It was no April Fool’s joke.

Harry Potter author-turned culture warrior J.K. Rowling kicked off the month with an 11-tweet social media thread in which she argued 10 transgender women were men — and dared Scottish police to arrest her.

Rowling’s intervention came as a controversial new Scottish government law, aimed at protecting minority groups from hate crimes, took effect. And it landed amid a fierce debate over both the legal status of transgender people in Scotland and over what actually constitutes a hate crime.

Already the law has generated far more international buzz than is normal for legislation passed by a small nation’s devolved parliament.

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I am anyways dismayed at how Joe Rogan stays relevant. He’s such a moronic ape, who pushes misinformation and hate, and yet he’s always at the top of the charts and half my relatives listen to him

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      Reminder that he was on Infowars on 9/11. He actually pushed back on some of Alex Jones crazier statements that day, but not quite enough, and he’s lost that subtle praise since then.

          • samus12345@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            The family Hominidae (hominids), the great apes, include four genera comprising three extant species of orangutans and their subspecies, two extant species of gorillas and their subspecies, two extant species of panins (bonobos and chimpanzees) and their subspecies, and humans in a single extant subspecies.

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

            • ripcord@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I’m wrong, thanks! I was thinking gorillas and that humans were only technically primates.

    • daltotron@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s basically just because he’s like, a moronic ape. He is able to kind of, wear the aesthetics of your everyday college dorm bro, who thinks the dark knight is the greatest movie ever made. Or at least, wear the aesthetics of their middling 30 year old, balding, divorced versions, because that movie came out in like 2008, or whatever. You can basically put him in any context, and he’s able to function as the same idiot self-insert character. He’s the vessel through which they can imagine themselves talking to famous celebrities, academics, comedians, and right wing conspiracy nuts.

      • affiliate@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        i think this has a lot to do with it.

        and i think he’s also boosted a lot by the fact that he doesn’t really communicate that many original thoughts. instead, it seems like he tends to blindly agree with whoever he has on camera. so he simultaneously cultivates these personas of “having intellectual curiosity” while also being a stand-in for the average college dorm bro.

        (i’m not trying to defend him here, he still causes serious harm by platforming bad actors and endorsing their views.)

        • daltotron@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          “having intellectual curiosity” while also being a stand-in for the average college dorm bro.

          I think these are kind of one in the same. College dorm bros, ime, and just your general kind of like libertarian white dude, are pretty vulnerable to JAQing off unintentionally, engaging in a lot of logical fallacies, and priding themselves on a kind of half-baked intellectual curiosity that really just serves to reaffirm their own worldview. It’s how they can square the circle of supporting free speech, and it’s uses, right, while not actually being intellectually curious enough to dig themselves out of their holes through legitimate means. The college dorm bro is closely related to the debate pervert, is basically what I’m saying.

    • steeznson@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I don’t think he’s a malicious actor, just an uneducated jock type dude. Suspect his audience is partly comprised of people who are also uneducated and enjoy seeing someone who is not an expert pontificate on things.

    • jettrscga@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is how I know I’m in an information bubble. I never hear anyone mention Joe Rogan in real life, but apparently he’s hugely popular? It’s crazy to me too.

      • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Most people I know don’t mention that they listen to him unless specifically asked. Then they start scrambling to justify why it’s ok.

        • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Because Joe talks like a normal person. He has bad takes sure but that’s for you to decide. I am sure if you talked on stream for as long as he has you will have some bad takes too.

            • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              …………………………….¸„„„„ …………………….……………„–~‘¯…….’
              ………….…………………… („-~~–„¸_….,/ì’Ì …….…………………….¸„-^“¯ : : : : :¸-¯”¯/’ ……………………¸„„-^“¯ : : : : : : : '\¸„„,-” **¯¯¯'^~-„„„----~
              ‘“¯ : : : : : : : : : :¸-” .:.:.:.:.„-^" : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :„-" :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: : : : : : : : : : ¸„-^¯ .::.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. : : : : : : : ¸„„-^¯ :.’ : : '\ : : : : : : : ;¸„„-~" :.:.:: :“-„”“*/‘츒¯ :.': : : : :“-„ : : :”
              .:.:.: : : : :" : : : : , :.: : : : : : : : : : : : 'Ì : : : : : : :, : : : : : :/ "-„::::„-
              __„„~”

          • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Idiots pay $99M/year for that.

            You have devalued money by only allowing fucktards to accumulate it without effort.

          • conquer4@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            It astonishs me that someone can have so many experts on their show, and remain so stupid.

            • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              He talks like a regular person would… if you think he’s stupid then you are basically saying “regular people are stupid cuz I’m a big smarty smart pants look at me with my big smart brain”

            • daltotron@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              It’s incentivized for him to remain that way, it’s what his audience gels with. I feel pretty confident that if you look at the episodes that get the most views, they’re gonna be the ones that have the most stupid controversial figures, political candidates, and higher tier celebrities, rather than any episodes where he talks to actual experts about what they know.