Musk buys a big chunk of Twitter

I'm not a doctor but medication, therapy, surgery may be the best option for some people. Nowhere in there do we have to change the English language, redefine man and woman, devote a month to celebrating transgenderism, and muzzle or shame anybody who subscribes to the traditional view of men and women.

Then, you're really going about this the wrong way. You're creating this bubble for people that is not reflective of reality, and once people step outside that bubble, and reality hits them square in the face, they just can't handle it. The world can be cruel, life can be unfair, most people don't care about you or your feelings. The more people are reminded of this, the better off they will be and the stronger they will be.

 

I'm not asking you about medical treatments. I'm asking you about how you behave towards the transgender people in your life.

No, I'm not. I'd rather create a "bubble" of kindness, compassion, and understanding for people than be cruel, mean, and uncaring. I want people to feel safe around me. I want people to feel comfortable being themselves around me. I want people to feel happy and jovial around me. It's not my job to prepare for them those who are cruel and uncaring. It's my job to give them a respite from those people.

People don't need reminding of the awfulness in the world. They need reminding of its goodness. I don't want my place in this world to be causing people emotional distress. I want my place to be helping to relieve it.

 

I would tell them to be themself, to not let anybody put them down, but to not necessarily make their transgenderism their entire identity. In other words, I'm more than just a man. I'd like to think I'm more interesting than just that, the same should apply to people who are transgender. Don't let that be all that defines you.

It's not like I'd bully them and bring that up constantly to try and make them feel bad. But if they want to have a conversation, I'm not going to shy away from the truth, either.

I don't want people to feel uncomfortable around me. I'm just saying we shouldn't rewrite the rules and treat adults like children because a small fraction of them happen to be sensitive about certain issues. I'm saying you want the line that makes people uncomfortable to where it is actually difficult to offend people. Again, if you coddle people too much, it actually makes them more sensitive, more vulnerable. I don't want a society of more victims. There's nothing good about being a victim.

I'm not saying "be a bully." I'm saying act normally and don't act like you're walking on eggshells.

 

That's exactly why I draw the line I do. You don't want to walk on eggshells? That's fine. But I don't want to bring a transgender friend or colleague around a "friend" who is going to intentionally misgender them and not respect them as people. You can have your truth and live your life according to that. And I can choose not to associate with you because of that.

Frankly, I imagine you wouldn't favor a person who referred to you as a woman, only used women's pronouns to refer to you, and called you by a woman's name, despite the fact that you're more than just a man. I expect you'd consider that behavior rude and disrespectful.

I don't consider being respectful, empathetic, and courteous towards others to be treating "adults like children." I don't consider those things to be "coddling" anybody. I am simply treating people the way I want to be treated.

 

My best friends from high school called me much worse than that on a regular basis.

Pushing to teach toddlers that Caitlyn Jenner is a woman, demanding that everyone everywhere call Caitlyn Jenner a woman, and magazines naming Caitlyn Jenner "woman of the year" is not just being "respectful, empathetic, and courteous." It's coddling trans people and virtue-signaling that you support trans people. But in the end, you do more harm than good.

Your typical American doesn't care what trans adults do with their bodies (provided that they aren't harming anyone else). They just want to be left alone.

 

There's a world of difference between what you say to a close friend and what you say to a person you're just meeting.

You can choose what you want to call Caitlin Jenner, and I can choose not to associate with you for it. I'm not the one doing harm. The rest of the demagoguery about toddlers isn't even worth a response.

They may want to be left alone, but many Republicans sure don't want to leave transgender people alone.

 

True. But you could at least be a little self-aware about your situation and understand why people may call you by the wrong pronoun. Maybe say something to the degree of "I get that all the time, no worries." People generally aren't using non-preferred pronouns to bully people, they're doing it because it's proper English.

The transgender people that Republicans "don't want to leave alone" are the ones that insist on being in the spotlight, changing the English language, demanding taxpayers pay for their medical care, and indoctrinating children. So yes, if you do all of those things, you don't get to play the victim when Republicans notice and push back.

Republicans, including Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, could care less if adults choose to wear clothes of the opposite sex and get cosmetic surgery to look the part. It's a free country, live however you want.

 

Unless you're a transgender person.
Alabama governor signs bill criminalizing transgender health care for minors
South Carolina bill would ban gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary minors
Arkansas passes bill to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth
Texas attorney general declares gender-affirming medical care for transgender kids ‘child abuse’

I'm not going to spend more time arguing with you about transgender people. Your stance is clear. And my stance is clear. You can act however you want to act and justify your actions and the actions of the Republican Party however you will. I will simply choose not to associate with you because of it.

 

I'm not on Twitter and I don't own Twitter stock....so I don't have any "hopes" involving Twitter....nice try though.

Musk has already won. If you can't see that then just put back on the team liberal echo chamber glasses and carry on....just like how liberals like life, in a bubble with censored speech so feelings aren't hurt.

 

I'm sincerely curious, what is it about Musk saying he wants to make Twitter a free speech platform that scares liberals so much? There are all kinds of doomsday opinion pieces and tweets from libs wailing and gnashing their teeth at the thought. Why is the idea of free speech so threatening to them? I have an idea why but I'd like to her from any liberals who feel this way.

 

What do people think a “free speech platform” is anyway? Literally anything goes? Twitter should be a “chan” site? Criminals can do whatever they want?

As far as I can tell, you have to be pretty far out there to get moderated by these platforms. That dude that shot up the subway in NYC literally posted videos about his desires to murder people, and the platforms did nothing to moderate his content. Why? Because he went under the radar, hardly anyone saw his videos. They seemingly only even attempt to go after things that “go viral”. Sometimes their algorithms catch individuals who are unaware they are spreading viral misinformation (which admittedly seemed to catch more random people re: covid misinformation), so these are sort of innocents caught in an information war without realizing it. Should the platforms allow organized actors to spread viral misinformation on THEIR platform? Should the government FORCE them to? The position on the right seems rather bizarre as it’s essentially wanting to use force of government to push a platform to disburse propoganda against their will. Isn’t this actually the opposite of free speech?

 

Unless you're a minor. Doesn't contradict anything I said.

 

Same is true for me. Didn't stop you from making claims about me fearing Musk taking it over.

Lol, sure. So when can we expect the announcement, just to double check your accuracy?

 

Interesting, and very lengthy, thread from the CEO of Reddit.

 

He raises a lot of good points, and I appreciate the desire to "want everyone to play nice." But people don't play nice on Twitter, and the problem is that people running Twitter have proven themselves untrustworthy of being impartial arbiters of speech.

"But 715, if we didn't censor people on Twitter, it would be a complete cesspool of misinformation, personal attacks, and nastiness."

Twitter is already all of those things, and it's also faced with (credible) accusations that they favor one side of the political aisle in enforcing their rules. So, what Musk seems to understand, and what Reddit's CEO doesn't, is that if it's going to be all of those things, at least give people less reason to believe that they are partial one way. Be more of an open platform.

A couple other takeaways:

1. "It was censored not because it was a wrong idea, but because ideas really can- at certain times and places- become lightning rods for actual, physical, kinetic mob behavior." This is not exactly a glowing endorsement of free speech principles. It's this same sort of mentality, when taken to its logical extreme, that would get a book like Catcher in the Rye banned.

2. I love how he tries to "both sides" social media by saying "all top executives and board members are men" and "Silicon Valley employees are overwhelmingly woke and left-wing." Yeah... one of these are more important as far as being the arbiter of what is acceptable political speech than the other.

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened action against Twitter's board over its 'poison pill' to thwart a takeover: 'They know they can't control Elon Musk'

"I think that's probably an injury to the fund, so we're gonna be looking at ways that the state of Florida, potentially, can be holding this Twitter board of directors accountable for breaching their fiduciary duty," DeSantis said.

 

Lol, wow. Poison pills are pretty standard defense mechanisms for boards. Plenty of companies that Florida invests in will have one going at any given time. The obvious political retribution continues.

 

This like how I breach my 'fiduciary duty' by not selling my house to the people who keep sending me unsolicited texts about buying my house

 

Elon Musk says he has secured the money to buy Twitter