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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   38736 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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Liara Kaylee Tsai, a Trans Woman With “Incredibly Powerful Energy,” Found Dead in Minnesota.

First things first: this is an unspeakable tragedy, I feel terrible for this person's friends and family, and anyone cracking jokes about "their pronouns were was/were" is disgusting and should be ashamed of themselves.

This article is remarkably forthright, refusing even to lie by omission:

An autopsy determined that Tsai died from multiple sharp-force injuries, though it’s unclear when she died. Lewis, an acquaintance of Tsai’s who was visiting her from Boston, has been taken into custody in Olmstead County and charged with a felony count of interfering with a dead body and second degree murder, according to local outlet KTTC. Olmstead County Sheriff Kevin Torgerson told MPR that there was no indication that the killing was motivated by anti-trans bias, as Lewis is also trans.

I predict that this will go one of two ways:

  • It will immediately become widely known that Tsai was murdered by a fellow trans person, trans activists will figure it's not worth the trouble to use this to attempt to advance their agenda, and the story will vanish into the ether.
  • Other news outlets reporting on the case will be much less forthright than this one and darkly hint towards the murder being motivated by transphobia without explicitly saying so ("at a time when Republican administrations across the country are rolling out legislation designed to limit trans people's access to restrooms and lifesaving medical treatment, Tsai's death is a timely reminder of..."). There will be a steady stream of politicised candlelight vigils across the US. If you think trans activists wouldn't stoop so low as to use one trans person being murdered by another to promote a narrative of widespread transphobia - tell that to Brianna Ghey (and Matthew Shephard, by extension).

First things first: this is an unspeakable tragedy, I feel terrible for this person's friends and family, and anyone cracking jokes about "their pronouns were was/were" is disgusting and should be ashamed of themselves.

People get murdered and people make jokes about people getting murdered - why should anyone care about this specific one? And even more to the point, why should anyone care if you find jokesters disgusting and think they should be ashamed of themselves?

It's always an option to just not care, joke about it, and not be ashamed of yourself

Transgender people and other similar categories are now considered sacred and any jokes around these topics are thus considered as blasphemy according to our new official religion. As a comparison, you can easily find thousands of images and articles by googling for "Virgin Mary Whore", try that for some actual modern saints like Rosa Parks.

I think jokes about transgender people are perfectly legitimate, and I've cracked plenty of them on this very site (example, example, example; this one even led to a rapping on the knuckles from the mods). I find the idea that you think I think trans people are a sacred caste particularly laughable when being gender-critical is my hobbyhorse and my most popular post on this site consisted of me criticising Freddie deBoer's stance on trans issues at length. I simply think it's in poor taste to make light of someone who was murdered very recently, regardless of their identity characteristics.

All your examples are from The Motte, which is literally place for heretics - outside of this place it is considered a heresy. Go and ask Chat GPT for a transgender joke for instance. Most people breath the current religion and they subconsciously know that they transgress. Saying that Rosa Parks was a filthy whore in some joking manner and laughing about it is somewhat icky, right? That is what I am talking about.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Of course our official religion considers all jokes about trans people taboo, but I don't. Thus your claim that the reason I think cracking jokes about a trans woman who was murdered is in poor taste is because I think cracking any kind of joke about trans people is off-limits is nonsense.

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