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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 1, 2024

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Someone blatantly pointing out in the most public way possible that this has always been a fiction, that governments may make figleaf declarations about opposing these types of slander but will never actually enforce them because they actually are inherently conservative entities that are on the side of the privileged and the default, that anyone can make the most vile comments they want and always could without fearing legal reprisals

I don't know if you're an American, but this is just not true. In non-US countries, people have been prosecuted for saying that the bible says that homosexuality is a sin in Canada and I think Finland, for saying that Muhammed was a pedophile, for telling jokes, for saying that Muslims girls are raped by their family members, for saying that Muslim girls are murdered by their family members in honor killings, for saying that Muslims want to kill us, for quoting someone else saying that Islam is a defective and misanthropic religion, for comparing Muslims to Nazis, for saying "Well, when one, like Bwalya Sørensen, and most black people in South Africa, is too unintelligent to see the true state of things, then it is much easier to only see in black and white, and, as said, blame the white."

More: For saying that white people pretend to be indigenous for political or career clout. etc etc etc

Not referring to all hate speech and similar types of laws, just narrowly to the misgendering stuff.

  • -15

Can anyone explain to me what the heck is going on in Canada? Seemingly there's someone who wants to turn themselves into an actual hermaphrodite, and instead of going "here's the contact details of a good psychiatrist", they are solemnly debating whether public healthcare should pay for such an operation.

Also, there's a clinic in Texas which will do this operation if it gets paid for? Texas??? When did Mad Science become something in the real world?

A non-binary patient in Canada is seeking taxpayer-funded surgery to create a vagina while also keeping a functional penis.

If a court rules in their favour, the patient, 33, from Ontario, will travel to a specialist clinic in Austin, Texas, for the procedure.

The patient, referred to in court documents as KS, was born male but identifies as non-binary. They do not identify as one gender but “literally a mix”, according to court documents.

They argue that forcing them to undergo binary surgery “could be considered an illegal act of conversion therapy as well as a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code”.

@guesswho is doing a valiant job of trying to present the steelman version of all this, especially as we're all lining up to rebut them, but then with my own lying eyes I read a genuine news story of this sort, and blow me down, I find it very hard to believe that there's anything sane at all in the trans activism movement that is going after Rowling.

This is what we call 'an anecdote'.

Lots of crazy people out there, anyone can appeal a decision and ask for a hearing, let me know if anything actually happens. This individual was already ruled against twice, I'll be surprised if the third time's the charm here.

The Telegraph writing an article about this doesn't suddenly make it the central issue of the whole trans rights debate.

Agree that trans women are women and deserve all the rights and respect of any other woman, and I'll happily agree that we should shelve the question of hermtaur surgeries for the next 50 years or so.

But if you're not ready to grant the first thing, which is what everyone actually cares about, then don't pretend the conversation has 'moved on' to stuff like this. The conversation is still very much about the first thing.

  • -16

Agree that trans women are women and deserve all the rights and respect of any other woman, and I'll happily agree that we should shelve the question of hermtaur surgeries for the next 50 years or so.

The justification for "trans women are women" is the same as the justification for hermaphrodite surgery.

It's really, really not. 'Hermaphrodite' is not a social category, outside of furry porn.

  • -10

Careful there! Furries are an oppressed gender and orientation minority, give 'em a few years and you'll be writing pro-furry rights posts on here. You could ask Tracing Woodgrains for some advice on that. I don't know what the 'politically correct' term for furry is, I'm sure there must be one. Seems that therians are different, so what the posh version of furry is, someone enlighten me.

Alright, that’s enough.

The usual rules about strawmen apply. As does the one about speaking plainly, though I’m sure anyone reading the thread can detect your sarcasm from orbit.

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