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Something that’s become really apparent in the final days of the Trump administration is that cranks of a feather flock together. If you believe that the US election has been stolen, chances are you also believe that the COVID vaccine contains microchips, and that furniture shop Wayfair traffics stolen children. Thanks to Twitter I discovered… [more]
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In the New York Times Magazine: The American Abyss, a longread about the attempted coup and what led to it. Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about… [more]
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My son and daughter go to different schools but right now they’re getting their education in the same location: my home. They’re both learning remotely, joining their classmates and teachers on Microsoft Teams and using things like my phone to take pictures of their work and upload it to the school. What’s really striking about… [more]
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Another day, another example of the private sector profiteering from poverty. This time it’s free school meals. Previously parents were given £30 vouchers to pay for their kids’ school lunches. Now, the lunches are provided for them instead. Just one problem. Instead of £30 of food, the packages contain about £5 worth of food. Bootstrap… [more]
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For many parents, today is the beginning of another block of having the kids attending school virtually rather than in person. It’s many things – difficult and exhausting, mainly – but it’s not homeschooling. Dr Mary O’Kane on Twitter: This is not ‘home schooling’. Home schooling is a conscious decision made by some parents having… [more]
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Before they stormed the US Capitol building leading to the death of four people (so far), the MAGA mob cheered a “bizarre” anti-trans rant by Donald Trump Jr. Speaking before his father addressed the crowd at Wednesday’s MAGA protest against Congress certifying the presidential election, Trump Jr. brought up gender-neutral language as well as transgender… [more]
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If you’re not Very Online, you may have missed Bean Dad: for a full day social media was sharing and/or piling on a man who posted about teaching, or rather not teaching, his daughter to use a can opener. Emily Pothast explains it: …despite a bombshell story about Trump attempting to manipulate the outcome of… [more]
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There’s an odd but interesting series on The Good Men Project called Rideshare Confessionals, which sets out to “[examine] the human experience in passengers’ stories as delivered from a therapist moon-lighting as a rideshare driver.” I did say it was odd. This one is about a trans passenger, and while it’s all a bit overwrought… [more]
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My friend Ellie just coined a phrase I really love: whine producers. Think Toby Young, Allison Pearson and all the other people who have bad opinions for money, and who churn out those opinions on an industrial scale. [more]
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Jeffrey Ingold, Stonewall’s head of media: In 2020, The Times (incl. the Sunday Times) wrote 324 articles about trans people & ‘trans issues’. Zero of which were written by trans people themselves. For comparison, in 2019, The Times wrote 321 articles about trans people & ‘trans issues’. 3 were written by trans people. [more]
Read me in books
My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.
My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.
I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.
