abuse. She said that in 25 years she never once came across a case of transgender abuse. Another retired policeman has already commented on this blog that he was never involved in that either. On that basis, that is that you have got the wrong end of the stick and completely inaccurate in what you wrote I think you owe the author an apology.

        Liked by 9 people

    2. The term comes from the play and 1940 British film called Gaslight, where a predatory man lowers the level of the gaslight, and then insists to his partner that she is imagining it. That plus other manipulative deceits slowly convinces her she is losing her mind. It is a good image to keep in mind when you come across it – the imperceptible but deliberate altering of your apparent world to make you believe you are the irrational one, the odd one out, for clinging to your beliefs. The tories and their press have been doing it for years. Now the cultists have caught on, which is why they proceed in the way they do, refusing open and rational debate, but attempting to alter your self-belief by making you feel all ‘rational’ and reasonable people agree with them (whereas in fact many are intimidated by the outrageous abuse and smears which come their way). It is insidious and creepy, but an effective way for a relatively small group of people to set the climate in which debate and belief happens.

      Liked by 11 people

  3. A great insight.

    One phrase stood out for me – “Tactically it’s likely that the foot is being taken off the accelerator in order to take the wind out of the gender critical movement’s sail”

    I fear that is their tactic. They launched their first wave while we slept. They will now lie dormant until the light moves on. They will not go away because attacking Women’s Rights is only the first of many societal barriers that they want to attack.

    Sturgeon like so, so many politicians will be whispering in their ear – sshh! Leave it to me, I have it in hand.

    Liked by 18 people

  4. I don’t know much about policing, but the few police officers I have known have been quite cynical people, probably as a consequence of the job. Who can blame them?

    Transgender people have probably been around forever, quietly getting on with life and bothering no one. Now, in Scotland at least, they are being used as a political football to suit our great leaders agenda. But this time will pass, and they will be left to deal with the backlash from the general public when the great one has moved on.

    Liked by 17 people

    1. Resipole: some trans gender people are absolutely leading this stuff, along side activists. I agree that it is not all of them, that many do not want to be pushed into the limelight but want to just get on with their lives. Unfortunately, gaining access to women’s spaces is absolutely fundamental to achieving the next step, and Sally is right: it isn’t going to stop. Mega bucks are behind this, and the vicious wee activists are just the foot soldiers.

      The next step, if they get the GRA reform pushed through on a nod will be to gradually (or, more likely, very quickly) take over every service and institution designed to cater for females. That will mean: all female representatives will be trans identified men, whether in parliament (at the top), in our institutions (at the top), in our services, including the NHS (at the top), the care sector (at the top), all female wefare services (at the top). As the brilliantly funny writer, Graham Linehan, stated: “they never seem to want to clean the skid mark off the toilet bowl”.

      At its most basic, this movement is a men’s rights and sexual rights movement. If we understand that, we will have the weapons to fight back. Having been once, several years ago, a very lukewarm supporter of fully-transitioned men with GRCs in female spaces, I, personally, have moved to the no compromise position: they shall not pass. We simply cannot now afford to allow any man, transitioned or otherwise, to enter our spaces.

      This would allow them to breach more boundaries, until they had breached them all – by which time, no female would either be safe, have a shred of dignity or privacy in public, or even be able to move freely in public, hold no public office or position. They would have them all. Mridul Wadhwa is just the advance party. The people who are backing this stuff see mega bucks from this ‘dripping roast’ where children will provide a very lucrative living for people who are already some of the world’s richest.

      They are engaged in the big tech industry, big pharmaceuticals, big insurance, big medicine, big prosthetics, the surrogate baby industry, big p**n, big legal, etc. A great deal of digging has been done by some very determined journalists and they have unearthed many interesting and damning facts about who is behind all this stuff. Political parties are being funded on the back of it, Stonewall and its Scottish trans allies are being funded hundreds of thousands from public money every year.

      It’s a trillion dollar cash cow and the deluded porn addicts, paraphilics and fetishists who are now its vanguard and main force are being gaslighted, too. There is a saying: led by the nose. Too many of these men who are sooooooo victimised, the most victimised group on the planet, and literally killed by reasonable doubt, are led by their d***s, and these d***s will be first into all female spaces.

      Liked by 9 people

  5. Absolutely hits the nail on the head, recognising social manipulation for what it is. It is pervasive in our whole society, our subconscious systems invaded by false assertions that alter our self-perception and is instrumental in creating false self belief in individuals. We don’t realise for example how far our whole society is warped by advertising, which invades our thinking processes through our sensory systems without our being aware that it is happening. Global economies function on the gaslighting of advertising, creating the need then selling the produce to fulfill the created need that in fact is a nonsense, a mirage. Gaslighting was the root of The American Dream, the system dreamt up by Freud’s nephew, who knew what he was talking about and knew what he was doing, the criminal creep.

    I have a recurrent concern though, about male violence. I want to know what happens to boys that they turn into violent men. How and what did they process from what sources that made that specific behaviour appear to them to answer their needs? What happens to their self-esteem, their innate sense of protectiveness that it warps into the violence women and children experience? Over centuries men have had their sensitivities brutalised so they take part in war, can be persuaded or forced into horrible jobs in the dark and in danger, it suited the aristocracy that this should be so. But we consistently fail to recognise that there is a cause to this behaviour, not just upbringing, though that of course is a major factor, but what happens to boys when testosterone plunges them into adolescence, how do we manage their concerns and needs?

    Testing the truth of what actually happens against what we are told happens is such a vital part of any serious research, and that was one major function of journalism, the Pilgers and the Campbells were vital to our society. But they have been shut up like big time. Recognising gaslighting in our society and putting the searchlight on it is in my view the most important aim. One thing it will reveal is the change in politics away from being adminstration for governance to the self-aggrandisement and self-benefit for the further development of the career politican who so believes that they know exactly what is right for us that they carefully cut the contacts with the grass-roots in order to avoid accountability. Not all politicians, but a lot more than is healthy. Well you will be relieved to know that I’m shutting up now, but this frank and honest article has shown the presence of great huge taproots in our society whose purpose is to drain resources and benefits at the expense of the quality of life for most of the rest of us, and the violence it creates will continue to be normal until we at the grassroots get together and make it change direction. Such a good article, I hope Sally continues to give us the benefit of her experience and ideas, her understanding and the conclusions she draws. Many thanks.

    Liked by 22 people

  6. A great article by Sally Hughes.

    All the evidence suggest that as GRA/Self-id becomes widely known among the public – and awareness is rising – there is massive opposition to it. See recent ScotGoesPop polling:

    https://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2021/10/scot-goes-pop-panelbase-poll_31.html

    https://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2021/11/scot-goes-pop-panelbase-poll-huge.html

    https://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2021/11/scot-goes-pop-panelbase-poll-by-3-1.html

    Liked by 13 people

  7. Excellent article gaslighting is definitely the key in the whole GRA argument and is the major concern that I have as it is an opportunity to circumvent safeguarding. Thanks for writing this piece.

    Liked by 10 people

  8. A lot to take in, we of course going about our “normal” lives often wonder what all the fuss is about until you read about “real” life on the front line. One thing I did see was that the Royal Ballet is changing the script of Nutcracker because seemingly it is raciest – it’s a 100-year-old tradition for goodness sake, sounds very much like ba, ba, black sheep all over again to me. Then again I could be raciest depending on your definition.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. I find it interesting that we have these debates about gender or race and still have a legal block on Catholics being a monarch. That it took a special debate and vote for an ex-priest and elected MP to be allowed to take his seat or that centuries pass before a Catholic speaker is elected.
      women’s Rights are just the latest hypocrisy

      Liked by 9 people

    2. Actually it is the Scottish Ballet and it isn’t a rewrite, but updating of the portrayal of what was crude, outmoded racial stereotypes inherited from former attitudes. So it’s not a ‘pc gone mad’ story, but a fairly sensible and low key change which won’t alter the magic which people find in the Nutcracker. You can relax on that one.

      Like

  9. Sociopaths just love the glow of gaslight. Politics and the creepy netherworld of faux science is their stalking ground. Stay informed but avoid their «info» as you would a nest of scorpions.
    Sociopaths do sentiment, on a global scale, rather well, a signal indicator of the type. Boohooo! Save the…, be very nice to…. reset the universe….agree or it’s a spell in reeducation camp. It’s for your own salvation, devil’s spawn!

    Liked by 6 people

  10. Here is an extended online definition of “gaslighting”, and let us note its dependence on an insidious Orwellian use of authoritarian/ totalitarian language as weapon —

    “Gaslighting is an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true, often about themselves. They may end up doubting their memory, their perception, and even their sanity. Over time, a gaslighter’s manipulations can grow more complex and potent, making it increasingly difficult for the victim to see the truth.” (from ‘Psychology Today’)

    Alertness to sources of global societal currents of thought can help us keep our footing, or at least strengthen our resolve to swim against baleful tides. Postmodernism may not be all bad, but its hyper-subjectivism certainly looks terminal. Here is an extended quote from a usefule article (by Helen Pluckrose) on Michael Foucault, one of the deepest wellsprings of the waves now severely buffeting us. The key dynamic is to remove all anchorage; to erode all externally foundational bedrock, to leave only the swirling sands of internally imagined personality —

    “For Foucault, knowledge was not an accurate understanding of an objective reality, but something humans constructed in the service of power. […] This power-knowledge is both constructed and perpetuated by ways of talking about things – that is by discourses. Something becomes legitimised as knowledge from the way it is spoken about and this is applicable across all levels of society. Chief among these legitimising discourses is science. Western societies largely accept the findings of science as the most authoritative source of knowledge and this, to Foucault, was evidence that it was power-knowledge. He called this particular type of power-knowledge ‘bio-power.’ It should be clear to anyone who has ever encountered ‘Social Justice’ scholarship or activism that the idea that knowledge is a social construct, that it is perpetuated in language to facilitate power, has persisted. It is unlikely that many people not living in a cave would have failed to notice the attacks on science in the names of feminism, anti-racism, postcolonialism and trans activism.[…] Perhaps the most directly dangerous manifestation of Foucauldian ideas is that found within the lesser-known fields of disability studies and fat studies. Here, even more so than in queer theory, is the concept of biopower made clear, as well as a corresponding rejection of science as an oppressive discourse rooted in ableism and fatphobia. In these fields, disability and obesity themselves are understood to be social constructs. We only see it as preferable if all of a person’s body works and they maintain a healthy weight because we have been socialised to do so. It becomes a moral imperative and a sincere form of political activism to reject the advice of medical science and embrace disability and obesity. […]”

    Full (very short) article here —

    ‘THE ENDURING LEGACY OF MICHAEL FOUCAULT: How the French philosopher founded today’s social justice movement’ by Helen Pluckrose (The Critic, 31 Jan 2021)

    https://thecritic.co.uk/the-enduring-legacy-of-michel-foucault/

    Liked by 4 people

    1. When society was a few dozen people living in a cave or a small village struggling to make it through the year what would happened if you said “I’m doing my own thing”
      “”I’m not fishing today”
      “I’m not standing guard tonight”
      Etc

      Share a tent, a tenement staircase or a garden with someone and societal rules develop or the rogue wins.

      We don’t need to complicate it. We simply need debate and agree away forward. What tenement Tammy was ever resolved by the bully setting the “close” rules. Dictates from Governments are not the way forward.

      Liked by 4 people

    2. Foucault is a measure of what you get when sex is divorced from its prime function, reproduction. He and his followers world is essentially sterile. What it creates as a substitute for the prime function is an onanistic, narcissistic constant state of seeking more experimentation, more experience, more humans to treat as sex toys, a pathetic cycle of non fulfilment.
      https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/16/reckoning-with-foucaults-sexual-abuse-of-boys-in-tunisia
      That figures! That power thing.

      .

      Liked by 1 person

  11. And meanwhile elsewhere on planet Sociopathia.
    https://off-guardian.org/2021/11/07/this-week-in-the-new-normal-10/
    Is the new normal normal? Of course ! It’s pig shaped, pink, has wings and never ending and boosters will help you see that more clearly.
    Melbourne, the place to experience NuNorm.
    Re kids, the west has a hypocritical attitude to children, the digital music industry and social mediums sexualize the pre pubescent, at the same time parental and social restrictions prevent mature emotional and intellectual development through contact with the non digital world. The exploitation of children in commercial advertising is sick too.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Update on my above post re prisons

    “Twelve trans prisoners convicted of violence or sexual crimes have been accommodated in Scottish women’s jails within the past 18 months, according to figures released under Freedom of Information laws.”

    “A spokesman for the SPS said: “One of the groups we will be particularly keen to consult is the female prison population, who have not been specifically consulted about this before.”

    Well why would you I mean they are only the group most affected by the decision. FFS

    https://archive.md/Xsfn5

    Liked by 9 people

  13. Like you Sally I have been a supporter of Scottish independence for as long as I can remember, but I don’t want to live in a Scotland (independent or otherwise) under Nicola Sturgeons vision of gender insanity, the great feminist to her fingertips has abandoned and betrayed women for own advancement.

    We men need to stand up for womans rights because this is our battle too, women are our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, they are the backbone of human society, they are the ones who pick up the pieces when we screw everything up and we are nothing without them

    Liked by 12 people

      1. My hubby also agrees, however, he does quite rightly point out that over the last decade or so, society has been pushing womens rights in everyone’s faces, which results in a bit of schadenfreude. ( and tbh, in my opinion, some of the more radical womens rights groups/representatives have sought to completely silence and demean men, which as a women I have often felt ashamed of my female (adult human) species and how they have behaved.I believe in meritocracy, not equality by numbers, though it is true that things did need to change to allow a more meritocratic representation of women in society)
        I’m not sure how we encourage more of our fathers, brothers, husband, uncles, male friends in society to support us when, they have in fairness. been disparaged for so long, but I hope that most (like my hubby) can see the inherent danger in this biology denying nonsense sooner rather than later.
        Keep shouting from the rooftops Iain, BHB, Graham Linehan and all of the other good men out there and thank-you for standing up for us women and girls, despite the nonsense that has been peddled in the last decade.
        Hubby jokes that in the future the best women will be men… gawd help us all

        Liked by 3 people

      2. In many ways, I agree, K Campbell. Some of the most radical feminists pushed the idea that women were just the same as men in everything except physical biology, which, of course, is nonsense. We do appear to be complementary in so many ways that it is very hard not to draw the conclusion that we are, indeed, two sides of the same coin, better off together than apart. However, the fundamental injustice of women’s oppression, and the very nature of that oppression, and the reasons for it, must also, if we want to be honest, are very much down to biology and the male, not the female, sense that female biology limits the female and affords the male superiority over all things human. Most men, I fear, never see women as autonomous human beings, but always as inferior and flawed non-men, a second sex that will never measure up to the male ideal of humanity. It is this heinous misrepresentation of the female that has to change, that has allowed, quite frankly, the appalling injustices of the trans movement, of all the sex-based oppressions that females endure. Women, contrary to Freudian nonsense, do not envy the penis; they envy all that owning a penis bequeaths and that owning a vagina withholds.

        “To emancipate woman is to refuse to confine her to the relations she bears to man, not to deny them to her; let her have her independent existence and she will continue nonetheless to exist for him also: mutually recognising each other as subject, each will yet remain for the other an other. The reciprocity of their relations will not do away with the miracles – desire, possession, love, dream, adventure – worked by the division of human beings into two separate categories; and the words that move us – giving, conquering, uniting – will not lose their meaning. On the contrary, when we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, then the ‘division’ of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.”
        ― Simone de Beauvoir

        Liked by 6 people

      3. But men have issues that women don’t, and we don’t really know what they face. As K Campbell’s husband has pointed out, there has been quite a lot of gaslighting to make sure we all know their faults, from being unable to put a cover on a duvet to being prone to try to avoid responsibility for their families. Alba has a womens’ convenor. Nothing in sight for representing men. Where’s the equality in that? Men do commit violence against women and children, but they also commit violence against themselves. The suicide figures alone should be enough to start alarm bells ringing.

        Liked by 2 people

      4. I agree with you, Ros, that the numbers of young men killing themselves must be faced and tackled, but I would also say that patriarchy has much to answer for on that score. If boys were not made to conform to a masculinity that leaves little room for self-expression, for the ‘inner’ self, for sensitivity, we might all be better off. Patriarchy ruins men’s lives as much as it does women’s, but in different ways.

        Liked by 3 people

    1. I am outwith Scotland but support Scottish and Welsh Independence. The political climate in Wales is strikingly

      similar and Welsh labour Govt carbon copy SNP . All of our Public Sector infiltrated by Stonewall including Law

      Society Wales, South Wales Police ,Cardiff University to name a few. Women are being targeted for stating biological fact .

      The Royal College of Midwives and Royal College of Nursing an Organisation I was Employed by for over 10 years , now spend more time advocating for Trans Healthcare and Birthing People than Women’s Health. “ We Men need to stand up for Women’s Rights” Yes I agree 100% and with the sentiment expressed in your response to a brilliant article . Ms C 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

      Liked by 9 people

      1. It is not an exaggeration, Welsh I, to suggest that, if trans goes ahead unchallenged, the resources of the NHS will almost all be redirected towards this one group in society. If trans identified males demand access to female healthcare, beds, etc., but will still require their own on top of that, and trans identified females also demand access to female resources and beds (no matter how ‘male’ they ‘feel’, they will not be stupid enough to risk actually trying to access male resources because that’s not part of the equation at all), then it cannot be wrong to suggest that little will be left for natal females who are not trans. Even in the field of mental health, this one group of people could account for most of the health spending in this area, too. The massive cost to society of trying to juggle the demands of these people will eventually prove to be impossible and everyone will lose out – which is, perhaps, the intended conclusion, that the NHS should be privatised.

        Liked by 4 people

  14. This is a fantastic article. For me it leaves completely exposed the reality that this change is nothing but a selfish imposition from the top down that has had no consideration whatsoever for the enormous impact that it will cause in all practical aspects and in each and every structure of public services, business and society at large. The article above leaves no doubt that this change is not done because things were failing and it had to be done, but rather because those in power feel they could walk over the people’s will and get it done no matter what. It is an arrogant expression of unrestrained power, or rather abuse of and a slap in the face of democracy.

    What is most intriguing here is the timing of this. Why now? Why the urgency?

    My prediction is that if left to progress it will cause chaos and stagnation in pretty much everything before it can be fully implemented, which I also believe is the intended consequence. This seems a tool designed to create confusion and discontent. But by the time the shit hits the fan, the monumental cowards and tools who forced this on the people of Scotland would have run far away to hide behind their new sinecures so they do not get splashed with their own shit. It is almost as if was taken from the tory manual: do the damage now and run, so somebody else will have to deal with it afterwards.

    There are three clear questions about this that remain without an answer:

    1. A global level, who and what exactly is driving this? What is their ultimate motive?

    2. A local level (Scotland) who and what exactly is driving this and why? Is it the global powers from the question above, or it the powers that be in the UK and its “friends” protecting the union?

    3. What is the link between those operating at global and at local level? Is it party/individual financial rewards or some sort of political agreement, like helping some desperate power to preserve a political union?

    4. Is what we see here just an extension of what is happening globally, therefore Scotland and the uK do not have leaders but rather useful idiots doing the bidding and the dirty work from some other global power, or what we see here is some other opportunistic political project jumping on the GRA bandwagon to hide behind it while using it to deliberately seed division at the weakest political point in UK history to stall is ending by Scotland?

    I feel that if we manage to answer those 4 questions we will be half way there.

    The way Sturgeon and her minions are driving this denotes a huge urgency, so clearly they are working towards a deadline of some kind. What deadline is this and what is happening soon after that deadline? Is the presence of Scotland in the UK union a requisite to cut a trade deal with some big power or another? Or is there some kind of global financial crash in the horizon?

    Our parliament has shamefully allowed this to intrude in our own laws (the hate bill), so it has already failed us. Parliament is not there to be abused by external powers to help themselves to our children or to women’s spaces, which this thing is clearly forcing the door open towards. This may have been done under Sturgeon’s watch, but the other parties allowed it to happen. There is a collusion there, just like there appears to be a collusion among all parties in Holyrood in creating the illusion that a S30 referendum is the only route to independence.

    Liked by 11 people

    1. Completely agree Mia.
      My question constantly is “who is the puppetmaster” along with “why” what is the bigger picture?
      I see so much manipulation of society right now, whether it is the TRA movement, queer theory, minimum basic income (you will own nothing and be happy) and the many other things going on, that it feels like they are using a scattergun approach on all of us. Maybe something along the lines of “the more fronts they are fighting on, the better”
      Is this current biology denying claptrap just a huge, but very very dangerous squirrel? And don’t get me started on Sturgeon and her cabals’ unionism tendencies!

      Liked by 6 people

  15. Foucauld’s ideas of unmooring society is the stuff of life for sociopaths. Imagine how this plays to the mind of the sociopath, if people can be made to believe that everything, every certainty they were brought up with can be called into question. Adrift in this swirling miasma of nothingness they become prey for the lurking sociopath who is the ideal predator in this jungle, since they themselves believe in nothing anyway – except achieving power and control.

    Some years ago, when I was becoming vaguely aware of the self-id issue, I remember reading an article written by a gay man who was saying that the campaign for trans rights was actually being driven by shadowy interests who saw the chance to destabilise politics by dividing the left, under the guise of so-called progressiveness. This would prove to be more about regressiveness since it would turn the left against feminism which he saw as the very bedrock of social justice since feminism had been the platform which had supported so many campaigns for social justice and civil rights. If you think about it, if that were the intention then they have succeeded very well, particularly in Scotland.

    Think of all the institutions of government who now solemnly support unscientific nonsense. Since when did any radical movement begin by capturing such pillars of the establishment as the judiciary, universities, political parties, the police? Since when did any grassroots movement have so much money to pursue their goals. I’m beginning to believe that that there are nefarious interests at work whose aims are to unmake society in their own image.

    Many years ago, the writer, John Berger, wrote about encountering a former CIA operative who told him about a CIA project in the thirties to promote modern artists like Jackson Pollock ( sometimes referred to as jack the Dripper). The aim was to promote art that was abstract and apolitical. Socialist realism was the target. Enlisting the aid of the Rockefellers and the Guggenheim they set about promoting abstract modern art as the Next Big Thing – the true avant-garde – by buying up the art of unknowns like Pollock and influencing the art market to the extent that dangerously political socialist realism became less desirable. Berger was mocked for saying this in the New Statesman ( I think ) but years later, he was vindicated when someone using an FOI request found that there had been such a project. (Still was successful though. Look to any art gallery today and there we see the abstract art vigorously promoted then. No one is going to let the bottom fall out of the art market now. Too many people bought into it – literally – for that to happen. Never think that the arts are above this kind of thing. There is nothing pure under the sun that can’t be contaminated by money and power.)

    (By the way, Rockefeller, the great art lover, had a mural he had commissioned Diego Rivera to paint for him, to decorate the Rockefeller Center, destroyed because apparently he thought it too political. But he was aware of Rivera’s politics when he commissioned the art work, so why the destructive outrage? Maybe it was something to do with the CIA? Who knows? Anyway the patron always gets his way.)

    So, the CIA were willing to be involved in a project to influence a cultural movement for political ends then. I wonder who is really behind the highly successful trans movement…Could be a confluence of interests. Could be they’re just doing it for ‘fun’ to see what mischief might result?

    Liked by 4 people

    1. For a more comprehensive view of what actually happened with the CIA and the abstract expressionists, which is a fascinating mix of politics and culture wars you can see here:

      https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20161004-was-modern-art-a-weapon-of-the-cia

      and here:

      https://daily.jstor.org/was-modern-art-really-a-cia-psy-op/

      Invariably it isn’t as clear cut or straightforward as you suggest, and is actually quite funny, considering it appeared to promote anarchists like Newman and Rothko. Really, it was part of the culture wars taking place post WW2, and was aimed at the Soviet Union and its Stalin-approved Socialist Realism movement, which was mostly naive and propagandist art. Stalin had destroyed the immense creativity of the 1920’s Russian art scene which followed the revolution and had produced all kinds of abstract and modernist art. So it was a response to that. the US never really had a socialist realism movement, although it did have fantastic photographers who documented the poverty and racism of the States – some funded by government departments too. It is a strange and bizarre mix led by people whose political ambitions obliterated any appreciation or understanding of the art they were actually promoting – especially considering the McCarthy hearings and how that affected the film industry.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Yes, I was aware of the political aims being crudely to present the ‘West’ and its imagined values (i e cultural tolerance ) to counter Stalinist cultural intolerance ( re Kandinsky etc.). They also used composers such as Stravinsky and writers like Nabokov to promote the same idea of ‘Western’ openness as opposed to Stalinist conservatism. However, it was only an aside exploring the idea that there might be interests using ‘Queer Theory’ as a way of achieving political ends which might possibly just be to cause mischief in the ranks of progressives. Quite often it’s a bandwagon effect rather than a controlled operation.

        I could have given a more comprehensive account but it was only a comment (not an essay) which I had already decided had gone on long enough.

        Liked by 6 people

    2. The following Ben Shahn documentary gives a glimpse of Rivera’s Rockefeller mural about 14 mins in. Diego Rivera had asked Shahn to be his assistant. I had always been a fan of Ben Shahn’s linear graphics, his muscular social justice posters with their assertive calligraphic statements, but didn’t realize till seeing this film that he was also a stunning social realist photographer. Politically, he was very much pro Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’. The documentary has an eerily contemporary feeling somehow. At least that’s the way it got me.

      BEN SHAHN: Passion for Justice

      Liked by 1 person

  16. If you are indifferent to this media manipulation..

    Click to access Broadcasters-Report.pdf

    You may deserve what’s coming to your house, probably quite soon.
    Syndrome-1984 is the authentic pandemic.
    Never has the off switch had more effective power to vax against Big Brother and the Ministry of Logical Fallacies.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Those «climate issues» and the science involved are in a constant state of flux. There is no orthodoxy in this matter given that climate science is itself barely out of the cradle. However, there is a sociopolitical view being purveyed which is globalist and corporatist and rides on the back of the such things as the climate «crisis», the virus and the WEF project to reshape/reset capitalism.
        Media manipulates, usually to sell the product, in this case it is about selling a perspective based on notions and motivations that have little to do with principles of scientific method.
        Real science does not do fear, hype or irrational conjecture.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. A good spot. The telly got the bullet from my house a few years ago. T
      Bought a book by an excellent mind (the boy could well be a total bam) called ‘Influence’ a wee while back, been reading up randomly on the evolution of the manipulation of the masses! The US was absolutely wild in terms of its experimentation in the field. Didnae matter a jot who got damaged or how many. It was control that generations and generations of power were after. Christ knows how it fitted together. This desire to control and manipulate the population using propaganda, psychology, fake cultural movements, drug abuse, militarisation, surveillance and anything else that came to mind and could be tried out on the weak, the defenceless and the unsuspecting. It has been a relentless feature of power in the US for generations, from the 1880s to the present day. What is discovered in business is picked up by government agencies what is discovered by a government agency is passed on to business.

      The Behavioural Insights team are trying to pull a bit of cash out of the industry nae doot. Not sure what to make of it all. Maybe they’ll cause the wrong revolution by mistake one day. Hopefully here in Scotland.

      Liked by 1 person

  17. Jings, what an article, and the informative comments in response!

    Today’s news informs us of the project for local mini- nuclear stations… in response to climate change… aye, for sure.

    Awareness to gaslighting – I turn off the sound when I watch rugby and football. Should I extend this to other media sources? Sturgeon and Johnson are already immediate no-sounders.

    What caused the change in Sturgeon from a baby-hugging smiling selfie fan, to what she is now?

    Liked by 5 people

  18. Not having seen the 1944 Ingrid Bergman ‘Gaslight’ movie, I can only assume the audience could see what the objective truth was. Extreme postmodernism either dismisses objective reality altogether or sidelines it as unverifiable: “No metanarrative”.

    So all we have left are stories of what is real for us personally. Of course there is outrage from scientists who simply point to the law of gravity etc. But the ongoing drift means that normativity is just a fading Cheshire cat. Though in this revised version of the story no smile is left, only a snarl.

    Dematerialised likewise are all norms of civilised discourse, whereby differing arguments are weighed against objective evidence before rational conclusions are drawn. The basis of education. The basis of democracy. The basis of trial by jury (so good-bye juries?) —

    “I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury, said cunning old Fury: I’ll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death!” (Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

    Exponentially, what is being modelled for the upcoming generation is not courteous debate but summary cancellation and strident assertion — insulting words swung like baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire (where did I ever get that image?) Those venerable restraining social etiquettes of disagreement were just patriarchal bourgeois power play, remember, so current “la-la-la” no-platforming delinquents can deludedly present themselves in contrast as morally “progressive”. And that at university level.

    But now as the State itself (so very cynically) pushes subjective power-speech as the only reality, its so-called “progressive” mantras already becomie curiously indistinguishable from those good-old reactionary fascist diktats of yesteryear.

    Liked by 6 people

    1. It’s an excellent movie – well… It used to be one of my favourite weekend matinee films on the tv in my youth. Constant sinister backdrop of something not quite right going on – and, no, the audience doesn’t know what’s happening, you are left guessing through the whole film.

      I don’t like to spoil the plot for you, but it turns out the husband wants to get his grubby hands on the wife’s sizeable inheritance and run off with his lover, so he decides to get her sectioned by driving her mad (or planned it before they were married rather). The husband moves objects about the house and claims she must be mistaken on where she put them, tells her the wrong times & dates for things then claims it was her that misremembered, starts controlling her mail & contacts with family, then starts putting some poison in her bedtime drinks, and crawling about the loft space making noises at night, and, most importantly, cutting off the gas so the lights would dim & brighten for no reason (therefore, gaslighting).

      The wife, by the end of it, believes herself to be quite mad – hearing voices and seeing things, and believing all the husband’s lies, she lost all confidence.

      I have this unfortunate habit of always forgetting the end of a story (and it was 30 years ago I last saw it) so I can’t tell you how he was found out, but I’m sure the wife was rescued from his evil clutches (it was a matinee after all, so must have had a happy ending).

      Ahh, they used to know how to feed tension into a film in those days.

      Liked by 6 people

      1. Oh yes, and the husband is the most charming, doting and supportive husband throughout, always plausible and always very caring…

        Liked by 3 people

      2. This film plot reminds me of an excellent (but chilling) event I went to many years ago now when the legislation was introduced in Scotland outlawing stalking – section 39 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010

        One of the speakers was from the Met, because England introduced legislation against Harrassment in 1997 (now updated) but it was difficult to prove that someone was stalking a person & charge them. He told us of a case where a woman’s ex- partner copied a set of keys when he moved out and would access her house while she was at work, move ornaments, shift chairs, cushions etc so, just like the film, she thought she was going mad. If she left a shopping list on the table with “Bread, milk, cheese” written on it, she would come home to find the note gone and those items in its place. He even moved her car further down the road or round the corner so she would think she had parked it in one location but have to look for it in another.

        The Met officer said that under the law at the time, they couldn’t charge the guy with anything – how do you charge someone with getting the shopping and moving some cushions?

        However in a another case, involving a 17 year old girl, her mental health was so badly affected by the man stalking her that they decided to go to court based on the effect on her psychological state being the equivalent to her being physically assaulted – and the guy was found guilty. So they had case law and that set a precedent.

        As he went on to say, what the law recognises now is that on its own each individual act may seem innocuous but it is the totality of the effects of all the acts which causes psychological harm to the victim which allows charges to be made. And as few as two acts can be sufficient to charge someone, although it is usually more

        So gaslighting (the constant drip, drip, drip of making someone feel useless, stupid, ugly, etc etc) has the same psychological effect as being stalked – it is an assault

        Someone should tell Nicola Sturgeon & her coterie

        Liked by 7 people

      3. Oh that makes me shiver Mollys Mum, scares the hell out of me (maybe too many scary movies as a child! Haha) – I’ve always been a bit paranoid about potential stalkers.

        I remember clearly when they brought in stalking laws because it was affecting a friend of a friend at the time. It was just a bit of a loner guy in the block of flats she lived in, used to say hello to – she had no connection to him whatsoever – ended up as decades long pursuit even after her work secretly moving her to new offices around the country (in England), her and her boyfriend (then later husband) doing midnight flits leaving no forwarding address to different towns and cities. 6 months later up he’d pop, watching her from across the street, hanging around her car until she turned up, standing outside her door, wholly convinced that he was her one true love. Nothing the police could do because there was no real violence – in fact, they charged her boyfriend for punching him once (but dropped the charges). There had been a restraining order but that didn’t last long.

        The stalking laws got him put in jail at last – a couple of times – but only for a couple of years, then it would start again. She moved to Spain in the end & has been there ever since. Not quite a success story, but better than the decades of harassment.

        It’s psychological abuse, absolutely.

        I thought the film Gaslight a very good life lesson!

        Liked by 5 people

  19. “even the CID wankers” haha, the backhanded compliment.

    Great piece Sally, it’s really good to get this kind of insight from a different view point – we know there are good people in the police, but the institution itself is losing any of my trust due to this self-ID and through the Sturgeon regime collusion, so it’s very good to hear a human voice from there.

    Yes, gaslighting, very much so. That’s why it’s best to never argue on their terms. What is the definition of ‘trans’? A feeling, essentially, if you ask a believer. What is the definition of ‘gender’? Well, that’s a feeling too. So ‘transgender’ is a feeling of a feeling – nothing much transitional in that. Nothing much to base laws on. Nothing much to remove everyone’s rights for.

    I think there are lots of layers of gaslighting going on too – it’s not just the activists wanting self-id and telling us to be kind, its politicians saying no debate, it’s workplaces, shops, institutions telling us to believe delusions, its being instructed to hold new virtues or develop new fears, it’s being told the law is different but not changed and truth are the delusions – it’s authorities and schools and medical professionals, it’s being told past fears are no longer valid, values once held mean hatred. We are told some men need validation for their sexual fetishes, so society must be turned on its head for them.

    The public needs to say “no” to any and all of it – institutions and businesses need to put safeguarding back in place and obey the laws as they stand. We should only debate once the demands become reasonable.

    If only it were that easy! Yes it’s going to be long road, and they likely won’t be going away – I look forward to the next instalment. If you have any views on the youth (violent) porn-culture that seems to be prevalent now and tied to the gender ideology (recruitment strategy?), I would be interested to hear them, too.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Contrary: I think we have to consider where it comes from, and that is the notion that being a female is simply an idea that has no material reality. They are not saying that males have no material reality, and that’s the dead giveaway; it is not health literature on male conditions that are being changed to suit trans ideology; and it is not language that pertains to males that is being eradicated. The reason that they are getting away with this is because it is an exaggeration of the very real, original gaslighting that all females endure from the moment they arrive in the world: that they do not exist except as reflections of men, that they have no material reality outside men’s idea of them, what they should be, how they should behave. That is the fundamental truth here.

      Through the millennia, females have seemed to be incapable of defining themselves as the other half of the human race that does not depend on men as the template and women as the rather inferior second model. That fundamental state of being for both men and women runs through every religion in the world: the Adam and Eve story in Genesis, in the Christian Bible. Even societies that have never heard of the bible have a very similar theme. Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir understand this fundamental thread that runs through all human history. Jean-Paul Sartre told de Beauvoir that she had a man’s intelligence, and she was, she said, delighted by the compliment until the penny dropped. The implication was that she could not be an intelligent woman with a woman’s intelligence and that women’s intelligence could never equal a men’s.

      She never really got over that terrible insult much as she cared for Sartre, and she drew the conclusion that men never see women as autonomous human beings, but as rather inferior reflections of themselves and that females are gaslighted every day of their lives in order to have them conform to what men need and want rather than what women actually are and could be. If we look at the history of black slavery, we see the same elements: black people were there to cater for the needs and wants of whites. I keep saying in my comments that we are always looking at things through the wrong end of the telescope, and, here, I think we should be looking at what it is these trans identified males want and need from colonising womanhood, and telling them to do one. Always look at the oppressor/the predator/the coloniser/etc., to discover what it is that he needs and wants that makes him do what he does. Trans identified females here are not the threat to men that trans identified men are to women. Not by a very long chalk. They hurt themselves most, which is a very female thing to do, and have far more to lose.

      Liked by 6 people

      1. Yup, you are right lorncal – the lived experience of all girls to women is that of being gaslit – to a greater or lesser degree, and I’ve been aware of it from a fairly young age as a form of hypocrisy, it being my own lived experience. In the days before the Internet too!

        This sudden, and extreme, reversal of womens standing in society from a shaky position of on being almost accepted as full human beings is an absolute horror for me. Everyone’s lived experience is different though and some people are happy in a subordinate role – I’m not sure they realise just HOW subordinate it can become as they sit in their nice comfy middle class home living the life off the backs of all the work that’s gone before. Once Mrs Beaton becomes essential reading for all girls and school, no other education required, and is written into law as the definition of the new gender of ‘woman’ will they reconsider their gender ideology adherence?

        Liked by 2 people

      2. You are so right, Contrary. Women’s emancipation to the point of real autonomy, material reality is a matter that is crucial to all classes. The Suffragettes and Suffragists comprised all classes, from the low-born to the high-born and everything in between. Our struggle transcends all classes and all races and all ages and all abilities, and to lose the fight against this latest manifestation of raw misogyny (because it is no more and no less than a men’s rights and sexual rights alliance. People who don’t see that are not looking, and the access to our single-sex spaces is just the prelude to access to all our rights, hard fought for and hard won. Our struggle is hampered by the fact that men are our fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, and we cannot point to one homogenous group and say: they are the problem for women. It makes it a much harder and much lonelier fight, albeit there are good men out there who do get it.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Jings Lorncal. Is there no hope at all for all we rat bastards amongst the male tribe? Unloved, derided, ridiculed, never respected enough to be feared in even the smallest way like real rats? Yet condemned for the rats we are, to be the rats we always were, our personalities struck on our souls, because of what we didn’t do when we had the chance, for all eternity. And when we are deid? Is there any point in carrying on? We shall sail through all eternity with the souls of rat bastards forever!

        I am not religious yet redemption is a most powerful word. When it occasionally comes to the front of my mind it makes me feel that raw emotion, always alone, its a beautiful feeling. The idea of it and its meaning help us shake off the things we have done or never did do now that the people are gone and that we can never in this life make up for.

        I think community and redemption are beautiful things. They don’t necessarily ease things but they help people endure.

        Those words and their meanings should be explored in every detail so that their true value should exist like a safety net in the minds of every man boy, girl and woman who ever felt that they had no right to carry on.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Oh, dear, OP. No, my point is simply that true female autonomy is something that transcends everything else. It is something that women have never been allowed to achieve. For example, in books and films and so on, men are represented as men, but women are always represented as reflections of men. Even when we have those women like She-Ra or Catwoman or some other female heroine who is brave and stunning and self-sacrificial, with a kick-ass attitude, she is still clad in a figure-hugging costume with boobs like bazookas, and she acts exactly like a female version of a man.

        Yet, there are many instances of women showing incredible bravery – in resistance movements, for example, in saving their children and in protecting them. I have talked before about the female front-line Russian troops who fought the Germans – in Stalingrad, in the Steppes, in Eastern Germany; of the women who fought in the Jewish resistance in Palestine; of the elite warrior women of Dahomey who died in their thousands in colonial wars with the French and Senegalese. These women were brave as women, not as facsimiles of men. They are extreme examples: many, many women defy authority in female ways or put their lives and skills on the line every day in jobs that require they do so. What I am saying is that female ways of doing things differ from male ways of doing things, albeit there is an overlap, but women are rarely credited with doing things in their own autonomous ways because we are not, and never have been, allowed to be autonomous.

        Hamish MacPherson wrote in The National about Enlightenment women, but he stressed that, throughout history, women’s achievements have simply been ignored or not considered alongside men’s. History simply erases them. The female members of Robert Bruce’s family and friendship circle were all incredibly brave and suffered for their support of him, as, of course, did his male relatives and friends, but who really remembers the women? Huge injustice is done to females in science, in literature, in music, in art, in everything because they are so often denied acknowledgement, let alone, celebration, of their female achievements. Women have no real knowledge of what they could achieve because, until very recently, historically, they have been suppressed. Things are changing – or they were, until this trans rights/men’s rights movement came along – and, now, women are being sidelined yet again.

        I do understand that many men don’t get chances, too, that many of them are unhappy with their lot, that they do not always get credit for their achievements, but it is often a class-based prejudice, or a colour-based prejudice or whatever, that hold them back, or that, as individuals, they don’t fit the template of masculinity. For women, it is almost entirely because they are women, because of their sex and the ways in which their world is defined for them, rather than their being allowed to define their world for themselves. Men simply do not have that burden. We could claim that this is how our humanity is structured: man is the leader and woman the follower; but the fact is that we simply do not know because nothing else, in known history, has been tried. We do not know what a feminine society might be like or a truly equal society; all we know is the masculine, patriarchal society. What does seem apparent is that the masculine, patriarchal society has been imposed (by men and supported by female handmaids) throughout history, but we have no way of knowing whether it is ‘natural’ or whether we could choose a different form: complete autonomy for both sexes. It is likely that we could, but the form we have suits men, men are physically stronger and can impose their system on us because it benefits them, all things taken into consideration. I hope I have made things clearer without seeming anti-male. I’m really not.

        Liked by 2 people

      5. I’m with you Lorncal. I’m in your debt actually. I learn from the articles and the comments sections of these blogs (people write honestly here not some politically correct bollocks we are mean to be right on with) hence taking the day off and pitching up at the parliamentat the For Women Scotland protest and taking out a sub and following these brilliant articles avidly hoping for a sense that this victory For Women is getting closer.

        I am certain as I can be that the ins and outs of this latest attack on women’s rights gets more widely known you will be more reassured by the reaction from we rodents. That’s where it lies probably punters getting good information disseminated.

        Liked by 1 person

      6. I pick uprakes of stuff from the writing of yourself, contrary and others. You, Contrary and the writers and other commenters make fascinating points. I couldnae begin to engae with them but they leave something on me.

        I want to give a shout out yer Hamish MacPherson. I respect the man, bags of respect for him and his writing. I’ve never met him but if he isn’t an absolute cracker of a lad I would be distraught.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Obair, I think Scottish blokes are the loveliest, best-ever guys in the entire universe. Over my lifetime they’ve had to deal with some big social changes and navigate through murky waters with no guidance and support, with new expectations heaped on them after being brought up to expect something different. It’s been a tough call and Scottish men have, in the main, taken it on the chin and exceeded any other culture for weathering these changes and for treating women fairly.

        I’m not saying we’ve achieved fairness or equality, but I’m a great believer in gradual social change where everyone gets the support and guidance they need – a journey together if you will, with the ultimate aim that no one group receives priveleges ONLY because they’re part of that group.

        We have to balance the rate of change – what women want; to be given the same opportunities and be treated with the same respect as what men automatically get (within specific demographic peer groupings – another issue obviously) – and how this might affect the wider societal structures. However much I might want the equality, or believe its how things should be, that does not override the reality that its not how things are, and that sudden sharp shocks to society can have a detrimental impact.

        Some of the language used in support of women’s rights can seem harsh and derogatory, but I understand the need for it – being the underdog requires a certain degree of firm resolute-ness, and plain speaking, for there to be any impact. Pretty please won’t work. A lot of sexism in Scotland is in the form of unconscious bias – and trying to bring it into consciousness is not an easy task, too. Before we can can resolve equality we first need acknowledgement there is still a problem… But. Just now, we have a bigger problem that’s emerged, and it saddens many women, I think anyway, that it seems like men don’t really have our backs after all and they’ve possibly just been paying lip service (for an easy life?) all this time. Well, maybe.

        Talking in generalities and using statistics can always be a bit of a blow if we happen to belong to the group on the negative side of it, but it should never be taken personally.

        Scottish men are never rats (except for the actual rats, obviously), but don’t expect any more ego massaging from me, that’s your lot!

        Liked by 4 people

  20. Iain,

    I hope that all your readers will consider reading (or re-reading) George Orwell’s “1984” in which “the Party” dictates that 2 plus 2 does equal 5, the ultimate gaslight example of “doublespeak”.

    In this classic written in 1948, “the Party” does seem very close to another party currently in government in Scotland, with its “Thoughtcrime” and “Thought police” and, of course, “Big Brother” (or should I say “Big Sister”?) on “telescreens”, both instructing and monitoring the whole population.

    Ideas from a novel about a dystopian future … or is it?

    Liked by 3 people

    1. The book is one of my favourites as is Animal Farm. If you ever get the chance to see the 1984 film of 1984 I recommend it. Richard Burton’s last film, it also stars John Hurt.

      I echo Iain’s comment about the knowledgeable commentators in this blog. I’d no idea about the art/CIA stooshie mentioned above.

      Liked by 6 people

    2. The Machine Stops, a short story by E M Forster gets the mindset and tech of our new order.
      Social isolation, Zoom, fear of the outside, naive obedience to imposed authority, political decay….until the forces of societal control break down.
      I await the last part with anticipation.

      Liked by 8 people

    3. Except it is not just happening here, Ed. It is everywhere in the West, and even further afield now. Totalitarianism seems to be on the rise everywhere, in various shades, and it is terrifying. Something is driving this and we may be entering a massive societal shift right across the globe, brought about more than anything by predatory capitalism and the reactions to its malign influence. Always, when revolutions or great change is about to occur, its harbinger takes the form of cruelty and brutality. This is what we are seeing with the trans gender ideology: the cruelty to women is so manifest as to be touchable. Most decent men see it now, and the really bright ones see the links to your common or garden patriarchy and misogyny. What seems like one step forward and two back may well be the opposite and that this stuff will actually drive females to become far less obliging right across the board. The emancipation of women will come only with destruction of patriarchy which has so much invested in it, but, and it is a big but, this latest form of patriarchy and misogyny and sexual demands – because that is what trans ideology actually is – might just prove to women that we need end our lack of autonomy once and for all time. If women do not end their own lack of autonomy as a sex class, they will be fighting this same battle into eternity, and, the little matter of saving the planet we all live on, is also part of that same equation because our economic and political systems, completely in thrall to male supremacy thus far, are killing it. Maybe we need the two parts of humanity to come together to fix it.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Lorncal, Contrary. I like reading the comments section on these things when they get going. It raises the spirits.

        The rat stuff was just the patter I like to use to express things, exaggeration for effect. But it stands. No good men just us.

        The suicide stuff though I was serious about. It is worrying what is happening in society. It’s not the totalitarianism that Lorncal writes about that really scares me. It’s that folk start to grow indifferent to the effects of it.

        Women in our prisons is a case in point. Some folk need taken off the streets, yes, but the lives folk have been condemned to from an earlier age should bring out waves of pity in folk. They are our people. Then to subject them to experiment and oppression should enrage society.

        Liked by 1 person

  21. Many, many great comments on this gaslighting topic. And for me especially, Mia, Ottamanboi, Jgedd and Contrary who resonate with some of my own thoughts, So I think I have something to add to the pot. Please stick with me to the end. I know it is long, but I think potentially explosive!
    Above all else, I am not a doctor. So you can trust what I say…..
    I have been studying recent news on Graphene Oxide and it’s harmful effects on the body. Particularly our immune system. About a month ago Rogue Mail announced that an independent lab had found Graphene Oxide in the Pfizer vaccine and subsequently submitted their content analysis/evidence to the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) in the USA. I believe the FDA had contacted Pfizer, regarding this evidence and demanded they offer a response within two weeks. I don’t really know what happened after that, except to say that a board member of FDA was subsequently found to be in the the pay of big Pharma, and Pfizer have continued to produce the vaccine.
    For the uninitiated, like me….Graphene Oxide is toxic. It generates blood coagulation which can result in thrombosis. It alters the immune system by decompensating the oxidative balance by reducing the Glutathione reserves. If levels of Graphene Oxide are increased by any route of administration, it can cause collapse of the immune system and a subsequent Cytokine storm. In the lungs, it can cause bilateral pneumonias. Inhalation of G.O. causes inflammation of the mucous membranes and resulting loss of taste and loss of smell. It also leaves a metallic taste in the mouth.
    G.O is the supposed SARS-Cov-2. The supposed Coronavirus that caused the disease known as Covid 19.
    This is why we never had real isolation and purification of the supposed new Coronavirus. Basically rendering it as unidentifiable.
    G.O. also acquires magnetism and has electronic absorption band properties, meaning if it absorbs frequency that excites and oxidises, it will reduce natural antioxidant Glutathione reserves. Now this is where the story connects with the global G5 network installation. What?….The US govt-backed virus trials in the Wuhan lab in China is where the supposed virus leaked. Well, Wuhan also just happens to be where the new G5 network is being piloted. And the network just happens to operate on the exact same bandwidth as G.O. Is this what they call a lightbulb moment?
    The following updated info I have received via http://www.LaQuintaColumna.net, and on their telegram channel, calling it “Brain Tsunami” coming soon. They estimate when G5 is switched on, it will cause tens of thousands of deaths, daily. That’s in Spain alone!
    They are calling it State Terrorism and Crimes Against Humanity
    Stating that the Elite group want Population Behavioural Control. Effectively, a planet reset.

    Graphene Oxide has been found in the following items so far :
    All major pharmacy Covid vaccines.
    Disposable masks.
    PCR swabs.
    Anti Flu vaccines since 2019.

    Footnote :
    By all means do your own research, but if you reach the same conclusions as I have, it is EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY to raise the matter with their medical community/ doctors/ nurses/ dentists/ other health services. They may know something or they may not. I know that if I was involved in administering vaccines, I most certainly would want to investigate. Wouldn’t you?….

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Interesting comments you make. Let me respond by saying…..
        .
        You are in here. So I know you must like conspiracy theories. Or would you prefer to call it critical thinking? In the absence of fact and truth, there will always be theories offered up. “Conspiracy theories” as you call them, abound in every medium sphere of communication available. Only now, accelerated more so in this computerised age. But that’s not to say it is a modern phenomena. I would argue, they have always been with us.
        Here’s an early 20th century example. The so-called Spanish Flu “Pandemic”. Referred to as a viral disease. Estimated to have killed between 20 and 100 million. One of the experiments conducted to test the transmission of the disease, explains that 10 other healthy men were carried to the bedside of 10 new cases of flu. Each healthy man had 10 sick men cough in his face and none of them became ill. A fact that contradicts the idea that particles hitchhike onto saliva or mucous, that is ejected from the body by sneezing or coughing. The fact that they did not fall ill, poses a direct threat and serious challenge to the basic assumption that flu is infectious.

        So here are a few more “Covid conspiracy theories” for you to think about. Debunk at your leisure…..

        Masks don’t work.Virus is 1 Micron in diametre. The aerosol water particle covered in this virus ia a maximum of 62 Microns. Studies done on a wide variety of masks have the mesh diameters from 80 Microns to 500 Microns. Like spitting peas through yer goalie’s net!

        2 metre social distancing doesn’t work. Aerosol travels 30 metres!

        Vaccine passports are a nonsense. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated can carry and transmit.

        There is no point in vaccinating those with natural immunity. There never has been. In fact, it is detrimental to the heath of those people.But we do. In fact, tests conducted, suggest those with natural immunity, could be as high as 50/60 per cent of the population. That in itself would suggest an alternative reason for vaccinating all….

        So-called Covid vaccines are NOT vaccines. But everyone calls them vaccines. They did not pass the US Patent Office tests to be described as such

        SARS 2 Covid hasn’t been observed, isolated, or characterised. Very few viruses in history have been. So how did W.H.O. manage to convince everyone?

        When asked , “so what’s the story on Covid?’…..Virologist Dr Stephan Lanka replied….”Academic Medicine has been and is the most important pillar of support of all dictatorships and governments which do not want to submit to written law, to constitution, to human rights, that is, to the democratically legitimised social contract’.

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