Growing Up Alyssa
rosenzweig.io
Growing Up Alyssa
1–10 of 100 posts
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#2I think the right has seized on trans people because it's become socially unacceptable to go after gay people (at least directly), so going after trans people is a substitute. "Othering" some group and uniting people against them is powerful brain stem stuff, and elections these days are won or lost on turnout rather than changing anyone's mind.
I'm not sure what they're going to do when there aren't any groups left to "other." They might have to argue for their ideas and policies on reason and merit. That's gonna be hard. It's a lot harder to convince the neocortex with reason than to rally the limbic system with outrage porn.
It's gross of course. It's using people for political cannon fodder. At least the left mostly just tries to scare me and make me hate right-wing politicians, which is like striking a military target rather than a civilian target.
I hate the culture war in general. It's a godsend to incompetent politicians. All they have to do is grunt correctly on culture war issues and they don't have to actually deliver anything of substance or solve any real problems.
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#3I think the right has seized on trans people because it's become socially unacceptable to go after gay people (at least directly), so going after trans people is a substitute. "Othering" some group and uniting people against them is powerful brain stem stuff, and elections these days are won or lost on turnout rather than changing anyone's mind. I'm not sure what they're going to do when there aren't any groups left…
The most vociferous "anti-trans" people tend to be left-leaning feminists, in my experience.
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#4The whole discourse over this in the US is getting nuts as of late.
We justifiably get annoyed when uninformed lawmakers make sweeping laws without understanding the technical issues involved. It's frankly bizarre to have some 80 year old fossil who can barely understand using a cell phone be involved in something like deciding net neutrality or AI regulations.
We should be equally annoyed at the current trend of throwing medical issues into the public sphere. There's no reason whatsoever why random people like my mom whose education is in textile design and mostly watches cat videos all day should participate in the public drama of who should get what medical treatment when. We have professionals who specialize in medicine for a reason.
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#5[flagged]
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#6[dead]
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#7I think the right has seized on trans people because it's become socially unacceptable to go after gay people (at least directly), so going after trans people is a substitute. "Othering" some group and uniting people against them is powerful brain stem stuff, and elections these days are won or lost on turnout rather than changing anyone's mind. I'm not sure what they're going to do when there aren't any groups left…
The most vociferous "anti-trans" people tend to be left-leaning feminists, in my experience.
The article is clearly about political and legislative anti-trans machinations though, not TERFs at dinner parties or whatever. In that context it’s the right that is the issue.
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#8[flagged]
"I'm going to try to sound chin-strokingly neutral but I can't call her 'she' when that's what she prefers."
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#9I think the right has seized on trans people because it's become socially unacceptable to go after gay people (at least directly), so going after trans people is a substitute. "Othering" some group and uniting people against them is powerful brain stem stuff, and elections these days are won or lost on turnout rather than changing anyone's mind. I'm not sure what they're going to do when there aren't any groups left…
I don't know; it seems like DeSantis and his ilk are pretty happy to just directly go after gay people under the guise of calling them "groomers". I mentioned this here a few weeks ago, but part of the reason that my wife and I have dismissed the idea of moving to Florida (despite us both having family there) is because she's planning on becoming a biology teacher, and the broad and idiotic "don't say gay" law in Florida is likely to make our lives extremely unpleasant if she taught there.
Re: Growing Up Alyssa
#10[flagged]