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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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Is it autogynephilia? No clue. It feels a little impertinent to ponder, though that’s the sort of question that I might have said mattered a lot before.

If you gave me even odds, I would bet the house that Mark has masturbated in women's underwear before he showed up at your work in women's clothes. Whether that makes him an autogynephile is a matter of definition, but I don't think it's impertinent, and I think it's equally obvious the answer is yes. That's just what happens when middle-aged autistic men transition.

If a random person insists on referring to Mary as a man, and I’m required to say that between the two of them one is a fool, I’d have to say that Mary is not the fool.

And if you had to follow one into combat, to lay down your life in the company of other men, fighting for your home and hearth, would you rather follow Mark who calls himself Mary, or would you rather follow the one who calls him a man? Everything in this world is downstream from violence, although we've done wonders to conceal that. I might trust Mark at th

On a visceral level, it still doesn’t make sense to me, and I can still make it gross if I want to, just by thinking about it. But why do that?

Probably because gross things are bad, and viscerally gross things are especially bad, and it's a normal and healthy reaction to the abnormal and diseased world about you. Sure, you can stick your head in the sand, pretend nothing is wrong, and ignore all your warning instincts and soothe your raised hackles, by why do that? Why not instead see the world for as it is, and spare yourself the dissonance? I've never understood the desire to repress your instincts like this.

And if you had to follow one into combat, to lay down your life in the company of other men, fighting for your home and hearth, would you rather follow Mark who calls himself Mary Mary née Mark, or would you rather follow the one who calls him her a man?

Which one can hit a target at 300 metres?

I was asking after leadership, not marksmanship.

There's TWO criteria which matter, and the second is IMO more important than the first

  1. Can he/she/it shoot?

  2. Will he/she/it aim at your enemy?

It's the second which would be the one at issue here.

(this particular formulation is taken from the Liaden books, but I'm sure the idea is older than that)

If you gave me even odds, I would bet the house that Mark has masturbated in women's underwear before he showed up at your work in women's clothes.

How'd you arrive at those numbers?

And if you had to follow one into combat, to lay down your life in the company of other men, fighting for your home and hearth, would you rather follow Mark who calls himself Mary, or would you rather follow the one who calls him a man? Everything in this world is downstream from violence, although we've done wonders to conceal that.

Combat is involved in very, very few aspects of life. It's vastly more likely OP has to follow Mary into the world of finance, where Mary will crush the vast majority of people who insist Mary is Mark. For most people, trying to surround themselves with the best warriors is not a path to a succesful life.