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There are some key differences that this and the "attack helicopter" memers miss. There are people who believe they are God (There are people who believe htey
by deanCommie 5y ago
There are some key differences that this and the "attack helicopter" memers miss.
There are people who believe they are God (There are people who believe htey are Attack Helicopters, I'm sure). But they are very few and far between. We ignore them, we marginalize them. Or, best case, we treat them.
Now, I'm not trying to open the pandora's box on the medical community's perspective on transgenderism. We can have this conversation after, but I am deliberately focusing on pronouns for a start.
Because when it comes to pronouns, in English-language society, we DO treat people based on gendered pronouns - male and female ones. Basically 100% of our time, 50% one, 50% the other.
So a person who is asking to be addressed as "My saviour" is asking for unique preferential treatment that you are likely not offering anyone else in life.
A person who is asking to be addressed as the gender pronouns of the other gender is asking to be treated the same way that you already treat 50% of the people you encounter, just to be re-categorized. And that's not a big ask because in the VAST Majority of cases you encounter, that person will already be presenting MOSTLY as the gender that they are asking to be treated as.
Now, you might say that being asked to be treated as a different gender than you are born is just as unusual as being asked to be treated as a God. But we don't even need to get into the statistics of prevalence to recognize that the numbers are not relevant. You already have to go through life learning 1) people's names, 2) people's nicknames, 3) people's gender when they are ambiguous or deliberately provocative. This is common metadata you remember about people.
Part of existing in society is learning other human's social characteristics, and incorporating them into how you interact with them. Pronouns are not meaningfully different.
- mbrodersen 5y agoI feel triggered by your disagreement. People who believe they are God is clearly a minority. And therefore deserve special treatment. I might be a God but I have feelings too you know.
- deanCommie 5y agoI sure am glad that I wrote a well considered nuanced response and tried to come up with helpful analogies for our debate, only to get trolled back in response. Sadly it's not a surprising experience for me anymore dealing with people that argue against progress.