I’m curious, did NatPo also cover the fact that Bell was subsidized $40 million by the federal government for losses suffered by Bell Media, a bill pushed forward by the Conservatives and supported by the NDP, only for Bell to turn around, fire thousands, all while giving a 3.5% increase in dividends for shareholders?

Couple of things. Politicians have zero idea of what they’re talking about, especially one like Pollieve who’s looking to demonize trans women to rile up his base. Calling someone a “biological male” is just their fancy way of saying “man in a dress”. It’s their way of making it seem like they’re less transphobic than they actually are.

Trans women and trans men are biologically no different from their cis counterparts. Trans women lose the muscle mass and strength they had when testosterone was their primary sex hormone. They perform no better or worse than cis women when it comes to sports. Trans women take on the same health risks as cis women; and the same can be said for trans men.

Furthermore, chromosomes don’t work the way you’re suggesting here either. They act more like blueprints during development in the womb. There are also XY cis women with androgen insensitivities, as well as cis women who produce higher levels of testosterone.

Long story short, you don’t need a degree in biology to understand the arguments being put forth by Pollieve and folks like him are absolute bunk. They’re intended to antagonize people against trans folks.

Well, how else would companies profit off of works they contributed nothing to? /s

Capitalism needs to die. We need a society that works to better and enrich all, not fuckwads who bleed and exploit others and their work for personal gain.

This hits pretty hard. Looking at the bigger picture is depressing: what the fuck is humanity’s end goal? Because it looks like it’s the heat death of the planet, all so a bunch of narcissistic fucks can pretend they’re royalty, and lord it over the rest of us who weren’t as lucky and see stepping on others for your own desires as cruel and morally reprehensible.

Corpo-speak doesn’t mean shit. Actions do.

I worked with a small media company like this. They’d constantly throw new tasks and duties at you like candy with no plan, no resources, and unwritten and unsaid expectations you’d somehow make it all work while they sat back and raked in the cash. Burnout was inevitable, and it’d make them furious and vindictive with you when you dare to ask for less work or more pay or people to do the job.

Enough is enough. If treating your employees like spare parts is what’s needed to succeed in a capitalist society, then not only do these companies deserve to die out for their inhumane treatment of workers, but the whole system needs to be upended.

Fuck this Ferengi “we need all the profit” nonsense, especially given what Star Trek is about. I’m not paying for another service. The only thing these companies are doing is making piracy a more appealing option again.

The heart is in the right place: protecting trans folks from those who’d seek to deny us care. But part of me worries this is a path back to pathologizing dysphoria, which can increase hurdles for trans folks from getting the care we need. Like when people had be out living as their gender for a set period of time before receiving care, sometimes stereotypically so.

Conservatism is dying slowly, and instead of reconsidering their positions, right-wingers are doubling down and turning to fascism to keep their grip on power. We must stay vigilant and counter their bullshit and violence whenever possible. If we want a better world, we have to fight for it.

Can we prove consciousness? One of the biggest ethical concerns I have with AI is folks who say it’s all just mimicry, that it’s following its program. Okay, sure. But couldn’t you argue something similar about humans? That our responses are biologically and sociologically determined? Not saying they are, but we don’t have a firm grasp on what constitutes consciousness, and scientists, as objective as they like to see themselves, can be anthropocentric when it comes to what “intelligence” looks like. We may end up creating something like the Geth from Mass Effect - something that evolves beyond what we thought it was capable of.

This is good news. Glad to see some states doing what they can support trans youth. These kids don’t deserve to be victimized by malicious assholes using their lives as a wedge issue for fascist policies.

If you’re a fan of Star Trek, they have quite a few excellent titles. Personal favs are Armada II (RTS), Bridge Commander (Ship Sim, even better with mods!), and Elite Force (you’re a Security officer on Voyager, FPS made by the Quake developers.

These are good ideas, thank you 💜

Yar, there be a shitstorm a brewin’ on the horizon. With a flood of bots, not only is the content quality going to drop further on Reddit, but we’ll see more disinformation, phishing attempts, and other crap of the same ilk too. This is how big sites die off, not all at once, but in waves.

Checking in with the GP had crossed my mind too, so it might be worth a shot to at least put some pressure on the situation, or possibly get the contact info I need to follow up with the specialist. There’s nothing preventing my GP from prescribing HRT beyond her own discomfort and ignorance with trans healthcare. But given GPs already prescribe hormones to cis folks, you’d think they’d be able to figure it out. It’s not like we’re a different species. I just want to make sure I have some sort of medical expert in my corner to avoid potential unwanted health complications.

My comment isn’t about the techniques they were using. It’s a social comment on an absurd argument some transphobes like to use against transfolk saying people digging up our skeletons won’t ever see us as our gender identity, but as our AGAB (assigned gender at birth). As if anyone gives a flying fuck what someone thousands of years in the future thinks about our remains.

It was funny to me seeing this scenario pop up in the news, and the skeleton had been misgendered from the folks who initially examined the pelvis to determine the skeleton’s sex (reinforced afterwards with certain gendered assumptions around the objects found near it). It flips the table on the transphobe’s argument, showing how it isn’t quite as cut and dry as they’d like to believe.

I believe you misunderstood me. I didn’t suggest the owner of said skeleton was trans; rather, the pervasive transphobic comment suggesting archaeologists digging up our skeletons will see us ‘as we really are’, i.e. our AGAB, is a load of proverbial horseshit when we literally have a case here where scientists had difficulty determining the skeleton’s sex in the first place, by what they thought was a male pelvic bone. I simply like how reality isn’t quite as cut and dry as transphobes like to think, and thought it funny a news article flipping the table on their argument (as absurd as it is anyhow, because who gives a shit what other people think of their skeleton thousands of years from now).

The story and the roleplaying were boilerplate, not something you want in a series known for being rich in both. Could tell you about 5 minutes after the prologue who the main antagonist really was. It was the kind of twist Vince Russo would pull in the old WCW days. The heavy focus on crafting and the pain of having to defend places throughout the wasteland was also a big turnoff for me. Felt like a lot of busywork and fluff to pad the game out. I avoid and drop games that don’t feel like they respect my time.

All in all, it wasn’t a good game for me, but I’m glad some folks enjoyed it.

Skies of Arcadia. Two words: sky pirates. Coupled together with a beautiful overworld filled with hidden discoveries, charming characters, fun ship combat, and excellent music. You can’t go wrong with either the original Dreamcast version (higher quality music, VMU minigames) or the Legends remastering on the Gamecube (an additional story quest, less frequent random encounters - the original is somewhat relentless with these).

Probably the closest thing we’ll get to right-wing performance art.