Borger

I'm using Memmy right now and honestly had no clue that it's dead!

I am an atheist because I do not believe in god, not because I think that a god cannot exist. I am an atheist because the burden of proof is on those who claim that a god does exist. If such proof were to exist (and pass scientific scrutiny, not rely on faith), I would believe in a god.

I understand what you're saying, but in reality, the definition of 'atheist' is a lot broader than you are asserting. Simply not having belief in a god to begin with is enough to be an atheist.

An atheist can, but does not necessarily, reject the notion of a higher power inherently.

If there is a god (or gods) then there is a god (or gods), and if there isn’t then there isn’t. There’s no reason to mull over something that has had no bearing on my life and if tomorrow we get irrefutable evidence for either side that’s when I’ll deal with that new reality. In the mean time there are better things to do.

Hugely relatable.

The “fixed” version also looks transmasc

?????? Explain

I can read about 80% of the words in this if I’m honest, and had to fill in the rest with a best guess.

Cool :) thank you

Gotcha. Yes, I didn’t get to see the original comment.

I never, at any point, said that only sex mattered in medicine. I said they were distinct. I doubt it was your intention to do so, but you’re putting words in my mouth. Please don’t represent me.

TBF I did state quite explicitly that that was my own interpretation of your statement, not what you had literally said, because I couldn’t think what else you meant by that expression (possibly because of the missing context.)

I apologise for any hurt I have caused and will edit my previous comment, so as not to misconstrue yours.

showing that ‘male’ and ‘female’ are more akin to general groupings, with a degree of overlap, than any actual dichotomy

I totally agree.

Sex and gender are still entirely distinct when it comes to medical science, psychology, neuroscience, etc.

Not really. Binary trans people's brains have been shown to more closely mirror the brains of people who were assigned their gender at birth, rather than the gender the trans person was assigned at birth. So trans women's brains mirror those of cis women more closely than cis men, and vice versa for trans men.

~~Also, treating sex as the only one that is relevant in medicine is reductive and inaccurate.~~ I appreciate that this might not be what you were trying to say (edit: it most certainly was not), ~~but at the same time I am not sure what else you mean by "sex and gender are distinct in medical science".~~ Transition alters the body significantly and is medically relevant. As a trans guy, my voice, metabolism, hirsutism, and build/muscularity align with cis men much more closely than cis women for example.

~~I am not sure what you mean with psychology – why do you think sex and gender are distinct in psychology?~~

Funnily enough, I was going to comment “Four. Middlesex is not a county anymore.”

Edit: saying that, I’m not sure what ‘Wessex’ is meant to be

I honestly don't know if they're a bot or not, but that came out of left field so hard that I couldn't help but laugh. I have no idea what they are talking about. "Blame everyone else for your own actions" ????

Huh? What? I'm not who you were responding to, but this is... not sane.

Everyone knew that one of those two people would be president. It’s not like we get a do-over with new candidates if enough people stay home.

Yeah, that is fair.

So deciding to stay home or vote third party means they are ok with this outcome rather than having Harris in office right now.

That does not follow. If they voted for a third party, it's because they wanted the outcome in which that party won. Call it unrealistic, but it's not the voters' fault that democracy is broken, that elections in the US are effectively a two-party system (even when there are others on the ballot), and that there is no system of proportional representation.

As for the staying home case, it does not at all imply that they are OK with Trump winning – just that they refused to play the game altogether. I understand that your point is that the outcome is the same and therefore that the means do not justify the ends.

As you say, if more people voted Harris rather than stayed home, she could be president right now. What I don't agree on is that that is where the blame lies; there are a million good reasons to be disgruntled with the institution and not keep playing their game of "who's less awful?". Trump is president because of his MAGA cult/voters who put him there. If they didn't vote for him, he wouldn't be president. Blaming anyone else is not constructive, although ultimately, this is a philosophical difference, not a political one.

Suppose in the next election, Trump was up against someone who is somehow worse. I could not in good faith vote for either. There comes a point where picking the lesser of 2 evils is just falling for the trap, and you're not really picking anything. There not being any candidate to win over a significant portion of the population is a sign that democracy is compromised. That is deserving of anger and blame. You're supposed to vote for who you want, not vote tactically against who you don't want more. That can get old pretty fast.

Obligatory "I am not American and do not live in the USA"; just an observer from outside. If I were, I think that I would have voted Harris, albeit begrudgingly. I just don't expect everyone else on the fence to make that same choice.

I do not think it is fair to equate someone who abstained from voting due to dissatisfaction with both candidates to a literal MAGA who voted Trump. The latter are the ones who directly led to this outcome; the former just didn't help it.