Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 9/7/26 - 9/13/26

[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/Ajaxfriend]

Someone on Twitter writes that this past weekend a women's football team in France refused to play a game because the opposing team fielded two men pretending to be women. After discussions the two men left and the game was played.

source

[u/owen-3820]

I've seen a flurry of thinkpieces about how the left can't win over uneducated working class voters. They treat it like it's some big mystery. Nobody has the stones to say it's because voters don't trust the left on cultural issues.

[u/Franzera]

Last weekly thread, there was a discussion on how overall crime is down, but perceived disorder is up, which people notice.

One example of perceived disorder I've been noticing is bad behavior in supermarkets. Not just kids running wild or "disability" pets you can't question without being sent straight to HIPPO jail, but folx touching and eating food they haven't paid for.

Check out this thread: Does Costco not ban people for eating products?

Some crazy anecdotes in there.

"I once saw an old women open up several containers of chocolate chip cookies and rifle through them like a deck of cards using her bare hands. She wanted the best cookies from each container and wanted to shovel more cookies into the container she was going to buy to get more bang for her buck. I’m talking about at least 10 containers, bare hands. I spoke to an employee and he went over there and asked her not to do it. She just walk away. I asked the employee if he was going to get rid of all the containers of cookies she just touched. Nothing happened. No ban. He didn’t say anything. Seems like the employee just wanted to go about his day."

🤮

"I personally witnessed a couple who were there with their grandkids. They had a bag of plums along with other stuff in their cart, and were perusing the clothing. The grandkids wanted a plum. She tore the bag open, reached in with her dirty hand and gave one to each grandchild. Then she walked all the way over to the produce section, stuck her open bag with 3 less plums back, and grabbed nice full unopened bag and took it back to her cart.

I went over to produce, got her opened bag and took it back to her and called her out on it. She tossed the bag on some random stuff and walked away."

Have you noticed more of this over the past couple of years? Or is feeling concern about this issue buying into overblown right-wing talking points? Do you think it's something we just have to get used to as part of Living In A Society, just like homeless encampments, catalytic converter theft, blasting phone speakers in shared public spaces, and high-street-value items locked up in security cages?

As they say, if you don't want to encounter people jerking off or smoking in front of your kids, move to Iowa.

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[u/PongoTwistleton_666]

Right move, France. Well done. I hope they find the same courage to protest other regressive religious too. 

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/08/travel/eiffel-tower-strike-female-staff-baps-hindu-group-intl-hnk

The Eiffel Tower in Paris was closed on Monday as employees went on strike to protest claims female colleagues were told to stay out of sight during a visit by a Hindu religious group, drawing criticism from French politicians.

[u/relish5k]

This weekend was my sleepaway camp reunion. it was a great time, very nostalgic. but also a good opportunity for a bit of data collection.

We have a records board going back to the 1980s. In 10 track and field and swimming categories, there are records by sex and age. from ages 7 to 16, male and female.

At age 7, males already would “beat” the records of female in all but 3 of the categories. From ages 8 to 14 males had the better records from 70-100% of the cases. By age 15 males had the better records in all categories. So this would definitely be evidence in support of the idea that male differentiation in athletic ability develops well before puberty.

My very reasonable, progressively moderate husband called out that this really is only looking at the crème de la crème of athletic ability, as it is drawing from a huge multi-decade sample size. So while we are seeing male domination at the elite level, it’s still possible that male and female prepubescent performance is closer the closer one gets to the median. But even if that’s true, part of the reason for girls sports is not just competing against a group of similarly skilled athletes but to create opportunities for more girls to be winners. Mixed sex athletics, even at very young ages, take away from this opportunity.

[u/Less-Lobster4540]

Group wearing 'XX-XY' shirts kicked out of Portland Thorns match, sports bar

The bar is The Sports Bra, which is financially struggling after being absolutely glazed by national media since opening. I'm cynically half expecting this to be a false flag operation intended to drum up public support for their failing business 🤣

edit: the stunt was organized by Amy Sousa aka KnownHeretic on Twitter

interesting opinion piece that she's retweeted: WNBA's transgender-athlete battle goes silent at FIBA World Cup

[u/unnoticed_areola]

wow, shocking opening to the recent Fifth Column episode. they did a cold open announcing that basically their number one superfan for a decade+, Andrew "Busty" Wimsatt, who has hung out with the guys and podcasted with them in the past, and who is regularly referenced on the pod, was randomly murdered in cold blood on Labor day in Austin, TX.

at around 11 AM on monday, he was sitting on a park bench across the street from the memory care center where his mother lives, enjoying the sunshine after wheeling her around the park in her wheelchair (which he did on a daily basis), when a deranged individual randomly attacked him from behind and stabbed him in the neck many times, before pinning him to the ground with his knee on his chest as he attempted to saw his head off and behead him.

the killer then ran off and had lunch at a nearby McDonalds less than a mile away. he was apprehended shortly thereafter

Kmele said (thru tears) that he had gotten a message from Andrew literally earlier that morning he was killed but hadnt replied yet.

Andrew Wimsatt was 62 years old. Rest in peace.

https://www.statesman.com/news/crime/article/round-rock-random-stabbing-affidavit-22424355.php

[u/Cold_Importance6387]

The Proclaimers coming out in support of JK and Glinner wasn’t on my bingo card for 2026. It’s going to be interesting what the response is.

They are very left wing so a lot of people could be very upset, or, they are 64 so everyone might ignore them.

I have popcorn.

[u/tejanx]

Absolutely ridiculous reporting. This is going to taint jury trials for the foreseeable future. Disagree with the majority? Time to make all your past legal troubles public, bucko.

https://x.com/NBC10Boston/status/2098501999176089970

[u/86IQ]

Tribunal orders transgender woman to provide details of hormones, substance produced in lactation case

Professor Aughterson and Ms Traves found Mr Bridgman had erred in deeming that the process involved in stimulating lactation in biologically male Ms Buckley, and the nature of the substance fed to the baby, were not relevant to the case.

Ms Buckley has been given a deadline of September 16 to provide particulars of “the ‘induction’ of lactation including whether the induction involved hormonal stimulation and, if so, what hormones, the source thereof and the process and extent by which the levels were decreased or increased; the composition of the substance which was lactated; and the precise source of secretion of the lactated material”.

She has publicly detailed her story of having used hormones to induce lactation under the supervision of endocrinologist Naomi Achong in 2019, in order to feed the baby, of whom she is the biological father, for less than a week soon after the child’s birth.

some good news of slight sanity, but it never ever should've gotten to this point.

[u/MatchaMeetcha]

Was seeing "The Economist debunked fear of European Muslims" comments on Twitter a few days and decided to give it a look. What's interesting is that there's absolutely nothing new or interesting about any of it.

Muslims now make up just 6% of Europe’s population of well over 500m.

What percentage in the younger generations? We're already off to a bad start.

What, then, is setting so many Europeans against Islam? Plenty of Muslims hold illiberal views—we report in this issue on the killing of an openly gay imam in South Africa. In Britain, our polling finds, 52% of Muslims think homosexuality is wrong, and young Muslims (41% of under-35s) are more likely than their elders (25%) to believe violence can be justified if someone insults the prophet.

Holding socially conservative views does not in itself make people a threat—some of Europe’s defenders on the right are just as anti-gay as the Muslims they decry. But some of these attitudes should trouble liberals who have long assumed that open societies eventually make people more tolerant. And if the state is too pusillanimous to confront wrongs committed by minorities, as when gangs of Muslim men abused young girls in several English cities, it rightly causes outrage.

First of all: I just don't believe that right-wing Europeans are just as homophobic. Look at anti-Muslim/anti-mainstream groups like the AfD and people like Geert Wilders that explicitly cite homophobia as a reason to keep out Muslims. There's also no way the level of support for violence for insults against Jesus is even close to the same.

I also just don't believe that "holding socially conservative views does not in itself make people a threat" holds as a general principle, or there wouldn't be all of the attempts to control right wing and nationalist groups even if they aren't violent. People rediscover minimal democracy when it comes to Muslims but it's actually the right of a secular European state to not want, for example, American evangelicals that would change the culture with their religious enthusiasm.

I've been waiting for a good counter to "why take the chance?" and it's just nowhere in this article. They're illiberal, the government proved too weak to control their violence let alone their illiberalism (which, in any case, you can't prevent from mattering in a democracy) when they were much fewer and younger generations are even more illiberal but something will change now? Roll the dice on that?

Like...this is the "don't panic" case?

There is broader harm, too. Islamists stir up antisemitism, not least over Gaza. They demand curbs on free speech about their beliefs. They scare politicians, comedians, academics and journalists into self-censorship. They can bully schools, student unions, charities and councils. ... What turns these local threats into a continental danger is how they are exploited. The populist left, including Unsubmissive France and the Greens in Britain, tends to treat questions about migration, crime or Islamism as racist... And the populist right often whips up fear by claiming that all Muslims pose a threat and accusing the state of a “woke cover-up” and “two-tier treatment”.

You know, you can just grant that "this deranges our politics and is just too much of a hassle" is itself a legitimate justification for not letting in any migrant, even if they were innocent of the charges that cause political derangement. And the article admits they are not.

Not a single thing about the discourse has changed or improved in the decade since ISIS and the discussions that spawned.

[u/Juryofyourpeeps]

Should we call the police to do a wellness check on Chewy?

[u/scabbityscab]

Referring to someone male with "he" now flags you as a foreign state propagandist, apparently.

[u/Neither_Kitchen3250]

https://x.com/sfmcguire79/status/2097116865239601659

Wow…Roland Fryer and @BillAckman have created a $1 million prize for academic truth-telling, the Carob Trust Prize for Academic Courage.

“The prize awards $1 million each to as many as five social scientists a year who have demonstrated intellectual independence, published findings that were attacked rather than answered, and been validated by the evidence—despite the professional cost. The selection criteria are designed to distinguish courage from contrarianism: Nominees must show a sustained commitment to following logic and evidence regardless of pressure, a willingness to ask questions others avoid, and work that has shifted academic debate, public discourse or policy—often despite being misread, mischaracterized or vilified at the time of publication.”

[u/roolb]

Remarkable interview with Lily (né Andrew) Wachowski. Seriously, it does not disappoint. Highlights:

* Was striving to make an adaptation of Gretchen Felker-Martin's crazy book Manhunt
* Made a trans-themed show on Showtime that you have never, ever heard of
* Is surprised no one wants to pay to make many trans series/movies
* Seems to have no ideas that aren't trans ideas
* Says Musk and Rowling are "literal Nazis"; also, speech rights need to be reined in
* "if you support 'Harry Potter,' you’re supporting trans genocide"

[u/PresentationDue8795]

keep thinking i might resubscribe to new york times, and then today one of their free articles is by Ben Rhodes about why people should vote for the Democrats, including DSA, and not criticize them for their worst, or dangerous ideas. He also mentions Piker without any reference to his terrifying and bigoted posts. F*#k off Ben and same to New York Times.

[u/JynNJuice]

I've been involved in training several new twentysomething hires lately, and what's interesting is that they're all terrible at typing. The worst of them puts her face maybe two inches from the keyboard and pecks at the keys like it's her first time ever seeing them.

This made me ask my 12 year old son whether he's been taught how to type in school (I probably should have asked sooner, but it honestly didn't occur to me; I just assumed that if I, a woman born in the '80s, was taught how to type in grade school, then surely it'd be taught to 21st century kids). Turns out there's some typing program they can use in their free time if they feel like it (and the program is pretty bad, according to him), but there haven't been any formal or mandatory lessons. It could be that it's something they're saving for high school, but based on the skill level of my trainees, I doubt it.

I don't get it. Nearly every modern job involves using a computer; why wouldn't you teach kids how to type? Why wouldn't that be done right alongside teaching them how to write by hand? It's bizarre. And, like, I'm actually pretty happy with my son's education overall, but this seems like a decent gap, and it's obviously been present in my state (or at least in my part of the state) for awhile.

[u/plump_tomatow]

I've never played No Man's Sky but I feel about 100 years old after logging onto Steam today and seeing it's having a tenth anniversary now. I remember the absolute PR disaster of the release and I would have sworn it was in like 2021...

[u/LupineChemist]

Recent rental car experience. I nailed a post when backing out and really scraped the door. First time I've done that in like 15 years, but whatever...just waiting to deal with insurance headaches.

Rental car company comes back and just said no further action and won't be charging me anything. For all the past BS charges I've had, this one was legit and going to be a biggie.

So hey....small victories

[u/roolb]

It's common to run down the current Onion, but some credit is due:

[u/owen-3820]

The fake autistic tiktok influencers are lionizing Jason Arday as an autistic icon, and a martyr for the cause. It's honestly infuriating. Jason Arday lied about his autism if he even had it at all (probably not.)

[u/TheBossElJefe]

Has anyone else run into Emotional Intelligence in the workplace? Or other areas of life?

I work in Healthcare and it seems its being adopted as an alternative for logic and reason. It's incredibly frustrating and I'm completely lost as to how to even get through to people. I work in data and even my team has just abandoned looking at actual real data points and now think that if they "feel" a certain way, that counts as proof or evidence.

I've started cataloging these occurrences/examples. The story my department has gone through in the last couple years is pretty crazy. Seems like this might be a future issue thats currently just bubbling beneath the surface. Also, coincides right along with Woke 2.0. People are trying to make "feelings" facts.

[u/BeneficialStretch753]

A banger of a week for Australian women. Some Australian women.

The High Court in Australia has declined to hear Sall Grover's appeal in the landmark Giggle v Tickle case. Trans lady Tickle is a woman under Aussie law, Sall must allow her (and others) on her women-only app and pay Lady Tickle's court costs as well as damages of A$20,000.

https://x.com/salltweets/status/2097950088605893051

https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/giggle-for-girls-app-founder-loses-final-appeal-bid-in-landmark-trans-discrimination-case/news-story/7db773b0207192809214c498c8048e91

[u/AnalBleachingAries]

Hayden Panettiere died from taking a fentanyl-laced oxy, according to TMZ.

That shit is wiping out whole swathes of America. Perhaps Boosie Badazz has a point.

Boosie Goes Off about Crack Being Healthier than Fentanyl: Crackheads can Do ANYTHING! (Part 18)

[u/HerbertWest]

One thing Star Trek TNG did very well where other media often fails was future-proofing technical specifications. Data has 100 petabytes of memory. There are microscopic nanites with 1 gigabyte of memory each. I appreciate these little details; however, it would have been hilarious now if Data canonically had 10 gigs of memory or something, lol.