Convicted felon. Known rapist. Told us to inject bleach for COVID.

Absolutely I still blame people who think he has their interests in mind.

IVF made federally illegal just like that.

What are your feelings about a trans man playing against cis men?

It sounds like you would think that’s unfair too, but would it be unfair to the trans man or the cis men?

With that data collection, their algorithm for targeted marketing is on a completely different level. I completely believe they’re profitable.

Not only do you have knowledge into people who are likely buyers, you can put them into a buying mood right before showing them the ad so they’re primed for it. Then on top of THAT, you don’t have to design, film or edit the ad - you just pay an influencer to do it for you. It makes it faster, easier and cheaper to AstroTurf brand awareness than ever before.

Relatedly, the only people I know ordering things from Shien or Temu are on TikTok.

I understand this sentiment because I had a similar story growing up, but I’ve had to come to terms that the internet of that era does not exist anymore.

Now we have these corporations who made it their goal to algorithmically trick you into spending more and more time engaged with their website for ad revenue, not caring how angry or misinformed people get in the meantime. It used to be a place we could escape to, but has turned into just another echo chamber/prison and worst of all - we’re addicted to it.

I think places like Mastodon and the Fediverse can help bridge this gap, but on the whole, the internet is just not a safe place for developing brains anymore.

The difference is being labeled “abnormal” by a person you know vs. by society. As a society, we used to beat children who used their left hand to write until they started acting “normal”.

The thought itself that left-handedness and right-handedness are different is not harmful. However, when you start labeling one as ‘normal’ and the other as a ‘generic abnormality’, you start shifting people’s perspectives and suddenly we get a situation where we call left-handed people “Sinister”. (The word literally means left-handed. We added the evil connotations afterwards because of the prejudice against left-handed people. We also did the same in reverse for “dexterity”.)

You might not see the harm immediately in the small scale, but it’s absolutely intended to be a step towards dehumanizing queer people. As others have said as well, homosexuality is incredibly common in nature. Most giraffe sex is gay sex. It’s just not taught in school because… say it with me… “It’s abnormal.”

It’s really not though. It’s just different, and different doesn’t mean bad.

Your argument has been used countless times in history for a number of “abnormalities” that turn out to just be differences without distinction.

“Listen, I’m a supporter of red-heads, but don’t we basically understand that it’s a genetic abnormality? Maybe ‘illness’ is a bit harsh, but they’re just not common enough in society to be considered normal.”