I was never an atheist, but I did spend some time Christian-bashing myself as a young adult, primarily because of religious fundamentalism, which still annoys me to this day.
I had friends like you...
I was 10 or 11 the first time I came across someone trying to explain a religious concept to me. I knew people had beliefs about gods and religions, and I had been to a funeral. That's about it. I somehow managed to be in a tiny subset of atheists who got through early childhood without any religious indoctrination at all.
Anyway, I'm shooting hoops in my driveway...and this kid I knew down the street comes over. He starts asking me what church I go to, etc. I tell him I don't. He's shocked, asked if I've been baptized or forgiven or something related to a Christian belief about people who don't go to church....I respond I don't know what he's talking about. He asks if I recognize Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I said "who?"
What ensued was probably one of the more hilarious conversations about christianity and offhand attempt at conversion that's ever been had. I had gone over a decade of my life without any real need to bother with this stuff.. and I'm being told that's wrong. I was being told that I seriously need to concern myself with this "stuff"...that awful things will happen to my eternal soul.
I had questions... and since he was of a similar age...the answers weren't great. It wasn't convincing. I start telling him I don't think I believe him....he gets more desperate, answers get worse. I can tell he's pretty upset about how it went, I tell him I'll think about it...he goes home. I'm left with a distinct impression of something awful being done to him...because he so clearly believes strongly, but clearly doesn't understand it or why he believes.
I gave it all the serious thought a 10 or 11 yo can give....maybe 4 or 5 days. I then confidently went up to my dad and said....
"
Hey dad, I don't think god exists."
He says "
Really?'
I tell him, "
Yeah I think it's all made up".
He leans down to speak directly in my ear, which was always his cue that I had better listen closely to his next words, and in my father's infinite wisdom, he says...
"I
think you should keep that little secret to yourself."
I was standing there thinking "
why? Everyone should know this."
Still...because he did the thing he does with me when I'm in big trouble, I don't bring it up with anyone for 2-3 years.
LOL
One of my best friends in high school LOVED Kiss. She wore a Kiss necklace everyday, had the T-Shirts, the works! I was more Iron Maiden.
"Kiss" the Prince song. Not Kiss the awful rock band that was 99% aesthetics and 1% musical talent lol.
That's not me picking on your friend either, my taste in music is awful.
That's been me, pretty much. Even before it gained more acceptance, I've never really cared who was gay or straight or who got married to whom or any of that. Religious fundamentalists making mountains out of molehills in my view.
I saw it as gross. Physical disgust. I didn't think that was a fair reason to legislate it though. I couldn't imagine a good reason for it not being permitted.
Nowadays I tend to separate out the LGB from the TQ+++ because of what is going on now. The LGB who just wanted to live normal lives and get married to the person they love are pretty much able to go on with those lives, but they get lumped in with the TQ's, and so now there is a movement among them called LGB drop the T and also because the TQ's have gone after them by announcing that they are bigots and transphobes because they base their sexual preference on biology and not feelings and outward appearance.
Yeah, I don't like any of them. There was a time this changed after being able to marry...where I thought they would just fade away into society (no activism).
Instead, they began demanding representation....in tv, movies, and books.
That's a really really strange demand in my eyes. The writers should be free to write characters as they want....we choose the stories we want to see. As if the mere act of fawning over the superficial image of oneself is what we're all doing at the movies.
Seriously? Did they think that? Do they think I see "straight white male" and my brain goes derrrrrrpp....that's me on the screen? There was a rush to comply and now they're everywhere. Can't avoid them. It's not really a problem for me...I just think the people who do that sort of thing and viciously attack some writer or director for not making a gay character are awful awful people...scum.
I don't get to tell picasso what to paint, and no one is entitled to an experience with a creative medium (like film or tv or literature) that is directly catered to whatever self indulgence they demand.
I was basically done with the whole lot over that.
I think some do and typically those with dysphoria, and others like children and young people are engineered into it. For example the girl who likes to play sports and doesn't like dresses gets convinced she must really be a boy. Others have the "grass is greener" syndrome where they think it is easier to be one or the other, or because they are gay and don't want to be gay, so if they transition, they won't be gay anymore, etc. Then of course we have all the people just taking advantage of it all, and the militant "allies" who get outraged and feel obligated to speak on behalf of everyone else.
I don't really have any issue with people expressing their views. It's the personal attacks that lower them in my eyes. I may have reacted badly to many views in the past, but I don't doxx anyone, I won't demand they are fired from whatever job they work. I won't shout them down or try to change their words to suit me better.
There are exceptions to this...of course. Children are one of those, because they cannot intervene on their own behalf (unlike adults) someone is reasonable to be concerned, even if they have no children.
I don't have any children. By choice. I don't think I'd make a good father. I don't want the responsibility.
That doesn't mean I should be detached from the community around me or society at large. If I saw some strange guy in a van luring children with candy...I'm going to intervene. It doesn't matter if the parents appreciate that effort....or even recognize it. It doesn't matter if the child understands the peril. I might even be wrong in my perception.
I'm fine with being wrong. If the evidence changes someday and I am wrong, I'll admit it and I won't intervene next time. What I'm seeing though is pretty close to either child grooming or social engineering/queer/gender theory indoctrination of prepubescent children. The excuse of Inclusion won't justify that. These people need to come back with hard evidence in 40 years that shows to almost a certainty they aren't pushing children to sexualities they would not have otherwise explored....or at least show it won't cause harm.
I understand that is frustrating if you're gay or transgender now and simply want the world to change at your whim...but people should understand that it's far easier to be called transphobic now than it is to explain to a man whose body is chemically stunted and sterilized that it's his fault that he was diagnosed as transgender because he played with dolls for a little bit between the ages of 5 and 7.
That's one reason a lot of it is being called the "woke" cult or religion nowadays.
It is dogmatic. You cannot rationally say that one racial disparity is the result of some hidden racial bias....and just hand wave other racial disparities as not deserving of the same explanation.
You can't call one person's abnormal feelings of gender or sexual identity a matter of consent in young children...and then rationally dismiss someone else's.
Perhaps they don't see it coming....but that's just more reason to oppose them. They are blinded by what they imagine is a morally righteous position to the reality of the damage they stand to cause. If they want to do this to their own children is one thing. There's not much I can do about that. To make it an aspect and function of the government is monstrously stupid. I don't consider that hyperbolic. If anything I'm being mild in my characterization.
If I said what I really thought of these people I once counted myself amongst....I'd be banned from this forum.
And they've already been dissolving into those little tribes even without having taken over everything.
Yea and you can see how that's working out. The far left and center left cannot work together. It's a schism in the group. They share a cause when they stand against a common enemy....but after? They are too dissimilar to work together.
I was watching this TED Talk video by a neuroscientist on the topic of menopause and it ended up being also interesting when it comes to the male vs. female brain stuff that the trans agenda has been pushing. I'll quote the first part and then link the video below, but she starts right off saying that while there are some biological differences, there is no such thing as a "gendered" brain.
I haven't dug into it very far and it's clear there are differences. They aren't big differences, and there is far more the same, but differences exist.
It's the brain though, so even very small differences between groups can create massive differences in behavior.
The rest of video goes into the biology and according to her research, the biological differences are directly related to other things going on within female biology (or male biology). None of which would seem to apply to a trans person feeling like the other sex because that trans person still would not have the biology of the other sex.
Here's the thing, I'm kind of with
@RDKirk on this even though I fully understand what you are saying.
To even begin the discussion...
1. We have to start with the assumption of a biological difference in female and male brains. To begin from any other point is like say that a trans person is trying to decide between eating a grilled cheese sandwich and a grilled cheese sandwich. If no biological differences exist...then there is no meaningful choice. The choice must exist, as factual, in reality.
2. I know some people are saying that the choice is just a "social construct" related to the way we perceive ourselves and others.
If that were the situation though....then we can only conclude the trans person suffers a delusional state of thinking where they cannot assess their thoughts or feelings like the rest of us. The problem is entirely delusional without any biological fact preceding it. There simply isn't a real choice to make, no real feeling to reconcile. The trans person becomes an actor faking their own life and trying to convince people of the performance.
It seems unlikely to me. The matter is unresolved by science. If it gets conclusively resolved by science....not activists, nor academics apart from science....I will almost certainly adjust my views.
It's a dead issue in my mind. If the trans community want people to see them as a normal range of human experience (as opposed to an abnormality) that's fine by me....they get equal rights.
If the science community insists that no...this group suffers from an abnormality, certain considerations should be given considering the nature and extent of the abnormality.
What appears to be happening to me is this particular group actually wants it both ways. They want to be seen....as however they imagine themselves at any time and require that we indulge them in not simply words but actions and the special privileges they seem to feel entitled to.
That's completely unlike anything our laws even acknowledge. That's always going to be a "no" from me. Someone constantly struggling with who they are is the epitome of the kind of person I don't want changing our entire society.
What they seem to be describing is similar to the male vs. female brain concept that was popular in the earlier centuries to "prove" that men were superior to women. That finally got tossed aside as pseudo-science only to have trans-activism bring it back to "prove" that a man can actually be a woman.
I'm not familiar with that.
I could see that there may be similar brain patterns in some respects between two people who enjoy many of the same things, so a "feminine" male may have similar patterns to a "feminine" woman, but it doesn't make them into the opposite sex or that the "feminine" male has a female brain.
--- begin ---
"I am a neuroscientist and I focus on the inside, especially on women's brains. There are many theories on how women's brains differ from men's brains and I've been looking at brains for twenty years and can guarantee that there is no such thing as a gendered brain. Pink and blue barbie and lego, these are all inventions that have nothing to do with the way brains are built."
"That said, women's brains differ from men's brains in some respects, and I'm here to talk about those differences because they actually matter for our health. For example, women are more likely than men to be diagnosed with anxiety disorder or depression. Not to mention headaches and migraines. But also at the core of my research, women are more likely than men to have Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia on the planet affecting close to six million people in the United States alone. But almost two thirds of all those people are actually women. So for every man suffering from Alzheimer's, there are two women. So why is that overall?"
"Is it age? Is it lifespan? What else could it be?"
...
"So it turns out our brains age differently, and menopause plays a key role for women."
--- end ----
I think the problem is obviously the condition isn't fully understood.
This means unfortunately, that it's the wrong time to legislate it.
We know brain variation exists. We have known for a long time about the "acoustic startle response" in mammals. It's part of the hard wiring of our nervous system. We have also known for some time that in "primary psychpaths" the acoustic startle response is severely limited.
The implications are pretty obvious. Their brain doesn't process danger, or perhaps even risk, the same as 99% of people.
That's a huge problem to deal with...constantly.
Do we just let primary psychopaths decide which rules they want to follow? Do we let them choose which convenience they want regardless of the risk posed to anyone else?
No.
Human beings generally aren't logical creatures by default. It takes work to maintain principle and reason and even then we oftentimes fail at it.
I've found myself constantly failing but it doesn't mean that I will stop trying.
I genuinely believe truth matters.
I've been questioning whether it's because I've gotten older that I wasn't as progressive or "left" as I'd considered myself to be, but at the same time I don't feel like I've really changed my views all that much. Some things I've changed because I've discovered new information or situations have changed, but overall, I still believe many of the same basic principles I've always believed. If it really is that the left has gone opposite than what they were on a lot of these issues, then it would explain a lot of my current confusion.
10 years ago I was the same person. The only difference between now and then, is the trajectory of the activist movements and the evidence that has resulted.
You cannot reasonably claim children aren't being sexualized when the evidence shows they are. You can't reasonably claim children aren't being given full legal agency on issues related to sexuality when they clearly are.
This is causing a problem.
I don't even have to go back that far in history. It wasn't that long ago when I was looking at all the fervor over Trump to the point where people were practically worshiping everything he did and then even attacking the U.S. Capitol over it and wondering how people could fall for it only to now have the left doing exactly the same sort of thing with all of this "woke" stuff.
I was defending Hillary Clinton in the politics section pointing out how ridiculous it was to claim war would immediately break out in 2015. I was telling people they had no reason to believe that Trump's cabinet would be the "best and brightest".
It's not an easy task digging through the oddities of academia and rooting out the origins of this stuff...
I started when I realized people were blaming me for things I had not done, or wanted me to assume such things about other people who have white skin...or even, almost magically insisting that I was completely unaware of an almost magical quality of my existence that caused me to misjudge everyone who isn't white and not realize that it also gave me tangible meaningful benefits.
These are pretty large statements...the kind of broad explanatory statements I reject because they so quickly remind me of others. Stupid as they seem...they're certainly possible. I started digging through where the ideas came from.
I don't blame people for accepting easy answers.
When they do that though, they shouldn't dig their heels in, insist that cannot possibly be wrong, and never even consider another viewpoint.
