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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32471 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023

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Nicola Sturgeon says time is right to resign as Scotland's first minister

Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that she is resigning as Scotland's first minister after more than eight years in the role.

Ms Sturgeon said her decision was not a reaction to short-term pressures, but came from "a deeper and longer-term assessment".

According to her, this was a decision long in the making and not a response to current events.

Personally, I think they had something to do with it (even if just in a "straw that broke the camel's back). She suffered twin defeats of having the UK government strike down her self-ID bill on the grounds that it'd violate equal rights protections and somehow ending up looking reasonable (usually "nationalists" will oppose such a thing on principle, at least that is my experience with Quebec*), in part due to the possibility of the other disaster: a male rapist suddenly identifying as a woman and trying to get into a female prison.

AKA that thing we were told would never happen.

For many, this was a bridge too far and the backlash was intense. While she and her team did try to mitigate the damage by pointing out that he was still being assessed, it didn't seem to comfort (for me: even the need for a risk assessment is silly) Sturgeon herself was grilled and tied herself in knots trying to tread some middle ground between her ideological commitments and mollifying people who thought the whole thing was a bridge too far (attempts by SNP boosters to dodge the question by saying "this person is a rapist" apparently didn't work)

To me this highlights two things: the hollowness of a nationalism based on "we're more progressive than you" as opposed to the good old blood and soil stuff that is apparently verboten now that everyone wants to plug themselves into some larger cosmopolitan, neoliberal bloc or to ingratiate themselves to American companies and culture (e.g. Ireland).

Everyone can understand "we're a distinct nation with a particular history that converged with but is not identical to the greater state's". Basing nationalism on progressive policy is silly because it's both incoherent (said policy is inimical to nationalism) and is liable to overreach because being progressive is an ever shifting target.

Second point: the fact that trans activists were right. Their greatest successes come when they can roll the elites into believing their cause is just an inevitable extension of existing rights and they can bypass the public. As Joyce put it:

All this explains the speed. When you want new laws, you can focus on lobbying, rather than the painstaking business of building broad-based coalitions. And when those laws will take away other people’s rights, it is not only unnecessary to build public awareness – it is imperative to keep the public in the dark. This stealthy approach has been central to transactivism for quite some time.

In a speech in 2013, Masen Davis, then the executive director of the American Transgender Law Center, told supporters that ‘we have largely achieved our successes by flying under the radar . . . We do a lot really quietly. We have made some of our biggest gains that nobody has noticed. We are very quiet and thoughtful about what we do, because we want to make sure we have the win more than we want to have the publicity.’

The result is predictable. Even as one country after another introduces gender self-ID, very few voters know this is happening, let alone support it.

A poll in Scotland in 2020 suggests that even young women, the demographic keenest on gender self-ID, become cooler when reminded of the practical implications.

Joyce, Helen. Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women's Rights (p. 227).

Well, the public is like an elephant. They'll mostly follow the rider's instructions. Until you alarm them. Took a while but it eventually happened. Sturgeon had the easiest job in politics: just keep running and blame the UK. That's all she had to do. And she somehow bungled that. This topic is toxic for everyone.

* There is an argument that Sturgeon's real sin here was not triggering overt action from the UK - in fact, that might have been seen as helpful for raising nationalist sentiment- but picking a case so absurd that it made it palatable. That is the real failure of a nationalist politician here, and perhaps why she's gone.

Great post. I find it really hard to believe though that people didn’t realise the implications of self ID. Either way they are either evil, or stupid and we need to root them out of positions of power.

There is a strain of Scottish nationalism (usually focussed around Alex Salmond and his breakaway political party Alba) that subscribes to the idea that Nicola Sturgeon didn't, or at least doesn't really want Scotland to be an independent country. What she wants is modern lefty politics (of which the gender-ID bill is a perfect example) and is using Scottish nationalism as a means to get it. Actual Scottish independence would require profound financial sacrifices and difficult questions about blood and soil that she doesn't want to answer, according to this school of thought.

The blog Wings Over Scotland is probably the best source for this side of the political space you're going to find. Although I don't agree with the author's politics (being an Englishman and all), he did convince me that the accusations against Salmond were an outright plot by Sturgeon's team to prevent his return to politics.

To me this highlights two things: the hollowness of a nationalism based on "we're more progressive than you" as opposed to the good old blood and soil stuff that is apparently verboten now that everyone wants to plug themselves into some larger cosmopolitan, neoliberal bloc or to ingratiate themselves to American companies and culture (e.g. Ireland).

And, contrary to what you might hear in Current Year, Scottish nationalism does have history of a blood-and-soil conception, even on its left. From the Proclaimers' "Letter From America", a highpoint of left-wing Scottish nationalist music, written during the 1980s when it looked like high unemployment in Scotland could cause an exodus comparable to the Scottish and Irish Clearances of the 19th century:

Broke off from my work the other day

Spent the evening thinking about all the blood that flowed away

Across the ocean to the second chance

I wonder how it go on when it reached the promised land

...

I've looked at the ocean, tried hard to imagine

The way you felt the day you sailed from Wester Ross to Nova Scotia

We should have held you, we should have told you

But you know our sense of timing, we always wait too long

...

Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more

Lewis no more, Skye no more

Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more

Lewis no more, Skye no more [These were Scottish places with high emigration in the 19th century.]

...

I wonder my blood, will you ever return

To help us kick the life back to a dying mutual friend?

Do we not love her? I think we all tell you about

Do we have to roam the world to prove how much it hurts?

...

Bathgate no more, Linwood no more

Methil no more, Irvine no more

Bathgate no more, Linwood no more

Methil no more, Irvine no more [These were Scottish places with high unemployment in the mid-1980s]

The notion of a group of people sharing "blood" and having an attachment to a specific geopolitical region was still compatible with being left-wing in the 1980s. Such a song would probably be "problematic" in Current Year Scotland (and not just because, as far as I know, Bathgate is a pretty upmarket place these days).

Bathgate sounds like it was always upmarket.

Ironically, it's very far from Bath, by UK standards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathgate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset

I was just coming in to post about this, because I read about it on CNN:

Nicola Sturgeon unexpectedly quits as first minister of Scotland amid swirl of political setbacks, citing ‘brutality’ of public life

The sum total of CNN's reporting on trans issues:

“First, though I know it will be tempting to see it as such, this decision is not a reaction to short-term pressures,” said Sturgeon, who has been facing increasing tensions with the UK government in London over Scottish independence, as well as Westminster’s decision to block a Scottish law intended to allow trans people in Scotland to change their legal gender without a medical diagnosis.

No mention of putting male rapists in female prisons. It strikes me as an excellent example of the news media spinning stories to deliberately create a false narrative. I'm a little surprised BBC went so far as to actually say:

Ms Sturgeon insisted her resignation was not in response to the "latest period of pressure", which has included controversies over gender reforms, trans prisoners and the strategy on independence.

"Trans prisoners." Yes indeed! Pray tell, what are they in prison for? And what sort of prison was Sturgeon aiming to put them into? Even with BBC's slightly-more-informative take, we do not get the actual story about the actual controversy that has, apparently, sunk Sturgeon at last. The topic is not merely "toxic for everyone," news reporters seem to be genuinely allergic to it.

In fairness, "Scottish government toppled by man in dress" is somewhat of a dog bites man story after the last thousand years. There's only so many times you can run what's fundamentally the same article.

In a few years we will assume that any comment this clever must have been written by an AI.

The topic is not merely "toxic for everyone," news reporters seem to be genuinely allergic to it.

They've decided - helped along by activists - that reporting certain facts leads to an increase in bigotry - since it's axiomatic that the public disagreeing with a policy for an (allegedly) "Oppressed Group" is bigotry.

Therefore it is their job to save the laity from bad interpretations of facts they're clearly not equipped to draw the right conclusions from.

Basically the same thing with obscuring data about black crime or the race of a particular perpetrator in headlines.

Separatism in developed countries (Quebec, Catalonia, Scotland) is like a short, sharp cold. As long as a country makes it over the initial hurdle, independence is unlikely.

I can tell you it was less like a short, sharp cold and more like a hangover that's been going on for 50 years now:

The office is frequently accused of abusing its powers, such as occurred in 2013 during the "pastagate" affair when an Italian restaurant was cited for having pasta, antipasti, calamari, and the like on its menu, instead of using French equivalents. The office also objects to the sale of "grilled cheese sandwiches", insisting that they be called sandwich de fromage fondue, which literally translates to "melted cheese sandwich".[27] Likewise, the Quebec language office objects to "on/off" switches and to the sale of "steaks", insisting that they be called bifteck, "despite the fact that steak is the far more common term among Francophones."[27]

...

Section 73 of the Charter of the French language had recognized the right to English language instruction to Quebec residents alone. Canadian citizens from outside Quebec are forced to send their children to French primary and secondary schools, in direct violation of S26.(3) of the UN Declaration of Human Rights,[2] which states that "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.[3]

Complete with unconstitutional (but that's okay, because Quebec never signed the Canadian constitution) laws and successfully driving off a few hundred thousand anglo Quebecers in such a way that would probably (and admittedly, hyperbolically) be called genocide in different contexts.

I can sympathize with the Quebecois perspective - in part because, to the chagrin of my parents, I was forced to take French classes taught by Quebecois sympathetic to the cause of what would, in other contexts, be called a terrorist organization - but obviously I'm still bitter about the situation. My spoken French was good, but not good enough to avoid being treated like shit by my Quebecois colleagues as a teenager trying to scrape by with menial service jobs.

I'm pessimistic on the whole situation ever improving until machine learning enables Babel fish level tech (hopefully sooner than I ever thought!) or the world of the Machine Stops becomes reality. But between the western provinces going MAGA and Quebec being Quebec, Canada may implode before we get there.

Canadian citizens from outside Quebec are forced to send their children to French primary and secondary schools, i

Is that so bad?

If you speak English at home, going to a foreign language school means you almost effortlessly learn a useful foreign language. Or in case of Quebec, a useful local language.

Indeed, small children can easily become trilingual, one language from each parent and one from their peers. It's hard to overstate how useful that can be for them in adulthood.

Is that so bad?

On the one hand, francophones will argue that learning another language is something they'd been forced to do for decades in order to have any chance at landing any of the better jobs, and anglos should stop whining at having to do the same. We're a bilingual country after all. This argument isn't without merit.

On the other hand, mandating the language children must learn in school, the language people must speak in the workplace or use for signage and advertising seems like a pretty gross violation of our freedoms, no? I've seen much more hand-wringing over much more benign infringements of liberty elsewhere.

Indeed, small children can easily become trilingual, one language from each parent and one from their peers. It's hard to overstate how useful that can be for them in adulthood.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. On the other hand, the combination of the laws, hostile political environment and better opportunities elsewhere convinced hundreds of thousands (from a starting population of less than a million) of anglos to leave. There's also an amusing tradition of francophone elites sending their children to english private schools - although they eventually closed that loophole.

the language people must speak in the workplace or use for signage and advertising seems like a pretty gross violation of our freedoms, no?

Is it that you can be fined or persecuted for talking at a workplace in another language, or that public-facing employees must be able to speak French in Quebec?

francophone elites sending their children to english private schools - although they eventually closed that loophole.

..wait, Quebec prevented their francophone elites from sending their children to english language schools ??

Okay, they were extremely zealous.

While that certainly can be true for individuals, I'm not sure that this is the average case as for how it plays out in practice on a large scale. German language schools for the stateless Western Slavs that exited the Middle Ages under the rule of the German lords of Brandenburg and Saxony and generally kept their language as a distinct people all the way into the 20th century didn't result in a vibrant bi-lingual community, but in their slow motion death as a people. Foreign language schooling has been similarly destructive for regional dialects or distinct languages all over Europe, most notably in France. Picard and Occitan are basically gone, Breton is currently still in the process of being killed.

Large scale cooperation requires a common language, which is why continual death of minor languages is a part of the historical process.

The highest language density is found in places like Papua New Guinea, where a small mountain range may have the same language diversity as the entirety of Europe. I'm not making this up

Maybe this will reverse once I don't know, someone invents matter compilers and there's no need to ever talk to anyone else for purposes of trade.

Foreign language schooling has been similarly destructive for regional dialects or distinct languages all over Europe, most notably in France

Well, one can advance a claim that had Paris not created a French nation, they'd all be speaking German now, or maybe speaking their regional dialects while being lorded over by Germans.

Nationalism was about that, and once people got over it slightly, along came television and radio and finished the job.

This sounds plausible, but I can't imagine these sorts of arguments are doing much to dull the pain of a linguistic group that is forced to send its children into an alien education system aimed at least in part at eradicating its uniqueness. I agree that better cooperation can be to the benefit of a group and language certainly is good vehicle for that, but that presupposes that the people in question see themselves as part of the group that stands to benefit. My impression of Canada is that at least the Quebecois don't seem all that eager in that regard.

Well, one can advance a claim that had Paris not created a French nation, they'd all be speaking German now, or maybe speaking their regional dialects while being lorded over by Germans.

I think that a France that centralized to a much smaller degree than the real one is a timeline with so many possible changes from our own that I don't think one can get much insight from such a hypothetical. The only attempt by Germany that could plausibly be construed as taking over France in its entirety was WWII (and maybe WWI), but there's no telling if that would have even happened in a world where Normandy, Aquitaine and Occitania existed instead of France. Late Medieval/Renaissance Germany eventually let go of the Netherlands after they had drifted apart too much culturally and politically, so it's not like that sort of scenario is inevitable in our world.

I'd also add that the French kings maintained a somewhat centralized state and lorded over peasants with local languages/dialects just fine for centuries before the arrival of the great homogenizing that lead to the current situation. I'd say that your argument applies much better to the Germans, given that absolutist France was very successful in picking off small German speaking principalities along its eastern border. That Alsace speaks French instead of Alemannic is the result of France being able to keep its conquests into the age of modernity when it got to destroy the local language via mass culture and schooling (of course in the case of Alsace thanks due to a large helping of German idiocy and brutality).

but that presupposes that the people in question see themselves as part of the group that stands to benefit. My impression of Canada is that at least the Quebecois don't seem all that eager in that regard

I doubt that people who had nationalism imposed on them generally saw it that way, but that's where public schools and official ideology came in.

Over generations, the state prevailed.

Late Medieval/Renaissance Germany eventually let go of the Netherlands after they had drifted apart too much culturally and politically, so it's not like that sort of scenario is inevitable in our world.

It was more of an issue that they couldn't really hold onto it. I mean, the Dutch fought the Austrians for what seems like centuries to get rid of their influence. Germans at the time barely had any power due to disunity.

Yeah, I think the two recent trans cases and the fumbling she did over them ("the guy is not really trans but if he is then she will be going to men's jail") was really bad. I'm surprised by this announcement, though. I do wonder if there is more behind the scenes that we will find out about.

EDIT: Whoops, I miscounted. There were three recent cases, after Scotland made a big deal out of passing the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which put a pause on "putting trans women who have been convicted of violent sex crimes committed while still identifying as male into women's prisons":

(1) Isla Bryson who at least has made an attempt to pass; rapist/sex offender

(2) Tiffany Scott - the photo is from 2017 so no idea what she looks like now; another violent sex offender

(3) Andrew Miller who may or may not also be Amy George, seems to have two separate online identities (one male, one female) and has been charged in connection with the disappearance of an eleven year old girl (who has been found)

I'm surprised by this announcement, though.

Yeah. I won't deny that I saw some people digging her grave but I thought it was just wishful thinking. She is an institution.

I do wonder if there is more behind the scenes that we will find out about.

Maybe. I like the theory - edited to add to my post - that she was fine starting conflict with the "tyrannical UK stopping Scotland from having self-determination" but she picked such an awful case that now she has to go. Because she's tainted that argument with a hugely unpopular thing and she's the face of both. Maybe if Sturgeon goes, the thinking may be, they can reset and pick the fight another time.

but she picked such an awful case that now she has to go. Because she's tainted that argument with a hugely unpopular thing and she's the face of both

It's also worth considering that she might have had to go because she was insufficiently zealous in her support of that case. We can't assume that those responsible for her ousting share the same understanding of what is sensible and reasonable as we do.

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