Richard Dawkins convinced me that Christianity was a lie. Now I'm seeing him talk about how being transgender is a lie and that we're insane. He's a biologist so he knows what he's talking about. Now I'm struggling mentally again after years of trying to work through accepting who I am.

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[–]Femaleisnthateful 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

Interesting that people are rushing to prove that Dawkins is being misconstrued and that he's not really 'anti-trans'. Far more generous than the treatment JK Rowling gets. Maybe also because it's not a dedicated trans sub.

[–]LordoftheFliesAmeri-kin 2.0. Pronouns: MegaWhite/SuperStraight/UltraPatriarchy 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Well, that, and I suspect that entirely too many of them fully agree with Dawkins' points on other subjects, and turning around and calling this a crock of shit would force them to reconsider all of those prior points of agreement.

[–]Haylstorm 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

That's why they hate her so much. She agrees with them on 99.99% of things. Therefore she is the worst because she 'betrayed' them.

Honestly it's nuts to put that much thought into any author. She wrote a book, she's not obligated to agree with you on every point just because you never branched out into other literature. I do think that's part of it, they see her as 'tainting' the only book series they ever read.

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Some of you may not have been in the mind space for this yet but back in the day this exact same JKR effect happened to a different person.

Dan Savage is/was a very well known gay man who would ostensibly be with transgender people on 99.99% of issues. He was giving a speech at a university and used the word "tranny", which at the time was still a very common term and it was perceived more like a shorthand way of saying transsexual. Like saying granny for grandma, etc. anyway, at some point the early 4th wave type TRAs decided that word had become the "T slur" and a bunch of the students freaked the hell out and were like throwing themselves out of the auditorium claiming they were experiencing violence etc... Dan Savage became the "big bad" to the LGBT community even though he did more on his own that all of those people combined. They tried to make it like he dropped the N bomb in the middle of his talk. It was CRAZY how much they hated him. The difference is Dan Savage decided his career depended on staying in the good graces so he caved in and threw himself at the feet of the TRA mob. He had to come up with excuses about a different time etc... They still hated him for a long time afterwards and perhaps he just faded away because JKR popped up as the new "big bad" and she refused to cave in to their demands.

[–]ClassroomPast6178 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I used to like Savage’s podcast and column in the The Stranger, he was honest about a lot of things that were verboten at the time, a big one was that male and female sexual appetites were actually different, and that without the taming effect of women, men’s sexual behaviours were deranged.

And then he bent the knee to the trans crowd and I’ve never read or listened to him again.

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I never really listened to him at all. Did the quality of his podcast go down or was it more you were annoyed at his caving in that made him seem less appealing? I only listened to him talk a few times but since he invented Santorum i kept note of him.

[–]ClassroomPast6178 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The quality never dropped, he was/is phenomenally entertaining, but he was definitely on the sex positive/don’t kink shame side but I felt when he got called out for his use of the word tranny (he used it a lot in his podcast iirc…and he only ever used to refer to transvestites never transgenders) that he had caved and couldn’t continue listening to him. I’d lost respect for him as he had never given a fuck about anyone complaining before. I can’t tolerate sell outs.

He was never what I would consider woke, he was tolerable progressive, who seemed to just genuinely want people to be happier in their sex lives (and some hard truths too).

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I generally agree. His entire brand was about not giving a shit and trolling people who were irrational about gay shit. But also his entire brand only exists if he can avoid being cancelled. His type of personality is why i found gay men to be more entertaining in the past. There was a very strong "fuck your feelings I'm not hurting you by existing" vibe back then.

[–]ClassroomPast6178 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah, he was especially good at reaching out to gay teens and giving them actual advice and not just telling that they’re fierce. He was always realistic, I recall numerous times him telling a teen who had written in or called that whilst they were under-18/living with their parents/at college funded by parents, if their parents were anti-gay, just tone that shit down until you can get out on your own. Also, telling them to give their parents a chance and time to get used to things.

His “it gets better” campaign to cut teen gay suicide was rather clever and I believe even the Obamas did a video for it.

I had time for him. But the selling out really made me feel that he could no longer be trusted to be unfiltered (he was always giving harsh truths, especially about some of the deranged kinks and practices some people were doing) but if he was going to pass everything through a woke filter then he was no different than every other progressive outlet.

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I totally forgot he was the "it gets better" guy.