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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 1, 2025

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Fun fact: you guys lost the war before you even knew there was one. Trans activists slipped in gender self-ID into the referendum that you thought was about gay marriage.

On the flip side, arguably the most prominent leader, in the whole worldwide pushback against trans, is an Irish woman.

Fun fact: you guys lost the war before you even knew there was one.

Oh, I've been unassailably on the Wrong Side of History from the debates about contraception on down. Voted "no" in the Gay Marriage referendum, mostly because the "yes" side had managed to pull off driving me from what should have been tepid agreement about "meh, civil marriage is a morass anyways, why not?" into frothing "hell NO" opposition. (I am very Schadenfreudig about Graham Linehan's troubles right now, because back when he was being anti-Catholic Church* and pro-social liberalisation, he was feted for his wonderful views in line with right-thinking modernity, but the Overton Window kept on moving while he didn't so now he's one of the bad ones, just like us social conservatives were the bad ones back when he was in the right).

I expect to be on the Wrong Side about the trans stuff, too, until in fifteen or so years time we get the inevitable "but how were we to know?" backlash.

*The whole thing about the church in Ireland is very complicated.

On the flip side, arguably the most prominent leader, in the whole worldwide pushback against trans, is an Irish woman.

JK Rowling? She's English, born in Gloucestershire. Parents also English, though with Scottish ancestry and on naval posting in Scotland for some time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling

Stella O'Malley. Rowling only finances and shitposts, as far as I can tell, doesn't do any actual leadership.

Rowling only finances and shitposts, as far as I can tell, doesn't do any actual leadership.

I’d call that leadership. Paying for things and talking shit; I hadn’t thought of her before as the Tony Stark of trans-opposition.

She shitposts; you share low-effort provocative content; I provide thought leadership in a jocular and efficient manner.

Ok fine, but in that case I would say it pales in comparison to organizing workshops and therapy for parents of trans kids, trans kids themselves, detransitioners, all at a time of peak social-media censorship, and kicking off a remarkably well-run series of conferences. I don't know what is your experience of actually getting shit done, but whenever I tried taking on a leadership role, it was like squeezing water out of a stone. After a few experiences like that, I have mad respect for leaders who actually pull it off at a consistently high quality.

That's not to say I don't appreciate JK Rowling. Her high profile and sharp wit probably exposed a huge amount of normies to the subject, and made it all quite entertaining to boot. But it's not the same thing, I think.

Is she that prominent? I've never heard of her, though I'll look her up.

Everybody plugged into the transphere, either pro- or anti-, probably knows who she is. Normies might not, but they don't matter. Left-wing European politicians attend her conferences to keep an eye on what's going on. Her activity is what keyed me in on the tide turning on trans. I really doubt it would have happened (or at the very least - would have happened at the time it did) without her.

I've had some posts about my criticisms of the "organic" / "market-driven" / "democratic" view of society, and one of these days I might flesh out a compare-and-contrast to and "elite-driven" one, which I think is far more accurate.