This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Well, no.
It's pretty much always been 3-5%. The recent uptick has been because people get social status for calling themselves bi while never, ever actually engaging in bisexual behavior.
But the propaganda has worked
And this is exactly why the PMC is so insidious - it takes its preferred hyperminority positions, signal amplifies them to the moon, and then targets as immoral "literal hitlers!" anyone who doesn't pledge histrionic fealty to the issue.
Oops! I wonder what other number I was thinking of. I think the point still stands though. If we say .5% trans and 4% gay that’s an order of magnitude difference. Numbers seem to vary a good amount based on survey though.
More options
Context Copy link
Don't forget questioning and queer as allowing weirdos with innocent fetishes to be considered members instead of allies.
Sapiosexuals and demisexuals and aromantics all consider themselves within the LGBT+ umbrella, so they get easy entry.
The lack of internal accountability means sexual abuses in the community that are happening face disincentives to report out of concerns that the community will be discredited means the abused just retreat instead of holding the abusers accountable.
The most obvious are trannies preying on children, especially girls. Most of the community is pretty ugly so perverts focus their attention on young girls seeking an identity, and since these girls don't speak up, the ++ continue unrestricted. I have unfortunately observed a steady supply of young boys eager to pimp themselves out for rich sugar daddies flush with money and drugs, and none of my male friends who were active on grindr as teens show any regrets in their adult life.
With the lack of whistleblowers and a nebulous definition of the community, the entire circus is likely to continue growing, even if public disapproval from rebellious teens grows.
AFAIK, this was common among gay men back in the days when it was illegal. John Maynard Keynes, for example, had a thing for very young men/older boys. I think the hope was that this would go away if homosexuality was normalised.
What was the mechanism to accomplish this?
It's like hoping for less crime if we stop arresting and prosecuting criminals.
The substitution effect (for drugs), but in reverse: you're giving up your ability to have gayness be illegal so that gay children aren't instantly arrested for that crime should they blow the whistle.
Of course, you could always pass laws to avoid that (i.e. "gay sex isn't illegal so long as you're under AoC, as after that you're expected to know it's wrong")- and we already do this for lots of crimes. But if you're starting from 'legalizing gayness as end goal' you're obviously not going to take that approach.
More options
Context Copy link
There were five commonly proposed mechanisms :
A lot of this was predicated on most abusers selecting their victims by opportunity or mild preference, rather than strong preference or as obligate parts of their sexuality, and that wasn't always true. And there remain awkward edge cases that neither the gay community (nor society as a whole thinking about the het versions!) really want to handle as rules rather than on a case-by-case basis.
But it wasn't wrong, either, nor clearly wrong at the time.
A lot of that still sounds like hope.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I think the idea was that pederastic men REALLY wanted to have egalitarian relationships with men their own age, but couldn't under the conditions prior to legalisation, and would switch if these egalitarian relationships were possible.
I guess some have, sort of. Pairs of pederastic and pedophilic men can now abuse their victims together. Sometimes they even adopt their victims.
Asserting that homosexuals = pedophiles really requires evidence, not just asserting it because you really super believe it.
On the one hand, it's been months since your last ban. On the other hand, you now have a lot of warnings and bans stacked up and you've already been told that you're running out of warnings, and low effort shitting like this is pretty much all you do.
I'm giving you a 3-day ban and telling you knock it off with the naked culture warring.
For the record, there does (or at least did) exist at least one poster-boy gay couple with semi-adoptee that turned out to be child pimps.
One can very much have a debate about how common this is, though.
Sure, but asserting "Homosexual child molesters exist" is not the same thing as asserting "Homosexuals are child molesters."
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
A tactical assessment that is unimpeachably correct. Everyone knows what happened to the Scouts and the Church, and because sexual abuse allegations are a superweapon, it's not going to save the LGBT if the culture shifts.
All child gay/trans icons are biologically male, and the "straight male sexuality should be stamped out" is all coming from straight women, not "trannies" (there are so few of them that it wouldn't matter if none of them were sex pests, they're just useful examples). As such, until some internal or external circumstance forces moderation of that tendency, the entire circus will continue growing.
Sexual abuse allegations are a superweapon in the same way that racism accusations are a superweapon. You can't actually use them against anyone; you can use them against people lower on the oppression scale.
I think "If the culture shifts" means in that world that gays, trannies, or whoever we are talking about, are no longer on the oppression scale
Mean Girls 101: the more popular you are, the further beyond accountability you are, and vice versa.
Mean Girls 102: popularity is a zero-sum game.
Mean Girls 103: because you'll die by that sword regardless of whether or not you live by it, taking it up is the only rational option.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I am actually thinking of Jessica Yaniv and all the other pedophiles that claimed to be trans all while trying to gain access or actually perving on little girls. Its not straight male sexuality, its trans preferences and bigots should be ashamed of questioning the intention of trannies.
For me the fairly obvious point is that most modern trannies don't fucking bother to pass. They shotgun some clown makeup on and wear a dress, but put zero effort into waxing, dieting or otherwise trying to be women. If they actually looked like submissive and breedable femboys they'd get more acceptance, but modern western trannies are just ugly fatties claiming unverifiable special privilege.
Okay, you’ve got 3 posts in the mod queue about how much your outgroup sucks. Progressives this, trannies that.
I’m going to ask you to back off a bit. You can make your points without signaling disgust quite so hard.
More options
Context Copy link
Something they have in common with their enablers.
In the same way, it's female preferences and bigots should be ashamed of questioning the intention of women (room temperature for the last 40 years).
They're the same picture, it's just a lot more in your face because that's what it looks like when that privilege is extended to cover specific types of biological men. They're fargroup to straight women because they've torn their manhood off (literally or symbolically), so they don't have to worry about them trying anything (which is occasionally, per your examples, not entirely how it works in practice) and doing things like destroying women's sports and introducing men into women's prisons is not an issue to them because the consequences of doing so will only be borne by "lesser" women.
Which is why the femboys that actually do this (and pass as a consequence) tend to be inherently opposed to the womanly way of asserting transgender status (i.e. by claiming it and doing nothing else).
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link