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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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But this isn't a consistent analogy at all. Trans women who are treated like men aren't worse off than normal men, except when they lash out and act crazy in the face of equal treatment.

No in your example they are, because they are punished for being straight and acting straight (I will cede that homosexuals were, in fact, punished for gay acts in the 90s, to some extent).

But a trans woman is a man, and thus when they are treated like a man, there is nothing odd happening, and no discrimination. They are asking for a special carve out wherein they, a man, are granted the privileges of women.

denying that straight identity is actually a real thing.

How does this affect me as me and the straight girls go on having sex? Society is like, "look at those delusional people happily making babies." Oh no, the horror. Our happy heterosexual existence is just the lil kid who points out the emperor is naked.

When you say "a trans woman is a man" you are denying their identity exists. My whole point is to say "what if society denied your identity (straight) exists?"

See, the issue is I don't "identify as" a heterosexual male. I am a male who is attracted to women ( a subset of them, at least). If some people denied this phenomenon existed they would be living a delusion. As opposed to the situation we are in where the trans person is living a delusion.

When you say you as a man want to be with a woman, people treat you like a liar, deviant, or delusional. Institutions and the law are openly hostile towards you because of your stated identity and may criminalize acting upon it.

They could indeed do that. That would be bad for me. Perhaps they have made this decision because they are one of those climate cultists that think making babies is immoral. IDK. There are many ways to make the actions associated with heterosexual difficult. This has little bearing on "identity." These people clearly recognize heterosexuality exists, they just think it is evil.

There is a course of conduct you could take that fits the expected role you have in society. But I think you'd find it extremely difficult to actually do that, because of what you identify as.

No. It would be hard because my preferred actions would be banned. Nothing to do with identity. This is the whole issue with the trans activists, they think the world is all about clever wordplay and rules-lawyering. "Assigned male at birth." Well assigned by who? God? Biology? "Identifies as a woman." But what are they identifying as? "A woman." But what is that? So we come to see that in this context "identity" is not a useful concept.

Here is where you err:

In situation A, heterosexual people exist. They date, sex, and procreate. The people denying that heterosexuality exists have their entire worldview shattered.

In situation B, Trans people exist. They are men, dressing like women. Nothing unexpected happens for people who think these men are actually men.

You may assert you'd have a "happy heterosexual existence" in the face of broad social and legal hostility.

I do not think that. I think that an anti-heterosexual society would be bad for me, IFFFFFF, it was all about banning heterosexual activities. If, instead, they denied our existence I think we would thrive, probably moreso than in the current sexual enviroment.

What you have done is confused identity with reality. If I "identify as a heterosexual" in your theoretical society, but let men sodomize me on the reg, I'm not affected at all. In that scenario I would just be a gay man that has an eccentricity.

So, if we dig down to the real objections, it is that I think there is a subset of unethical medical procedures that the trans advocacy movement promotes. They also have an unethical propaganda wing. I oppose both. There are few people in this world who are in favor of state sponsorship/subsidy of unethical medical procedures. Or, perhaps, you are one of the people who is in favor of the return of the lobotomy.

The reason lobotomies were / are objectionable is that (1) they are a treatment for severe mental illnesses that make the patient fundamentally incapable of consenting, and (2) they don't generally achieve any goal that the patient wants. Basically nobody is out there requesting lobotomy.

And no one would be out there requesting to be chemically castrated if they didn't have a severe mental illness they were indoctrinated into fostering by a large medical-industrial propaganda complex.

Gender treatments for adults are able to be accurately described and consented to and can achieve outcomes that the patient wants.

They really can't achieve what the patient wants, and basically every description of them I've seen online by clinics that perform them is fundamentally dishonest.

Your objections to medical treatments and unspecified "propaganda" also don't relate to what you are talking about in regard to treating someone who has transitioned as their original gender. Let's say you encounter someone who hasn't as far as you know had a surgery and who just wears opposite gender clothing or other such markers, but says nothing about it.

This person doesn't violate any of the things you say are bad: do you call them by the name and pronouns they use for themself?

So just a regular tomboy/male crossdresser? I call them by the name their parents gave them until they legally change it. I use the pronouns appropriate for their sex. Gender is for languages.

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