One thing I usually prefer not to do is to risk politically dividing communities that I happen to belong to.

However, Joe Biden has done precisely what I hoped he would do. He has restored a sense of legitimacy and dignity to the office of the United States presidency, and he has pulled us back from the brink of an internecine conflict that would have torn us asunder.

There are other Democrats I would have seen in his place, but that is a compliment to them, not any slur against Biden himself.

@Sigma
> ''My name is Joe Biden. I'm Dr. Jill Biden's husband,''  the president began, addressing a gathering of women-owned businesses. ''And I eat Jeni's ice cream — chocolate chip. I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream. By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs..You think I'm kidding? I'm not,''

Joe Biden's reaction to a mass shooting by a trans gendered person.

If this person is who you imagine when you talk about a dignified president, then I also understand why you think you are a woman.

Maybe this was an offhand comment before the formal interview? Cause it seems so juvenile from a man so old. Seems like a comment from someone who's high or just embarrassed.

@corfiot

It's actually a normal part of populism. Populism is focused with connecting with voters on unifying aspects of their lives, which are usually the simple things in life. Enjoying ice cream might have little to do with running a country, but it does have a lot to do with showing that the person that runs the country is aware of what gives happiness to average, working-class moms and dads. It is deliberately simple.

I do not favor the approach, but the execution is not wanting.

It's going downhill, obviously. The top political personality is talking about ice cream when people are dying. They're so detached from the working-class moms and dads I bet they're ordering drone strikes using a dartboard.

Then again, you should see our own prime ministers speaking. Check this out for a laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IE-80ohawU

@corfiot

When talking to a group of female entrepreneurs, ice cream was a relevant subject.

Wailing over yet another mass shooting does not help a hardworking businesswoman get her small business off the ground.

Wait, this was on a totally separate instance from the shooting? Still juvenile but not nearly as reprehensible. If the original outrage was about the timing, who is surprised? None of the elite give a crap about people dying, it's obviously business as usual for everyone up there

@corfiot

Furthermore, what do you expect the POTUS to do about mass shootings that he and his party have not already tried to do? They tried to use gun control to resolve the problem, but that was unpopular.

If you have any better ideas than gun control, feel free to share them, but otherwise, I am not sure what the POTUS is supposed to do.

I was not talking at all about the gun issue, I was talking about decorum. But I can answer you.

I don't live there so I don't care much. I know we don't have guns here and we should, cause there's been a series of robberies around here and those dudes have guns. I also hear a lot about what's going on in the US culturally so I have some suggestions.

How about he does something about the decline of marriage, the skyrocketing numbers of children with single parents (usually mothers), the sex surgery and HRT on minors and about actual equality for men and women? How about getting rid of no fault divorce? Or maybe, since I hear most shooters are young (and male), force corps to raise wages to match inflation and reign in feminists so men can feel like there's a point to life. Or shutdown the university money laundering, where they debt-enslave people for life just because they wanted an education?

Dunno, just brainstorming here. Like, do something. But again, that's all politicians: in the pockets of their puppet masters, easily replaceable scapegoats.

@corfiot The truth is that large pediatric organizations are now unified in support of starting hormone replacement therapy at an early age.

Now, unless you want to pretend that politicians make great doctors (they don't), I would tentatively suggest that it would be wise to let pediatricians do their jobs, and let politicians do theirs.

You ignored all my points. That's OK, I don't need to debate you on this. You brought the conversation to this, I was talking about Biden being silly.

Large banking organizations are also now unified in support of tracking everything you buy. That does not make it right. Large government organizations (governments in fact) are also now unified in support of bleeding people dry via debt enslavement and ignoring people's needs in favor of big corporate donors. That does not make it right. Pediatricians are similar.

If the pediatricians were duped into overprescribing for ADHD, they can be duped into hormone replacement and puberty blockers. Doctors are just like supermarkets: you pick the one you like the best and they more or less do what you want them to do. Especially if you have money for private "care". Think about it: you can pick the "clinic" to go to by checking their e-shop (webpage) to see if their philosophy matches yours.

As for transgenderism, my view is that it is a deviation from the norm, an exception and not part of the norm. The norm being biological reality, including the brain stuff you keep mentioning. I will not antagonize you or any transgender person on this because I have nothing against you personally, as long as you do not actively promote gender theory and transgenderism, especially for underage people, in my community. Gender does not exist other than in linguistics, sex is not a spectrum and kids should have two parents, a man and a woman. "Love" is not an excuse for reality denial and a woman is an adult human male.

I remember homosexuals fighting tooth and nail to promote the concept that their sexual preference is genetic. They still haven't managed it and they had the advantage of homosexuality in the animal kingdom. Now, I guess it's your community's turn to find its place in the sun. Good luck with that. Honestly.

@corfiot

I did not "ignore all of your points." The point is that the FOPO is better qualified than any politician to decide what type of care is best for a child.

If you want me to answer from my own perspective, going through male puberty did not turn me into a cis-man, but it just made me into a six foot and two inch tall transgender woman with a dense baritone voice.

It's better than being denied care altogether, but it's kind of awkward.

Are we talking about politicians deciding about transitioning children? As a parent I'd prefer the risk of suicide because of no transition to the risk of regret and suicide after transition. Yes, I believe in transition being generally illegal while underage, including HRT and puberty blockers. I also point out I think the same of circumcision, btw. I would allow specific exceptions to all this, obviously, for extreme situations, psychological or physical. But I'd never allow social contagion like is happening now.

"Care" is repairing something that's broken. Stopping puberty is not care and neither is messing with hormones. These are interventions, changes not fixes.

Puberty did change you from a boy into a man. Sex-wise you are still what you were before puberty: a human male. A man is a man, there's no such thing as a "cis man". I'm a man, you're a transgender man. You're the exception, not me.

About being awkward, a society that allows and encourages people into a dream of being something they can never fully be is cruel. So I prefer not doing it at all if possible. If we had the tech to actually turn men into women, it'd be a whole different debate because then "women" would remain as they were, so "men" could change into something other than "men". Now "women" are being absorbed into "men" and vice versa and that's making communication impossible.

@corfiot According to the Federation of Pediatric Organizations, hormone-replacement drugs are a valid way of treating gender-incongruence in young people.

What to do in specific cases ought to be up to individual pediatricians, though.

Personally, I think that most young people that report gender-incongruence are more likely to be gender non-binary, and those usually do not require hormone-replacement drugs or particularly benefit from them.

But which they are is between doctor and patient.

You lost me completely at "gender non-binary". As I said, I don't buy into that "gender" business. Agree that it's mostly a psych thing rather than a body thing overall.

@corfiot

Whether you "buy into it" or not, supporting young people that identify as gender non-binary might actually prevent them from insisting on full hormone-replacement drugs they do not really need.

Again, I most likely would have been given puberty blockers at most based on my own symptoms. I don't really have a strongly feminine personality. I would have started full hormone-replacement drugs when I was 18 and probably been just as happy.

> Whether you "buy into it" or not, supporting young people that identify as gender non-binary might actually prevent them from insisting on full hormone-replacement drugs they do not really need.

(quoting because I'm getting posts out of order)
So, kid says, dad I'm not a boy. If dad goes "fine, you're not a boy", it will be more likely "forget" the whole thing? I doubt it. I think if you encourage this you're making it worse. Parents should not freak out over it cause we know what that does to kids: it makes them more stubborn. I wouldn't play reverse psychology games with my kid on something so important. I'd just go "no" and get on with it.

Kids need guidance and encouragement. This "support" and "care" business is urging kids into a victim mentality. If there is a visible problem in the kid, like mental issues, etc obviously you support it. Beyond that, your responsibility that it doesn't get in your face 10 years later blaming you for letting it make a serious mistake.

@corfiot Generally speaking, such rejection by parents is what really triggers kids into killing themselves. Really, the suicide has less to do with the direct effects of gender-incongruence and more to do with the feeling that they are somehow "not good enough" for their families.

What matters the most, in the majority of cases, is reassurance that their families trust them and care for them.

However, hormone-replacement drugs do help prevent later awkwardness, in some cases.

Again, presenting a victim mentality.
Parents can make kids feel loved and accepted even when saying "no". Denying a kid a fantasy does not automatically mean they'll kill themselves. If the kid has an actual problem, as in getting stuck on this, just like anything else, parents investigate and decide. The problem is the social contagion, apparently also now in schools and libraries with early exposure to sex and, in fact, uncommon or even flaunted sexuality. If you find your kid thinking about "genders" you can't fix this if the school keeps hammering it into its head. First, remove the social contagion, then we can talk about the gender "incongruency" in a relative vacuum.

In no situation though is it beneficial to deny the biological male/female reality to your kid. It's going to catch up to them. See, if you remove all the gender bullshit, it becomes so much simpler. And real.