formerly /u/squirrelrampage on Reddit

  • 16 Posts
  • 33 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • I was once a fan of Nina Paley, because of her activism against copyright and even bought some of her merch. Then I found out that she is a capital-letters TERF.

    You can find a “TERFy Archive” with all her transphobic writing on her website, she hosts a transphobic podcast with the subtitle “A TERF and a t-slur walk into a podcast studio” which she uses to promote the “autogynephilia” conspiracy theory, among so, so much more transphobia.

    Paley would consider this comment of mine to be “censorship”. As usual with her type she wants to dish out, but doesn’t want to be criticized for it.











  • The question is somewhat difficult to answer, because the reactions to HRT are very individual. They depend on things like your age, your genetic make-up and the kind of HRT you get (what kind of drugs, what dosage, etc.)

    To put things as general as possible: If you start HRT you may first feel euphoria, which is (more often than not) a purely psychological reaction. The actual effects of HRT will usually begin to manifest after a few weeks (once again: highly depending on what you are taking and how your body reacts to it). Unlike the initial psychological effect this will usually be more gradual, as your body and mind “ease into” their new state of being.

    The obvious physical effects usually take months to manifest (growth of breast tissue, etc), though infertility can come earlier, particularly if you take anti-androgens or progesterone.

    Because you specifically asked about sperm, the effects of HRT are (mostly) reversible in that regard, particularly if you haven’t taken HRT for long. Some people can become fertile after months, sometimes even years of HRT, once they stop taking it.

    So: Yes, most people can stop HRT for a while, freeze some sperm and then go back on. There are no guarantees, but it works far more often than not.


  • squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoMemes@sopuli.xyzI.... what?
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    2 months ago

    I think I experienced similar feelings which usually appear when I was comparatively “better” than during the times that counted as major depressive episodes, according to the professionals I dealt with.

    But honestly the way our psyche deals with depression is highly individual and good, responsible therapists/psychiatrists/neurologists/… consider a variety of symptoms before making a final diagnosis. With the exception of a high risk of suicide which will immediately place the sufferer in the “major depressive disorder” category, because of the immediate danger to their lives.

    What I want to say: Probably only an expert will be able to tell you exactly what kind of depression you have/had. And I cannot claim to be one. I am simply someone who suffers from it too and I read up about it.


  • squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoMemes@sopuli.xyzI.... what?
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    2 months ago

    I am sorry for being the bearer of sad news. Suicidal thoughts are the most easily recognizable of the symptoms. And even if they are less persistent between major depressive episodes, a lot of us are still stuck with depression in one form or another for the rest of our lives.






  • Internet communities where an administrator imposes some kind of auto-ban rule for using keywords they don’t like. Or power users posting spam in the chats because they’ve got the tact of a ball-peen hammer.

    Well, as I have done some modding here on Lemmy and previously Reddit, you can probably count me among one of those administrators/mods, because that’s where I encountered many of them, apart from the particular incident in my previous comment.

    The communities I have managed always had tight rules in regards to what was allowed and what was not. Yet far too many tankies did not care much about those rules at all. A particular favorite of the tankies was…

    R-Slur

    Libtard

    …and it was explicitly forbidden for anyone to use that. So guess, how much “fun” it was to argue with tankies in modmail why they were supposed to be allowed to use that term because they were “suffering under capitalism” and the users they argued with “deserved” to be called that.

    It was not only the disregard for the rules that was aggravating, but their complete lack of empathy for whoever they argued with. They completely denied that other users could “suffer under capitalism” too, showing exactly the lack of empathy for others that I decried in my original comment.

    You may have made different experiences, but these interactions and the previously mentioned unionization effort shaped my perception of tankies. And ultimately that’s where things come down for me: If people cannot leave their ill behavior at the door and show no respect for others who may be in a similar situation as they are (let alone work with them), they do not deserve to be part of that community.


  • I am not going to respond to you in detail, because - I think - we mostly agree with each other, but allow me to explain where I am coming from with an anecdote: I was once part of a grassroots movement which aimed to unionize a particular sector of the entertainment industry. (Sorry, for being vague, even after all those years, the events are still a sore point for many involved.) There were a few hundred people taking part in all of this.

    One chunk of people who joined the group were the worst kind of tankies who would hurl abuse at anyone who did not agree with them. The reasons for that behavior varied and ranged from the entirely trivial to the usual “Stalinism was great, anybody who says something different is a CIA plant.”

    One regular point of contention was tankies’ demand to include praise for China in the group’s official communications, which was way off topic for what the group was about. Of course, most of the group refused and - because the tankies were a very vocal minority, they could not ultimately prevent democratic decisions of the majority. Which - of course - annoyed them even more and created even more drama. Rinse and repeat.

    The group ultimately imploded during the Black Lives Matter protests. One major reason for that was because the tankies prevented a statement of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. AFAIR the justification was something like “fighting racism is a distraction from the real struggle of the working class”. Most of the PoCs left the group in exasperation because the group could not even speak out against racist police violence without the tankies completely derailing the proceedings.

    The reason why I bring this up is because this was a group of workers who were actively working on organizing a worker’s movement. But it was not enough for the tankies, they had to bring in their political sectarianism and demanding adherence to it, while simultaneously claiming that the others in the group did not represent workers like they did and thus the tankies were justified to pressure and abuse the other members until they agreed with the tankies’ positions.

    So yes, empathy cuts both ways. And I may have empathy for tankies on a personal level, but if people can’t leave their ill behavior at the door and show solidarity towards their fellow workers when trying to get a grassroots movement off the ground, then these people have no place in it.


  • Of all the ideologies in the world, they chose communism. Why? Probably because they hurt. Because they saw the ugliness of capitalism and wanted something better. Because, at some point, they were moved by the idea that we could live without exploitation. […] The pain turned inward, and now they lash out at anyone who doesn’t match their script. That’s not an excuse. But it is something to hold with empathy.

    I wish I could easily subscribe to your call for empathy. The reason why I can’t is because I have seen so many tankies deny the pain of others. It’s not just the historical revisionism and the denial of Stalinist atrocities, but denying that people in the here and now are suffering like they do. Often this was tied to them insisting that they had every right to abuse others, because they themselves were suffering from capitalism. They completely failed to acknowledge that everyone around them was suffering under the very same conditions.

    And there is the crux of the issue: One unspoken, implicit tenet of their beliefs is the denying others the same humanity they claim to uphold and represent. They demand to be accepted and their behavior to be tolerated, but will not grant the same basic rights to others.
    The same notion allows them to deny the humanity of victims of Stalinist and Maoist terror.

    And that’s why I have a hard time to show them empathy, because I know they will not show the same empathy towards me.










  • I can relate to your rant. So just one small note, if I may: I know how you may feel in this moment, but keep in mind that transitioning takes time. Yes, of course, there are things that can be changed quickly (new clothes, etc.), but other things take a lot of time (hormones take a while before they kick in and so do other physical changes). You do not have to be in a rush to get everything done ASAP, because it often does not work that way. So don’t put yourself under a lot of pressure and be kind to yourself. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is that you feel comfortable with yourself. Godspeed, friend!