Lolita's Fist

I had a friend ask me how to handle people justifying their poor treatment of non-binary people with biology - penis, vagina, procreation, chromosomes. I answered: It is important to address all the straw men that they throw out when they argue these points. They set up things for you to battle - gender, procreation, biology - and thereby define the terms of the argument. And those terms are (shrug) all good, for them. If they want to procreate, honor their penises and vaginas, and be addressed as Mr and Mrs, I would fight in the streets for their right to conduct their lives in any way they choose fit.  Point 1. However, just because they are offended by the way other people conduct their lives does not mean they are right. In fact, Mr and Mrs have no right to lean over any fence and dictate to anyone how that person chooses to be addressed or how that person chooses to think about biology.  Point 2. Under the guise of community or religion their attitude is unkind, ungenerous, backwa

I had a thought about how people pick up their phone as soon as I start talking, or interrupt with endless unrelated topics three times in my sentence. I wondered when I have that urge to pick up my phone. I have it when I know the other person is going to interrupt me with their interminable interruptions. Social media is interruptible because it's repetitive, brief, and the algorithm will serve it up again. I can always scroll back or double tap to regain those seconds. The minute or two that I have between the other person's interruptions are entertaining and sharable. Their interruptions are just part of the endless scroll. We're just tossing out personal anecdotes and we're the algorithm. I suppose that is the good thing. I'd rather have the algorithm be us than the coderboys. A silver lining. I can even double tap them if I say, "I missed that last bit, what was that?"