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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 28th, 2023

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  • Supremacist worldviews are intolerant and do not deserve tolerance. The question at hand is whether or not OP’s assertions of gender-based divinity are tantamount to supremacist ideology, such as when a cult leader claims their followers (or perhaps descendants of an ancient lineage) are inherently superior.

    Also, OP might just be a troll. Remember attack helicopters? Same vibes here.

    Good luck, and I do not envy your responsibility in moderating this thread.


  • There appear to be some logical leaps and conclusion-shopping going on here, so I’m going to try to identify them systematically.

    Capitalization of pronouns in the English language is used to denote divinity or royalty. If I refer to Jehovah with a small-h “he,” I haven’t misgendered him, I have blasphemed. I don’t intentionally misgender people (even fictional ones), but I regularly blaspheme gods. I’m an atheist, it’s what we do.

    Being a man doesn’t make one part of the patriarchy and doesn’t confer superiority. Being divine ipso-facto makes you superior – both socially and inherently. As I reject the notion that some people are inherently superior to all others, I blaspheme cult leaders who claim to be gods, demigods, or incarnations thereof, and I refuse to give reverence to prophets and monarchs who claim proximity to the divine. I believe this makes the world a better, less exploitative place.

    I also see capitalized pronouns used (infrequently) in BDSM. Specifically, it is how some subs refer to their doms when in some extreme forms of 24/7 power exchange relationship. That’s okay, but as with other BDSM activities, power exchange never includes people who didn’t consent to be part of it, and consent is never obligatory. Doms who attempt to extend their authority beyond the confines of a scene are swiftly ridiculed or ostracized for consent violation.

    So for anyone to make the claim that capitalized pronouns should be respected by everyone, they must first make the case that divinity is a gender. Second, they must make the case that associating with the divine does not denote inherent superiority. Third, they must make the case that compulsory use of capitalized pronouns is not compulsory submission that would violate consent.


  • I would describe Denver as fiercely LGBT-friendly.

    Colorado is becoming something of a sanctuary state for people trying to get out of the increasingly LGBT-hostile Midwest and portions of the South (Texas and Florida in particular). Colorado legislators are aware of this and have made laws protecting people who come to the state seeking reproductive or gender-affirming healthcare from external lawsuits or prosecution.

    Local businesses and homes often fly pride flags all year round, and June’s pride events are absolutely massive. While rainbow capitalism is a meme, it’s also a litmus test for what capital owners think consumers and investors want to see. In other words, it would be noteworthy if they stopped.

    Denver has a lot of LGBT culture, though I would describe it as newer and more militant than my limited experience of NYC. There are gay bars, an active drag scene (Alyssa Edwards and Pattie Gonia performed at Pride this year), and tons of outdoor LGBT groups (hiking, climbing, foraging, birdwatching). I recently started dressing as my chosen gender in public, and the responses from acquaintances and random strangers alike have been overwhelmingly positive. Colorado allies are second to none.

    Colorado was not always this liberal. There are still conservative holdouts in places like Pueblo and Colorado Springs. Drag story hours around the state sometimes have hecklers (Proud Boys, judging from the colors), but humiliation ruins the illusion of fascist machismo, and so the efforts of groups like Parasol Patrol have proven very effective at stifling such protests.

    Some rapid-fire semi-relevant notes on general life here:
    • Rent and housing prices are rising, but have plateaued since 2022. Cheaper than NY or CA.
    • The cost of other necessities (utilities, fuel, food) are quite unremarkable and comparable to the Midwest. Restaurant entrees are usually $25, half for fast food.
    • There are a lot of jobs in software, aerospace, green tech, and manufacturing. With wage transparency laws, it’s easy to window shop for jobs. Denver minimum wage is $18.29/hr, and everything within 20 miles of Denver pretty much follows suit.
    • Gentrification is a point of conversation, particularly along Colfax. No telling how that’s going to go.
    • The food’s pretty good. There’s a lot of Thai, Vietnamese, and Nepalese.
    • If you’re worried about smell, avoid Commerce City. The Purina plant and the Suncor refinery are notoriously unpleasant.
    • People in Colorado are friendly, helpful, and pretty talkative. If you go hiking, you’ll probably make friends on the trail. It’s an interesting contrast to the performative politeness of the Midwest.
    • Walkability is good in Denver proper, but it’s nothing like NYC. They’ve been adding bike lanes lately.



  • I’d argue your SO might not be displaying neurotypical behavior.

    Between 50-85% of autistic spectrum people (plus a significant portion of people with PTSD or depression) experience Alexithymia, or significant difficulty in recognizing and analyzing their emotional state.

    When I’m feeling bad, my SO frequently assumes I’m withholding the reason from him in some sort of passive-aggressive mindgame, and I have to remind him that I barely know what my mood is, let alone what’s causing it.

    I’m getting better at it, but it’s a lot of work and I still regularly mistake stomachaches for anxiety.







  • Despite the fediverse’s reputation for leaning leftist, I feel like such a stranger with how often I find myself arguing that the collective action and solidarity of the working class can and has improved the material outcomes of nations, with or without the capital of the owner class, and with or without the approval of the government.

    Fight in whatever way makes sense to you. Some people will carpool or use less hot water. Some will put peer pressure on wealthy acquaintances. Some will alter design requirements or RFQs. Some will [redacted] a pipeline. It all works towards the same end.

    Yes, this is the fault of the owner class, but who do you think is going to force them to change if we all sit on our hands and say, “I dunno, man, that sounds like someone else’s responsibility.”





  • I’m gonna post this link to a former comment of mine, since this subject comes up a lot. Neither EVs nor public transit is a magic bullet.

    The efficiency of public transit depends on ridership; nowhere in the world does it actually achieve 100% occupancy for more than a few minutes at a time, and nothing is more wasteful than a train running a circuit with only one passenger. At least by my calculations, it would take an average occupancy rate increase of 1.6x (for electric light rail) to 2.4x (for electric busses) over pre-pandemic levels for US public transit to reach parity with EVs, both in terms of electricity per passenger mile and tons of raw material per capita (such as steel, aluminum, copper, glass, and plastic). We’d need higher occupancy than the trains in Europe and the busses in Taiwan. Whether or not that’s geographically possible in North America is an open question.

    Ebikes are great, no question there, but thanks to parasitic drain in cheap chargers, they use 1/3rd the energy a typical EV does (kWh per passenger-mile, adjusted for occupancy but not speed), when they should use only 1/10th. That’s a problem I expect to see solved in the next year or so, but it’s a great reminder that nothing runs on magic.

    As I say in the linked comment, public transit has critical advantages in the fields of urbanism and human-centric city design. I like trains and busses, and I vote for them every chance I get, it just bothers me when people conflate these advantages with environmental impact.