Gaywallet's recent activity

  2. Comment on US President Donald Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for programs with ‘improper ideology’ in ~society

    Gaywallet
    Link
    From another article on the same issue:

    From another article on the same issue:

    Buried within the list of issues is a reference to a display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The display, the executive order complains, "claims that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism' and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct."

    12 votes

  4. Comment on Things progressives get wrong in ~society

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    Apologies, you started your post talking about how you've seen uncharitable things on Tildes, and focus in on specific behavior that you feel progressives do. I made the assumption that you were...
    • Exemplary

    Apologies, you started your post talking about how you've seen uncharitable things on Tildes, and focus in on specific behavior that you feel progressives do. I made the assumption that you were talking about Tildes given the segue from one topic into the other, and not that the two were meant to be a non-sequitur.

    I was close with those people, as well as a number of folks who have continued to flee the website since. The reason I bring it up, is that this very post is the kind of post which could alienate a lot of them. Again, I don't mean this as disrespectful, but it really comes off as kind of high horsing about what you think is wrong with the progressive party. I may simply be too plugged in to politics to know how the average person else feels, but people on the left being absolutely obsessed with messaging doesn't feel like a new thing to me, in fact this focus on messaging and not action is perhaps what's behind a major split between the progressives and the liberals driven probably by a lack of any movement from the left in ages (make strong statements against the republicans and then end up with enough of the party voting in step with them or not unifying in resistance).

    It also vaguely strikes me as coming from a position of privilege and fragility. You're repeatedly responding to people in this thread who are raising real concerns about any kind of representation and even responding to people who are directly being targeted by the current administration and dismissing their concerns or redirecting to your feeling about how messaging is too polarizing or violent. Not only does it feel to me like you're seemingly putting yourself in a position of authority as opposed to listening and empathizing, but it also feels to me like it's coming from a place of privilege in that you can tell them what issues are more important when their rights are directly being attacked, right now, and many of them are fearing for their safety.

    Like I get it, that you're scared too - pretty much everyone on the left is right now, because we're devolving into some kind of fascism on a national level and things are changing at the government level faster than they have in ages. You want to provide something tangible and useful, and you see an area for improvement. But also, this isn't really a new idea, and in many ways sounds awfully similar to what the party line has been towing, the very party which is currently letting a large portion of its constituents get thrown under the bus in order to court voters which may not even be interested in what they have to offer in the first place.

    The reason it's relevant all these years down the road is that this kind of behavior, this kind of post, these kinds of responses are still continuing to alienate the minorities on this website. I'm simply providing that voice because you asked and because many of them are no longer present to do so.

    6 votes

  5. Comment on Things progressives get wrong in ~society

    Gaywallet
    Link
    I don't mean this in a hostile way at all, but it's rather strange you're characterizing an entire party of people by the actions of a few. I also don't think it's fair to characterize how people...

    I don't mean this in a hostile way at all, but it's rather strange you're characterizing an entire party of people by the actions of a few. I also don't think it's fair to characterize how people act online versus how they do in person, although I do think the increasingly polarized way that people act online as a lack of moderation has only increased since the internet's early days has contributed to increasing polarization in both directions. You're going to run into trolls on both sides, and people are going to tell you that you're an absolute fucking idiot who deserves to kill themselves no matter what identity you have.

    I also find it strange that you think this place is too left or unwelcoming as it's a rather center-left space that's historically had issues with pushing out minorities and folks who are further left. Many of them were genuinely nice people who were pushed out by just asking questions behavior by more privileged folk.

    10 votes

  6. Comment on Ben & Jerry’s claims Unilever ousted its CEO for his progressive stance in ~society

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    I sincerely mean this as no offense, but you should almost certainly assume that any statement made by a company is a PR move and that their number one priority is and always will be profits. This...

    I sincerely mean this as no offense, but you should almost certainly assume that any statement made by a company is a PR move and that their number one priority is and always will be profits. This goes doubly so for publicly traded companies, as they often cannot do anything but the wishes of the shareholders, who almost invariably are in it for the money and do not care about the success of the company beyond how long they intend to hold shares for. It is truly rare for companies like Ben & Jerry's to exist in the world as it is, and outside of a repeated and proven history of having a mission to do good in the world (or literally do anything but chase maximal profits) you should assume any statement is entirely based from that motive - a calculated decision that it will win them over more profit than it will lose them.

    9 votes

  7. Comment on What are some good stories told from non-human perspectives? in ~books

    Gaywallet
    Link
    A psalm for the wild-built and the second book in the series is about a solarpunk nonbinary tea monk. Great little series, highly recommend.

    A psalm for the wild-built and the second book in the series is about a solarpunk nonbinary tea monk. Great little series, highly recommend.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on US federal judge blocks Donald Trump administration from banning transgender people from military service in ~lgbt

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    Like most of these cases it's probably going to ping pong back and forth for awhile before it reaches the supreme court. I'm happy for any delay, if we're lucky they can delay long enough that...

    Like most of these cases it's probably going to ping pong back and forth for awhile before it reaches the supreme court. I'm happy for any delay, if we're lucky they can delay long enough that Trump will be out of office (be it by term or other means). While the supreme court is heavily conservative and generally votes along lines with Trump, some of the conservative voices have voted against the conservative majority because they respect the letter of the law. For something like military service, I'm not so certain they wouldn't rule in favor of the conservative agenda, but for some of the other scarier things like access to medical care, they are much more likely to break from the party line.

    Either way, I agree, it's nice to see and celebrate every person with a backbone willing to stand up against fascism.

    12 votes

  11. Comment on Scientists fill knowledge gaps in immune system functions responsible for fighting bacteria in ~science

    Gaywallet
    Link
    The original title is a bit of clickbait, as proteasomes have been known for some time - the mechanisms behind how the proteasomes work, however, is something that was previously not well...

    The original title is a bit of clickbait, as proteasomes have been known for some time - the mechanisms behind how the proteasomes work, however, is something that was previously not well understood. Of note, this now provides a means to better understand and identify proteasome-derived defense peptides which could provide novel treatments for bacterial infections

    5 votes

  13. Comment on Generative AI tool marks a milestone in biology - Evo 2 can predict the form and function of proteins in the DNA of all domains of life in ~science

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    Yes, that's what the team is already doing! It's a highly collaborative framework which they explain at the very bottom which centers experts across multiple fields to ensure the model is useful.

    I can absolutely see this being used to generate hypotheses to test with CRISPR experiments.

    Yes, that's what the team is already doing!

    Then we go into the lab and synthesize the DNA and insert it into a living cell to test it using a gene editing technology like CRISPR.

    It's a highly collaborative framework which they explain at the very bottom which centers experts across multiple fields to ensure the model is useful.

    In terms of personnel, we had three subteams. First, the machine learning team focused on training the model and making sure that the computers ran efficiently. Then, once you train a model, you need to know it actually works as intended. So there’s a team of biologists – computational, molecular, systems, prokaryotic, eukaryotic biologists – to make sure the information we are getting back is valuable and usable. And, last, we have an experimental biology team that synthesizes the new DNA, puts it into cells, and tests the cells to make sure what we’ve created works in real life.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on California Governor Gavin Newsom "completely aligns" with Charlie Kirk on trans athlete issue, and agreed about restricting gender affirming care for prisoners and youths, in podcast in ~lgbt

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    I'll probably get in trouble for this, but frankly speaking, adequate moderation is the solution. But that's not going to happen, because there is a fundamental mismatch between what is an...
    • Exemplary

    I've seen this repeated so many times in the ~lgbt section on Tildes that I don't know what the solution is.

    I'll probably get in trouble for this, but frankly speaking, adequate moderation is the solution. But that's not going to happen, because there is a fundamental mismatch between what is an acceptable amount of "asking questions" on Tildes. Years ago I tried to address this specific issue more broadly as I also saw men entering threads about sexism to decry "not all men" and white folks entering threads on POC troubles to debate the merits of affirmative action or whether 'black lives matter' or 'defund the police' are "the right messaging".

    There's two problems at play here. The first is fragility, and an inability for folks to see words which theoretically could include them as anything but a direct attack on them. When the thread is talking about sex offenders and someone makes a statement about men and you are not a sex offender, the statement is not directed at you and coming into the thread to mention this does nothing but make the space hostile to minorities.

    The second is that on the continuum between absolute free speech and safe space, Tildes frankly isn't very far towards the safe space side. Tildes does a great job at keeping out the obvious nazis, but I've seen my fair share of problematic users who don't get removed for a very long time until they finally create enough drama to get kicked out or slip up on how they word things. To be clear, not all users need to be removed, and in the case we're talking about here it's more about deleting comments which are noise, distracting, or frankly just people rehashing the same tired old discussion. Every single lgbt person in this thread likely has a resource list of scientific papers, websites, blogs, etc. touching on this issue and a half dozen other ones that always get brought up and explicit recognition of this and moderation to keep this place a bit more on the safe space side would go a long way to making this less exhausting to queer folks and make them less likely to flee this website. Threads like these always devolve into the minority doing the heavy lifting of educating the majority who think they know a thing or two about the issue and who are quite frankly arrogant enough to think they are an expert.

    15 votes

  18. Comment on California Governor Gavin Newsom "completely aligns" with Charlie Kirk on trans athlete issue, and agreed about restricting gender affirming care for prisoners and youths, in podcast in ~lgbt

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    I think it's worth noting that not a single trans person brought up the trans sports issue. Every single comment was about the general lack of support. The only people in here trying to litigate...

    I'm hope no one feels I'm attacking this community

    I think it's worth noting that not a single trans person brought up the trans sports issue. Every single comment was about the general lack of support. The only people in here trying to litigate what's okay and what's not are not trans or lgbt folks.

    Notably, your comment also lacks any positive encouragement, any explicit sympathy towards trans folks or any recognition of anything else discussed in the article. In isolation, it would be difficult for someone to read your comment and have any idea whether you are an ally or not.

    I would also mention that your comment ignores the other conversations on the exact same subject which are making more or less the same points you are. Why does it need to be restated multiple times throughout these comments?

    I encourage you to ask yourself whether you think that might make folks feel like they are being attacked?

    To be clear here, I know nothing about you and I'm not making any judgements about you, I'm just trying to help you understand how this thread might make a trans person feel. Now take whatever feeling you think they might have and amplify it by the endless news coverage of how trans people are losing rights, losing passports and being persecuted in the United States right now and add that anxiety and fear into their lens of perception and current emotional state.

    13 votes

  19. Comment on California Governor Gavin Newsom "completely aligns" with Charlie Kirk on trans athlete issue, and agreed about restricting gender affirming care for prisoners and youths, in podcast in ~lgbt

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    Given that doping is a much more prevalent and pervasive issue in competitive sports than trans individuals, it seems rather strange to me to focus so heavily on trans folks. There are also plenty...

    So it's not about cis people dominating every space as much as the fear that a space that cis women can even exist at a competitive level won't exist at all.

    Given that doping is a much more prevalent and pervasive issue in competitive sports than trans individuals, it seems rather strange to me to focus so heavily on trans folks. There are also plenty of developmental and genetic influences that can be considered unfair, and which also objectively provide a much stronger benefit to performance than having gone through puberty in a "male" body (given at least 1-2 years of estrogen therapy prior to entry into women's sports). In many cases the athletes never went through puberty because they were on blockers, but that's strangely absent from a blanket ban. There's also essentially zero focus and very little about trans men in these discussions.

    I put "male" in quotes because there are plenty of intersex individuals and plenty of variation in terms of what puberty looks like for folks who are assigned male at birth.

    As an aside, it's not surprising this thread has turned into yet another debate about trans athletes in sports. There's a lot more going on in the article than the title, and this is the ~lgbt community. It's rather tiring to have to engage in these discussions every single time. It sometimes feels like this community exists just to be attacked and that's rather depressing.

    13 votes

  20. Comment on California Governor Gavin Newsom "completely aligns" with Charlie Kirk on trans athlete issue, and agreed about restricting gender affirming care for prisoners and youths, in podcast in ~lgbt

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    Notably, there also aren't AMAB and intersex folks going through everything required to become a trans woman just to sexually harass women in bathrooms. There are quite literally more republican...

    There are not a bunch of men going through everything required to become a trans woman just so they can dominate women's sports. That does not happen.

    Notably, there also aren't AMAB and intersex folks going through everything required to become a trans woman just to sexually harass women in bathrooms. There are quite literally more republican legislators who have been arrested for harassing women in bathrooms than trans women.

    Unfortunately, this doesn't stop legislation - there are bathroom laws in many states.

    13 votes