Random Thoughts II

[blynk]

I wonder if some of the media outlets are doing a Fuck You.

On all the headlines this morning are about NZ not being allowing to name the (suspected) killer, however it is posted online on international media

Basically telling anyone how easy it is to find who the person is.

[pxpx]

Well he didn't get suppression initially, the judge declined it. The current suppression is interim only until it's re-litigated next year. So yeah, pretty much.

[blynk]

Yeah, I seriously doubt he will get permanent name suppression.

[Ab]

Mentally-ill woman gives birth to daughter

[Nich]

[StN]

Needs more laser, but exactly why I (we?) came here.

Is there a big enough palm to face?

[Whiplash]

Have we reached full retard yet?

[[Malks] Pixie]

No, we're at penultimate moron at the moment.

[fixed_truth]

I don't think it's classified as a mental illness anymore.

So just 'transgender man' gives birth.

[MadMax]

2009 will be the year of HOT

[Ab]

Originally Posted by fixed_truth

I don't think it's classified as a mental illness anymore.

So just 'transgender man' gives birth.

It is, see “gender dysphoria”

As this woman attempts to transit to maleness I wish her all the best and if at the end he is a cool dad, cool. But let’s not pretend that a man grew a baby in his womb and gave birth.

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

It is, see “gender dysphoria”

Oh ok I remember reading something about it being declassified completely but that was just the WHO at this stage. Though the DSM–5 has been updated to distinguish between gender nonconformity and gender dysphoria, so being trans doesn't necessitate being mentally ill.

It replaces the diagnostic name “gender identity disorder” with “gender dysphoria,” as well as makes other important clarifications in the criteria. It is important to note that gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder. The critical element of gender dysphoria is the presence of clinically significant distress associated with the condition.

Originally Posted by Ab

As this woman attempts to transit to maleness I wish her all the best and if at the end he is a cool dad, cool. But let’s not pretend that a man grew a baby in his womb and gave birth.

I'm still trying to keep up with and understand all this gender identity, sex, and sexual orientation stuff and how it all works. I see that there's a distinction between gender identity and sex so from this a transgender man can grow a baby in their womb and give birth because the 'man' label associated with them is only referring to their gender identity, I think.

[verve_rat]

Transition aside, they are on anxiety meds and have "four-hour long panic attacks".

So label still fits regardless.

[StN]

Originally Posted by verve_rat

Transition aside, they are on anxiety meds and have "four-hour long panic attacks".

So label still fits regardless.

This is the sanest explanation I have seen for choosing "They" as the preferred pronoun - mental.

[fixed_truth]

Gee I wonder if significant stress associated with gender nonconformity mostly develops due to the way they are treated? It can't be very good for your mental health to be subject to discrimination, stigma, lack of acceptance, and abuse throughout society and on a regular basis.

[Ab]

The sound of cocaine:

Steely Dan, Gaucho
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
... trying to find others

[StN]

^ A lot of post-Cream Clapton...

[Nich]

Aerosmith

[Lightspeed]

Here's an NZH link I'm willing to click, like & share:

Media Council faults Herald article on cyclists

He said the article gave this incident disproportionate attention and the headline was designed to be sensational or clickbait. The complainant also said it targeted vulnerable road users, constituted incitement and had generated threatening and aggressive comment.

[MadMax]

I Was A Cable Guy. I Saw The Worst Of America.
A glimpse of the suburban grotesque, featuring Russian mobsters, Fox News rage addicts, a caged man in a sex dungeon, and Dick Cheney.

This is great

[chiQ]

Originally Posted by Ab

It is, see “gender dysphoria”

As this woman attempts to transit to maleness I wish her all the best and if at the end he is a cool dad, cool. But let’s not pretend that a man grew a baby in his womb and gave birth.

No, this man, who has walked around in a chick skin for his entire life, is fixing what's broken, i.e. the gender disphoria, by transitioning. The fact that the chick skin came with female gonads and a uterus is by the by, and really convenient if he wanted to procreate. It's a case of using what nature gave you, even if it's been allocated to the wrong human being.

[Ab]

No, this man, who has walked around in a chick skin for his entire life, is fixing what's broken, i.e. the gender disphoria, by transitioning.

In the same way that people with body integrity dysphoria, people who feel that parts of their bodies do not belong to them, fix that by...um... "transitioning" to an amputee state. By having surgery to remove that arm or that leg that he or she feels belongs to someone else.

They might be happier afterwards. Doesn't mean that those people aren't mentally ill.

And if such a person has a baby before having her leg cut off, she doesn't get to say "oh I was always an amputee on the inside, therefore the baby was born to an amputee". Well, I mean, she could say that, but it would be nonsense.

[fixed_truth]

I’m not sure that you can lump together all types of psychological distress people have about their bodies. Different psychological distress has interventions ranging from counselling, cosmetic surgery to amputation. Whether peoples decisions negatively affect themselves or others is relevant, and I don’t think someone pursuing medical assistance to change their sexual characteristics to match their gender identity does.

As mentioned earlier, it’s determined by the DSM–5 that there’s nothing inherently wrong with not identifying with the gender traditionally associated with sex so I don’t see why getting a harmless procedure to resolve psychological distress should mean people are judged to be nutty.

[Ab]

DSM-5 is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the USA. It's a descriptive classification, not a definitive one. It changes from time to time. For example, Asperger Syndrome no longer exists under DSM-5. It's now just part of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Peter Coleman, President of the New Zealand Psychological Society, and Kerry Gibson, President Elect, comment:

“We, like many psychologists around the world, are concerned that the changes in the DSM are not supported by clear research evidence. As is generally recognised, DSM has always been a consensus document and in part reflects changes in social norms and beliefs (e.g. homosexuality was once listed as a mental disorder) as much as empirical research.

“The fact that the DSM-5 has lowered the threshold for some diagnoses and added a number of additional diagnoses raises the risk of giving a mental health diagnosis to someone who may simply be experiencing normal problems of living. In DSM IV, for example, a diagnosis of depression specifically excluded people who had lost a loved one up to two months previously. The removal of this criterion in DSM-5 creates potential for people suffering understandable grief to be diagnosed with depression and treated with antidepressants. In another change, Aspergers Syndrome disappears and has been absorbed into a uni-dimensional Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

“Whilst such changes might be confusing for many people, psychologists are trained to use their clinical judgement rather than blindly following a diagnostic manual in working with their clients and it is unlikely that their day-to-day practice will be affected by such diagnostic changes.”

https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz...perts-respond/

And just because someone has a mental disorder we shouldn't call them nutty. People with anxiety and depression, Asperger Syndrome, and gender dysphoria aren't nutty. They are just suffering from mental disorders.

So, when I read that Scout Barbour-Evans voluntarily had her breasts amputated and was on anxiety and sleep medication and having four-hour panic attacks, I -- a layman -- feel perfectly comfortable describing her as a woman suffering from a mental disorder. If in trying to deal with her mental disorder she decides to live life as a man, I hope he then has a productive stable life and fulfils his duties as a dad. That will not change the fact that Scout was a woman with a mental disorder who became a mother.

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Ab

So, when I read that Scout Barbour-Evans voluntarily had her breasts amputated and was on anxiety and sleep medication and having four-hour panic attacks, I -- a layman -- feel perfectly comfortable describing her as a woman suffering from a mental disorder. If in trying to deal with her mental disorder she decides to live life as a man, I hope he then has a productive stable life and fulfils his duties as a dad. That will not change the fact that Scout was a woman with a mental disorder who became a mother.

That's fine, I mistook the argument as suggesting that her being transgender and voluntarily having her breasts amputated makes her mentally ill - rather than Minority stress.

[Ab]

You were right the first time: it makes her mentally ill.

[fixed_truth]

Might have to agree to disagree.

People can be transgender and voluntarily have their breasts amputated and not be diagnosed as mentally ill. It can only become classified as mental illness when their condition is ‘associated with clinically significant distress or impairment’.
Yes, in this case there is that association. My point is that it’s the associated psychological distress that makes it an illness and to a large extent this stress is induced by societal stigma.

[Ab]

In 2015, I had multiple major suicide attempts. The last one sent my liver spiraling into near total failure. Lucky for me, livers bounce back from severe injury pretty quickly.

My first experience in a locked psychiatric ward was a very offputting one, and since that time I’ve been really lucky to only be admitted to unlocked wards. However, this week things have come to a head.

The first psychiatrist I ever saw, I was 18. I’d been in counselling for about 4 years prior, I just hadn’t been able to access a psychiatrist yet. He was one of Australia’s best, who generously donated his time to the youth health clinic I was a patient at.

I was diagnosed with Bipolar II, Social Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Anorexia Nervosa. It was certainly a handful, and I’ve always hated rattling off my list of diagnoses. I moved back to New Zealand and since then, I’ve been rediagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, then re-rediagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, an “unknown mood or personality disorder”, and Gender Dysphoria, which is a fancy doctor term for someone who is transgender that allows us access to basic healthcare we should just be able to choose to have of our own accord.

I still strongly identify with the Bipolar II diagnosis, some doctors agree, some do not. I believe it still applies because my mood swings are not reactive, they just happen. This month’s depressive episode is the first I’ve had that has been reactive. Psychiatry is the only type of medicine where it’s okay for doctors to be biased and diagnose patients in ways that can be “treated” with the pharmaceutical products that they’re sponsored to use. (I’m not anti-psychiatric medication, I think it helps some people a lot, I just believe the industry is preventing doctors from being objective or reasonable in their diagnosing).

The Bipolar II had been beginning to rear its head for a few years to that point, my psychologist had been pretty suspicious it was playing a part in where I was at. I still experience it — I have depressive episodes, like I am right now, where I am sad and grumpy and irritable and anxious and don’t have any motivation, until I end up talking myself out of suicide every night and realize I need some extra support. And then I have hypomanic episodes, where everything is hilarious and I’m the life of the party and I want to sleep with everyone and I get really, really psychotic until I’m so paranoid the world is trying to kill me that I’ve hidden from my friends for a week straight. (It’s exhausting.)

Nah bro pretty sure she's mentally ill


Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder

This whole "I'm suicidal! Now I'm an activist! Now I'm a politician! Now I'm a Maori! Now I'm a dad!" schtick will be ringing familiar alarm bells for anyone who has ever come near someone with BPD.

Edit: for bonus points, read Scout's blog quotes but picture Liz Shaw.

[MadMax]

Campsites: I couldn’t t help but not notice parallels between them and what pockets of society would be like in a post-apocalyptic future.

Entrance fees. At first everyone was just happy for extra company but the entrance fees have become a standard thing and are getting more and more expensive as time goes on.

Safety in numbers. Just don’t leave your shit unattended or it’s guaranteed to be swiped.

All walks of life are accepted and are guaranteed to participate.

There will be a self-appointed unofficial or official leader who probably won’t have the support of the majority but most people are just ... happy campers and don’t care for the politics.

People die and get injured. Keep away from the rocky cliff faces no matter their attraction when swimming underneath them.

People are generally awesome but bad eggs will ruin the fun. Good news is that the bad eggs don’t hang around for long.

There’s no noise control. You’re going to need to learn to love the noise that comes with the territory.

Communication with the outside world is patchy or nonexistent.

[StN]

This last script made me think of BOFH mixed with this...

Might be a Simon/Waikato thing.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by StN

This last script made me think of BOFH mixed with this...

Might be a Simon/Waikato thing.

That 2003 Simon guy sounds like a right tool

[Ab]

Yesterday: Amazon becomes world's most valuable public company

Today: Jeff and Katherine Bezos to divorce

Timing, bitches.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/comp...10-p50qjp.html

[Ab]

Washington state, where the Bezoses live, is a community property state. That means that any wealth made during their marriage could be split equally between the two. Since Amazon was founded a year after the Bezoses were married, MacKenzie could argue that she is entitled to half of Bezos' entire Amazon-based fortune. That means she could get as much as $66 billion based on the value of the company today.

To fund a settlement that big, Bezos would have sell or pledge shares, which could dilute his ownership and control of the company.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/how-...a-divorce.html

[Lightspeed]

What kind of cynical are we? That she's chosen the opportune moment, or that together they're using a divorce to somehow leverage their position? Maybe a bit of both?

[Cyberbob]

This is basically what one of the ENRON executives did. He divorced his wife for a stripper. The courts forced the sale of his stocks, and he couldn't be accused of using inside information to sell early because technically the courts made him do it.

[DrTiTus]

Alexa won't say "niggers", "camel" or "jockeys", but is quite happy to say "jews", "crackers", "rednex". She thinks you say "books" when you make Asian slurs. However, "ching chang chinaman" is appropriate.

I just wanted to hear Killa Hill Niggas, but her response led me down a path of racist curiosity.

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

What kind of cynical are we? That she's chosen the opportune moment, or that together they're using a divorce to somehow leverage their position? Maybe a bit of both?

Imagine having billions and being married - you can have anything you want... except what you really want.

I won't hold my breath waiting for him to post a sad face emoji asking for her back.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

What kind of cynical are we? That she's chosen the opportune moment, or that together they're using a divorce to somehow leverage their position? Maybe a bit of both?

I bow before your next-level cynicism, that's some cold-ass House of Cards shit

[Cyberbob]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

Alexa won't say "niggers", "camel" or "jockeys", but is quite happy to say "jews", "crackers", "rednex". She thinks you say "books" when you make Asian slurs. However, "ching chang chinaman" is appropriate.

I just wanted to hear Killa Hill Niggas, but her response led me down a path of racist curiosity.

I got a Dot for xmas from my company. My kids decided the first thing they'd say to it was "Alexa, do you know Pikachu." Now Alexa's self-installed some software that will let my kids talk to Pikachu.

I don't have many smart home devices to really take advantage of it, but I'm impressed.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

What kind of cynical are we? That she's chosen the opportune moment, or that together they're using a divorce to somehow leverage their position? Maybe a bit of both?

According to the news today Bezos has been having an affair, the Bezoses separated 8 months ago, and the divorce is the result of a tabloid sting by the National Enquirer at Donald Trump's behest. Whee!