December 05, 2015

Australian feminist gets a man fired for free speech

What the man said was undoubtedly an offence under Australia's hate speech laws and it would be hurtful for most women to be so described.  But if this had happened in the USA, it is probable that the speech would be regarded as protected by the 1st Amendment.  Though a defamation action could succeed if the utterance were held to be a serious claim rather than mere abuse. 

I am not too critical of the outcome for Mr Nolan, however. He should learn some manners and stop abusing people he disagrees with. He will now have learnt that lesson, I assume.  Users of foul language tend to reveal themselves as unpleasant people and Mr Nolan's employers would appear to have seen it that way.

The amusing thing, however, is that they may have fallen foul of Australia's unfair dismissal laws.  Firing a man for a single offence without warning is not normally allowed.  If he puts in a claim Mr Nolan might end up a few thousand dollars in front.

I don't think Ms Ford is beyond criticism in the matter, however. I think feminists are insane.  Any claim that there are no significant inborn differences between men and women betrays a severe lack of reality contact. And a lack of reality contact is the defining feature of insanity.

So if Ms Ford is a feminist in that sense, I claim that she is insane.  Is that as bad as calling her a slut?  Rather worse, I suspect.  But it is a serious and reasoned claim by a Ph.D. psychologist with extensive academic publications on mental health issues so it will be amusing if Ms Ford takes issue with it. If she does not however she would appear to have let the claim stand.

We are often told that fat is a feminist issue too so how is it that the pictures of her in the newspapers show a slim person (as far as we can tell) when her appearances on TV show a woman who is -- dare I say it?  -- FAT.  That seems to me to show a certain hypocrisy




A SYDNEY man as been fired from his job as a hotel manager after calling popular feminist writer and commentator Clementine Ford a ‘sl**’ on Facebook. On Friday, Ms Ford shared a screenshot of her interaction with Michael Nolan with her 80,000 Facebook followers and tagged Mr Nolan’s employer Meriton Apartments in the post.

“I wonder if the folks over at Meriton Apartments are aware that a man listing himself as a supervisor for their business likes to leave comments on women’s Facebook pages calling them sl**s. I wonder if they are also aware that he is a racist,” she wrote. Mr Nolan has posted several racist jokes and memes on his personal Facebook page.

In a statement to Ms Ford, Meriton Apartments said they do not condone Mr Nolan’s behaviour and he has since been let go from his job. “Michael Nolan was removed from the Meriton site on Saturday 28th November pending an investigation, and as of 2:30pm today 30th November 2015, he no longer works for the Meriton Group,” the statement read.

Ms Ford hit back against those who criticised her for getting Mr Nolan fired.  'To anyone who suggests I have caused a man to lose his job, I’d like to say this: He is responsible for his actions. He is responsible for the things he writes and the attitudes he holds. “It is not my responsibility to hold his hand and coddle him when he behaves in an abusive manner just because it might have consequences for him.

SOURCE






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