Men’s Rights Redditors wonder why nobody else realizes that the ladies aren’t oppressed any more

@Ally S

Not sure what to say other than that that sounds really stressful 🙁

At one point one of my uncles imposed a strict studying schedule for me that basically left me with no more than 3 hours of free time (total, across three breaks) and 6 hours of sleep.

Ugh. That is abusive, and awful, and all the sympathy.

…by which I mean to play on the term ‘animal cruelty,’ not imply that Ken Ham is an animal. (in hindsight, that sounded wrong, and I wish I had chosen my words better)

My score on the SAT never went beyond 1780.

Umm…..

Typo?

Please tell me typo.

@Howard Bannister: No worries, I got it.

@Ally S: I feel like it’s an inescapable downside to assessing students’ progress that a poor grade makes people feel worth less, and consistently poor grades with little improvement can lead to feelings of worthlessness. I wish I knew how to fix it.

Anyway, virtual no-contact hugs!

I never had to work hard at school until I hit college, so I admire your capacity to haul yourself up by your bootstraps (if you’ll forgive the expression).

Consider this an official declaration of SCAAAAA*:

Most often, ‘personal’ religious beliefs are relatively harmless. Almost all supernatural beliefs tend to be silly to someone who doesn’t share them, because, well, they are. Silly and harmless, though, is not something people need to get worked up about.

Supernatural beliefs are most likely to become harmful when you add the word ‘organized’ to ‘religion’. Organization, by its very nature, breeds power-structures. Those at the top have a vested interest in making certain they remain there, and may succumb to the temptation to employ harmful methods to do so. This is true even in secular organizations; for example, the recent outbreak of public misogyny within the ‘elite’ members of the burgeoning atheist movement. That said, because supernatural belief systems have those elements within them that, when taken to their logical conclusions, conflict with reality, the oppression required to maintain the power-structure must be strong enough to counter everyday evidence in the human psyche.

FREX: “God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent.” This is pretty much an underlying belief of every major Christian faith, and most of the minor ones. But it’s rather… difficult to reconcile those alleged qualities with a created Earth that contains rapists, hurricanes and childhood leukemia. So in order to hold it together, you have to introduce other ideas (such as the Fall From Grace/Original Sin). These other ideas have consequences of their own, and these consequences may breed additional effects. A good deal of classic misogyny found in Christianity stems directly from the ‘just so’ story of the Garden of Eden, because they needed to explain why a loving God cast his “Chosen People” out of paradise (or, more precisely, they needed to explain why He hadn’t provided them one to begin with, if He really existed).

In a forum largely dedicated to mocking misogyny, it’s acceptable to point out the inherent and/or consequent misogyny of a particular belief system, and to mock them for it. You want to rip on ex-Pope Benedict’s trashing of American nuns for daring to think that doing ninety percent of the good works of the Church actually entitled them to views and opinions, go for it. But when encountering beliefs that are not inherently anti-Social Justice in nature, there’s really no cause to go alienating and insulting others just to make yourself feel superior; the odds are you’re not a perfect rationalist, either, because that’s a damnably difficult position to hold and enact 24/7.

There are times and places for discussions of Spaghetti Monsters, Celestial Teapots and Invisible Pink Unicorns. Manboobz, in general, is not that place.

*: Society of Capital-A Atheists Against Asshat Atheism

Ally, all I can tell you is that the three smartest people that I know did terribly on the SAT. Anecdata, I know. But judging by what I’ve seen evidenced here, you’re in that same camp.

I think we should separate identity from belief, although they’re often intertwined. Beliefs are capable of being true or false independently of the honesty of the person expressing them, and therefore the analogy between religion and trans don’t always work, since more or less beliefs may be involved.

Dvarg, this was a really good comment. I think you’ve got it spot-on and you captured a lot of nuance that I was having trouble pinning down (eg, the difference between “things that you can’t be wrong about” vs “things that you theoretically might be wrong about but we can’t really know and probably shouldn’t make a big deal about” vs “things that you can be provably wrong about”).

I do believe that if religion should disappear tomorrow, human society would simply devise a different tool to maintain authority. And it’s true that my mother going to church every Sunday does no harm to me. But, the men who run this country and who use religion to limit my rights and to perpetuate fear and hatred do cause harm to me.

In response to this and all other comments pointing to things that religion does that are harmful: As long as you think that the problem is what religious people are doing, not the simple fact of them being religious, then you’re still squarely in the second camp (the “harm is the result of actions” camp; the original comment was here if you missed it) and we’re all basically in agreement. It’s when you get into the “religious people are delusional and need to be cured of their delusion” position (or “gay/trans people are mentally ill,” or whatever) that you’re in the first camp.

RE: Nepenthe

Fictionkin? Seriously, is there any delusion that some speshul snowflake out there hasn’t created to make their sorry lives more palatable?

Wow, fuck you. I’d appreciate that you not deride friends of mine, thank you very much. Believe it or not, there are people with these identities that don’t run around in the street shrieking about how special they are. Most people I know actually don’t talk about it FOR THE REASON YOU DEMONSTRATE. Christ, what an asshole.

RE: Nepenthe

Well, I just discovered an invisible unicorn in my bathtub whose tears cure cancer if you believe in it, learned that I’m the reincarnation of Carl Sagan, and that the universe will end unless I give all my money to some guy named Steve. My life is so much better now that I understand. Yesterday I was a fairly normal, marginally employed, mentally ill person. Now I’m Special and Important and Significant to the Universe. Thanks for letting me know that reality doesn’t matter!

I’m going to go make the unicorn cry now. If I don’t make a lot of money, Steve will destroy the world.

Gee golly willikers, Nepenthe, I’ve never heard anyone say sarcastic things like THAT before! I’ve never even CONSIDERED such things. But you, with your deep understanding of human behavior and incisive commentary, have totally upended my world philosophy. Thank you. Thank you very much.

(You realize I’m one of those marignally employed mentally ill people, who, due to some of my beliefs, YOU consider Special and Important? I don’t; that’s all you. Seriously, get off your high horse and get a life.)

I will never, ever forget the capital of Denmark, because that stupid city reduced us to tears as a child.

Surprisingly common event, that. Copenhagen isn’t nicknamed Copenhell for nothing.

It took me a long time to learn that apparently being tossed out of the house at 10 AM to go jobhunting and being put on a five-apps a day regimen is not normal parental behavior regarding their sixteen-year-old children.

wut

“But I guess that doesn’t mesh with the narrative, does it?”

Of a Dalek? No, not at all XD

All the cephalopod love though, they’re creepy smart.

RE: Argenti

I know, right? Shock of all shocks, sometimes people who seem “special,” actually go about their lives in a quiet, ordinary fashion as best they can.

Cephalopods are AWESOME. Hey, do you still got that link for that vid on color-changing you posted earlier? I really want to post it to tumblr.

One of the cool shit about living in Wellington was that during our stay there, the local museum got the preserved carcass of a giant squid. Thing was impressive, to say the least, though while we were looking at it, Sneak said, “I feel bad for it. You get dragged out of the ocean by mistake, and then they stick you in a big jar for people to stare at forever.”