I Am Asking Honestly
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (90917)
United States
September 19, 2022 8:47am CST
As the issue of transgenderism and other identity issues are becoming a hot topic of debate here and in other places, I want to ask a question.
Where do we draw the line?
If someone's make-believe is now to be required to be accepted, then who's getting to choose which reality is real and which one isn't real? And why should we have to? Under whose direction and guidelines? Who gets to make the rules? Who picks who makes the rules?
Do we get a vote on which reality to accept? On who gets to choose it?
Because this tends to fall under the category of the old "slippery slope," doesn't it? If we have to accept today that Sally is a woman, even if she is anatomically a man—or has even made the change and biologically inside is still a man, why can anyone else not make a claim that they are something they are not and be accepted to simply "be who they want to be and get to live in the body they choose?"
If that is all it takes is to say "I am this," again, where do we draw the line?
If a man decides he is a child, can he now be allowed to have sex with a 15-year old if he so chooses? It may sound crazy and farfetched and one may try to say that's a different argument.
But, is it? What makes it different? It's all about freedom to choose to live a life that an individual decides, even if it breaks a societal norm and defies facts, right?
If Sally has a penis and can say that she is a woman, who are we to deny that Tom is not a 50-year old man, but a 15-year old child if that is what he chooses to identify as?
"I am a 15-year old trapped in a 50-year old body," is not really all that different than saying, "I am a woman trapped in a man's body."
If we are forced to accept one thing as truth and the other thing as sick delusion, again, who gets to make that call? What sets it apart? What makes one real the other false?
Beyond that, what else might be accepted or allowed under this new normal of "choosing one's own reality?"
I mean, we talk all the time these days about "fairness." So, if I decide today to be something I am not, would it be unfair to deny me my own claim? Regardless of what it is I want to claim to be?
I am being told all the time I do not have the right to deny someone's chosen reality. But at the same time I am being denied my right to believe what I want, and I am being forced to accept what someone else is telling me that I have to.
What say you?
16 people like this
12 responses
@1creekgirl (41430)
• United States
19 Sep 22
If this weren't such a serious issue, I'd claim I'm a 22 year old babe. Or a chocolate chip cookie. But reality says otherwise.
You are so right. Facts are facts, no matter how much we want to have our"own truth."
3 people like this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
19 Sep 22
Although one thing has nothing to do with the other, the Martha's Vineyard story is one that is very telling of the mindset of those who speak one thing but truly feel another. As I have commented on several posts about some of this stuff, it all eventually backfires on the left, and this will too.
The left worked very hard, for example, to get affirmative action back in the day. There will come a time when a white student will fight to get an acceptance to a college claiming he or she identifies as black, and the left will of course cry racism even though really, it's just another false truth not unlike the false truth of gender.
Again, who gets to decide what reality is? Is it ONLY the left? And how'd they get the job? lol
2 people like this
@RubyHawk (99405)
• Atlanta, Georgia
21 Sep 22
@porwest That’s not an intelligent question as you know. It doesn’t apply to the situation. Transgender people are not mentally deficient. They know from the time they’re born. I wouldn’t advise surgery for children but when they’re of age it’s their choice.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
20 Sep 22
I have never necessarily made fun of transgenderism. Although that is not entirely true. Some of it is pretty out there and crazy, and one can't simply ignore it, you know.
That all said, I am more interested in your answer than your commentary to what has already been said. I asked a very specific question. "Where do we draw the line?"
I posed an analogy of a 50-year old man who wants to identify as a child. Do we let him be what HE wants to be? And who are we to deny his right to identify as what HE wants to be?
Do we continue to allow boys to compete in girl's sports who wear dresses and let them steal victories from REAL girls who are being beaten because they are competing with people they can't beat?
I think many people are taking this all too lightly and are not really thinking about the more serious issues around this, MOST of all, the mental illness issue. When people are suffering an identity crisis this is more real than the fantasy they are living in. Their identity crisis is indicative of a more serious crisis happening in their lives that I think should be addressed rather than overlooked.
The bottom line to this post really is, I want people to THINK about this rather than just simply argue in semantics and one-liners.
When a boy decides he is a girl, this is not a revelation. It is a crisis.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
21 Sep 22
@RubyHawk I disagree. The question has EVERYTHING to do with the situation because what we are talking about is "people allowed to be whatever they want to be even if it is not true." If anyone can say they are something other than what they are, where do we draw the line? What else can someone be, and why should one false reality be denied and the other accepted?
And who is to say that a pedophile isn't born that way? Or a serial killer? Some things are simply not natural and there is more to what's going on than simply what we see on the surface.
Do we allow unnatural things to blossom and flourish, or do we recognize them as problems and seek to solve them?
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (89883)
• Arvada, Colorado
20 Sep 22
I say this: I say what I want, when I want, and no 'identity reality alternative' will force their reality on me. Period.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (89883)
• Arvada, Colorado
24 Sep 22
@porwest Yeah I saw them putting them in tents now in New York..sickening the whole bunch of lies they spew.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
22 Sep 22
That is basically where I stand as well. If I don't want to accept it, I don't have to, and no one can force it on me.
Part of the purpose of this discussion is to bring up certain inconsistencies and contradictions in the left's own argument here. The left, for example, has complained about two main things here—women are paid less than men, and women are not represented enough on corporate boards.
So, I guess, we can maybe fix that problem by putting more men on boards who wear skirts, and then also include the men in skirts paychecks to close the "gender gap" on pay.
But there is a problem with that, and that is that the left will not think this is "fair play."
The bottom line is that the left really has no real position on anything. And they do not think anything through. They survive on one-liners and talking points and that's pretty much it.
It is not that far removed from the Matha's Vineyard thing. The left said loudly, "let them all in." But now that they are in their backyard they don't want them.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (44537)
• Staten Island, New York
19 Sep 22
When did this whole thing even start where a man started to identify himself as a woman and vice versa? Also, for example, if a person were to identify themselves as a dog should they be treated like a dog?
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (44537)
• Staten Island, New York
19 Sep 22
@porwest Things have definitely gotten out of hand. And I am shocked that parents allow their kids to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (44537)
• Staten Island, New York
20 Sep 22
@porwest Some people speak or act before thinking about it first.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
19 Sep 22
@lovebuglena The world has gone mad, I think. I don't think people are thinking things through very well honestly.
1 person likes this
@Nakitakona (56486)
• Philippines
9 Oct 22
If a child born as boy, he is a boy till the end so as with another child born as a girl. I don't challenge or dare to change what God has made or formed
1 person likes this
@Nakitakona (56486)
• Philippines
18 Oct 22
@porwest It's too personal and vain ambitions. Just like in marriage. The Bible said what God has joined together, let no man put it asunder.
1 person likes this
@Jenaisle (14078)
• Philippines
20 Sep 22
This is a delicate topic. I cannot speak out thoughts on it because I have some transgender friends. But they know their bounds even if they claim to have another sexuality. I feel that each person should decide for himself/herself how and what to do with this new concept.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
20 Sep 22
Think about it this way. Why CAN'T you speak on the issue just because you have transgender friends? They have their opinion and they are foisting their opinion on you—either directly or indirectly based on what they are doing. I am sure they would be happy to tell you what their opinion is. Why should you have to keep your own opinion to yourself? Perhaps you are afraid you may offend them? But are they concerned they may offend you?
I don't know how we ever came to be a society that thinks only one opinion is allowed and any opinion that is not shared is racist, homophobic, or insensitive.
You have just as much right to say that you disagree with a particular lifestyle as they have to say they think your opinion is wrong.
@porwest (90917)
• United States
20 Sep 22
What bothers me on top of all of this is that not only is "one reality" sort of being implied as "the real one," but having an opinion that differs from their side is being labeled as racist, homophobic and insensitive. And I think that's a problem as well.
No one cares that I may find it offensive that a boy dressed as a girl can now compete in girl's sports, break records, and steal awards, right? So long as they have their say and have their way they really don't care about anyone else's interests, opinions nor concerns. Nor do they care if a real girl who identifies as a girl is being denied victories simply because she is actually a girl.
In a sense it is the minority trying to silence the majority, and I think that is a dangerous road to go down ultimately. That's also becoming a big slippery slope.
1 person likes this
@josie_ (10034)
• Philippines
19 Sep 22
This identity issue has gone beyond the awareness of gender discrimination to a kind of social entitlement just because one belongs to a minority group. Together with the cancel culture, the same bias, and prejudice is being perpetuated by their adherents. Aside from being intellectually dishonest, their arguments are based on their emotions and beliefs rather than one base on facts.
Any form of "reality" other than the one we live in is a delusion.
1 person likes this
@aninditasen (16395)
• Raurkela, India
20 Sep 22
If others have a right to think what they are then you to have a right but oddities can't be accepted. Some that you have related in the discussion.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (178701)
• United States
20 Sep 22
I agree that things have gone too far.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
20 Sep 22
I think part of the issue for me is when it begins to involve the kids, and when the push is to make something not normal, normal. It used to be that we encouraged kids to be what they want to be in a different way. When they asked us when we were kids what we wanted to be when we grew up it was usually a policeman or fireman or doctor or something like that.
Now they tend to ask, "are you a boy or a girl?"
I typically have the stance that people can do whatever they want so long as it does not affect me or others. But this is becoming something more and more that is affecting others. Girls who now must compete in sports with boys dressed as girls, boys in girls locker rooms and vice versa, being forced to accept all of this and not being allowed to have an opinion and so on and so forth.
I also think that sadly we are ignoring what is, in my opinion, a serious mental health issue.
1 person likes this
@CarolDM (203422)
• Nashville, Tennessee
19 Sep 22
Yes it is a touchy subject. I have said many times there are males and there are females. Whatever else you choose to do or say you are, that is up to you. But you are still a male or a female. How many rapes have you read about that happened when a "female" who is really a male was permitted to use the female's bathroom. I read a story today where someone identifies as a cat. Come on, it is absurd on so many levels. And not disrespectful on my part to say you are a male or you are a female. It is reality. I never intentionally try disrespecting anyone. But I am calling it like it is. The ones having these surgeries are often minors being encouraged by parents. What is wrong with these parents? We all went through questions, on some level, while growing up. But it is just hormones and part of growing up. We have males and females.
