unpopular opinions

[WolfyAmbassador]

I like straight pipes.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

18 hours ago, WolfyAmbassador said:

I like straight pipes.

I myself prefer gay pipes

[Spot]

14 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Fluoride substitutes for hydroxyl ions in the apatite crystal structure, which your teeth are made out of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatite

Fluoro-apatite is stronger and more resistant to attack from acid produced by bacteria which live in your mouth: http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=3252

Your opinion isn't an 'unpopular opinion' it's a misunderstanding of chemistry along the line of 'mwur chemicals are nasty, bad and toxic'.

Chlorine and phosphorous are pretty fucking toxic too, but you would die without them. 

 

Thank you Mr 60 Minutes but it's not my opinion. Just an unpopular one I hear a lot of.. 

[Spot]

1 minute ago, Saxon said:

...This thread is for unpopular opinions you hold. 

I didn't read the fine print, kay! D: 

[WileyWarWeasel]

On 12/2/2016 at 11:47 AM, Teto said:

Drain them for all they're worth, right? And in what work camp will you wear out your body for the purpose of productivity? We're all in this people-for-profit dystopia together, after all. Everybody being squeezed like oranges for all the good they can do for "society", whatever "society" is. If people are to serve human progress, what does human progress serve? What's the endgame?

Human progress (utilizing an increasing share of the surrounding environment for our desires) is what we've served ever since we started burning things. Collectively we've progressed and grown into our global environment the same way that yeast has in a vat of sugar water.

Those that did not progress/grow as fast for whatever reason (eg natives in the Americas and Australia) were overrun by those looking to expand as quickly as possible.

Today's global society is merely the logical result of different groups of humans on different levels (eg clan, business, government) trying to grow as quickly as possible while stepping on each others toes in the process (eg wars, trade disputes).

 

You can debate what our higher purpose if any is all day, but I've found one thing to be the most certain:

We are the logical endpoint of a slow accumulation of usable energy stockpiles. Given the many years that vast energy stockpiles have formed (both living and dead) on this planet and the random mutations of a multitude of species it was perhaps inevitable that a species such as ours would eventually evolve to use the energy that has been accumulating for so long. What happens after economically recoverable stockpiles have been depleted should be interesting.

Hope that gives you something to work with

[LazerMaster5]

4chan isn't all that bad. It's just a bunch of dorks posting porn and random life shit.

[KingGigabyte]

I hate being woken up too early and I hate going to sleep in general

Also this generation has way too thin of a skin. Especially ever one on tumblr these days. Kids are sheltered too much unlikes the way it was in the 90s where cartoons are more funny/extreme and a bit gross.

Some people need to take baths because holy crap I hate standing in line with you if you stink.

[jcstinks]

I think many trans people, especially furries, are either mistaken or deliberately making it up.

[Shiekra Tora]

6 hours ago, KingGigabyte said:

Also this generation has way too thin of a skin. Especially ever one on tumblr these days. Kids are sheltered too much unlikes the way it was in the 90s where cartoons are more funny/extreme and a bit gross.

Mmm this. So much this. I saw someone on Twitter complaining because they were in a NSFW telegram chat that was making jokes "Triggering" them and when they brought it up, the chat replied with "It's NSFW, not a safe space."

Sorry, the internet is NOT a safe space. The WORLD isin't a safe space.

[WileyWarWeasel]

1 hour ago, jcstinks said:

I think many trans people, especially furries, are either mistaken or deliberately making it up.

This may be a naive question but why would they be making up being trans?

[PastryOfApathy]

2 minutes ago, WileyWarWeasel said:

This may be a naive question but why would they be making up being trans?

Oppression points.

[willow]

the term "thin skinned" in reference to pretty much anything these days is oftentimes misused

3 minutes ago, WileyWarWeasel said:

This may be a naive question but why would they be making up being trans?

Special snowflake syndrome

[jcstinks]

15 minutes ago, WileyWarWeasel said:

This may be a naive question but why would they be making up being trans?

Being trans is trendy now. Especially in Online fandom communities. But especially especially in the furry community.

The number of trans people on this forum, alone, has to be around 100x (i am not lying) the amount in the general population.

0.3% of people, in general, are trans.

4 out of the 20 people I know here are trans. (25%)

That means people I know through here are approximately 83x as likely to be trans as the general population.

Some reasons for mistransing are:

: Autism spectrum disorder, which has a high likelihood that you will identify as "trans" to make up for the bodily discomfort and social difficulties that accompanies the disorder
: It's trendy; a lot of people, in general, are turning to being trans as a fashion statement, like in this article from the New York Times, which quotes a university professor as saying, "It's gone from marginal to trendy."
: In minority and activist communities, you are rewarded for being the most minority and most activist. Being transgender on top of being gay is the natural next step for anyone who wants to identify as part of the LGBT community.
: Many furries are uncomfortable with themselves, in general. We are not the most attractive bunch. And we tend to have few friends. It is easy to become convinced that your lack of social graces is due to being in the wrong body, especially while surrounded by people who also believe that.
: It gives you points in the Oppression Olympics (tm). You can now start dialogues with the phrase, "As a transgender person..."
: Positive attention and support. There is a wide support network on the Internet and on college campuses for people whom are transgender, but not for people whom are cisgender.
: Mistaking sexual fetishes for gender identity. Some people, especially young people, have an attraction to being perceived as the opposite gender. They falsely equate "hobby" and "lifestyle."
: Shifting the blame of social failures or bullying away from themselves. It's easier to swallow that you have few friends because they are ignorant or oppressive, rather than because you are an unpleasant person or an easy target.

Edited February 26, 2016 by jcstinks

[willow]

if you take general forum population (693) though, only 1% are trans

[Vae]

Why is the board's trans population so farfetched, again?

We rank so low on the percentage of even trans people in the world, that we wouldn't even qualify as anything in most standard decimal-based number rounding.

[Zeke]

Out of the 4 people I know who are trans, one of them is actually a "Mis-trans". Not because of "oppression olympics", but because the person wanted to fit in with the other 3 transpeople they know.  That and the uncomfortable fact that there are some male furries do not take females furs seriously. Yeah, you gotta be a bitch to them to get your point across and work harder, but the effort is worth it when they cry salty tears when you prove them wrong.

Not knocking Trans because for every psychosomatic person, there's always more people who fit the criteria.

[PastryOfApathy]

17 minutes ago, Vae said:

Why is the board's trans population so farfetched, again?

We rank so low on the percentage of even trans people in the world, that we wouldn't even qualify as anything in most standard decimal-based number rounding.

Because many trans people tend to have a hard time fitting in with other people so they turn to the internet. Combine that with furfaggotry's reputation for being accepting of virtually everything whether they should or not and you get this.

[Zeke]

3 hours ago, Saxon said:

 

 

I don't really buy this notion that women are victims of ineffable oppression everywhere, such that they must even work hard to prove to the male furries that they are real furries. 

A couple of women were ranting at me the other day, at a scholar's evening, about the distributed unconscious discrimination they face, as exemplified by the fact that less than half of the academic scholars who earned their right to recognition [in exams in which the markers don't know the candidate's sex] were women. 

They literally viewed any difference in parity as evidence of inequality. 

[It was only made more ironic by the fact that both of them were choral scholars, and hence were permitted to attend events for high academic achievers regardless of their own academic merit.]

That's why I used the word "SOME" and not "Most", "All" or "Many".

However,  any nerd culture girls aren't taken as seriously and often are the target of harassment (both sexually and otherwise), despite the growing numbers if boys vs. Girls. Most of the nerdy geek culture stuff is still seen as a "Gentleman's club". 

If you are doing anything that's considered being a leader, your gender often gets called into question and not the fact if you are being too lenient or not firm enough. And even if you are firm, it's often viewed as being "bitchy"  or "manipulative" for reasons that you aren't being a doormat.

 

Maybe it isn't a big deal for you, but me and others having to deal with it from IRL furries and game groups that can be competitive...yeah., it's crappy. It's also exasperating.  Trans-people also have to face the same thing as well, which is shitty all around.

[Zeke]

3 hours ago, Saxon said:

In the furrydom, I'm not convinced that we have a misogynistic gentleman's club. Despite being a minority, women actually make up the majority of venerated artists and suitbuilders in the fandom.

The closest thing we get to endemic misogyny in the furrydom is men asking whether an artist could draw a naked man next time, rather than a naked woman. 

From an artist's standpoint or on the net in general, the fandom doesn't care. Socially in  public gatherings and such, it can flux. People's behaviors in social settings makes bias noticeable with furs. As I said, just because you don't see it or care, doesn't mean it's a myth. or it doesn't happen. It just means you don't see it or you are lucky not to hear about it.  Good on you. :V

 

 

[Fantasma]

Just saying, I have yet to meet a fake trans person.

Heck, most of us on here are on or seek to be hormones... not faking.

[Zeke]

3 hours ago, Saxon said:

If it did exist and was appreciable then I would care. 

'Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist' is the same old response I get when student representatives are lecturing me about how we need to coddle prospective students who identify as LGBT, by sending counselors to console them about how they can cope with the horrors of being gay at university...those places which are probably the most accepting of you being gay. 

If 1 person complains, then they assume it's indicative of a tidal wave of unreported abuses. If nobody complains, then obviously we're too oppressed to complain! 

It's getting really silly and people making accusations of systematic mistreatment need better arguments than those commonly used to support the existence of god. 'just because you don't feel him, doesn't mean he's not there'. 

Except you don't notice it, so it does not exist to you. It's the same argument people defend doing stupid, or say stupid things. 

Except here I am not stating nor suggesting coddling, but a little bit of self-awareness which many people do not have when treating other people. Fandoms aren't excluded from this, and sweeping it under the rug as "You just want people to pity you/we gotta coddle" is just as ignorant as sweeping generalizations that everyone does it. 

Even if 1 person complains, its not a complaint that overgeneralizes the whole group as a cesspit, it just means that there are problems that have not been addressed fully and no dialogue has been established to address it. If people do not speak up or say something, then it is always assumed that there are no problems to begin with until an issue blows up and becomes a full scale problem later. 

And that "accusation" comes down to social bias; you don't notice it, or you do not care to. Pick one. However, people who usually counter or fail to understand why there are complains aren't the most socially-aware outside of their own circle and choose to disregard it fully because it doesn't exist to them. 

 

[willow]

28 minutes ago, Saxon said:

If it did exist and was appreciable then I would care. 

'Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist' is the same old response I get when student representatives are lecturing me about how we need to coddle prospective students who identify as LGBT, by sending counselors to console them about how they can cope with the horrors of being gay at university...those places which are probably the most accepting of you being gay. 

 

maybe you're lucky enough to be at a university that is accepting but not all universities are that accepting. especially in the states 

 

[Zeke]

3 hours ago, Saxon said:

If you experience someone being nasty to you because you're wearing a brand of shoe they don't like, then it's premature to assume you live in a society in which class structures are based on shoe brands; you might have just bumped into a particularly loathsome individual. 

 

lol Okay then . :V

 

3 hours ago, Saxon said:

You never are going to fully address all problems, but this doesn't mean that the existence of a problem in any magnitude implies the existence of a systemic issue.

Talking about issues helps address them but shutting it down as trivial or non existent creates more of the same problem.

 

[Vae]

59 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Honestly I'm not sure what you hope to achieve by dividing the phoenix forum population by the global population of trans people.

Do you have any idea?

Because even amongst the numbers of trans people in the world (A percentage that was presented as argument for why all the users claiming to be trans couldn't, because the probability is so low.),
our forum population still doesn't measure up to even anything that counts for shit,
even inside that tiny bracket of the human population.

I mean, I thought that was kind of obvious, but I'm also half the fuck asleep.
What was even the point of this nitpick?


I'm also not claiming that anyone who claims to be trans is.
It's just that the numbers argument is kind of dumb given the actual scope of how many people actually exist.

[Vae]

6 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Not all dribbles of water indicate a pent up damn's worth of water behind them. If you have reason to believe they do, then yes, discussing them is a very good idea. If you do not, then you end up making mountains out of molehills and may even end up pouring scorn on conspiracies of nasty people who are entirely imagined. 

Obviously our forum's population is going to be smaller than the global population of transgender people. What exactly do you think that this flagrantly obvious fact shows? ._. 

 

Do you think it shows that we can't conclude that transgender people are over-represented on this forum? Because it has absolutely nothing to do with that. 

That would be like saying 'gay people aren't over-represented on this forum, because the number of gay people world wide exceeds 700' It has fuck all to do with anything. O_o 

Where are you reading any of this in my post, to begin with?

I literally just tore apart the numbers being presented, because it was silly.
That's literally the entire thing.
Because the world has 7 billion fucking people in it, so a 0.3 percentage is still a lot higher in numbers than you think it would be at first glance.

That was my entire point.

I don't really care about the rest of this shit.

[willow]

21 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Well, I could be at a university in Mogadishu, and that would definitely not be accepting. Your point is of limited relevance because you know that I'm not discussing foreign universities that I don't attend. 

then don't make a general statement saying universities tend to be more accepting.....

[Zeke]

Anti lgbt people do not exist because I have never encountered one. :v

[Zeke]

5 minutes ago, Saxon said:

At which point I can offer you wide spread evidence to the contrary, by siting several influential political and religion institution's statements about gay people and a catalogue of transgressions against them. 

You can't really do the same to prove that the furry fandom is a haven for misogyny though, can you? You can only rattle out personal anecdotes which might just be you or your friends' experiences, rather than representations of a prevailing pattern. 

All you can do is plead that the absence of evidence is somehow evidence itself. 

I can find some but the links are dubious (mostly tumblr). I didn't link them for that reason alone. Of course, a sardonic post is serious for you to comment on but something that does happen (not on a regular basis, mind you) isn't. 

http://www.adjectivespecies.com/2013/03/18/a-bitch-about-fu

rry/

[Zeke]

24 minutes ago, Saxon said:

-stuff-

It's called "taking it with a grain of salt", but you wanted an example, and I gave you one. That's actually one of the few I found that wasn't a heavy tangent.

 

51 minutes ago, Saxon said:

54 minutes ago, Zeke said:

I can find some but the links are dubious (mostly tumblr). I didn't link them for that reason alone. Of course, a sardonic post is serious for you to comment on but something that does happen (not on a regular basis, mind you) isn't. 

Can you clarify this sentence, I'm having trouble deciphering it. 

Essentially I don't think that the furrydom is anti woman; a disproportionate number of its idols are in fact women. Even at sausage fest meet ups, there hasn't been a 'boy's club' attitude towards women. 

I think that people who experience nasty treatment are getting it from rare furries who happen to be misogynists, rather than because the furrydom is encouraging or permissive towards anti-woman behaviour is any way. 

I actually did state Some", but you overlooked that bit and assumed that it was over-generalization. Yes, some furries can be misogynist dicks, but not all of them. Within the encounters at meet ups and cons, the number is low, very low. Behaviors from the nasty types can be shitty, especially when the shitty person likes to act out. 

We can continue to argue or agree to disagree. 

[Terminal7]

I have a strong feeling that in the next 1000 years or so, we will be able to reanimate the deceased and have the body function under AI and designated programming for all organ systems.

We will officially have a "Flesh Puppet".

 

[Zeke]

3 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Essentially the best evidence you can find that furrydom is actively harbouring misogyny is a bullshit opinion piece criticising swearing and championing positive discrimination*, that barely addresses the question. 

At the same time as stating 'some' you've repeatedly implied that the there exists a trend towards misogynistic behaviour in the furrydom or that these isolated cases have something to do with furrydom, rather than being just isolated cases of misogynists who also happened to be furries. 

You also expressed concerns that unless we respond to these 'very low' numbers as if they are going to cause a tidal wave of misogyny, that the problems 'will expand to full scale'. 

Maybe your friend who is 'mis-trans' has other things going on with her personally, rather than being excluded by the furries because she is a woman. 

 

 

*Hasn't anybody stopped to wonder what it would be like to be the person on the good end of positive discrimination, anyway? Getting a job and know you were placed ahead of other more suitable candidates because of your sex, or your race? It would feel fucking terrible. 

Except that I am not implying,you are. Furthermore, you require proof that people can sometimes be assholes to a specific group. Next time this argument comes up, I will make sure I'll take full high-def videos. Then again, it'll go to waste.

[Butters]

Just stopping in to say that the fact that the furry fandom has a lot of female artists doesn't mean it isn't silly to women (or queer folk in general) sometimes.  

That sort of argument makes no sense anyway. As minorities in society can be exploited without being treated equal or having equal rights. Not that there is much to exploit in this fandom, but in geek culture, anything against the status quo is seen as icky. 

[Butters]

Just now, Saxon said:

...Furry doesn't like queers?

 

....you fucking kidding me? 

 

Also when did women automatically become part of 'queer folk in general' or a minority? They're half the fucking human race. 

"Queer" as genderqueer. To people who do not adhere to gender roles. A lot of furries have issues with that.  

Also we are talking about the furry fandom where you just admitted that women are a minority within it. 

[Naesaki]

Saxon I've sat here and wondered why on you earth you debate like this, Zeke and what not, give you concise replies, yet you seem to pick up on the most minor and insignificant nitpicks and gloss over their whole post like you haven't really read it in the first place and are just picking out key parts to tear apart for no real reason other than to further fuel a debate that didn't need debating further, every thread you crop up in, you seem to love going for all the nitpicks. I know people out there can love debates for the sake of debates but this is just ridiculous.

You my good sir, confuse me.

As the old saying goes. You're making a mountain out of a molehill.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Naesaki

[Naesaki]

4 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Read the article zeke posted. Go on. 

 

I would but its Tumblr so I'd rather not, thank you very much

Seriously as Zeke said, take things like tumblr with a grain of salt, its not to be taken seriously by any stretch of the imagination. You'll give yourself way too much of a headache for trying to delve deep into the underbelly of the beast.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Naesaki

[Butters]

9 minutes ago, Saxon said:

 

JESUS CHRIST. 

 

Calm thy self. 

[willow]

17 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Read the article zeke posted. Go on. 

 

I just glossed over it because I can't dedicate time to read the whole thing right now, but the article isn't saying that people who use sexist language are sexist or hold sexist views, rather it's saying furries generally don't comprehend that their language might be hurtful to someone

at least that's what the part that you were arguing about says

keep in mind the article is also from 2013 

[Terminal7]

Ahhh. So this is where the forum's speed goes to!

This thread is going real fast!

[Clove Darkwave]

Unpopular opinion: The absurdities of teenagers shouldn't be used as way to denounce the real deal.

Unpopular opinion: Gender identity really shouldn't be a topic of huge debate.

Now let's get this thread back on topic, please. Make a split thread to argue childish semantics.

 

[Pignog]

some people hold the unpopular opinion that tim hortons is inedible trash

im one of these ppl but i still shovel the coffee and donuts down my throat with a ramrod every morning,cup and all

[Rukh Whitefang]

Alright, I'll add to this thread being that some of my opinions are not unknown.

I do not agree with same sex marriage.

I view marriage as something sacred.

I do not agree with divorce (there are reasons but 99% of the time its wrong).

My faith is extremely important to me.

[Endless/Nameless]

My unpopular opinion: The people that are constantly babbling about the evils of racism are the biggest racists of all. Instead of making the situation better, they're actually helping to carve more holes to stuff people into. They make you feel like you need to treat blacks/gays/etc special, when if you really respected them you'd treat them like anybody else. They say that we're not supposed to notice color and such, but it seems to me that they've got it on their minds quite a damn bit...

But I'm probably wrong. Whatever.

[Ieono]

9 minutes ago, Endless/Nameless said:

My unpopular opinion: The people that are constantly babbling about the evils of racism are the biggest racists of all. Instead of making the situation better, they're actually helping to carve more holes to stuff people into. They make you feel like you need to treat blacks/gays/etc special, when if you really respected them you'd treat them like anybody else. They say that we're not supposed to notice color and such, but it seems to me that they've got it on their minds quite a damn bit...

But I'm probably wrong. Whatever.

......Abolitionists??? *facepalm*

[Endless/Nameless]

Just now, Ieono said:

......Abolitionists??? *facepalm*

I don't mean them. I'm talkin' tumblrites. Present-day.

[Ieono]

Just now, Endless/Nameless said:

I don't mean them. I'm talkin' tumblrites. Present-day.

Details matter.

People that babble about the evils of racism have done a hell of a lot more for social equality than people who have said and done nothing when slavery and jim crow-esque discrimination has existed. The reality is that we do not live in a post-racial society. People are still being brought up to think lowly of other groups of people based merely on their skin tone. People who counteract this are doing society a favor, not the other way around. Social pressures effect real change. 

It would be nice if we do come to a point where race is no longer something people pay attention to in all areas of our society. But that day cannot come until all colors of people have the same opportunities and are treated in the same way, in nearly all of our human civilizations. Because after all, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

[Endless/Nameless]

3 minutes ago, Ieono said:

Details matter.

People that babble about the evils of racism have done a hell of a lot more for social equality than people who have said and done nothing when slavery and jim crow-esque discrimination has existed. The reality is that we do not live in a post-racial society. People are still being brought up to think lowly of other groups of people based merely on their skin tone. People who counteract this are doing society a favor, not the other way around. Social pressures effect real change. 

It would be nice if we do come to a point where race is no longer something people pay attention to in all areas of our society. But that day cannot come until all colors of people have the same opportunities and are treated in the same way, in nearly all of our human civilizations. Because after all, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

I respect your opinion.

[WileyWarWeasel]

@PastryOfApathy @willow @jcstinks Thanks for the info, suffice to say that some parts of society are getting even more ridiculous if that were possible.

Since no one else seems to have claimed it yet, I'll just say I'm octo-gender to be the most unique of them all! ;V

On topic: The global economy never actually recovered from the 2008 GFC, merely papered over it with financial manipulation and debt.

[Gay Tush]

I feel that the LGBT community needs to stop blame shifting. Being born gay doesn't mean you don't have the ability to make choices. When you choose to follow your heart, that is a choice. So instead of saying "I was born gay, so don't blame me for being gay," more people should be saying "I chose to have sex with guys, and maybe it is unethical by your standards, but I don't care. You can blame me but that won't change my actions. Sorry you disagree."

In a similar vein, I believe it's not wrong for someone who's gay to choose a heterosexual lifestyle. In the end it's all about choice.

[Cingal]

I think resolving issues of gender identity should be about stopping a person feeling that way, not further playing into the fantasy.

[WileyWarWeasel]

10 minutes ago, Gay Tush said:

I feel that the LGBT community needs to stop blame shifting. Being born gay doesn't mean you don't have the ability to make choices. When you choose to follow your heart, that is a choice. So instead of saying "I was born gay, so don't blame me for being gay," more people should be saying "I chose to have sex with guys, and maybe it is unethical by your standards, but I don't care. You can blame me but that won't change my actions. Sorry you disagree."

In a similar vein, I believe it's not wrong for someone who's gay to choose a heterosexual lifestyle. In the end it's all about choice.

What if they don't get aroused by the opposite sex?