DaveTLV @Surasanji@social.cleverlibre.org

@alex @mk @realcaseyrollins To a certain degree I'm sure there is a measure of harm being passed between both groups.

The real trick, though, will be sorting that mess out. It's hard to think straight with raw wounds.

Personally, I tend towards trying to be consistent in my world view. I prefer integrity to morality.

Good and Evil- Morality- are ultimately built on shifting sand. What is Evil to one person may not seem so Evil to another. The same can be said for good- it's all very relative.

From what I've seen- (and please keep in mind that this position is coming from someone who is trying to educate themselves, and absolutely doesn't know everything there is to know about the subject) - that Feminists and Transsexuals are both fighting for something they really do believe in.

I think I'm leaning towards dysphoria being required to consider someone Transsexual. Partially, this is because I have a major issue with "Self-ID" when it comes to my personal cross to bare: Mental Health.

As someone with actual bipolar II that I take quite a lot of medication and work very hard to control the idea that someone could just one day say 'OH I'M BIPOLAR!' as some kind of excuse for their shitty behavior or whatever sort of pisses me off specifically because of the pain the disease causes me.

I also agree with the Feminists who say that there are some biologically male persons who are trying to invade women's spaces. Gyms or changing rooms or women's sports, for instance. I can't tell you why they want to be in those spaces, but I don't think that Trans-persons with dysphoria are a particularly large subset of that group.

It comes back to the mental health part of it. Dysphoria is mental. It affects the brain- and as someone with what amounts to diabetes of the brain myself I can empathize with those people in particular. If those people genuinely want to live their lives as a gender other than the one they were born to, that's fine with me.

And then I swing back, because I- as a male who has no dysphoria- will not have to potentially share a formerly unshared space with someone who- biologically at least- does not share my gender.

So, I find myself in a place where I'm desperately trying to empathize and understand both sides of this while being almost wholly unprepared in terms of actual experience.

@mk @realcaseyrollins @alex Those things are things that can't be helped- and they form in the mind like cement.

At the end of the day, my opinion is that if your beliefs- whatever they are- harm neither yourself nor anyone else you're probably okay.

@alex @realcaseyrollins I'm not sure that I agree entirely, but I'm very happy to read the article and make my own opinion on it. :)

@realcaseyrollins @alex We would likely speak to someone who decided to say that.

It's one of those opinions that you're more than welcome to have, but keep it to yourself in this space.

@realcaseyrollins @alex It would depend entirely on the greater context. The statements in and of themselves are not, specifically, hate speech. There is a certain amount of context required to say any particular 'catch phrase' is or isn't hate speech.

@realcaseyrollins @alex If the speech is designed to denigrate or harm another human being, is an attack on what they are as a person (IE: Gender/Gender ID, religion, ethnic background, sexual orientation, et al. Something that can't be 'helped' as it were.) or is otherwise abusive in nature may be censored.

We will not censor speech that is unpopular, however, or that makes someone uncomfortable because they disagree with it.

The mods at #qoto are almost always available to discuss something if you feel we need to be made aware of something. We also, as Mods, discuss things whenever we're not sure- discussion is an important part of the #qoto experience.

@alex #qoto is just open minded. As a Mod, I feel I am required to let folks know that we do not support any sort of hate speech and to take aims to censor it on our own instance.

Being that said, we are an instance open for learning, and for potentially uncomfortable conversations. We like opposing opinions and treasure the human mind's ability to be open and learning. We do not like to block other instances, and prefer for our users to do any kind of blocking on their personal level.

I, personally, welcome any chance to learn. So, I am happy to discuss anything with folks at Spinster or Gab or wherever.

@alex @TranimeGirl @mk I've only recently been starting to look deeper into Transsexuality because I've not had very much experience with it in my personal life.

My experiences with feminism are far more broad, however, I don't have much experience with "Radical" feminism.

All of this is very interesting to me and I'm just happy to be able to learn about other people's world views.

@sara pretty

@mk I have degrees in feline wateronomy and feline waterology, and I can tell you that this is true.

@freemo new instance who dis?

@mk @alex I can't say I've ever met an actually violent vegan, so I'm going to call that one valid.

Memes? Memes.

@alex is this a joke about hating meat? Because if it is, it's funny and I love it.

@jacethechicken Dave's not here, man

@freemo That's fair. A lot of the media depiction, and depiction from many followers show violent action against others.

At the same time, gotta remember that modern news media loves the whole 'If it bleeds it leads' mentality.

But, I think you've gotten an idea of my life philosophy over my time here that I'm something of a natural skeptic, and trend towards pacifistic (without being a total pacifist).

It's a very interesting time to be alive, that is for certain, and to watch how the extreme left and extreme right are growing ever more difficult to distinguish from one another.

@freemo Eh, looks like some religious something or other, not sure if it is Antifa or not.

Either way, violence isn't really an answer to problems and should be that very last resort.

If you can't figure out a non-violent way to do things, you have probably not engaged critical thinking.