Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

I need advice on handling a situation IRL.

I mentioned a while back in P&R that I embarrassed my uncle in a discussion on Facebook about transgenders in bathrooms (I KNOW I KNOW).

Anyway, my dad posted up some shitty image with a terrible strawman type argument about "16 year olds who identify as 21 years olds should be allowed to buy beer", and I got into it with him again. I mentioned that the way social media works is that when you share something like that, it typically shows that you support that cause/view/position and that seeing hate-filled and bigoted content on his page was disappointing to me.

At that point the rubber/glue argument came in and I now stand accused as well for being a bigot, because I am in opposition of those who would not allow transgender people to use the bathroom.

Ok wah wah whatever whatever. I see the argument is going nowhere and I am bored, but now what do I do? Normally when I argue with idiots online it is easy enough to just, I dunno... move on to something else or block them if they are shitlord enough. This is my father though. Our family reunion is in like a month. I won't be going because straight up, I would punch my uncle if he talks about this at all, I never knew those people at all until facebook was a thing so *** them.

I mean I guess for now I am just going to stop posting replies, but if he keeps posting anti-LGBT ***and it infuriates me like this, I will eventually have to block him?

I dunno, ***. I just want to live in a cave away from everyone and play video games.

I dont blame you. I would too if i was given the chance too.

Anyways, i can't really talk about this situation much because my whole family are very open about gay people. My Grandma went to a gay couples wedding a few years ago and she's like the person i most expected to criticize my choice.

But One of my friends she felt as if she preferred women over men, and her father was very strict and wanted her to have nothing to do with LGBTs. I guess really the only way to deal with it is if you dont like it, ignore it. He made the choice himself to be like that, I guess the only thing you can do is ignore it, or just ask him to be a little bit more open minded towards these things. (if your on that sort of relationship with your father).
Not a whole lot you can do to change someones opinions on something.

Just say that you're very disappointed in him, not for the fact that he holds these bigoted views but for the fact that, when called out on it, he deflects and projects those views onto you...or something. I dunno, my brother is in the "but transjesters* in the women's bathroom means molestation!" camp. I usually just avoid discussing it with him.



*this isn't a slur, he just can't pronounce "transgender."

Those darn Transjesters, can't decide if they are magicians or clowns or jugglers!

I kinda got lucky with my dad, he's not the type to really argue but his view appears to be "that man (Bruce Jenner) has had an issue for a long time, he didn't just decide that ***over night. You can't get that through his (my brother's) head."

Not sure what I'd say to him if he started spouting off bigotry.

It's unlikely you can change his point of view, but you can ask him to be more sensitive and not post such things that might be offensive.

Idk, I wouldn't expect any random to comply to this kind of request but maybe a father would be more receptive to something like this from their son.

i think the trick is to not social media.

Yeah, it'd be embarrassing to have a family member's bigotry showing up on your feed...

...but this is what I do, I don't social media.

Im pretty sure posting on an online forum counts as social media really.

that's fine. this is mostly anonymous. i don't care if people i haven't bothered calling in 10 years recently 'ate a killer sandwich' or whatever the hell people put on facebook.

I don't even know anymore.

I... He just admitted that he didn't even know what "transgender" means. He thought it means post-op. Understandable, I didn't know that at one point. But I never argued with someone over the rights of those people until I understood the term.

are these family members posters of ffxiah p&r section, cause this seems so familiar =O?!

Post-op shouldn't be an argument, if we're talking bathroom BS. If they're post-op, what does it matter?

People rally against things because they don't want to understand them. It's easier to try to just cut them out of your world. Dehumanize them. Disregard them as people. It's easier that way. Whether they're of a different social class, lifestyle, or payscale.

And people -- not everyone, but always too many still -- will fight you tooth and nail to cling to their insular ways, expecting everyone to be just like them, because that's what would fix the world. But you try to tell them that, even in the most gentle way possible, and they accuse you of being the one who is bigoted or intolerant.

Really it just boils down to l "life ain't easy," but no one ever said it was. Some people have it harder than others and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. And sometimes you have to just look out for yourself first and help others later, when and if you can.

But wtf do I even know. I'm just some jerk on the internet paradoxically telling you to avoid arguing on the internet, after and before, respectively, I go back to arguing on the internet.

i think post op men should go into the men's room just so random transphobic guys hit on them without knowing and then have a personal crisis.

It shouldn't be an argument, period. How many ugly women have "white knights" tried to eject from/prevent from using their by-birth-bathroom, ffs? And how many hot transwomen do these troglodytes get hard-ons for without even knowing?

Or secretly get hardons for because they know?

Haaaa. You beat me to more or less the same joke because I had to take time to throw in an extra dig at them.

Seriously, he said "no transgender people have ever been discriminated against". I sent him a link to a wiki page

"List of unlawfully killed transgender people"

Full of documented cases of people who were murdered for being transgender.

"This doesn't have anything to do with using the bathroom though, you still have nothing supporting your claim that they are being discriminated against."


"Well, hell I tried. Sorry Dad." was my last response and then I blocked him.

I cannot cite a source nor can I remember the specifics but isn't there some exponentially greater chance (based on actual reported cases to the police) of a tranwoman being the victim of assault in a men's room vs. being peeped in the ladies room by anyone, let alone a transwoman?

isn't the fact that the discussion is happening and he himself has a problem with this bathroom "issue" actual discrimination happening right in front of his face?


and technically behind his face in his brain area?

ALL AROUND THE ENTIRE AREA OF HIS FACE.

we need something that shocks him when he's discriminating around this area. we'll call it, facial recognition technology.

Speaking of this, kinda off topic, I watched the Gwen Araujo movie a few years back. The kid that played her did a pretty good job.

That is oddly mesmerizing.

The kitchen is a complete mess oh my god I want to scream so much, I can't even stand the sight. How can food scraps end up everywhere across the kitchen? HOW for *** sake.

I feel like turning on the gas and just blow up the place.

That is exactly why it's kinda a big deal... But people want to look at it as traspeople wanting to use X bathroom as a comfort thing rather than a safety one.

Yup.

But ironically it was never about safety for their children, NOR for transfolk. It's all about their comfort level and their false pretenses.

Rant:

Pfweh.