Heretic TOC

Not the dominant narrative

The non-trivial legacy of Robert Trivers

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Be warned, this one is a blockbuster: just one main blog item, considerably longer than usual and it will help a lot if you put your thinking cap on and take it at a gentle pace. Actually, the ideas involved are fundamentally quite simple but you will need to pay attention if most of this stuff is new to you. What’s it about? It’s a reflection on the work of Robert Trivers, a pioneer of evolutionary psychology who died recently. It’s a discipline often dismissed by Foucault fans (of whom I am one) on what I believe are misconceived grounds. What […]

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Lies, damned lies, and the ‘Epstein files’

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Not one but two princes now metaphorically await their fate in the Tower of London after the sensational arrests of the Andrew formerly known as Prince, and Peter Mandelson, so recently Ambassador to the United States and famously dubbed the Prince of Darkness long before the current scandals. They represent the most elite UK casualties so far in a crisis that could yet see off the current prime minister and threaten the monarchy itself. The precipitating factor has been the whiff of financial, rather than sexual, misdeeds – very serious allegations, actually, that could be said, if true, to have treasonably

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Don’t let Microsoft give you a bricking

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What does Heretic TOC have in common with the International Criminal Court (ICC)? It’s not that I have been indicted for crimes against humanity, although I’m sure there are those who think I should be. Rather, on this occasion I find myself on the victim side of the justice system in common with – amazingly – the court’s judges. The court’s woes began when the infamously infantile US president threw a tantrum against them for upsetting his little playmate Benjamin Netanyahu. As may be recalled, the ICC indicted Israel’s prime minister in November 2024 for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Trump

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Fictional ‘abuse’ goes through the roof

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The figures are amazing and appalling, with huge implications for freedom of expression in the UK. New data released following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that prosecutions for real “child sexual abuse images” in the UK  have fallen by more than half since 2017, even as cases involving purely fictional or AI-generated material have surged to nearly 40% of all image offences. The information is drawn from the CPS Case Management Information System. Who is telling us? The new and ambitious California-based Center for Online Safety and Liberty (COSL). The revelations were announced this week at a webinar to launch

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It’s high time to rethink consent

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The first part of this two-part guest blog by “Marco” appeared under the main heading “Like cutting off my own limb” on 24 September. TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN In the first part of this guest blog, last month, I explained the devastating consequences that repression (self-inflicted) and oppression (exercised by others) of my homosexuality, had on me over the course of my adolescence, leading to several suicide attempts. I also explained that, as an adult, I had been chatting on Grindr with a 13-year-old boy who showed interest in a sexual encounter, and I told of the horrible experience

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Like cutting off my own limb

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Today’s guest blog is by “Marco”, who tells me he is “just a citizen of the world” and that he is “permanently stuck at that stage of life where he can’t help asking ‘why?’ all the time”. This is far too modest. He is not “just” anything. He has a powerful intellect and an impressive career record. This will not be clear from the first part of this two-part blog, which focuses on his early life, but you may in due course feel that evidence of his thoughtfulness emerges strongly in the second part. I AM A SURVIVOR One of the

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Two cheers for ‘barely legal’ Bonnie

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Love it or loathe it, you can’t help but be impressed. The TV documentary 1,000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story, which aired on Channel 4 late last month, told – and discreetly showed – the story of how “adult content creator” Tia Billinger had sex with over a thousand men in a London “event space” in January, in the space of just 12 hours. Wow! I don’t know which is more impressive, the sheer durability of the lady’s lady parts or the men’s required shagging speed, given that on average they would have had no more than 40 seconds

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Cloud looms – but with a silver lining?

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Today’s guest blog is by “Dissident”, a familiar name here as a contributor to the Comments space. A longtime friend of Heretic TOC, “Dissy” has also been several times a guest blogger. He is a freelance editor and professional writer of fiction with a substantial body of published work to his name in several genres, including sci-fi. He is a veteran hebephile activist who has been prominent in GL circles for some 25 years. He has contributed essays on MAP-relevant topics to Newgon wiki and was a longtime poster to GirlChat, where he served a lengthy stint as a moderator. He

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Nice face, shame about the murder

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The little murderer in Adolescence, a 13-year-old boy, is drop-dead gorgeous. Absolutely to die for! Not that his victim thought so. A school classmate, she had spurned his faltering efforts at dating her (“I’m not that desperate”, she told him). Nor is he impressed with his own looks (“I’m ugly”). Humiliated, feeling he will never make it with girls, he confronts her in a carpark. CCTV footage captures him in what seems to be an angry verbal tirade before we see a knife in his hand. He stabs her again and again, killing her in an “incel” fury. The searing emotional

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The world dances to Trump’s tune

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The world has been turned upside down and shaken around with such brutal force and dizzying pace in the few weeks since the start of this year it is hard to know how to start writing about any aspect of public life without the beginning being out of date by the time one has penned the end. Not that this writer uses a pen, but the blogger who favours the longform essay does sometimes feel like a time-traveller from the quill pen age when all the “thinking” and change is being driven by the ultra shortform communicators of X and Truth

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