It's interesting to me bc I don't have as much of a salient concept of me as a discrete entity. Like I think of myself more as a collection of brain modules, many of whom disagree with each other, that sorta have to live together in the same vessel. And I feel like the person I am when I wake up is not the same person as the one who went to sleep bc I just feel so different every day. So removing a part of me that brings suffering to the other parts is psychologically less like death and more like changing a tire on a car, like yeah it's not the same as before but it never is anyway.
It's all hypothetical anyway bc these are things I cannot change
Funny enough this isn't true where I come from. In my native dialect, a person of unknown gender is referred to as "he", a fact I vehemently defended before I discovered that I was trans (because being referred to as he hurts less if it's a gender neutral pronoun)
Language that accommodates you by default is great. Last time I visited Mexico all I had to do to reveal my pronouns was to refer to myself and my wife as "nosotras". And then everyone refers to us as "amigas" and you feel so in-place.
Rare circumstance when being a trans lesbian is a benefit lmao
You make some good points, and I don't mean to invalidate anything you say but the emotions are running hot right now so hopefully this take comes out reasonable.
I think there's something to be said for not looking back too much. Lots of terrible things in the past that are best left alone.
Philosophically, who are we but a culmination of our experiences? Is the concept of the self as a discrete unit meaningful? If we were to go back and change the past, would that result in the me of today being different person? Well, in my eyes, every day I wake up a different person - only a shadow of who I was the previous day remains anyway. So hypothetically, personally, changing the past doesn't destroy "me" in a way I'd find too meaningfully substantial
3. Lots of trauma in the past.
Abusive household. Lost all my friends when I came out. And now the only people I can truly relate to are people who I talk to over the internet. I hardly know how to socialize face to face. Almost died from self harm.
If I could erase all this trauma, if I could have a community that I could meet face to face, and be comfortable in the body I lived in, would this not be better?
possible internalized transphobia
Are we just inventing rationalizations for why we're happy where we are because we can't change it?
Ultimately it's moot because we can't change it. Live with what you've got and look ahead to make the future the best one you can have.
Just checked, it looks like it's fiber. Definitely has something plugged into the wall anyway - I'm kinda afraid of unplugging it and ruining my internet access.
Yo a kindred spirit! Hi! I've been struggling with angry outbursts my whole life and I'm always terrified that I might lose control. It's a recent development that I'm learning that my anger at (capitalist) society is quite warranted. Inshallah we'll bring about a society that is rationally optimized for the well being of all!
And yeah, I also frequently get criticized for being two-faced or something similar because I am not so great at reading social cues and figuring out what people need. Not for lack of trying. Be so much easier if people just told me what they wanted from me lmao - I'm a nice person and I try to help when I know it's necessary
Ah yes the comic that deprogrammed me on anarchism