[gaydiation-poisoning]

It would kill half the 19-25 year olds online to realize "I can't help it I have trauma" is one of THE quintessential abuser excuses

[gaydiation-poisoning]

Like there is a difference between "My trauma creates impulsive urges and has changed my instinctive reactions to be irrational, I need to relearn shit." vs "I'm traumatized so I Can't Help It and you're not allowed to expect better of me"

[json-derulo]

I'm not gonna articulate this well, but there's this phenomenon I keep seeing on the left that I'll call "bean soup rhetoric," wherein someone fails to understand that they are not the target audience for a particular message, or just can't conceptualize why a speaker would craft their message differently to resonate with a target audience that doesn't already completely agree with them.

"The 'God Made Trans People' billboard is stupid! God didn't make me! I'm an atheist!" Okay. The billboard sits along a major highway in Kansas. We can deduce that the target audience is not you—it's the centrist evangelical Christians driving along that road who could probably be persuaded to become allies as long as we choose our words carefully and don't make them feel attacked for not already knowing everything about trans rights issues. Another one I see a lot is, "We shouldn't be talking about how right-wing legislation catches [privileged in-group] in the crossfire when [marginalized out-group] suffers far more!" I know. I agree with you. Which is why you and I are not the intended audience of this argument!

The entire point of rhetoric is to win over someone who doesn't already fully agree with you. In this case, let's say that someone is Jennifer, the moderate center-right mom in your neighborhood who doesn't really know or care about transgender issues but would be absolutely horrified by the idea of her teenage daughter having to submit to an invasive inspection of her body just to be allowed to play soccer. Tell her, "Banning trans students from sports will inevitably subject all student athletes to invasive gender-policing," or "Legal restrictions on gender-affirming care will make it harder for you to access the hormone replacement therapy you take to treat menopause symptoms," and she is more likely to question her existing beliefs and listen to the rest of what you have to say than if you lead with leftist talking points that she already has a calcified opinion about or which she thinks do not personally affect her.

Tailoring the argument to the things she already cares about does not mean we're forgetting that she has more privilege than most—entirely the opposite, in fact. A privileged ally can be extremely valuable. Jennifer votes in every election. And so do all the other ladies at her book club, and church, and in the PTA, and those folks listen to Jennifer. There's a reason both parties were courting suburban women so hard in the last election cycle! If we can find common ground with her on this, if we can get her calling her representatives and talking to her friends and phone-banking and door-knocking and making a stink, that's how the needle starts to move. If I can convince her to take her support away from the candidates who are actively restricting my rights and throw it toward those who want to restore and expand those rights...then I'm sorry, but Jennifer is a more valuable ally to me than the people who agree that the legal boundaries of gender ought to be abolished altogether but refuse to actually do anything except complain online about how both sides are equally bad because the right is trying to force everyone to drink the cyanide kool-aid while the left keeps serving bean soup and they don't like bean soup

[bruj4h]

to put it another way, you cannot tailor your message/activism to how you think people should be, you have to tailor it to how they are.

"but jennifer should care about other people regardless of whether she personally feels affected by their struggles", well, she doesn't. what now? do we sulk about it or do we change tactics?

[thekidsfromyestergay]

I think the reason I hate people who camp outside concerts overnight is because it's a perfect example of something that's ok if you're rich and not if you're poor. Homeless people get moved along and forced into increasingly uncomfortable and dangerous areas but you can choose to pitch up a whole tent along a walkway no problem as long as you're wearing the right t-shirt

[authorizedpope]

im not criticising brilliant minds because i haven't even watched an episode yet, but i sincerely cannot imagine a less appealing endorsement than "its like house if everything that made house awesome was removed" like hey guys you wanna watch this zombie apocalypse movie but with the zombies taken out? yeah its just a group of people in a run club. house if he was nice and not addicted to drugs. well ok. let me show you the sinstine chapel without all that fucken paint i guess

[sailing-ever-west-deactivated20]

graph of what being hungry is like with adhd

[keepcalmandcarriefischer]

I feel like you can learn a lot about a person by going through their fridge at like 3 am and then rummaging through everything else in their house as well as reading all their emails and digging through their browser history

[monkeysky]

Minotaur is not a species

The Minotaur was named that because he was the son of King Minos. Anyone with a bull head has to be named after their dad, like the Kyletaur or something.

[supreme-leader-stoat]

[tryingmybest3]

Im sorry you can’t hide this gem in the tags

[tony-the-tigers-juicy-armpit]

The European mind cannot comprehend what it was like to be a person who'd only had Hershey bullshit chocolate my entire life and then have European chocolate for the very first time and it made me realize why people were acting like that in the Willy Wonka movies

[transgenderization]

if you got like a 100kilo bag of glitter and opened it up and left it in the path of like a tornado i think that would be interesting. i dont care abt ecological damage btw

[dropbear42]

I do. 100kg bag of seaweed based glitter.

[thyrell]

i dont. 100kg bag of enriched uranium based glitter

[thyrell]

wait isnt uranium denser than lead how heavy would a 100kg bag of uranium be

[cursologist]

thyrell.

[thyrell]

just kill me

[thyrell]

[officialspec]

well we had a terrible run guys. just absolutely godawful. the worst anyones ever done it. i forgot where i was going with this

[chaser]

We were feeling pretty chuffed about having the #6 trending post on this website until we saw number 7 was a Supernatural mpreg edit

[chaser]

Alrighty then

[chaser]

Yea that's fair

[only-tiktoks]

[birlinterrupted]

I'm afraid bones are bones. Everyone will always know what you are. Skull shape and hip width don't lie.

now im getting a message from Phrenology Shakira.

[blaruu]

Being 6ft and

having a very small kitten form a bond with you and

watching this very small kitten follow you everywhere and

having to look directly down  all the time

a a a a a a  a a a a  aa a a a a aa a a a 

[gravediggersfern]

Please take a picture show us your perspective

[blaruu]

POV: you’re 6ft trying not to step on a very small cat that follows you.

[memecucker]

[string-star-lights]

rocky horror picture show asks what would happen if frankenstein’s creature knew its purpose from birth. it also asks “what if victor frankenstein did drag and a lot of cocaine” which is a frankly more important question

[ihatethisgaywebsite-deactivated]

this tweet hasn't left my mind once in the two years since it's been posted