I think there’s a difference between saying we should listen to people who voted for Trump (or more accurately people who didn’t vote for anyone) and saying we should listen to Trump supporters. Those are two very different groups of people. The country is not that black and white.

To play devil’s advocate, I do think pedophiles need someone to talk to. Especially those that are aware of their inclinations and are horrified by them and wish to remain inactive on them. I also think this has nothing to do with political engagement. Pedophilia is a private personal issue that can turn to violence…

Neither. You change the system of power that gave them voice and excluded yours in the first place. This is why the most effective movements have involved boycotts and strikes and disobedience and obstruction- not hashing it out over a beer. You can convince someone to respect YOUR humanity. Plenty of racist people…

Yes and a few things about that. If we mean the Civil Rights Movement of the US in the 50s in through the early 70s, then not only was it about yelling about how wrong the other side is, it was about actively taking power from them by civil disobedience that often resulted in violence - state and private. And while…

No. People aren’t responsible to explain themselves and their identity groups to bigots. We walk around as individuals, going about our own lives. Often that means we represent communities, families and identities. That doesn’t mean we have a responsibility to constantly explain those things to others. Sometimes you…

BTW I just looked back through my comments on this article, and I see that several were responding to posts you made. I have the bad habit of not always looking at the names of the posters, so I didn’t realize that I had responded to different posts of yours repeatedly. If this seems like I was singling you out,…

It’s a trigger issue. That’s why. It’s not about what you said personally, so if you feel that you are being misrepresented, I can explain why people are responding the way they are. However, your words do make it sound like you share the sentiment somewhat, even though of course you never said that it was an end-all.…

It must be nice to have such naive faith in humanity to think that either commercials reflect reality at all or that bigots can be so easily reflective on their hatred.

You’ve set up a false dichotomy in which the choices are talking into an echo chamber or trying to build compromise with bigots. People can also fight for power by directly confronting the institutions that hold it. I don’t really give a shit if someone holds personally bigoted views or not. I don’t have to like them…

No. This is a fiction. In real life, that middle aged man has had plenty of opportunity to not be a close-minded bigot by this point. If he is still one, it’s willful, and one beer with a transwoman is not going to change his mind anywhere except a commercial.

Because the ad pretends like it’s just two people on common ground working towards a common goal who just disagree on some things and need to get to understand one another better. Which is a lovely thing, but it has absolutely nothing to do with power. It’s perfectly possible for a feminist and an MRA to hang out…

What’s bizarre is the snarky comments about the china. Like, on the one hand, everyone is pointing out how useless and pretentious it is to have “fine china” sitting in a cabinet in the first place. On the other hand, the family is derided for not bringing it out for an important guest? I mean, either it has value as…

I think that makes it even worse. It’s like he’s a surprise gift or something. The family probably talked ahead of time about who it might be. The president? A celebrity actor or musician? A sports star? Oprah herself?

Our fine china was used exclusively for holiday dinners. The rest of the time, yes, it was in the china cabinet. But it’s not true that it’s never ever ever used. It’s usually used two to three times a year.

Ugh. This asshat is going to run for president. I’m so sick of all these SV tycoons acting like they are super geniuses who know jack shit about political or social issues just because they made a lot of money doing one thing in one field. It’s made me hate the Bay Area. Why are Americans so obsessed with this kind of…

Well, yes. People have been writing obsessive and hysterical crap about the clitoris and vaginal orgasms and the size of the vagina and distance from the clit and how this affects “female sexuality” and “female inconstancy” and all sorts of nonsense like that for centuries.

The study may have included both left-handed and ambidextrous people.

I wonder how much of this is just about who felt comfortable coming out at different periods of time. Like, if it’s more acceptable to come out if you work in theater than it is if you work in accounting, then you are going to perceive that there are more gay actors than gay accountants. Then if you are a young…

Nonsense. Hope your joking. Straight people like butt play too.

The fact that you selectively highlight when I talk about a shitty man and not when I talk about a shitty woman is on you- I did not make the same emphasis. Moreover you ignored what I had to say about a woman in the same scenario. But anyway, out of the weeds- My point is that the first act was a violent one. We are…