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The Bigger The Theft, The Lighter The Sentence?
  • Are you trying to imply that the US doesn't already do this? They've overthrown democratically elected governments all over the latin americas (and other places, like hawaii) and imposed more fascist ones for access to their raw materials. Sure it's not exactly using loans to do that, but the real end-game is fascism anyways once markets are fully saturated and there are no more ways to generate capital.

  • TIL lemmy has a traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns community
  • Gonna have to disagree here. The social aspect of it all is just as important of the medical aspect. While there are trans issues that are mostly medical in nature, there are equally trans issues that are more social in nature.

    I'm not sure what contexts you've seen truscum being used in, but from what I know it's a term used for people who insist on a medical diagnosis in order to be trans. The problem with this, imo, is twofold. There's a long history of medical gatekeeping that enforced cisheteronormativity in order to get a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, leaving out all other forms of self-identity (among a whole host of philosophical issues). And the second is just the lack of understanding and research of the broader medical community. Treatment guidelines are all over the place, often misguided, and usually inadequate to achieve the goals of the patient.

    Truscum rhetoric often reinforces cisheteronormativity which is mostly antithetical to what being trans is about in the first place. That's not to say that the trans community doesn't struggle with medical diagnoses or that that's not important, but to use a diagnosis as the benchmark of what being trans is, is usually needlessly exclusionary.

  • Researchers measure physical changes to trans women's vocal cords as a result of voice training
  • Thanks for the info, I didn't know that. Since voice training more/less got me to where I wanted to go, this isn't something that I researched all that well.

    Thankfully this isn't an opinion I've shared at all outside of this thread, but I'll make sure not to contribute to the stigma going forward nonetheless.

  • Must Watch Video on why the Star Wars Fandom Hates LGBTIAQ+ People
  • Hbomberguy makes long videos yes, but he doesn't make six hours long videos. He still makes his points concise and presents them in interesting and entertaining ways. Only in his last video does he cross the threshold into 3 hours long videos, and in that one he even says, in the video, that there was an entire section that he wrote and edited and then cut out because it muddied the point of his video.

    Maybe it's a question of where to draw the line, but I think hbomberguy is very much not the norm for long-form content creators. And I do not appreciate having long videos for the sake of having a video be long.

  • Researchers measure physical changes to trans women's vocal cords as a result of voice training
  • Maybe it's because I'm risk averse or maybe I'm just not as well read on it, but I do personally think it's generally riskier than other transition surgeries.

    For vaginoplasty, even if the job is botched, you'll still be able to walk normally. FFS, you'll still be able to talk and eat and smell normally. Breast augmentation, you can still lift your arms normally. Plus since these three are the "main" options available, there's more people doing it and more people experienced in handling the complications.

    For vocal surgery, if the job is botched, you can permanently damage your voice and not be able to shout. And even then it still takes a degree of voice training to get a good result (althought it does lower the bar). The relative rarity of the procedure also does not inspire me to take that kind of risk.

    I'm open to being convinced that it's not as risky as I think it is, but I do think that it's a pretty risky option. Especially when you compare it to voice training on its own, which is way harder to fuck up. And voice training will get most people across the line.

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    I was banned on my other account?
  • I'm not trying to argue with your lived experiences here, but as a neurodivergent person myself, I don't think that judging intent is a meaningless endeavor. Yes, it can be messy and difficult, but I do find it worthwhile to examine writing from the perspective of what the author is trying to convince the audience of. I personally don't think that the answer is to just stop trying to interact or be understood by neurotypical people, because like it or not, we can't avoid neurotypical people in life. Yes, I do wish neurotypical people were more accomodating to neurodivergent people but I don't think being antagonistic is helpful. I think it's pretty unfair to say that because you don't like using intents, that everyone else needs to stop as well.

    As for your point on the web of cause and effect, I think it's important to remember that there often isn't a clear cut path from A to Z. And people with different life experiences will come to different conclusions about whether A leads to C or B leads to C. If you want to communicate to others that A leads to Z, you need to thoroughly explain how you reached that conclusion rather than assuming that everyone knows that A leads to Z 100% of the time.

    You say that our senses of empathy are flawed and limited but I also haven't gotten the impression that you're making any real effort to understand other people. I've tried to read your words several times over and each time it feels like you think you're absolutely right and everyone else is absolutely wrong. I don't understand half the things you've written and you never explain them or try to present other opinions. You bulldoze through everyone else and shut down when they ask you to slow down and explain where you came from.

    To be clear here, I actually sympathize with a lot of the sentiments you've mentioned here. But just because I feel frustrated that someone does not see things exactly the same way I do, does not mean that I can automatically assume that they're wrong and evil and it's okay to be mean to them.

  • NSFW
    Tips for HRT prep?
  • Well the thing with trans healthcare is that it's been hardly researched so what I'm about to say is not official medical advice. Especially considering that everyone's body is different and will develop at different rates. If you have a sister, you could use her as your benchmarks for approximately what changes you'll see. Otherwise, your mom may be a second option. If you don't have either of those people available to you, you're basically just taking a shot in the dark.

    In terms of more scientific stuff. Again this is not medical advice so I urge you to make your own conclusions. You may want to check out the dr powers subreddit for the types of tests he uses. Just a warning though, don't look at any of his personal opinions. Because honestly he kinda sucks. But people also generally love his care and it's pretty radically different from the status quo, so tread with caution.

    In a nutshell, some of the key differences include that he tests for not just total E levels but more importantly free E levels (don't ask me what the difference is, I didn't study biology or medicine). Also more generally, he tries to match up the low point in your hormone cycle to the low point of the average E level of a cis woman. Being below the low point of the average E level when you're at your trough level means that you're not getting enough E. Testing at peak levels can be pretty unreliable and I personally don't think it really makes all that much sense to match up the peaks of your cycle to the lowest point of the average.

  • NSFW
    Tips for HRT prep?
  • I think it's important to note that almost every step in transition takes a lot of time, so you must be patient. Getting on hrt is a big step for sure and congratulations! But be prepared that it will take time to start seeing tangible results from it. Don't be afraid to get started on some of the other aspects like makeup and clothing in the meantime.

    That being said, (and this is also partially a personal gripe of mine,) don't be afraid to shop around for a good doctor. Far too many doctors are unwilling to give trans people proper dosages, either out of malice or ignorance, and this can make the process of second puberty much harder of a process than it should be. I hate to reference the infamous Dr. Powers (his personal views are pretty... Weird, to but it lightly. And a lot of doctors practically despise him), but I can't help but admire his patient-first attitude. Even though his personal opinions are kinda gross, he takes his patients seriously and does more in depth testing than any of the doctors I've had throughout my own transition. Too many doctors will give you a bare minimum dose that barely does anything for you and refuse to increase it, citing poorly researched statistics or basing it off of cis hrt which was never designed to induce a second puberty. Listen to your body, keep track of changes and when they happen, and be patient. But don't let a doctor gaslight you into thinking that things are happening when they're not.

    And on that note, take some good before pics that you can compare yourself to down the line! It can really help when you're feeling down or feeling like things are too slow, to see how far you've come and what changes have actually happened.

    I was feeling pretty frustrated about my transition progress up until earlier this year when I finally switched to injections and was taking a way higher dose. And now I can confidently say that my boobs show through my shirts. As it turns out, I don't think having sub 100 E levels is enough to actually start going through puberty. It did do some changes for sure, but they're basically nothing compared to how my body has changed since I managed to switch.

  • Researchers measure physical changes to trans women's vocal cords as a result of voice training
  • This study seems to me to be a retreading of old ground by cis people. Like I can appreciate getting more data that yes, trans people aren't freaks, but the study just seems like a massive "duh".

    Why did they think hrt changed vocal chords in trans women in the first place? It's pretty well known that hrt cannot take away the things that first puberty already changed. I also don't like how the article presents voice feminization surgery as if it's a common and normal choice for most trans women. Even beyond the implication that trans people need surgery to be successful in their transition, voice feminization surgery is extremely risky and is only ever recommended in extreme cases. If they couldn't even do that amount of research, it doesn't make me feel confident that the study is all that worthwhile to think about.

    Secondly, why only focus on trans women? It'd be more interesting if they included trans men in the picture since on their side of the fence, hrt actually does affect their voice. It would be interesting if the study compared their trans participants with cis benchmarks at all, actually. Maybe the study itself does that where the article does not, but for reason #1 I don't feel like it's worth my time to check.

    Lastly, the actual results of the study are pretty "duh". Just by the physics of how the human voice works, it's pretty easy to see that yes, having a breathier and higher pitched voice will lead to having thinner vocal folds. Because having thinner vocal folds is what causes those effects on the voice in the first place. The study mixes up the cause and effect here, so it isn't exactly groundbreaking research. What would've been more appropriate to examine is the vocal chords at rest compared to either cis benchmarks or the speaking voice average. Since the conventional wisdom is that voice training can't really change your voice at rest, that would be more interesting to look at.

    Overally I appreciate having more data about trans people, but didn't find the study or article to be particularly knowledgeable about trans people in the first place.

  • Popular gay YouTuber deletes online presence after video accuses him of rampant plagiarism
  • So basically, James Somerton stole literally all of his content from other queer creators while positioning himself as the de-facto queer creator to support. And by "all his content", it really means all his content. Every. Single. Thought. Was plagiarized from someone else's writing. And the extremely few that didn't revealed that James Somerton is a crazy misogynist Nazi-loving lesbophobic transphobe.

    Basically, he's a massive piece of shit who's comically evil to a mind-numbing degree.

  • Trans people are more likely to come from poorer backgrounds, study finds
  • Not sure how old you are or how jaded by society you are just yet, but conservatives don't come to their positions from facts and logic. They hold their positions because conservative media has fanned their fear of the unknown. Conservatives are deeply emotional, and aren't going to be convinced by any kind of studies or data to renounce their positions.

    To provide an example, the infamous 41% statistic was referenced in this study. 41% referring to the stat that 41% of trans people have contemplated suicide ever. Conservatives don't take this stat as an indicator that "hey things are kinda fucked up. we should be nicer to trans people!", they take it to mean that "all trans people are mentally ill psychos and shouldn't be allowed to make decisions for themselves or exist. You can't be mentally ill if you're not trans and this stat proves it!"

    OP, your heart might have been in the right place, but my opinion is that it's pointless to try to convince conservatives that they're wrong.

  • Trans people are more likely to come from poorer backgrounds, study finds
  • Well, that's the thing. I didn't jump to that conclusion. I can see how the way I worded it may make it seem that way though.

    And that passage is part of my point. The title makes it seem like being poor will make you more likely to be trans, while the study itself in fact says the opposite. That there are a number of different explanations for their observations, and that one shouldn't draw the conclusion that being poor makes you trans. The title of the article is clickbait at best, and intentionally misleading at worst.

  • Trans people are more likely to come from poorer backgrounds, study finds
  • title is some crazy unsubstantiated clickbait, and the article itself is a massive nothing burger. Basically, there are more trans people recorded in the poorer parts of the UK, and they generally have poorer mental health than cis people. Which is entirely unsurprising and unhelpful at this broad of an analysis.

    To be clearer, the distinction I'm drawing is that the title implies causation when all the study is is a correlation. "There are more trans people in poorer areas" is not the same statement as "poor people are more likely to be trans."

  • Republicans Introduce Bill Mandating Misgendering of Trans Federal Employees
  • ah, yes. because respecting someone's identity and being willfully evil by refusing to are exactly the same things, yup. Brilliant deduction there, sir Watson!

    Freedom of speech my ass. You just want to be an asshole without facing the consequences.

  • Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore
  • Have you tried reader mode? In both firefox and chrome (i think, I haven't checked other browsers) there's a button usually in the address bar that you can click and it'll format the article into a readable page instead of a bunch of ad-riddled garbage. It works pretty well generally.

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    In Rare Alliance, Democrats and Republicans Seek Legal Power to Clear Homeless Camps
  • Yeah. You're absolutely correct in that the two parties aren't remotely equal. I guess my comment stems from the frustration I feel seeing democrats constantly trying to "take the upper road" while conservatives block anything the democrats do on principle. They'll take a thousand concessions to get bills passed and even when the democrats are in power, somehow still don't manage to enact very meaningful change.

    So when I see the democrats slip up sometimes it feels like they undo whatever little progress they managed to make with all the conservative bad faith actors.

  • Hopped onto reddit recently and took a look at my home page

    It's been a while since I've been on reddit so I thought I'd browse some of my old fav subs that haven't really migrated to lemmy. These are mostly queer subs along the line of r/actuallesbians and r/tgcj.

    I noticed that these subs were suspiciously missing from my front page. There's still plenty of activity on these subs and they used to show up on my feed all the time, but now I can't find a single post on my page. I have to actually go out and manually open up the subs.

    I know that Reddit kept queer subs out of the Reddit Recap a while back, but this is on a whole 'nother level. Either some background setting has changed and that's the reason I don't see my favorite subs anymore, or Reddit has just started cracking down on queer communities again. Either way, disgusting.

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    Axolotling @beehaw.org
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