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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   33042 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 17, 2023

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Anyways, I would be curious on others thoughts here (assuming anyone is willing to watch a nearly two hour video by someone most would consider an ideological opponent.

My 2 cents are - if she wants me to engage with her arguments, better start a substack or something. Or not put 'herself' in videos.

I've had her videos bludgeoned into my youtube feed, and .. there's something about elaborate theatrics and 'her' entire 'performance' that repulsed me. Watched maybe 4 minutes and then told youtube to give me a break.

My takeaway from this whole 'trans and gay' craze of the last decade is I'm very sympathetic to the way the old communists treated the topic.

They tolerated it, as in, the more thoughtful places did not jail them, but it was given absolutely zero media visibility.

And were they wrong? Anorexia and bulimia are (see SA's "Crazy Like Us") are self-inflicted problems.

I maintain that to a large degree, the trans issue is the same thing. Even if you look at google trends, ftm and trans are slowly replacing bulimia /anorexia in search interests.

As a society, we'd be better off if these concepts were taboo, unspeakable. Same as you don't tell kids "do not lick frozen metal" because of course they'll give it a try, you shouldn't tell kids "if you feel like you don't belong with your sex, maybe you are trans".

No, maybe you're just weird. Plenty of people are weird and don't find it easy to belong. Either get used to it, but trying to use the uncanny-valley to get somewhere where you belong never ends well.

The benefit to teenagers who'd avoid getting into deep trouble would outweight the discomfort of genuine cases.

I think you’re probably right about the approach, though with the internet being what it is, not getting official coverage doesn’t matter much because it’s trivial to find that content— along with everything else weird and kinky— with minimal effort. I don’t even want to know what “hypno-porn” is but I’m positive if I wanted to find out, a 14 year old would know.

not getting official coverage doesn’t matter much because it’s trivial to find that content

My personal belief is that there should be open source heuristic or NN pornographic filters built into every widely used OS, which disable viewing if there's a pattern of overuse.

No, maybe you're just weird. Plenty of people are weird and don't find it easy to belong. Either get used to it, but trying to use the uncanny-valley to get somewhere where you belong never ends well.

I am a fan of "weird," but society doesn't function well when "weird" becomes the establishment. We need institutions to be focused on the "normies" so the weird can continue to be weird on the colorful fringes of a society that functions.

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I don’t know why women are interested in seeing men show off cosmetics, but nonetheless James Charles had a huge following among women before his cancellation.

There’s probably an interesting psychological explanation- anything from ‘it can even make a man look pretty and feminine’ to ‘women want to follow a man’s lead’.

My observations are reversed: most of the current-generation trans people I've met take on extremely feminine names and presentation, and give me a disquieting sense of being forced to participate in their fetish with no meaningful ability to refuse consent. Older transwomen I've known have given me the "I just want to quietly pass and get on with my life" vibe.

In my less charitable times I feel like there’s no difference, and the trans identification is just a part of the play-acting, a minstrel show of femininity, like a costume

That reminds me of a thread on the old Motte, which was about a trans man saying, "Hey, bros, step it up! I'm spending all this time dressing smartly and performing masculinity really hard, while you're not even thinking about it."

For him, being a man was a costume (get the products and clothing right to perform the role) whereas for normal men, it's just something that sort of happens. Even "Be a man" means "Be a man, not a boy" rather than "Be a man, not a woman."

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