@Mike403 ~ I think you should retract your deletion request. There's a lot of worth in some of these comments and an abundance of food for thought on issues many aren't yet aware of.
It's exactly this kind of content I'm here for. The respectful exchange, the broadening of our frames of reference, growing our acceptance for others (as they are and are yet to become)... What's not to love??
Also ~ Happy National Hug Day!! 🤗🫂
PS ~ @Mike403 ~ Please take to heart that the jabs are mainly at the content of the article. Don't take it personally. You didn't write it. You didn't know it was a veiled slam against some to incite others. You didn't know it was fake. So??? Everyone's been there.
The takeaway shouldn't be to focus on how you feel, but on how your post has brought to light some things that are wrong with society today and ways we can all try to ensure we aren't playing into the hate and even ways to actively counter it.
I say, GO YOU!! be brave and leave it up for others to learn and grow along with us. ♡
added: ...even if it hurts a little. 💓
@quixotic_life well said as always. I don’t think Mike intended the article the same way the the articles author probably intended the article. Its good people are pointing out how this article is written to belittle trans people’s sense of identity. Also good to remember that we all have different awareness and familiarity with various topics and cultural references. This can be hard to keep in mind when dealing with people outside of our typical social circles. I agree about keeping the post up. I’m all about moving forward with communication vs inhibiting it
@me2
Also good to remember that we all have different awareness and familiarity with various topics and cultural references.
This is a good point. Me, I was raised by people who make "identify as" jokes (without ever once considering that they identify as Christians, parents, teachers, preachers, etc). All these jokes anti-trans attacks are based on the idea that gender is as physical and obvious a thing as being a cat or a duck or a helicopter.
I can (barely) imagine being so unfamiliar with the "gender is a physical characteristic" premise that I wouldn't recognize it when I saw it. It would be weird, seeing someone claim they were fired for not treating a student like a cat!
I can't imagine thinking a claim like that was anything but a lie.
...Unless I thought people were already being fired for refusing to treat girls like boys, or boys like girls. In a world where that happens, maybe a teacher could be fired for refusing to meow at a student. Who knows?
Ahhhhhhhhh @quixotic_life YES TO ALLLLLLLLLLLLL 💗 🌈 🦚 🌟 🦋 🥰 So glad you are back you beautiful human!!
PS ~ @Mike403 ~ Please take to heart that the jabs are mainly at the content of the article. Don't take it personally. You didn't write it. You didn't know it was a veiled slam against some to incite others. You didn't know it was fake. So? Everyone's been there. The takeaway shouldn't be to focus on how you feel, but on how your post has brought to light some things that are wrong with society today and ways we can all try to ensure we aren't playing into the hate and even ways to actively counter it. I say, GO YOU!! be brave and leave it up for others to learn and grow along with us. ♡ added: ...even if it hurts a little. 💓
@DaringSprinter that all makes sense. And thank you I grew up in an area that was very transphobic and homophobic as well. I’ve noticed that even if people are aware of the “gender is a physical characteristic” premise they still might not be making all the connections to how a joke or comment is actually and attack. I’ve also noticed that you can have people who are caring in general that come from these types of phobic backgrounds that really grow and change their minds when being exposed to relationships and new information. Education about these topics is severely lacking in some circles. At the same time, as I’m not trans myself and can only (kind of) imagine what it’d be like to have so many attacks against my identity in so many spaces regardless of wether they were intended that way or not. It’s rough out there…
I mean, has the story officially been debunked? Supposedly the incident happened in California. I wouldn’t put anything past that state currently.
@Libra0 i don’t know. I also don’t know the age group but I will say a side note that as someone who works with kids, if they want to pretend to be a cat or dog it’s way more fun and effective to just roll with it 😂
I tried meowing to my actual cat and he just looked at me funny and slowly backed away.
@Mike403 l totally do that too lol I mean really… I often wish I was a cat or a dog if I’m being honest… Actually…. I bet soooo many people on this site feel the same way and/or think of themselves as emotional support animals 😺
@Libra0: Look.
Human society has a lot of different roles—plumber, server, accountant, doctor—and two or three overarching roles (man and woman in most current societies, with a third in others).
A woman lawyer dresses, acts, and is treated differently from a man lawyer. It's a social thing.
Human society has no "cat" role.
There are no cat lawyers.
And even in California, I very much doubt that any teacher would ever be fired just for refusing to respect the pioneering of a brand new overarching "cat" role which requires other people to act like cats.
@DaringSprinter - well, there is a movie about some guy who identifies as a bat and fights crime.
Sorry.. I'll see myself out.
If the OP was truly just ignorant of the bigoted inplications of the post, he wouldnt have kept doubling down and makong sarcastic remarks. This was on purpose. 100%. It was an attempt to further marginalize certain members of cuddlecomfort.
@Mike403: Funnily enough, Batman never requires anyone to chirp at him. Of course, he doesn't actually identify as a bat—he's a vigilante with a bat motif, and identifies as such. So I guess a better illustration would be women not requiring anybody else to, I dunno, curtsey or wear makeup at them: they just want to be called "she."
@samfiddle: Honestly, I think your assertion is every bit as likely to be true as the California ex-teacher's is to be false. Unfortunately.
I believe @Mike403 is autistic, he’s mentioned before but I love how some keep doubling down on attacking him. But that’s cause people in here are super awesome and never ever do anythings not above board. If one is looking for outrage in things they will see it. And most of the posts in here were attacking the article and Mike. Let’s not sugarcoat things. Most not lol of you were yelling at him and now pretend you weren’t. And unless you can read minds you don’t know the writer of the article meant to laugh at or poke fun at trans people. If they were then shame on them but we don’t know.
@supadupa
It's the weirdest thing. I look at your post, and for half a second I can see that it consists of several sentences that form a few short paragraphs. But, after a second or two, every letter blurs together and reforms into:
"Accountability is not a thing".
It's just incredibly peculiar. Maybe I'm going crazy.
And unless you can read minds you don’t know the writer of the article meant to laugh at or poke fun at trans people.
Sure, maybe the writer of the article was just reporting. Why not. But the ex-teacher... let's not fool ourselves. The "identifies as something it's impossible for them to be" attack has been around a good long while now. How likely is it that she somehow managed to reproduce it exactly by accident?
There are a couple of things that I find odd about this whole thread. I'm going to share them with you, dear reader.
Whether or not the article is true—and there's no solid evidence that it is true—it has struck several people here as transphobic. Transphobia is a real problem that affects people. Namely, a group of people who have to deal with a lot of horrible nonsense.
Our valued OP, @Mike403, has chosen to deflect the concerns of those who point out that the ridiculous, unverified article is transphobic. I direct you to this quote from him: "It is starting to become too difficult for me to speak on this site without the risk of offending someone." Well, what do you expect when you post something that is clearly transphobic?
"Now, now," you might be saying, "HogboblinZwei, Mike403 didn't know that the article was transphobic, or that it could come across as transphobic!" While possibly true, Mike403 had the benefit of being told—by several forum goers, that the article reeked of transphobia. This should have been a clue. When presented with this information, Mike403 decided it was pertinent to dismiss the feelings of those who had concerns that the article contained transphobia. Instead of apologizing clearly and directly, he mumbled an often used means of dismissing perfectly valid criticism.
Again: "It is starting to become too difficult for me to speak on this site without the risk of offending someone."
The fault was not with him.
This is an incredibly lame and thoughtless means of self-defense from someone who is demonstrably not a victim.
Personally, I think that the time where he could have claimed ignorance and apologized is over. I'd say that it's been over for some time now. What we have now is a bumbling farce where nothing has been gained, and where nothing can be gained.
Whee!
@HogboblinZwei - I have Asperger's Syndrome. When it was made fun of in the TV show South Park, I still laughed at it. I'm just having trouble understanding the outrage.
@HogboblinZwei i really appreciate your very effective communication. Ive been so exhausted with dealing with the mindgames that ive been very... blunt, at the cost of articulating my reasoning well. Thank you for speaking in a way i cannot currently, youre doing a great job.
Well, I don't know, @HogboblinZwei.
There may still be time for @Mike403 to reveal that he fully supports trans people, and understands that a trans woman, for instance, identifies as a woman because she is a woman (thus making her very different from a child who is pretending to be a cat).
That could still happen. After all, he didn't mean to post an attack on trans people, right? It was accidental. Really he supports them.
Maybe.
@DaringSprinter - One of my step siblings is Trans and I support her. I've been trying to say that I wasn't trying to attack them and I asked a mod to delete this thread so I wasn't tempted to post something else.
@Mike403: Well, then! You have made a very unfortunate mistake, and (hopefully) learned some very important lessons.
As an autistic myself—clinically diagnosed—I too have made a number of horrible mistakes and learned the associated painful lessons. I think the simplest takeaway here is "avoid saying or repeating things that involve identifying as something it's impossible to actually be."
Other useful information includes such gems as "when a bunch of people tell you a thing is bad, don't start throwing out variations on the thing."
"Batman identifies as a bat," indeed.
Yow.
Removed personal attack. First and final warning for forum timeout, @HogboblinZwei . Thou shalt NOT. [-Sid]
@samfiddle
That's kind of you to say. Thank you very much!
FWIW, although I’d agree that the OP here has been remarkably oblivious both to the nature of the article he posted and to the distasteful character of his subsequent comments… I’m very confident it’s completely unintentional and not due to belligerence on any level.
I’ve mentored two different kids with Aspergers and they have a hard time connecting with people on a social level. They don’t understand why people have reactions to topics. One of the kids would tell a joke and when no one laughed he didn’t understand why and it took a lot of time to help him understand but sometimes no matter what they wouldn’t get it. All if there’s a aubject they really like usually science, they obsess over it. Hence Greta Thunberg and her obsession with Clinage change. Mike could explain it better, so you might wonder why Nike doesn’t get it, that’s cause he just might not and all the explaining in the world won’t help.
It looks like Mike has deleted his account, nice work bullying an Autistic guy from a site where he probably needed the comfort like all of us. I’m sure you are all proud of yourself.
You guys are something else. Poor dude just posted a stupid link that may or may not be true. He's just an autistic dude, lonely like all the other friggin guys here, and posts pics of his cats. If i remember correctly he's studying to be an engineer.