Are you not not going to watch the Oscars this year?

[Ms Harmless]

well, I have several doctors for several things; it's like being disabled

[BurtReynolds]

random language thoughts:

- Language is a form of magic. The most powerful one. No really! It's all magic ever was to the first people. Giving names to things really does give you power over reality! Wait, where are you going? Yes, I'm being serious!

- It's how people create forms/concepts, and forms/concepts literally determine what we can experience and how we experience it. It's also how people gain power over the world (and other people). So obviously it matters what words mean, or in other words, what concepts we are able to form and communicate to each other. What power we are allowed to have over our worlds.

- In order to communicate at all, we have to understand each other when we we say words, and that requires an understanding of what those words represent when we use them. Even if we use the same word to mean two different things, we have to know that in order to successfully communicate. Evolution of language isn't an argument against that.

- Meaning and concepts aren't objective. They aren't out there in the world. There isn't some unquestionable entity out there with the authority to determine what sounds and shapes mean to people in a conversation in any absolute sense. This includes dictionaries. Believing something doesn't make it objective.

- Anyone demanding I conform to their definition and discard any other one is demanding that I only think a certain way. That I limit my potential experience and submit to their power. No thanks. I don't except those limits.

- Anyone declaring that I'm an evil person because I refuse to accept their definitions, or that I'm committing violence against them by refusing, or that I have some sort of moral obligation to accept their authority over definitions, is a clown.

- It's worse knowing that in many cases, the attempt to redefine language - and the enforcement of speech codes that come along with it - is by design. In a very real sense it is an attempt to limit consciousness and dominate minds. It's been known for some time that with enough power, you can manipulate language to dominate others and increase one's power. Keep that in mind when someone demands you accept their definition as the only one. And no, it's not just one side.

- The fact that most of the powerful institutions in the West have (suddenly) adopted some new definitions of words that differ from the commonly accepted definitions - and demanded the rabble conform to these new definitions - should at least cause people to stop and ask why that might be. What power game they are playing.

[Ms Harmless]

sorry if that pisses you off Mickey

[Rob]

when babies are born, our doctors could just be saying "your beautiful baby has this biological / anatomical arrangement; let's lay out a personalised plan for their healthcare" (and your baby can decide their gender as they grow); and that's a thing already starting to happen; I have friends raising kids this way

Are there more than 2 biological arrangements for 99%+ and then a mix of those two for that tiny minority?

[BurtReynolds]

14 pages to go!

[Strat]

Keep going im almost there

[Ms Harmless]

the irony of saying "people in the west are changing definitions from commonly accepted definitions in the west"

people outside "the west" had non-binary gender and sexual identity understandings for thousands of years before colonisation forced them to accept a binary understanding if they wanted healthcare

[Ms Harmless]

when babies are born, our doctors could just be saying "your beautiful baby has this biological / anatomical arrangement; let's lay out a personalised plan for their healthcare" (and your baby can decide their gender as they grow); and that's a thing already starting to happen; I have friends raising kids this way

Are there more than 2 biological arrangements for 99%+ and then a mix of those two for that tiny minority?

[Ms Harmless]

when babies are born, our doctors could just be saying "your beautiful baby has this biological / anatomical arrangement; let's lay out a personalised plan for their healthcare" (and your baby can decide their gender as they grow); and that's a thing already starting to happen; I have friends raising kids this way

Are there more than 2 biological arrangements for 99%+ and then a mix of those two for that tiny minority?

[Ms Harmless]

when babies are born, our doctors could just be saying "your beautiful baby has this biological / anatomical arrangement; let's lay out a personalised plan for their healthcare" (and your baby can decide their gender as they grow); and that's a thing already starting to happen; I have friends raising kids this way

Are there more than 2 biological arrangements for 99%+ and then a mix of those two for that tiny minority?

"tiny minority"

sure I get where this is going

[BurtReynolds]

the irony of saying "people in the west are changing definitions from commonly accepted definitions in the west"

people outside "the west" had non-binary gender and sexual identity understandings for thousands of years before colonisation forced them to accept a binary understanding if they wanted healthcare

This isn't irony.

[Mickey]

sorry if that pisses you off Mickey

It doesn't piss me off, it's the bare fucking minimum we should expect from this shitty world, and a completely unrealizable fantasy for all but the wealthy over here.

[Ms Harmless]

the irony of saying "people in the west are changing definitions from commonly accepted definitions in the west"

people outside "the west" had non-binary gender and sexual identity understandings for thousands of years before colonisation forced them to accept a binary understanding if they wanted healthcare

This isn't irony.

OK Burt

[Mickey]

No way I'm reading all that from burto.

[Ms Harmless]

sorry if that pisses you off Mickey

It doesn't piss me off, it's the bare fucking minimum we should expect from this shitty world, and a completely unrealizable fantasy for all but the wealthy over here.

yeah, it's fucking awful; one of my partners lives there and I see how much they suffer for not having universal healthcare

[Strat]

No way I'm reading all that from burto.

TLDR; Question everything, believe nothing, fuck you.

[BurtReynolds]

No way I'm reading all that from burto.

TLDR; Question everything, believe nothing, fuck you.

That's a good summary, actually.

[Ms Harmless]

the Tories are making sure we get closer to the USA bit by bit, though

[Rob]

when babies are born, our doctors could just be saying "your beautiful baby has this biological / anatomical arrangement; let's lay out a personalised plan for their healthcare" (and your baby can decide their gender as they grow); and that's a thing already starting to happen; I have friends raising kids this way

Are there more than 2 biological arrangements for 99%+ and then a mix of those two for that tiny minority?

"tiny minority"

sure I get where this is going

It's a simple question. Type "percentage of intersex births" into google and it'll tell you it's 1.7%. I'm asking if there is a 4th arrangement (your word).

[Ms Harmless]

when babies are born, our doctors could just be saying "your beautiful baby has this biological / anatomical arrangement; let's lay out a personalised plan for their healthcare" (and your baby can decide their gender as they grow); and that's a thing already starting to happen; I have friends raising kids this way

Are there more than 2 biological arrangements for 99%+ and then a mix of those two for that tiny minority?

"tiny minority"

sure I get where this is going

It's a simple question. Type "percentage of intersex births" into google and it'll tell you it's 1.7%. I'm asking if there is a 4th arrangement (your word).

there are innumerable configurations of "secondary sex characteristics" in humans; the fact that we can make a "minority" of any of those if we want to doesn't matter; we don't need to, there are good reasons not to, and science is increasingly agreeing