Re: OT: Cracking Speech by JDV!

On 2/19/2025 12:43 PM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

There are about 1.6 million trans people in America, until recently most
of them were hidden and living in fear of their lives.  The reason for
an apparent surge is that, with the removal of oppression, the true
numbers are now becoming known.

This is always the case.  Only an idiot would think people CHOOSE
to be "social outliers" because it is "fashionable".  Note the
surge of white folks who are looking for procedures to BLACKEN their
skin...  <rolls eyes>
Note how many many bigots come out of the woodwork when bigotry
gains acceptance.  Did they suddenly CHOOSE to become bigots?
Or, have they been bigots, all along -- but kept it hidden lest they
suffer social and economic consequences?

With the way politics are going, many
will be too afraid to show themselves and then we shall see the recorded
numbers decrease and hear the haters saying "See! They were pretending
all along, they don't really exist and it was just a fad.".
 When I meet a genuinely trans child, I am left in no doubt - and when I
hear what they have been put through,I feel a deep sense of shame that
anyone could condone doing that to a child in my supposedly civilised
country.

What is galling is the notion that these people THINK they know
what's "best" (for who?  themsleves??)

Would you deny dental treatment to children until they reach the Age of
Majority?  The treatment has never been double-blind tested and it could
have life changing consequences if the wrong teeth were extracted.
Perhaps toothache is just a fad and they will grow out of it - unless
they commit suicide first.

This is a tough one.  There are real risks to making lifechanging
decisions.  Yet, we allow (in some places) people to take their
own lives (much as that irks the cling-to-lifers).  We put mechanisms
in place to reduce the risk of this being done in a fit of depression,
etc.
But, there is still nothing that prevents someone from unilaterally
making that decision FOR THEMSELVES.  What right do we have to
decide how they live (or end) their life?  Show me the critic who
has *his* life in order...

More of the nonsense put about by the hate groups.  How many sports
superstars do you know of that are trans?

How many would want to ADOPT that lifestyle "just to win a medal"?
You can't magically "revert back" after the contest.  So, you have
to sign up for a lifetime in that role JUST for the possibility
of winning (there is no guarantee that some other GUY will be
competing against you and take the gold)
Folks living in that sort of distorted reality obviously "need"
considerably more than a "medal"!

Competitive sport is inherently unfair unless you have thousands of
micro-categories or a scale of penalties (as in horse racing jockey
weights).  Would you ban basketball players descended from tall African
tribes, or short, stocky Welsh rugby players of Celtic origin because
they had a genetic advantage?  Why pick on trans people?

Because it is an easy/obvious reasoning -- for folks who don't think
about things very hard.
Just like banning windmills because of bird fatalities
(should we ban BIRDS because of the hazards they pose to aircraft?)
I once hear the claim that "exposing the cancer to air" is what
kills cancer patients.  Superficially, this is true -- in the past,
when doctors had to go poking around to see the extent of a cancer's
spread, the patient was "opened to the air".  And, likely died
because the cancer was widespread.  The AIR had nothing to do
with it!
But, you can convince people (the gullible) of this as a truism:
heck, every cancer patient who was opened up died shortly thereafter!
(yes, as was true of most cancer patients!)
I recall the instructor in my Probabilistic Systems Analysis class
talking about gathering statistics.  He proposed getting data on
how often people ride the subway system.  He suggested going
to Park Street Station (a busy station) and quizzing people.
Then, waited for us to realize the folly in his proposal.
But, to someone who is a lazy thinker, Park Street Station would
be the ideal polling place as the number of people you would encounter
per unit time would be greatest, there!  People are too impatient to
understand the details of such silly arguments.
[I had an argument, this morning, with a friend who frequents the
casinoes.  He was claiming that he was "due" for a win -- a BIG win!
He was absolutely clueless about the idea that the machines don't
remember his losses -- so, how could they be "ready" to reward him?]