The electoral college almost made sense when the president was essentially a functionary of what Congress wanted.

Indirect election of someone with actual power is indefensible. Every person with power should either be directly answerable to an elected office or have so little power that their tyrannies can be ignored.

No worries. There’s a bunch of stress on this issue.

You said that one study said brain development stops at 25. I asserted that to the best of my knowledge that study itself didn’t even say that – it’s just people misquoting it.

Wikipedia has what looks like a fair article debunking the idea. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_matures_at_25_myth

You are spot on about puberty blockers being reversible. Which is why there is any use for them at all with trans-curious youth for whom there is any question at all that they might not be trans.

Denying HRT to teenagers who are confident in their gender identity is just cruelty. Going through cis-puberty has irreversible changes and causes mental anguish for a mono gendered trans person. Especially since, as you said, the permanent changes take months to occur.

No, an ad hominem fallacy would be if I called the poster mentally or educationally deficient and then dismissed their argument because of it. Attacking the argument itself is entirely fair game. Especially if I supplied supporting information to buttress said attack.

Feel free to argue their position or against mine if you want, but sneering “whaa, fallacy!” is just an argument from fallacy and is as unhelpful as an actual ad hominem attack.

Sweet holy stonewall, that’s the dumbest nonsense I’ve seen on the fediverse.

Most English speakers don’t define “law”, “property”, “rights”, or “theft” the way faux libertarians and sovereign citizen scam victims do. Those that do use your minority definitions are generally ill-regarded by their social and economic peers, and suffer a reduced quality of life because of it.

Please go audit a freshman law survey at your local community college class. A general philosophy one might be good also.

1: the brain study didn’t conculde anything of the sort. It’s chart just showed constant growth and stopped where they ran out of available data. Human brains keep developing your entire life.

2: Both feminizing and masculizing trans HRT have changes that cannot be reversed without substantial surgery. Puberty blockers however are entirely reversible.

Oh, and im muting your transphobic troll of an account, just in case you think your asinine follow up somehow shocked me into silence.

That you take Newsom at his word about preserving some future governor’s abikity to ship doctors to Texas is damning.

As is you equating your viagra prescription or whatever with prescribed healthcare that unapologetic bigots are actively trying to ban.

So, in addition to being a transphobic bigot who refuses to defend his point, you alsp dont know how the english language works. Cool.

I supplied definitions because you were imputing a meaning i did not mean to convey. But since you still seem to not get it, lets do go to a dictionary.

Starting with bigotry:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bigot

a narrow-minded person who obstinately adheres to their own opinions and prejudices especially : one who strongly and unfairly dislikes or feels hatred toward others based on their group membership

You definitely are adhering to your opinion and prejudice, with regard to your dislike of members of a particular group.

The definition i offered for what i meant was actually a little narrower than merriam-webster’s phrasing, but not so much as to be improper usage.

More interestingly, there"s nothing in the dictionary’s definition that presumes a bigot is beyond reason or refuses to learn… I’d be curious what dictionary supports that assertion.

Maybe “transphobia” will be better for you?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transphobia

discrimination against, aversion to, or fear of transgender people

Nope. You openly expressed aversion to transgender folk, and also excused formal imstitutional prejudice as somehow not being transphpbia just because it was presumably not made out of animus.

Except that precluding all trans femms from femm sports is a hat trick of discrimination against, aversion to, and fear of.

I stand by what i said.

What exactly do you think "bigot’ and “transphobic” mean? Because we should treat trans people as if they are their assigned gender at birth is a fair approximation for what I and others mean by the latter, and ideas that judge people by trivial characteristics is a fair approximation for the former.

Let’s focus on transphobia and Rob Sand. A few more recent links:

https://littlevillagemag.com/rob-sand-addresses-students-iowa-city/

https://www.thegazette.com/opinion/rob-sand-please-don-t-waver-on-transgender-rights/article_e77c3e00-face-4ea4-885d-b1a072173db8.html

Your claim is that trans voters are with their activism driving a wedge betwren thrmselves and potential allies. Sand certainly seems like a good example, with his “no sports even after HRT” position, which i hope you can see is tanamount to a choice for trans athletes between being their true gender and playing sports, even if you want to quibble over the “transphobia” .label.

What’s interedting is that nobody in Iowa seems to accuse.Sand of being transphobic. The people on the ground greeted his comments with silence and one shout of “coward”, and at least one letter to the editor which didnt include any call to not vote for him. This surely seems llike a strong example… Except that the trans reaction seems to be a pretty universal “mild.transphobia is still an improvememt.”

You also.mentioned Gavin Newsom, onetime plausible 2028 POTUS candidate before his transphobic self-own. If you think that mild transphobia would be where it stopped, why did he cancel a LGBTQ healrh budget?

https://lalgbtcenter.org/vanguard/press-releases/statement-governor-newsom-betrays-queer-and-transgender-californians-with-health-budget-cuts-says-los-angeles-lgbt-center/

Or, why does he oppose the wealth tax?

https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/newsom-tax-propositions-november-election/

Why did he veto a law that would have protected doctors from being dragged to Texas for daring to provide gender affirming care to ex-texans?

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/09/gavin-newsom-explains-the-surprising-reason-he-just-vetoed-a-pro-trans-bill/

As he did a rule to ensure trans folk on HRT can stock up?

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-17/newsom-vetoes-key-health-measure-transgender-politics

I asked you to prove one example that supports this assertion of over-reaction and you refused. Find me one example of a current candidate who made a mildly transphobic remark and neither recanted nor exposed stronger transphobia and we could have a reasoned discourse over the reasonableness of the trans reaction.

I didn’t call you a bigot because I think you are incapable of growing and becoming better. I called you a bigot because you said bigoted things. I really do hope that you change your mind and realize how toxic you echoing hard-right talking points is.

For me, I want to understand where their comments are coming from. Many times it is coming from a place of bigotry, but many times it is well intentioned.

Why is the ignorance of those echoing bigotry more important to you than the outrage of those targeted by it?

I’m not finding a second source for someone who misquotes me and refused to supply even one.

And it doesn’t matter why you are a bigot. You don’t get a lollipop because your racism was learned instead of reactionary, because your homophobia was out of ignorance instead of panic, or that your transphobia was because you fell for propaganda instead of actively seeking out a minority you can bully.

You said bigoted things. You’ve made arguments identical to those of hard-right trolls. Whether you’re actually a sealioning redcap or just a privileged liberal who mistook a sophomoric conclusion for actual insight is IRRELEVENT.

I called you a bigot based on statements you made. If this offends you then I can only hope that the experience of anonymous strangers on the internet being mean might be enough to help you grow up and start caring about people who aren’t like you.

Trans voters act harshly to transphobia because when they don’t it just encourages more transphobia. Pols who aren’t transphobic themselves moderate their subsequent statements,.and those who are instead do what youve done and double down on their biases even in the face of objection and explanation.

I really do hope you grow up before the rest of the world becomes as dangerous for trans people as the United Kingdom has become.

I don’t even know where this is coming from. Even the people referring to trans women as boys (who are bigots), are not saying trans people can’t play at all. You’re making this up.

They’re not saying it only because they’re ignorant morons who can’t think through what they’re saying. Do you really think a teenage AMAB who realized they were.trans would actually be allowed to play on the boys after asking to play with the girls?

Do you at all understand what puberty blockers and HRT do to humans? Did you know that trans girls and trans women have been playing sports post-HRT for decades and the number of sports in which they went from middling to top tier is zero?

And publicly identified as “other”? I’ve never head this.

I’m sure you’re ignorant enough to not know it, but a bunch of trans people are closeted about not being cis. Not just those with no medical transition who “go stealth” and hide their gender as if it was something to be ashamed of, but also those for whom HRT was extremely effective who pass as their actual gender for anything but a very close medical inspection.

They do so partly because it’s none of nobody else’s business, and partly because being open about being trans lets transphobic bigots who are far worse than your wilful ignorance identify them as targets for harassment, slander, and assault.

Oh, you are a transphobic bigot! Sexist, too.

The male/female distinction in sports doesn’t exist so you can play with your peers. It’s due biological differences between people born male and female.

This is 99% wrong. The gendered distinctions in sports exist largely because in sports with the most gendered bias the top tier of girls still outperforms the sub-median cohort of boys,.and those boys historically do not take it well.

In a discussion about trans girls your ignorance is even worse, since every trans athlete who has ever been allowed to play has ranked about as well as a woman as they did as a man.

I’ll take this deflection as an admission that your nazi point was stupid.

There’s a whole separate comment responding to that. I split them because your quibbling as to how much hate is tolerable isn’t a productive discussion.

Look, I shard articles yesterday from a different comment where people have been very supportive of trans people, but disagree on the issue of sports, and they have been labeled transphobic for it.

Who? Where? What comment?

Let me see if I can find this alleged comment of yours…

Also:

“I can’t play on the team that I want to play on, I’m just like the Jewish people in the holocaust!”

It’s not can’t play on the team I want, it’s can’t play at all and am publicly identified as other.

Objecting to this as trivial is like arguing that forcing gays to wear pink triangles or jews to wear yellow stars of david was reasonable and not a prelude to the extermination camps

But my entire point is, you will label somebody a transphobic bigot when they are actually incredibly supportive of trans people in most ways, but just have a difference of opinion on very few issues.

You keep saying this and yet have never produced an example.

Which is either because you personally are mildly transphobic, or you went looking and can’t find any candidate who was both accused of transphobia and not confirmed as such on closed inspection.

No, they’re the Germans who stood by and did nothing.

And while most transphobic bigots are less terrible than Hitler,.I’m not sure how bad the prejudice had to be before we’re allowed to care.

Is there a practical difference between the Nazi who cheers as you’re put into a death train and the liberal who stands there with a frown?

Or, to have a more reasonable discussion, can you point to who you think expressed a reasonable position trans voters are unreasonably upset at?

If this is the case, then why fight so hard against Dems that suggest feel differently, either legitimately, or to win a seat?

Because bigotry and hate always get dressed up in ways that feel reasonable. Pick any hateful position of the last hundred years, and we can find both the gentleel start and the naked abuse at its end.

My point is that I’ve heard democrats say things that seem reasonable, and saw the trans community rail against them.

Like what?

The most recent Dem to make a transphobic splash is Josh Turek, nomineee for Senator from Iowa. I’ll grab a paragraph and highlight the offensive part, just in case you don’t see it.

https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/iowa-josh-turek-transgender-ad

As a kid in a wheelchair, I faced my share of bullying. That’s why I believe that no Iowan should face discrimination. As a Paralympian, I also know it’s important to have rules. It’s why I oppose males competing in female sports, something that is already illegal in Iowa. I’m against taxpayers paying for sex changes too. Anyone tells you any different is lying.”

Turek made a splash just before this with a clip that talked about Christian love for trans folk. And then he went on to misgender every trans femm athlete, diminish every cis femm athlete, and promise to deny all trans-gender affirming care for any government employee, senior citizen, disabled person, or person living in poverty.

I’ll presume that you don’t think this is “reasonable.”. But way too often people who express mildly transphobic views like “I don’t want social-only trans girls playing sports!” have equally odious prejudice that they’re just hiding.

There is plenty of nuance in the “trans community”, with positions on transphobic dems that run the gamunt from I’ll hold my nose and vote for them to since they obviously decided they don’t need my vote I’ll not vote for them.

I can appreciate that if you don’t know anything about trans people or how the hateful right wing works you might think that there’s some concern about social-only trans women stealing scholarships from cis women due to some inherent hormonal advantage. But this simply does not happen..

It’s a hateful dog-whistle sounded by a group who wants to first ban all trans girls from any sport regardless of age or hormone, and then shut down all girls sports when no parent is willing to subject their daughter to an invasive exam.

And while I don’t mean to suggest that all such Dems are strong transphobes, if they’re not willing to fight when someone is under attack I don’t think they’re fit for the job anyway.