About trans rights:
They're a wedge issue. If you think it's okay to deprive trans people of the right to exist in the public sphere then you're saying human rights are conditional and/or can be withdrawn. Which puts you on a slippery slope to no human rights for anyone.
When you trace the roots of the modern anti-trans movement they boil down to some combination of bigotry and billionaire bullshit— the oligarchs think rights are for the rich.
So: trans-rights are human rights. No exceptions.
I'm just sad that "this group deserves to exist" is a wedge issue, and not just something most people can agree on 😞
@smattymatty Agreed, but also it's a manufactured wedge issue designed to ease the trans-ignorant into taking a series of that will lead them into a reprehensible position that they would mostly direct if they were confronted with it cold.
"Hi! We are your leaders and we want the right to dehumanize you and strip you of your rights at will!"—who'd say yes to THAT? Much easier to start by targeting a small minority nobody knows. Could have been left-handers or germophobes: but they picked trans.
@orionkidder @cstross @smattymatty and that's why the #Nazis started with #Trans* people in 1933!
@orionkidder @cstross @smattymatty exactly that!
@kkarhan @cstross @smattymatty Yes, exactly. It's the overlap of:
people fascists genuinely hate
AND
people the fascists can get away with hating in public
It's been the same damned refrain since the oligarchs in question were romans.
Pick your smallest domestic minority. This could be roma, or homeless people, or disabled people, or morally injured vets, or NGO aid workers.
What's important here is the disparity in power, not the identity in question, since their inability to fight back is what's being singled out.
Villianize them.
Blame them for the shit your doing and don't want to engage in constructive dialogue about.
Abuse your influence over institutions and soft power to co-op others into being your voice.
Get rich while people's backs are turned.
Rinse the money.
Repeat.
This is the structure of power. The "kingdoms and principalities" Jesus refered to.
The problem with the "E-card" is that in actuality relatively few people are actually shocked or disgusted by his activites. What they're actually disgusted by is getting categorised into the people to be avoided.
Note how companies went back on their DEI-promises as soon as the POTUS changed. It wasn't about morals, but about optics.
Thus "your viewpoint was probably paid by Epstein money" will probably get a takeback like "who's funding your views, then?".
>I've not met a single person who was not disgusted.
For the abovementioned reasons. But there's a reason why "it's not pedofilia, but ephebophilia!" is such a meme.
I'm not going to go into this further: even writing this much feels disgusting.
>Companies are irrelevant here, they're not people.
Well, they're hierarchial communities. That's what the "company" originally means. Again, not going into this further.
You may disregard me, if you wish.
Fucking Carl Schmitt and his evil but really insight that establishing a border and saying "those inside are the in-group and protected and those outside are the out-group and not protected" allows you to later move the border, because it has been already established that the out-group is not protected.
We really should have Nuremberged much harder.
@cstross I will admit, I find some of this stuff to be unsettling, but I also think that I have no right to control such things nor does anyone else.
If people want to be trans for example, that isn't my right to control.
No one should get in the way of this.
Not only does it serve nothing worthwhile but humans should be able to decide what they want to be.
And for those conservative nutcases, they should be aware that some people will stick to their beliefs no matter what.
They should know about this given their delusional beliefs of supporting a tyrant and denying reality so much.
Trying to stop people from being who they want to be permanently especially is like trying to make water not wet.
it just aint going to happen.
Btw, I fully expect some people from different beliefs to find my various beliefs strange.
i also heard it said that 20% of people will always be at odds with you.
So there's that.
@skedarwarrior @cstross
You find it unsettling because you have it backwards. Nobody wants to be trans.
You list yourself as christian, so I'll use the word "soul", where I would otherwise use other terminology, because that might work better in your world view.
A class mate of mine had a sister who was born with six fingers on each hand. She had surgery to remove the extra fingers, likely before she even remembers. That's just how nature works. Sometimes people grow body parts that are not meant to be there.
Now let's imagine a god-given perfect soul. A female soul. Unfortunately, there is an imperfection in how her body grows. Just like my classmate's sister grew a couple of extra fingers, this poor girl grows a penis.
Why shouldn't we fix that the same way they did with my classmate's sister's extra fingers?
But instead, bigots insist that when it comes to genitals (their favorite subject), nature must be obeyed, and the god-given soul must be tortured into conforming to a freak accident of nature.
Does this help understanding how the world looks from our side? To make it less unsettling?
@skedarwarrior @cstross
Oh, one more thing. What you call "unsettling" may just be a glimpse into what we call dysphoria.
You hear about transition, and imagine wanting to live in the wrong body. But that's the thing - we already live in the wrong body. To us, transition is fixing the problem.
If you were to transition, you would get dysphoria. We were born with dysphoria and transition to make it go away. That's why it's unsettling to you. Because you imagine transition as changing away from the body that matches your soul, rather than changing it back to match your soul after some freak accident that made it grow the wrong parts.
@AnnieG @skedarwarrior @cstross
Shoot you? There's nothing in your post I have even a slight problem with.
You may want to look into the non-binary community. It includes huge variations, e.g. "non-binary woman". And even if you decide not to consider yourself a part of that community, you might still find information of value to you. I would say you have some non-binary traits, but it's up to you whether those traits are enough to consider yourself non-binary. Not every non-binary person goes by "they".
@leeloo @cstross Yeah it does in some ways. I guess, I also feel empathy because I know how the world treats people like yourselves. I have heard the rumors how trans people are more likely to suicide than non. All of these things and more make me kind of confused and sad for you.
I don't envy those who have your plight. Too many haters exist even in things that are the norm, I don't even know how bad it must get.
Btw, you brought up the Christian aspect of me, so many who have some of my beliefs tend to be friggin right wing. And that never fails to shock me on occasion because the right wing tends to like to control people and they ignore the most important tenant of religion which is to love your neighbor of yourself.
But in any case, I don't think people can control each other and anything good come out of it.
Thus, your freedom is important.
The more people after all try to control each other, the more hate the world gains
But appreciate your response.
@skedarwarrior this is such an invalid & naive concept
If people want to be trans
we "chose" to have been born this way in the same way that lefthanders & redheads & green-eyeds "chose" those birth characteristics.
@skedarwarrior it's ok, & thank you for admitting that. just fwiw, fyi, given you acknowledged unfamiliarity in this area, the reason i reacted with some vehemence is that the form of words you used happen to be a common line of attack wielded by despicable RWNJ christofascists as part of their non-stop war against peeps like me. they assert the lie that gender & sex are identical, that therefore by definition there is no such thing as a trans-peep, & that any who claim otherwise are merely making a choice, a "lifestyle-choice", analogous to choosing to eat an apple today or go to the beach tomorrow, a free-will choice. they deny [based on zero knowledge but maximum hatred] that we deserve any rights or protection, coz, again, they assert dishonestly that we are not simply just "us", like a left-hander is simply just being themselves, but instead that we simply make a fatuous disingenuous choice. ergo, many trans peeps react rather adversely when we encounter anyone talking about "choice", even if as in your case it was not done maliciously, coz we fear the commencement of yet another deranged RWNJ attack. fyi. @cstross
#GenderDysphoria #Transmisia #Transphobia #Trans #TransRightsAreHumanRights #FsckThePatriarchy #fsckALLreligion #RWNJs #FsckRWNJs #FsckChristoFacists #ChangeTheSystem #FuckAroundAndFindOut #Misanthropy #TransRepresentation #transwoman #transwomen #transkids
@MsDropbear42 @cstross I have to say, I recall someone trying to tell me this before, but I still have/had trouble wrapping my head around it.
But in any case, I wish people wouldn't discriminate against people for being different. That just spawns hate, ya know?
@MsDropbear42 @cstross Think I know why I was confused about this.
When people know they are trans, it happens later in life so unlike having a sexual part, hair color, eye color which happen at birth.
That's prolly why I got confused so much in this issue
@skedarwarrior @cstross um... no. i'm really unsure from where you're getting your info, but it's just not right.
before i go any further, i'd like to clarify this point, to avoid any doubt. i'm not trying to argue with you, but instead am genuinely trying to help you understand, given you expressed some interest in the topic by joining the thread.
that said, atm i'm unsure if you do want to learn more from me or not, so rather than waste my time writing more info that you might not want, pls let me know your preference. if you've had enough, no worries. if you would like to understand the mistakes in your last post, let me know & i'll happily explain more.
@MsDropbear42 @cstross Not sure what else I need to do on this, other than remember what you guys just taught me.
Sadly despite me not being old, I still don't remember as much as I should.
But yeah, that's my main problem on this and other issues.
I wonder why trans doesn't show up until much later usually.
I mean like the signs of it.
And yes, the last part is unfortunately true on too many levels.
I feel like conservatives have actual problems they need to look at in their own lives that are actually very sinful.
dissensions, fits of anger, lying, hate and murder in some cases.
Although even feelings of doing such things are sin as it is.
I imagine they look at themselves through rose colored glasses...
Smh.
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