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Growing Up Alyssa

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Re: Growing Up Alyssa

#21

Post by dale_glass »

bsaul wrote: post #13

« I’m on the board overseeing Linux graphics. Half of us are trans » From a purely statistical POV, this is absurdly bizarre.

Not really.

Statistically there will be weird coincidences completely naturally. It's also quite arbitrary which we see as meaningful. If say, Linux networking has unusually many people called "John" that probably will be unnoticed because nobody pays that much attention to common, unremarkable names. If they all randomly turn out to have green eyes, then that's more visible. It's completely subjective which of those is more remarkable.

There are also likely social effects -- people stick together, and some side interests align with some fields. Eg, I think it's reasonable to guess there's going to be more furries than average in VR development. Part because VR allow you to look like whatever you want a lot of the time, part because people will invite their friends in.

Re: Growing Up Alyssa

#24

Post by hersko »

tombert wrote: post #9
api wrote: post #2

I 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 Flo…

What specifically in the "don't say gay" law are you against?

Re: Growing Up Alyssa

#25

Post by tombert »

hersko wrote: post #24
tombert wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Flo…

What specifically in the "don't say gay" law are you against?

The fact that it allows basically any parent to sue to the teacher for mentioning basically anything involving sexual orientation, the fact that it doesn't really define what is disallowed, the fact that it was extended all the way until twelfth grade, the fact that there's little repercussions for a parent lying or embellishing.

ETA:

Oh, also, because it's basically predicated on a homophobic conspiracy about gay people all being out to groom your children.

Re: Growing Up Alyssa

#27

Post by hersko »

uneekname wrote: post #23

c'mon HN, don't flag this. it's a perspective piece about being a trans developer in a harsh political landscape. we upvote and discuss this stuff quite often.

It's someones political manifesto. Not sure why it's relevant to HN.

Re: Growing Up Alyssa

#28

Post by brucethemoose2 »

dale_glass wrote: post #4

The 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 thr…

There are downsides to technocracy, like doctor groups or AI companies pursuing their self interests a little too much.

And at the federal level, many of the older congressional members are not as uninformed as you might think. They have a big information machine around them.

...But, in general, yeah. Its absurd how uninformed the debates can get these days.

Re: Growing Up Alyssa

#29

Post by hersko »

tombert wrote: post #25
hersko wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What specifically in the "don't say gay" law are you against?

The fact that it allows basically any parent to sue to the teacher for mentioning basically anything involving sexual orientation, the fact that it doesn't really define what is disallowed, the fact that it was extended all the way until twelfth grade, the fact that there's little repercussions for a parent lying or embellishing. ETA: Oh, also, because it's basically predicated on a homophobic conspiracy about gay pe…

I'm just looking at the bill [1]. It seems like a very straight forward reinforcement of a parents rights to oversee the education of their kids.

> any parent to sue to the teacher for mentioning basically anything involving sexual orientation

"prohibiting a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a specified manner. ..... to adhere to standards developed by the department of education."

Presumably they can only sue if the teacher is going against whatever the normal standards are.

> little repercussions for a parent lying or embellishing

I don't know what you mean here, but presumably if the parents take a teacher to court and lose (because they lied/embellished) they would have just wasted their legal fees.

> homophobic conspiracy about gay people all being out to groom your children

Not sure about this. I think the bill came out before the whole groomer thing.

[1] https://www.scribd.com/document/559840370/House-Bill-1557-Do...

Re: Growing Up Alyssa

#30

Post by ZeroGravitas »

jawns wrote: post #14

> if you vote Republican in 2024, you vote erasure. You vote oppression. You vote fascism As a registered independent who finds both major parties unconscionable, this line of argument worries me. Frankly, members of both parties can ascribe the worst possible motives to those who vote for the opposition, precisely because both parties are a massive tangle of complex social, economic, political, and administrative is…

They're not assigning the worst possible motivations to people who don't vote like them.

It's actually the opposite, they're trying to speak to the people who might vote Republican and who may not realise what they are voting for.

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