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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 30, 2023

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A man attracted to other men cannot become a straight man, but he can become a straight woman. Do the people articulating this view not notice that this is at least a difficult pair of propositions to adhere to?

"A man, who is born attracted to men, should be allowed to date/see/marry/sex with men" and "a man who is* born in the wrong body and should be able to transition to a women" don't seem contradictory to me, thought I do admit that they do seem in conflict.

Isn't the explanation: "both are innate, and should be allowed"? They are both a quality/innateness you're "born with" and cannot change.

If you can change your mind on these things, then they aren't innate.

Thus why detransitioners (and people who "decide" not to be gay anymore?) are seen as such traitors?

Isn't the explanation: "both are innate, and should be allowed"? They are both a quality/innateness you're "born with" and cannot change.

The point is not what should/shouldn't be allowed. The point is that progressives say that one reason gay conversion therapy is bad is because it doesn't even work.

However gender identity is more biological than sexual preferences but progressives belive societal conditioning is so strong it is able to get women in men's bodies to behave like men for decades of their lives, to the point that they often didn't even realise they were women in men's bodies until they were like 25+.

In that case what stops the possibility of societal conditioning being used to get people who are actually gay to behave like they are straight, especially for those people who are questioning their sexual preferences and are unsure (i.e. gay conversion therapy should work)?

Note that this argument is completely distinct from whether we should be doing gay conversion therapy or not, it's just arguing about the efficiency of it, it's a "can" vs "ought to" distinction.

huh. thats a good argument, thank you for replying. It does make me think.

though idk if i can use this as an argument in a SF party, but at least personally this makes a lot of sense.

Basically, we need to accept trans cuz conditioning is really strong to remain in your born-with gender (or is it sex?). So if it’s so strong that you are convinced you are born in the right body, despite internal claimed incongruities, then….

yeah it makes sense to me

for ex. I did theatre, and even the straights were bicurious and kinda convinced that “don’t knock it until you try it”. but mostly everyone was in straight relationships.

the few that were convinced to try, man or woman, all honestly remained straight and date/married straight partners. Looking back, I honestly think their even experimenting was some pressure, but mostly result of so called “gay propaganda”.

Childhood as gay conversion therapy does work: some people only realize they are gay in college. They gather the usual evidence, "women don't interest me" plus "wow that man makes me feel things", but without gayness as a model it just gets lost in the evidential noise of daily life.

The problem is that once you have the model of gayness, you can't exactly erase your memory and redo childhood. So it is a viable conversion therapy, possibly the only viable one, but it is not one that can be applied to a person it has already failed for.

Some people are born pedophiles, they should still be locked up and at the very least heavily monitored if they ever molest children.

good point. born psychopaths are still psychos and are bad for society

That seems unrelated: there's a difference between a partner and a victim.

I’ve never liked born that way as an argument for allowing things. It’s irrelevant. People can be born with proclivities to all sorts of behaviors— drug use, thrill seeking, self isolation, intellectual pursuits, and taste in food and clothing. That they’re attracted to something doesn’t answer the question of whether it’s good. It’s good to be studious. It’s bad to be a drug user. Drug use costs the user, his social network, and society quite a bit.

good point. In the same vein, I remember the “even some animals are gay, so being gay is natural and fine” argument.

even as a kid I remember reading about how wild ducks rape, their their vaginas become more “anti-rape” and male penises also evolved to overcome that and can still rape.

I remember saying “oh so since animals rape, rape is natural and fine?” and of course it was kind if a shut-down argument, no real retort there. Need to bring it back!

I think maybe the appearance of conflict comes from imagining someone who says 'I am attracted to women, but that person who is calling themself a woman is not the type of person I am attracted to, they are faking and must be a man'.

Of course, stated like that, the answer is pretty obvious: you don't have to be attracted to every woman, and your attraction is not necessary to validate their identity.