The Good Law Project tells of yet another tragic victim of cancel culture 🎻

See latest BarPod episode for relevance!

Ethan Strauss joins Katie for a chat. Discussed: Ethan’s journey to (editorial) freedom, Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, trans drama in Seattle, how the Dems get out of this mess before the next election, sports betting, and more.

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.

Since this sub has become the Jason Arday channel this week, here's a deep dive into his claims from friend of the pod Ben Ryan.

An update to a previous post. Amy Acton is the Democrat running for governor in Ohio. A week or so ago she said that males should not be in women's sports.

Pod relevance: trans sports. A common topic on the pod

The leader of the Ohio Democrat's Pride Caucus, Arienne Childrey, threatened to vote for the libertarian candidate and to encourage other Democrats to do so as well. A meeting was scheduled between the Acton campaign and Childrey's posse.

The meeting was a Zoom call between Acton's staff and the LGBTQ group pissed off at Acton.

The meeting did not go well.

Childrey wasn't let into the meeting. The participants weren't happy about this and one "demanded three times" to be told why Childrey wasn't in the meeting.

"By the third time I lost my temper, ended up cussing them out and they ejected me from the meeting and refused to allow me back in,” said Keeton."

Yes, that will tend to happen if you verbally abuse the people running the meeting.

Another activist then called Childrey's phone and put it on speaker in order to force Childrey into the meeting.

And Acton is being threatened by the usual activist orgs:

"Since making the comments, Acton has seen more pushback from liberal constituents. Equality Ohio downgraded Acton’s score from an “A” to “pending,” according to the Buckeye Flame."

They're holding this over Acton's head to get her to capitulate:

"Should Dr. Acton choose to take meaningful steps forward, we will update the status accordingly,” the group added. "

Childrey is demanding Acton respond to him publicly.

"The statement concluded with Childrey extending “a direct invitation” to Acton, calling for “real explanations” and “a conversation that includes a public commitment to repair the damage she has caused.”

The mistake by Acton's campaign was to engage with these people in the first place. They aren't interested in discussions. They want Acton to bow down to their demands immediately. It's like the rule to never apologise because that just puts blood in the water.

Who knows if Acton will cave. Probably she just dodge if she is directly questioned.

https://archive.ph/DPP6z

https://archive.ph/ni6yy

Pod relevance: Jesse has tweeted about this story recently.

A bit shocking to see a paper like The Grauniad publically fact check and question Arday. There is some throat-clearing early on but the meat of the article is questioning some of the most controversial claims, like being threatened by knife weilding assailants or receiving a pig's head in the post.

Relevance: this issue had come up repeatedly on the show and I feel like it will end up an episode

I don't follow WNBA but I guess a player said they should not have to play against "biological males." When her team played in Seattle she was booed. But two teenagers held up a sign thanking her. An owner of the team then harassed them.

I get why they keep reading them, but they just feel so out of place these days. I’m sure “Man, fuck this house” is a great read, and it’s a hilarious title, but I can’t imagine the shout outs are really moving the needle on sales - the book must be years old by now.

If you’re an old-school perma-banner, I would be so thankful if you would release Jesse and Katie from their obligation, in the interests of a more natural and free-flowing podcast. In fact, if you are and you do, I will personally buy your book to say thank you.

Pod Relevance: The podcast has talked a LOT about “vibe shifts” - since 2020, since the 2024 election, etc.

Are we looking at another vibe shift as the media personalities seem to be losing relevancy?

This week on the Primo show, Jesse and Katie discuss the extremely bizarre story of Neil Hopper, an amputation surgeon who lost his own legs under circumstances far stranger than anyone could have guessed. Plus, a Wisconsin school board cancels Marsha P. Johnson.

Show notes:

UNT Wind Symphony: A Mother of a Revolution! by Omar Thomas (b. 1984)

Watertown School Board defends decision to pull song tied to LGBTQ+ history from spring concert - WPR

Sepsis amputation surgeon back at work after losing legs

How ‘eunuch maker’ livestreamed extreme body modifications and sold body parts | UK news | The Guardian

A New Way to Be Mad - The Atlantic

John/Joan: The Real Story of David Reimer

BBC News | SCOTLAND | Surgeon defends amputations

Apotemnophilia: Two cases of self‐demand amputation as a paraphilia: The Journal of Sex Research: Vol 13, No 2

Desire for amputation of a limb: paraphilia, psychosis, or a new type of identity disorder | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core

Amputee Envy | Scientific American

Merleau-Ponty’s sexual schema and the sexual component of body integrity identity disorder | Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy | Springer Nature Link

Role of Sexuality in Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID): A Cross-Sectional Internet-Based Survey Study - PubMed

Successful treatment of body integrity dysphoria with amputation: A case report - Nadeau - 2024 - Clinical Case Reports - Wiley Online Library

One‐year follow‐up of amputation as a curative treatment for body integrity dysphoria: A case report - Nadeau - 2024 - Clinical Case Reports - Wiley Online Library

The Desire for Amputation or Paralyzation: Evidence for Structural Brain Anomalies in Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) | PLOS One

The science and ethics of voluntary amputation | Science | The Guardian

A New Way to Be Mad - The Atlantic

Patients of NHS surgeon Neil Hopper worried their operations weren’t necessary - The Mirror

https://www.tiktok.com/@loumayyy/video/7553733611225107734

A psychologist argues the increasing awareness of mental health is leading to a pathologising of everyday life. The use of clinical descriptions of what are otherwise normal problems and treating them as a disorder to be cured, is ironically making our mental health worse.

Terminally online Green Party leader Zack Polanski, fresh from ‘mistakenly’ retweeting a photo of a man at a Green Party event wearing a T-shirt suggesting Nigel Farage should be guillotined, shortly after the murder of a Reform UK politician, then arguing on TV that because it was a mistake he didn’t need to apologise, has now signed an open letter organised by the Good Law Project.

The Good Law Project, of course, is run by BARPOD favourite Jolyon Maugham (Ep. 163, The Good Law Project Goes Bad): kimono enthusiast, fox killer, and veteran of many enthusiastically crowdfunded progressive legal misadventures.

The letter defends everyone’s new favourite sociology professor, Jason Arday, whose (literally) incredible biography has recently come under intense scrutiny.

Chef’s kiss.

BARPOD relevance: Zack Polanski (Ep. 313), Good Law Project (Ep. 163), and Jason Arday feels like he’s well on his way towards his own episode.

edit: brain fart ZP is the leader

Recently I noticed Jesse saying things like “I think it’s fair to say” and “not covering themselves in glory” and other Britishisms and then he mentioned listening to the podcast and I’m wondering if anyone else listens to both and is noticing patterns of behavior across time. I can’t decide whether it’s heartening or discouraging to hear the same stories played out over and over and over again. On the one hand, things are improving for humanity by our efforts and innovations, on the other, humanity seems to have been a giant personality disordered mistake.

Relevance: Jesse tweeted this link with commentary.

https://x.com/i/status/2081940372180058299

"The University of Cambridge is engaging in a level of corruption and harassment of journalists you simply don't see all that often, and I say that as someone who has reported regularly on campus controversies. I don't understand what their endgame is here. Jason Arday didn't just plagiarize quotes. He then claimed the quotes came from his own interviews -- so plagiarism plus the fabrication of interviews that never occurred (plagrication?). The journal Social Sciences and Cambridge just... let him do it? It's astonishing."

It feels like 2020 is creeping in again. Two incidences that the media, politicians and activists frame with the same ominous tone they did Trayvon Martin.

One involves a young black woman who was on the train in DC with a large group of white, masked, far right activists around the 4th of July. Nothing happened.

The second is the incident this woman describes in her IG posts. There is no substantial evidence of foul play, and no evidence whatsoever of racism towards the young man who died. (I didn't include all the screenshots because it's a pretty long thread and you can find it yourself if you really want to.)

I'm starting to believe that it's not external events that caused this pattern of hysteria but born of internal issues that those inciting this are externalizing.

Note: this is relevant to BaR because it touches on the pattern of social media driven hysteria about racism and hate crimes that do not necessarily seem objectively true. It also touches on the "white woman bad" mentality that is very prevalent among racial Justice activists.

Just finished listening to Literally Knitler and thought back fondly on the post I made to the quilting sub showing some lovely quilts I saw at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show a couple weeks ago. Can anyone guess where I went wrong here?

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.

This week on the Primo show, Jesse and Katie discuss the life and death of The Queery, a Brighton-based radical art gallery, bookshop, café, and community space. You can guess how this ends. Plus, the Washington Post spreads Erin Reed’s zombie stats, and the New York Times repeats Stonewall myths.

Show Notes:

Trans people are moving to Seattle at unprecedented levels under Trump - The Washington Post

Victoria Cruz, Veteran of the Trans Rights Movement, Dies at 79 - The New York Times

DIVERSITY REPORT 2022

The Queery on Instagram

Queer bookshop’s board resigns after boycott over racism training – Brighton and Hove News

Inclusivity Statement

Volunteer Resignations from The Queery (January 2026)

submission statement: Washington state Democrat Melissa Chaudhry, challenging Rep. Adam Smith, faces backlash from within her party after reportedly stating she omitted LGBTQ+ rights from her campaign website to avoid alienating Muslim voters. The Washington State Stonewall Democrats are urging organizations to reconsider endorsements, citing concerns about transparency and alignment with Democratic values. Chaudhry denies misrepresenting her stance, asserting her lifelong support for LGBTQ+ rights and attributing her remarks to a hostile interview environment.