Notes from the edge of civilization: June 23, 2024
Banned brands; Australia's new Minister of Soy; Oil gluts; Holistic pet health; and more.
Apparently standing up for women’s sports is “offensive” — at least according to TikTok. Last week, the social media site permanently banned a new clothing brand for posting an ad advocating support for biological females in sports. (*GASP)
The brand in question is XX-XY Athletics, started by Jennifer Sey — who is a former elite gymnast. She shared on Twitter that TikTok notified her of the account suspension for non-compliance with their advertising policies.
Here’s the ad that got banned.
“Stand up,” “Be Honest,” “Be Brave,” “Protect women!” Yeah, that’s pretty offensive.
A few weeks ago, Jennifer Sey told us she was “uncancellable,” having endured public derision twice before (once when she wrote a book about pervasive abuse in elite gymnastics and again when she spoke publicly about the harms of COVID school closures).
She’s one of the toughest, smartest women we’ve ever met, so we know she will not just survive this, but thrive because of it. Still, we are sad to see this nascent brand attacked simply because it opposes transgender participation in women's sports. If you’d like to show your support, head over to XX-XY Athletics, browse the collections, and read more about their mission. Watch a clip from our recent interview, below, but we think the whole interview is worth a watch.
While Jennifer Sey works to defend women in sports, Australia has taken a different approach to supporting women. The province of Victoria has declared war on toxic masculinity by naming a first-ever “bad boys” czar. Tim Richardson, a 35-year-old father of two girls and a member of the Victorian legislative assembly since 2014, is taking on the newly created position of “Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change.”
Richardson says his new role will largely focus on combatting the influence of the internet and social media on young men (which sounds a lot like code for censorship).
“We know that the time to act on men’s violence against women is now and it starts with us men and boys,” Richardson said in a May 27 tweet that was deluged with negative comments.
The fact that the government of Victoria already has a Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, Vicki Ward, doesn’t seem to matter. Why miss the chance to make government bigger, right? Australian journalist
had this to say:In Victoria specifically, the performatively progressive Labor Government has driven the state into a debt crisis which it intends to tax its way out of, while shrugging off numerous corruption allegations and failing to take accountability for any of the harms incurred by its world-famous draconian Covid response, including egregious human rights violations. While claiming to want to protect women, the Victorian Government has also facilitated self-ID laws that allow men to enter womens’ safe spaces if they say they’re a woman.
A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) claims that slowing demand and surging oil supply could result in a major surplus by the end of this decade. IEA Executive Director, Fatih Birol, warns oil companies to “make sure their business strategies and plans are prepared for the changes taking place.”
While the agency admits that demand will still be strong in fast-growing economies in Asia, as well as from the aviation and petrochemicals sectors, it predicts those gains will increasingly be offset by rising electric car sales in the Global North, as well as fuel efficiency improvements in conventional vehicles, and declining oil consumption in the Middle East.
In reality, demand for EVs is plunging in both the US and Europe. The EV share of total US new-vehicle sales in Q1 2024 was only 7.3%, a decrease from Q4 2023, according to Cox Automotive. In Europe, sales of new EVs dropped 12% in May from a year earlier, led by a 30% plunge in Germany, the EU’s largest EV market.
Meanwhile, people in emerging economies are going to increasingly need energy to power their homes, charge their phones, refrigerate their food, and keep cool in rising temperatures. As our recent podcast guest
explains, increased access to energy is the path out of poverty, especially for the billions of people across the developing world who continue to use harmful biomass fuels like charcoal, coal, and animal waste for fuel.Here’s what the “Carbon King” had to say about the future of energy:
For all you “conspiracy theorists” out there, here’s something to watch for this week: Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie is hosting a hearing on Wednesday, June 26, to explore the actions of the FDA during the approval of the COVID “vaccines”. House hearings are broadcast live here.
If you love your pets like we do, don’t forget to sign up for our upcoming webinar on holistic pet health, with homeopathic veterinarian
. (Plus, send along your good vibes to Dr. Falconer as he recovers from a bout of giardia!) Have a great week!