Way of the Bern Shows Hypocritical Side
Recycled and expanded from a comment that got buried and forgotten in a not particularly relevant Open Thread.
WOTB went spazz over transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, and all the transphobes and TERFs came out of the woodwork. They screamed things like, "she blew past all previous women's records" (either totally untrue, or true for UPenn only), and "no real women have a chance against her" (flatly untrue, she only won now and then, and sometimes failed even to place).
They also posted savage anti-trans statements and viciously brigaded any comments that were the least bit positive or supportive, or even just attempted to state the facts. And some of them persistently misgendered Thomas, referring to her as "he" and "him" (and, once, "It"). Transphobia or not, that's extremely rude.
I participated in one very long thread until the brigading really started to damage my points, after which I went back and deleted every comment I had made (which didn't help) and Hid the thread (which at least stopped the damage).
Another thread - and more screaming - started with the notice that Thomas was going for another win in the 100 yard freestyle (she had won the 500 yard, with a time well off the record, and done no better than a tie for fifth in the 200 yard). Didn't matter that she wasn't this Supermanwoman juggernaut - the screaming was that she should not have been there at all.
Of course nobody said boo about Iszak Henig, a Yale swimmer at the same meet who has socially (but not hormonally) transited female to male - he wasn't seen as a threat, even though he won one event and placed ahead of Thomas in another.
ESPN summarized the turbulence in the pool thusly: https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/33550045/lia-thomas-finis...
Hopefully that's that...until next time. (But it wasn't - that item got downvoted TOO!
Comments
reddit
That Reddit will rot your brain...... it's as bad as Twitter.....
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Hi Than!
I don’t do reddit or twitter, but from my very limited experience of both I believe I have saved a part of my brain from rotting ; ).
[video:https://youtu.be/8hCGLJKSdWg]
Thank you for the lovely Wairunga!!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Good point - though so will the Mess(-with-your-Mind) Media.
I discovered somewhat coincidentally that the National ReSpew had been fanning the flames by spamming a photograph from the medal platform after the 500 yard race. Not only had the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers congregated on the 3rd place stand (in a gesture that under any normal circumstances would have been correctly identified as "poor sportsmanship" and "sore losers"), but the photo was taken at an angle so that Thomas, on the 1st place stand, was closer to the camera and looked much bigger than the others.
One of the trollers likened it to "Aragorn standing next to Frodo, Merry and Pippin", of course without stopping to consider (and heaven forbid mention) what a triumph of trick photography those scenes were.
The browbeating, meanwhile, continues, though not as bad as before.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
mess with your mind media
My Comment was intended as a backhanded compliment to you, i.e., "Thank you for swimming through that Reddit bilge so we don't have to!!"
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
WTF?
Do you think the commenters at the WOTB were "regulars", or trolls sucked into the debate from afar? Either way, that's kind of a shock to me. I would have hoped that folks at WOTB, or the moderators, would have squelched that idiocy early on. Your advocacy and fight against transphobes and TERFs is appreciated. How is that even a topic at the wotb in the first place?
There were certainly some trolls,
one of whom frankly admitted to "trolling", but some of the regulars got into the act too. Seems there's still a high level of doubt and suspicion (at least!) as to whether trans (specifically MTF - the opposite is ignored or brushed off) athletes have an "unfair advantage" in spite of persistent official efforts to "level the playing field".
Tragically, the ACLU is no longer considered a "credible" source for anything after the way they trashed their own reputation over the COVID crisis. So now nobody listens when they try to debunk the myths around transgender athletes.
I've gotten the impression that Ms. Thomas jumped into such prominence partly because UPenn previously didn't have all that strong a women's swim team. And even so, she hasn't had the kind of overwhelming success that might lend credibility to the "trans panic". A win here, a win there, more often places or somewhere in the pack, no national records, no meet records, no pool records anywhere outside of UPenn. Not exactly what you might expect of a "Frankenstein's monster".
In any case, we've probably heard the last of her until 2024, when she has expressed the desire to try out for the US Olympic swim team. (How she's going to keep her hand in in the meantime, since she graduates from UPenn this June, hasn't been mentioned.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I split with WoTB a few months back
Reddit has worthy subs, but it's mostly garbage.