Mmmm… Spicy fly.

Honestly, based genie. Instead of fucking you over by twisting your wish into something negative, he fucks you over by spending time on small details. At least the latter will likely result in something you actually want, whereas the former will probably suck.

I found a group of people who actually give a fuck about each other. I am never letting them go. They are stuck with me now.

Until recently I would have said 0%, but probably 95% of my current friends would rush me to a hospital (if it was physically possible) the other 5% are perpetually busy and would probably find someone who could.

That’s only true if you don’t look under the covers.

Spoilers: there’s a furry orgy hiding beneath.

I find it really amusing that furries are probably the most unique American subculture, yet we get shunned by most Americans. Go figure lmao.

It’s forcing an agenda or an “ideological war” in the same way the civil war was about states rights.

Yeah, it was about states rights: the right for non-slave states to choose not to return escaped slaves. That’s a huge reason why the south got so pissy at the north, the north decided they didn’t want to return slaves to the south; slavery wasn’t legal in the north and so being an escaped slave in the north effectively meant you were a Freedman. The south didn’t like that because they saw slaves as property that was basically “stealing itself”.

Something similar is going on with trans rights, only it’s even more complex than the factors leading to the civil war. It’s about the right to do what you want with your own body. The right to be seen how you want to be seen, and treated how you want to be treated (yanno, within reason; I’m not gonna bow down to someone who claims to be a princess and kiss her feet, but I will call her a princess if she asks). These are, in my opinion, basic human rights and as such, attempting to state anything else is “The Agenda”. Unsurprisingly, history repeats itself and the bigots are now attempting to force their agenda and ideology on others while claiming the other side is the one doing it (this, btw, is called projection).

Note: there are a ton of different cultural factors that make bigots believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong. Tbh, I don’t really want to get into that because I’d be writing pages instead of paragraphs. However, a lot of it in the US specifically has to do with religion and adherence to tradition; and how as life gets harder, people adhere more and more strongly to tradition. Well, life’s getting hard for the average American. They’re feeling increasingly squeezed for time and money, so out goes rationality and empathy, and in comes tradition and religion.

It’s hard to accept change when you feel that change brings more bad than good.

Btw, if you and your sister are both AFAB then, for the love of god, support her. As a trans woman who didn’t start transitioning until she was 30, it would have meant a lot to me and radically changed my life if I’d had friends I was comfortable truly being myself around; and it means a hell of a lot more if the support is coming from your peers (in this case, female classmates, especially cisfem classmates).

It’s scary as fuck being trans, and I won’t lie, cis women are intimidating. I don’t really give a shit about how cis men see me. In my head, cis-women are the ultimate judge of who gets to be called “a woman” and it makes me feel like a little part of my soul dies every time I’m rejected. Like, I’m sorry I wasn’t born pretty. I’m sorry I was born with a penis, and I have wide shoulders and narrow hips and my tits are still tiny because I just started hrt. I can’t help it and there’s only so much I can physically change. Anything else is too expensive.

I just want to be myself and be accepted for it.

Treat her as her preferred gender. Make her forget she was AMAB and the bigotry of the world around her. Invite her to girls nights, let her try on clothes and do a cute little spin when she puts on a skirt. Help her do make up and braid her hair (if it’s long enough). Play games together, watch movies together, treat her as one of you. Be her friend’s “cool big sister”.

And when life kicks her in the balls for being “a man”, make sure you and your sister give her a shoulder to cry on. Remind her that, when it comes to human anatomy, a penis is almost literally just a huge clit. No, seriously. Fetuses start out with female genitalia regardless of chromosomes, and then the female genitals turn into male genitals before birth (if you have XY chromosomes, usually). So she doesn’t have a penis, just has a very well endowed clitoris.

Do that and you might also find other trans gals (and possibly trans guys and non-binary pals) congregating around you. Your sister’s friend may feel like they can be more open about being trans, but not everyone does. For every trans person who lives out of the closet, there are probably 5 more who are too scared to be their best selves out of fear of rejection. Publically showing acceptance will help others feel accepted themselves (and in turn, help them to accept themselves, because that’s a really hard thing to do). Public acceptance also helps normalize being trans as being “Just A Thing Some Humans Do”, which helps fight against bigotry itself.

Join the revolution, fight against bigotry, hug a tr*nny.

Edit: also, if she’s old enough, make sure knows she still needs to use condoms if she wants to top (or her partner if she’s a bottom and likes penises). Just because she’s a girl doesn’t mean she can’t get other gals pregnant, and STDs are still very much a thing. You gotta be on hrt for the sperm to stop swimming and even then it takes a little while for that to happen. I personally wouldn’t take the risk (and that’s ignoring the possibility of STDs).

Edit 2: oh! I almost forgot, this is one of my favorite resources to send people who are questioning or want to understand more about what we go through. Give it a read and consider sending it to your sister and her friend as well. There will be kids who use it against your sister’s friend and other trans kids at her school, so keep an eye out for people getting bullied; buuuuut it’ll tell you about the different ways dysphoria can manifest, why gender affirming care is important, and the kinds of changes hrt can bring for those questioning.

No, she’s just a bully and an asshole. If you sister can’t kick her ass, kick her ass yourself and help your sister find better friends. Your sister probably needs the support, otherwise she probably wouldn’t be “”“friends”“” with people like that.

shrug Idk if it’s really that insane. Tbh I’m not convinced the hype isn’t being manufactured. I have a cousin who’s a pretty bog standard, flavor-of-the-month gamer, and he’s said nothing about GTA VI.

Not saying you’re necessarily wrong, I guess, just that something seems off.

No, I’m honestly surprised. I’ve barely heard anything about GTA VI. Seriously. I don’t care about it, none of my friends have talked about it despite being the kinda game that they’d be into, and I’ve only seen one or two articles on it.

You sure it’s that highly anticipated? My observation is that people have gotten really sick and tired of AAA games, and this is a shift that’s occurred since RDR2 came out. Very few of the people I know still regularly play AAA games, and those who do almost never buy them on launch. I haven’t seen anywhere near the same amount of hype for GTA VI as I saw for GTA IV or GTA V.

You’re accusing me of being disingenuous? Maybe you’re the one who’s buying into the hype and overestimating public interest. Or perhaps the true answer is somewhere in the middle. Who knows. I was not intentionally downplaying your favorite series though.

Wait, do people still get excited for GTA? I thought GTA V online killed a lot of goodwill for the series.

The number one thing I’ve been missing are Spotify jams. Spotify also has a wider selection of music, but tbh it’s rare for Spotify to have something that Qobuz doesn’t. Spotify also has lyrics, playlist folders, and audiobooks; though tbh I haven’t checked to see if Qobuz has the latter.

I love Qobuz. Also for those of you trying to boycott US goods, it’s a French company. I just wish it had the same adoption and features as Spotify.

I mean, they could introduce a new character who takes shelter in a mysterious, dilapidated research facility during the 7 hour war and finds themselves in a hellish labyrinth of puzzles. Maybe said character finds Chell in the field and helps release her (there’s some speculation Chell never made it out, but was actually in some kind of biosphere based on some in-game hints).

God, I love this comic. Thank you for A) making me aware that it got a continuation and B) compiling it into an easier-to-read format.

It makes the opossum in me very happy.

It’s wild when you look into how many different languages are “Chinese”. It’s like if someone were to say that someone from Germany spoke “European”.

Note: unfortunately these are all on PC and don’t have couch coop unless specified otherwise. I also don’t think they have DRM aside from normal steam stuff (or require an internet connection for actual gameplay purposes), but any steam DRM should be easy to remove.

Warframe: space ninjas: the game (though it does require an online connection since it’s basically a coop mmo, and it is third-person as opposed to first-person)

Payday: basically cops vs robbers. You’re the robbers.

Killing Floor: Lodesemone! Dosh! Grab it while you can, lads! Money, money, money! Coop zombie survival. I hope you love blood and gore.

Abiotic Factor: what if you were a scientist in the Black Mesa GATE Cascade Research Facility and you had to survive? Can be played single player or multiplayer.

Halo: MCC: Halo already has a reputation for being the ultimate coop shooter. The MCC adds and expands coop for the games; however the PC version lacks split-screen. This can supposedly be added back with a mod, but I haven’t tried it so I can’t attest to how functional it is.

I’ve heard Sven Coop is really good if you like Half-Life stuff. It’s a coop Half-Life mod.

Risk of Rain 2: technically third-person, but a very good coop shooter.

There’s a mod for that now, so you don’t have to do the Nucleus Coop bullshit. I haven’t tried it, so I dunno how well it works, but ye.

Fyi, afaik Halo MCC supports 2 player coop on Halo: CE, and 4 player coop on the other games. That said, they removed split-screen on the PC version. Supposedly they keep saying they’ll add it back eventually but, well, “eventually” has yet to happen.

That said, I’ve read there’s a mod for native split screen now so you don’t have to do the awkward Nucleus Coop stuff. I haven’t tried it though, so ymmv.

Damn, you must be a pretty shallow-minded person to miss the fact that the culture war is perpetuated by the rich to keep us from working together. Racism, religious institutions, sexism, queerphobia, these are tools that the rich and powerful use to keep us divided. When you allow them to wage a culture war unopposed, you are letting them use their ideological “weapons of war” without retaliation.

And no, this isn’t just about wanting to be called a woman. This is about being made illegal for who I am. I can’t fight against the wealth gap if I’m in prison for having tits and a dick, now can I? I can’t fight against the wealth gap if I’m struggling from derealization, depersonalization, dissociation, and suicidal depression brought about by crippling dysphoria as a result of being unable to access estrogen, now can I?

If I dared to suggest we prioritize reducing the disparity in wealth over fighting a culture war, you people immediately assume I’m an enemy.

No, because doing one means doing the other. Who do you think is waging the culture war in the first place?

Personally, as a trans person, I don’t want your loyalty. I don’t care about your loyalty. We don’t know one another at all so I don’t even know if you’re someone I’d actually want to hang around; and I’m not gonna ask for loyalty from a total stranger.

What I want is for you to act like a decent human being and understand that the culture war is part of a much larger war about wealth inequality; and that you’re going to struggle if you allow your allies to slowly get picked off by the ones waging the war in the first place. If that occurred then the best you could hope for would be a pyrrhic victory that leaves you asking, “we won, but at what cost?”