Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to The Cruelest Day: Tuesday, April 22, 2025 and Jelly Bean Day. Like Reagan, I do love those Jelly Bellies. (There are two factories, one in North Chicago.) Here’s a short video about how they’re made (it’s complicated!)
There’s a Google Doodle for Earth Day. Click on it below to see where it goes:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 22 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*I guess the death of a Pope is a big deal, judging by the front pages of the NYT and the AP. Again, I didn’t follow his career so all I can do is show the encomiums raining down at the Vatican. The Pope apparently died of a stroke, likely the consequence of his health issues, which included type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and bronchiectasis, a chronic lung condition.
AP:
From the NYT:
Pope Francis, who died on Monday at age 88, was praised by world leaders and Catholics around the globe who celebrated his long commitment to the poor, his outreach to marginalized communities and a legacy that could determine the future of the Roman Catholic Church.
Francis used his groundbreaking 12-year pontificate to seek, however haltingly, to reshape the church into a more inclusive institution. His death now has left its cardinals with a critical decision: choose a new pope who will follow his welcoming, global approach; or restore the more doctrinaire path of his predecessors.
Francis believed that the church’s future depended on going to the margins to embrace the faithful in the modern world rather than offering a cloister away from it. The coming days will determine how deep his support truly runs.
The conclave to begin the series of votes to elect a new pope begins in two to three weeks. In the meantime, you can read the full obituary here. If they want a reformist Pope, they should look for a young one, but of course the whole procedure involves selecting a seasoned Catholic cardinal who has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.
*Trump has found a new enemy, and it’s not a good one: Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. Trump wants him out, but he can’t get rid of him and Powell will not cut interest rates. Cue Trump blaming Powell for any inflation. And, once again, the markets have tumbled. I predicted that we’ll be in a recession before too long. From the WSJ:
The “Sell America” trade picked back up on Monday.
Stocks fell, with the Dow industrials dropping 1,100 points and on pace for their worst April since 1932, and the dollar hit fresh multiyear lows against the euro and other major currencies. Yields on longer-term Treasurys rose and gold surged to a fresh record high.
Markets are on edge about President Trump’s tariff war as well as his threats to fire Fed chief Jerome Powell. Trump on Monday demanded lower rates in a post on social media, saying costs are trending downward and the economy could slow “unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.”
On Friday when markets were closed, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett underscored the White House’s displeasure with Powell, saying officials were studying his removal.
An early set of data from trade bellwether South Korea showed a big drop in exports to the U.S. this month.
Major stock indexes were down, with the Nasdaq taking the biggest hit, falling more than 3%.
The day’s stock market selloff is broad—really broad.
Just a handful of stocks in the S&P 500 were up in recent trading, and not a single member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, according to FactSet.
All sectors of the S&P 500 were down at least 1.5%.
I’m writing this at about 1 p.m. on Monday, so things will change over the day–but probably not for the better. (UPDATE: The Dow sent down 2.5% yesterday.) A recession might bring the Democrats back to power at midterms, but I don’t really want a bunch of middle-class or lower-class Americans losing their life savings. What a tradeoff!
*Here’s something I wondered about since I’m getting old: if you think you’re having a stroke or a heart attack, should you call 911 or make your way to the emergency room. In my lab I’m about a five-minute walk from there, and 20 minute from home. The docs and first responders give a unanimous answer.
You’re having chest pain, or you fear that your spouse is having a stroke—and you’re thinking of just driving to a hospital instead of calling 911.
What do emergency department doctors think of that plan?
“I think it would be an extraordinarily rare situation where that’s a good idea,” said Dr. Eric Isaacs, director of the age-friendly emergency department at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Here’s why: He’s often seen people show up at the hospital, pounding on the door, with somebody in their front seat, not breathing and with no pulse, because they mistakenly thought it would be better to drive them, said Isaacs, who also is a clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Ameera Haamid, the associate emergency medical services medical director of the Chicago South EMS System, agreed that people should always call 911 when they’re having heart attack or stroke symptoms.
For a heart attack, those symptoms include shortness of breath; pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the chest; pain in the arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach; and other signs such as nausea, a cold sweat or a rapid or irregular heartbeat. Stroke warning signs include face drooping, arm weakness, difficulty speaking or walking, confusion and severe headache.
The American Heart Association recommends calling 911 if any of these symptoms develop, or if a person experiences a sudden loss of responsiveness or can’t breathe normally, which are signs of cardiac arrest.
Haamid, who is also an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine, said she has also seen families arrive at the hospital with someone whose heart stopped beating on the drive there. “And now we’re doing CPR because they’re in cardiac arrest.”
So, the emergency specialists’ advice is clear: Call 911. But for those who still might hesitate, here are some of the reasons why doctors think that way.
And then they give five reasons, among them “it puts you at the front of the line” and “faster diagnosis and treatment.” Read the rest for yourself, but only if you’re old or susceptible.
*After RFK Jr., I think that Pete Hegseth was Trump’s second-worst appointment. And now he’s in trouble for discussing military secrets again, this time in a second chatroom. That guy needs to be told, “You’re fired!”:
Pressure was mounting on the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Monday following reports of a second Signal chatroom used to discuss sensitive military operations, while a former top Pentagon spokesperson slammed the US’s top military official’s leadership of the Department of Defense.
John Ullyot, who resigned last week after initially serving as Pentagon spokesperson, said in a opinion essay published by Politico on Sunday that the Pentagon has been overwhelmed by staff drama and turnover in the initial months of the second Trump administration.
Ullyot called the situation a “full-blown meltdown” that could cost Hegseth, a 44-year-old former Fox News host and national guard officer, his job as defense secretary.
“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote.
. . .Donald Trump Jr pushed back on the opinion piece, saying the author is “officially exiled” from Trump’s political movement. “This guy is not America First,” Trump Jr wrote on X. “I’ve been hearing for years that he works his ass off to subvert my father’s agenda. That ends today.”
The warning came as the New York Times reported that Hegseth shared details of a US attack on Yemeni Houthi rebels last month in a second Signal chat that he created himself and included his wife, his brother and about a dozen other people.
The Guardian has independently confirmed the existence of Hegseth’s own private group chat.
According to unnamed sources familiar with the chat who spoke to the Times, Hegseth sent the private group of his personal associates some of the same information, including the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets that would strike Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, that he also shared with another Signal group of top officials that was created by Mike Waltz, the national security adviser.
You know what’s lacking in an administration loaded with these clowns? Gravitas! They are not adults, but a bunch of kids screwing up and pointing fingers at each other. Hegseth was never qualified as a leader to begin with, but guess who appointed him?
In one small step for robot-kind — thousands of them, really — humanoid robots ran alongside actual humans in a half-marathon in the Chinese capital on Saturday.
The bipedal robots of various makes and sizes navigated the 21.1-kilometer (13.1-mile) course supported by teams of human navigators, operators, and engineers, in what event organizers say was a first. As a precaution, a divider separated the parallel courses used by the robots and people.
While flesh-and-blood participants followed conventional rules, the 20 teams fielding machines in the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon competed under tailored guidelines, which included battery swap pit stops.
The Sky Project Ultra robot, also known as Tien Kung Ultra, from the Tien Kung Team, claimed victory among the nonhumans, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.
Awards were also given out for best endurance, best gait design and most innovative form.
Here’s a video of the race, including “some mishaps”. And there is a ton of pictures at the AP site.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is emphatic on the superiority of beef:
Can you see this for what it is yet? Or do you still think the vulnerable people in this scenario are those enjoying themselves by trying to intimidate girls and women as they go in and out of a public bathroom? pic.twitter.com/UcOy0tZ9ff
. . . a related tweet from Richard Dawkins via Luana:
Aggressively dominant male mammals typically urinate to scent-mark their territory.
“I’ll piss where I like.” “I❤️pissin’ on TERFs.”
They think they’re women. But can you imagine a better walking, talking, reeking advertisement for toxic masculinity? #SexMatterspic.twitter.com/CCFUxjjkJc
Two posts from Professor Cobb. Identical twins speaking identically! They do this all the time, which is astounding, for it says something about how genetic similarity produces extreme similarity of speech patterns. You can read more about the twins here.
SORRY. Sorry.Have we seen this *incredible* news video coming out of Queensland? Wait for the witness/witnesses statement
Being of very similar age to you, I found this morning’s article on whether to take yourself to the ER (more recently termed ED, Emergency Department by my health system friends, but I do not like the connotation of “ED”, so still use ER) or call 911 to be excellent. The reasons to call 911 were thoughtfully and well enumerated in the linked article. I particularly like that you are triaged to the front of the line, current EMT’s have training and equipment to get you to the right facility and start to fully evaluate and treat you on the way, and that being forewarned, they will have the right personnel and equipment waiting for you. As my neuro-interventionalist friend always says “time is life”. I also recall my first cpr training: “you call 911; you get the aed”
“ED”
OMG
What is aed in “you call 911; you get the aed”?
Sorry, Peter. An aed is an “automatic external defibrillator”, a machine that when properly attached to a possible heart attack victim can assess the victim’s condition, advise the trained lay operator on the need to shock, and provide that shock. Training for aed responder instructs that the first thing the lay, trained first responder should do is point to someone to call 911 and a second person to bring the aed if one is available…required in all U.S. federal buildings for a number of years now. Please see osha article at https://www.osha.gov/aed
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on track for the worst April since 1932. The S&P 500’s performance since Trump’s inauguration is the worst for any president going back to 1928. So much winning.
“A recession might bring the Democrats back to power at midterms, but I don’t really want a bunch of middle-class or lower-class Americans losing their life savings.”
Yes, I certainly am in one of those classes, with most of my meager savings conservatively invested in the market. Conservative or not, things have tanked. What a nightmare, particularly for those of us who have retired.
And yes, if this continues, the Republicans will be out. I’ve written to my Republican senators, both of whom are opposed to the tariffs, that “unless Trump is reigned in, I fully expect that Republicans will soon suffer the same fate” [as] “The Democrats [did, who] have completely lost their way, [who] can no longer even tell a male from a female. . . .
All that said, I continue to invest in order to take advantage of dollar cost averaging.
Hope everyone clicks on the link to learn a bit more about the Australian twins. The two of them found their calling in rescuing injured wildlife with a focus on sea birds. Nice to start your day with a story of two gentle souls helping injured animals.
“That guy needs to be told, “You’re fired!”
Agreed.
However, only on his TV show would Trump say that, because now he thinks it would make him look weak. To Trump his appearance is the only thing that matters, whether literally or figuratively.
I understand Algerian terrorist Khalil – who lied on his visa application – is still in the United States, regrettably.
I thought deportation was a more swift procedure.
Algeria I’m sure misses him.
D.A.
NYC
Terrorist? Really? Name one law he has violated. You may disagree with his opinion, but there is no evidence he has broken the law and no charges have ever been filed against him.
Matthew:
Being a member of a proscribed terrorist org, he lied on his visa application – deportable right there.
Last century we booted a dozen or so Nazis (who’d become US citizens!) who arrived after the war as immigrants (John Demjanjuk is one famous one).
Further, his “aid and support” to a terror org.
Student visa people (I was one once) do not have the same protections as US citizens or PRs.
Check the law my friend.
respectfully,
Back to Algeria for terrorist.
D.A. (J.D.)
NYC
I tend to ignore the Dear Leader’s idiocy regarding culture but Trump scares me when he starts doing things like barking at Powel. An independent Fed, like an independent judiciary are the source code of our success as a country/system.
I think he’ll back off on a lot of the tariffs as the blowback will be terrible – and cripple MAGA financially. But people underestimate the damage you can do by messing with the entire system. THEN we become an Equatorial Macheteland, Trashcanistan type country.
D.A.
NYC
Trump attacking Powell has me worried because it sounds like he’s trying to set him up as the fall guy for an inevitable crash.
Presumably the Fed was set up to be strongly independent partly for the pragmatic reason that foreigners would be loath to buy bonds from any country where El Presidente could print money at will. 10,000% inflation is not kind to creditors. For a US historical example, see “not worth a Continental”.
Also, I doubt very much that blaming Powell would be a remotely sufficient excuse for the economic collapse. iDJiT needs a much more fearsome enemy. Maybe witches, or a vast conspiracy of international bankers. Those went well….
The more I see of men parading around in women’s clothing and acting like caricatures of women, taking over female spaces, and threatening women who oppose their intrusion, the more I’ve come to view this as a new form of male dominance and misogyny. I saw the post by Richard Dawkins yesterday and that’s when it really hit home. These are not innocent people just wanting to be left alone – these are men who want to push women around. And the non-transvestite men who support this are just as reprehensible. I’m still undecided as to what to think about women who think this is all ok, including being in favor of nude men in female locker rooms, but I’m certainly not favorable to them, especially ones like this doctor noted by JKR: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1912965856469959159
I cannot comprehend how a man can become a woman (or vice-versa) simply by uttering magic words.
“I’m a man”: “get out of our changing room you pervert! 911 Help! – there’s a man exposing himself in front of me and my daughter!”
“I’m a woman”: “of course you are – just because you have a penis doesn’t make you any less a woman! I can’t believe all these bigots don’t want you to undress in front of us! Look kids – “she’s” going to read us a story wearing lingerie while doing a pole dance- isn’t that cool? Go stick a fiver in “her” g-string!”
I’m sure many are truly troubled with this feeling that they don’t match their biological sex, but they need help to understand that their wishes do not supersede the rights of others.
Excellent comment, Darryl R.
The radical transactivists sounding off, it’s called: “operation let them speak.” This operation is one of the most potent weapons in the arsenal of sex-realist opponents of the radical trans agenda.
See my comment below. I think you’re onto something. They’re so aggressive.
Re: trans
Yesterday in the comments at Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack, a conversation on trans developed with the theme: evil Trumpists are harassing trans “women” who want to compete with women in sports.
This was a non-problem everyone insisted. I suggested that men are larger and stronger than women and no, it’s not fair. Why is there a women’s category at all?
I got called a “hater” and told I had a “tiny mind.” Not a single other commenter took my side.
Compared to the economy it’s a small issue but still: what’s wrong with these people?
Recently, in the New York Times Magazine (April 20, 2025):
How the War Over Trans Athletes Tore a Volleyball Team Apart
Blaire Fleming was a little-known college player. Then she suddenly became a symbol of injustice — to both sides of the controversy. https://archive.ph/9sy8P
It’s a pretty decent article. Though one (for me glaring) problem with this article is that the writer did not interview any of the women who lost out because a trans-identified male (Blaire Fleming) took their place on the volleyball team, took their college (sport) scholarship. You can tell a sob story about this too. Instead we only got the sob story of Blaire Fleming.
Another flaw in that article is that the journalist failed to ask the simplest question of his subject: Why didn’t you just compete on the men’s volleyball team with the other males? All the consequent suffering and anguish and lost jobs could have been avoided.
edited to add: The NYT commenters on that article were heavily skewed toward sex realism, and critical of genderism.
I’m a runner and former triathlete, and have had similar discussions with people who insist that men have no real advantage over women. It’s real easy for me to pull up past race results of either my local amateur races or international championships and show them the data. High School boys are beating women’s world records. But then it becomes “well, yes, but it’s not fair to not let trans people compete”. No, I reply, they can compete, but if they’re male, then they need to compete in the male category. Then they pivot to an argument that a few girls losing in an acceptable loss for the greater good, or “then we should have a separate trans category” (foolish – it would be dominated by so-called transwomen; transmen would have no chance).
I’m with you – it’s a small issue compared to a lot of the other stuff in the world, but really, what is wrong with them?? Is this some sort of mass hypnosis?
It’s not at all small, Frau. This crazy, aggressive trans shit has a lot to do with how Trump was able to peel off Democrats. Your mind is not “tiny” at all. What the hell is wrong with everyone? When I saw those JKR tweets yesterday of that same nasty guy with a megaphone I was thinking if anyone needs to be arrested (in the UK) for hate speech, it’s him. While I’m here, what was wrong with the word “room”? Now the ER is the ED? Seriously? If I have a stroke or a heart attack I’m definitely going to die because I won’t know where I’m supposed to go or what to call it. Is it change for change’s sake?
The trans issue seems to make people crazy. I knew I was asking for it by wading in.
And it’s true: the issue definitely helped Trump.
Debi and Frau K,
A stab at explaining what’s wrong with these people. Over a decade ago a PhD student invited to my home liked what she saw and (in all seriousness) remarked ‘I should have all this.’ She wanted my job, my car, my house, my cat, my dogs, and she made clear she’d even take my husband (who was shocked and amused at the student’s statement). She saw a life she’d enjoy, and seemed to see me as contingently, fully by happenstance, living that life, and so sort of an obstacle to HER living that life. What she was saying was that she should have all this, not me.
In discussions with university trans activists and indigenous activists and fat-rights activists and various flavours of neo-Marxist activists, I hear the same kind of sentiment — there’s a lifestyle or position in society which they admire and think they should have. There’s no sense that we humans are limited by circumstances, only a sense of other people occupying positions which they can imagine themselves enjoying. And this seems to generalise. If you’re male but want to be called female, or disgusting and want to be called desirable, or stupid but want to be called smart, or if you want your folklore to entitle you to be called a scientist, and if people don’t accommodate your wishes, then those people are obstacles to your happiness and therefore ’evil’. The ideas of luck or fate or chance or talent or hard work are as passé today as merit. They are ‘unfair’ and not to be tolerated.
I always understood my student had some mental health issues, but all those years ago such mental health issues were less common. Today they seem more common and to be normalised in society. These and the various -ists listed above seem to me to be feeding the same immature ‘I should have all this’ view of one’s place in the world. It’s as though these people have the creative imagination to see alternative and ‘better’ worlds but have the immaturity to expect that they can by magic come to occupy any role in this actual world they desire. We can all be fairy princesses!
It was difficult to tell, but I suspect the two identical twins are “mirror twins”, as in a couple of instances they used opposite arms to reference the same point (eg. “blood on his face”). It may have been simply because they were standing next to each other, so it was more convenient to use the opposite arm, but the facial features also looked reversed.
Despite your skepticism Jerry, Robert Keith Packer – the camp Auschweitz guy – was sentenced to six months and then pardoned by Trump in Jan 2025 as one of about 1600 pardons of Jan 6 insurrectionists.
Jelly Beans are just trans Candy Corn.
Knowing quite a few lower-class Americans, I’m chuckling at the idea of them losing their supposed life savings in the stock market. There are a few, but not too many. Even for many in the middle class, you are more likely to find the bulk of their savings tied up in home equity–for those who can still afford homes.
Trump or not, I’m not in the least upset about seeing excessive valuations come down. Of course, I’m not currently relying on those funds. I am, however, deeply concerned about small businesses–particularly those involved with manufacturing. Between import costs, adjustable rate loans, common debt burdens, and the general uncertainty that could cause orders to freeze, they are the ones most exposed to Trump chaos.
The Twinnies story was fantastic. It is as though they are conjoined emotionally. As is true about physically conjoined twins, the Twinnies do not want to be separated in any way. See Alice Dreger’s book, “One of Us,” about conjoined twins for a discussion of separation and individualism.
The other thing that was quite remarkable was how they adjusted their voices when speaking in unison. They went to a flat tone and lost prosody. When speaking solo they had normal prosody. What is remarkable is that somehow they needed to know when they were going to speak in unison. That then in turn appears to have triggered a change in prosody production. I would imagine that they simply shut off right hemisphere language production regions so that we are hearing is left hemisphere in isolation.
Curious to hear other ideas about this.
Peggy Mason
Check the flag status – there was a Presidential order to fly at half-staff for the Pope for Liberation Theology.
Here is the Proclamation:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/honoring-the-memory-of-his-holiness-pope-francis/
Being of very similar age to you, I found this morning’s article on whether to take yourself to the ER (more recently termed ED, Emergency Department by my health system friends, but I do not like the connotation of “ED”, so still use ER) or call 911 to be excellent. The reasons to call 911 were thoughtfully and well enumerated in the linked article. I particularly like that you are triaged to the front of the line, current EMT’s have training and equipment to get you to the right facility and start to fully evaluate and treat you on the way, and that being forewarned, they will have the right personnel and equipment waiting for you. As my neuro-interventionalist friend always says “time is life”. I also recall my first cpr training: “you call 911; you get the aed”
“ED”
OMG
What is aed in “you call 911; you get the aed”?
Sorry, Peter. An aed is an “automatic external defibrillator”, a machine that when properly attached to a possible heart attack victim can assess the victim’s condition, advise the trained lay operator on the need to shock, and provide that shock. Training for aed responder instructs that the first thing the lay, trained first responder should do is point to someone to call 911 and a second person to bring the aed if one is available…required in all U.S. federal buildings for a number of years now. Please see osha article at https://www.osha.gov/aed
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on track for the worst April since 1932. The S&P 500’s performance since Trump’s inauguration is the worst for any president going back to 1928. So much winning.
“A recession might bring the Democrats back to power at midterms, but I don’t really want a bunch of middle-class or lower-class Americans losing their life savings.”
Yes, I certainly am in one of those classes, with most of my meager savings conservatively invested in the market. Conservative or not, things have tanked. What a nightmare, particularly for those of us who have retired.
And yes, if this continues, the Republicans will be out. I’ve written to my Republican senators, both of whom are opposed to the tariffs, that “unless Trump is reigned in, I fully expect that Republicans will soon suffer the same fate” [as] “The Democrats [did, who] have completely lost their way, [who] can no longer even tell a male from a female. . . .
All that said, I continue to invest in order to take advantage of dollar cost averaging.
Hope everyone clicks on the link to learn a bit more about the Australian twins. The two of them found their calling in rescuing injured wildlife with a focus on sea birds. Nice to start your day with a story of two gentle souls helping injured animals.
“That guy needs to be told, “You’re fired!”
Agreed.
However, only on his TV show would Trump say that, because now he thinks it would make him look weak. To Trump his appearance is the only thing that matters, whether literally or figuratively.
I understand Algerian terrorist Khalil – who lied on his visa application – is still in the United States, regrettably.
I thought deportation was a more swift procedure.
Algeria I’m sure misses him.
D.A.
NYC
Terrorist? Really? Name one law he has violated. You may disagree with his opinion, but there is no evidence he has broken the law and no charges have ever been filed against him.
Matthew:
Being a member of a proscribed terrorist org, he lied on his visa application – deportable right there.
Last century we booted a dozen or so Nazis (who’d become US citizens!) who arrived after the war as immigrants (John Demjanjuk is one famous one).
Further, his “aid and support” to a terror org.
Student visa people (I was one once) do not have the same protections as US citizens or PRs.
Check the law my friend.
respectfully,
Back to Algeria for terrorist.
D.A. (J.D.)
NYC
I tend to ignore the Dear Leader’s idiocy regarding culture but Trump scares me when he starts doing things like barking at Powel. An independent Fed, like an independent judiciary are the source code of our success as a country/system.
I think he’ll back off on a lot of the tariffs as the blowback will be terrible – and cripple MAGA financially. But people underestimate the damage you can do by messing with the entire system. THEN we become an Equatorial Macheteland, Trashcanistan type country.
D.A.
NYC
Trump attacking Powell has me worried because it sounds like he’s trying to set him up as the fall guy for an inevitable crash.
Presumably the Fed was set up to be strongly independent partly for the pragmatic reason that foreigners would be loath to buy bonds from any country where El Presidente could print money at will. 10,000% inflation is not kind to creditors. For a US historical example, see “not worth a Continental”.
Also, I doubt very much that blaming Powell would be a remotely sufficient excuse for the economic collapse. iDJiT needs a much more fearsome enemy. Maybe witches, or a vast conspiracy of international bankers. Those went well….
The more I see of men parading around in women’s clothing and acting like caricatures of women, taking over female spaces, and threatening women who oppose their intrusion, the more I’ve come to view this as a new form of male dominance and misogyny. I saw the post by Richard Dawkins yesterday and that’s when it really hit home. These are not innocent people just wanting to be left alone – these are men who want to push women around. And the non-transvestite men who support this are just as reprehensible. I’m still undecided as to what to think about women who think this is all ok, including being in favor of nude men in female locker rooms, but I’m certainly not favorable to them, especially ones like this doctor noted by JKR: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1912965856469959159
I cannot comprehend how a man can become a woman (or vice-versa) simply by uttering magic words.
“I’m a man”: “get out of our changing room you pervert! 911 Help! – there’s a man exposing himself in front of me and my daughter!”
“I’m a woman”: “of course you are – just because you have a penis doesn’t make you any less a woman! I can’t believe all these bigots don’t want you to undress in front of us! Look kids – “she’s” going to read us a story wearing lingerie while doing a pole dance- isn’t that cool? Go stick a fiver in “her” g-string!”
I’m sure many are truly troubled with this feeling that they don’t match their biological sex, but they need help to understand that their wishes do not supersede the rights of others.
Excellent comment, Darryl R.
The radical transactivists sounding off, it’s called: “operation let them speak.” This operation is one of the most potent weapons in the arsenal of sex-realist opponents of the radical trans agenda.
See my comment below. I think you’re onto something. They’re so aggressive.
Re: trans
Yesterday in the comments at Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack, a conversation on trans developed with the theme: evil Trumpists are harassing trans “women” who want to compete with women in sports.
This was a non-problem everyone insisted. I suggested that men are larger and stronger than women and no, it’s not fair. Why is there a women’s category at all?
I got called a “hater” and told I had a “tiny mind.” Not a single other commenter took my side.
Compared to the economy it’s a small issue but still: what’s wrong with these people?
Recently, in the New York Times Magazine (April 20, 2025):
It’s a pretty decent article. Though one (for me glaring) problem with this article is that the writer did not interview any of the women who lost out because a trans-identified male (Blaire Fleming) took their place on the volleyball team, took their college (sport) scholarship. You can tell a sob story about this too. Instead we only got the sob story of Blaire Fleming.
Another flaw in that article is that the journalist failed to ask the simplest question of his subject: Why didn’t you just compete on the men’s volleyball team with the other males? All the consequent suffering and anguish and lost jobs could have been avoided.
edited to add: The NYT commenters on that article were heavily skewed toward sex realism, and critical of genderism.
I’m a runner and former triathlete, and have had similar discussions with people who insist that men have no real advantage over women. It’s real easy for me to pull up past race results of either my local amateur races or international championships and show them the data. High School boys are beating women’s world records. But then it becomes “well, yes, but it’s not fair to not let trans people compete”. No, I reply, they can compete, but if they’re male, then they need to compete in the male category. Then they pivot to an argument that a few girls losing in an acceptable loss for the greater good, or “then we should have a separate trans category” (foolish – it would be dominated by so-called transwomen; transmen would have no chance).
I’m with you – it’s a small issue compared to a lot of the other stuff in the world, but really, what is wrong with them?? Is this some sort of mass hypnosis?
It’s not at all small, Frau. This crazy, aggressive trans shit has a lot to do with how Trump was able to peel off Democrats. Your mind is not “tiny” at all. What the hell is wrong with everyone? When I saw those JKR tweets yesterday of that same nasty guy with a megaphone I was thinking if anyone needs to be arrested (in the UK) for hate speech, it’s him. While I’m here, what was wrong with the word “room”? Now the ER is the ED? Seriously? If I have a stroke or a heart attack I’m definitely going to die because I won’t know where I’m supposed to go or what to call it. Is it change for change’s sake?
The trans issue seems to make people crazy. I knew I was asking for it by wading in.
And it’s true: the issue definitely helped Trump.
Debi and Frau K,
A stab at explaining what’s wrong with these people. Over a decade ago a PhD student invited to my home liked what she saw and (in all seriousness) remarked ‘I should have all this.’ She wanted my job, my car, my house, my cat, my dogs, and she made clear she’d even take my husband (who was shocked and amused at the student’s statement). She saw a life she’d enjoy, and seemed to see me as contingently, fully by happenstance, living that life, and so sort of an obstacle to HER living that life. What she was saying was that she should have all this, not me.
In discussions with university trans activists and indigenous activists and fat-rights activists and various flavours of neo-Marxist activists, I hear the same kind of sentiment — there’s a lifestyle or position in society which they admire and think they should have. There’s no sense that we humans are limited by circumstances, only a sense of other people occupying positions which they can imagine themselves enjoying. And this seems to generalise. If you’re male but want to be called female, or disgusting and want to be called desirable, or stupid but want to be called smart, or if you want your folklore to entitle you to be called a scientist, and if people don’t accommodate your wishes, then those people are obstacles to your happiness and therefore ’evil’. The ideas of luck or fate or chance or talent or hard work are as passé today as merit. They are ‘unfair’ and not to be tolerated.
I always understood my student had some mental health issues, but all those years ago such mental health issues were less common. Today they seem more common and to be normalised in society. These and the various -ists listed above seem to me to be feeding the same immature ‘I should have all this’ view of one’s place in the world. It’s as though these people have the creative imagination to see alternative and ‘better’ worlds but have the immaturity to expect that they can by magic come to occupy any role in this actual world they desire. We can all be fairy princesses!
It was difficult to tell, but I suspect the two identical twins are “mirror twins”, as in a couple of instances they used opposite arms to reference the same point (eg. “blood on his face”). It may have been simply because they were standing next to each other, so it was more convenient to use the opposite arm, but the facial features also looked reversed.
Despite your skepticism Jerry, Robert Keith Packer – the camp Auschweitz guy – was sentenced to six months and then pardoned by Trump in Jan 2025 as one of about 1600 pardons of Jan 6 insurrectionists.
Jelly Beans are just trans Candy Corn.
Knowing quite a few lower-class Americans, I’m chuckling at the idea of them losing their supposed life savings in the stock market. There are a few, but not too many. Even for many in the middle class, you are more likely to find the bulk of their savings tied up in home equity–for those who can still afford homes.
Trump or not, I’m not in the least upset about seeing excessive valuations come down. Of course, I’m not currently relying on those funds. I am, however, deeply concerned about small businesses–particularly those involved with manufacturing. Between import costs, adjustable rate loans, common debt burdens, and the general uncertainty that could cause orders to freeze, they are the ones most exposed to Trump chaos.
The Twinnies story was fantastic. It is as though they are conjoined emotionally. As is true about physically conjoined twins, the Twinnies do not want to be separated in any way. See Alice Dreger’s book, “One of Us,” about conjoined twins for a discussion of separation and individualism.
The other thing that was quite remarkable was how they adjusted their voices when speaking in unison. They went to a flat tone and lost prosody. When speaking solo they had normal prosody. What is remarkable is that somehow they needed to know when they were going to speak in unison. That then in turn appears to have triggered a change in prosody production. I would imagine that they simply shut off right hemisphere language production regions so that we are hearing is left hemisphere in isolation.
Curious to hear other ideas about this.
Peggy Mason