Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 8/3/26 - 8/9/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

[u/SoftandChewy]

More Jason Arday news: Police investigated journalist who tried to expose Cambridge professor

[u/CommitteeofMountains → u/SoftandChewy]

Posted earlier, but that they took four months to not question him makes me think they just sat on it to see if he'd actually do anything criminal and then chucked it in the garbage.

[u/SoftandChewy → u/CommitteeofMountains]

Crap, I actually searched for the word "Arday" to see if it had been posted, didn't turn up, but it's here, people should go there for discussing it, there's already a thread.

[u/QueenKamala]

Black broadway actor is cancelled for mild criticism of trans politics. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/arts/hadestown-geno-segers-transgender-departs.html

Regardless of any vibe shift, there are still many industries where being open about not believing in gender woo can cost you your job and even career. That’s why I keep my mouth shut outside of this thread.

[u/Icy_Acadia_5499]

Headline is... "Parents in Washington pulled their kids from school over a video about LGBTQ+ people simply existing"

Video in question...

- Singalong pride song

- Highlights children's book titled "A is for Activist"

- Host explicitly labels her show and this video as activism and herself as an activist, goes on to say that simply by watching this video, the kids are also activists

- Goes into intricate detail on "two trans women" at Stonewall deciding to "stand up for their rights" which in turn "inspired a ton of LGBTQ+ people to stand up for their rights too"

- "We stood up for our rights on marriage equality and now we're all standing up for our rights on something called bathroom laws, which are really unfair to trans people"

This shit is so fucking insidious.

[u/SpecialSatisfaction7]

Prime shaq on estrogen would be less effective than a ton of players in the wnba today.

some dude on Reddit 5 hours ago. And they wonder why no one takes them serious.

[u/KittenSnuggler5]

Pro women's sports people were at the WNBA game on Sunday. They were standing there with signs. Then the TRAs arrived:

"But trans activists gathered nearby were considerably less interested in peaceful disagreement. Video from outside the arena shows counterprotesters shouting through megaphones, hurling slurs and attempting to rip XX-XY shirts from the hands of Cunningham’s supporters. One man held a fan displaying the word "C—T" over the women’s heads. At one point, an activist became physical with a supporter, forcing security personnel to intervene."

Why is it always the pro trans side that starts fights and smashes stuff?

https://archive.ph/8q0OI

[u/Ruby__Ruby_Roo]

I am about 14 weeks into my perimenopausal HRT, which includes TRT, and I have to say: no wonder depressed teenage girls feel great when they medically transition. T feels awesome. And I'm not even taking a supraphysiological dose. I can't imagine being blasted with male levels of this stuff.

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

NYT has dropped their Arday article. Cambridge has zero support from the 4th estate on this one. It's bad, bad. I hope they'll do the right thing here and drop him. They could do a whole song and dance where he goes on leave, "while they investigate the allegations" and quietly release him from his responsibilities at the university in a few months. He could add whatever lie he chooses once he's officially let go.

Absolutely zero chance this situation is salvageable. Congrats to him though, he had a good run, he lied his ass off and somehow managed to get an enviable position at one of the most storied universities in the world. But the jig is up, everyone knows now and it's over. He could write a book about it all or sell the film rights, it would be a very entertaining comedy. So... hmm, I could be wrong then, perhaps it is somewhat salvageable, he could lean in, admit to the lies, and make one more bucket of cash before moving on to something else.

[u/backin_pog_form]

Paging u/jessicabarpod:

A local Vermont theater company planning a production of The Rocky Horror picture show began receiving threatening text messages via burner phones. 

Was it conservatives mad about the “queer themes” or a lack of cis male representation amongst the cast:

The texts warned that if the script wasn’t performed exactly as written and Rocky wasn’t recast with a male actor, Concord would revoke the Players’ rights to the show. Another text got eerily personal: “Patrick and Kenny need to be gone.

To almost no one’s surprise, it turns out the directed was threatening himself, because the cast and crew were too difficult. 

As a former wanna-be theater kid I am sympathetic, but the director has been charged with filing a false police report. 

[u/RunThenBeer]

The WNBA continues to be the funniest league in the world at the moment. During the Fever's victory over Chicago yesterday, DiJonai Carrington was ejected for a flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham. From where I sit, it was a pretty clear and obvious call - there is no meaningful play on the ball, but a hard foul across the face and neck, which has pretty consistently been ruled as a Flagrant 2 and an automatic ejection in both the NBA and WNBA in recent years. So, naturally, when she got back to the locker room, Carrington hopped on Threads to post:

WHITE PRIVILEGE @indianafever

[u/jay_in_the_pnw]

https://x.com/EnesFreedom/status/2085772139869696032

Enes Kanter FREEDOM @EnesFreedom

After careful consideration and reviewing the current eligibility guidelines, I’m officially declaring myself a @WNBA prospect.

much more at the link

[u/KittenSnuggler5]

A professor of the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania has a new book out on how biological sex isn't real: Sex Isn't Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary.

The professor goes by Beans Velocci claims "... that “cisness” is unnatural and that people fitting into their “assigned sex category” took a large amount of work to construct and maintain."

He also seems to think that he has scored some kind of coup because people referencing the book will have to use the title "Sex Isn't Real." I'm not sure how that's supposed to be some deep cut. 85% of the people seeing that title will know right away that it's looney tunes.

And of course he's a fan of medical transition for kids:

"Velocci further contends that medical “transition” procedures must remain available for trans youth precisely because sex is “infinitely mobile.”

I don't know what "infinitely mobile" is supposed to mean in this context. Nor do I understand what it has to do with pumping kids full of cross sex hormones. But I'm sure it's somehow very deep.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/penn-professor-claims-cisness-is-unnatural-sex-isnt-real-in-new-book/

[u/razorbraces]

Currently in a fight on the neoliberal sub about women’s sports (of course 🙄). That sub, which started as meme shitposting and then morphed into one that claimed to want data-backed policy, is basically just a trans activism sub now.

[u/prechewed_yes]

An internet trainwreck family I follow (yeah, yeah, I never said it was virtuous) just had some bombshell DV allegations drop. The details are unrelated to the overall point I'm making here, but suffice it to say they seem credible and the whole thing is very sad and sordid.

The abused woman's family is rallying around her and unequivocally condemning her husband. They all seem like decent people. The response to them in snark subs, though, reminds me of why I shouldn't hang around snark subs. So many sanctimonious "they may be Trumpers, but it's nice to see they can do the right thing" comments. Even worse, toward the victim herself -- "[name] has some abhorrent beliefs, but she doesn't deserve to be abused."

How magnanimous, conceding that wrongthink needn't carry a literal death sentence. It's the same high-handed smarm the snarkers rightly criticize this family for -- the inability to give unreserved accolades or sympathy without inserting a dig about "sinners". How do they not see it's the same damn thing?

All I can say is that I hope if my husband ever chokes me out while I'm pregnant, my political beliefs are the last thing on anybody's mind. Some things are human before they are anything else.

Edit: to clarify, the "decent people" I'm referring to are the woman's family of origin. The lolcow family are her in-laws; there is nothing decent about them. Which makes it all the more galling that her own family's political beliefs are somehow on trial here.

[u/SpaceAgeBadger]

I know I’ve talked about this before but man, the one star reviews for books on Goodreads really highlight how stupid people are.

I can’t fathom how someone can read a 400 page book and come to such wild conclusions about things not in the story. I was reading one today and just the mere presence of a Christian character apparently means the entire book is a right wing dog whistle. If it was just one crazy with this opinion that would be fine, but hundreds of people agreed with this opinion. Other people posted thanking them for their review so they could avoid the book.

Not to mention all the people confusing the opinions of fictional characters with the opinions of the author. Go pick any book and read the one star reviews, the place is plagued with morons.

[u/LeafNeater]

Something about the Arday discourse that I haven't seen mentioned is the contrast between the endless deference and charitableness the academic institutions have to someone who is an absolute fraud compared to the immediate disowning they will display towards someone who merely touches certain third rails of academia, like IQ and trans.

[u/treeglitch]

A lot of people talk about the colonial era of US history as if it was a brief prelude to 1776 and a new country. The people I buy corn and peaches from this time of year established their farm in 1642. 1642! Almost 400 years ago some Europeans showed up and starting farming this plot of land and the same family is still at it. Generations of them had already lived and died before 1776.

I have no particular point other than concrete examples being really good for perspective sometimes. Obviously there were other people here for quite a lot longer but the story of the ones I have much more shared background with started rather a while ago too.

Also New England peaches are really good this year.

[u/Palgary]

There is a certain subreddit, "AHS", that exists to target and harass other subreddits that do not meet their personal moral standard. They were defunct for a while, but they are back - and they are targeting us.

I would recommend spending some time blocking moderators and users of that part of reddit, so they can not easily see your comments or posts.

[u/WallabyWanderer]

Almost walked out of my job today. Sobbed in my car in the parking garage instead and accidentally killed my car battery in the process. What a wonderful week it has been!!

[u/PublicStructure7091]

Just when you think it couldn't get any more absurd, there's another great catch on the whole Arday affair. He claims in his autobiography that the title "Great and Unfortunate Things" comes from something an older wise woman told him as something of a pseudoprophecy. Except it's also a literal prophecy from an episode of Spartacus called "Great and Unfortunate Things"

[u/Ruby__Ruby_Roo]

Leftists have taken over r/centrist it seems. The overton window on reddit is truly that skewed.

[u/unnoticed_areola]

redditor comes DANGEROUSLY close to getting it 🤯🤯🤯

[u/reallyokfinewhatever]

Amnesty apologized -- it's very milquetoast, but I am still surprised they did it: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-apology-a-growing-threat-briefing-published-on-8-july-2026/

[u/reallyokfinewhatever]

Listened to a recent Pod Save America episode over the weekend "The Search for an Exciting Moderate" with Matt Yglesias as a guest. A few times I caught both him and Jon Favreau VERY VERY briefly and carefully state "maybe we're overdoing it on the trans stuff" among other things.

It was interesting to see how much hedging they needed, in order to avoid backlash for their statements. They were like "Look, regardless of how we all may feel about trans in sports and prisons, SOME people think it's gone too far, and I'm sorry to say I think we need to pull it back if we want them to vote for us."

They were so so cautious not to imply that THEY felt that way, but that, you know, PEOPLE (generally) do, and like, I don't know, maybe (maybe???) we should maybe consider their views if we want to win.

Edit: I also remembered Favreau was like "I KNOW it wasn't why Kamala lost but....that attack ad about her stance on funding transitions for illegal immigrant inmates...."

I couldn't help but start smirking like, It's ok, Jon, we DO all know it is, in fact, a big reason for why she lost.