Hey, they’re talking about me!

Yes, a blahaj user repeatedly misgendered me after claiming to be apolitical

Yeah, this whole situation is really stressing out my system’s 7/9 introject. It feels very misgendered

If you’re correct to say that the transfem reading of Seven of Nine resonates with the desire not to be accused of having been forced into transitioning, then how does the fact that 7/9 was forced into transitioning make any sense? No, 7/9 is the story of forced transition, forced womanhood. The abuses suffered by intersex infants and nonbinary adults. 7/9’s story is the clericofascist groomer narrative if 7/9 is transfem. But if 7/9 is nonbinary, then its story is the actual oppression of sex and gender nonbinary people.

But all of that is moot because 7/9 didn’t choose to become a woman. Parts of its body were rotting and sloughing off as they were rejected, and Janeway said “Tough nuts, you’re a woman now”. That is the body horror experienced by transmascs. 7/9 never expressed consent, only acceptance that it was the only possible option for survival. Janeway never asked permission, and with 7/9 being forced to become human, everybody implictly accepted that meant 7/9 had to become a woman because humans aren’t nonbinary. That entire angle of the plot dehumanises nonbinary people, not to mention that 7/9 is pressured to pursue men as it becomes a woman because all must bow to the heteropatriarchy.

If trans women see themselves in a being that was forced against its will to become a woman then that is also horrible, and the difference between myself and them is that they have options. Even within Star Trek, trans women have Jadzia Dax and Soren. They have people of their gender with a similar experience and journey. And for the journey of being forced into womanhood under threat of violence we have Seven of Nine. And that is not a transfem experience, that is a transmasc/nonbinary/intersex experience such as I had.

I want to actually look at this idea that it’s offensive to trans people to hold up a nonconsensual example of transition up as an ideal, and to look at it within a safe space for trans people. First, let’s note that every cisgender-identifying person I know was coerced into identifying that way. Most of them turned out to agree with the identity forced upon them. So, that is the baseline we are dealing with when it comes to gender rights. Everyone gets coerced into some ideal. If Starfleet didn’t force gender onto children, they would have a fair criticism of the borg with regard to gender. But we saw Miles and Keiko O’Brien raise their daughter Molly, and Molly was pressured to be a daughter from the moment of her birth. In the place of the narrative, the Borg are a vilain. They explore the question, “what if the federation didn’t care about consent”. We’ve got to have villains like that in fiction, they’re great. So, given the necessity of a villain, do we want yet another binary gender villain, or something more interesting and diverse? And yeah, the villain doesn’t treat gender with respect. That’s okay, they’re a villain. Expecting every trans person in fiction to be raised cisgender and to break out of their programming on their own is… weird. You’re cutting off a lot of stories there just to make trans people suffer and protect this cisnormative ideal of how being trans should work. This is science fiction, there should be alien races who are alien. There should be unfamiliar scenarios. And sometimes unfamiliar science fiction scenarios about villains are the only representation swarmgender not-people like me can get. And it is better than nothing.

The Borg referred to themselves as “we”, and use the third person pronouns they/them. The Borg refer to Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjuct of Unimatrix Zero One as “this drone”, and use the third person pronouns it/its. Seven of Nine also did not particularly enjoy being referred to as “Seven”. It was a concession made for the sake of efficiency and the comfort of the humans, but it voiced its dissatisfaction with the choice when it consented. As a nonbinary person, I have also consented to identifiers I didn’t like for the sake of others’ comfort. I recognise the experience and have direct empathy. Given that we are communicating in a text format, it requires negligible effort to refer to it as 7/9 and preserve the precision with which it wished to be referred.

Now as to 7/9’s stated preference and opinion of Janeway:

JANEWAY: I’ve met Borg who were freed from the Collective. It wasn’t easy for them to accept their individuality, but in time they did. You’re no different. Granted, you were assimilated at a very young age, and your transition may be more difficult, but it will happen.
SEVEN: If it does happen, we will become fully human?
JANEWAY: Yes, I hope so.
SEVEN: We will be autonomous. Independent.
JANEWAY: That’s what individuality is all about.
SEVEN: If at that time we choose to return to the Collective, will you permit it?
JANEWAY: I don’t think you’ll want to do that.
SEVEN: You would deny us the choice as you deny us now. You have imprisoned us in the name of humanity, yet you will not grant us your most cherished human right. To choose our own fate. You are hypocritical, manipulative. We do not want to be what you are. Return us to the Collective!
JANEWAY: You lost the capacity to make a rational choice the moment you were assimilated. They took that from you, and until I’m convinced you’ve gotten it back, I’m making the choice for you. You’re staying here.
SEVEN: Then you are no different than the Borg.

It allowed itself to undergo conversion therapy to become a woman because it saw no other choice. It was locked in a prison until it agreed. That is not consent, that is coersion. It is survival.

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Like, performing magic through sheer martial prowess rather than study and arcane research feels like something that DnD doesn’t have much support for.

It had plenty of support for that in 4e. These days only monks get to be magically martial

Back in 4e, fighters were explicitly supernatural

I don’t think that’s going to happen in our lifetime

Actually, hedonism was invented by a Greek philosopher who was rare among his contemporaries for allowing women and slaves to study at his school as equals. He believed a life of simple pleasures in moderation was the key to happiness. He spent all day gardening and discussing philosophy, and then had a glass of wine and (CW: carnism) cheese before bed. He was also an empiricist who believed the world was made of atoms, and he taught that fear of death was the cause of a great deal of human suffering. He believed people should act with kindness in order to ease their own conscience, instead of doing it because they’re scared of divine punishment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus

Hedonism is antifascist.

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I say we just make it illegal to look at or touch any touchscreen in a car, whether it be a phone, tablet, car screen, or anything else.

If people can’t drive their cars anymore, then good riddance. It’s a safety hazard to the survival of the human species anyway.

I wish a monkey could pass the test, then maybe I’d be able to. I keep failing it because I’m disabled. That’s why I need and love accessible infrastructure.

“Narcissistic behaviour” is an ableist dogwhistle. We don’t talk about enabling deaf behaviour, or autistic behaviour, because those are disabilities we treat with a modicum more respect.

Infantilising mental disabilities is a dick move.

If you’re not a psychiatrist, then you don’t have the training needed to diagnose someone with a mental disability. I don’t care whether your parents actually have NPD or not, but the risk of armchair diagnosing someone is that you’ll just amplify stereotypes. You diagnose them because they meet a stereotype, and then you study their behaviour and reach the conclusion that narcisstists act like the stereotype, and then you spread your conclusion. It’s citogenesis.

Also “narc” when used to say someone has NPD is straight up a slur.

No, I have NPD and we’re called narcs sometimes. It’s often used in the community as a shorthand, but generally if it comes from a neurotypical it’s a slur. I’m aware of the other meaning of the word and I don’t have a problem with it, but I tend not to use it because it just reminds me of the homonym which is actually offensive.