mr_engineer

An attack on Christianity is an attack on the collective of Christians. Because being a 'Christian' is their psychological identity. This is not a criticism in a debate-setting, where they're listening to you with an open mind. This is a desecration of their holy-book we're talking about. I don't know about there but if someone did that here, riots would happen between different religions.

That's a fair argument. And, when you say you're not trying to be offensive, I believe you. Having said that, what do you think about this behavior of throwing the Bible into the trash-bin? Is that offensive? Here, in India, very much so.

1. Law comes from religion. So, outlawing the problematic parts of religion (Of which there are many, I agree with you there) requires equivocal agreement from the majority. 2. When it comes to the parts that aren't that problematic, why do you want to outlaw that? 3. Do keep in mind that religion is responsible for the concept of 'God'. Religion is the reason we can have any discussion of God at all. The same goes for any discussion of 'meaning' or 'Life-Purpose'. The whole idea of a Life-Purpose is that it's God-given, it's a pre-birth intention, something that's beyond yourself, beyond your petty human identity. For that, you'd have to entertain the idea of reincarnation. Also only possible thanks to religion. 4. You don't get past Stage Red without religion. There comes a point in Stage Red where you need someone to come up with the concept of a 'supernatural entity' that's above all humans and that hands down a set of commandments, saying that 'rape and pillage is wrong, you will go to hell after you die if you do it'. Ultimately, all morality is human. But, you need people to attribute a governing morality to an authority-figure/entity that is not human, that is above all humans, so that you can justify forcing all humans to follow it. This is why the idea of 'God' the way it's portrayed in religion. (At Red, every human is their own God. But, because they're not perfect, they abuse their power in any system they enter, cuz they're acting out of ego. And they form their morality on the fly to justify it. But, at Blue, you have to build the discipline to prioritize your morality/values over your ego, because 'the morality came from God, not yourself'. Accountability becomes possible only at Blue, it even has any meaning only at Blue, cuz shame becomes a thing at Blue, and integrity becomes important and 'virtuous' at Blue for this reason. At Red, integrity is not virtuous. Whatever serves your own self-interest is virtuous!) My point is that there are a lot of very important functions that religion serves in society. And there are very important, pragmatic reasons people hold onto it. Don't be naive about it.

'Religion', the way I use it, means, any and all beliefs about God, belief in God, etc. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with religion. And secularism is supposed to respect people's right to believe what they want/practice what they want. (as long as they don't infringe upon someone else's rights) It's the limited way in which mere mortals interpret God's teachings and implement them in society that's the real issue. You can feel free to criticize religion. But, my request is to not disrespect it by throwing holy books on the ground/in the trash-bin. That's very offensive. It makes a statement saying 'I hate your religion'. Essentially, it's hate-speech towards their God. Or, towards God itself, as the case may be. If you don't want the books, return them/donate them to a church.

Get married only if you want kids. There is no other point to getting married.

@StarStruck Position yourself for higher-quality women. Raise your standards. What she did, was a mediocre move. Ignoring texts, that kind of crap. What you're doing right now, is you're putting up with this mediocrity on your dates. Stop doing that! Let's say this girl becomes your girlfriend. And, you gotta go out of town for a couple of weeks. What will she do? Will she look at your texts? Will she reply? Will she stay in touch? Or will she cheat? You should not be having these kinds of questions in your mind about women you date. When I say 'mediocrity', I mean, in terms of communication-skills. Try to teach her good communication-skills, maybe by role-modelling it or something. Cuz she has work to do on that front, for sure.

Lol. I don't even know what people like about those dance-videos, to be honest. Other than that they're under 60 seconds. A 15-minute video will get less traction than 15 1-minute videos. Doesn't this go against the whole concept of holism, where the 15-minute video is greater than the sum of its parts?! How long do you think this is going to last?

No.

Depends on who you are. And what kind of relationship you want. If you want love and you're not willing to settle for anything less than that, you want someone who understands what that is. Or whose mind is open to learn about it.

@Chives99 Outsmart them. Typically, they're all brawn but no brain. Play to your strengths. And if they're way too powerful, just suck up to them. Sometimes, that'll do.

What's actually being meant, is that there will be a return of Christ-consciousness. Which is the consciousness of free will. Which means, that people will get out of the consciousness of victim-mentality and enslavement and choose freedom and conscious creation of the world they want. People will stop submitting to authority and their whims and stand up for themselves in the face of oppression.

@Rob06 I mean, it's not all negative. He does believe that Jesus will return soon. Way more hopeful than believing that climate-change will destroy the planet. He's fine. If I were you, I'd look to be more positive and optimistic in my own worldview, learn something from him. About the Trump stuff, Trump is just one man. I'd suggest you don't give one man so much power that he can polarize you to this degree.

Do some push-ups. Channel your sexual-energy!

The 1st Amendment rights would apply in theory. In practice, censorship would not at all go away if they were made public platforms. In fact, before going ahead with making them public platforms, they would have to create a 'Ministry of Truth' in which they lay down their doctrine of Absolute Truth. And anyone doing 'misinformation' would be officially cancelled. (Sounds Orwellian, but this is what they would have to do to clearly define their agenda for censorship.) If they don't do all of this stuff, they would lose their function of 'protecting people'. And the government and its politicians would die. Because in a world where true freedom exists, they have nothing to do.

@StarStruck Don't approach in front of a child. Pick-up is an adult activity. If it's a family-friendly environment where families are spending time, they are very likely to frown upon you trying to pick up girls there. Go to a better environment for it, like a bar or club.

And I was asking you to prove to me that it was about 'culture', I was asking you what you know about culture and what the 1 guy did differently from the general trend of the culture. You didn't answer me. What am I supposed to infer from that?!

Fine, then. Mods? Please look into this. You don't get away doing shit like this on my watch. Is that clear?!

You have to, to prove to me that you're not racist. To save your own face. Says the person giving the orders right now. Do you know there's a forum-policy against racism?! You have to justify your comments and prove that you're not being racist here.

You have to. It's not an option for you. And, what did he do differently from the other guys?

Prove it to me. Have you seen Indian guys who aren't 'misogynistic and entitled'? Listen, ma'am. You have made a racist comment and I'm asking you for an explanation. I don't give a fuck about your opinion when it comes to 'feeling better about myself'. Is that clear?!

It was a racist stereotype. If you're unable to come up with counter-examples of individual Indian guys who aren't 'misogynistic and entitled', how am I supposed to believe your points about the culture? Definitely comes across as ignorant about the culture and lacking in just knowledge and exposure to it.

You should thank your lucky, privileged stars that people are taking your racist opinions seriously.

There are open-minded cis-people who will tell you to your face that they support you. There are also people who will call out transphobia and condemn transphobes just to sound 'cool' to the woke crowd. Now, here's my point - these people cannot create sustainable change for you in the cis-community. The reason for it is this - the real problem you're dealing with in the cis-community isn't the open-minded people. They're on your side, actually. And you should accommodate for them. The real problem is the closed-minded bigots in the cis-community. These are the people who will defend the bro-code to the death. And, as supportive as the groups of people mentioned above are, they also have an ego of a cis-person. And, the closed-minded people, who are religious for the most part, will be able to put enough pressure on their egos to not show up for you when you need them. Which is why the supportive people will turn out to be shallow. And this could reinforce your resentment towards cis-people. Do not make the mistake of trusting a sweet-talking cis-person. Even if they're well-intentioned, they most likely won't be mature enough to be able to show up when you need them. I would prefer that you trust a cis-person who is willing to admit to the ego-issues in the cis-community. Cuz they will show you the obstacles that'll come up when you create change. To question your cis-identity requires serious inner-work. And, that takes incentives. Cuz you're playing with your ego here. It's not trivial stuff. There you go. One big thing that the LGBT-community has to offer to cis-people, is the knowledge that masculinity and femininity do not have to link to gender. I think it would be a much more fruitful endeavor for the LGBT-community to focus on offering this to the cis-community, than to directly fight bigotry. Cis-people who benefit from these teachings, will then get the right tools to break out of the control-structures created by the fundamentalist bigots. It's not sucking up. You don't have to pretend to be cis or deny your trans-identity in doing this. It's just being on good terms with those cis-people who are on good terms with you. HTH!!

It is possible to find principled individuals, for sure. Having said that, this is not the majority of open-minded cis-people. Most open-minded cis-people are decent people and are open-minded to you telling them about trans stuff but when push comes to shove, will they support you?! I'm not sure whether it's realistic. Again, you're saying that they should, and I agree with you. It is the right thing to do. But, will they?! There are consequences for them too. Why should they risk losing being on good terms with their in-group? Why should they crusade for trans-people? Do you have a solution to these problems of theirs? The LGBT-community should think about this. If you do, you're set! If I stand up against the bro-code, the cis-people will be like 'What is your problem? What are you losing because of the bro-code?! Just relax and be on good terms with us, we'll be nice to you.' The average (decent, by the way) cis-person does not have an incentive to stand up against it and every incentive to enable it. Someone has to say 'I have a problem with your bro-code, this is wrong, this is how it actually hurts me' for them to actually take the possibility of changing it seriously. If you want an explanation for the (irrational, as you correctly say, but real) backlash that you're getting on this thread, this is it. This is the reality of open-minded cis-people. And, I think that if you want to get anywhere with this, your first goal must be, to get on good terms with them. Because, as well-intentioned as they are, they need an incentive to take these kinds of risks for you. HTH!!

When you say you don't think it's pretentious or savioristic, I agree with you. Having said that, it's very easy to build that kind of reputation in your own in-group when you go against the collective ego of that group and call out transphobia. Because no victim, no crime. And people don't like to admit to the existence of a victim if someone (like a trans-person who has been a victim of transphobia) doesn't claim to be one. I'll give a very relatable example. Why is it so hard for a man to call out other men's sexism? Women look at that and they're like 'Just hold other men accountable! Step up and 'be a man'.' It's not that easy. You will build the reputation of a 'simp' among men if you try to 'hold them accountable'. But, women don't get this, cuz they don't understand the bro-code or the point of it. I am not trying to discourage your solution in any way, shape or form. It is the right solution, in fact. I'm just showing you the depth of the problem that you're dealing with in cis-dominated spaces. I believe in your ability to come up with something better to raise awareness about LGBT-issues. Because, and I'm sorry to say this, this responsibility falls on the shoulders of the LGBT-community. It is an unfair deal for you. It's not your fault, it's just the way things are. And, before your ego resists what I'm saying, I'd like you to consider this - most transphobes don't wake up one day and say 'Okay. Should I hate trans-people or should I accept them? What ideology serves me and my community the best? Is it transphobia?! Alright. Transphobia it is.' That's not how a transphobe is made. It is unconsciously conditioned into them and they simply go along with it. Which means, that this is a powerful opportunity for activists (you may or may not put yourself in this category) to educate open-minded cis-people about what it means to be 'trans' and what your lives are like and what rights you lack, etc. To someone who really wants to resolve this issue - I'd recommend that you really understand religion and the origins of transphobia. It will help you pick your battles well. And create an impact that actually matters. You will need open-minded cis-people on your side. And, I'm showing you how you can do that. HTH!!