It's always funny to me when g*mers complain about a company (supposedly) changing something to appeal to "woke" customers because it's a tacit admission that the "free market capitalism" they like so much can, in effect, act as a censoring force.
nightshade
joined 2 years ago
They made Civ IV too political for him
Multiple major game companies have been embroiled in controversy about how a clique of white guys who would spend all of their time bullying/harassing women, PoC, and LGBT employees who were doing the actual work, and how that clique ran around unopposed for years because they were favored by (or consisted of) the higher-ups.
And yet gamers will still cry about how the latter groups receive unfair favoritism from employers.
Urban design guidelines call for new “five-minute blocks,” allowing residents to access community medical clinics, child and elder care facilities, and a range of other one-stop services within a five-minute walk
Send this to conservatives to give them heart attacks
"Hi, you must be Neslon! I can't believe you're finally here! I'm Bloom, your future teammate in the Resistance, by the way. I figured out we could spend some time together to check if we have a compatible vibe. You know, to build our dynamic duo. How does that sound to you?"
Plot twist: the character in this scene is an undercover cop and the dialogue is actually extremely realistic.
The "higher taxes but lower overall costs" talking point kind of annoys me, because basically every other highly developed nation (and a number of developing nations) provides better healthcare than the US with lower government expenditure. There's no need to raise taxes specifically for the purpose of transitioning to universal healthcare other than US healthcare companies charging grossly extortionate prices, which the government can make them stop doing, and it'd help public understanding of the situation if this was brought up more.
It's a stiff competition, but the idea that women are biologically incapable of flying airplanes has got to be one of the dumbest right-wing culture war talking points out there.
Edit: Also, the fact that his wife is a pilot explains a lot; I don't know how anyone could tolerate being married to The Quartering if they weren't away from home all the time.
SpaceX quoted James Madison in The Federalist Papers: “The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands” is “the very definition of tyranny”
Somehow I don't think we should be accepting commentary on what constitutes tyranny from someone who owned slaves
I'm reminded of the statistics that say that people switching to long-distance road trips instead of flying due to the inconvenience of post-9/11 airport security has caused more car accident deaths than 9/11 itself.
Thank you for responding.
Clarifications and more questions
E can do a lot of things but it doesn't really make you "physically a woman". It can change your moods (and overall psychology if you let it) to a slight degree, your appetite/metabolism, muscle/fat growth and by extension your physical appearance
I guess that what I meant by that is that there are some major draws to HRT, but I'm scared that some of the effects might go further than what I wanted. Like, having less facial/body hair is something I want for sure, but I don't know if I'd be entirely comfortable if I had a lot of breast growth. I'd want to have a bit of an androgynous/twink-ish figure compared to an average woman. But I'm also worried that if I don't start HRT then my body will start changing in ways I don't like. I know it's an old adage, but I'm pretty young now and I feel like there are some physical qualities I like about myself that I would lose if I wait too long.
This is a legitimate concern, yeah...you might have to test the legitimacy EEOC at times. Some companies will be chill about it but you can generally sus this out in the interview process because they will act positively but a bit squirrely if they genuinely want to work with you. If they maintain the fake-nice facade all the way through they will weasel out of their responsibilities the moment you become inconvenient. That's just kind of the reality of being us.
One of the idle fantasies that I've had is to get to the point where I can pass as either male or female based on how I dress or style my hair. I would present as an effeminate guy for the next few years my work life and only dress up fem for friends. But as of right now, I don't have any to go out with IRL, and am I really going to get dressed up to stay home and play video games? IDK.
This kind of rhetoric is so common among questioning people who eventually come out that a lot of people would just start calling you an egg at this point. Society puts so much pressure on people to conform to cis-normative ideals that when you start to question them you really can't pinpoint when exactly you stopped believing in them. Some of the most binary fem-presenting transwomen out there spent their early 20s as muscle bros trying to run away from femininity. Some of us end up being gamer dorks but slightly softer. Some are EDM composers or roboticists or welders who flip off the patriarchy when it questions why they don't build their personality around gucci handbags (not that it's wrong to like tradfem stuff, but the point is we shouldn't put femininity in a box and sell it. Cis women even have many routes of expressing themselves).
IDK, I want to try clothes that look more feminine, but the kinds of clothes I like are more towards the androgynous end. I'm not sure how to describe what I like; I don't want to be too girly girl but "tomboy" and "butch" aren't quite the right way to label it either. Like, generally I just imagine long-sleeved shirts and pants, which is what I wear right now. I know that clothes made for women generally look subtly different, but at the same time I'm worried that those subtle differences will be hard to see with the way my body is now. I always get anxious about spending money and I don't want to buy stuff that I end up not liking.
The road to living authentically under capitalism is inherently risky. So, as you're aware, it's imperative that you treat each decision you make with care and respect. But to live in paralysis will not allow you to discover who you really are. We're not just talking about a costume that you wear around to put on a show for others. What we're asking here is who are you? Who is nightshade? Is it worth risking your life to become you? Is it worth risking you to continue as you are?
The part where I struggle with this idea is that I feel that under capitalism, living inauthentically is necessary to some degree anyways. I'm not really openly about my beliefs IRL; while most of the people I interact with in person aren't outright awful to be around, there's still the occasional attack helicopter joke or dumb political comment and I don't have it in me to argue about it (I know my beliefs should require me to confront people more often but I'm too much of a coward). When I speak with people I'm not friendly with, I generally feel like I'm just reading off a script to get through the conversation. Especially in the work life example; if I'm expected to pretend I don't find capitalism abhorrent for 40 hours a week anyways, is it really that much worse to pretend one more thing to avoid discrimination? I don't want to put on a show for other people all of the time, but sometimes I feel like I could put up with doing that part of the time to avoid trouble. I wish that I was more brave, but there's already so many things to worry about, and the idea of adding the pressures from being trans or being a girl on top of that seems daunting.
Questioning, some descriptions of body image issues/dysphoria(?)
I've been thinking about gender issues for a while and I don't know what to do about it. It's something I think about a lot and there's a lot of other things tied into it which are hard to untangle.
I starting having these kinds of feelings about 3 years ago. I was hanging out in generally left-wing/LGBT-friendly online spaces before that, so I knew what trans people were, but I only really started having these feelings myself when COVID hit. I've always been relatively physically androgynous/feminine for an AMAB person, but even so I've been wishing that I was more feminine. I don't feel a huge incongruity with the way my body is, and sometimes when I look/dress particularly androgynous I actually kind of like the way I look. That being said, I've still been noticing that I have more facial/body hair compared to a few years ago (along with other subtle things I can't quite name) and I really do not like that, and I'm really worried about further changes like that. I feel like it's going to be hard to achieve/maintain the level of femininity I want without medically transitioning, but I'm not entirely comfortable with being physically a woman either.
In general, I act pretty much like the stereotypical "socially-awkward male nerd", and while that isn't a particularly "masculine" social role, I also sometimes wish to be perceived as more feminine in this regard. When I'm with people I'm close with, I generally act cool and sometimes sarcastic. I tease people a lot (in a friendly way, though I wasn't always good at controlling that) and I'm good at verbally sparring when they make fun of me back. But sometimes I want to act cutesy or be more openly affectionate, and I can't because I feel too vulnerable doing so. This makes me feel like I'm too cold and too closed off if I want to be feminine, (though IDK if it's great to think that because it's kind of buying into gender roles).
The only person that I really trust that I've spoken to recently is an online friend who's a cishet guy (well, we've met in person but we live far enough apart that it's not super convenient), and he's supportive but it's not really something he knows how to help with. I've also talked about this with another online friend who is queer, but I haven't spoken to them a while (we drifted apart a bit due to circumstances in their life). I haven't told anyone IRL and it takes a long time for me to really trust people, so I basically don't have anyone to support me IRL. I don't think my parents are outright hateful, but I don't think they really understand LGBT stuff either, so I really want to be sure before I tell them anything. I'm also looking to work as a programmer, and I'm uneasy with presenting as not-male in my work life.
I've read through a bunch of the commonly linked trans resources but I still haven't really done anything about it. I live in one of the less awful states; there are informed consent clinics near me and I have enough money for that, so I feel like I'm fortunate compared to a lot of trans people. I've had some idle dreams about buying some feminine clothes, but I'm too lazy? scared? to even try that. I'm not sure if I'm that uncomfortable with my body or if I really want to be a woman that badly compared to the stories I've read. I'm worried that it's not a real feeling because I can't really recall any signs more than 3 years back. I'm unhappy in my life but there are a lot of reasons for that aside from (possibly) being trans. One part of me is scared of waiting too long to start transitioning, but another part of me is scared of having to learn to live as a trans person (or even just as not-male) in an increasingly fascist United States. I feel like I have to make a decision relatively soon, and it's just completely paralyzing.
There's a lot of other things I want to say but I'm not sure if this is coherent as is so IDK.
So basically the entire US political establishment has decided that saying "Hitler was right" and echoing conspiracy theories of Jewish Marxists corrupting the youth is just a "difference in opinion" whereas pro-Palestinian activists should be shut down without debate.