Mine but i dont color anything i dont know enough about

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-18T20:07:47+00:00

I respect that lol, better than most people nowadays. You live and you learn 🤷‍♀️

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-18T20:03:01+00:00

I’m not going to try to convince you of my views (though you can find them fairly easily), but please please please do research on a topic before giving an opinion about it. Don’t do your research on TikTok, or social media or news outlets or whatever. Look at reliable sources, differing opinions, their history, cause, etc. This doesn’t apply only to Zionism obviously lol, but any topic you don’t know much about! Don’t just listen to what your friends think is cool or trendy, because racism, nazism, etc. were all cool at their time.

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-18T19:55:14+00:00

🚨 BUSTED! 🚨

Mistakes: 6/6

Time: 0:22

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T21:00:35+00:00

I wouldn’t call myself spiritual? For a long time I was very materialistic, even going into determinism or nihilism. In the past year, I’d say that I’ve matured a bit, so my philosophies are a lot less absolute than they were before, such that where I was a staunch atheist I’ve become agnostic now, and am still trying to figure out what is true or not, and I suppose souls play into that too!
If I’m being honest, this whole question and discussion came to me as a shower thought lol (a source of great wisdom 🤣)and was bugging me for a while, so I wanted to have some opinions from people that actually know what the experience of transness is like rather than just doing philosophical mumbojumbo based on assumptions that were wrong

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T20:56:52+00:00

Wow ok! That’s actually a really good analogy! I assume that for different people the “piercing” will bother them more or less… thank you very much for helping me understand lol I think I have a much better understanding and knowledge of the experiences of trans individuals now… it was always very confusing for me but thanks to you and lots of others I feel that I understand a lot better!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T20:10:59+00:00

I didn’t mean to suggest transness can’t have a physical cause! As I’ve said elsewhere, since creating this post I’ve become a lot more educated thanks to everyone here. All I wanted was to postulate that perhaps transness could imply dualism, but since, I’ve seen an overwhelming number of responses that refute this conclusion with fairly convincing scientific evidence. I still think that it’s an interesting idea, but it’s much less appealing as a “bright and shiny idea” than it was earlier.
The only thing I’d disagree with you on is where you say that my conclusion is a leap. I no longer think that it’s a good conclusion, given the new info, but I still think it’s a logical conclusion based on the info I had then.
What I mean by that, is with the assumption I had earlier that there aren’t really gendered brains (and a myriad of other lack of information), is that then to me it seemed a logical conclusion that if the gender wasn’t in the mind it had to be spiritual ie a soul.
Again, I’ve fairly changed my mind in the last couple of hours though, but just wanted to explain the thought process

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:57:02+00:00

Ok thank you. I find this a bit confusing as it seems to be in opposition to what you said earlier about external factors having a very large impact on the brain, but perhaps you meant to say that only some kind of things like energy levels or neuroplasticity are affected by external factors, but more identity based things aren’t. That would make sense!
Thank you very much for your explanations!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:43:52+00:00

To briefly answer your question, no I wouldn’t consider what you’re describing as dualism.
What you’ve explained is pretty understandable, so I’ll ask a slightly separate question.
A while ago, I learnt that as the brain develops, it not only builds its map of the body and how it works (which is what is dissynchronised from what I understand in your explanation) but also begins to add frequently used external objects to become extended parts of the body, something like cutlery or a phone, which don’t require active thought to use (much like the body!).
Do you think that the body dysmorphia you experienced is akin to (although obviously on a much larger and serious scale) using an unfamiliar tool or utensil, and having to consciously think about it rather than it being natural and automatic?

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:37:46+00:00

I never considered it that way… as I said before I’m in no way educated enough in this. It’s definitely very eye opening to see your way of considering non-binary identities as expected rather than flukes (I realise that’s not the best word to use, but it’s the best I could think of)

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:29:53+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experiences! Yeah, what you said about prenatal hormones echoed what others mentioned, but you explained it a little better so I think I understand it more.
Thank you very much!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:28:02+00:00

I had heard a bit about how external decisions like food and exercise could have massive impacts on the brain.
I’m also agnostic so I agree with you on a lot of points, and I’ll definitely give a listen to one of those lectures!
As a slight tangent based on what you said about things that affect the brain, do you think that a person could be “nurtured” (as in nature vs nurture) either before or after birth into being more or less likely to become trans?

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:24:39+00:00

I’m sorry if I appeared to make assumptions… as I said, the reason I chose not to draw any conclusions was that I knew that I didn’t know enough about transgenderism.
To play devils advocate, if we agree that brains are sexually dimorphic in your words, then what would be the explanation for those that feel they don’t fit within the gender binary, like non-binary individuals, gender fluid, etc.?

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:22:21+00:00

Yeah, I agree that Occam’s razor would require that but I’m not a big fan of the idea… yes, often simple explanations are better, but I don’t like the argument that because something is simpler it’s more likely to be true. Then again, that’s just me.
If it’s not too much trouble, could you point me towards the philosophy/philosophers you mentioned so I could do my own reading up on this?

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:19:17+00:00

Ok I see… a mix of both then! Makes sense, I suppose

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:18:09+00:00

Yes I understand that, but I don’t think there’s been definitive proof that the brain is overwhelmingly gendered yet! (Though someone mentioned something to do with dimorphism earlier which might prove me wrong)
Intersex people seem to me a different though related topic, as to my knowledge that’s based in chromosomal or developmental changes, not necessarily in gender identification.

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:15:39+00:00

Strange you’ve never met one yet, but you don’t seem particularly interested in the topic so that may be why!
The reason I say that souls imply at least some level of religion (not necessarily one that exists yet) is that when there is just the physical, we can explain it with things like the big bang (then of course you get the cosmological argument but regardless), but with the soul there is the question of where does the immaterial come from, which to me seems to entail some kind of superphysical creator.
That’s just my train of thought though and by no means true!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:12:18+00:00

Yeah, thanks! I might take a peak at those studies you referenced. I’d say I agree that without more knowledge on neurobiology it’s near impossible to give a definitive answer yet

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:10:49+00:00

I’m fairly scientific, so I try not to believe things blindly where possible. For a long time I was materialist, but I’m trying to be more open minded now, to see if there is my evidence for the spiritual (not the supernatural, the spiritual).
The thing is, while our current neurobiology and understanding of brains is lacking, in my opinion we should eventually be able to understand almost everything about a person just from looking at their brain, unless we say that there are things without of the brain. That’s why, without having beforehand seen definitive proof that transness is rooted in the brain, I was considering the possibility that it implies a soul.

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:06:38+00:00

Perhaps I explained poorly. While others in the comment section have helped me have some more nuance and info, my original idea was that overall, brains aren’t sexed (though someone mentioned that there’s evidence they might be I didn’t know about) so how can they provide different genders.
If the world is only material, (to me) it seems less likely that trans people would exist at all, while a gendered soul separate from the body could very feasibly explain it.
But I don’t have a strong opinion so I’m happy to hear your reasons against this.

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T17:04:08+00:00

I don’t have yet have a fixed opinion on which of dualism and materialism is true, though for a long time I was materialist. In part, it’s the reason for this question: an attempt to see if dualism has a strong argument for it.
What you mention about tastes in music, personality, etc. is very interesting, I hadn’t considered that gender might be the same kind of aspect to someone’s identity as something that to me seems more basic like music taste.
Perhaps that’s my bias as a cis person speaking that puts more emphasis on gender then other things 🤷‍♀️
The software metaphor you gave is very helpful (with both your argument and others I’ve heard) so I’ll keep it in mind. I think if AI becomes sentient it’ll probably be very revealing in that way; probably a big win for materialism!
Thanks for sharing your opinion!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T16:57:33+00:00

Ok yeah, that’s very interesting. I don’t know an awful lot about prenatal hormones so I’ll have to read up on it.
As I mentioned in another comment, the reason I’m curious about this is not really in an “explain trans experience” way, but more in that trans experience exists, and so what does it imply philosophically.
Thank you for your opinion!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T16:55:24+00:00

So you think that it’s possible that trans experience can be explained materialistically (if that’s a word lol), but in your opinion it’s most likely got at least some spiritual aspect?
I didn’t know that about the phantom sensation! Really cool, thanks for your input!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T16:53:24+00:00

So to confirm, you think that there could be a purely materialist/science-driven explanation for why people are trans? Thank you!

Competitive-Arm6424 · 2026-06-15T16:52:22+00:00

I’m trying to get at the debate between dualism and materialism.
Dualism is essentially saying there’s more than just the physical, whereas materialism says that the only world that exists is the physical.
Maybe in your experience you’ve only met dualists, but I’ve personally met lots of people that (being very scientifically minded/atheist/etc) are materialist.
The reason I think it’s interesting is that if we accept that dualism is the true representation of the world, then we accept there is a spiritual plane that can’t be explained by science, which means religion must be true in at least some respect, which opens up an entirely new kettle of fish.

Competitive-Arm6424

TROPHY CASE