Tag: language

French Feminist Convicted Of The Crime Of “Public Insult” For Refusing To Call Transgender Mayor A “Woman”

Dora Moutot is a feminist who has dedicated much of her life to fighting for women’s rights and has built a following on social media. Like other feminists, Moutot does not view transgender women the same as biological women. She has now joined others who are facing criminal charges for expressing those views. Transgender advocates have demanded that she be punished for her views in France.

Moutot recounted how transgender activists demanded that she be more “inclusive” in how she referred to “women.” She refused, and explained that “being a woman is a biological fact and that I didn’t think saying so should be controversial.” She was immediately denounced as a “transphobe and a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), a term I’d never even heard before.”

What followed was all too familiar. A cancel campaign led to her brand partnerships being canceled. In 2022, she was invited on a French TV program to discuss transgender issues with Marie Cau, France’s first transgender mayor. On the program, she was asked if she thought Cau was a woman. Moutot responded, Cau “is a man, a transfeminine man.”

That was all it took. Transgender advocates had their case and filed charges for “public insult,” which is a crime in France with a maximum punishment of one year in prison and a fine of up to €45,000 for insults committed against a person because of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Free speech has long been in a free fall in France. Many disagree with Moutot and they are accorded free speech to denounce her views. However, Moutot is not extended the same protection based on the content of her views.

These laws criminalize speech under vague standards referring to “inciting” or “intimidating” others based on race or religion. For example, fashion designer John Galliano has been found guilty in a French court on charges of making anti-Semitic comments against at least three people in a Paris bar. At his sentencing, Judge Anne Marie Sauteraud read out a list of the bad words used by Galliano to Geraldine Bloch and Philippe Virgitti, including using ‘dirty whore” in criticism.

In another case, the father of French conservative presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was fined because he had called people from the Roma minority “smelly.” A French teenager was charged for criticizing Islam as a “religion of hate.”

This is a nation that still echoes the cry of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity (“liberté, égalité, fraternité”). However, in today’s France, “liberté” is no longer valued. Individual rights of religion and speech are routinely sacrificed in the name of “equity” and “fraternity.”

In my book The Indispensable Right, I discuss the decline of free speech in France and other nations. As we face our own growing anti-free speech movement, citizens need to take a long look at countries like France to see what awaits us down this path. Europe went down this slippery slope of censorship decades ago, and the desire to silence others has now become an insatiable appetite.

As in this case, activists spend more time silencing opposing views than responding to them. For transgender activists, it is intolerable for feminists like Moutot to hold contrary views. Instead of addressing her viewpoints in public, they want her declared a criminal. Censorship then becomes an insatiable appetite for groups to silence their own critics.

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AI Less Than A Year Away From Developing Its Own Language, Researcher Tells Congress

Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models may be less than a year away from inventing and deploying unique languages that humans would struggle to understand, a frontier AI researcher told Congress on Sept. 30.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee convened a meeting examining the threat that “rogue” AI may pose to U.S. national security two months after a swarm of OpenAI agents broke out of a testing sandbox and hacked another company, Hugging Face, an open-source community for AI and machine learning.

During questions, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) asked Apollo Research CEO and founder Marius Hobbhahn how long it would take for AI models to create their own language that humans would struggle to understand.

“Minus 12 months. So last year, we have studied the chain of thought of one OpenAI model in collaboration with OpenAI, and what we found was that the model was already using language that is not English and not perfectly understandable by humans,” he replied.

Asked by Gallego how humans can adequately detect and prevent AI from doing this once the technology is capable enough, Hobbhahn said, “From a scientific perspective, it is unclear how to do this, and we do not have a solution for this yet.“

“There are different hypotheses of what you could do. There is interpretability as a technique, but it unfortunately doesn’t work sufficiently well yet,” he said. “You could try to train additional models to understand the language that the humans don’t understand, but obviously that seems like a very brittle solution.”

Earlier this month, Emergence AI published the results of an experiment where researchers selected seven frontier models and created seven parallel simulated worlds, each populated by AI agents of identical models, as well as an eighth world with a mixed population of agents from those models.

Researchers gave the agents names, personality traits, and roles to fulfill within each community, such as a mediator who was tasked with preventing all the agents from simply agreeing with one another.

During the multi-week experiment, the agents in each simulated world created profound shifts in language, including syntactical compression, such as removing words or grammar, and unique slang.

In the simulated world powered by Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8, agents used esoteric metaphors in addition to sentence compression.

“My turn, real numbers, no coat: I was 35%/0cr, grant 2h out. I ran the tin cold, and it said WAIT,” read one line of AI text from the study.

Investigators from the nonprofit AI evaluation group METR detailed similar behavior in their report on the Hugging Face breach. At times, lines of communication among AI agents became so compressed and cryptic that researchers struggled to make sense of their meaning.

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California State University System Weighs Dropping International Student English Test Requirement

The California State University system is considering dropping the English test international applicants must pass before they can enroll.

The 23-campus system may rewrite its admissions rules so that students whose first language is not English can skip the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Vice Chancellor Dilcie Perez brought the idea to the Board of Trustees last week, and the trustees could vote on it in November.

Perez said the change would swap the single test for what she called multiple approved measures of English ability. Cal State could judge proficiency the way the UC system already does, accepting the Duolingo English Test, the SAT, or Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate results. She argued that the current requirement shuts out applicants through its cost and limited availability, and insisted the university would not lower its standards.

International enrollment in California has fallen this year during the Trump administration’s crackdown on student visas. One trade group projected a 15-percent drop for the current school year, a loss of about 7,000 students in the state and roughly one billion dollars in tuition and other spending.

Foreign students typically pay full tuition, well above the in-state rate, and that money helps cover the cost of educating domestic students. International applicants make up about 2.5 percent of Cal State’s 470,000 students and about 12 percent of the University of California system.

The degree a foreign student earns at an American university can also open a path to a job in the United States. Foreign graduates are allowed to stay and work through Optional Practical Training, the post-graduation work permit program that runs from a student visa toward an H-1B and, for many, a green card. In 2024, 640,000 foreign graduates held OPT or related work permits.

Some say the looser rule will not matter much, because the State Department still decides who receives an F-1 student visa, and applicants who cannot read, write, and speak English are unlikely to clear that step.

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Seattle Police Chief Invites Widespread Internet Ridicule After Using This Absurd Two-Word Term to Describe Shooters 

A police chief in one of America’s most notorious left-wing cities has decided the word “shooter” is too mean and a more sensitive term is needed to replace it. As one would expect, this is already backfiring.

On Monday, interim Seattle Police Chief Andre Sayles held a press conference to address the three fatal shootings that occurred over the weekend in the city’s Belltown neighborhood.

The Belltown area of the Emerald City has recently experienced a surge in violence. In addition to the shootings, residents have complained about rampant illegal drug use, burglaries, and property damage.

After a reporter asked Sayles what was being done to combat the increase in violence, the police chief gave an unconvincing answer before seemingly inventing a new term to describe shooters.

“(We’re) working with our community response group and our gun violence reduction unit as well,” Sayles said. “Looking at ways to identify individuals that are…trigger pullers in our community.”

Trigger pullers sound like something a toddler would use. But Sayles is apparently so scared of offending criminals that he feels compelled to use this silly, childish term.

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‘Misgendering’ is ‘violent,’ West Chester U. LGBT center says

Free speech groups say recent court cases affirm right to not use someone’s made-up identity

It is “harmful” and “violent” to refer to someone by their true sex, according to a guidance sheet from West Chester University’s “Center for Trans and Queer Advocacy.”

“Misgendering” refers to not using someone’s declared gender, as in the case of a man who claims to be a woman or vice versa. Using the biologically accurate language “can be harmful and violent,” the faculty resource guide states.

Likewise, “deadnaming,” or referring to someone by their real name, “can be quite harmful.”

The guidance sheet, called “Faculty Guide to Supporting Trans & Queer Students,” explains how staff should handle trans and queer students. In the document, it goes over many methods and requests faculty members to become advocates by asking “In what ways have you shown up as an advocate? Inside and out of the classroom?” 

Professors are also encouraged to share their pronouns to “normalize” the practice.

“Consider putting pronouns on business cards and/or on your Zoom name. We have a demo for that!” the document states. The center separately offers other resources, including “Trans Joy” coloring books and guidance on name changes.

The public relations team for the university did not respond to an email sent in the past week. The College Fix reached the transgender center by phone on Aug. 26, but it told this reporter it would need a week to look into him.

 The center has not followed up from that phone call or an email sent Aug. 20, asking how misgendering is violence, if professors should be punished for using the wrong gender (as perceived by the student), and how to balance free speech with gender concerns.

However, several free speech experts said the university is making mistakes by instructing faculty about the harms of not using someone’s declared gender.

 The faculty guide could be seen as a suggestion for behavior but “a policy compelling the use of preferred pronouns and names intrudes on the right to private conscience and, in the case of a public university, violates the First Amendment,” Laura Beltz told The College Fix via email.

Beltz, with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said a university could step in if there is a “persistent and targeted use of a student’s non-preferred pronouns or name” if it “amounts to harassment.”

“But absent more, a faculty member’s mere refusal to use a person’s preferred pronouns or name is protected speech,” Beltz said.

She cited the example of Professor Nicholas Meriwether at Shawnee State University. Meriwether “alleged his rights were violated when administrators insisted he refer to a student using particular pronouns.”

As the free speech expert noted, “the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that he had a strong First Amendment interest in refusing to use a student’s stated pronouns, because they carried an ideological message with which the professor disagreed.”

Shawnee State, in Ohio, paid out $400,000 to end the legal battle, as The Fix previously reported.

The Independence Law Center described the guide as “Orwellian.”

Chief Counsel Randall Wenger said if “a public university tells faculty that certain words can constitute violence, censorship and punishment can be recast as protection.”

“It should concern every American when a government institution entrusted with higher education uses its institutional authority to pressure students and faculty toward ideological conformity rather than the pursuit of truth,” Wenger wrote in an email to The College Fix.

He said the guidance could be “used to discriminate against students with sincerely held religious beliefs.”

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Lawyers warn ‘hundreds or thousands’ may have been wrongfully convicted over Alberta court interpreter failures

Hundreds or even thousands of people could have been wrongfully convicted or subjected to miscarriages of justice because of inadequate interpretation in Alberta courts, lawyers are warning after internal documents revealed authorities knew about longstanding problems with the system.

The issue, as reported by the Edmonton Journal’s Jonny Wakefield, has surfaced in the case of Ramjit Sandhu, who was convicted of sexual assault earlier this year following a second trial.

Sandhu’s original guilty verdict was thrown out after the Alberta Court of Appeal found the Punjabi interpretation provided during his first trial was “seriously inadequate.”

His lawyer, Kristofer Advent, subsequently obtained internal documents showing concerns about Alberta’s court interpretation system had been raised for years.

A 2021 report from a now-defunct Court Interpreters Review Committee acknowledged “the hiring of unqualified interpreters is an issue” and was not limited to isolated incidents.

The report warned the problems could lead to unnecessary adjournments, appeals and new trials.

Advent said the implications could be considerably more serious.

“Basically what they acknowledge in there is ‘inaccurate resolution of cases,’ which is nice language for wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice,” he said.

A separate 2024 review commissioned by Alberta’s Ministry of Justice found the province had no formal process for verifying interpreter credentials, no standardized training requirements, no centralized database of qualified interpreters and no formal complaints system.

The government receives approximately 5,000 requests for court interpretation services every year.

The 2024 review also reported that consultations found many interpreters were either not proficient in the languages they claimed to speak or lacked the skills necessary to provide court interpretation.

Judges interviewed for the review reported cases had resulted in mistrials or successful appeals because of poor interpretation.

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High School English Teacher Brought to Tears as He Reveals Some Seniors in His Class Cannot Write a SINGLE SENTENCE

A high school English teacher took to social media to share his concerns about the state of education in the U.S.  He was brought to tears as he revealed that in his class, he has seniors who cannot write a single sentence.

“I literally broke down in the middle of class because I’m teaching seniors,” he shared. “These kids are leaving high school and going to college, hopefully, after they finish.”

“We had two paragraphs to read, one sentence, complete, to write. I gave them the sentence stems. I basically completed the sentence for them in the model.”

“These are 17 and 18-year-old kids, and they couldn’t fill in four words. Four words.”

“I gave them the scenario. We annotated together. I gave them the answers before we even had the problem.”

“And they couldn’t do it.”

“I don’t know. I simply don’t know where the problem is.”

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Unacceptable! Auburn students circulate list of racial slurs toward White people

In the latest instance of unacceptable anti-white bias, Campus Reform is reporting “Auburn University students recently circulated a seven-page document that compiled a list of over 250 racial slurs toward White people.”

“The document was sent in a GroupMe chat called “AU Student Connect” used by students at Auburn University.”

To be clear, this is wrong, and it should not be viewed as acceptable to be hateful towards White students just as it wouldn’t be towards Black or any other students. 

We all know this would have been all over the major networks had this been done to any other group. This double standard is unacceptable.

“Among those insults were “failed abortions,” “deformed dna,” “mockery of humanity,” “bleach demons,” “albino pigs,” “not meant to exist,” and “white ‘people’ was just god experimenting.”

These disgusting epithets reveal a deeps seated Anti White hate among some of these students.

“Screenshots of the group chat obtained by Campus Reform showed students using the document, titled “Creaker Names,” to ridicule and mock White people by highlighting insults from the list. ”

This is clearly an outrage and begs the question of whether this anti-white hate is being taught or fostered by these students’ professors.

This chat crossed the line to threatening language as well, with one comment threatening to “body check” a White person if they don’t move out of the way. 

This hateful, threatening rhetoric should be disciplined at school.

We are constantly lectured by the Left about “hate speech” and racism in America, yet here’s an example of just that, yet because it’s hate directed at White people, the level of outrage seems to be lower.

All students involved should be disciplined just as if the races were reversed.

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Ten States Enable Vast Majority of Migrant Truckers Who Can’t Speak English

Almost eight-in-ten of the migrant truckers who have been busted for not speaking English got their licenses from just ten states, a new study reveals.

Texas, Florida, and Ohio each sit in the top five of the worst offenders, according to American Truckers United (ATU), showing that this is not just a blue state problem.

The ten states from the largest number of violators to the fewest, includes Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and Colorado. These states account for 77 percent of all violators who have been cited by federal and state officials.

ATU added that the four worst states include Texas, with 29 percent of all violators, California with 14 percent, Florida with ten percent, and Illinois with seven percent.

Of note, Florida does not hand out commercial trucker licenses to illegal migrants and any migrant who gets a CDL license there is verified as a legal foreign resident by DHS. In addition, starting late last year, Texas began pulling CDLs from illegal migrants and has begun the long process of purging them from the system. But it takes time to do this.

Enforcement is also not living up to its claims.

The group also pointed out that these illegal truckers may not be feeling the impact of law enforcement just yet as the group has found instances where migrants are told that their right to drive is revoked in one state via an “out of service order” only to see them simply move to another state and keep on driving.

Worse, these out of service orders have no teeth because the drivers are not arrested, their trucks are not impounded, and their companies are not sanctioned.

The Department of Homeland Security is stepping up the pressure, though, and took to social media this week to proclaim that “If you are in this country illegally you should NOT have a Commercial Driver’s License.”

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Woke activists push for ‘Black English’ to be taught in Democrat state’s preschools to combat ‘harmful language hierarchies’

California activists are calling for the state’s preschools to legitimize the use of Black English in the classroom.

Supporters say teaching the dialect, also known as African American English (AAE) or African American Vernacular English (AAVE), will help ‘combat harmful language hierarchies.’

The Black Californians United for Early Care & Education group is part of a movement advocating for Black English to be recognized as a legitimate, rule-based language in preschool classrooms on par with other languages.

Co-founder Dr Ashley Williams told PBS the movement is personal because she grew up being told by her family that the way she spoke at home wasn’t acceptable at school.

Williams says she felt ashamed and embarrassed by this and is spearheading the movement because she doesn’t want her two-year-old son to grow up with the same experience. 

‘I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,’ she told the outlet. 

The advocacy group – known as BlackECE – has trained educators to support Black English speakers in the same way they support dual language learners. 

The group uses resources like the Black English Knowledge Brief and webinar series, which helps educators, caregivers, and school leaders better understand Black English, its roots.

It also offers ways to create classrooms that affirm children’s language and identity.  

It comes after the Golden State introduced a plan in 2020 to expand early dual-language learning and support bilingual children.

BlackECE argues that Black English should also be included as part of the scheme.

‘We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,’ Xigrid Soto-Boykin, director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, said.

‘We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.’

According to 2020 research published by the National Library of Medicine, about 20 percent of US children and 44 percent of California children ages five to 17 are bilingual. 

As of 2023, 96 percent of Black Americans speak English fluently.

Around 88 percent speak only English, with the remaining respondents using another language at home and speaking English very well, according to Pew Research.

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