Darcs

Cara's Originally Titled OoC Hangout Thread ♥ (Still)

Oh wow people actually think it's too hot ahaha

The Confederate Flag, and Charleston

@darkwolf687The problem is that a lot of people don't feel as if its them taking offense, but as if they're being literally attacked. These are recent scars for a lot of people and I think say "oh get over it" is a little unfair, the last lynching took place in the 60s, racially based crimes still continue in the US, in fact I think something like 56% of our domestic terrorist activity comes from extremist right wing racist groups-- hell, people can, will, and do see the church shooter who started this discussion, and associate him with the confederate flag and the hatred some who fly it might harbor.

The Topic of Homosexuality, Gender Identity, and So forth

That brings up something I've always had a bit of conflict with and that is the supposition that one is born gay. That would posit that gayness is genetic rather than a choice or even a lifestyle formed from psychological factors. That they literally are forced into a state of being gay just like I don't have any say in being genetically Asian.

So does that mean there is a genetic sequence that determines your sexuality?

@Loud Angry Dead

No, sexuality is how one manifests their feelings of arousal and erotic desires. These are pretty much

Sexual orientation, independent of biological sex, gender identity, and sexual identity. Is, ultimately fluid, and ultimately the result of a combination of nature and nurture; there are probably gay genes that everyone's got different variations of, but how they manifest is based on your hormones, your environment and ultimately the person you become and what you like.

That, in fact, it is an alterable condition given sufficient understanding of the genes and a method by which one could change it? How much is attributable to personal experience, environment, and psychological factors if it can be attributed to anything but genetics?

I keep hearing "They're just born that way" and that "they can't help who they're attracted to". I can't help but feel like that's a cop out; a way to avoid thinking too hard about what would cause a divergence from the breeding instinct that helps us choose our mates. I mean our brains are hard-wired with preconceptions that are sub-conscious.

@Loud Angry Dead

It is alterable-- it's fluid, it may change and vary as you change physically and intellectually. Maybe it won't though. It isn't conscious, it just relates to your state of being.

Of course, fluidity varies for different people and really so much is attributable to nurture as well as nature that, sure certain environmental stimuli + genetic tweaking might = X orientation. It isn't that no one is thinking about it-- it's that trying to change someone's sexual orientation for the sake of science is literally evil.

Years of evolution and instincts born of breeding to survive have to account for something don't they?

@Loud Angry Dead

Not really. Breeding for the sake of breeding is dumb.

---

1. It establishes a permanent victim-status for a whole lot of people. Like a disability almost. 'He can't help it if he likes wieners!' 'Her legs don't work and she shows up to school anyway!' 'She likes guys, and THAT'S NOT HER FAULT!!' It's useful for shaming bullies, which is worth doing I guess, but once you get out of high school all you're doing is arguing that you're powerless and you need to be protected. The opposite of a strong position.

@mdk

This implies that homosexuality is some kind of disfigurement. It isn't, like at all. She isn't some victim, she just likes pussy and can't really consciously change it. I guess she could try dick, but if she doesn't like it why would she ever do it ever? I think saying

"I'm genderfluid and I like men and women and you will never ever ever be able to change that" is a much stronger position than "I guess I could be persuaded to choose one or the other, since it's something I consciously choose to be."

2. It can't be accurate for everybody -- there's gotta be at least one dude out there who struck out with the ladies so much that he tried being gay, and figured 'this is working I guess.' That guy, in my mind, deserves just as much respect as everyone else, but he wasn't 'born with it,' so he's not REALLY gay! He just made a choice!

@mdk

If his first reaction after being rejected by women isn't to go hire a prostitute but instead to go fuck a guy he's very clearly gay.

3. It promotes this idea that conditions from birth can't be opposed -- BUT EVERYTHING ELSE TOTALLY CAN! Genetics are off-limits, but you should hate people who choose to grow up in a christian house, or people who choose to inherit lots of money from their parents, or people who choose to be Muslim. Screw that. Nevermind for a moment that your 'nature' is bigger than your genetics (there are so many other factors that your genes are almost negligible) -- take a guy who woke up one day at age 45 and decided he was Buddhist from now on. I'd rather hate the person who never chose anything in their life -- who did literally nothing but exist in the most comfortable way possible. When did genetic lotteries become more admirable than meaningful decisions? If someone chooses to be gay, they're a lot braver than the person who just started that way.

@mdk

mdk you do know sexual attraction isn't really a conscious thing right?

Like a guy can choose to fuck a guy but if he isn't attracted to him then why would he do it and I'm sorry but that doesn't really make him all that brave to me

-- BUT EVERYTHING ELSE TOTALLY CAN!

@mdk

Wait are you trying to tell me I could have chosen to be white and never have to deal with this stupid racism condition what the fuck I didn't get that option on my select screen

4. It's fatalistic. That kid has X gene, therefore he's gonna grow up to be a gay plumber and everyone will hate him and the psychological scars from that one thing in school will prevent him from succeeding and now he's basically a lost cause and isn't that sad? Screw that. Screw ALL of that. You can do anything you want to do, including porking other men when you've got the straight gene. It's like people have forgotten how to drive a car -- we got in and the wheels were pointing left, so I guess we're going left in circles today, right? NO! Take the wheel and drive.

@mdk

It's not fatalistic-- it's just that you don't really have conscious control over it, that doesn't mean it's predetermined at all, fam.

5. In this specific case, does it make sense? I mean..... we're talking about a gene that would prevent reproduction, up until the late 90s. how many billions of years of evolution does it theoretically take for that to select itself right out of the pool? If that's truly the only factor, then gay people only exist because for literally billions of years, social pressures have bullied them into screwing the opposite sex. I don't buy that.

@mdk

like what

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Everything that makes you you is locked tightly within your DNA. Your life experiences and the way you were reared have little to do with how you turn out.

@ASTA

You and I agree on not being dicks to people based on sexuality, but I disagree with you on this like Bakunin and Marx on states. You are also your memories, your experiences, your culture, the things you learn, the things you don't learn-- you are just as much your DNA as you are the world and existence shaping your subjective perspective and being.

---

As for my opinions on homosexuality, I think it works like this: Men and women are yang and yin, meant to balance each other. In a heterosexual romantic relationship, one balances the other spiritually.

@Protagonist

kek

In a homosexual relationship, you have two yangs or two yins, which makes both people more spiritually unbalanced. Thus, homosexual romance can be considered a sort of anti-romance.

@Protagonist

okay I don't want to be rude but I feel like you don't actually understand the taijitu in relation to Chinese Dualism. It's all about opposites balancing, and men and women aren't opposites, they just have different reproductive parts. I feel a more accurate yin-yang relationship relationship would be like... a saint and a murderer or something, and it really wouldn't matter their genders.

Likewise, there is no such thing as a "Same-Sex Marriage"

@Protagonist

5-4 says there is such a thing

The Dust: Relaunch

You mean Day 4? I'm p sure Day 3 is the one we're on right now.

Also, they totally will be, the way Mono and I have it framed is that the battle with the spiders is a legitimate conflict, lasting a several days, resulting in thousands of casualties and injuries and hundreds of thousands of bullets in damage. Of course, we still aren't sure if we want to skip over that when we do the timeskip (if we do the timeskip).

I don't think we're going to kill off Alex though, I mean, @TheMadAsshatter is in her immediate vicinity so I'll leave that to you, but I say keep her alive for when Aeon comes back.

The Confederate Flag, and Charleston

@darkwolf687The debate is really more about whether or not local governments should be banned from using it. I think we all agree that people can use whichever flag they want.

The Confederate Flag, and Charleston

@TJByrum Yeah, I think to fly it over the graves of men who fought under that flag is one thing, but for any state government to use it as legitimate representation as a people part of a united nation is another thing entirely.

Like--

If a terrorist organization killing civilians in a campaign to force everyone to have gay sex adopted the rainbow flag, would we have to ban it?

@The Nexerus

No. But we wouldn't very well let any governments use it.

Of course, I actually don't think any government should use any flag ever-- In fact, I just plain don't think governments should exist.

Best Flag on Earth

@TheMusketMan

ftfy

Cara's Originally Titled OoC Hangout Thread ♥ (Still)

I was even just commenting to my girl friend that you couldn't put jugs of water on tables in the US because someone would trash it or steal it or spike it... its just mean.

@Carantathraiel

I don't know if I agree with that. Like maybe it was just a couple of rude people?

The Dust: Relaunch

@Arcanaut
We're going to probably do a pretty big timeskip, which should effectively allow us to continue the story with the current continuity and also make things blank slate-ish enough to appeal to more new people hopefully.

Cara's Originally Titled OoC Hangout Thread ♥ (Still)

@GarlandDaHero
>Not doing it against each of the Koopa kiddies
>Not fighting Alph
>Not fighting Daisy
>Fighting Mewtwo but not fighting Lucas, Roy, and Ryu
>No more random tripping
>Skill

Sakurai is a hack Smash 5 when? Gosh, I am just so salty because I really thought Jiggly had him.

Full House would've been a reference I couldn't relate to.

@Michellin

I'm so glad we live in a world where people can truthfully say this.

But at least you didn't depress me with the bit about lack of originality; it's a concept I've long accepted as questionable.

@Michellin

Nihil novi sub sole-- which is itself a quote that has been passed around and used to absurdity and practical meaninglessness.

Like, I get it, it's all just empty and vapid recycled tropes and themes from the past, fuck, go blog about it Johnny lemme watch my stories.

Cara's Originally Titled OoC Hangout Thread ♥ (Still)

@Michellin *awkwardly fumbles to fist bump, realizes it's a high-five and tries to hide to everyone the fact that I initially thought it was a fist bump by high-fiving back perfectly*

*fucks up in high-fiving*

I didn't mention the revival of Full House because I didn't want to actually depress anybody

@GarlandDaHero I didn't know luck was a stat in Smash