Eviora

You guys know how this works.If you already have a "What I Think" topic, I'll guess at your next one.

Oh... another?... very well!

I-I hope I'm cute!

I don't know if I want to taste good or bad...

I haven't played in a few months, but prior to that I'd been playing for the better part of 2 years. I mostly played standard, but I have an (evil) EDH deck, too!

I know my share about WoW and Hearthstone! =3

I'll jump on the smartie bandwagon. For the longest time, my intellect was the only thing I really valued in myself - and, sometimes, I found reason to hate it, too. But school was all but effortless for me, despite going for some degrees many people would find quite daunting. Matters of pure reason (rare though they are) are often trivial for me, and I am very philosophically inclined. And... ...I'll stop there with that, 'cause otherwise, I might start going into the negatives. Speaking of negatives, let me spin one into a "positive". Dark humor comes easily to me. So easily that I wanted to answer this thread with "I'm mortal."

Yeah, that level is incredibly well done. The creator frequents the same stream I do and submitted it there!

Evi has had like 1 sip of coffee in her life. Icky.

So you say it's all in my head then talk about how you did, in fact, want "clicks". It seems strange that you would say one thing, tell me to decide for myself, then post a paragraph hinting at the opposite. Other comparisons could have been made to make the point about political inconsistency. I feel this particular one was chosen for a reason. Those links actually make my point, not break it. In my previous post, I mentioned that it's easy for a man to dress as a woman and get in the women's restroom without having to invoke the excuse of being trans. It sounds like in most of these cases, the guys went on to commit sex crimes and that's what got them found out and appropriately dealt with. Research done in cities where pro-trans bathroom laws have been passed show no evidence of an increase in such crimes. It's certainty disconcerting that some people are willing to do the things the people in the links did, but pro-trans bathroom laws open up no viable opportunities for crime that didn't already exist.

If you think I'm arguing for gun control I'm not sure you're reading my posts. I don't have strong feelings on that issue. My posts have been pretty much about arguing that the "logical inconsistency" you assume isn't one at all; that the two issues aren't as closely comparable as you suggest. And the special pleading that HB2 supporters and your initial post engage in is only worrying about the danger people claiming to be trans present. Anyone sharing a bathroom with anyone else could pose danger to them. Male predators can wait in the men's room to attack little boys. No one seems to particularly care about that... probably because that isn't really what this issue is about. It's just an excuse bigoted politicians use to rile up fear in people. And, yes, heterosexual males rape people in women's restrooms. Notice that's illegal. Not the "in women's restrooms" part. The "rape" part. Does every one of those men uses the excuse of being trans to get in? Not even close. Do any? I haven't seen them yet. That's the data I was asking you for, because if there is none, then the problem is speculative, as Ame suggests. And if someone actually wanted to present to be a woman to get into the bathroom, they wouldn't need to use the trans excuse. If you're willing to put in a little effort, it's not that hard to present as female sufficiently well to withstand the minimal scrutiny random strangers will show you and keep it up for a few hours. Unlike gun control laws, HB2 is all but completely unenforceable, meaning the only people it hurts are the law abiding ones. If bathroom assaults are becoming an issue (hint: they're not becoming one any more so than they were before Charlotte passed their pro-trans law) then we should address the actual problem, not choose random scapegoats based on them being a bit different. Obviously, I can't read your mind, so I'll just tell you what I think and you can decide for yourself if it's true. I think you knew this particular comparison would prove especially relevant to this community. I think that's probably why you chose it. It got you clicks. From the moment I entered this thread and saw those memes, I felt like I was being baited. Maybe that's all in my head. I'm a pretty paranoid person, but to be honest, I don't believe I'm imagining this. But only you know if it's true. I'm not expecting an answer.

Unimpactful, huh? Then why bother posting? Why even make the argument? Certainly something motivated you to make this thread. Quite obviously the discussion isn't going to change policy, but it's conceivable that it might change minds, and whether that's your goal or you're just in it for giggles, it's silly to expect members of the group who you validate mixing up with predators to have a friendly reaction to the comparison. I'm not interested in your sympathy - but if you think I'm just going to read over your rude, special-pleading nonsense of an argument and not call you out on it, you must have forgotten our previous discussions. Perhaps the reason this thread is going "off-topic", as you call it, is because it opens with an extremely dubious comparison and declares anyone who disagrees logically inconsistent. Then, when some of us took issue with the comparison, you ignored it all, including my point about not all gun-related problems being rooted in criminal intentions of the owner. There is no extension of your analogy to account for such circumstances, nor have you paid any heed to mentions of non-discriminatory means of making public restrooms safer. Ame pointed out that there's no evidence that trans-friendly bathrooms will be exploited, and you said... something not particularly clear about many cases of something. I have no idea what you're talking about there, but I know of no well-substantiated cases of transpeople or anyone claiming to be one assaulting anyone in the restroom. If you have "many", provide evidence from credible, non-biased sources of at least 5 such incidents. If not, then it seems Ame's argument holds water. Not that it would matter much if it didn't. I bet we can find loads of situations where straight people have done criminal things in public restrooms, and no one is trying to kick them out. In the face of all the problems with the comparison, I see no need to worry about logical inconsistencies within liberal or conservative thinking. You haven't established the premise yet.

The conservative fear-mongering argument that allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms matching their gender identity invites sexual assault isn't just completely unsubstantiated by evidence, as Ame pointed out, but is also intrinsically discriminatory in multiple ways. The premise is basically that allowing transwomen to use the women's bathroom opens the door for random perverts to assault women while claiming to be trans. Let's look at some of the problematic ideas promoted by that assumption. Right off the bat, it focuses on painting men as predators and women as victims. No mention of female predators or male victims are made. It assumes all predators are strictly heterosexual, and would never dream of assaulting someone of the *same* gender. Supporters of laws like HB2 claim to be trying to protect little girls from being alone in the bathroom with dangerous men... by sending those dangerous men to be alone in the bathroom with little boys. I guess little boys don't matter to them? If we're actually worried about predators in bathrooms, maybe we should make enforceable laws that actually address that rather than targeting minorities. And, of course, the main victims of the bigotry are transgender people themselves, who supporters of HB2 characterize as being of their sex at birth despite all evidence provided by medical professionals. Also... The assumption encourages people to view trans individuals as potential predators. The assumption directly endangers trans people by forcing them to choose between avoiding the bathroom, thereby risking infection, and risking assault in the bathroom they don't identify with, which is empirically more likely. A study has found that being denied bathroom access increases the likelihood of attempts at suicide by 45%. Forty. Five. Percent. The assumption encourages violence against trans people who are unfairly equated to threats, I've already read about one woman (a lawyer working at some conservative group) who claimed she'd be taking a gun into the bathroom with her so she could take matters into her own hands if she encounters anyone she deems male. Meanwhile, the underlying assumption of gun control arguments is... guns are dangerous. Not just in the hands of hardened criminals. In the hands of someone who might commit a crime of passion. In the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it and accidentally fires. In the hands of someone other than the owner of the gun, such as a child who feels that they've been wronged by their peers at school. All things that we see happen time and again. Trying to equate the assumption that a type of weapon is dangerous to the premise of HB2 and its ilk is not only mindlessly shallow, it's opportunistic. It's using the plight of a minority you claim to support as a bargaining chip to get your way on some other issue. I don't have particularly strong feelings on gun control, but if you want to argue against it, just do that. Don't you dare use our struggle for civil rights as an excuse to smuggle in your personal agenda. And drop the fear tactic arguments. You're better than that.

And then there was one. RIP Never-Trump Republicans.