davehtaylor

That’s a joke, right? Sorry if I’m missing sarcasm here

Why should we have to?

There is literally no reason for sex segregation in sports

It seems ostensibly like it would be as easy as having an understanding enough of e.g. distilling, so that if you try to distill your own spirits, you know to discard the head and tail to avoid methanol poisoning. But this is so much more complex than that.

I think what it feels like is something akin to being trans and not having access to HRT, so you get hormones on the black market vs. trying to synthesize the hormones yourself from raw materials. I would support the former (though with a lot of research and making sure you’re getting reputable supplies), but think the latter incredibly fraught for a layperson.

I think the real answer isn’t DIY pharmaceuticals, but rather universal healthcare, informed consent, and a medical system (both physicians and pharmaceutical manufacturers) that puts patient care above any kind of profit motive

I think it’s more important to look at this issue from a social and political standpoint, rather than a metaphysical one, especially since the latter is essentially un-falsifiable.

But when you look at systemic bigotry, capitalistic drive creating underclasses and billionaire classes, monopolistic market forces, unafforadble basic necessities, violent policing of symptoms rather than compassionate remedying of causes of issues in society, etc., then you can start talking about how much your free will has a bearing when all of your choices are essentially already made for you, simply because a greedy oligarchy deemed it so. We can quantify these issues, and we can resolve them, if we as a society actually want to do so.

But that’s not what people want to do. So they muck about with metaphysical ramblings that can’t be measured or actioned, rather than doing anything of substance.

Using AI is feeding bullshit into a bullshit generator that’s handing back a synthesis of stolen art.

It’s a bullshit tool for hacks and grifters to pretend they’re “artists” so they can exploit another avenue for the grind.

This is not a debate. I don’t give a shit what your excuses are. Shout at a wall for all I care.

I would love to see this happen. He deserves it. But I honestly and truly believe that if he’s convicted and sentenced, it will spark a civil war. The right wing militias see him essentially as a god, and the rest of the country as some twisted, satanic cabal that has invented things to charge him with just to try to silence him and, by extension, them as well. MAGAts are already violent and murderous. A criminal conviction will just be the last straw

This is just imperial apologia

So because the US is an empire, we’re just supposed to go along with it and accept anything it decides to do?

No, the answer is that the US needs to stay the fuck out of it. It’s not our war. It’s not our fight. It has nothing to do with us. As much as the US likes to act like it, we’re not World Police. We shouldn’t be sending anything, much less munitions that are rightly banned my most of the rest of the world

The issue is the framing of “organized religion” when what you really mean is “Christianity”. This has been the problem with new atheism for a long time: take valid criticisms of Christianity, along with the trauma and experiences in Christian churches, and then try to paint all religion with that same brush. And you can’t do that.

You’re angry at Christianity and its hegemony in American life. I get it and I share many of those fears and frustrations. You mentioned things happening in FL. I’m in FL, and as a queer person it’s fucking terrifying here. But the momentum behind that push isn’t coming from synagogues or mosques, or from Hindus or Buddhists or Taoists. It’s an explicit white Christian supremacist movement.

Christianity’s dogma, style of worship, mindsets, etc don’t map to other faiths. And even inside of Christianity there’s people who are trying to push back. But saying that things like this are characteristic of all religions shows a complete lack of understanding of faiths outside of Christianity.

Remember “If Roe falls, we riot!” slogans, and then when it happened, there seemed to be a collective “meh” from mainstream liberals?

The fucking Biden admin and Congress had a solid month from the leak of that decision, and a trifecta, to pass legislation to ensure reproductive rights. And they sat on their fucking hands and let it be struck down.

To be fair, in the aftermath of summer 2020, many states made it super easy to charge protesters as domestic terrorists (see what’s happening in Georgia, e.g.).

I honestly don’t know what it’s going to take at this point. Conservatives are waging a fascist takeover of states, courts, and federal agencies. And Dems in Congress are fucking sleepwalking, letting it happen.