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My previous/alt account is [email protected] which will be abandoned soon.

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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: June 1st, 2024

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  • Why would you need to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles for an ID though? For a driver’s license I can somewhat understand but that should be the extent of their responsibilities.

    Over here you go to your local registration office which basically every town has? It’s the same office for registering where you live (which you are also legally required to do) - meaning there are more than enough of them around. For smaller towns they are usually located in town halls, larger cities have many of them spread around.

    Honestly, you’d easily get significant adaption of IDs by just mandating them for everything. Want a bank account? Need an ID. Want to get a job? Need an ID. Want to get a driver’s license? Need an ID. Are you older than 16? Believe it or not, need an ID.

    If (nearly) everyone has an ID, it cannot be used as means for voter disenfranchisment.









  • Do you believe segregating a minority group making up 1-2% of the population will not have discriminatory effects? That there will be equal access to funding, scholarships, competition and sport leagues?

    You can’t seriously believe this. Isn’t it plainly obvious that this would be an excuse to ban trans people from doing any sports? That any sports club will just argue there aren’t enough trans people to allow them to be members?

    And I’d seriously like to know how it is unfair for cis women to have to compete against trans women in chess. Right now trans women are barred from competing in any women’s leagues regardless of when they started transitioning by the way.

    How do trans people have any advantage in hundreds of other sports, from gymnastics to ballet to competitive diving - all of which have a more or less significant artistic element?

    By the way, there are already discriminatory regulations barring certain cis women in the name of “fairness”:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone_regulations_in_women's_athletics

    Also, what a coincidence:

    At the 2020 Olympics a number of athletes, all from African countries, were withdrawn from their events because they did not meet the eligibility regulations.

    Sure sucks for these Africans that they “randomly” happened to not meet these criteria. It couldn’t possibly be that certain ethnicities are more or less likely to have certain genetics.



  • Women’s routines tend to be more artistic and dance-like, sometimes telling a story, whereas a priority for men’s routines is to display strength. (The women’s score also includes a spot for artistry on the balance beam.)

    liveabout.com

    The men’s and women’s floor exercises are fundamentally similar, but the artistic performance aspect of the women’s discipline is missing from the men’s.

    usatoday.com

    Not only that, but women’s floor routines tend to include dance moves (often to music) in order to showcase their artistry, while men’s floor routines are typically about showcasing strength.

    distractify.com

    Men’s events typically emphasize upper body strength and powerful acrobatics, while women’s events highlight balance, grace, and artistic expression.

    deveaus.com

    I can’t vouch for the quality of all these sources, they are literally the first results on any search engine.

    Isn’t that common knowledge though?

    Women’s gymnastics: artistry > strength

    Men’s gymnastics: artistry < strength

    Both still require a lot of artistry and strength respectively. They just have different priorities.

    Also, thank you for ignoring 99% of my comment and nitpicking two lines. You argue like a politician.


  • The weight classes allow anyone to find well-matched competition regardless of their biology.

    That’s true. In professional boxing there are 18 weight classes from 46.3 kg (103 lb) to 101.6 kg (224 lb) plus the unlimited weight class. Only very few adults are excluded as the vast majority weighs more than the lower bound.

    But with sex-based roles? Two don’t really make a fair competition, do they? I mean, otherwise there wouldn’t even be a need for per-sport subclasses.

    Trans people and people with certain genetic mutations are very, very common though. We’re talking about more than 1% of people here. Shouldn’t there be a need to ensure they too can compete fairly?

    Imagine if in the early 1900’s it was discovered that left-handed people are on average slightly better at math than right-handed people. As a reaction, all left-handed people are excluded from math scholarships as they have an unfair advantage over right-handed people. Would you consider this fair? After all, they only made up ~2% of the population and we have to draw the line of who gets a scholarship and who doesn’t somewhere.



  • Yes, it is about sports - but only in addition to being about representation. This is the key distinguishing factor between women’s sports and male/open category sports.

    If it were purely and solely about sports then women’s sports as a category wouldn’t exist. Female athletes would get similar funding and opportunities as male athletes, both in competitive and casual events.

    Just take a look at chess: Why is there a women’s league? Answer: Because there are significant systemic barriers against women in chess. Without their own leagues, there would be no representation in the top level at all due to men dominating the rankings. Having women’s chess tournaments is about representing women in chess.

    But trans women are banned from ranked women’s chess events. And to put the cherry on top, trans men are stripped of all their titles after transitioning.

    Cruelty is the point of these decisions. Not “supporting women”.

    Oh, and one more thing:

    No agenda needed

    Totally. Zero agenda, zero ideology, zero DEI and zero wokeness. Traditional conservative women’s sports events just like we always had and how God intended. Not even a strand of feminism to be found here, nope.


  • There is zero biological argument because you cannot make two categories based on sex which encompass everyone.

    Example 1:

    A cis woman with a genetic mutation which incrases her testosterone levels into the range of cis men. Should she be banned from female competitive sports?

    Example 2:

    A cis woman with XY gonadal dysgenesis. She has XY chromosomes but the Y chromosome is mutated and doesn’t function as it should which causes a “female” phenotype. Should she be banned from female competitive sports?

    Example 3:

    A trans woman in the 95th percentile of men with regards to physical strength. She is in the 10th percentile of women after transitioning. Should she be banned from female competitive sports?

    Example 4:

    A trans woman with Klinefelter syndrome and XXY genes. She has naturally very low levels of testosterone and she doesn’t require testosterone blockers after transitioning and taking estrogen. Even before transitioning she had less muscle mass, weaker bones and wider hips than the average man as a result of her low testosterone. Should she be banned from female competitive sports?

    Example 5:

    An African woman who would be in the 1st percentile of man if she were one, both in terms of physical attributes (size, muscle mass, heart size) and competitive results. Some “scientists” argue her race makes her less of a woman and more of a man. Should she be banned from female competitive sports?

    There is zero risk of these people “replacing” cis women by the way. Yes, their performance may be greater than that of comparable cis women without any genetical mutations beyond a certajn point.

    Yet risk is calculated as [severity] * [likelihood]. And due to the low likelihood stemming from their very low prevalence in the general population, there is no reason to ban them.

    Women’s sports is about representation of women. Trans women are part of that group, cis women with genetic mutations are part of that group, racial minorities are part of that group. You cannot exclude some women and claim this group is “fair” and representative.


  • contract rights

    Isn’t that why unions are allowed to exist? Freedom of association and negotiation is the necessary foundation which I believe is inclided somewhere in the US constitution. And strikes - at least from what I’ve read - are part of what’s granted through this freedom. After all, labor disputes are between two private parties (company + union) and limiting one of the parties violates their freedom of forming contracts. I might be wrong though, its been some time since I researched the legal foundations of strikes, at least in Germany.

    t’was political calculus

    Was it though? I don’t see who benefitted but the rail companies. The workers only got some of what they would’ve striked for but not everything. Any political benefit usually vanishes a month after the headlines have moved on, so I don’t think breaking up the strike has helped them win any “moderates” who would’ve voted Republican. And it might have alienated some workers from the Democrats, seeing them side with the companies instead of them.

    systemic suppression

    That’s what this is about though. Biden is part of the system and has used it to systemically suppress unions by literally preventing one from striking. Why should he be praised for limiting his suppression slightly when he could have just… not suppressed unions? He certainly had the required votes in Congress to block any legislation preventing the railway strike.

    Also, is your comment written with the help of AI? I can’t quite put my finger on it but some your writing sounds like it could come straight from an LLM. You also used this symbol: — earlier which isn’t on any standard keyboard layout I know - unless you have some autocorrect feature replacing short dashes with long one’s.


  • Other countries’ systems aren’t directly comparable to the U.S., where federalism complicates labor law uniformity

    Federalism is enshrined in the German constitution and does complicate a shitton of things too though. Labor and contract rights just happen to be there too but isn’t the latter in the US constitution as well?

    Rail strikes in the U.S. directly impact interstate commerce, which federal law prioritizes above all else.

    But so would truck driver union strikes or port worker strikes. As far as my limited knowledge and quick research goes, the latter does strike somewhat frequently and the former doesn’t exist as each company has their own small union, if any.

    Federal law also prioritizes the economy in Germany. It’s just that courts must rule whether the violation of labor rights can be justified with this argument - the government cannot unilaterally disband a strike. That’s the point of separation of powers.

    In the U.S., rail unions face systemic hurdles like the Railway Labor Act, designed to limit disruptions. Comparing outcomes without acknowledging these disparities oversimplifies the issue.

    To some extent, yes. Biden and congress however were not forced by this act to act the way they did if I can read this law correctly. They could’ve easily permitted warning strikes or put significant pressure on the involved companies.

    Even then, indefinite strikes rarely happen in Germany either. There are always several warning strikes beforehand which cause limited damage.

    Finally, your sidetrack about a song and TV production is irrelevant to the discussion of labor rights.

    I thought it was fun to bring up in this topic. The song is quite apt w.r.t. the impact and perception of rail strikes. The GDL is despised by rail companies, politicians, tabloids et al and usually portrayed as unreasonable monsters targeting poor commuters.

    But that’s the entire point of strikes. They must hurt, otherwise they are meaningless. Don’t you think that had Biden not intervened, the workers would’ve gotten all their demands fulfilled - including paid sick leave (mandatory in countries with labor rights btw)?

    The only thing I’m certain about is that if the German government had the same capability to end strikes willy-nilly, rail unions would be neutered until they exist on paper alone. Like they seem to in the US.