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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat<br><br><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…I’m not so sure Bill W suffers from that here, and I hope will provide some substantiation for his reckoning of trans folks being unhappy with their surgical outcomes…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sure but none of what I was talking about to start with required surgery of any kind. Any of the genders can be any other gender at will. Surgery is expensive and painful.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…Well, I do see Boomers doing the usual hating on younger generations that seems to go back forever…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It isn’t really hating Dan. I recognize it might sound like it to young ears, but a continuous trend I have seen my entire long life is a steady march toward a kinder and gentler world. Younger people have known only that. Older people must seem a bit harsh at times.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…I thought Boomers were supposed to be the generation that broke with traditions…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>And created new ones, as rigid as the ones they broke, ja.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The new rules which are replacing the boomer rules are every bit as rigid as their predecessors.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Every generation must smash the idols of the previous.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… but that’s kind of a stereotype too…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Eh, stereotype shmereotype, it’s how people look at the world. If you don’t do that to some extent you are overwhelmed with data. I figure treat everyone as an individual regardless of observable characteristics, understand that your general models are general and filled with exceptions, move on, no worries.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… (I’m guessing I’m surrounded by Boomers, so I mean no offense and I hope I don’t come across as agist.)…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>No worries, me lad. We are not as easily offended as the younger generations are being trained to be. (Hey I get to say that, because I am a front-row seat witness to how my own son is being educated in the public school system (8<sup>th</sup> grade (my observation is they are still struggling with the illusion that we can create a world in which no one is ever offended (methinks we cannot (I admire the effort and the spirit of the thing however.)))))<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For instance… Do let me pick an extremey but realistic example, one I saw just today. My son’s class went to the movies to see Jumanji (kids have so much fun these days.) I went over to get some lunch at the food court and this guy with approximately a billion earrings and tattoos and bone thru the nose and boat anchors thru the damn cheeks and oh mercy, came, sat a few tables over from me with his girl who had a few orders of magnitude fewer piercings but still a few orders of magnitude more than I was comfortable sitting near, so I moved off, and who woulda thunk, when that old time religion guy was growing up he would never get it if you tried to tell him the truth: a coupla thousand years from now when some geezer sees something deeply revolting he will invoke your name with an intentional Irish accent even if he isn’t a believer (aaah Jaysus…)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>So ja, I am guilty of stereotyping to some extent and won’t give it up (we geezers are that way, all of us) but think about this: what do you suppose it sounds like to those of us who remember fondly the croony swoony old time singers such as Lou Rawls<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://youtu.be/0QTrCBAqTyM">https://youtu.be/0QTrCBAqTyM</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>and compare that beauty to pretty much any rap created perhaps by the grandchildren of the young people seen bopping to Rawls in the video above. If the contrast isn’t stark enough, choose pretty much any modern rap and go to the lyrics: oh mercy. Hell yes that rap crap is offensive to me. We have a society falling all over itself to offend no one, but has a huge blind spot when rap. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><br>>…Less stigma would be great all around… <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Regards,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dan<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sure. But why not stigmatize rap? It is richly deserving of the most shameful stigma I can imagine, yet we turn a blind eye. We stigmatizes disco music, ja? It was the same thing over and over and over, nothing, and it was inexplicably displacing rock n roll, oh dear.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>All of this went down a different (and quite random) road than I intended, so do let me try to steer it back.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I am all for less stigma, more openness and accepting-ity, and all of it. I love the whole kinder and gentler school my son enjoys. He has seen exactly one major fight in 8 years of public education, and it wouldn’t be considered major by my standards: guys used to go at it to that extent regularly in the olden days. A fight like that happened about twenty times per school year in a typical elementary. Now it is practically an existential crisis. Well, ok, this is a good thing, but do let me assure you: if these lads are ever recruited to fight a war, evolution help us. We need to master battle bots quickly, otherwise we are helpless as kittens.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>