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Jul. 27th, 2012 04:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* In Aleppo, because of the way the government moved in, civilians had a hard time getting out, so it is expected civilian casualties will be high, especially as the government continues all residents to be enemies, even the babies, and thus legitimate military targets. In Rastan, there are only three doctors left, trying to handle the huge volume of dying civilians.
* Greenland's top layer of ice melted in about 3 days this month. The Maldives are expected to be completely engulfed in ten to fifteen years due to rising sea levels ending a several thousand year old culture and rendering the citizens permanent refugees. It's the hottest year on record here in the US and we are having the worst year of Drought since the time of the Dust Bowl in the Great Depression. It's also the third year in a row of crop disruption. The drought is expected to drive up food prices. They are slaughtering herds all over the Midwest that they can't feed. Meat is cheap right now, but meant, eggs, and milk are expected to get very expensive later in the year as a result. A corn shortage also means a rise in gas prices due to ethanol shortage. Meanwhile, North Carolina has banned mention of climate change and Weather reporters can be fired if they mention climate change. After all, if you ignore a massive and dangerous problem it will go away right?
* Why we need to break up the big banks: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48329251
* A new example of Mitt Romney yet again cutting up one of President Obama's speeches to make it look like he said something he didn't and then attacking what he didn't say Strawman style instead of engaging with what the President actually said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48347248
Why is it Mitt Romney can't even go one day without lying? If his policies are so much better than the President's, why can't he just argue the policy instead of making an imaginary version of the President and attacking that?
* Looks like Anderson Cooper is uncomfortable with the imprisonment of an animal as intelligent and as social as a whale in much the way I am: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/25/author-whale-attacked-to-send-message/?hpt=ac_mid
* John Stewart does a good job of showing the ingenuousness and hypocrisy behind last week's attack on President Obama: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-july-25-2012/democalypse-2012---do-we-look-stupid--don-t-answer-that-edition---grammatical-gaffes
* An excellent guide for cis folk trying to be polite to trans folk: http://cakemeister.tumblr.com/post/16551006561/a-guide-to-respecting-trans-people-for-cis-individuals
I think just generally "APOLOGIZE and MOVE ON" is good advise for when one says something rude or inappropriate when someone calls one on something. Honestly, I'd rather be called on something than not so I can stop showing my ass on whatever topic it is.
Re: the list of things not to say, part of why I have an open door on trans questions is I'd rather people I know and like ask me than someone who might genuinely be hurt and upset by the questions. I absolutely can't speak for all trans people and don't claim to, but I do pay attention and have my own experience and friends and acquaintances with a wide range of experience. My list of things people have said to me that genuinely pissed me off are small, so better me than someone with a lot of triggers and pain.
If you are curious what did set me off, there's the following. 1. A friend of a friend within the first couple of hours of meeting me asked what was in my pants. (I don't personally mind friends and people I've slept with or who are thinking seriously of sleeping with me asking, but strangers asking makes me really want to hit the person in question, just saying. That's where my line is. Most people draw it in the nobody's business unless they are about to have sex line. Best to assume it's not your business when dealing with someone who isn't me). 2. There's a new agey feminist thing where they say, "Souls don't have gender." Therefore it follows that my identity is invalid and all trans* folks are deluded or stupid or buying into the patriarchy or.... You get the idea. It's a creepy left wing paternalistic version of "my religion trumps your whole self and lived experience." At least the right wing bigots are honest about their bigotry and wear their transphobia openly instead of hitting one from left field out of the blue.
Yes, I find a whole other host of things cis people say annoying, but I find people of good will are generally amenable to education. I've had women who bought into the out dated feminist psych theory that all trans folk are self hating lesbians or gays and that accepting themselves will magically fix gender issues, which is easily refuted by the existence of post op gay and lesbian trans folks. (The same people often have trouble see prre and non op trans folk as trans, but once they get past the gender has nothing to do with orientation thing it's fairly easy to get them to see gender as internal rather than surgical). The other annoying one is the feminist belief that trans man are doing it for the male privilege and trans women are some infiltrating fifth column. Again, if I can get the person in question to grasp the experience of gender disphoria and internal gender sense, it gets solved. There are variations of this. There's also the whole people having trouble grasping the non-binary, but I have concrete ways to explain that which usually solve it. Again, I may be a little miffed at this sort of stuff, but I'd rather educate and diffuse the mine field for the next trans person to come along, and generally people will come around given time to think. (I absolutely believe we don't owe cis folk an education. My willingness to engage is a consensual thing and I reserve the right not to educate if I don't feel like it). Religion though? There isn't a damn thing I can do about that sort of bigotry and it tempts me to physical violence. I don't act on it, but oh am I tempted.
* Brightlion fixed my browser issues! Yay! Now to figure out why fixing Firefox makes Livejournal stop letting me look at comments on livejournal.
* Greenland's top layer of ice melted in about 3 days this month. The Maldives are expected to be completely engulfed in ten to fifteen years due to rising sea levels ending a several thousand year old culture and rendering the citizens permanent refugees. It's the hottest year on record here in the US and we are having the worst year of Drought since the time of the Dust Bowl in the Great Depression. It's also the third year in a row of crop disruption. The drought is expected to drive up food prices. They are slaughtering herds all over the Midwest that they can't feed. Meat is cheap right now, but meant, eggs, and milk are expected to get very expensive later in the year as a result. A corn shortage also means a rise in gas prices due to ethanol shortage. Meanwhile, North Carolina has banned mention of climate change and Weather reporters can be fired if they mention climate change. After all, if you ignore a massive and dangerous problem it will go away right?
* Why we need to break up the big banks: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48329251
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* A new example of Mitt Romney yet again cutting up one of President Obama's speeches to make it look like he said something he didn't and then attacking what he didn't say Strawman style instead of engaging with what the President actually said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48347248
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Why is it Mitt Romney can't even go one day without lying? If his policies are so much better than the President's, why can't he just argue the policy instead of making an imaginary version of the President and attacking that?
* Looks like Anderson Cooper is uncomfortable with the imprisonment of an animal as intelligent and as social as a whale in much the way I am: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/25/author-whale-attacked-to-send-message/?hpt=ac_mid
* John Stewart does a good job of showing the ingenuousness and hypocrisy behind last week's attack on President Obama: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-july-25-2012/democalypse-2012---do-we-look-stupid--don-t-answer-that-edition---grammatical-gaffes
* An excellent guide for cis folk trying to be polite to trans folk: http://cakemeister.tumblr.com/post/16551006561/a-guide-to-respecting-trans-people-for-cis-individuals
I think just generally "APOLOGIZE and MOVE ON" is good advise for when one says something rude or inappropriate when someone calls one on something. Honestly, I'd rather be called on something than not so I can stop showing my ass on whatever topic it is.
Re: the list of things not to say, part of why I have an open door on trans questions is I'd rather people I know and like ask me than someone who might genuinely be hurt and upset by the questions. I absolutely can't speak for all trans people and don't claim to, but I do pay attention and have my own experience and friends and acquaintances with a wide range of experience. My list of things people have said to me that genuinely pissed me off are small, so better me than someone with a lot of triggers and pain.
If you are curious what did set me off, there's the following. 1. A friend of a friend within the first couple of hours of meeting me asked what was in my pants. (I don't personally mind friends and people I've slept with or who are thinking seriously of sleeping with me asking, but strangers asking makes me really want to hit the person in question, just saying. That's where my line is. Most people draw it in the nobody's business unless they are about to have sex line. Best to assume it's not your business when dealing with someone who isn't me). 2. There's a new agey feminist thing where they say, "Souls don't have gender." Therefore it follows that my identity is invalid and all trans* folks are deluded or stupid or buying into the patriarchy or.... You get the idea. It's a creepy left wing paternalistic version of "my religion trumps your whole self and lived experience." At least the right wing bigots are honest about their bigotry and wear their transphobia openly instead of hitting one from left field out of the blue.
Yes, I find a whole other host of things cis people say annoying, but I find people of good will are generally amenable to education. I've had women who bought into the out dated feminist psych theory that all trans folk are self hating lesbians or gays and that accepting themselves will magically fix gender issues, which is easily refuted by the existence of post op gay and lesbian trans folks. (The same people often have trouble see prre and non op trans folk as trans, but once they get past the gender has nothing to do with orientation thing it's fairly easy to get them to see gender as internal rather than surgical). The other annoying one is the feminist belief that trans man are doing it for the male privilege and trans women are some infiltrating fifth column. Again, if I can get the person in question to grasp the experience of gender disphoria and internal gender sense, it gets solved. There are variations of this. There's also the whole people having trouble grasping the non-binary, but I have concrete ways to explain that which usually solve it. Again, I may be a little miffed at this sort of stuff, but I'd rather educate and diffuse the mine field for the next trans person to come along, and generally people will come around given time to think. (I absolutely believe we don't owe cis folk an education. My willingness to engage is a consensual thing and I reserve the right not to educate if I don't feel like it). Religion though? There isn't a damn thing I can do about that sort of bigotry and it tempts me to physical violence. I don't act on it, but oh am I tempted.
* Brightlion fixed my browser issues! Yay! Now to figure out why fixing Firefox makes Livejournal stop letting me look at comments on livejournal.