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WoodScientist

@ WoodScientist @lemmy.world

Posts
3
Comments
1220
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • ‘Democrats win by fighting for affordability, not by falling into Republican trans traps’

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  • This is the same failed strategy Democrats have been trying for a decade.

  • ‘Democrats win by fighting for affordability, not by falling into Republican trans traps’

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  • Democrats have been trying exactly your message for a decade, and it's failed. They've tried again and again. And it's failed again and again. Here's what a voter actually watching a debate experiences:

    1. Republican goes on transphobic rant.
    2. Democrat responds with anything but a full-throated support of trans rights. They say, "we should leave it up to doctors and parents, I'm here to talk about other things." They call it a distraction. They don't support the bigotry, but they also do anything they can to avoid the topic.
    3. Voters read this as a deflection. They think the Democrat is trying to avoid the issue (because they are). And since the Democrat won't vehemently and openly support trans rights. The Republican is demonizing trans people, and the Democrat is avoiding the subject. They conclude that the Republican is probably right and that the Democrat is just afraid to offend their radical base. The Democrat is clearly ashamed of the issue, and people can smell that a mile away.

    Want to know how to respond to "concerns" about trans people in bathrooms? Point out that Jim Crow was built on the "valid concerns" of white women not feeling safe sharing space with black women. Want to know how to talk about trans kids? Point out that any hand wringing about this can only come from a viewpoint that fundamentally does not view the lives of cis people and trans people as equally valuable. (The only way you can justify withholding treatment from 50 trans kids just in case one cis kid makes a mistake is if you don't hold the lives of both in equal value.) Publicly state that of course trans people change their sex, and that it's absurd to argue that trans women should have to use women's restrooms. Argue that trans women belong in women sports because they're biologically female, not because of vague platitudes about identity and validity. In other words, fully embrace trans rights and know how to actually talk about and defend them in a coherent way.

    You can't third way your out of this. Democrats have been trying for a decade. Kamala responded to transphobia not with a full-throated support for trans rights, but with a mealy-mouthed "I'll enforce the law."

    Democrats have been arguing for a decade that this is a distraction, but that's not how voters think. If one party constantly brings an issue up, low-information voters will assume it's an issue worth considering. And if the other side just keeps calling it a distraction, the voters will conclude the Democrats are trying to hide something and side with the Republican. You can't just ignore these issues. It doesn't work. It's been tried, and it's failed.

    What you're missing is that Democrats HAVE NOT been talking about this. Sure, they largely haven't been voting for transphobic bills, but their approach has been, "don't talk about trans people publicly, but support trans people privately." And it just hasn't worked. Your approach isn't novel. It's just more of the same. In an era when authenticity matters to voters more than anything else, calling an issue a distraction is a suicidal election strategy.

  • Nancy Mace Introduces Bill to Bar Trans People from Security Clearances, Federal Jobs Requiring Mental Health Screenings

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  • Jim Crow was built because it was "common sense" that white women's safety demanded the exclusion of black men and women from society. Segregated washrooms existed because white women "didn't feel comfortable" sharing restrooms with black women.

  • Far-right British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported after his immigration arrest in US

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  • I'm not sure he's really comparable to the typical ICE case. Obviously if you're fighting the deportation, you'll be in the camps for months. But my understanding is that people in there are under constant pressure to sign paperwork agreeing to a rapid deportation. They get paperwork shoved in their face in a language they can't read and are told to sign it. ICE agents actively try and trick immigrants into signing away their rights, thus allowing their rapid deportation.

    Ultimately, all this is being run by racists who want as many brown people out of the country as fast as possible. They don't just want to keep millions of brown people in cages for the fun of it; they want to deport millions of brown people. And as long as we're not in full "extermination camp" territory yet, achieving that goal means moving people through the system as fast as possible. Stephen Miller's aims are advanced by brown people sitting in plane seats, not brown people sitting in cages.

    I remember a story from awhile back about a court case involving an immigrant that was voluntarily seeking deportation, but was still being held by ICE. But the article treated it as a surprising oddity. It was such a notable occurrence that it was the exception that proved the rule. As far as I know, generally, if you're willing to sign away your rights to appear in immigration court, you can get out of the system pretty quickly by opting for voluntary deportation. That's almost certainly what Milo did.

    None of this to excuse any of ICE's crimes. But as I understand it, if detained immigrants are willing to sign away their rights to fight the deportation, they can move through the system fairly quickly. Again, it does the racists no good to prevent the people they hate from leaving.

  • Goodbye, Dolly! [Joe Flanders Comics]

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  • Eh. I can't complain about the results. Feels fine! 😅

  • Goodbye, Dolly! [Joe Flanders Comics]

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  • infinite money glitch

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  • Exactly. Classic monkey's paw. You end up dying homeless and in the gutter. On your corpse the police find millions of dollars worth of checks to your name. You get to be a millionaire that dies of hunger and exposure to the elements.

  • infinite money glitch

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  • Yes. Except in my mind it's a monkey's paw deal. You win endless discrimination lawsuits, but you just end up with a bunch of checks no bank will cash.

  • What's something cool you've made?

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  • I'm pretty sure Ea-nāṣir stole it.

  • What's something cool you've made?

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  • We moved into our new place in December. We had a fence post that needed replacing. The post was in a place that would work great for a fence gate. So I'm adding a new gate to our fence. This will serve to make the property as whole more accessible. It will also provide a means for those with mobility issues to enter the home without having to climb the big set of stairs at the front door.

    I decided to make a proper project out of it. I could have just put in a simple gate, but I decided to go for something grander. I'm building a pergola gate! I've finished the columns and installed the first of two beams this evening.

    The foundation of the gate are two 8' long steel fence posts driven 3' into the ground with a sledge hammer. The posts are approximately 5"x7", each made from five 2x6s laminated together. The beams are made from two cedar 2x6s edge joined together into a 2x12 beam. There will be two beams all together.

    Tomorrow I'll hang the second beam, add some cross pieces at the top of the beams, add some foundation reinforcement, and start building the actual fence gate.

  • What's the most silly, petty, funny virus you've created?

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  • Covid-19.

  • Stop the gaslighting

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  • No you're thinking of Woody from Toy Story. He died in an Apartheid South African prison in 1978.

  • Baby chicks cost $6 at a supply store, but I can get a rotisserie for $5? What is the real cost of having chickens?

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  • Those chicks at the supply store are for small hobby farms. The rotisserie chicken comes from a big factory farm. That factory farm either doesn't have to pay for chicks at all (they just breed their own), or they buy them for a fraction of the retail cost by buying them in bulk directly from suppliers.

  • The used car market today

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  • Sure. My point is that every generation that's existed since mass consumer culture began will have their versions of this. Contrast Precious Moments figurines among Boomers to Funko Pops for Millennials.

  • The used car market today

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  • Behold the inevitable future of funko pops.

  • Which fictional universe do you wish you lived in?

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  • As someone with some profound ADHD that has affected my career, I have to say, I would be fucking amazing in the Star Trek universe. For someone with an interest-based focus ability, a society where the standard of social merit is, "do cool shit you're passionate about," would be Heaven. I can do things. I can do amazing things. When I'm passionate about something, I can move mountains. But stick me in a cubicle and ask me to do the same grind day in, day out? I really struggle. Some people say they would just disappear forever into the Holodeck. But for me, the coolest thing about the Star Trek universe is that regular people can simply do whatever they're most passionate about, without concern for monetary profit.

  • Which fictional universe do you wish you lived in?

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  • This or Star Trek are the only serious answers.

  • Study: Male circumcision just after birth does not increase autism risk

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  • I'm a binary trans woman myself. I just wanted the full standard package.

    But there are varieties, mainly spearheaded by the nonbinary community. There's zero depth vaginoplasty, where they make a labia but no vaginal canal. (Easier maintenance, ideal for lesbians with no interest in penetration.) For asexual folks or those with no interest in sex, there's nullification surgery, aka the "Ken doll" method. And for the most exotic, the term you're looking for is "Salmacian."

    Here's a subreddit. Obviously NSFW:

    https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/salmacian

  • TIL that Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic The Gathering, is the great great grandson of President James Garfield.

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  • I mean, the dude does know magic. Are we sure he isn't actually just president James Garfield, kept alive all these years by dark sorcery? History records President Garfield of dying by an assassin's bullet. But what if it was just an elaborate way for James to fake his own death, so he could step into a younger identity? 😆

  • politics @lemmy.world
    WoodScientist @lemmy.world

    Graham Platner gets more primary votes than any other Democratic Senate candidate in Maine history

    www.nhpr.org /2026-06-11/graham-platner-gets-more-primary-votes-than-any-other-democratic-senate-candidate-in-maine-history
  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    WoodScientist @lemmy.world

    Could the Supreme Court use a Writ of Outlawry to Rein in a Rogue President?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world
    WoodScientist @lemmy.world

    Is it possible for a US citizen to open up a bank account in a foreign country and transfer money to it from within the US?