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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   31929 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 17, 2023

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It's kind of weird dunk though -- if there actually were witches stealing people's penises in Africa, it seems like the Africans would be entirely correct to panic about it? Witch panics in general are mostly bad when the witches don't exist. For instance, one could argue that the problem with the Red Scare was being bad at identifying the Soviet spies -- they were a real problem!

Scott’s whole deal with transphobia is the argument that because trans want to be identified with their adopted sex, it doesn’t matter that they aren’t really. The ‘transphobic’ view is that it does matter.

Right, but either way the doctors are in fact stealing penises, yeah? To those that think stealing penises is bad, this position just makes Scott witch-adjacent or something.

Stealing, or taking with informed consent? Of course, one can argue that for some things, taking with full informed consent is just as bad as stealing, and that the penis is one of those things, much like how voluntarily selling oneself into chattel slavery is considered unethical and illegal in most of modern society. But there seems to be very different perspectives in the various tribes when it comes to how big a difference there is between stealing and taking with consent for this particular thing.

Given that witches are involved, maybe more like "bewitching into wanting your penis stolen"?

If I don't want my leg (or my kids' legs) cut off, and see some cult convincing a bunch of other people to do so, I think I'm justified in being concerned about the cult -- quite apart from any altruistic feelings I may (or may not) harbour towards the converts.

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