hannahbanana

So let me get this straight....showing a side-by-side picture of two women is hate, but saying you want to "rape all softcore feminists with a Morningstar" or "I most definitely hate men" is just fine? Wow, I guess I messed up somewhere...

Honesty is vulnerability, and the last thing feminists want to be is vulnerable. So....I doubt it. It's not just feminists either though...it's difficult being honest, especially to yourself sometimes.

I think the thing about risk aversion makes sense, and also the lack of interest...after all, at least in my experience, even though you won't see as many anarchist women you also won't see as many die-hard political women (unless it is a topic that directly affects them). I think another factor is that upon entering the libertarian/anarchist community, you will undoubtedly hear things that are not-so-nice about women, but are sadly true. And that can be really hard to hear sometimes, especially at this point in time when you can basically be socially crucified for it. When you're used to such an uproar, it can be disturbing to people to see it being taken seriously.

I watched the video in the Truth About Circumcision...I cried. And what makes it even more impactful, on top of the pain you are causing this baby, is that it isn't necessary at all, making it worse that watching, say, a baby getting a painful surgery that will save its life.

Probably depends on what you want to do. I don't know about computer science, but as an example I'm in chemical engineering and most PhDs are mostly for doing college teaching, heading research, and doing R&D. You could technically get these positions if you had enough experience and professional development, although that would take much longer. On the topic of higher starting pay with a PhD, it can be a tradeoff, since the years spent getting the PhD could be years spent in industry, gaining reputation and raises in pay, and probably making more money than the 22k stipend you'd be living on while getting the PhD. Overall, personally, I don't think there is necessarily a right or wrong answer, as this is a purely personal choice and these aspect may mean more to you than they do to me or vise-versa, but these are definitely things to consider. As Mike said, you should do your research and possibly seek out personal experiences of people who have gotten PhDs in computer science.

I know I'm not even really involved in this thread but I'm really glad to see that you feel satisfied by this conversation. It's discussions like these that are really important to have because it helps us to communicate clearly and come out better for it on the other side. Idk, it just makes me happy to see positive interactions even when they start out with possible conflict.

Thanks for sharing JD. I agree, it is important to have actual accounts from men who are affected by this horrible breach in bodily integrity; you can argue from the logical aspect of it, and that is crucial, but it's also important to pay attention to the deep physical and emotional harm inflicted upon men as well, as that is really one of the most damaging parts of genital mutilation. Unfortunately, the same with feminism in general, it seems like people respond to women more often because men are so often dismissed and looked down upon when they try to bring up anything close to men being discriminated against, while women have some protection from that blatant dismissal. Do you agree? I'm also curious, did you always feel this way about genital mutilation, or was there some sort of revelation that you had?

Hmm, I haven't really thought of it. I guess before hand, because if you're put on the spot sometimes you can feel rushed to give in when you don't really want to.

I think it doesn't really matter who pays or if it's split or whatever, as long as it's negotiated. If it feels like you are being expected or forced to pay, there's a problem.

My Venezuelan friend says things are worse and worse; a visiting relative walked into a supermarket here and started crying because she saw all of the things that are simply not available there anymore, everything from toothpaste to chocolate. She says there's a pretty healthy black market, as well as large amounts of bartering between people to share resources that they are able to make. I'm not sure why there is so little attention given to Venezuela, but there is apparently a growing number of dissenting young people who are trying to get the story out to other countries through social media, since a large portion of the supporters of the current government are apparently older people.

I got: Economic Left/Right: 3.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.97

I think that makes some sense, but I think it also makes sense to be aware of how dissenting opinions, or even just plain questions are received. Not saying that I get the same feeling mellomama gets, or even that FDR as a whole is not doing this already, but it is definitely good to keep in mind that there is value to challenging and strengthening ideas rather than being stagnant by agreement all the time. Although in regards to this particular thread, I can understand wanting to vent frustrations to people who will understand your point of view

Ah, yes I see what you mean now. I was thinking about it in an entirely different way. I don't know, a lot of it seems like preference. On one hand, it's nice to have someone who is on the same page as you and can talk about these issues that are hard to discuss with others...but on the other hand, sometimes its cool to have a fresh view and revisit topics that may be old or basic to you. I honestly don't know what the "right" answer is, or if there even is one...which is why I'm interested in what other people will respond to this. One thing that comes into my mind on this topic is to remember to empathize with this person, especially if they have never been exposed to an-cap ideas. We all know how difficult it can be to accept it, and sometimes it takes a little bit (it took me a long time of debates with my boyfriend before I felt I'd removed any doubts that I had about it - over a month). Maybe a good way to approach it would be some sort of "litmus test;" maybe start out with a less controversial, but still challenging, topic and see how they handle it. That way if it doesn't go well, it won't be as hard on you. You could also take an approach where you only bring it up if they introduce the topic, that way it feels less like you're drowning them (the "hard sell," I think you described it). Again, I don't really know, and it's probably difficult to come up with a "one size fits all" approach to this, but these are just some ideas.

I find this sort of topic interesting...for instance, the complaint that there are fewer women in STEM fields; as a woman just about to enter into a STEM field, I have met no institutionalized resistance against me in school or in potential employers - in fact, there are a lot of quotas instituted to hire women. And yet, there are still fewer women. So I guess women are just not as interested in STEM, since no one is forcing them out of it. I guess you could argue that girls growing up are raised in such a way as to not be interested in these fields, but then you'd also have to address the fact that boys are not as interested in education/design/art fields. But of course, no one cares about THAT.

Well, of course, you can always do whatever you want. If you meet someone who you wouldn't think would be compatible with you but you end up forming a relationship that makes you feel happy and treated as an equal human being, no one's stopping you from pursuing it. I don't see why your example about feminists who say they are rational then turn out not to be, invalidates rational thinking as a "qualifier" for a relationship. Because they never really ended up being rational in the first place, right? In fact, that reinforces rationality as a qualifier because once you saw that they were not, in fact, being open minded and rational, I am assuming your relationships didn't do as well. Could you possibly explain more about what you mean by a "created" An-Cap versus a "natural" one? I mean, there was a point in all of our lives where we didn't know about any of this, and it was only by being patient and listening to the arguments that we came to these conclusions...isn't that a "created" An-Cap? So then what would be a "natural" one? I guess I just don't understand your definitions just yet.