Cory1848

The katoey thieves seem to be really good at what they do, but Mr. T would be a real challenge for them!

It’s not complicated. In most contexts, the words “woman” and “man” are perfectly clear and understandable, just as they’ve always been. And I don’t think there’s any confusion or controversy about adjectives like “straight” and “gay.” In discussions specifically about transgender people, as here, words like “cisgender” are useful because they add some clarity. It all depends on what you’re trying to say. The word “normal,” however, is a relative word, and its opposite, “not normal,” suggests that you believe there’s something wrong with the person labeled as such. Remember, to a trans person, just as to you or me, living one’s gender identity is the most normal thing in the world. Thus, we are all “normal” when allowed to live as we choose, openly, without fear or ostracism. All that said, nobody is forcing you to use any particular language at all; you can use whatever words you want.

They are two human beings who are in love with each other and want to make a go of a marriage, just like most other human beings. Evidently, they are able to provide each other with the emotional support that all humans need. It’s that easy, and that’s all you have to know. If you can't accept that, that’s not their problem, or anyone else’s but yours.

EVERY day is a heterosexual day parade!

I think you misunderstand what’s happened to the word “woke” in its descent into a meaningless buzzword. It has nothing to do with “hypnotic spells” or “leftist extremists.” It has everything to do with right-wing politicians manipulating and frightening people into voting for them, because they have nothing else to offer. Do you honestly take someone like Ron DeSantis seriously, as having serious ideas about how to actually govern? As for your comments on “men” taking hormones and undergoing sex change surgery -- you’re not listening! I’m a mid-sixties cisgender male (whoops! I mean “straight guy”), as I assume you are, and the notion of people who identify as women being born in mostly male bodies (and there are gradations, as I’ve learned, even in chromosomes), and vice versa, is strange and new to me, too, although it’s been a reality since the beginning of humankind. But that’s no reason to dismiss it out of hand, because I have no idea what’s going on in the mind of a trans person, and it’s my responsibility as a fellow human being to listen, and try to understand. Your concern about cisgender (sorry) female athletes is well taken, and there have indeed been cases such as you mention, though I think just a few that have been reported on. However, most friends of mine who are “woke” (sorry) are well aware of the problems here, so projecting their concern, I think solutions will be found that are fair to female athletes but that don’t force trans women into men’s locker rooms, or out of sports entirely, or to suicide (remember “conversion therapy” for gay people?), or other outcomes that are unfair to them.

Oh for heaven’s sake. “Transgender person” and “ladyboy” are both perfectly good words. If, in coming years, “ladyboy” comes to be considered offensive, it won’t be because of directives from “extremist woke progressives” (??) but rather the natural evolution of language, which is an entirely organic process. Nobody “controls the way people speak,” neither progressives nor bigots who revel in deliberately insulting language. And while I agree with you that some efforts by university administrators and others to institute language policies are misguided and overbearing, they are usually well intentioned -- it’s not about “control” (control over whom, and for what purpose?) but about being inclusive and nonthreatening. Don’t misinterpret it. I make every effort to be woke -- in the actual meaning of the word, as originally used by abolitionists in the US and later by Marcus Garvey, Lead Belly, and many others others who were active in civil rights and other efforts. It means to be aware, and if another person’s circumstances aren’t identical to yours, to listen and try to understand. So why aren’t you woke?

Well, (spoiler alert) it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Rear Window,” but in that story Raymond Burr planned it carefully in advance and didn’t need help from cab drivers or anyone else.

Incredible, even after two thousand years, how shallow this kind of rot lies just below the surface. We are a sick species.

Wow. Just wow. All three of the speculative “world controllers” that Moore lists are equally absurd, as Moore intended his quotation to be read, even if one of them consists of human beings. But when you plainly state your belief that this particular group of humans are in fact the “real controllers of the world,” well, you’re a big part of the problem, aren't you, and as a human being myself I feel a responsibility to call this kind of hate speech out wherever I encounter it.

Right, it’s all about unnamed, all-powerful cabals “controlling” unnamed victims, for vague purposes (although fossil fuels are still pretty profitable, so I’d look there first). I can’t do better than quote from Alan Moore, English graphic novelist and self-professed anarchist: “The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theories is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in the conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy, or the grey aliens, or the twelve-foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control, the truth is far more frightening; no-one is in control, the world is rudderless.”

Well, I’m glad that you consider yourself wise after “scores of years” (so you’re at least sixty? I’m sixty-five and likewise still feel confidence in my ability to sort through and synthesize information). But I would hesitate to be too critical of “far younger people,” whose intelligence and ability to process information is often discounted by their seniors who disagree with them. I’m sure you’re quite right in your statement that you have nothing in common with these younger people. But what you have *least* in common with them is this: in all likelihood you’ll be gone in twenty or thirty years (?? sorry if I’m misrepresenting your age), while they’ll still be around for decades longer, living on a planet whose environment is rapidly changing. They’re likely to see the worst of it; you won’t. So I would put far more value in what these younger people have to say about the matter, because their perspective counts more than yours does. Just some food for thought …

Oh. So where do you get your news -- some 400-pound couch potato blogger who lives at his mother’s house? (One of Trump’s better lines, although I think he was talking about hackers, not bloggers.)

Well, with your references to “wokes” and “crying lefties” and other jargon, you’ve lost me. I get my information, on climate change and other issues, from professional journalists, and if you’re equating information posted on Twitter with information posted by the New York Times or the BBC, I think you’re misleading yourself. There has always been a conservative media, but in the past it tended to follow the same journalistic standards as the liberal media; with some exceptions, that’s no longer the case. Don’t create a false equivalence.

If one engages with Twitter with the foreknowledge that it is basically a cesspool of lies, misinformation, and Neanderthals letting off steam, then I totally agree with you. Unfortunately, a large percentage of people say that they get their *hard news* from Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Then, based on their confused perception of reality, they vote into office legislators who are in the pockets of the fossil fuels industry. It’s not Twitter’s job to educate the general public. At the same time, however, Twitter should be aware of the influence it has over society, and act accordingly. Free speech has its limits.

Exactly. Americans choose to live this way by continuing to elect legislators who vote against sensible gun regulation. Unfortunately, for most legislation it takes a supermajority to get anything done. Americans also have developed a skewed emphasis on individual rights (the rights of me) at the expense of building a more livable, tolerant society (taking into account the rights of my neighbor).

A can of worms for sure, and you raise some good points. I guess my point is that the man and woman should be held equally responsible for the pregnancy, and all it entails, and I just don’t see it ever play out that way. (Including in Thailand, where as far as I can gather it’s almost always the “fella” who walks out on a relationship, free of any shame or blame, the minute he finds out he’s gotten his girlfriend pregnant.)

If the men who were party to creating an unwanted child were held as responsible as the women they inseminated, I’m sure that most anti-abortionists would change their tune. If, for instance, a woman birthed a child she didn’t want, and the father were immediately liable for 50 percent of the cost of upbringing to age 18 -- which (in the US) averages $300,000 or so. Or, if a woman obtained an abortion illegally, and the father were as legally liable (including jail time) as the mother, or the doctor, or the Uber driver. Of course, as long as men hold most power, women will bear all the blame, and cost, for unwanted pregnancies.

??? You mean, people who support Trump have “the most guns” should they wish to overthrow another election that he loses? “More guns” than whom? The federal government (the real one, that is) has at its disposal, for instance, missiles it can send halfway around the world, land in a specified tent, and hit a camel in the butt (as George W. Bush famously said, making a sarcastic point). So you wanna tell me again about your assault rifle? Get real.

But Trump IS business as usual! With his billionaire cabinet, billionaire donors, billionaire tax cuts, and so on.

You may be right about that!

Well, this may sound absurd, but I own about 8,000 CDs and still buy them (what can I say … I like the tangibility of them, and many are rare/collectible and have some value, and they make me happy). Still, THB 25,000 for 200 CDs comes out to 125 baht per CD, and as someone here pointed out, the average value of used CDs is a fraction of that. Good luck to the seller …

This was a big story in Chiang Mai several years ago; Chiang Mai University had been the setting for a popular movie in China, so Chinese tourists not only (illegally) purchased and wore CMU uniforms but also swamped the campus, unintentionally disrupting the activities of actual students.

Western feminism is in fact divided on the issue. One school of feminist thought holds that prostitution provides economic empowerment and autonomy of choice to women who elect to engage in the trade -- and advocates legalization so that sex workers can get the same benefits (and earn the same respect) that other workers enjoy. This same school of feminism holds that women should feel free, if they want, to enjoy pornography, get drunk, smash their guitars on stage (as did Phoebe Bridgers in a memorable performance on Saturday Night Live a couple of years ago) -- in short, to engage in all the fun behaviors that men get to engage in.