Welcome to Lemmy, here are a few pointers to help you settle in
this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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No Stupid Questions
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Lemmings don't really like when people argue against the majority opinion, on any topic. The Fediverse is incredibly tribal.
Welcome but I don't know.
Maybe I should go answer at !nostupidanswer...
Which AI are you planning to use?
That’s the good thing! You can just run your own instance with your own rules!
Also, if you come in expecting to debate for the removal of trans rights, you won't last long
uhh. where did you get that idea from? I support trans rights.
Welcome to lemmy. To help you get settled, the comment you are replying to is from the admin of a/the dedicated trans instance. And a "little" combative about it.
Ohhhhh that's what Blahaj zone is? I learned something today.
Yep, called after a Blahaj, an IKEA shark and a trans mascot
May I ask why the shark is a trans mascot? I'm genuinly curious.
It may have originated with trans people getting kicked out, shopping for cheap furniture, and then being pleasantly surprised to find a big soft friend at the furniture store - out of nowhere something fun and comforting appears just as they begin a new life.
However, that's speculation, nobody knows for sure. It just sort of became a meme.
It's light blue, white, and pink, which happens to match the colors of the trans flag.
https://www.newsweek.com/how-ikea-shark-became-trans-icon-1753400
What do you want changed then?
To play devil's advocate, trans in sports is a hot topic that I believe merits debate. I'm not going to do that, but it's an example of something that's not just black and white, and that I assume can't be discussed at all at reddit given this post by OP.
So, you'd like to argue for the validity of excluding a vulnerable group, in the middle of a world spanning hate campaign against that exact group?
Ada, chill the fuck out.
Nope. I very specifically said I'm not arguing about that. I'm giving an example of something polarizing that someone may want to have their mind changed on.
Maybe ease up on the hostility. There are people out there that were raised a certain way that want to change or perhaps have questions due to ignorance on the topic. By being combative, you're doing more harm than good for something you clearly care about.
I'm not asking you to argue about it. I explicitly don't want people arguing about it, which I was hoping my previous comment would make clear.
There are people out there that were raised a certain way that want to change or perhaps have questions due to ignorance on the topic. By being combative, you're doing more harm than good for something you clearly care about.
If someone turns against all trans people because they encounter a single angry trans person, then they were just looking for an excuse to justify what they already felt.
And it's not my job to play nice with the people trying to erase my rights in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they'll stop what they're doing! That doesn't work. That has never worked. Every single civil right gain has been made by pushing back.
So thanks for the advice, but I'll keep pushing back
You're not pushing back against anti trans people, you're pushing back against people trying to change and understand. You are doing more harm than good to the trans community, and if you understand that and continue to be that way, then what does that say about you?
This is all an interesting hypothetical to you. To me, it's my lived life. Trust me, I've done what you're talking about. I was active in /r/changemyview, and I've spent a lot of time having this discussion with people on social media.
And in that time, not a single person has changed their perspective or view on the topic. Because they already had a view, and despite the ostensible goal of the sub, they're largely not open to changing their view. They may want to, but they're not actually willing to change it. Because ultimately, people arrived at their "concerns" through emotional manipulation, and that can't be undone by "rational discussion". Like sure, maybe you're the single exception, and in my 5+ years of having this discussion, you might be the first to genuinely change your opinion. But even then, after 5 years of normalising the idea that my rights are up for discussion, as if it's actually ok for people to want them removed because of their "concerns", I'd have a single changed mind in 5 years.
But you know what else I've done in those 5 years? I've told every other person that I've had this discussion with that it's actually ok to debate my rights, that whether or not I deserve rights is based on how well I can debate and argue. And I've given the bigots driving this whole discussion exactly what they wanted, which is to make myself a target.
Fuck that.
So what does it say about me? It says I've got more lived experience in navigating this topic than you ever will, and I'm no longer willing to see "civil discussion" on the erasure of peoples rights, in the pointless hope that it will actually help us. Because it doesn't.
Ok.
i think the real debate should be whether cis people should be allowed in sports. it makes my children uncomfortable to see them pushing their lifestyle down their throats
And that's definitely an opinion you should be able to post and discuss in a forum like changemyview.
That’s not the point. It’s not always about changing your view, but being able to defend and maybe refine your view to a more logically consistent position. Even as a lurker, it’s nice to be able to watch debates on positions that you almost entirely agree or entirely disagree with and read the arguments for and against it. I feel it helps solidify my logically consistent moral views of the world and makes me rethink the ones that are not.
I agree with op that this kind of topic and I would say realistically any topic should be allowed. As long as it’s actively moderated and both sides are constructively arguing for or against the position. It’s definitely one of the few communities I missed the most from Reddit and I wish it was as big here as well.
I feel like Change My View is useful for topics in which reasonable minds might differ in opinion.
Fundamental human rights are not one of those topics.
So, you'd be ok with someone arguing that maybe a discussion about racism is warranted, because sometimes, a bit of racism is warranted?
Or is that only ok when it's trans people?
'cause if you want logical and consistent, that's something you need to ask yourself. Why is it that folk are quite willing to discuss the erasure of rights of just one class of people, when it's not something you'd even consider talking about with most other groups?
There is no consistency in that desire, it's not driven by a desire to be logically consistent. This is driven by political interests and think tanks trying to create social divide. It's not a co-incidence that you just want to consider the logical merits or trans folk, right now, at this moment in history.
Until you're willing to face the reasons behind that, and the impact your social context has on you, you can't be logically consistent.
Yes I would be ok with that kind of question. That argument would be torn apart pretty easily. If you’re curious, at some point some of those topics were allowed on that subreddit and you should still be able to find them.
If your concern is that it’s possible it becomes a weakly moderated cesspool of propaganda or whatever then fine. Until that happens, I don’t understand what the issue is with allowing a moderated debate on sensitive topics by people that are genuinely arguing for or against some position.
That argument would be torn apart pretty easily
Sure. The argument can be torn apart. But that doesn't change anything. What changes when you make those sorts of arguments is simply that it gives a green light to pushing back against marginalised people.
If argument being torn apart was enough, the argument against trans folk in sport wouldn't even be an argument. But it is, because there is a political interest in creating harmful narratives about trans folk, and using exclusion from sport as a wedge to normalise exclusion in other areas. Which is exactly what is happening.
So if you're ok with that sort of question, I think you need to spend a bit more time looking at the context those questions exist in. Why is it now that people want to suddenly talk about trans people in sports. It's not because the trans folk have been doing anything different. It's because there is an explicit motivation to create a culture war, with trans folk as the targets. You shouldn't be ok with being part of that.
Add a turbocharger and intercooler for better performance.
Go to the search bar in Lemmy. Filter to search for Communities. Enter in related search terms such as “changemyview” or “change my view”. Inspect each community to see what their rules are. Inspect the host instance for each community to see what their rules are. Though these communities you find here may not be as active as their Reddit counterparts, you can help grow the social environment you want to experience by participating in these communities.
There are 4 on different instances when I searched, the most active one looks to be [email protected]
I personally havent tried it but "be the change" you know? I didnt see a few subs I missed so I made them (different account). Start posting on there and maybe it will inspire more.
There are a few, but pretty much all of them are inactive: https://lemmyverse.net/communities?query=changemyview&order=active_month
Important Lemmy rule: don't assume a community is dead without having posting on it. I have been answered 9 times out of 10.
Well now I'm curious what the 1 out of 10 was that wasn't answered.
!animalswithat It was on a broken kbin instance that stop existing a few weeks later.
I think it happened to me more than this once but every example I can remember is one or two people answering or a least a ten or a dozen upvotes. So I came up with the conclusion that on the threadiverse, small or inactive communities are not dead: they are sleeping. And a bunch of lurkers or commenters are waiting for a poster to publish anything.
Uhh this sounds sus af.
What topics are you wanting to cover?
This is from the subreddit mods’ rules. I don’t see it necessarily implying OP to be in the wrong or in the right. It really just implies those damn corporate admins are at fault. OP could just want a platform which doesn’t censor a discussion on subject matter alone.
That's very important context for this question
That matches my experience with reddit admin. One of my subs had to implement exactly the same rule.
When I first became active on reddit, I admired how few sitewide rules they had and how much free speech they allowed.
Now they ban debate about one of the most contentious and multifaceted societal issues of the present. What are online discussion forums there for if not to openly and civilly exchange ideas about issues like this?
Part of the problem is that discussion of this issue in particular was very often not civil and created a hostile environment for users.
Probably true. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/ was written before most people cared much about this but certainly applies very strongly to it. I am fortunately not directly affected by it either way (I am neither trans nor a woman nor have any desire to pretend to be trans in order to get access to women's spaces) so it doesn't get my emotions up much to read any side's arguments; I can see why that may be different for others.
Are you familiar with the subreddit /r/changemyview ? I don't have a topic to discuss right now. But I am against the reddit admins banning a certain topic from being discussed because it's controversial.
I haven’t really used reddit since joining Lemmy over 2 years ago now, but yes I’m familiar enough with the sub and its concept.
Is it because it’s controversial, or because nobody operates in good faith and uses it to attack trans people?
Because I’m so tired of JAQ offs.