Trump defenders have a full time job
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Well, you got me reading the Communist Manifesto again (it's been at least 20 years). But I'm not sure why. It's interesting, but also a little outdated for modern times. For one thing, the modern western democracies thwarted the contradictions that he said would lead to massive worker movements by adopting the prescriptions that weren't necessarily inconsistent with capitalism--those we've been discussing--universal free public education, progressive taxation, end of child labor, etc. Adopting those things weren't pushing western democracies toward communism, they were responses to movements for reforming capitalism (and also, capitalists saw a more educated workforce as a positive).
EDIT: And look, we agree on one thing: corporate elites, corporate monopolies all of that is bad. So how do we deal with that? If we just look at that one thing we agree on and put aside things like gender dysphoria and Islam, how do we, the people, deal with corporate elites?
What kind of legislation? I mean, yeah, I agree that most politicians are bought off, but there are some who pledge not to take that money. So even if the politicians are bought off, if we had a set of policies to push, we could pledge to not vote for politicians who we know are bought off. I mean to see the problem all you have to do is look at a list like this: 2020 Top Oil & Gas Contributions Recipients
That's an interesting site, you can peruse any sector. It helps make sense of things elected politicians do that don't seem to make sense. When you follow the money, it makes sense.
I just don't buy from Amazon. And that can help, but it isn't really a solution. I know that Bernie Sanders worked with Amazon workers to get higher wages, but the working conditions are still horrible.
I don't think it's about being for or against rich people. I think it's more about a system that makes it very easy for the rich to get richer even without doing anything at all while the poor, and I'll say, the working poor, pretty much stay stagnate. That's not a natural thing, that's a system that has been created. It's manmade. It lets the rich siphon off the wealth of the country and pretend they worked for it. Elon Musk made like $100 billion last year. He could literally be taxed 100% of that and still be a multibillionaire. And it's pretty well known that he's not that great of a businessman.
There are tax plans that could address this. For example, Elizabeth Warren has proposed a 3% tax on wealth above $50 million. I mean, that's 3% of an ultramillionaire's wealth and doesn't even touch their first $50 million. I don't see anything wrong with that. To an Elon Musk, that's a pittance. That could raise like $6 billion from Musk alone.
As for a flat tax, you do realize that for like 80% of tax payers that would result in an increase in taxes? It would cut taxes for the wealthiest and put a huge burden on the bottom 4/5. I don't think that's a great idea. Do you want to raise taxes on the middle class?
Do you have data on this claim? This may be true, but is that because of the social consequences they feel when they undergo sex change? Would they experience the same depression if they were accepted and supported? What is the suicide rate of children with sexual dysphoria that isn't addressed through sex change? I don't know these things, do you? I'm not asking for things you've heard on the internet. I'd like actual data on this. Views of experts, and the like.
I found this case study very interesting: Gender Dysphoria and Suicidal Ideation
It seems like it is typical in that sexual dysphoria is strongly associated with body image dissatisfaction. Also, much of the depression could be a result of not being socially accepted ("I'm too short, too ugly"). This person was uncertain about making the sex change and upon expressing that uncertainty, the hormone treatment was discontinued right away. But the patient still preferred to be referred to as male (even reacting angrily to being referred to as female). Also, I noticed reference to an established medical procedure from the The Endocrine Society and World Professional Association for Transgender that is recommended.
I think this issue is more complex than you make it out to be.
I support encouraging positive body acceptance, but I think the issue of dysphoria goes a lot deeper than that.
As far as what people do to themselves as adults, as long as it is within established medical ethics, I would say that's their business, not mine. In other words, treatments shouldn't be applied that are inimical to healthy outcomes. If surgery to make someone look like a cat can be done without undue overall negative health effects and the person wants that, then who am I to say they can't do that? It's up to them.
Is that why they commit suicide though? I'm not sure. A correlation isn't a causation.
Children with sexual dysphoria have higher rates of suicide attempts as it is, by the way. Here's another study: Self-Harm and Suicidality in Children Referred for Gender Dysphoria
I'm learning a lot about this issue. Mostly, I feel like this isn't my call. I really have no business weighing in on this. It should be left to parents and the child and professionals.
It seems like there is a pretty careful process that starts with suppressing natal assignment hormones just to delay the process long enough for the individual to be older to make more permanent decisions. I think medically, things don't start until puberty.
This part is key, I think:
That's not how it works. One of my best friends growing up was a "tomboy," but she was always female, always identified as female. It isn't this simple.
Here's the recommendations for receiving the surgical procedure:
Yeah. I imagine there are regrets sometimes. On the other hand, what about the ones who are satisfied and glad they underwent the surgery?
But this doesn't compare to outcomes if you deny sex change to people with sexual dysphoria. Also, what it recommends is improved care after transition:
"Conclusions: Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group."
This one is an opinion piece.
One thing I've noticed with these lists of links people give is that 1) usually the person doing the linking doesn't know what it says (for example, when a site listed abolishing child labor as an indication we were becoming communist, which you disagreed with_ or the person linking isn't very good at evaluating sources.
This source says, "hundreds of trans people regret" but then only relates two anecdotes. It just isn't a very good source. I do not doubt that there will be people with regrets, but the process is designed to minimize those regrets with lots of check points before getting to a point of irreversibility (as I showed previously).
So if proper medically approved steps are followed a person who actually undergoes sex change operation has gone through all this:
a determination by mental and physcial health professionals "that surgery is medically necessary and would benefit the patient’s overall health and/or well-being."
that clinicians approve genital gender-affirming surgery only after completion of at least 1 year of consistent and compliant hormone treatment, unless hormone therapy is not desired or medically contraindicated.
5.4. We recommend that clinicians refer hormone-treated transgender individuals for genital surgery when: (1) the individual has had a satisfactory social role change, (2) the individual is satisfied about the hormonal effects, and (3) the individual desires definitive surgical changes.
5.5. We suggest that clinicians delay gender-affirming genital surgery involving gonadectomy and/or hysterectomy until the patient is at least 18 years old or legal age of majority in his or her country
I think, as the newsweek article says, we have to very careful about this. But if after all this, adults still want to go through with the reassignment process, then it's sort of on them. One of the people in that article who says he wanted the change after a mental breakdown shouldn't have qualified for the change. It could be the process is more developed now then it was at that time.