Where to begin. 2005?
Been there, done that. I wish many of those who flocked to acf had stayed away; it's depressing to see what apparently lurks in the hearts of they/them.
I tried to launch a thread. It didn't get very far.
Here's a copy.I'll be naming names, which is something I've been avoiding in these posts, but I have no fickens left to give.
Let's start with
Rogerzilla, the public face of YACF. Historically I had huge problems with him: most of those feelings evaporated a while ago. He's an encyclopedia of the nuts and bolts of cycling, and generally I don't find him objectionable. Unfortunately he's also clueless about the issues and ramifications of gender ideology, and his OP set the rancid tone for so much to follow.
Next we have
Steph. Steph is a prime example of the sort of trans rights activist who gives trans people a bad name. The Stephs of the world are a black hole both in time and empathy, concerned only about themselves and those in the gravity field around them.
Hot Flatus. Alas, stupid as mud, but without the good as gold part. I don't normally throw insults like that around. Blame The Beautiful South for the earworm.
The inability of Steph to recognise actual nuance is especially perplexing. HF, not so much.
Ham was but a fleeting blip on my radar in this debate, rating a mention because he's one of those people Magdalen Berns was referring to when she talked about the unwary getting trapped into believing they're supporting something progressive. There are *a lot* of Hams out there.
Kim is smart, or was until she rattled off the TWAW mantra, because when someone smart says something the opposite of smart, it calls into question everything else they have said and will say. You simply can't unhear it.
Barakta. The author of the bemusing reply in 'Publish and be damned'. I note that she or he is also capable of kindness.
Ian. One of the prime attractions of YACF thanks to his way with words. Unfortunately – I probably have the receipt for this, but can't be bothered to go digging – I recall that at some point he didn't agree about the impossibility of changing sex. If I'm wrong about that I apologise unreservedly. If I'm right, I was justified in moving him over to the 'Don't take seriously about anything anymore' pile; while I am tolerant of an awful lot, reality is usually a dealbreaker for me. The last time I looked at the thread (I said goodbye to it around the time Steph said goodbye to me) he had redeemed himself, but who knows how it's gone since then.
Incoming: Have decided to go through Ian's post history on this thread after all. I can see why some are upset with him for starting to awake from his literate, amusing daze. More on Ian on an upcoming refresh. Meanwhile, I believe we have
a DNA match:
Ian part II. I think this is what I'm looking for:
I'm confused, in all the links I scanned Kathleen Stock consistently upholds trans-rights but raises the philosophical position that people can't self-identify their gender. Putting aside the rather weird obsession these people have with penises and 'genital-intactness' is she not permitted to hold this view? Yes, she asked a student newspaper to make a correction, as is her right.
I see two walls of people hurling abuse at one another. There certainly was an orchestrated campaign of abuse against her for expressing her views.
Look, I think she's wrong, [my bold] and to my mind, if someone wakes up tomorrow and decides to self-identify as a different gender, I'm all for it. It's evidentially nonsense that men are becoming women to invade single-sex spaces (trust me, the only thing that's keeping me out of the women's toilets is the force of decorum). That said, it's not like actual men are invading women-only spaces to assault them either.
My concern is the absolutism.
I therefore conditionally retract my earlier impression (scanning the rest of this and others of his posts has given me far too much material to exonerate him). I must have been remembering sex where he said gender. It's been interesting watching him slowly peak, though he's got a while to go yet, and may never get there.
Cudzopinglarrinbeardfletcherpaul. This is a composite YACFer, with likely recognisable elements, chosen partly but not completely without regard to where I reckon their sympathies lie. People of YACF: I am not your enemy. You are your own enemy, for putting up with this in your own home. Again: free speech - use it or lose it.
It's not enough that the board is hidden unless you change your group membership. Thanks to the site's 'ethos', whatever the fuck it is, the topic has been a toxin to the group body.
The moderation team. A far cry from what they were in my day, even if they're the same people. Poor leadership. Of course I would say that. Any similarity to the truth is not coincidental.
This is not a flounce. As long as you don't delete my account, I'll keep coming back when the mood strikes.
/s, natch – signposting for idiots who haven't the grace to acknowledge that their adversaries demonstrably have self-awareness, and even
beat them to their cuttingly incisive ad homs. Anything you can think of in this regard I've thought of days or weeks or years before.
Yes,
I know almost nobody reads my stuff, and of those who do, a depressing number of them probably suffer from reading comprehension issues like you. I know I'm not the world's greatest writer, but I keep at it anyway, because we all die in the end and I'd rather die trying (not to be the best, just to be good enough not to be ashamed of myself).
I know I often delete things. You might try it sometime. It's a form of editing. In fact, in the unlikely event you should have curiosity enough to be continuing to lurk, if you refresh this page you may find either less or more material as new ideas impact my brain – a process I'm confident you rarely experience. I also return to reword things, correct typos, and correct myself if necessary as I strive to hone ever closer to the truth, even if it hurts.
Finally (or not - see previous paragraph), I know how people with genuine dysphoria must suffer. I just don't place their needs above those who are silently and not-so-silently suffering this group's oft-times insufferable need to play the world's most marginalised victim, even if they have to become self-fulfilling prophets to do it.
