Opinion of Memphis

[memphis]

The fact that he has any FF votes at all shows how unbelievably male this forum is.

Chill out, RandomNewbie.  Memphis is otherwise fine.

Apart from the fact that he's an arrogant, stuck-up twit for whom the only truth is what he believes. For someone so anti-religion - one of the many people who make the anti-religious look utterly awful - he certainly does think anyone to his right is the devil.

I said nothing that wasn't factual. If this forum was even close to gender-equal, Memphis would be sinking like the Bismarck, just as is merited.

I'm actually fairly popular with women who don't have penises. They're a much friendlier and relaxed bunch than the ones that do. Most of them don't needlessly view their lives through the constant prism of oppression.

[memphis]

FF; the forum has overreacted massively, and Wyodon calling him a "prick" is so over the line.

There are few other words I can use to describe a misogynist; one who, I would remind you, would probably like to see you hanged in the town square for having a blue avatar.

It could be worse. People on the IRC have said far unkinder words, ones that I'm not going to repeat here out of respect for privacy and the TOS.

Lolwut? In addition to hating women, I also want to hang blue avatars? Any other bizarre and distasteful positions you want to make up for me this evening? Do I want to sodomize children and puppies too? Inquiring minds want to know.

[memphis]

FF; the forum has overreacted massively, and Wyodon calling him a "prick" is so over the line.

There are few other words I can use to describe a misogynist; one who, I would remind you, would probably like to see you hanged in the town square for having a blue avatar.

It could be worse. People on the IRC have said far unkinder words, ones that I'm not going to repeat here out of respect for privacy and the TOS.

Lolwut? In addition to hating women, I also want to hang blue avatars? Any other bizarre and distasteful positions you want to make up for me this evening? Do I want to sodomize children and puppies too? Inquiring minds want to know.

Don't play innocent. The generalizations you make about anyone to your right are plain as day for anyone to see on this forum. You generalize them and write them all off as some political devil.

Even if what you say is true, does generalizing about people mean that you must want to kill them? Get a grip. You're a bit unhinged.

[memphis]

FF; the forum has overreacted massively, and Wyodon calling him a "prick" is so over the line.

There are few other words I can use to describe a misogynist; one who, I would remind you, would probably like to see you hanged in the town square for having a blue avatar.

It could be worse. People on the IRC have said far unkinder words, ones that I'm not going to repeat here out of respect for privacy and the TOS.

Lolwut? In addition to hating women, I also want to hang blue avatars? Any other bizarre and distasteful positions you want to make up for me this evening? Do I want to sodomize children and puppies too? Inquiring minds want to know.

Don't play innocent. The generalizations you make about anyone to your right are plain as day for anyone to see on this forum. You generalize them and write them all off as some political devil.

Even if what you say is true, does generalizing about people mean that you must want to kill them? Get a grip. You're a bit unhinged.

It's a figure of speech. You know what I mean. To put it completely bluntly, your attitude as a whole suggests you almost certainly think infinitely less of Sanchez than he does of you.

I have no idea what you mean. You've been ascribing crazed positions to me so erratically that I have no way of knowing which are figurative and which are literal. You've worked yourself into such a frenzy that you're quite difficult to interpret.

[memphis]

What I'm calling you is an insensitive, transphobic misogynist who looks down on anyone who disagrees with him. It's hardly difficult to understand - you've plenty demonstrated all of the above on your own.

Strong stuff. I would like some citations, but with a prequisite. I want you to look up the underlined words in a dictionary first.

[memphis]

I'm actually fairly popular with women who don't have penises. They're a much friendlier and relaxed bunch than the ones that do. Most of them don't needlessly view their lives through the constant prism of oppression.

Hey, Memphis, here's an idea. Maybe trans* women are more likely to point out the challenges inherent in being a women because they have experienced the difference first-hand.

This is not true at all. They know what it is like to be a trans person, and that probably is a difficult thing. Projecting that experience onto actually being a woman is not accurate. They have no more experience being a woman than I do.

[memphis]

I'm actually fairly popular with women who don't have penises. They're a much friendlier and relaxed bunch than the ones that do. Most of them don't needlessly view their lives through the constant prism of oppression.

Hey, Memphis, here's an idea. Maybe trans* women are more likely to point out the challenges inherent in being a women because they have experienced the difference first-hand.

This is not true at all. They know what it is like to be a trans person, and that probably is a difficult thing. Projecting that experience onto actually being a woman is not accurate. They have no more experience being a woman than I do.

For me, personally, I came out and transitioned in between high school and college, which means that everyone I know except family never knew me when I was living as male. I present female now and the way I look nobody guesses that I'm trans. I do tell my close friends, but other than that nobody. Point being that people in the world treat me the same way they would treat any other woman. So when I say "society tells women x", I'm certain I have more credibility than you do, given that you have probably never been perceived or treated as female in your life.

Perception is not the same thing as reality. You can put on all the dresses and take all the hormones you want. It sincerely doesn't offend or affect me. You can also wear high heeled shoes and make people think that you are taller than you really are too. If it makes you feel better about yourself, go for it. However, you're still a guy and your experiences and perceptions are drastically different than those who grew up and continue to be female without the trans trauma. Not there there is a universal female experience, obviously.

[memphis]

I'm actually fairly popular with women who don't have penises. They're a much friendlier and relaxed bunch than the ones that do. Most of them don't needlessly view their lives through the constant prism of oppression.

Hey, Memphis, here's an idea. Maybe trans* women are more likely to point out the challenges inherent in being a women because they have experienced the difference first-hand.

This is not true at all. They know what it is like to be a trans person, and that probably is a difficult thing. Projecting that experience onto actually being a woman is not accurate. They have no more experience being a woman than I do.

For me, personally, I came out and transitioned in between high school and college, which means that everyone I know except family never knew me when I was living as male. I present female now and the way I look nobody guesses that I'm trans. I do tell my close friends, but other than that nobody. Point being that people in the world treat me the same way they would treat any other woman. So when I say "society tells women x", I'm certain I have more credibility than you do, given that you have probably never been perceived or treated as female in your life.

Perception is not the same thing as reality. You can put on all the dresses and take all the hormones you want. It sincerely doesn't offend or affect me. You can also wear high heeled shoes and make people think that you are taller than you really are too. If it makes you feel better about yourself, go for it. However, you're still a guy and your experiences and perceptions are drastically different than those who grew up and continue to be female without the trans trauma. Not there there is a universal female experience, obviously.

We are talking about how society treats drj101. Read her post again.

His perception of how society treats him is different than most women's perceptions of their own lives because of his circumstances. Read my post again.

[memphis]

Wait, Dr J is a female impersonator as well?

It's a harmless hobby. I don't hold it against him.

[memphis]

memphis, why do you insist on not even pretending to understand trans issues or doing even the basic respect of...ugh, never mind.

I don't pretend to understand psychology. And I'm very suspicious of those who claim to. Not even the best medical professionals understand more than bit about the brain and how it works. I do, however understand the basics of human anatomy, English language pronouns, and their intersection. Those issues are pretty simple.

[memphis]

I'm not resenting or judging anybody. As I've said many times, if a guy wants to wear a dress and take hormones, it doesn't effect me or bother me. Full stop. However, I'm a bit of a stickler regarding baloney. I was the kid in 2nd grade jumping up and down insisting that Santa Claus was not real. The dress and the hormones do not magically turn a man into a woman even if they make him happy and he strongly wishes they would. I also rather resent King's comment. I am not currently dating any of the ladies pictured, but they are all beautiful inside and out.

[memphis]

Can we de-mod Gus pending a psych evaluation? He's obviously emotionally unstable and may be a risk to himself or others.

[memphis]

However, I'm a bit of a stickler regarding baloney. I was the kid in 2nd grade jumping up and down insisting that Santa Claus was not real.

Good to know your smug self-satisfaction isn't a new thing for you, I guess.

So sorry I refuse to suspend reality to reinforce your fantasies.

[memphis]

The case Al mentioned is a pretty good example of why Memphis and his supporters are pretty horrible people.

But I guess in Memphis world view anyone who kills themselves after bullying is just too weak to deserve our sympathy anyway.

You guys have made up so many positions for me lately that it's hard to keep them all straight. I'll have to check with the mob and get back to you.

[memphis]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm sure you know better than this Joe. Don't be an idiot.
[/quote]

Actually, the fact that Joe is content to write off anybody who subscribes to notions that don't fit into a strict 'A=A' rationalist Wittgensteinian episteme as 'delusional' and leave it at that is one that he's demonstrated many times.

The case Al mentioned is a pretty good example of why Memphis and his supporters are pretty horrible people.

But I guess in Memphis world view anyone who kills themselves after bullying is just too weak to deserve our sympathy anyway.

You guys have made up so many positions for me lately that it's hard to keep them all straight. I'll have to check with the mob and get back to you.

Not every bias that we have or assumption that we betray is an explicit 'position' of the sort that one can fit into a political manifesto or philosophical tractate. Surely you know at least that much?
[/quote]
That makes two people who've taken it upon themselves to make the supremely defamatory suggestion that I want people to kill themselves. Any others? Perhaps someone should go for the Full Godwin and declare me pro-Holocaust. It'd be such a shame to waste all that perfectly good demonization

[memphis]

So, are people not encouraged to point out the obvious any more then?  I mean, we've seen what happens whenever people do that for religious folk and so on, and I guess this is what got memphis his personal lynch mob to start with.  But are we all now to pretend Santa is real just to keep the delusional happy?

I'm sure you know better than this Joe. Don't be an idiot.

Actually, the fact that Joe is content to write off anybody who subscribes to notions that don't fit into a strict 'A=A' rationalist Wittgensteinian episteme as 'delusional' and leave it at that is one that he's demonstrated many times.

The case Al mentioned is a pretty good example of why Memphis and his supporters are pretty horrible people.

But I guess in Memphis world view anyone who kills themselves after bullying is just too weak to deserve our sympathy anyway.

You guys have made up so many positions for me lately that it's hard to keep them all straight. I'll have to check with the mob and get back to you.

Not every bias that we have or assumption that we betray is an explicit 'position' of the sort that one can fit into a political manifesto or philosophical tractate. Surely you know at least that much?

That makes two people who've taken it upon themselves to make the supremely defamatory suggestion that I want people to kill themselves. Any others? Perhaps someone should go for the Full Godwin and declare me pro-Holocaust. It'd be such a shame to waste all that perfectly good demonization

That isn't actually even close to what I said or meant, as you'd know if you weren't so in love with the idea of yourself as a victim. I notice that you have interpolated the word 'inflammatory' into the URL of my post and messed up the coding. I've taken the liberty of removing it and trying to fix the coding. I hope you don't mind.

I'm posting from a PITA mobile. Any such coding is not deliberate. And you have made yourself far more of a victim thanI have. So much so that it is a core part of your identity. I merely ask not have false and vindictive positions thrust upon me. I don't think that is too much to ask.

[memphis]

Don't tell me about my identity.

You certainly are a snippy one.

[memphis]

Don't tell me about my identity.

You certainly are a snippy one.

Says the preening, self-congratulatory dullard who's made a habit of railroading people's beliefs, personalities, and habits into inane generalizations against their will.

Sticks and stones, Mr Nate. Sticks and stones.

[memphis]

His statement that it's easier for women to get high-paid jobs like CEOs is a memorable example of a total disconnect with reality. 

Did he say that or is that just a parody of what he said?

I don't know why the gender imbalance of CEOs would be relevant to most people's lives in any case.

He claimed that women in the US face no career obstacles for being women and in fact have it easier than men because corporations are falling over themselves to hire women and look gender-progressive, thus conspiring against the poor men.

He did concede that backwards places like Sweden may have discrimination against women, but in the US it doesn't exist.

This one time Gus said that all men should be hung slowly by their testicles. Fact. I bet he thinks that all cisgendered people should be put into concentration camps

[memphis]

I'll continue to point out that you're a repulsive excuse for a human being...

Supremely classy. And totally not beneath the dignity of a moderator. You, sir, are a completely mentally balanced man who thoroghly demonstrates male superiority.

[memphis]

I think the one thing I learned from these threads is how deeply ingrained the desire and sense of being right is here.  The Atlas forum is overall a self satisfied bunch. The culture is frequently bereft of any sort of consensus building or common ground in arguments these days. This I would think is a by product of being a rather homogeneous male bastion.  And I think of lot of this is based on class even more than gender.

For me, this thread was never about being right. It was about doing the right thing and not letting bigotry fly.

I wasn't talking about anyone or anything in particular. Just a tangent or brain dropping of how I see the forum culture. A broad brush generalization of the sense I get is that you have many highly intelligent people here who have been told their whole lives that they are special, gifted and destined for great things. That type of thing builds confidence but it also can build a high level of hubris.  You do not find these levels of certitude in kids who got verbally and physically abused by their broke parents and expected to amount to nothing by teachers and society. My own hubris comes from a dark place and was more of a defense mechanism. It presents in an overall wishy washy core but more capable of seeing both sides of an argument. Anyway enough of my introspective psycho babble. Carry on.

I think you're being a little presumptuous about the backgrounds of posters here. Not trying to throw myself a pity party, but I think it's fair to call my childhood abusive and broke. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Atlas posters are also a special kind of smart that frequently doesn't get much recognition in the real world. Socially awkward and stubborn bunch without a natural talent for picking up on unspoken but important cues.  I don't expect many of us to amount to great successes in the future. At least not in the traditional sense of the word.

[memphis]

I think the most interesting part of those pictures is that people in "the heartland" really do dress very differently from people on the east coast.

If it makes you feel any better, none of the girls from the pics currently lives in Memphis anymore and only two grew up here. One is from Milwaukee and the other from Philly. Of the two who are from Memphis, one currently lives in Oakland, CA and the other in Brooklyn. Sadly, most fun people with the option leave Memphis in search of places with higher concentrations of other fun people.

[memphis]

What's "sjw"?

social justice (keyboard) warrior.

So fighting for social justice is now a bad thing?

I think it's a term that developed on tumblr, and so it's commonly used now to characterize the extremely strange fringe people you find on tumblr who identify as "transracial" or "transspecies" or stuff like that and claim themselves as fighting for social justice.

Transspecies?

[memphis]

The probability that someone like Memphis helps making a woman he knows not report a rape because she thinks it was her fault for "not locking the door" is pretty high.

Any people like Gus go around sodomozing puppies with butcher knives Instead of making up absurd positions for me and then arguing against them, you are more than welcome to actually debate things I've actually said. That would require using your cognitive abilities rather than your unstable emotions. You should try it some time. It's pretty fun once you get the hang of it.

[memphis]

BK, I very much appreciate your attempts to bring some sanity to this thread. It's nice to have things in common with people. We can both probably agree that people who spend too much time at the Boot are trouble and are to be avoided at all costs To be honest, I didn't find the culture at Tulane to be at all Southern. If anything, the culture there was most like the atrocious Jersey Shore tv show. Frankly, I didn't feel particulary "at home" there, as I was not accustomed to being surrounded by so many spoiled and extroverted rich kids. I had friends and knew plenty of good people, of course, but it probably was not a good fit for me in retrospect. Nonetheless, three very important points: First, I am not an internet bigot. My opinions and observations have been severely misconstrued and misrepresented by others for their own reasons. If I was not tactful in explaining my positions (and I probably wasn't; tact has never been one of my talents), I take responsibility for that and will try to explain myself in a more productive manner in the future. Second, I did not post the pics to "prove I wasn't sexist." That wouldn't make any sense at all, and I didn't realize until just now that people misunderstood my point in doing so. The pictures were posted in repsonse to a specific allegation that I was unpopular with women. Perhaps it wasn't a wise decision, but I posted the pics as factual evidence in opposition to that statement, not to make any sort of point about my own personal ideology. And my third, and by far most important, point, I have never lived in suburbia. I find that lifestyle abhorrent and a crime against nature To make an inperfect comparison, East Memphis (where I've always lived except during college) is most similar to Buckhead in Atlanta except that Memphis is not exploding with newness and popularity the way Atlanta is, and I grew in a bizarre, though quiet and totally acceptable to me, little corner of it where incomes are far closer to average. I know from experience what it's like to have my immediate neighborhood referred to as "Whitetrashville." My public high school was extremely diverse (for Memphis)  racially, economically, and academically. We consistently had more National Merit Semi-Finalist than any other school in Tennessee, most of whom came from well to do families, and we also had a lot of very underprivileged kids who were bused in from Orange Mound, Memphis's version of New Orleans' infamous 9th ward for desegregational purposes. My parents always found it surprising that we had a decent number of South and East Asians. In their day, everybody was supposed to be either black or white. I missed that diversity at Tulane a lot. Moreso economically than anything else. I'm sure it's just my own very average background, but I've always found wealthy enclaves to be lacking in...I would say authenticity, but they're clearly real. Lacking something vital to humanity anyhow. For that I reason, I'm probably the only person ever to prefer Oakland to San Francisco. At Tulane, I even knew Chuck Schumer's niece pretty well. She was a lovely young lady, though I did not get a chance to meet her before the nose job she got for her 18th birthday. I'm sure she was just as lovely a person before as well
Shane, I think it's cool that your mom is an engineer. Mine was a math teacher who took an interest in amateur computer programming way back in the 80s before most Americans knew how to turn on a computer. She even had a few BASIC language educational programs copyrighted or patented (I always confuse the two) just for kicks. I feel compelled to say that I do not appreciate being referred to as a douche, and I want you to know I would never refer to you or any other Atlas poster in such a manner. I'm far from perfect, but I do try as best I can to refrain from that sort of petty name calling. And, I would like to pre-emptively apologize before anybody brings up an embarassing posting of mine that contradicts that statement. Nonetheless, I was pleased to see that you were willing to stop and think about the issue of the sexes and offer your own non-orthodox (for the forum) views. I highly value independent thought and not just when it agrees with me. I readily admit that I can get irrationally outraged by those who just instinctively follow the crowd in debate situations. I've always been a marching to the beat of his own drummer kind of guy. That's one of my biggest issues with organized religion. I don't like institutions tell people what they have to believe and I especially don't like it when they use untestable threats to reinforce it.   Some may have noticed I made a big stink about it when certain politicians suddenly rushed to agree with me on gay marriage, a position I have supported ever since I became interested in politics. Perhaps if I were more of a cup half full kind of guy, I would've been content to be "right" on that one and call it a day. But I was annoyed because I felt like so many members of the public hadn't really "learned" anything about critical thinking but were just following the crowd, albeit my direction I sincerely hope you are not demonized for your convictions, though I don't think I'm being unfair in saying that would be the logical outcome based upon how similar statements have been received in the past. Perhaps your likable personality will prevent another wave of indignation. I certainly hope so.
All that said, I wish all members of humanity well (including the otherkin, of whom I just learned a few hours ago) and I hope that many of you can recognize that nothing I've said stems from a personal hatred for any groups of people. Perhaps we all would do well to question the truths that we clutch tightly more often. We could all be less quick to judge others and make false assumptions, myself included.