Scott A McGreal

Psychology researcher blogging about hot issues. Column at Psychology Today. Tweets about psych, civil rights, secularism and science generally.

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

I’m French. I want to talk to Americans who are about to vote Democrat. Not to insult you. To warn you.

I come from your future.

In France we did everything your progressive politicians promise. Free healthcare, free college, generous welfare, strong unions, heavy regulation, high taxes on the rich, a state that takes care of everything. Public spending close to 57% of GDP, one of the highest on the planet. On paper, it’s the dream.

Here’s what it looks like from the inside. France hasn’t passed a balanced budget since 1974. Our debt is above 3,300 billion euros. Interest on that debt is becoming one of the biggest items in the national budget. Our hospitals are collapsing despite record funding. Our schools rank lower every year. Young people with degrees can’t afford an apartment in the city they were born in. Our best engineers leave for London, Zurich and San Francisco. And the rich you wanted to tax? They left too, and took the jobs with them.

The promise was protection. The result is stagnation.

The worst part is that nobody in France voted for decline. Every single step sounded generous, compassionate, reasonable. One more program. One more regulation. One more tax to fund it. Each step alone makes sense. Fifty years of them, and you wake up in a country that can no longer build a nuclear plant on time or keep its streets safe.

I love America because it’s the one place on earth where people still believe they can build something from nothing. I came to Silicon Valley as a self-taught kid and it changed my life. That spirit is the most precious thing your country has.

Before you vote, ask yourself one question: is the program you’re voting for making America more like America, or more like France?

Trust me. You don’t want to be France.

[(((Coca Camhi))) @CocaCamhi]

Hola, soy palestino. 🇵🇸
Y como la honestidad es poco común en mi política, permítanme confesar algunas cosas.

1947. La ONU me ofreció un estado. Junto a Israel. Fronteras, independencia, reconocimiento. Dije que no. Mis líderes prometieron que la guerra "arrojaría a los judíos al mar". En cambio, lo perdí todo y lo llamaron catástrofe. No porque no me ofrecieran un estado, sino porque lo rechacé.

1948–2025. Los estados árabes podrían haberme integrado, dado derechos, pasaportes, dignidad. En cambio, me encerraron en campos de refugiados durante generaciones, para que siguiera siendo un arma contra Israel. Construyeron palacios para ellos y cárceles para mí. Me usaron como propaganda, no como personas.

1967. Tras otra guerra perdida, podría haber construido un estado en Cisjordania y Gaza. En cambio, insistí en "ni paz, ni reconocimiento, ni negociaciones". Tres noes. Cincuenta años después, sigo sin Estado. Resulta que el rechazo no paga el alquiler.

Oslo, década de 1990. Israel dijo: «Intentémoslo». Me dio autonomía. Armas para la policía. Miles de millones en ayuda. ¿Qué hicieron mis líderes? Robaron el dinero, armaron milicias y lanzaron una intifada. Atentados suicidas en lugar de escuelas. Cohetes en lugar de fábricas.

Gaza, 2005. Israel se fue por completo. Sin colonos, sin soldados. Tuve la oportunidad de convertir Gaza en un Singapur mediterráneo. Voté por Hamás. La convirtieron en Mogadiscio junto al mar. ¿Miles de millones en ayuda? Túneles, cohetes y palacios para sus líderes, mientras mi gente come comida enlatada en la oscuridad.

¿Democracia? No he tenido elecciones en casi 20 años. Hamás mata a los disidentes en Gaza. Fatah los encarcela en Cisjordania. Mis líderes cancelan elecciones porque están demasiado ocupados luchando por el poder.

Religión. En lugar de construir un futuro, pongo a clérigos en televisión enseñando a los niños a odiar a los judíos. Glorifico a los "mártires" que hacen estallar autobuses. Crío a mis hijos con canciones de sangre y fuego en lugar de libros y ciencia. Cambio la esperanza por la guerra santa.

Mundo árabe. Los regímenes árabes me llaman "hermano". Pero pregúntenles cuántos palestinos pueden vivir libremente en Líbano, Siria, Egipto o Kuwait. Me excluyen, pero celebran mi muerte, porque mi muerte es su excusa.

Absurdo. Sigo diciendo que quiero "construir un estado". E irónicamente, justo al lado está Israel: el vecino que construyó una democracia próspera, una potencia tecnológica, granjas en el desierto, ciudades de polvo. Sin petróleo, sin riqueza infinita, solo coraje. Podría haber aprendido, copiado, colaborado. En cambio, elegí la envidia y la rabia.

Obsesión antijudía. Podría haber aceptado a los judíos como vecinos. Podría haber dicho: "Dos naciones, dos estados". En cambio, repito: "Del río al mar". En lugar de exhibir el honor, la hospitalidad y la rica cultura árabe, mostré solo la cultura de la espada: la ira, el extremismo y la sangre. En lugar de gritar salaam (paz) a los israelíes, grité muerte a los judíos. Y luego finjo sorprenderme cuando los israelíes no confían en mí, cuando están enojados, decepcionados y convencidos de que no quiero coexistencia en absoluto.

Responsabilidad. Culpo a Israel de todo. Siempre. ¿Mis líderes roban miles de millones? Culpa de Israel. ¿Hamás dispara cohetes desde hospitales? Culpa de Israel. ¿Glorifico la muerte más que la vida? Culpa de Israel. La responsabilidad no es mi fuerte.

Soy palestino.
Podría haber construido una nación, muchas veces. Elegí el rechazo, la corrupción y la guerra sin fin. Podría haber vivido en paz con Israel, pero elegí vivir a la sombra de su destrucción.

Así que sí, soy una víctima. Pero con demasiada frecuencia, soy víctima de mis propios líderes, de mis propias decisiones y de mi propia negativa a abandonar el odio.

Y esa, querido lector, es la tragedia que nadie quiere admitir.

[Ray 🇺🇸 ⚓️ @RayOFreedom]

@TheAliceSmith It certainly works

[Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith]

It’s time to stop arguing against socialism on the basis that “it doesn’t work” because that only encourages socialist to add “so far” and try again.

We are against socialism because it is a moral evil, based on theft, lies and violence against the innocent.

[Janet Murray @jan_murray]

I didn’t really get the problem with gender ideology at first.

I’m liberal-minded about most things. ‘Live and let live’ has generally been my motto. I believed in inclusion, kindness and not causing unnecessary offence.

I knew some adults chose medical treatments or surgery to resemble the opposite sex. That seemed to me a matter of personal autonomy. Adults can do what they wish with their own bodies.

What I hadn’t realised — and I feel slightly embarrassed admitting this — was that I’d misunderstood what was being claimed.

I thought “transgender” meant a form of self-expression. A man who liked wearing women’s clothes. Someone changing their name. Gender non-conformity.

What I hadn’t grasped was that some activists weren’t just asking for tolerance. They were asserting that declaring yourself the opposite sex made you the opposite sex. Not metaphorically. Literally.

And that this wasn’t just cultural. It had legal consequences.

It meant men who said they were women were demanding access to women’s sports, prisons, domestic violence shelters and hospital wards.

It meant the rewriting of healthcare language — “pregnant people”, “bodies with cervixes” — to avoid saying “women”.
It meant children struggling with identity being affirmed onto medical pathways with lifelong implications.

And also redefining same-sex attraction. Lesbians called ‘bigoted’ for not wanting relationships with men who identify as women. Gay men accused of prejudice for saying they’re not attracted to female bodies.

I’d also overlooked how deeply this had spread into public institutions, schools and workplaces.

And how easily disagreement was framed as cruelty. Speaking up felt risky — because others were being publicly humiliated for doing so.

None of this is abstract.

Because sex is the basis on which safeguarding works. On which data is collected. On which cancer screening programmes run. On which fair sport and single-sex spaces depend. It’s written into law — including the Equality Act — because material differences matter.

If sex becomes a ‘feeling’ rather than a biological category, those protections become unstable.

And once reality becomes negotiable, everything does.

Once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.

But I needed to be sure.

So I read. Books, research papers, policy documents. When I finally spoke publicly, there was backlash from all directions.

Many women thanked me, while some feminists criticised me for speaking too late.

Others were angry about a past interview I’d done with the parent of a transgender person, accusing me of promoting harm.

It takes courage to speak when you know your reputation, friendships or livelihood may be on the line — when you know raising your voice could strain, or even end, relationships you value.

Once I understood what was at stake, staying silent was no longer an option.

I lost my livelihood simply for saying I didn’t like the phrase “pregnant people”. That alone tells you something is deeply wrong.

It shouldn’t be this way.

I don’t expect praise for admitting it took me far too long to understand what was happening. Or to say so publicly.

I can only be honest about what I believed then and what I understand now.

But it does take courage to admit publicly that you got something wrong. All I hope is that by acknowledging I wasn’t paying enough attention, another woman (or man) might feel emboldened to do the same.

Because, as many of us know first-hand, there can be professional, social and financial consequences to speaking out.

And I won’t pretend I understood something before I did, simply to make myself more acceptable to those who got there sooner.

Which is why I will never judge another woman for how long it takes her to find her voice.

Because every voice matters. Whenever it is raised.

[David Firester, Ph.D. 🇺🇸🇮🇱 @davidfirester]

@bundyscar @IonaItalia I conducted an experiment that explains how the Left can be so supportive of terrorists and other bad actors (book forthcoming): https://t.co/IaIIkl16eM

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

I didn’t think my opinion of Australian judges could get any lower, but alas…

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

One end of the woke spectrum is sensible: Be kind, help people, be generous...

The other end is absurd: learn to spot microaggressions, reject biology in matters of sex, teach people hypersensitivity, never stop virtue posturing, ban any sign of stoicism...encourage people to gain advantage by weaponising weakness...

They're not the same set of ideas

[Thomas Sowell Quotes @ThomasSowell]

“Liberals take positions that make them look good and feel good — and show very little interest in the actual consequences for others, even when liberal policies are leaving havoc in their wake.”

— Thomas Sowell

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

The thing that never happens and could never happen and that only evil people predicted would happen has happened again.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

WOMEN'S
RIGHTS
AREN'T
YOURS
TO
GIVE
AWAY.

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

Men who claim to be women in Australia cannot claim to be oppressed, marginalized or discriminated against. In fact, they hold all the power.

The group that is being discriminated against is women who want woman only spaces, services, sport & lesbianism. We are being discriminated against on the basis of sex.

The judiciary of Australia hasn’t resolved the conflict in law, they have made it blindingly obvious.

50% of the population have been left without legal protections on the basis of sex - the exact thing the sex discrimination act was enacted to uphold.

[The Heretical Liberal 🇨🇦 @Rob_ThaBuilder]

Schrodingers Progressivesism: the current state of the political Left, where society simultaneously knows what a woman is (when a foreign religion demands the women removed from men's spaces) and does NOT know what a woman is (when women demand men be removed from THEIR spaces).

This is not tenable

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I see that Stella Creasy is accusing me of leading a pitchfork mob against her, because I opined that she is less likeable and more hypocritical than the wild parakeet she mistook for an escaped pet.

For those who don’t know, Creasy is an elected politician and self-proclaimed ‘old-fashioned feminist’ who is ‘still fighting the patriarchy’. She’s more than once publicly defined herself against me (and my reaction was not to accuse her of leading a mob, even though I was probably averaging a dozen death threats a day at the point when the article below appeared.)

I thought it might be instructive for those of us who don’t share Creasy’s brand of ‘feminism’ to examine her campaigning record, so we can learn to do better.

Creasy wants women admitted to the male-only, exclusive, London-based private members Garrick Club, a change that would benefit rather privileged women like Creasy. Creasy is a mother who wants better accommodations for working mothers, a change that would benefit Creasy. Creasy takes selfies at a men-only Muslim march because that reminds everyone how non-racist she is, which benefits Creasy. Creasy asserts that ‘trans women are women’, which keeps her in good odour with her party’s most aggressive activists, and benefits Creasy.

However, keeping cross-dressing heterosexual men out of nurses’ changing rooms doesn’t benefit Creasy, because Creasy has never had to mop up other people’s piss, blood and vomit at work. Challenging the notion that a male basketball player becomes a girl if he says he is doesn’t benefit Creasy, who has no sporting ambitions. Speaking up against the patriarchy as practised by non-white men doesn’t benefit Creasy, who wants those selfie-opportunities. Criticising an ideological movement that persecutes, harasses and openly threatens women who don’t believe some women have penises wouldn't benefit Creasy, because she's already fully-signed up to self-id, where any man who says he's a woman must be taken at his word.

As the late Gloria Steinem said: ‘“Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere.’

Creasy the patriarchy-challenger is provably more than happy to cosy up to men and misogynist movements when it suits her public profile and career advancement, no matter the harms those men might be causing less privileged women. By Steinem’s definition, what Stella espouses is not feminism, but Creasyism, and I suggest the emblem for this brave new rights movement should be an indignant parakeet with severely ruffled feathers.

https://t.co/8lvktG2vI6

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

How did a single person fall for this absolute bullsh-t?

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

I am bewildered, and not very impressed, by the visceral, naked, irrational hatred spat out by some defenders of Jason Arday. If a Cambridge professor is accused of being an unqualified charlatan, the accusation might be racially motivated. On the other hand it might not, depending on the evidence. The correct question to ask is not, ”What is the colour of his skin” but “Is it in fact true that he is an unqualified charlatan?” Please examine the evidence before leaping to the assumption of racism.
As for the idea that journalists “piled in on him” and “hounded him to his death”, most attacks were against Cambridge University. Jason himself was widely regarded as an unfortunate victim of foolish promotion way beyond his ability to cope. In appointing him to a professorship for which he was manifestly unqualified – in ludicrously describing him as “the best in the world” – certain senior members of the university showed a level of patronising condescension towards black people that could fairly be described as racism, while at the same time making him tragically vulnerable to such attacks as came his way.

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

Sorry, but I can't ignore all the biologists

[Vivid.🇮🇱 @VividProwess]

One of the most accurate statements I’ve ever read.

[Chairwoman Lisa McClain @RepLisaMcClain]

This is COMMUNISM.
We have history to show exactly what will happen:

1) Gov opens subsidized grocery stores at 30% below cost.
2) Local stores can’t compete and go under. The city store becomes the only option.
3) Shelves go empty. Rationing starts (“2 per customer”). There will be daily rushes, hoarding, and lines around the block.
4) Quality quietly tanks. Wilted produce, thinner cuts, fewer choices.
5) The subsidy bill balloons forever.

You didn’t solve hunger. You just built another Soviet bread line.

[Gays Against Groomers @againstgrmrs]

Puberty is not something anyone consents to. Puberty is something that happens to you, naturally.

Saying children can't consent to puberty is like saying they can't consent to getting a cavity or a scrapped knee.

Children need to go through puberty naturally to develop into healthy adolescents and adults.

“Blocking” it and trying to play God is child abuse. It harms children. The side effects are not reversible, as many claim. Leave the kids alone and let them grow.

#GaysAgainstGroomers