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Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

The handle is a bit off-putting, but this is an interesting thread about one man's journey through the incel/conspiracist/misogynist rabbit hole and back again.

The Axe Murderer @axe1975.bsky.social · Feb 26

I thought the “socially awkward white male nerd to fascist pipeline” was sufficiently obvious in 2017 as to not require further elaboration. But considering these guys are not only still around but more active than ever, I clearly was wrong about that.

I went down that pipeline and came back. A 🧵

December 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Lee

@leewilliamdesigns.bsky.social

I was reading an interesting post on FB about the GG and WI situation. Essentially both have been secretly fighting legal action from anti trans groups for a little while and they can’t afford to continue, according to the post. Well funded TERFs are forcing their hand.

G Sabini-Roberts • Follow
...
1h • Q
I need to drop a post here today to expand on the goings on yesterday. Yes, the decisions by Girlguiding and the Women's Institute are awful, but yesterday, as the dust settled and more information leaked out, a different picture started to form.
It's important we all understand that new picture so then the righteous anger we all feel can be directed where it actually needs to go.
We now know that both GG and WI have been fighting legal battles behind the scenes from attacks by the small but very well funded and vicious anti-trans lobby for some time. Neither organisation has talked publicly about this. I wonder if, at this point, they can't.
In both cases, they have now reached a David Vs Goliath moment whereby if they continued to try and fight those legal battles, they as organisations would cease to exist. They would have to put everything into those fights. Fights that they may even win, eventually, because the law on this is still untested and we are still awaiting the outcome of the initial legal challenges against the EHRC back in April. But it would be a long and very expensive fight.
You can't win a fight if the fight itself would take more than you have. Regardless of right or wrong.

Both these women's organisations do a lot of essential work providing community and support for thousands of women and girls. They have both, yesterday, been forced to bend to the legal challenges they are facing because to continue would mean they could no longer support anyone. And they are, both, working hard to try and find 'alternative' ways to support trans women and girls as a way to keep doing their work in a way that isn't going to kill them in legal fees to fight a vicious and entirely unnecessary attack.
And, like I explained yesterday, actually enforcing their new rulings is all kinds of problematic and they don't know how they will do it yet.
The way they have gone about communicating those decisions and managing the fallout could have been done infinitely better, true. There are huge lessons to be learned on all of that. But again, they can only learn those lessons if they can stay alive long enough.
So if you're writing to your MP, or going to a protest, or discussing this with others and explaining why this is all happening, it's not the organisations that we should be directing our anger at. Or the majority of it anyway.
It's the anti-trans lobby.
It's she who must not be named.

It's the people who, for some still unknown reason, believe passionately that excluding trans women and girls from women's spaces - where they have happily been an unremarkable part of the community for decades - is more important than keeping organisations that support women alive. They believe cis women are safer alone, isolated, with no support network than they are by sharing a village hall with a trans woman.
So what do we do now?
We lead with that message.
If we withdraw from those spaces we make sure that it is known why so we contribute to the evidence gathering showing that the decision to exclude trans women and girls is not a 'proportionate' means to ensuring all girls get the support they need. Because by going so, the membership leaves in droves, leaders step down, groups close. Excluding trans women and girls means that everyone loses.
We need that evidence. I'll pop some stuff in the comments to things you can contribute to as I come across it.

We need to spread this message. Because yesterday,
'Girlguiding/WI is bad' was an easy headline. Today we know it's far more nuanced. The more people who understand that the less we get drawn into a fighting each other and can collectively focus on fighting that small, angry but very rich minority who have decided that their hate is the only way forward. And sometimes their actions do a very good job of making the rest of us fight each other before recognising it's them who are the real problem.
I'm certain that if those legal challenges were withdrawn, both organisations would revert back to being trans inclusive immediately.
So let's work to make that happen.

December 4, 2025 at 1:12 PM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

pseudonymity enjoyer

@ulycia.bsky.social

i hope every single person who still buys harry potter merch or engages with that franchise is happy that they're literally making girl guides cry

girl guides uk have been forced very much against their will to exclude trans girls. full statement is here: www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-...

This update includes information you may find upsetting. Please take care when reading.
From today, it is with a heavy heart that we announce trans girls will no longer be able to join Girlguiding. This is a decision we would have preferred not to make, and we know that this may be upsetting for members of our community.
There will be no immediate changes for current young members, but more information will be shared soon. Most adult roles - including unit helpers, district helpers and administrative support - are already open to all, so we are confident that no volunteers will have to leave the organisation.
Girlguiding believes strongly in inclusion, and we will continue to support young people and adults in marginalised groups. Over the next few months, we will explore opportunities to champion this value and actively support young people who need us.
We stand in solidarity with trans girls and women.

December 2, 2025 at 2:33 PM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Dan Harmon

@danharmon.bsky.social

Hi I’m Davibrimbaum, brother of Celebrimbor, I was Supervisor on Sauron’s Ring Project which included the forging and distribution of 19 rings and the “Ring of Power” which controlled them all, ask me anything

August 12, 2025 at 5:25 AM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

Ably translated by Trevor and Simon as "Large Door" — a sister film to Buñuel's "Un Chien Andalou" ("A Dog and a Toilet").

𝚂𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚘𝚌𝚘𝚕 @2ndaryprotocol.bsky.social · 10d

Director Luis Buñuel’s surreal satire L’AGE D’OR (aka ‘The Golden Age’ • ‘Age Of Gold’) starring Gaston Modot and Lay Lys opened in cinemas in France 95 years ago this week 🦂 💞 💋 #OTD

December 2, 2025 at 7:52 AM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Climate News

@climatenews.bsky.social

Please watch this important new video from Youtube channel “Just Have a Think”.

This is not the video I had planned to make.

YouTube video by Just Have a Think

youtu.be

November 30, 2025 at 7:38 PM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Helen Czerski

@helenczerski.bsky.social

Imagine showing a petrol engine to someone who had only known electric vehicles, and trying to convince them to switch to petrol. No-one would choose the dirty, noisy, less efficient, more expensive vehicle. This isn't 1910, hostage to gender insecurity. We can just choose the better tech.

November 28, 2025 at 2:31 PM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Danie Ware

@danacea.bsky.social

If you read one #Bookseller article: read this:

www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...

Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book

Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.

www.thebookseller.com

November 25, 2025 at 11:01 AM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

You do? Oh, that's wonderful! Can you keep it for me? My name... yes, it's: J R R Tolkien.

J R R Tolkien smoking a pipe and smiling, evidently having been impressed by the Yellow Pages.

November 25, 2025 at 12:42 PM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

Attention @bezza.bsky.social !

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 17d

It’s the TALK OF THE TOWN this morning. It’s amazing.

November 25, 2025 at 9:36 AM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

Squee! Kennedy Fisher is on the case!
#thelovecraftinvestigations

Jana Carpenter @maybeitwasutah.bsky.social · 18d

And what the hell is this?!

November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Simon Pegg

@simonpegg.bsky.social

Remembering that time the late Queen set off from the Shire to take a ring to Mordor.

November 21, 2025 at 11:26 PM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Carter 🏳️‍🌈

@riayn.bsky.social

For those of you in the UK, especially if you are a UK citizen, can you please take part in the consultation on changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain (Settlement) that were just proposed by the UK government. We need as many people as possible to reject these proposals. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Earned settlement

The government is consulting on how the current settlement system should be reformed and how those reforms should be implemented.

www.gov.uk

November 21, 2025 at 11:13 AM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

I think @dieworkwear.bsky.social might have a thing or two to say about him...
Also, was I the only person who thought Ukraine rather than Texas when they heard 'Odessa'?

Texas Paul @realtexaspaul.com · 28d

Meet Bubba Saulsbury, son of Odessa oil industry magnate Dick Saulsbury. Also friend to Kash Patel and JD Vance. This is who the Epstein felatio email is rumored to be referring to. Not Bill Clinton.

November 15, 2025 at 1:07 PM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

Michael cAIne

Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · Nov 11

Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine have inked deals for AI-generated versions of their voices with ElevenLabs

November 11, 2025 at 10:02 PM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

This is a tremendous piece.

Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · Nov 8

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers

James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

www.statnews.com

November 9, 2025 at 7:37 AM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Brittany Trang

@brittanytrang.com

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers

James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

www.statnews.com

November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

And don't forget his Sterling work on Bill Evans' "At the Montreux Jazz Festival".
youtu.be/rQUxyyzgvBo?...

October 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

Here's a link to an excellent, practical piece on Internet security. Read it!

Codfather #FBPE 🇫🇷🇪🇺 @codfather.bsky.social · Jan 4

Cods Plaice: Staying safe on the Web - what can I do to make my browsing safer. Important notes for every web device.

codsplaice.blogspot.com/2019/03/stay...

October 25, 2025 at 11:08 AM

Phantom Corsair

@phantomcorsair.bsky.social

Me doing today's Clues By Sam.

The 'Murder Board' meme - a manic-looking man in chinos, a short-sleeved shirt and striped tie gesticulating in front of a wall covered in notes, photos and red tape.
It's actually a scene from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia"

October 25, 2025 at 6:40 AM

Reposted by Phantom Corsair

Johnny Mains

@johnnymains.co.uk

Dec 18th at 7pm I'll be reading from ILLUSIONS OF PRESENCE, chatting about editing anthologies and ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS (within reason and taste 😉) - tickets are £8.83 (cushion admin and fees).

I'd love to see you there, please reskeet far and wide!

www.eventbrite.com/e/illusions-...

October 15, 2025 at 2:27 PM