One of the U.K.’s most insignificant institutions of public learning, North Hertfordshire Museum, has just gained some easy free publicity for itself by arbitrarily relabelling a display about the Roman Emperor Elagabalus with female pronouns, as he was supposedly now suddenly a “trans woman”.
Despite actually being called Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, certain classical texts claim Elagabalus once said “call me not Lord, for I am a Lady” (shades of Little Britannia) and that he was ‘married’ to a male former chariot driver named Hiercoles, towards whom Elagabalus “was termed wife, mistress and queen” – actually a probable euphemism meaning he felt it was better to receive than to give in certain private conjugal matters, a matter of shame in ancient Roman society.
Stories about Elagabalus’s ostensible gender dysphoria and cross-dressing, drawn from contemporary sources like the hostile Roman historian Dio Cassius, do seem on the surface rather suggestive. One time he is said to have offered half the Empire to any surgeon who could successfully chop off his manhood and replace it with its female equivalent instead; gladiators desperate to escape from the Circus Maximus must have begun sharpening their swords with glee.
Accordingly, after consulting with those noted classical historians at Stonewall to ensure its displays were “as up-to-date and inclusive as possible”, North Herts Museum decided to update its labels with the pronouns she/her when referring to Elagabalus, before placing a silver coin bearing his image into its “LGBTQ collection” alongside all the Renaissance rainbow flags and Stone-Age dildos.
The Glory-Hole That Was Rome
Surprisingly, the usually transphilic BBC bothered to ask a Cambridge University Classics professor, Dr. Shushma Malik, about this, who told it the whole idea was very probably just a piece of ancient propaganda:
The historians we use to try and understand the life of Elagabalus are extremely hostile towards him, and therefore cannot be taken at face value… There are many examples in Roman literature of times where effeminate language and words were used as a way of criticising or weakening a political figure. References to Elagabalus wearing make-up, wigs and removing body hair may have been written in order to undermine the unpopular emperor.
According to this interpretation, angered by his injudicious attempts to import worship of a foreign Sun-god into the Roman pantheon, enemies of Elagabalus’s day probably wished to make the boy-Emperor (he was assassinated aged only 18) look like a mentally ill degenerate, and so perhaps chose to falsely depict him as a transvestite to discredit his memory forever. Indeed, the only thing the average person today ‘knows’ about Elagabalus is that he supposedly had his guests at a banquet pointlessly killed by slowly suffocating them all with a never-ending rain of rose-petals, as famously depicted in an 1888 painting by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (see above).
This being clearly the campest atrocity ever committed, surely Elagabalus – let’s just call him ‘Ellie’, it’s what she would have wanted – was indeed highly SPQueeR? Apparently not. According to most historians, the rose-petal story was every bit as false as the idea he was a kind of classical Dylan Mulvaney.
However, councillor Keith Hoskins, an arts official on North Herts Council, clearly felt he knew better than the experts, something politicians these days generally decry amongst the general electorate, but very rarely amongst themselves. Said Keith: “We know that Elagabalus identified as a woman and was explicit about which pronouns to use, which shows that pronouns are not a new thing.” Right. So what’s the Latin for ‘xe’, ‘zin’ or ‘zir’, then?
Fiddling With Themselves While Rome Burns
Might depictions of Ellie in ancient statuary or on old Roman coins help settle the issue? Perhaps the coin containing an image of Elagabalus in North Hertfordshire Museum’s LGBTQ wing shows him/her wearing a polka-dot dress with a bow in his hair like Minnie Mouse (or ‘Minimus’, maybe)? No.
Regrettably, all known such depictions show a young man wearing male clothing, with a male hairstyle (here’s a very telling modern-day CGI facial reconstruction performed using just such a source – do note his sideburns and wispy teen ‘tache). Admittedly, they don’t specifically depict his male genitalia too, but then neither do our own Royal Mint’s new pound coins of King Charles.
Yet, to many a queer solipsist today, absence of evidence does not necessarily mean evidence of absence, as I have shown previously elsewhere (see here, here and here). Elagabalus has long been a trans icon for the terminally deluded, leading to bizarre conclusions about the Emperor/Empress’s iconography such as the following, taken from U.S. gay pseudo-history website OutHistory:
The statuary… shows a young man with hair cut in classic Roman style and thus seems designed to placate those of traditional feelings as it showed the young ruler as being similar in appearance to… other Roman emperors. Some historians use this lack of archaeological evidence to claim that Elagabalus’s cross-gender behaviour was greatly exaggerated or even simply made up to smear her (sic). I think it is just as plausible that the fact that only gender-normative visual records of Elagabalus survive shows that her sexual and gender variance was disapproved of and often hidden and can lead one to suppose that only images more respectable to Ancient Roman values were preserved, while evidence of cross-gender behaviour was effaced.
That’s right, there are no surviving contemporary images of moustachioed Mr. Elagabalus dressing or behaving in any way like a girl (toga aside, naturally). This therefore proves that he did dress and act like one all the more, as it can only mean that transphobic ancient Roman iconoclasts at the time deliberately destroyed them all to cover this inconvenient fact up – whilst at the same time neglecting to burn all the defamatory propaganda-parchments of Dio Cassius et al. responsible for spreading the whole probable myth in the first place.
This whole fake debate is quite clearly anachronistic to the nth degree. These archaeological activists should learn that, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’. Instead, they seem much more determined to force the ancient Romans to do as they do.
Steven Tucker is a journalist and the author of over 10 books, the latest being Hitler’s and Stalin’s Misuse of Science: When Science Fiction Was Turned Into Science Fact by the Nazis and the Soviets, which is out now.
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There is a strange increase in the reactions of people – the more their cherished beliefs or desires are shown to be at variance with facts – the more fanatical they become.
Applies to:
Trump
Brexit
Global Warming – or at least the idea that carbon dioxide is the sole driver of climate change despite ever more evidence that it has little, if any, effect on the planet’s climate.
–
The world is Topsy Turvy and I wish to be buried upside down, so that I will be the right way up when the world has sorted itself out.
Don’t forget Covid!
“People who make the rules made a rule which said nobody – not even they themselves – could break the rule so that means the rule was not broken because they said so, so there.”
If nothing makes sense, it’s usually money wot did it.
Eugyppius has some substantial reservations regarding Hersh’s article too.
Why is it so difficult to believe an underwater device could survive 3 months? Flight data recorders carry on transmiitting underwater for 90 days. An explosive device would need only enough power to pick up the detonation signal and to detonate the charge.
The legal argument is predicated on the assumption that those involved are honest and honourable, and as we know politicians and those in the security services are the epitomy of honour and honesty. It seems a bit like defending a criminal on the grounds that he knows crime is illegal so why would he commit one?
If the start assumption is that the people in power will violate the rules, anyway, the whole maneuvering to avoid doing so described in the Hersh-article could have been avoided by simply violating the rules.
Why did the US try to get a resolution passed in the UN to invade Iraq if they were going to do it anyway?
Why is it so difficult to believe an underwater device could survive 3 months?
Indeed. In fact such a device would be very simple to design and construct. There may even be off-the-shelf versions available.
“The legal argument is predicated on the assumption that those involved are honest and honourable”
The C1984 was authorised despite every law and rule in the damned world being broken.
“Rule of law?”
Give me a break – Jeez!
I seem to remember that the West has instituted a “rules based order” because the “international law based order” doesn’t get us what we want. But it’s still useful to wave the law flag bacause Joe Public has not been told about the new rules.
That sums it up.
Agreed. The Baltic at this site is not particularly cold or deep. 67m give or take a few metres. and bottom temperatures in June will be about +3degC. Thermoclines capable of accoustically masking a submarine are improbable in these shallow depths.
Presumably it would be a fairly straightforward technical matter, given US resources, to get an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) to do the job, which could be launched from many miles away.
I spoke to a merchant navy guy who does underwater engineering/maintenance stuff, and he said yes they’d use an ROV. But I’m not sure. For one thing, Russia has sonar sensors on those pipes (but I suppose there could be stealthy ROVs). Another thing is that Sweden has said these were larger, non-precision bombs that were placed near the pipes, not on them, so they could have been dropped from a ship (or perhaps a sub). In fact, the pipes are so vulnerable that anyone with some explosives and a small boat (no transponder) could have done it and probably got away with it. There’s an NYT article with a few more details. Maybe we’ll never know for sure who did it.
I think an AUV would be more likely than an ROV (which would be tethered to the mother vessel and have very limited range, thus necessitating the mother vessel to loiter over the site while the explosives were being laid. I agree with RichardTechnik that a submarine, at least a full-size submarine, would be an unlikely platform to use for this task.
If the explosives were indeed large, non-precision bombs then perhaps (as alluded to in the NYT article) the best way to lay them would be off the back of a motor vessel, tracking along the top of the pipelines (which could be visible on a multibeam sonar). On a second run over the target the multibeam could be used to check the explosives were sufficiently close to the pipelines to do the deed. No doubt such an exercise would have be practised to perfection in some secret location.
Detonate some time later, perhaps months later, at a moment of choice. The technology would be similar to that of an acoustic mine, adapted to fire in response to a given acoustic transmission rather than a ship passing overhead.
The technology isn’t difficult, but given the extent to which most Western navies have been run down, their independent technology bases hollowed out by spending cuts over decades now, my guess for the culprit would be the one nation that has more or less kept up to speed – the US.
I agree almost anyone could have done it, via a small boat and divers for example, but if the explosives were large this rules out divers. And getting away with it – absolutely vital in the circumstances – would be another matter.
I do wonder how effective the protective sonar sensors would be, in that whether there were enough of them to detect if something untoward was going on – simple dumping of explosive packages from above for example.
An oft-stated reason Putin did not go for the Donbas in 2014 was to keep the gas flowing through Ukrainian pipelines which Nordstream would eventually replace. Thus the Trump administration under legislation proposed by Senator Ted Cruz applied sanctions to Nordstream 2 which – the very next day – halted the construction process. In an act of almost childish stupidity, Biden lifted those sanctions – with 100pc Democrat backing – simply because they were a Trump policy, and despite warnings, and the pleading of Zelensky that such a move would be a green light to Putin to move on Donbas. And so it proved. No wonder Biden blurted out that Nordstream could be taken out…You look a fool to deny otherwise.
The Russians doing it doesn’t add up either. It would be quite easy to dismantle the case that the Russians did it.
So where does that leave us?
The fog of war, people believing what they want to believe, chaos..
Cui bono?
A bit like the origins of covid, it may remain a mystery for a long time/forever. Also a bit like the origins of covid, it seems important to know so you’d expect those that govern us to be pulling out all the stops to find out the truth. Funny that doesn’t seem to be happening in either case. I’m sure it’s just a cock-up though. They did manage to fully investigate the Salisbury poisonings and established beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Russia wot dun it, same with US election interference, Hunter Biden laptop conspiracy theory. All completely believable.
and the excess deaths – due to eating too many eggs.
Cui bono?
The Yanks.
Therefore they did it.
Exactly. No need to overthink this.
So in addition to being a military specialist, Rons is also an expert in the interpretation of US law. Very impressive.
Further to Ian Rons’ well-researched points about the Hersh article,
A) Basing an entire journalistic investigation and its conclusions on revelations from ‘an unnamed source’ has exactly the same credibility as ‘it all came to me in a dream’.
It is perfectly possible that an individual did approach Seymour Hersh and present him with all the ‘information’ contained within this piece.
But without verifiable bona fides and corroborative evidence – of the sort that Mr Hersh would presumably have presented if available – the likelihood is that he was having a chat with a member of the FSB masquerading under the cunning guise of ‘Senior Agent Matt ‘The Rock’ Reacher, Deputy Sub-Director CIA Clandestine Section 14XJ, Undermine the Russian Federation With Extreme and If Necessary Illegal Prejudice’.
B) Even if it does turn out to have been a conglomeration of Western liberal democratic countries which were responsible for the destruction of this pipeline as Mr Hersh alleges, the intention was clearly to hamper the totalitarian Russian Federation’s neo-fascist project of mass destruction, murder and annexation / conquest in an independent and democratic member of the United Nations.
To put this moral and practical point in another way, how many genuinely life-preserving gas pipelines (to individual properties for central heating, hot water, cooking etc) have Russian Federation ‘liberation’ forces destroyed in Ukraine since the completely unprovoked invasion of February 2022;
And as a corollary of all this pipeline destruction (via aerial and artillery bombardment etc) –
How many lives?
Yes, there’s no indication Hersh ever tried to verify this source’s status in any way. And he clearly hasn’t asked experts (legal, military, engineering, etc.) about the key claims. There’s a reason he doesn’t write for the New York Times or the New Yorker any more, and it doesn’t look as though the NYT has even mentioned his claims this time, despite the fact that he was an excellent investigative reporter.
As to whodunnit, I’m very uncertain about all that (there are several possible culprits), but if it was the U.S. then I’d applaud them for having the audacity, and two fingers to Putin.
The ‘as to whodunnit’ cop-out implies you simply can’t be bothered to put together an argument that Russia destroyed their own pipeline because that would be ridiculous. And yet you refuse to jeopardise your own stated narrative by admitting all the evidence points to the Biden White House, not least of all its track record in disaster.
https://youtu.be/IAiZvKouZRw
P J Watson’s view.
Four minutes.
I’ve been reading this week about the Mỹ Lai massacre because I’m visiting the area this weekend. Hersh played such an important role in shedding light on that atrocity and subsequent events that I find it hard, not insulting to dismiss him as ‘gullible’.
It’s not a secret that the US has worked hard to make LNG from Qatar the primary source of Europe’s gas. So we have motive, something we don’t have in the case of Russia. For balance, maybe Rons should scrutinise the claims that it was Russia. Except he won’t, because he’s partisan.
Compared to what US strategic air warfare, ie undirected bombing of everything which could seen from the air, culminating in just unspecifically bombing the countryside after all of that had been eradicated, did to the people in SE Asia, the so-called Mỹ Lai massacre is a historical footnote. It’s also not really more gruesome than what invading Russian soldiers did to villagers in Eastern Prussia 1945. That’s just a lot less popular because they targetted The Right Kind of Victims[tm], ie, Germans.
Similar scenes have always occurred (and will likely keep reoccuring) whenever regular forces have to handle guerilla warriors, ie, enemies who dress up as non-combatants and prefer ambushes. When every supposed civilian could suddenly pull out a gun and start shooting at you, at lot of probably innocent civilians will end up being killed, either because they just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or in retaliatory actions.
Another outstanding article from Mr Rons.
There are, in fact, only two countries that stood to benefit from the Nordstream destruction:
Russia: a ‘false flag’ operation to sow discord within NATO.
Ukraine: to remove the leverage Nordstream afforded Putin.
These are also the only two ‘hot’ protagonists engaged in this European war.
Take your pick.
But in the event, only the US economy has benefited from increased sales as well as German de-industrialisation, NATO members have murmured about US involvement but daren’t say it out loud, Ukraine has been largely destroyed, and Russia’s massive investment in the pipeline is lost. Pretty duff planning on both fronts – US false flags never cost them that much.
Still, it’s a relief to know that there are no other participants in the war, and that the stated US intentions for regime change in Russia and the breakup of the federation are just whistling in the wind and trusting Zelensky to deliver. The weapons, advisers, trainers, technical input and intelligence, “deserters” serving on the front, visiting leaders etc, are just to keep us informed.
Did you see Zelensky entering Westminster Hall with pretty much all 650 of our sycophant pretend MP,s clapping cheering & whistling in support of the Hero in a green tracksuit . There’s nothing else to say , we are living in cartoon world !
Those barstewards in Westminster do NOT speak for me – Andrew Bridgen excepted. Bloody cowards.
one of the most shameful sights in the history of this nation.
Yes – the hero who is now conscripting 16 year olds for the meat grinder. When it happens in Uganda it’s a war-crime.
Yes, indeed. Startling prescience, strategic grasp and administrative grip from a President who can barely tie up his own shoelaces……
Controls are for those following the flowchart of decision making. Bearing in mind how the Biden administration has treated the US, I can see how they might bypass all the controls to make this happen. I can also see, on the technical issues of getting devices planted on the pipeline and detonated. The idea that they would need some super leading edge prototype device to achieve the detonations, and then discount that as a possibility because they didn’t have time to make them or to a quality that would permit them to work is absurd. I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if you couldn’t just go to a storage room somewhere in the US Military, pick two, and heve them FedEx’ed to your mini-sub the following day.
I remain sceptical of everyone, but there is a strong smell of USA around this whole incident. It is really surprising to me how little has been made of it politically, diplomatically, and of course in the obedient media. I would be fuming if it was my pipeline and I’d want answers.
How can anyone doubt that lying Biden sabotaged NordStream 2?
When he officially promised that he would do it!
That it was a criminal act of sabotage, eco-terrorism and war is indisputable.
Few nations have the ability to pull off a stunt like this – so which ones profited from it?
Certainly not Russia, Europe or China – but America did, both financially and politically.
Why on earth would Putin sabotage a recent multi-million dollar investment that gave him huge political and financial sway over Europe? His “special op” practically depended on just that.
Why does Putin do anything? Why did his army not wear uniform when taking over Crimea? Why did he invade a country when he already occupied (uncontested, internationally accepted) a significant part of it?
Why did Russia do any of these things:
1921-6 Operation Trust, creating the pseudo-“Monarchist Union of Central Russia” (MUCR) in order to help the OGPU identify real monarchists and anti-Bolsheviks.
1939 False flag shelling Mainila before invading Finland
1968 Operation Progress, deployment of 20 KGB illegals to Czeckoslovakia
1999 Apartment buildings in Moscow, Buinaksk, and Volgodonsk were bombed by FSB, killing hundreds of Russian civilians, blamed on Chechens.
2014 Little green men, in fact Russian soldiers pose as freedom fighters in Eastern Ukraine
2017, Russia used footage from video game as evidence of the United States colluding with the Islamic State.
2022 Two explosions destroyed two radio antennas in the disputed Moldovan region of Transnistria.
Sorry but you lost me at “The most glaring issue is a legal one.” The Biden administration (and others before him) don’t care about the rule of law and most of Congress doesn’t either. Even if they were caught breaking the law, there would be no consequences. It’s laughable to think that “breaking the law” would stop them from doing it. Also, enforcing the law in this case would mean proving that the US did it and Biden covered it up. No one responsible for enforcing the law is going to do that.
Like the other commentator who brought this up, you’re missing the point: The Hersh-article goes to great lengths handling this legal issue. Hence, pointing out that the text doesn’t really make sense is a valid criticism of the article. Whether or not US politicians break the laws supposed to regulate their actions is unrelated to that,.
As RW said, that’s not really the issue, Walrus. The issue is that Hersh’s source is lying (and obviously so), because there’s no such exception to the Covert Action Statute of the sort he claims, never mind whether Biden would be prepared to break that law or not — although Hersh’s source implies he wouldn’t have been prepared to break it, so perhaps he’s being naive?
Ian Rons the globalist apologist strikes again…..is this just to wind up the (awake) non woke on this site.
It’s odd that someone this naive works at the daily sceptic.