iNow

I believe the correct response would’ve been: define “love.”

We all do as a culture. Together. Right now, the push is for improved standards. The momentum is for additional inclusion and acceptance. The resistance is indeed shrinking and dying. We’re witnessing now their last thrashing gasps, but hopefully we can soon make this: … an unnecessary delay and needless obstacle. It’s time and we don’t need to wait. We can achieve the betterment now if we all stand up and fight for it even when we’re not personally affected. If we do, then this: … becomes a pointless nonsequitur since we’re ALL attempting to make things better. The issue won’t be that we’ve gone too far, but that we haven’t yet gone far enough. Progress… We can all… each and every one of us right now and today… attempt to be MORE correct… politically or otherwise. We can do this with our own thoughts and we can lead by example while in parallel advocating for change when interacting with others. No death of aging flatulentarions required.

I don't believe I have formed an opinion on your personality. Perhaps I have, but at least not consciously. I've been trying to focus on your actual words and what you're actually posting. In that case, the style with which you (and all of us) post is quite relevant... as is the style we use when reacting and responding to others who might happen to find our inaccurate choice of pronoun (even after repeated correction) offensive and irritating.

I've noticed this too, but am often on my mobile device and chalked it up to a recent software upgrade on iOS. Any chance that's how you're accessing?

And that's really all that's being requested here yet, for reasons which IMO don't need saying, MANY people find even that too onerous a burden. In my mind, it's the equivalent of refusing to stop calling someone the N-word or continuing to refer to people as retarded, and suggesting that people who request you do so are simply being too sensitive and ridiculous. They're not. They're on the receiving end of this and are being targeted by these words and subtle rejections every single day they exist... often for months, years, and decades at a time. It's not your place to tell others that these words aren't hurtful to them when misused, and it's not your place to continue hurting them through continued use or out of laziness or sheer refusal to move beyond historical tradition. Language evolves. Misuse of these words has fallen out of favor and their adjusted use now represents acceptable parlance in society for good reason. In much the same way you don't refer to a woman as sugar-tits, you no longer refer to a trans person who identifies as HE by calling them SHE... and thankfully those individuals who continue refusing to take the simple step of respecting pronouns of the trans community are ALSO falling out of favor culturally. You can either get onboard or get out of the way... you can either be a partner in improving society or attempt to stand in its way as an obstacle... but society will continue changing whether one likes it or not. Again here, the arrogance and lack of empathy is astonishing. Nobody is saying you can't or won't slip up... That's fine and WILL happen, but yet again here you dismiss acceptable, polite, and entirely valid requests to stop calling someone SALLY when they identify as JAMES with disparaging language like "whining" and suggesting it's no "big deal." Well, sure... Maybe it's no big deal for YOU, a cis-gendered male who's never had to battle daily slights and discrimination just for being who you are... but you're not the only person living in this world, nor are you the sole arbiter of what is considered important to millions of humans. This is about acceptance and authenticity. People are being shunned simply for being true to themselves. They are being targeted and ostracized, being brutalized and facing violence at unacceptable rates, and fighting daily battles against a culture who still too often treats them as subhuman. Maybe adjusting our own views and being just a bit more sensitive ourselves to their very real plight will help extinguish these disturbing trends.

Of course I can, but as you seem not to have reread the exchange as I earlier recommended, and as Markus has already clarified that it was he who made the claim at which you took umbrage, and also since Markus has already further elucidated his intended meaning when making said claim, it seems both moot and unnecessary for me to bother.

Please reread our exchange. You have misunderstood me.

Kindness is what prevented him from suggesting you’d hit your head and experienced trauma on the way down.

*god, not gif

God is often used as a way to explain things we don’t yet understand. The gif concept fills those gaps. However, as science and culture progress and we continue learning more, those gaps begin to shrink and eventually close, thus rendering the concept of God obsolete and unneeded.

The fact that scientific knowledge is always provisional. It doesn’t deal with universal or objective truths chiseled into stone tablets. It deals instead with our current best models of the universe, but those models are forever subject to change as we learn new things. Hence, everything in science… except perhaps for some rare exceptions at the margins… is open for debate.

Didn’t realize you were teetotaler 😂

Slight correction: Support was for the right of protest and need for systemic improvements, not for destruction of property nor rioting. Comments were made that focusing on the marginal few who harmed property was a smokescreen and distraction to avoid focus on and discussion of the core issues. Made this exact distinction clear over 20+ times in those various threads, but alas… our actual stance gets once more maligned for purposes of scoring points.

With practical exceptions only at the margins, technically everything is

Knob for cabinet, desk drawer, or something similar

If someone tells you they identify as a man and request you refer to them as such, yet you then refuse to accept this and persist in referring them as a woman, then it seems highly likely to me that you’re acting in a manner which is best described as BOTH discourteous and bigoted… especially if that individual has asked you repeatedly and you repeatedly disregarded their perfectly valid request. That is my answer, whether you like it not.

You’re neither, because koti was just acting childishly, arguing in bad faith, and doesn’t actually identify as “thou.”

I know that I often lead by example, but you missed the key part. I explained in my own post where I used this word why I did. You, however, used it in isolation and moved on as if it alone was somehow sufficient. It will surely be a loss for everyone if you take your ball and go home, what with your calm, well reasoned, dispassionate and inclusive approach to hot button topics. No. Stop. Please. You’re like a lighthouse in the storm and we’ll all simply be lost at sea. Without your clear inclusive leadership, our boats will be battered upon the cliffs. Our chances of survival will fall to nearly zero if you should follow through on this dying swan threat and should you choose to extinguish your bright illuminating bulb and collaborative posting style. No. Stop. Please. 🙄

Why doth thou feel comments about your own mental health are in any way relevant as a reply to my comment regarding thou’s claims of having insights into the minds of others?

I find your claims of telepathic and mind reading abilities quite remarkable. Have you considered using them for personal gain? What else would you be willing to tell us and others about what we do and do not know? Am quite eager to learn more about just how deeply you’ve managed to penetrate the minds of others!

Like to think I've been trying to see the situation in 4-dimensions, actually. My posts and replies to you, however, are being intentionally simplified since we seem to be so far apart on this. It's generally better to seek and find alignment on the basics before moving to the deeper complexities, IMO. I'd love to know which of my specific comments lead you to hyperbolically assert I'm behaving "like a dick," but then I'd be inclined to counter with quotes of your own which very much suggest your own guilt under this charge, and that seems unproductive for everyone.

Thank you for the response. I see that you've now conflated our current discussion about gender pronouns with the BLM movement and subsequent protests. I also see that you and I attribute these reactions in BLM last year to different things. You appear to think the social reaction to these events is a misguided attempt to atone for the historical sin of slavery. While that certainly plays a background role, IMO the passion in the responses is much more about people who are being paid by our tax dollars to protect and serve our neighborhoods and communities... people who are present where we live... with our families... in uniform and as authorized agents of the state (aka: police)... murdering people with dark skin without consequence at an alarming an unacceptable rate. But that's all off-topic, anyway. There's an existing George Floyd thread (a few, in fact) where you can share your dismissal and disregard for his life and diminish the pain felt from his loss by his surviving family and friends... how his is not an exception, but a common occurrence and where you can blatantly suggest that his life somehow lacked worth and deserved to be taken being taken by police because he had some minor background of drug use. I don't know who needs to hear this, but cops aren't supposed to murder guilty people, either.

I do not understand either of these points, but I would like to. Will you please elaborate?

That Ze really isn't Koti's preferred pronoun... That it's all an attempt to belittle and diminish and dismiss the very real lived experiences of millions in the trans community that Koti considers to be an outgroup not worthy of basic decency and respect nor to be a part of the Koti tribe.

And that's fine. You clearly see yourself as perfect already. No worries. I simply won't count you as a willing ally when trying to leave things better than how we found them and when seeking to minimize needless ostracization and social reinforcement of traditional outgroups. In which case your stated claim that you attempt to be kind and courteous is specious. You signal with words that you're kind and courteous, but then fail when it matters to actually act in a manner which is either of those things... Instead, you dismiss people and their requests as "ridiculous." That's neither kind, nor courteous despite your claims of being both. Your view is pretty irrelevant when it comes to how strangers identify themselves, but even so... Nobody is asking that you change it. You can keep any views you hold or want. People are simply asking that when their name is James you stop insisting on calling them Sally. They're not even asking that you be kind. They're just asking that you be courteous. No changes in personal views required. Society is not stationary nor stagnant. We are ALWAYS evolving culturally, and hopefully getting better as we do. Personally, I see that as a good thing. One might even argue that it will NEVER end. We ALL will be asked someday to adjust our views and choices of words. You. Me. Everyone... and when that happens, we can either choose to be good neighbors and accept our personal roles in expanding inclusivity for others who have traditionally been scorned and ostracized and targeted for violence, or we can instead hold firm for arbitrary reasons to legacy words and pigeonholes that are exclusionary, hurtful, and often downright dehumanizing. If someone brands you as a bigot or suggests you're being offensive toward them, then IMO that shouldn't trigger fear. It should trigger self-reflection and a willingness to improve... to close a blind spot in your mental model of the world that you maybe didn't even realize existed... but YMMV.