Hot Button Topics (religion, politics, sports)

[Chocofreak13]

a bit like anime people trying to reclaim mostly negative terms such as "otaku" and "fujoshi". -w-;

oh wait, i'm white, i shouldn't be using asian terms.

[Nichi]

Indeed; we are the whitest of whiteness. Excuse me while I delete the rap songs I have and eat a mayo sandwich </sarcasm>

[Goujer (she/her)]

My university can no longer include race in a suspect description unless they can give enough details along with it to identify someone. This mostly came from complaints that the only description for almost all crime reports was that the suspects were African American. Ever since the Ferguison stuff a lot of people on my campus are keeping tension high with the police, but you can tell that the police just want to make people feel safe, even from the police. The police even got rid of some automatic rifles they had locked up in case of school shootings because people were protesting that the police shouldn't have such dangerous weapons at they're disposal. But honestly if a guy comes with a shot gun or hunting rifle and starts firing, I'd feel better if the police had an an automatic insteed of a pistol or tazer.

[Chocofreak13]

i think the answer to the police problems is to include bias screening with the psych evals, and do a lot more of them. more stress-testing might be useful as well, to make sure the people present are able to do the job when needed---but ONLY when needed (NOT on homeless people, NOT on people who mouth off to the officers, NOT on psychotic folks).
this scene sums up what i mean by "doing the job".

also, do you live in the south? feel free not to answer, and i don't mean to pry, but i'm curious. i live in new england, about half an hour from boston. :0

[Goujer (she/her)]

I live in the cold white tundra known as Minnesota. Oh yeah der I be attendin thee ole U of M up eer.

[Nichi]

...Have you seen the big ball of twine?
(I'm sorry, I had to ask. Love that Weird Al song -w-; )

[Chocofreak13]

hahahaha, whenever i sign up for something that asks for my address and i'm not comfortable with it, i give a fake name and address in Minnapolis. xD

i'm in NH, and the bulk of my immediate family (cousins and whatnot) on my mum's side live here or in MA. after that, all my other family is in either Canada or Europe (sans one of my mum's cousins who lives in Vegas). -w-

[Bella]

I live in the cold white tundra known as Minnesota. Oh yeah der I be attendin thee ole U of M up eer.

Hah, I KNEW it. I remember hearing U of M was going to do away with racial descriptions in suspect reports ... I think it's completely ridiculous since it's an important identifying feature. Politics shouldn't be a part of it.

With regards to labels: honestly I'm trying to distance myself from a lot of them. I hold specific beliefs in common with liberal feminists, radical feminists, queer theorists, gender-egalitarians, political/social progressives, political/social conservatives, libertarians, socialists, transhumanists, materialists (in the philosophical sense), religious progressives and radical atheists among many, many other schools of political, social, philosophical and spiritual schools of thought without feeling although I fit into any of those groups. 

Personally, I reject gender descriptions for myself because I think the whole concept has been bastardized as of late (I'm looking at you, demi-hydrogender girl-kins). My sexuality is an inextricable mess and while I call myself "asexual" because it's the closest approximation of what I am that's not totally accurate either. Half of the time I'm envious of people with religious and spiritual beliefs and other times I think those beliefs should be wiped from the face of human society. I elevate knowledge and skill above all else and strive to get to a point where I KNOW more than I believe, since beliefs aren't always or even often truths and knowledge at least attempts to separate feelings from fact.

I am pro-social justice but my social justice stands for eliminating homelessness and hunger, ensuring people can make living wages, curbing the growth of destructive corporations, making sure people aren't denied their reproductive rights, eliminating forced prostitution and sexual slavery, ending female genital mutilation, punishing countries that refuse to take care of the environment, ending religious persecution and the persecution of LGBT people, so on and so forth. My social justice doesn't involve middle-class teenagers' rights to identify as octogender pyrofoxkins and have people respect their kawaii "bun/buns/bunself >^.^<" pronouns or men taking up too much legroom on the subway or people feeling offended by whites speaking "ethnic" languages or eating "ethnic" food or getting upset because people have certain gender/sex preferences in partners.

[Goujer (she/her)]

I have not seen the twine ball but I have always wanted to.
Also the police can use race but only if it can actually help identify someone. The description he was Mexican or Ginger is far to broad to narrow it down to a single person. I think it was giving off a bad stigma because every suspect description I've read was "African American" except for a white chick with a mohawk and tattoos, but she also had help from some African Americans. For what ever reason race seems to be about the only thing the victims can say about their attackers.

[Bella]

That's reasonable. Honestly if all you have to go on is "white woman" or "black man" you aren't going to catch a suspect anyway.

[Nichi]

@Bella: I suppose in some regards I'm similar in some regards, although I generally have found demisexual is an accurate description of me, since I usually don't feel any sort of sexual attraction to a person unless I know them well; as for the beliefs, I suppose I pick and pull things from varying mindsets and religions as well, rather than just sticking solely to one belief system. As for social justice, while I do feel there are some injustices that need to be addressed (Gender roles being a major one for me), I tend to avoid the SJW side of Tumblr due to the stupidity, since you can only see so many people who are sparkle-sparkle jambalayasexual trainkins that prefer "nyan/nyan/nyanself" pronouns complain about oppression or lack of representation in fictional mediums before you just want to turn around and run the other way.
Don't even get me started on the radfem sector of that side, as that sector so toxic it'll make any sane person feel like shit

[Chocofreak13]

wouldn't that be demisexual, then? Pans are attracted to all genders without any specific time requirement. :0

@labels: i don't mind identifying under a select few labels, mostly relating to political afflilation, religion, or nature of interest (i'm a gothic, nerdy, democratic anarchist who's a pagan). these are all facts and have no basis in ambiguity and don't need to be explained. i also identify as feminist, which i keep as simple and broad as possible rather than narrowing it down; it's too much effort to get specific just to make a nitpicker feel better. :\

@sjw: i stay off tumblr both as a rule (too much of a timesink that i can barely figure out) and because i forget i have an account. though i see the more radical parts of it a bit like reading the comments: don't do it. and it irks me enough that "zim" has become a semi-accepted pronoun, soooo......

[Nichi]

...yeah; Demisexual. IDK what I was thinking of ^^;;;;;

[Chocofreak13]

eh, there are so many terms these days that it can be hard to keep them straight. :0

get it
STRAIGHT
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH

[Bella]

wouldn't that be demisexual, then? Pans are attracted to all genders without any specific time requirement. :0

Tbh, my own personal interpretation of "pan" (romantic or sexual) involves being gender-blind, that is to say, if you have the right personality traits I wouldn't care about gender identity or physical sex. Though the fact there are multiple definitions of pansexuality, asexuality, bisexuality and practically anything else that isn't straight or gay (usually) gives me all the more reason to distance myself from those labels.

Honestly, my own sexuality is practically spot-on to definition of demisexual but I'm not a fan of the label. I have nothing against people who identify as such, but I personally tend to think of sexuality as what genders you are or aren't attracted to rather than under what circumstances. Because I'm not sexually/romantically attracted to any particular gender(s) (while still remaining open to the possibility of falling for a person of any gender) I think of myself as asexual.

Tumblr-style SJWs are just so, so toxic. Since I'm a masochist I have this horrible addiction to browse blogs exposing bad behavior among them and it's some of the most vile stuff I've had the displeasure of reading. Like this lovely blogger who suggests the way to win in arguments with trans men is to trigger their body dysphoria. Or this other blogger who suggests trans men are weak, cowardly and boring. They're also fond of pulling "historical facts" out their asses, and show literally no regard for statistical evidence, which makes me angry and twitchy as a fan of both history and science. They route for PoC inclusion in certain fields, unless it's the wrong "type" of PoC. They resort to bizarre ad-hominem attacks and kindergarten-level name-calling.

They claim to want to advance LGBTQ rights while perpetuating the myth that being gay, trans, etc. is a choice, and fetishizing and dehumanizing the very people they claim to want to help. Some of them also have no problem spewing rape-trivializing and misogynistic rhetoric when they're confronted with people who don't share their particular points of view, all the while ignoring real social justice issues.

I don't have a smart commentary on it or anything insightful to say. It's just so sickening and bizarre.