GC: Why do you think it's not biologically essentialist and biologically deterministic to define sex on the basis of gametes and sex organs?

emptiedriver · 2021-06-06T19:28:35+00:00

Would you have sex with a child? A child has an immature reproductive system. They have the potential to become sexual creatures, but pre-puberty, their sex is not yet developed. Does that mean they are sexless? I don't really know, and the point is that it doesn't really matter. You can say they have a sex but it's nascent or you can say they don't have one yet, as clearly it's distinct from once it becomes an active system. I don't think it's terribly controversial to speak that way. But what you can't say is that they'll start as a boy and turn into a woman.

Of course there is such a thing as a girl or a boy - a girl will become a woman and a boy will become a man. What sex you have at some point in your life is inherent from conception. The haggling over exactly when lines are crossed to achieve sexed vs non-sexed seems like a red herring. The fundamental point is still, there is no shift from one sex to the other. The most you can claim, and I'm only offering it to make the point, is that some people could be defined as non-sexed if you like. Sure, call children pre-sexed, even say someone who has extreme surgery is neutered if you like, but you can never get to cross-sexed.

emptiedriver · 2021-05-24T07:43:35+00:00

I think "transgender" is a modern phenomenon of presenting as the opposite sex that has become more popular thanks to increasingly impressive cosmetic surgery. Males who want to can pay a lot of money and get some very good treatments to achieve an image of what they want women to look like. This can be done by men who don't want to be homosexual, and by men who think they could do a better job of being women than women do. So, yeah, they exist.

I don't think it's healthy since I am not a big fan of cosmetic surgery and I think it'd be psychologically better for gay men to accept their bodies and natural desires, and for straight men to accept women as real people and not as objects as desire, but I can't deny people who want to do this are real. What I can deny about them is that they are the same as women. They're men who are presenting as women.

As surgeries improve, they are able to blend in more and at least in non-intimate settings people (some more than others) will often assume they are women. I don't know where that leaves us. Maybe it's always been this way, but it seems like more and more, everything is presentation - what pictures you show on FB is happy you are, what decor your living room has is what makes it homey, how the meal looks matters more than the traditional recipe - so if you look like you fit the concept "woman" that's all that really matters to most of those around you, and if you don't but you say you want to, it's just rude to get fussy. It's like saying the pictures on FB weren't that nice or you didn't like someone's living room design. No one is concerned over the underneath quality of how people really feel and whether their home is actually happy. That is just not your business, and now, someone's sex is not either. The food looks pretty, give it a like on Instagram and don't ask to come over for dinner and discuss the details.

I was always okay with being polite in public, as long as we all understood that you can't judge a book by its cover but now that people are insisting that the way things look = the way things truly are, I'm frustrated and want to get things clear. Sex change is not possible. Cosmetic surgery can get quite intricate though.

emptiedriver · 2021-05-13T13:16:59+00:00

I am honestly not sure most of the time...

When I have to choose between stereotypically masculine or feminine options, I can go one way or the other but generally neither is my choice. Like:

watch the game or go shopping? watch the game. But really I'd rather take out the board games...
superhero action movie or romantic comedy? romantic comedy. But actually I'm more of a Charlie Kaufman type...
hot dress or cool suit? cool suit. But I'm happy in jeans...
redecorate or get a sports car? redecorate. But why not spend it on travel?

Generally I just don't tend to go for the things people associate with stereotypes that much.

emptiedriver · 2021-01-05T09:45:42+00:00

"I like to objectify myself sexually"

emptiedriver · 2020-11-18T13:20:51+00:00

"...that says trans women are just men in dresses.."

dingdingdingdingding

emptiedriver · 2021-05-08T13:36:21+00:00

So these trans activists have no trouble understanding, or even expect, that when a person transitions their partner will no longer be attracted to them?

I think for most GC people, the variations of attraction that don't have to do with sexual orientation (whether you feel physically aroused by same sex or opposite sex partners) are basically personality things, the same way all the variations of style, haircut, hobbies, speech affectation, are personality things. Putting it all under the umbrella of "gender" is locking it into a social role. Just be yourself, do what you like, like who you like, but you don't have to define yourself by rules of the culture.

Your sex is a physical fact so you can't "identify" in or out of that, but things like whether you like skirts or dating people with nail polish is just details. If you've got a thing for people who wear skirts, that's a psychological connection you've made somewhere along the way. If you're aroused by chemical reactions, that's an orientation (and if it happens with both sexes, you're bi).

emptiedriver · 2020-12-12T07:30:45+00:00

I think it's just more often called a "G spot"

emptiedriver · 2020-07-30T11:07:03+00:00

I can't even make sense of this

emptiedriver · 2021-02-26T15:09:27+00:00

oh, make up your mind. Either they're women and you're straight and you shouldn't be using a gay dating app, or, actually, you're all gay men after all. Maybe that would make it simpler. Gay guy into femmes. Gay cross dresser who wants to suck other guys off. Is it really so difficult? You tried all the hetero apps and they didn't work, because you don't fit in with real women, because you aren't one and you aren't attracted to them, because you are GAY MEN.

emptiedriver · 2020-10-12T09:05:28+00:00

geez, my 6 year old sometimes "misgenders" both me and his dad - has called me "daddy" or his dad "mommy", who knows why. He's done it at random times over the years and we have casually corrected him or laughed it off. All that matters is that he knows we love him and that he loves us. We let him call us by our names if he wants, which he sometimes thinks is fun, but also seems to think is sort of awkward/silly, so only does as a kind of joke. I don't think I hear him talk about me in the third person all that much so can't say for sure if there's a lot of pronoun mix-up, but hardly worth worrying over!

I mean really, this kid will continue to perceive what he perceives, but the parents can nudge their preferred address if that's the etiquette they want to instill. Just because a two year old isn't using the right fork for salad yet doesn't mean he'll never be able to engage in modern polite society... There's plenty of time to teach him how to perform the new century's norms.

emptiedriver · 2022-01-18T17:22:51+00:00

have you talked to people who've had this symptom? My cousin has lost her taste for 3 months now, does not have a stuffed up nose anymore and is not having "trouble smelling" but has just lost the ability to taste things. It may be related to the same area that's affected in other infections, but for some people it's a notably distinct symptom.

Why assume it's a "fear tactic"? People self-report that they have lost a sense of taste or smell. Do you think that many people are being manipulated to say something that they aren't even experiencing or that's no different from the last time they had a stuffy nose? It doesn't happen to everyone, and it's temporary for most, but some people fully recover except the sense is either changed or lost.

emptiedriver · 2021-06-07T10:38:08+00:00

I thought it was obvious I was talking about pre-pubescent children if I was suggesting we could speak about sexlessness. This is all so ridiculous, I should clearly never have entered this topic. It was just an abstract possibility.

emptiedriver · 2021-06-07T07:46:21+00:00

If children are essentially sexless, then there is no such a thing as a girl or a boy, because there is no such a thing as a male or female child.

I'm sorry I made this so ridiculously confusing for you. You asked why children aren't sexless and I said, sure, maybe they are since they haven't sexually developed yet. I shouldn't have indulged you. I think that in its strictest, most complete, fully functioning form, sex is evident in healthy adults. In children, unhealthy or other cases of abnormal, altered or degraded physical bodies, sex can be non-functioning or somehow incomplete. It is usually still recognizable. Fundamentally, it does not change to a different sex. Even if you argue that some people do not have a sex if they lose some parts or haven't developed them yet, so what? What difference does that make for trans people?

It's the difference between adult men and women that has caused women's oppression. That is why it does not matter to me whether girls and boys are sexed - they are physically comparable in size and strength, and do not deal with pregnancy and the division of labor issue, so it's largely bc girls will become women that they deal with expectations and different treatment. If we could ignore their sex as children, I can imagine it being a positive. The same cannot be said for adult women, because the physical realities need to be taken up communally.

or so you believe, police would have to record the incident as "sexless creature got molested".

What are you talking about? Do you think if people are not categorized by their sex they are no longer people? How do you even deal with non-binary or asexual people in the trans movement... Maybe the police could record it as "child got molested"? or "young human being"?

emptiedriver · 2021-05-19T07:27:47+00:00

For every [male] wanting access to woman's facilities (bathrooms, locker rooms), there is a [female] wanting access to men's facilities.

Not sure that that is true, but even if it is, who would you expect women to be concerned about?

Trans men are not infringing on women's rights. They're annoyingly ditching the fight for women's rights and trying to opt out of a material problem by proclaiming themselves to be men, but they aren't causing a material problem, or at very least not one for women, which is who feminists are fighting for. If anyone needs to be worrying about the direct impact of trans men, it's not other women. For us, the worry is their indirect impact of giving up on womanhood altogether, and there's plenty of discussion about that.

emptiedriver · 2021-03-24T13:57:45+00:00

I'm not QT, but I think the answer would be that it's not about sex vs gender, but about preferences of the person. It's considered respectful to call them by their gender bc that's what they want (like what name they go by) whereas physical reality is not what they wish it was, not your business, and/or not actually scientifically valid by new science rules.

So it's two sides of a coin - you mis-sex someone if they want you to. Facts aren't the deciding factor, just feelings.

emptiedriver · 2020-12-27T09:59:47+00:00

MarkTwainiac, if you're not interested in the discussion, why not just stay off the thread? It seems it was asked in good faith. It may not be particularly well founded, but there's no reason for ad hominem attacks.

emptiedriver · 2020-11-11T06:40:41+00:00

Someone who has medically transitioned doing things that are not physically disproportionate doesn't bother me. The only thing that would be unfair here is whether you allow plastic surgery into your beauty pageants, but I don't really understand what the rules of these kinds of contests are to start with...

emptiedriver · 2020-07-11T09:13:32+00:00

I'm afraid pretty much everything you've said is very standard TERF nowadays. Even the acronym is not claiming some kind of hate, but just being an "exclusionary feminist", so if you are going make a distinction between trans women and women, then that's the TE right there... and I think plenty of them think they're being too nice to give us the RF at all. Any distinction is hatred, which really does end up meaning recognizing sex is real is hatred, so when they come back saying "oh of course sex is real, jeezus" the conversation becomes very belabored. But, I'd be willing to have it if people would engage!

emptiedriver · 2022-11-22T11:36:10+00:00

both are pretty gross. There was a whole "reveal" of the subculture of child beauty pageants in the 90s bc it was considered weird by most mainstream people and maybe kind of creepy.

But there is no need to create another weird-maybe-creepy subculture that might traumatize children, and definitely no need to try to assimilate it into our standard popular culture. Beauty pageants and drag shows can both wait until after puberty, if people want to look into it. Let kids be kids.

emptiedriver · 2022-04-19T12:02:54+00:00

what a complete tangle of confusing stupidity. How do they speak like this and manage to maintain any level of basic rational awareness...

emptiedriver · 2021-12-10T17:13:47+00:00

oh, ok, it said they didn't take a test for "learning disabilities" so I was thinking things like ADD or dyslexia... if it's a more serious mental handicap that would be different. (Although, that would also seem like it would be pretty easy to notice who fits the profile)

emptiedriver · 2021-12-10T13:13:25+00:00

how is having intellectual disabilities relevant to physical sports anyway... that seems like a really questionable category

emptiedriver · 2021-09-30T15:57:29+00:00

Is that directed to me?

emptiedriver · 2021-08-28T08:01:25+00:00

This is a confusing study. It says "of your preferred gender" who is transgender, so does that mean if you're a lesbian would you date a trans man? Or is it asking if you'd date a transbian? Given that the numbers are so similar between whether you're okay with GNC and whether you're okay with trans, it seems like many may have just thought that was basically the same thing.

emptiedriver · 2021-08-27T12:32:01+00:00

i get a little depressed looking at other subs here most of the time, feeling like, wow are ideas as simple as "sex is real" now considered conspiracy theories? And then I start thinking, oh geez, are these other ideas not as wacky as I think they are... and look around for a minute, and usually come back to, nope, they are. Kind of a weird trip. It's not bad to test your boundaries a little bit (though in some cases it can just feel gross or like a waste of time).

All to say - I mostly stick to the gender critical stuff.

emptiedriver · 2021-08-07T10:11:14+00:00

what a random assortment of different opinions. And pretty much none of them are the least bit discriminatory? Was the worst something like "they should be nicer"?

I'm on the "worst" possible end apparently simply for acknowledging how human reproduction works, but could move way up the scale if I decided to support them because "it's trendy"... hilarious. I guess it's revealing in its way.

emptiedriver · 2021-04-12T09:47:53+00:00

I guess I would ask-- is she forceful about her beliefs?

I think part of the problem/ frustration with gender ideology is that since it is a socially supported system, one almost has to be forceful in order for it to hold any water. If you can't get other people to acknowledge and validate you as your chosen gender, what does it even mean? Could anyone be trans alone on a desert island? You'd just be a person with a body. Maybe you could obsess over it and alter it as you stared at your own reflection but really you need other people to use your pronouns and your new name and complement you or give you a pass in accordance with the gender you're trying to attain.

I know a trans man who always posts the most ridiculous "dude" type of posts that no one I know would respond to if it was actually someone's brother, but bc it's someone showing what a guy they are, anytime they post something like "just having a beer and watching the game!" like a dozen alternative-artsy-lesbian type people write things like "right on, my man!" It's a complete farce as far as I can tell, all done in hopes of helping this person feel they are correctly achieving manliness.

Someone can be religious without external support. They can talk to their pastor or congregation about it and not with you, they can pray or write about it for themselves but consider it private, they can even have a fairly public religious worldview, but agree to disagree about some fundamental issues as long as you're respectful. But in trans ideology, it is automatically disrespectful to not already support the facade, and while this can work when it's a rare thing, it's more cumbersome when it's regular. I used to just use preferred pronouns when they only came up on the odd chance I'd be having a conversation that referenced a tiny handful of trans people in my circle - like bowing your head at the occasional ceremony where someone else leads a prayer.

But if it starts to be the case that everywhere you go starts and ends with prayers, and you're now required to say "amen" and if you don't you're called a bigot, your atheism starts to seem more important - or at least your right to it. And people who aren't seeing any problem are definitely frustrating...

emptiedriver · 2021-03-24T13:27:04+00:00

I cannot find any evidence that she is a pedophile or has raped kids. Can you?

His father was convicted of raping a 10 year old girl, and his husband has posted those tweets as well as fantasy stories about child sex, and Challenor has maintained good relations with both of them, defending them or erasing any mention of problems when possible. He has also self-identified as a "little" which basically means lover of pedophiles. He may have been a victim in the beginning since he started to become a public figure before he was probably of age, but he's an adult now and part of a community that considers this okay.

emptiedriver · 2021-03-23T15:16:18+00:00

When I was in high school "feminazi" was the preferred term for women who took this whole rights thing too far. Comparing people to Hitler when they start being mean or asking you to do stuff you don't want is just how unchallenged overprivileged kids handle the start of a disagreement.

emptiedriver · 2021-03-22T14:40:40+00:00

It means, if we implement suggestions of GC, like: * no hormonal blockers for teens, even if gender dysphoria was proper diagnosted

How can you be sure you "properly diagnose" dysphoria when someone is still developing? There are so many stages people go through and at this point we barely know what the long term consequences of the medical options are going to be, so waiting until someone is 18 is not radical. It's just allowing time to pursue therapeutic, self-affirming, body-positive approaches before turning to serious, lifelong biological alterations. It seems better to allow healthy natural changes to happen and provide psychological support than to support psychological discordance by damaging the body. Or at very least, to try that until the person has fully matured and can take responsibility for the consequences.

change gender markers in the ID cards back to sex at the birth

What about noting FtM or MtF? It seems important in emergencies for doctors to know what the sex of someone is, for example, and lying on historical documents is just strange. I understand wishing for things to be different, but part of mental health is accepting reality.

It could lead for millions of deaths. So, we're pathetic. Nobody want to feel that it's they responsibility of massacre.

It is not a massacre, and no one is responsible for someone else's self harm. Everyone agrees that it's important to help people who suffer from suicidal ideation to work toward a more stable and healthy state of mind, but that does not mean caving to their every demand. In fact it often means helping them see why those kinds of dramatic ultimatums are not consistent with a realistic and satisfying way of living.

emptiedriver · 2021-03-12T16:26:17+00:00

wow, this is incredible. I feel like this has not got enough exposure - how did this not scare the bejeezus out of everyone, peak anyone still asleep and bring together LGB movements to ensure they had safeguards and clear defenses laid out? But I guess the big LGBT orgs are already infiltrated by money, happy enough to take up that cause if it's what's next, and people who actually find this sickening have no power.

Still. This could not be acceptable to most people. It's only that it is allowed to be planned in Silicon Valley and people are allowed to be more unwell online or something...

emptiedriver · 2021-03-08T09:35:12+00:00

Colbert even said something the other day about looking at an earlier production (Strangers with Candy) and reacting with "did I really write that??"... These days I think Seth Meyers may be holding up best. I guess everyone gets old, but there doesn't seem to be a new generation of the young edgy crowd.

I think everything has become offensive. People are accused all the time of crossing lines so comedians have to be careful, and while now and then some banter will play out well, too much of monologues and bits are just politically correct commentary and fart jokes.

emptiedriver · 2021-02-19T08:36:24+00:00

why are there four? (what is the difference between the last two examples.. fauxginas?)

emptiedriver · 2021-02-08T09:57:21+00:00

it's helplessly being used - crossing its arms, unhappy face, and stepped on directly by the T as the Q holds it up to make a platform for the T, and the A both holds it up and sort of hangs off it precariously for balance. I really think it's well done.

emptiedriver · 2021-01-05T17:30:21+00:00

is this a joke? Would anyone even possibly mistake this person for a woman? Is it specific to the "ultabeauty" as in "why would someone be mean to me at the beauty parlor when I clearly need their help"? I honestly do not understand

emptiedriver · 2020-11-10T08:45:43+00:00

he's been defunding and breaking down a lot of government departments and putting incompetents in charge - pretty much what he said he would and what followers think they want, but it's worrying. Cutting oversight or regulation for pollution or drug manufacture or working conditions or international affairs, bc the "market will sort it out" but of course, the market won't do shit, rich people will control things as they like, and we'll be in a lot of trouble. I have a relative who works for a state dept in eastern europe who was very worried about the whole agency just basically being dissolved under Trump as it had already been reduced significantly, and it already had a real impact on the stability of the democracy where he was living.

It's a nice fantasy that without a government everything will just fall into place, but in reality, you either put the rich in power or set things up for war. That's what Trump was doing.

The Dems are full of issues, but at least they have a basic understanding of political science.

emptiedriver · 2020-11-07T16:06:30+00:00

what possible excuses would they need to explain that Biden won? He got more votes. THat's how elections work. Some of them weren't counted until later but you can look at the counties, the numbers, the percentages, anywhere you like. More people chose Biden over Trump and it's hardly a surprise. It wouldn't have been a complete shock if more people chose Trump, it was pretty close, but it turned out more or less how it was expected to. Don't be an idiot.

You can call your fellow countrymen idiots for disagreeing, but that's how it is. More people chose the boring but stable guy who might raise some taxes over the wacky culty liar who says he won't but who f*king knows what he'd do anyway.

emptiedriver · 2020-11-02T14:38:10+00:00

Right, and nowadays people say it's about their gender identity. The point is, people find ways to express various desires to be different, and it can shift with cultural trends. If you look at the big picture, somehow there are less people with a fundamental need to focus on music and more people with a serious gender crisis 20 years later, but otherwise they're behaving just the same.

Maybe they just think it's about the music - or the gender.

emptiedriver · 2020-09-09T07:37:55+00:00

I’m living abroad and I gotta say, things don’t look good from here. Maybe you don’t think it’s possible Trump could become some kind of authoritarian dictator, but no one ever votes one in on purpose. His best friends are Kim Jong Il and Putin. He has openly said war heroes are losers. He incites the fighting between different portions of the country and supports people who carry guns and shoot protesters. NOthing he’s done ever looked like it was going to be possible, including getting elected to start with.

Trump needs to be voted out unquestionably. This is no time to fuss over the ways Biden is not great. That means even if your vote is in a totally non-important, already-decided state, it still has to be clear we are all rejecting this fascist.

As for the Equality Act, it’s going to come to the table at some point, and maybe it’s better we get it there now. Having Trump there would just confuse the discussion since he would presumably reject it for the wrong reasons. Biden can promise to pass it, but if enough people make it clear why it’s not actually fair legislature, the debate will get stalled and the conversation will get out into the open, which is what we need.

emptiedriver · 2020-09-07T08:03:03+00:00

do you think the executive branch only has power over one judge's seat? It isn't just the supreme court but the entire judicial branch that is affected by the administration in office. That is one of the main things that the president can do.

This is no time to "pull the country left". If we lose this election, the DNC won't say, oh darn we should go more left next time - first off because believe it or not, voting for someone else isn't a clear message. Some people will vote further right. Some people will vote for no one. If you want to push things left, vote for left wing city council members and state senators and work with your local labor union. But more relevant, if we lose this election it's not clear there will be a next time.

emptiedriver · 2020-08-31T10:13:29+00:00

seriously, it is hilarious they put people down for being "vagina fetishists" but at the same time make such a point of "not kink shaming" - clearly they do not actually believe that a lesbian or a straight man is a "fetishist" since then they would not be so shamed for this preference!

No, it's just for some reason a moral shame they can allow - it's unacceptable to shame someone for rape fantasies, but to shame them for desiring a penis consensually is okay? It's terrible to shame someone for identifying as a person who chokes and dominates but you can shame them if they identify as someone who clitorally stimulates? If they actually listed the facts in their own words and compared ideas rationally they would see how ridiculous it all was but that's not how these things work...

emptiedriver · 2020-08-26T10:23:30+00:00

it. was. a. joke.

emptiedriver · 2020-08-21T07:52:49+00:00

To be honest, I'm bothered by American culture for looking at a poster of some young girls dancing and immediately thinking "oh no people will want to f*ck them!" That isn't what comes to my mind when I look at it. How do we handle men at a beach or when the weather is warm?

Sure, they could have chosen a different poster, but I don't think girls should feel like they can't dance because some men are perverts. That is not the right message. This isn't pedophilia.

emptiedriver · 2020-08-13T14:10:31+00:00

I think it makes just as much sense to want to opt out of either gender as to want to transition to the other gender, when all that "gender" means is the stereotypical role of the sex. No one is actually going to change sex. They are just changing what stereotype they play, so a non-binary is choosing to not follow the pre-defined A or B, pink or blue, lipstick or facial hair, and instead mix it up.

Obviously that should just be called "personality". Having a cervix doesn't indicate whether you like high heels or boots or flip flops or nikes. It's not non-binary to dye your hair green or wear one earring or black lipstick or whatever.. (we used to call it goth) - it's not an identity, just a style.

emptiedriver · 2020-08-10T16:16:37+00:00

well, probably many of them are already aiming to be young girls so they've got a mission established, and they were able to take over a previously legitimized diagnosis by adopting the name of "transgender", which had been originally filled by people who were physically or mentally suffering and trying to get treatments and surgeries to deal with it in some way [whether a good way or not], rather than people who were just fantasizing.

I don't think there are many people who are actually suffering due to a dissociation with their race - perhaps some, but gender is an easier place to have problems dealing with your body, due to sexual abuse, non-conforming issues, orientation acceptance, basic puberty/change stuff... for those who are fantasizing, it's easier to follow those who were really willing to put up with hardship. Maybe someday race-transition could "follow" gender, but it wouldn't follow seriously suffering race-dysphoria patients.

emptiedriver · 2020-08-10T14:10:21+00:00

Maybe you should post this to GCdebatesQT?

My sense is simply that there haven't been a lot of people claiming to be transracial, and the few who have don't seem to pursue any life-changing procedures because of it. Even if not all transgender people do that, at least some of them did, which gave it a level of seriousness that has now been extended to anyone who identifies themselves with the word - which not all trans people are happy about, either.

emptiedriver · 2020-07-30T10:02:47+00:00

Guess what? They agree with you!

Humans have sexual orientations. Some are bisexual but everyone gets that sex of a sexual partner matters even if they're in denial.

emptiedriver · 2020-07-29T17:12:59+00:00

oh they don't even have to "blame" feminists... the ability to correlate feminists with this guy will be plenty. Anyone who is anything less than one billion percent supportive of anything TRAs say is obviously just another Trump supporter...

emptiedriver · 2020-07-23T12:29:30+00:00

got laughed off the face of the earth in like

No one is laughed off the face of the earth anymore, you can identify any which way you want - the only thing you can't do is be aware of empirical reality, attracted by physical bodies, or comfortable with your embodied self.

Basically people are acting like they live in a video game and we all have to respect the avatar they're playing. You can pretty much constantly expand the world and create new forms but you can't be a bummer and point out that actually they're just a lazy kid on the couch...

emptiedriver · 2020-07-16T13:58:16+00:00

"I'm biologically female..." See, you understand.

emptiedriver · 2022-11-03T08:34:53+00:00

I don't know exactly what her book says, but how do you guys see capitalism as something which can just continue in its current form without end?

Oil is, by definition, a limited resource. BP projected 53 years to go at current rates, https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/world-energy-day-2014-how-much-oil-left-how-long-will-it-last-1471200 in 2014. That may seem like enough for you, but if you have kids or grandkids or know people thinking about having kids, 2067 is not an imaginary date anymore. Anyone born now will definitely be dealing with this.

And yes, you can say, "we can find more oil, we figured out fracking and deep sea drilling, we'll find some other method!" - but that isn't the point. That only extends the problem a few more years. It is going to run out. It's made of fossils, and until we have another few million years for fossils to turn into oil, we are using up the last of a limited thing. It might make a lot of money, because rich people will pay the most to have it, but it's not a fair way to divide a scarce and valuable resource.

I don't think anyone wants to "overthrow" or reject the rule of law. People want to reign in the greed & competitive materialism that is driving the overuse of our limited resources and find a better way to organize and distribute our shared potential.

Maybe it's impossible because humans are too corrupt, but all the same, capitalism is going to have to go through a major overhaul as the reality of oil scarcity becomes more obvious, and we can either try to plan for it, or deal with a lot of chaos, war & terror.

emptiedriver · 2022-07-23T09:19:38+00:00

probably just trying to milk donations to his gofundme or whatever. I'm sure he makes most of his living through the internet or some community of tattoo enthusiasts not by working in an office or driving a bus. He made that decision and has to have known what it would mean, and any doctors or loved ones who helped him achieve his bizarre, unnecessary, and probably harmful modifications knew it too

emptiedriver · 2022-07-18T10:53:41+00:00

the category "incel" is a self-defined group. You decide you belong to it by saying that you can't get something that you think you have some kind of entitlement to. But sex is an interaction between two people, not a thing anyone deserves or has a right to. To act like you should be granted sex is to completely dismiss the other human being who's part of the relationship. Even if it's casual sex there's a choice made, consent to enjoy something together - nothing's being withheld if you aren't having sex. It's like not having friends or no one coming to your parties or liking your music. That's on you.

No one hates people who are born into a category of "incel" but if you define yourself as an incel, you are saying you're a self-pitying asshole who has no respect for women's self-determination. Kinda putting yourself in an unlikable group.

your list of why to hate other groups is pretty unbearably racist, btw, might want to tone that down too

emptiedriver · 2022-07-17T15:54:31+00:00

First of all, I said, the argument I'm seeing more commonly isn't that the cops should have been heroes but that this proves that the answer is not having more cops around but rather that we just need to get guns out of the hands of the public. Having more cops & more guns does not do any good, because it would take acts of bravery and sacrifice far beyond the call of duty for there even to be a chance at anyone being saved, and even if they tried they would probably fail.

Should they have tried? As you say, they would be running a major risk and probably just "join the casualty list". But, 21 civilians were killed, so one could argue that someone who takes on a job that includes within its job description this kind of risk is a more acceptable target than a child or a schoolteacher, so if more cops were killed but less children, perhaps that would be acceptable.

Of course, no one could ever know what the numbers would be or would have been "if" actions were different. It all comes down to the choice at the moment, and no one can have heroism demanded of them. It is often unsuccessful and can seem tragic even if it were to reduce potential deaths (ie, if 10 civilians died and 5 cops died stopping the gunman, we wouldn't have known it might have been worse..).

People aren't superheroes, so preventive measures are the most important way to avoid these dangerous situations.

emptiedriver · 2022-07-16T15:40:41+00:00

what general reaction are you seeing? What I've mostly seen is people saying, how can we even pretend that "good guys with guns" can possibly be any use in these types of situations when they are as sickeningly helpless here as they are, with all the gear and back up they could ask for, and up against only one teenager with only one gun in the most dire of situations (that is, masses of screaming children dying as the minutes pass).

Perhaps we might have imagined a little more heroism from the professionals, but it's true that heroism usually just results in greater casualties, so what can ya do. What it makes blatantly and unquestionably clear is that no amount of protective services or trained officers or safety measures will be any help if there are still assault rifles available to testosterone fueled psychos.

emptiedriver · 2022-06-06T10:34:02+00:00

come on, that's totally different, many of them get the questions right, the questions are more difficult, and when they're wrong they are usually making at least somewhat rational guesses. There are a few examples of dumb responses, but to not know who was the first president to live in the white house or to think Virginia was the first US state isn't embarrassing. The kids in the other video literally could not do basic arithmetic and were guessing "Africa" was a border country? Like I said, I could figure ways to allow for certain things - vocabulary changes, some history may be specialized - but some knowledge should be pretty standard.

emptiedriver · 2022-06-04T10:19:04+00:00

I know that it's edited and selected, so he could go through hundreds of people before finding the ones who can't answer the questions, and then dozens of questions until he finds the ones that stump them. And I know that there could be reasons for ignorance in some cases - maybe some of them were recent immigrants and didn't learn american history from an early age, maybe some of them spoke ESL so that words like dozen/decade were less familiar... if you moved to Sweden when you were ten, learning the language would be the big hurdle, getting the details of their history or geography straight would be more work.

But, even being that generous it's hard to believe some of these answers... How quickly multiple people answered "I don't know" for 3x3x3 was just weird -do they not teach math anymore? And how many didn't know countries from continents or have any idea which ones were where was pretty sad. I am curious what is really average.

emptiedriver · 2022-06-01T09:19:46+00:00

I mean, isn't it both? Obviously someone will have mental problems if they'll go shoot schoolchildren, but just as obviously, they'll have a gun. We should try to do something about both. Try to provide healthcare and support to reduce mental problems, and try to regulate gun access so that people who are likely to be unstable can't get them.

What's the hold up? Do both, do whichever's easier first, no disagreement here!

emptiedriver · 2022-05-31T11:10:46+00:00

Just wanted to say, as bad as it seems to you now, just remember that not all that long ago you would not have even really been able to come up with the idea of "lesbian" in high school, at least not as anything other than a direct insult, and you certainly would not have proclaimed it openly... maybe at a progressive college you'd have found some other women and started figuring it out, but plenty of people would have had a lot to say about how you just hadn't tried sleeping with the right men & you almost certainly would have tried it at some point just bc that was what counted as sex. Being a "gold star lesbian" was truly unusual bc that meant you figured out you were gay before you became sexually active...

So it sucks that things are going backwards instead of forwards, but we really have gone way forwards in the last few decades, and we're not as far back as before the gay rights movement at least :). It's pretty cool you've got confidence and comfort with yourself and an ability to find others like you.

emptiedriver · 2022-05-31T10:59:54+00:00

Though men have to keep their member functioning the whole time, so there's no "lay back and think of England" option... I do think the Kinsey scale or something like it is useful to communicate a range.

emptiedriver · 2022-05-30T14:11:59+00:00

expats still have passports and vote, but you have a nice day too..

emptiedriver · 2022-05-30T07:30:32+00:00

so just to be clear, if a gang of angry & testosterone-hyped 18 year olds came into a school shooting at kindergarteners, and the staff or hired guards had to pull out guns to shoot back, and after a little mini-war the staff won and there was a bloody mess with some amount of "collateral damage" but the main attackers had been shot, you'd think that would be a success? You'd think schoolchildren witnessing murder would be part of the "animating contest of freedom" just because the good guys win in the end?

Life's not a video game. That's completely deranged. Even most soldiers who return from war suffer from trauma and PTSD due to what they've seen, and they're trained and ready for killing. Ordinary people, especially children, should not live like that. I hope the US can figure out how to self-govern bc it's a beautiful continent and I would like to be able to come back to the land. But the country as an institution has some work to do

emptiedriver · 2022-05-29T15:00:39+00:00

I actually live overseas now. I'm an american citizen but work abroad in a first world country where guns aren't really an issue.

I was not defending anyone. I was just pointing out that the idea that this was a good outcome was weird. This was horrific. Going out and experiencing someone trying to shoot at us and then someone else shooting back and watching a human being bleed to death would be traumatic. I am not making moral judgments, I'm just saying, that's not civilized. That's not living in a socially responsible culture. That's reveling in a kind of Mad Max lifestyle, which, I guess, if that's what you're into, then go for it, but I'd rather live in a place where kids can run out in the street together and play and learn and people can gather and talk and live happily in relative peace & security...

emptiedriver · 2022-05-29T13:28:46+00:00

I love how they report this as "no one was hurt". I mean, a man was killed. Yes, a man who was trying to kill other people, so it was not undeserved, but it's not like this was some lovely peaceful night out. That still sounds f*cked up. If you go to a party and people start shooting at each other and someone ends up bloody and dead at the end of it, that's not a good situation. That's not the "greatest country on earth". If that's a normal, expected component of going out, you're living in some kind of post-civilization dystopian hellscape.

emptiedriver · 2022-03-09T09:09:32+00:00

Consider how much "misinformation" turned out to be correct. How Russia is currently banning "misinformation."

but how are they doing it? By having rich people in power who can determine what information gets promoted. There are not fairly voted offices that have put agreed upon terms into a public square and talked about why or why not certain information is okay or not okay. They are just seeing which guys are able to shout the loudest.

Regulation is like having an FDA or laws against fraud, except that they apply to public information instead of food or private cases. If the same companies that own a profitable drug company are able to put out a lot of news stories about how so many people are suffering from vague symptoms that really should be medically treated, and then a lot of people go to their doctor saying "I think I have these vague symptoms" and the drug company says "we have this drug that is just the thing", doctors might feel more helpful if they can prescribe it and patients might feel more secure if they can take something. Even if it's all just sort of placebo effect or poorly understood problems, the drug company makes huge amounts of money before patients get tired of taking pills that it turns out weren't that helpful. If the FDA isn't stringent about what drugs are available - and they're not, lots of things are on the market and can be prescribed "off label" - doctors can end up being drug pushers because patients are lured into thinking common everyday feelings might be signs of syndromes or conditions by lobbyists, writers, and advertisers for these companies. They even call a whole branch of pharmaceuticals "lifestyle" drugs because they see it as the goal to get everyone taking something. That is a biased perspective. It's not the same as "free speech"

emptiedriver · 2022-03-08T16:51:18+00:00

hm, you are really misunderstanding the argument or you just didn't read it. No one is saying they "want more censorship" but that censorship is now able to emerge through other means, ie, through people who have money being able to control what information gets prioritized. We need laws to make sure information is regulated in the sense that truth needs to be tracked by some means other than a pure free-for-all, because in that model, there is a fight for attention and audience that can be won through marketing. It's not censorship to be more strict about what has to be backed up before it can be promoted as fact. That can happen on both sides.

emptiedriver · 2022-02-09T16:09:10+00:00

Obviously the very concept of being bisexual... or even, not bisexual... would be transphobic. At some point, you just have to be attracted to everyone or you're transphobic. I mean, what are you against? If you're distinguishing sexes, you can't determine which one is which until after they decide to tell you, and they might not have told you yet, so maybe you were attracted to that one after all.

I mean what if they have not come out? That doesn't mean they're not already whatever they ultimately are going to realize they are, so if you have a relationship with a woman who breaks up with you and later realizes she's a man, then you were attracted to men the whole time. So everyone is potentially attracted to everyone, stop trying to limit things. Unless you're trans, of course.

emptiedriver · 2022-02-05T17:44:21+00:00

Courage begets courage.

I do think this is the key thing. There are probably more people who don't believe this crap than who do, but the ones who do are more fervent. They have scared a portion of those who disagree from speaking up, and then another percentage of people think it's a side issue that doesn't matter much. It's sort of a scale from those who feel frustrated by a fear of social ostracism to those who are just trying to avoid conflict - who cares if it's true, let's not fight over it, kinda thing.

So what matters now is to make it clear that both a) it is important and does have serious consequences especially for women's and LGB rights, as well as many individuals' health and well-being; and b) there are plenty of people who agree on the basic facts at hand here, and we should all be speaking up more often in more places so that it's more evident to those nearby that it's a common, established, politically variable, simply fundamental position to hold. Anyone can say "there are two sexes" and "men cannot be women" - we've got to remind people those are ordinary things to be stating, and that we are not taking the nonsense seriously, by being clear about it whenever there's a chance.

emptiedriver · 2021-12-28T14:07:39+00:00

I saw it and cannot possibly grasp wtf interpretation this person is trying to project. There's really no trans or gender bendy stuff anywhere & the center story is about the desire of a hetero couple.

emptiedriver · 2021-12-18T17:10:15+00:00

It might have been here a little while back... Unbelievable just how clueless people can be. It is hard to tell if they are living in fantasy or if people are indulging them for the moment or what exactly is going on, but it's hard to imagine that this is a long term plan. It's mostly sad to me just how much lack of bodily self awareness she has.

emptiedriver · 2021-11-14T16:03:54+00:00

It's not a "hole", it's a vagina. It's a muscular canal that leads to a cervix, which is part of an organ, connected to tubes which release gametes on a cycle. It's part of an entire system that is regulated by hormones and over time helped to organize a bunch of other elements of the active biological unity that is you.

There are plenty of other things that can be "holes" and if they were all the same, then it wouldn't matter, would it - but somehow, it's not about holes. It's about the whole person, who has a complete body that is not just a generic doll with a random detachable set of "junk." You're a living person. Accept your vagina.

emptiedriver · 2021-10-09T16:21:47+00:00

I think of the concept of peaking as like the straw the broke the camel's back - it's come to be used for educating anyone in any scenario about trans stuff, but I originally remember it as referencing your own peak, which was, when did you hit that tipping point that made you just go, oh, wait. This just does not make any sense! After which all the things that had been sort of foggy but accepted as politically expected became clear because the whole thing was BS.

So peaking someone else would be helping them to reach that last straw and get over the libfem stuff that's been blinding them, and that's why it doesn't work the other way, because the TQ version is just paradoxical. Being pro diversity is one thing but claiming that men are women is just misunderstanding the basic biological realities of the human bodies. That's why once you've peaked you see clearly that physical bodies are not performance art. We can build different societies that are better attuned to various individuals and don't expect the same behavior from people just because they belong to categories, but to just say the categories are non existent when they are literally how every single person is born is incoherent.

emptiedriver · 2021-10-04T16:06:54+00:00

Every. Single. Time... Like, is there ever a discussion among TRAs about GC ideas where they don't resort to violence? It is so incredible. They just cannot stand the simple boring truth sitting in front of them. It drives them completely bonkers.

emptiedriver · 2021-10-01T08:13:50+00:00

You're picking apart the male and female, with hair and mastectomies, etc. in the same way that trans people try and pick apart the sexes. This strikes me as the same nature of argument.

what? But I'm doing the exact opposite! I'm saying, a woman with a mastectomy is still a woman. TRAs would say that would make her a man. How is that the same at all? My entire point is that all those little details have no impact on what sex a person is. They're just individuated traits of a person. A bearded lady is still a lady. You are what sex you are, no matter what surgeries and specifics you try to change.

If I were capable of taking a man and making him indiscernibly anatomically, psychologically female, then our hitherto man could be an erotic target for other, heterosexual men. Perhaps if the secret were revealed, then the attraction would vanish--and I think this is the salient part of the conversation.

well, to me this does not make sense. How do you make someone "indiscernibly anatomically, psychologically female" but then not actually female? What does that even mean? To me, a person is what they materially are. If it were possible to turn someone female, then they'd be female, but it's not possible. At very least they would always have the psychology of having been male to start with (meaning, having had a male anatomy) but I simply do not think creating an entirely new human body to replace who you already are is a realistic or worthwhile enterprise.

Injecting hormones and doing cosmetic surgery is superficial, and ultimately when you get to know a person and get to know their body, you get to know their sex. That's part of intimacy and while you may hide your sex from acquaintances or aloof coworkers, you are not going to keep it from those you get to know better, and you are certainly not going to keep a partner in the dark.

I think we have to concede this point to the transgender crowd. Were the medical technology sufficient...

If the technology were sufficient to turn myself into a bat, I could be a bat. But it's not, and I'm not, and I don't know what it's like to be a bat. You can't just cut a few things off to turn into a woman or to stop being a man. There is a whole different layout, you are born with every egg that you will menstruate... and a boy is aware of his penis from a young age and that affects how he thinks too. They are two different paths.

it is not just the sex of a person that strikes our desire, or or dislike

I never said it was, but for those who have a limitation based on sex, that limitation applies in the same way to trans people - based on their sex, not their self identity.

Bisexuals have opposite-sex interests. Homosexuals do not, and this is what makes them special. I don't understand homosexuals as people with same-sex attraction. I understand homosexuals as people lacking opposite-sex attraction.

This is a very interesting thought, but I still think it's too sweeping. Some homosexuals specifically seek out "opposite sex presenting" members of their own sex, as in the butch-femme or big daddy/ bear to sissy type relations that have often been considered typical. Our stereotypes of gay men and lesbians have always been the GNC ones. If anyone was naturally going to look like they landed in the middle, they'd have been accused of being gay in the past. Now, we think they must be trans, and all too often, they will push the natural non-conformity all the way to the other side, so that at least they can conform with something even if it is now the wrong sex. Someone who would have been a masculine lesbian can now be a straight-appearing man! Except, of course, that she is not actually a man and might be caused health problems by any medical interventions.

But would you say she is more likely to be dating straight women or lesbians? Or would only bisexual women give her the time of day?

emptiedriver · 2021-09-30T16:09:11+00:00

but for the masculinity and male secondary traits . A bisexual shouldn't have problem with it.

why? Or, why should a lesbian have a problem with "masculine" traits?

If we're in agreement that there are only two sexes, then whatever traits a person has are just their individual traits. If someone has short hair, that doesn't make them masculine or feminine. If someone has a mastectomy, that's just their individual body. A lesbian could still love a woman with a mastectomy - that's not a masculine trait. There are women who naturally grow beards, and lesbians who'd be happy to date them.

A trans person is just a deluded person who thinks certain traits make them male or female. But they don't. They simply are male or female. And then they have whatever traits they have. A lot of people would not be attracted to someone who amputates parts of their body or takes unnecessary drugs to try to achieve cosmetic effects, but that is not because those outcomes make them too masculine or feminine. It's because they're mentally unwell.

The point is, everyone might have their particular preferences, but by definition any orientation could date a trans person of the physical sex they are oriented toward. A woman dating a trans man (woman who identifies as male) is in a lesbian relationship.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-30T10:21:12+00:00

a) not all trans people are on hormones these days with "self ID" but more importantly b) that was the whole point of the original poster. Bisexuals are also sexually attracted to people. They are attracted to women as women, and men as men. If a lesbian is not going to be attracted to a trans man because she has altered her body with weird hormones, don't assume a bisexual person would have any more interest, just because they like both sexes.

The question is just whether you can be attracted to a person who has taken hormones, had surgeries or has weird fantasies. But, orientation-wise, it's open to anyone (and some people might enjoy the presentation but the real attraction is going to be to the actual sex, so a man attracted to trans women is gay or bi, etc)

emptiedriver · 2021-09-30T10:02:34+00:00

No, I'm saying the "real parts" are the parts that match. A lesbian can be attracted to a trans man - a woman who identifies as a man - as easily as a bisexual person could. It is nothing to do with how they identify, it's do with what is actually the case.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-30T09:55:30+00:00

why would you distinguish between pan and bi? There are just two sexes, so everyone belongs to one of them. We might not be attracted to a man or woman who's had radical cosmetic surgery and has weird fetishes, or whatever, but that doesn't alter what sex they are.

They aren't a third category - a trans man is just a woman, who you might have no interest in dating, but some bi people and some lesbians might be open to it. No gay man would be, by definition, since if he's attracted he's attracted to women.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-30T09:47:42+00:00

Not really, a lesbian could be attracted to a trans man or a gay man to a trans woman just as easily as a bisexual to either of them.

If a bisexual is attracted to both it's only because they don't care which sex they are, but they're still whichever sex they are, in which case, hetero or homosexual people can still be attracted to the trans people of the sex (not "gender") they prefer.

*edit: reading further comments I think that's what you were getting at...? *edit2: nope :)

emptiedriver · 2021-09-30T09:17:36+00:00

well, she looks good and should be respected without wearing a shirt whether she's male or female. Obviously she's female but it's fucked up that women are dismissed with "nice tits" if they go top free while men are seen as hot & handsome in the same scenario. That's exactly the sort of attitude that pushes women to think they need to transition instead of being comfortable in the bodies they actually have.

I hope we can get through this mess to a "post gender" type state where she can be happy like that but not have to betray her sex for it. There are all types of women.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-29T12:48:25+00:00

First off, no, the word 'European' does not mean I have a European passport.

Well, I'm American but living in Europe and would never call myself European. As far as I understand the meaning of the word, it only refers to people who are citizens of European countries. I have a residence card, but I still have to go to the American consulate to take care of official papers.

Still, that's just semantics - you are saying that you can be European and American at the same time if you have an American passport and live in Europe. Are you then trying to say that you can be a man and a woman at the same time if you are male but presenting as female?

So, that would be a no. Because they are transgender. Exclusionary vocabulary.

How do we know if something is exclusionary when the definitions are so hazy... a transgender female is not a woman because "transgender" is exclusive, but a trans woman is a woman because "trans" is just an adjective, is that right?

I mean, they COULD, but now you're getting into the realm of having multiple words to describe you, and having to pick the best one for any situation. To take from my example from earlier that you didn't understand, I am European, and American (A native of Europe, a permanent resident of America.) The answer to 'what' I am, in this case, isn't a definitive answer, but a social answer, because in most cases, just saying 'both' isn't helpful.

So... you are both a man and a woman but it's "not helpful" to say both? That it isn't really exclusionary vocabulary in any other sense except you deciding to exclude one of the definitions.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-29T09:21:03+00:00

If I tell you I'm European, does that tell you I'm a European native or a person who lives in Europe?

If you're European, you have a European passport. That means you're a native. Someone living abroad is not European but a European resident. They still belong to the country that they have the passport from, unless they go through the process to change their citizenship.

It is possible to change citizenship, of course, while it is not possible to change sex. One is an artificial distinction created by human borders while the other is a physical reality.

'Adult human female or transgender male'

If any kind of female or a certain kind of male is a woman, does that mean that a transgender female is also a woman? Why would a transgender female not belong under "adult human female"? Is a transgender person not also an adult human person?

emptiedriver · 2021-09-25T07:22:11+00:00

sorry, i'm just not following.. if gender is just a role play, it isn't really relevant to who you're attracted to, at least not consistently, & it's only really for bisexuals anyway in which case "you just haven't found the right girl" can be true: just find a more boyish girl or a more girlish boy, and you won't be gay anymore. (Or what is it you're getting at, bc I admit I'm finding this confusing)

emptiedriver · 2021-09-24T13:34:08+00:00

but it's inaccurate. it's claiming people are attracted to what kind of haircut you have not which body, and yes people like trans to avoid thinking of their kids as having sex, but that isn't making the whole thing healthy, it's making gay kids hide in a trans closet that is more dangerous than the old fashioned version bc now you are getting meds and surgeries not just being quiet... I don't see the benefit

emptiedriver · 2021-09-17T08:51:37+00:00

Is he using "his girl" as in his girlfriend, or his guh..ewrldick.

Not to validate that mentality, just can't help seeing that mindset in the way he's framing things

emptiedriver · 2021-09-11T08:34:09+00:00

Good point - it's a lot less of a choice for men.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-10T08:03:17+00:00

The numbers probably changed rather dramatically after the gay rights movement. When I was young, the idea of a "gold star" especially for a lesbian was rare, because it had been rare to have the opportunity to come out until later in life, and people had been expected by peers to be dating in high school. Plenty of people "lost their virginity" or had standard hetero relationships during their adolescence/ college years, before figuring out or making public what they really wanted.

Now it's so well established that gay is a normal possibility that kids come out even before their first kiss and don't worry as much about hiding it from the world - maybe they won't share it with certain individuals, but most aren't in the closet to the degree that they have full relationships to try to fit in while they figure out who they are. Except of course, that things are changing again as a new generation is introduced to the idea that it's bigoted to have a "genital preference"...

emptiedriver · 2021-09-01T15:00:26+00:00

This is fantastic work, thanks for putting it together.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-01T14:23:32+00:00

“conversion therapy”, which is defined as practices, treatment or services designed to change an individual’s sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender or to reduce non-heterosexual sexual attraction or sexual behaviour

Yeah, that in itself is already confused. It seems like it's just pushing for people to be as "queer" as possible... if someone is given the option to be a trans man who dates women or a natal woman who dates women, you're accused of conversion therapy either way - your sexual orientation is made straight instead of gay but at least you're trans, or your sexual identity is cis instead of trans, but at least you're gay. But both options converted you to what would be socially normal in one sense: really you should be a trans man who dates men! Then you're both trans and gay!

Or in reality, a hetero woman, but who's paying attention.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-01T10:57:46+00:00

Part of what makes this hard is having to accept that people are legitimately stupider than you expect. Then, you do try to get across to everyone? Or just write off some portion as maybe-laters and try to figure out who to talk to... It's frustrating.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-01T10:03:48+00:00

it's dangerous for women, not women?

It's hard to get because of side effects, they said, then I found out, no, just sign an "informed consent" form and agree that "you can manage this" meaning the doctor tells you it's probably not that dangerous though there's not much evidence, but more importantly you consent to take responsibility if anything does go wrong?

So don't listen to concerned loved ones because profiteering medical professionals can get you the stuff. Great.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-01T09:20:26+00:00

That first tweet reply is crazy - "we're so disappointed" - is that how you normally respond to criminals? Seems a condescending attitude toward dangerous hate mongers. I'm also interested to see where things go...

emptiedriver · 2021-09-01T07:56:29+00:00

"GCs pretend that becoming trans can erase your gayness"

no, it's a way to hide your gayness by pretending you are the opposite sex. It doesn't change anything about reality, just avoids social stigma.

"they refuse to admit that you can transition into being gay."

Likewise, you can't change anything about reality. You can play as the other sex, and when it's done the other way around, to pretend you're gay instead of actually being straight, it's not to stop feelings of shame, but to stimulate social reaction, to touch on something understood as taboo, in other words, to excite a fetish.

In either case, it's just pretend though, and only with the goal of achieving the social benefits.

emptiedriver · 2021-09-01T07:37:52+00:00

I'm interested in the general environment you're dealing with since it's different from where I am (or how things were when I was younger)... how other students respond to these changes, what students seem to expect from their peers in performing these identities, what sort of cultural expectations have become normal, basically. Although, I'm also curious to just hear more details about individuals. My experiences with trans people have been mostly within the LGB community or in social settings so trying to be a center of attention is one thing then. But go into a professional or scholarly atmosphere and it's time to switch to a more serious or low key mode? or is that not really true for anyone anymore...

emptiedriver · 2021-08-31T16:36:29+00:00

did you disagree with them or learn anything new ? Like others, I want to hear more from QT people so would rather hear your response to what GC people say. If you were trying to understand something honestly and asked a question, rather than erase the responses you get, why not tell people "ah, I see what you're saying, here's why I think differently", or, "hm, that still doesn't make sense bc..." or whatever? If you just make it all go away, it feels like you would rather pretend you never heard an answer.

I know there were a lot of answers and you may have responded to many before erasing, but it still comes across as passive-aggressive to remove the whole conversation instead of at least explaining your position and bowing out if you're feeling there's too much antagonism.

emptiedriver · 2021-08-31T15:23:16+00:00

so any person with an interest in continuing the species is either an idiot or intentionally cruel? Is that something we can solve or should we end the human race?

emptiedriver · 2021-08-31T14:25:36+00:00

But I'm the only one who really suffers, the pain of everyone else is just a joke!

Take out the canned laughter, and why is uncontrollable erections or underwear sizing or bad skin so much easier than being jealous of girls? Maybe you're not the only one who hates their clothes or is worried about being labeled a freak? Maybe everyone is dealing with a mutating body and who they're attracted to?

Obviously there are plenty of other issues people face, but the way this was set up just seemed so unthinking. It made it look like two kids were trying to laugh things off, make lemonade out of lemons life throws your way, and then the third one whined about stuff and made things awkward not bc he was dealing with anything worse but bc he was a big annoying baby.

emptiedriver · 2021-08-30T17:17:04+00:00

Is this for real? I'd love to hear more details about your experiences, not just with the one insane student but in the many previous semesters where you've had this fairly steady 5% trans population. That really does seem significant and worthy of being shared... I get that you can't be too specific online but it's hard to tell how much things are really changing without stories like this getting told

emptiedriver · 2021-08-29T11:39:13+00:00

Are you familiar with the acronyms for Trans-identified males or females? Most GC people understand trans as something people can identify as, but that doesn't change reality.

I call another person trans the way I call another person christian, or emo, or maybe some kind of hobbyist. It's something they've decided to be. They may be more or less committed to it - it could just be a phase, or something they have a superficial interest in, or it could be their lifelong passion - but it's still a thing they decided to identify with...

emptiedriver · 2021-08-28T15:43:26+00:00

But I thought the clitoris was the mini penis? Do women have both a mini penis and an inverted penis? Maybe everything is actually just some kind of reconfigured penile substance if I smoke enough weed and stare at my dick...

What utter nonsense. The lack of editorial management online is really going to harm the next generation's education.

emptiedriver