Samantha

Unseen wrote:
Increasing the producton of vegetable-based foods has environmental problems of its own, since it has a negative effect in terms of reducing habitat for natural animals and plants whereas cattle, for example, can share habitat with the plants and animals that live on the land on which they graze.

But it’s many times more efficient…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Cattle and other animal crops serve a valid purpose. Every creature on Earth is food for something else.

They serve a purpose (food) but they’re also suffocating the Earth, with their greenhouse gases and environmental degradation.

unapologetic wrote:
I apologize for not remembering the source.

Was it Michael Tomasello and the Leipzig Institute for comparative primatology?

Yes, we’re W.E.I.R.D.

I don’t know a lot about the Chinese, but as I understand it, they used to have Taoism and Confucianism, and these have been co-opted by the state as ways to run a mass population and get everyone behaving prosocially.  Also, the state monitors people’s behaviour to make sure they are behaving in prosocial and state-approved ways.  So, that’s w…[Read more]

I need to spend a lot of time on my own doing not much, so I can think about my philosophical studies.  I don’t read novels any more, which I used to enjoy before I started that.  But even if I wasn’t doing that, I would still choose to spend most of my time on my own.

@unapologetic – you need to find out how to turn off and on the block quotes.

It sounds like you’re what they call an introvert.

unapologetic wrote:
Did anyone suggest a word to replace ‘spiritual’?

I don’t use the word, because I don’t need to.  The only “spiritual” thing I do is meditating.  I consider this to be a spiritual practice, as it is widely called, because it’s to do with self-cultivation and purification – trying to remove the bad or counter-productive parts…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
While as physically and mentally handicapped competitors now have regular events, maybe we could learn from how policies and measurements of “fairness” across diverse memberships were developed.

I think that’s a good analogy regarding fairness in sports.

Not all trans categories are a single category.

Trans men started off as women, and trans women started off as men.  They seem like two very different athletic categories.

Unseen wrote:
It would soon become clear by comparing times between the body-modded and unmodeds whether the division made any sense and would put the controversy to bed finally for any fair-minded folks.

I’m not sure it makes logical sense.

Simon Paynton wrote:
women “in their place”, doing the crappy un-glamorous work.

Although I recognise that’s a gross generalisation.

Unseen wrote:
I remember reading piece about somewhere in Pacifica where the women did most of the fishing, and the explanation given was that it was still a patriarchical society. It’s just that the men assigned the women to fish so that they could loll about in a hammock munching on tropical fruit and drinking coconut milk. And woe betide the w…

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jakelafort wrote:
Think about how many feel bad about their appearance and get implants or rhinoplasty or some alteration of their body in an effort to look the way they hope to look. Are they searching for their actual identity or succumbing to societal pressure to look a certain way? I can only imagine how it feels to KNOW you are male or…

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jakelafort wrote:
Only thing i am aware in which women are perhaps on an equal footing is ultra marathon, the ultimate physical contest.

Women are statistically better at endurance sports than men.

Prehistoric Women Were Also Hunters

jakelafort wrote:
No doubt it is an issue to those who are impacted but beyond that is an anti-lefty in your face issue. It is so insignificant in the scheme of things. Of course i have far less sympathy and far more antipathy for the progressives…

Yes, but each person is a whole world, and each person’s concerns matter.  So, even if the nu…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Self-servingness is what it is and I hesitate to go so far as calling it sinister.

But you could say the same about any athlete.

Do you mean, trans women athletes can seek to use their advantage knowing it’s unfair?  At the moment, they don’t have much choice, unless they want to ban themselves.

Unseen wrote:
When does a needed fix actually function as a windfall enhancement exploitable by only a certain few, many without but some with ulterior motives.

We have to be charitable and not ascribe ulterior motives to people.  We don’t know what their motives are.  Presumably, they want to play sports, and also, yay for trans p…[Read more]