they are extremely scary

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-11-28T19:56:02+00:00

Not very funny. I used to come here to hear the truth that people couldn't say on other platforms. Not here for pointless jokes. Really going downhill.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-10-31T19:30:51+00:00

I think that line was meaning to say that Republican pandering to evangelicals was fundraising fodder, not saying that evangelicals themselves are fundraising fodder. Evangelicals mean what they say, but for a while, politicians were pandering to them with false piety to get their donations. Similarly, cynical Democrat politicians have been pandering to the young college radicals with the trans stuff. At least, I hope they don't actually believe it...

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-10-13T19:46:13+00:00

Exactly! Russia could have peace right now, all they need to do is retreat back within their borders.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-10-10T19:23:33+00:00

Yeah, nothing wrong with feeling instinctual disgust for the deformed. I have no problems with hating on incels a bit. The weird thing is how they've decided to champion trannies, who are often just incels that have taken certain steps.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-10-10T19:18:21+00:00

I've been meaning to get an MBA but the academic culture looks terrible right now. I wonder if there's anywhere I can go to avoid the struggle sessions?

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-09-15T20:20:38+00:00

It won't end. Goths had to grow up to join respectable professional society. But now professional society has been twisted to make inclusion of trans mandatory, so no one is allowed to give these people a reality check.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-09-15T20:10:41+00:00

OP, I share your concern. I think there are several reasons: 1. As many others have said, most normal people are afraid of being shamed. People who are aware of TRA overreach are also aware of the way they use manipulative language and coordination to generate social censure campaigns, including mobilizing people who aren't political enough to be aware of their tricks. 2. Their censorship does work. If you go over to Reddit and get to a trans-ralated post early enough, you'll see plenty of highly upvoted, non-extremist people expressing concern. But in short order those concerned people are modded away or downvoted until hidden by the TRA brigades. Understand that instinctive morality operates as a kind of herd behavior. Many people will have trouble believing that behavior is wrong if they see it going uncriticized, so the TRAs are able to normalize their behavior by censoring criticism. 3. Huge swathes of the population are actually fully indoctrinated to believe that all activism is good activism, and that suffering the TRA overreach is a form of charity. I once had an apparently-normal acquaintance break down, nearly to tears, when I explained that I don't feel guilty for my "white privilege." He explained that his white guilt has been a part of his identity ever since it was explained to him, and he can't bear the idea that I don't feel it too. These people who are indoctrinated but act normal are actually extremists. They're just not activist extremists.

And yes, as you alluded to the other side is also getting more extreme. Partly because they're being pressured in many ways, but also because the extremists on the right are taking advantage of the situation. I live in California so the leftists are the only ones I have to confront, but it seems the right has gone all-in on MAGA and Christian conservatism, which has just as much overreach if you get too close. Independent thought truly is a lonely way to live. Remember that it's not possible to control the seething masses with logic. Everyone is told to hate someone, and most of them will obey. Hold yourself above hatred and try to survive.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-09-09T19:36:33+00:00

While the enemy certainly appears to be out of shape, I think the BLM riots demonstrate that they're capable of violence. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. After a decade of further propaganda, huge swaths of the population could be radicalized, or at least buy into the demonization of certain groups.

Again, I point to the Chinese cultural revolution. They seemed innocent enough, until they reached a critical mass and were able to bend the apparatus of the state to their aims. It wasn't the revolutionaries locking people up, it was the (highly propagandized) police acting on trumped-up charges.

I applaud your desire to mount a resistance, though. It's noble.

I just don't want to be like those people we see throughout history that got trapped in their totalitarian countries. Some of my ancestors were Jews in Nazi Germany, others were Armenians who narrowly escaped getting wiped out in that genocide. I look back and ask why so many of their people didn't see the writing on the wall when their people were being demonized. I won't let it happen to me.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-09-09T17:56:00+00:00

Super interesting. I appreciate all the graphs on different issues. Shocking how much people overestimate how far certain beliefs have shifted.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-09-09T17:48:51+00:00

I agree completely! You can't launch an invasion just because your neighbor might join a defensive alliance! The response is completely disproportionate.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-30T18:09:50+00:00

I agree that the erosion of the middle class is a fundamental problem. The basic economic promises that these people were raised on were not delivered. College graduated didn't get jobs. Political power is going to older and older politicians rather than to the newer generations. I think this generated a lot of resentment and a general desire to do something and to overturn the "failing" system that they're locked out of.

Those urges sublimated into social issues because while they can't change the system, they can change each other. They can't overthrow the corporations but they can rub each other into the dirt. They can't get justice for their dead-end careers, but they can get justice for the imaginary racial and sexual minorities they've conjured for themselves. Activists arise for all issues, but it's notable that the economic activists are unable to grasp power - because they're directly against the corporations - but social activists are able to gain power easily because they only have to fight their follow individuals.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-30T16:37:28+00:00

I'm going to play it! I've got to admit, I have a bit of nostalgia for the Harry Potter books, and the game does look well developed.

As for JK Rowling... she's not transphobic. I've seen what she's said! She's anti-trans-activist, but I've never seen her say a single hateful thing. Activists are trying to erode the rights of women in ways that don't even benefit trans people. Opposing them is not hate.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-30T16:34:38+00:00

We can hope! Though I will note that kids indoctrinated into cults often fail to rebel. And, concerningly, many kids are currently going woke in a kind of guided rebellion against their parents. Woke leaders pose their ideology as a rejection of the norm, while hiding the fact that wokeness is already highly institutionalized and incorporated.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-30T15:37:56+00:00

Can't agree with this. The children are being traumatized in a way that harms their affiliation with the wokes, but the wokes don't realize it. This is happening because the wokes have completely drank their own cool-aid and believe they're saving the world.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-30T15:33:11+00:00

Absolutely. The activism infrastructure can't stop even after achieving its goals. It's too entrenched. Hell, it can't even change direction. There are plenty of people in other countries that would benefit from the old fashioned civil rights movement, but of course all the local activists aren't going to uproot and start new institutions over there. That would be way too disruptive to their lives and incomes. Instead they follow their incentives and continue working on whatever the current thing is, even if the current thing is no longer morally important. Even if the new thing is almost completely manufactured. The machine has no off switch, it doesn't stop until it's dismantled.

All movements are like this. They all overshoot their reasonable goals because they're made up of people who dedicate their lives to the cause and can't pivot. We are seeing it now with leftist movements, but we need to be wary of our own movements too. I worry that if anti-leftist reactionary movements gather steam, they won't stop at pushing back against the left movements. We've been calling the woke movements the new McCarthyism, but we don't want our own movements to create a new new McCarthyism that undoes legitimate civil rights like marriage and housing. Though if you argue that it's too early to worry about such things, I have to agree.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-30T15:22:44+00:00

No, it's the tranny in the picture who's overeager to believe that correlations in IQ say something important about gender. All I said is that the bell curves overlap and you can't say for sure. Just how well do you think you can infer someone's sex by their spatial IQ score? I'd guess maybe 70% accuracy. (haven't looked at the stats, just eyeballing) It's something but you can't work backward reliably. Unless your definition of reliable is 70%. I have a nearly 100% success rate using my eyes to tell me someone's sex...

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-25T15:16:51+00:00

More often than not in terms of better than chance, maybe. But not nearly as well as you can tell just by looking at someone. It's no more valid than "oh she likes playing with trucks, she must be a girl deep inside."

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-23T17:02:50+00:00

4chan definitely doesn't belong on TiA. Literally nothing on the site is serious.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-23T16:41:12+00:00

Just on average of course. The bell curves overlap considerably. Working backward to infer sex (or "gender") is not valid.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-19T18:55:49+00:00

No link, header cropped out. The key indication of fake propaganda with no actual source.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-08-08T17:19:32+00:00

Me too. A while ago I made a list of old classic shows, movies, and books. I go back to that whenever I need some new material. New stuff is no better than what they were making back in the 90s, and there's a nearly infinite stockpile of already-produced media, so no reason to give money to this new class of woke mass-market garbage. Honestly we could just stop making media now, there's already far more than anyone could consume in a lifetime. Marketing is the only reason people watch new stuff.

I also enjoy some modern foreign movies. Korea produces good dramas, France has good war movies, and Russian music has a unique sound. Also places that haven't been infected by wokeness...

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-29T19:26:02+00:00

I don't buy the void of responsibility argument. If I get cancer, was that my responsibility? Should I have tried harder to not get cancer? I do think there needs to be some system that saves people when they are faced with a medical problem they can't pay for. It's just that insurance should be scaled back to deal only with extreme events, and not be the primary way we pay for healthcare.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-28T23:48:08+00:00

Insurance just denied me access to the only drug my doctor says can treat my condition (without serious side effects that other options have). Ironically, a month of the drug costs less than the amount I pay my insurance company monthly. If I didn't pay for insurance, I would have enough money saved to afford the drug. But because I do pay them, I can't afford the treatment they decided to deny me. Granted, if my doctor fills out enough forms apparently he can force their hand. Just a matter of suffering in the meantime.

So yeah, I agree that the free market works for most medical care. Of course catastrophe insurance makes sense, but for normal medical care, it would be better to leave insurance out of it.

You are of course completely right that the root cause of the problem is administrative bloat enabled by insurance companies that basically exist to separate people from their money regardless of what care they need.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-28T23:42:06+00:00

60 million Americans do abuse alcohol. Don't put it in scare quotes, alcoholism is a real problem that kills people.

That said, I agree that our society has a drug problem. Drug costs must be lowered, by force. And we need to heal the failing social structures that are leading to depression, rather than just handing out happy pills that barely work.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-26T20:25:21+00:00

Very true. I hope Vulptex is able to find one of the few brave psychologists that are still willing to treat dysphoria with standard psychiatric care. Despite the misinfo spread by trans activists, standard cognitive behavioral therapy reduces suicide risk more than hormones and gender surgery (partly because those interventions actually have only small benefits in terms of suicide risk). It's also cheaper and safer with no risk of permanent harm.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-26T20:16:52+00:00

As a millennial man, I don't think things are so bad. Separation among men is a problem but not a huge one. But perhaps if you were raised as a woman, it would be shocking because women in particular raise their guard around men. And even though women themselves know how they treat men, it would feel more real on the receiving end. It is of course possible that the person doesn't pass and people are raising their guard because you never know what queer people are going to get offended over. Lots of possibilities.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-26T20:06:36+00:00

It was a bit of both. On one hand, yes, the Nazis hated Jews regardless of any scientific beliefs. And they had a lot of crazy propaganda going around about Jewish culture, so they hated them on more than a race basis. But eugenic ideas, particularly pseudo-scientific misrepresentations of eugenics, were used to support the race purity ideas that the Nazis pushed. To put it another way... The Nazis definitely didn't follow any kind of scientifically grounded eugenics program. It was pretty much just ethnic cleansing based on feels. But they liked to think they were doing eugenics.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-26T00:09:48+00:00

Unfair! They won't even let me get my second booster, now you're talking about a third?

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-19T18:31:19+00:00

Yeah, wokies like to claim that anyone non-woke is racist. But the truth is that opposing racism has been a common American value for a long time. Real racists have been a minority for a long time. Remember, "All men are created equal."

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-19T18:26:21+00:00

On one hand, yes it's not a problem if some people eat crickets as long as they're not unhealthy.

On the other hand, I personally do not want to eat crickets even in flour form. I just think that's gross. So I am concerned about the rise of use of cricket flour because if it's cheap you just know they're going to put it in everything, which will reduce the number of snacks I can eat.

I don't believe the conspiracy theory "they want to make you eat bugs for this sinister reason" thing. It's just a market response to the growing demand for cheap, high-protein non-meat foods. Though personally I would much prefer soy or bean protein in my cheese puffs rather than cricket protein.

I know some animal rights activists that are against farming bugs for this purpose. They claim that if every life is equally valuable, killing hundreds of crickets for the same nutrition as a larger animal is unnecessary suffering. I disagree with their belief that insects are capable of suffering in any morally relevant way, but I guess they're on my side in arguing against bugs as food? Shaky alliance lol.

I also think it's important to preserve our food traditions. I have concerns that instead of taking steps to protect our ability to produce enough protein through conventional means, our policymakers will accept that we just eat cheap bugs now. That would be a problem for people like me that want affordable meat and plant protein.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-19T18:08:05+00:00

It's not so different from how religion was treated a few generations ago. Opposing religion used to be seen as a sign of a morally degenerate person. And I agree, there is a certain instinct to attach yourself to a popular belief system and power-wielding orthodox group. Only those with superior commitment to truth will buck the trend.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-19T18:03:55+00:00

Switching from coal to nuclear would result in a vastly reduced amount of total mining, because a little uranium goes a long way. And considering coal dust is just as deadly as the low-level radiation from uranium mining, the switch seems like a win for reducing exposure to mine-related health hazards. And that's before comparing the environmental impact of (huge, ubiquitous) coal mines with small, rare uranium mines. No matter how you look at it, nuclear is completely compatible with the progressive agenda of increased electrification. And it's compatible with the conservative agenda of industrial development. Really, it should have bipartisan support, but idiot journalists are determined to make everything a partisan issue.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-19T15:40:07+00:00

Exactly. It seems many unintelligent people are unable to exist without some guiding dogmatism in their life. So when they were deprived of traditional religion, they adopted a new dogmatism. I'm afraid true free thought is only possible for a minority who are destined to be persecuted by the sheeplike masses.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-06T20:38:51+00:00

This is the actual answer. People want a platform where they can enjoy normal content, in addition to censorship-free discussion of hot-button topics. Currently saidit is mostly just a place to say things you can't say on Reddit. People might want to make the switch, but unless we can provide the full package, it won't work. We need more "normal" content like comedy, random advice, cute videos... Porn would also help quite a bit but I understand the platform doesn't want to have to deal with that.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-06T20:31:47+00:00

Yep, vegan activists love pretending that milking cows is some kind of sex crime because it involves the cow's udders - or breasts as the vegans will call them. And they pretend that breeding animals is rape.

Animals are not people.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-05T22:29:18+00:00

I think this is fake. Doesn't the nose look photoshopped? Weird lack of pores in that one spot, perhaps where it was nudged to look more hooked? And who the fuck says "shalom" in that context? I know plenty of jews who never do that.

I think this is photoshopped to make you guys conflate jews and trans, so that they can further smear gendercritical people and sites like this as "nazis".

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-05T18:14:49+00:00

You have to understand that in the US, the right is religious and the left isn't. This gives them different worldviews.

The religious perspective is generally that the fetus already has a soul and thus is a person - and killing a dependent is murder no matter how taxing their life is to your body. So while the right likes rights, they can't abide what they see as child murder.

The left doesn't believe in souls, generally. They take the more biological view that you aren't really a person until fairly late in development. The fetus is just a fetus, not a person until very late - and having a heartbeat or neurological activity makes the fetus a living animal, but still not developed enough to be a person. So it's acceptable to remove it if it's not very developed.

Personally I take the latter view, but if I was raised to believe that fetuses had souls I can imagine being pro-life instead.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-05T18:09:28+00:00

On one hand, yes, it's a fad and the vast majority of the population feels in their guts that this stuff is weird.

On the other hand, colleges are cranking out activists, often actually majoring in gender studies. These people go straight into HR and journalism, entrenching themselves in the industry. They're in deep - before they stop pushing for this stuff, they first need to change their ideology, then change their career. No one does such an about-face.

I think we're going to live with this stuff for the foreseeable future. It's the new religion of the elite. It's where the power is. I only hope it goes the same way as other religious entrenchment. Maybe in a few generations we'll have a groundswell of truth seekers denouncing this stuff as the stuffy moralizing of their ancestors. Would be hilarious if something like the new atheism movement happened to gender ideology.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-05T18:01:46+00:00

If you're going to write about women's issues in the NYT these days, it is mandatory to lead with Roe vs Wade. That said, I actually appreciate what the author is trying to demonstrate here: People who care about traditional feminist issues, like abortion, should also be concerned about the way trans activists want to erase the idea of women, making everything gender-neutral at the expense of women.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-05T17:55:55+00:00

My high school taught "anatomy/endocrinology/genetics properly". My degree in biochemistry and minor in neurology also covered these topics extensively. Guess what? The science supports biological sex in the conventional sense.

This idea that "the science says" there's no such thing as biological sex is political bullshit. Sure, it's possible to have an intersex condition. It's possible to have opposite sex characteristics. But biology has extensively documented the sexual dimorphism of our species.

I think things would have gone better if biologists manned up and referred to developmental defects properly - as defects. Not that the afflicted people should feel shame or anything, but intersex conditions are fundamentally developmental or genetic defects. Not a part of the healthy variation in our species.

Similarly, all forms of body dysphoria are mental illnesses. Understand that dysphoric people often present with comorbid depression and/or autism. We need to treat dysphoria similarly to depression, not like the sufferers "were born in the wrong body" whatever that means.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-04T00:02:34+00:00

I think a lot of doctors are worn down... they don't believe that their patients will do anything harder than pop a pill, so they just skip to the drugs instead of trying to have the weight loss conversation. And I can't really blame them, it's incredibly rare that a fat person makes a meaningful change.

That said, congratulations on your weight loss and being one of the rare few who do the work!

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-03T23:59:29+00:00

Hey, at least it's not "social science" Sticking to STEM is all I ask of /r/science these days.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-03T23:17:50+00:00

I call it a riot. Specifically, it started as a protest (and most of the people gathered there remained protestors because they didn't engage in violence) and then a fragment forced their way into the building at which point it was a riot. Same standard by which I say many of the BLM protests also involved riots.

It was not an insurrection, or a coup, because there was really no plan to seize power.

There was however a desire to threaten members of Congress, which makes it a pretty bad riot in terms of its effects.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T01:30:42+00:00

I think that's unnecessary. Investigations did not find any significant voting fraud (by which I mean more than a few duplicate votes submitted my individuals), despite both sides trying to amp up their bases by claiming the other sides were submitting fake votes. They don't need to check your ID to detect voter fraud, because any significant number of fake ballots submitted would cause duplicate ballots. And if that check fails to happen, then there's corruption at a level that could ignore any ID checking on the ground.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T01:23:48+00:00

I'm OK with maintaining the sanctions but the government should provide subsidies or something to help with prices.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T01:18:24+00:00

No, the right to a secret ballot is essential. Make them public and we'll have huge amounts of harassment. I honestly think that would be a powerful weapon in the hands of "activists" which would shift the balance of power in their favor. Remember that in many companies, being a Republican is practically a fireable offense.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T01:11:57+00:00

Most cities are these days. They have their benefits, but I'm trying to get out myself.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T01:06:17+00:00

It's a sales tech company. And yeah, not people I'd want to work with either.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T00:41:59+00:00

In any disagreement, even if it's not one of their gender or SJ hobbyhorses, they act offended to gain the moral high ground. The ones I know tend to adopt a fake-gentle, almost corporate way of speech while criticizing the tone of the person they're arguing with, acting as if they're just trying to make amends while speaking at length about the "faults" of the person they're speaking with.

I think of it as the flip side of the sweet-aggressive tone you see in the stereotypical southern church lady: "Oh sweety, you're coming off as just a bit frustrated, but we can work it out..."

My theory is that in any population there are manipulative, self-righteous people who use these strategies. They are attracted to communities in moral power. That means in liberal places they'll be SJWs, and in conservative places they'll act super religious. Also note that in both cases they don't actually uphold the ideals they subscribe to: Real trans people are harmed by the obnoxious virtue-signalling "activism" that these people do, while those snide church ladies aren't exactly Christian angels who love their neighbor.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T00:27:47+00:00

It's funny, there are wokies wanting to leave America over Roe (but why not just move to a blue state?) and simultaneously conservatives considering leaving because of the woke shit.

Meanwhile woke shit is going to be the death of the whole anglosphere at this rate.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-07-01T00:24:03+00:00

Well I'm still here! We'll see how it lasts.

Objecting_Sphere · 2022-06-24T21:43:12+00:00

Spin-off or alternative websites always have more radicals on them, because they leave mainstream sites when they get banned there. Now that TIA was banned, hopefully enough people will come over and drown out the, shall we say, less sensible ideas.

Objecting_Sphere