The Back Alley

A place to sit in a dumpster with your own bottle & moan about the saloon bar

Musha rig um du rum da
Whack fol the daddy o
Whack fol the daddy o
There's whiskey in the jar

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Just a quick question...

Is making an article on Miniminuteman (decently famous archaeologist who releases YouTube videos debunking conspiracy theories) or Filip Zieba (TikToker who spits out conspiracy theorists) following RationalWiki's mission. Just asking as although I'm experienced with wikis, I'm not too sure on this wiki. Tavantius (talk) 15:21, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

@Tavantius Just to clarify, when you say, "following RationalWiki's mission", do you mean the TikTokker spews out conspiracy theories based on what they read here? The MoR (talk) 15:29, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

@MethodsOfRationality No. That was just a dumb mistake on my part. I'm just asking if the former and latter people could have articles here based on RationalWiki's mission. Tavantius (talk) 15:31, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

oh in that case, per Rationalwiki:Mission, "RationalWiki is not a general encyclopedia; it does not require articles on every ::known subject. :However, the wiki's mainspace welcomes many articles that do not relate to the primary missions of RationalWiki ::providing that they are :factually accurate and of interest to the community at large. These include articles on general science, ::historical events and :important individuals throughout the world.

The mission outlines what RationalWikians like to write about. As per most community standards, it's not a hard rule, but more of a ::suggestion. Articles that are wholly or mostly on-mission are likely to stay; those that aren't will probably go."

So I would say that if it's of interest to the community, it's welcome, and I would say someone who debunks conspiracy theories is of

relative importance here, but I think it is better to ask the others. As for the TikTokker, that would align with "Documenting the ::full :range of crank ideas;" so I would say that that's something that aligns with the mission, but again lets see what the others ::have to say. The MoR (talk) 15:36, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Both are missional, yes. For Youtubers we have a minimum notability requirement of 100k subscribers, however. Carthage (talk) 14:43, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

What Are Your Thoughts On This.

It's a common cause (being trans) that causes both having lower life expectancy and taking on estrogens.

Why is being trans lowers life expectancy on average ? Because it comes from a mental illness that makes you value your life less and think more about suicide, resulting in trans people committing suicide more often than sane people.

However, taking estrogens isn't linked to increase (nor lower) the risk of ill people from committing suicide, unlike the comic claims.

And before anyone starts : it's not a problem about society, a person with dysphoria will still feel off with its body even if alone on an island. ^{— Unsigned, by: 1.43.237.109 / talk / contribs}

The problem with trans mortality studies (like [1][2]) is that, at the moment, they are limited in scope. Nonetheless, to me, two things stand out:

A) Trans women often travelled in "similarish" circles as other LGBTQ people, therefore it's not surprising that the HIV epidemic heavily affected them just as such affected male homosexuals. I would expect studies to show further improvement in mortality over time as treatment for HIV continues to improve... just as it has for male homosexuals.

B) To use your *cough* frank terms, yes, poor IQ dumbfuck troll assholes who think of trans as a "mental illness" (compared to, what? Shitposting on a Wiki? That ain't sane, boy...) absolutely has an impact on trans lifespan, as the risk of suicide and other mental health issues is much higher.

That's the main thing it seems we know so far. I would hazard that there is probably little difference once a few "gotcha" factors like the above are ruled out. I can name a relatively well known trans woman off the top of my head that actually is older than Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Can you? BobJohnson (talk) 14:34, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

OP is wrong. Modern decent stats show that medical transitioning improves mental health outcomes as a rule for those who do - and that transitioning earlier in life [ie teen] gets better results than adult [this makes perfect fucking sense - if I know I don't want to be a woman, making me experience six years becoming one is at least 'deeply stressful' to most 'cruel punishment']. It's not about 'valuing your life less', it's the associated strains/stresses of being a minority and for trans people it's being a very visible, small minority which in countries like the USA is also a political punchbag.

Let's consider this. If you are trans and aren't 125% sure you pass [ie almost nobody] simply fucking existing is stressful. Every new bar, restaurant, shop, hotel etc is a level of at least mild anxiety - what if someone says something / is insulting / refuses service / etc? Will my employer be cool - and really cool or pretend cool for HR/PR reasons? [This is even more important if you're in a country which you need your work medical insurance to cover your E or T]. Constantly having to be the 'trans ambassador' to your cis circle whether you fucking want it or not, dealing with folks from your 'OldLife' [and possible rejection from some or even all] while dealing with the haters, the creeps and the bigots - and constantly worrying about their existence. A decent % are 'double minorities' - about half of transwomen and a quarter of transmen are bi/gay - which carries it's own baggage [and if they're an ethnic minority that's a triple minority!]. Love in general is an issue; the majority of cis people won't date a trans person [the only folks who scored over 50% on 'yes' is bi/pan folks and as we're about 5% of the population, we're a real small pool of 'possibles' to fish in].

Factor all this in, and then say trans folks have lower life expectancy and higher rates and worse mental heath - the only reasonable reply you can give is 'no fucking shit Sherlock!' KarmaPolice (talk) 18:59, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

What do you label as mental illness? Do these trans people commit suicide before or after transitioning? 🇷🇸 Serbian Arbiter (What would you have your arbiter do?) 10:05, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

How Come When I Look For Criticisms For Judaism All I See Is Antisemitic Shit.

I Like To Look At Criticisms Of Religions Such As Christianity And Islam, Etc. But When Look For Stuff On Judaism All There Is Stuff About Jews Being Evil All That Stereotypical Stuff Right. And Even When They Examine Stuff Like The Torah And Talmud, They Find Them As An Excuse To Paint Jews As Evil Folk, Now Don't Get Me Wrong I Find A Lot Of The Stuff In The Torah And Talmud To Messed Up (Like The Bible And Quran), But Use To Paint A Unsavory Picture Of Jewish People Which I Tried Looking At Their Side (Which I Do When Looking A Different Arguments). There Were Some Ok Ones Such As How Criticism Of Judaism Is Often Conflated With Antisemitism (Which Fair Enough Nothing Is Free From Criticism). But Then Most Of It Was Conspiracy And Ruling The World Drivel. What Do You Guys Think. P.S I Not Antisemitic In Any Way I'm Just Like To Look At Religious Criticisms As I'm An Ex-Muslim. ^{— Unsigned, by: Tryhardbutnottoomuch. / talk / contribs}

Why is this in titlecase? 🇷🇸 Serbian Arbiter (What would you have your arbiter do?) 10:08, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Just How I Do It. ^{— Unsigned, by: Tryhardbutnottoomuch. / talk / contribs}

On talk pages, please sign your comments using four tildes (~~~~) or by clicking on the sign button:

on the toolbar above the edit panel. You can also indent successive talk page comments using one more colon (:) for each line. Thank you. Carthage (talk) 07:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Post-Election Site Protection

As the election looms closer, we may have to take action here. Does the Bar (and critical articles) here need extended protection for a time concerning the ramped-up risk of trolls, including sockpuppets of banned users? Considering the HCM four years prior, what measures can be taken to ensure order here and prevent HCM amidst the election fallout? Because topics at the Bar and beyond may or may not get derailed by said socks coming in to cause mayhem. (For the Bar in particular, a sock often lingers for longer here compared to the mainspace as the banhammer response is delayed and the sock gets some engagement, and by the time the sock is banned, it's often too late to salvage the talk.) TheEternalOutsider (talk) 20:48, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

Speaking purely personally, I do try to 're-rail' a discussion if a troll did make a hijack attempt. There's also a few users who are fairly hot in troll-collapsing shit, while as a rule mods are hotter than I am on hammering the culprits [though this is more due to time diffs than anything else, though between us all I think we do provide 'continuity of cover']. I am personally more concerned about folks crossing the 'despair event horizon' or simply wallowing in angst/fear if the Orange One wins [or even if he doesn't], with folks being wound up even more by trolls a close second.

One thing which I think we need to consider is opening up a separate 'election Bar' or something and divert points etc away from the SB. Otherwise, the SB will become 95% filled with it [regardless how it happens] and folks might want somewhere which isn't full of it.

One other thing which complicates is that RW will be having our own mod elections after Nov 5th... KarmaPolice (talk) 21:30, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

A sort of adaptive lock could be useful, but it might be hard to implement. After all, there are a lot of political pages even after excluding all other countries', out, so a full lock might be a better solution --

This user is RWs self-appointed culinary expert

N A Z U N A -H I W A T A S H I-

Error 404TheAlePower (talk) 18:47, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

This wiki could enter HCM in the coming weeks. Beware. TheEternalOutsider (talk) 06:41, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

So who is winning?

Posting here since the main page is locked. But according to Google, it seems Trump is currently in lead. Though not sure how accurate it is. Does this mean we'll have to deal with that guy again? Honestly scared of him and worst case scenario can at least know he can never run again if he pulls a Cleveland. ^{— Unsigned, by: Harshlife / talk / contribs}

Anything left to do?

So looks like another four year nightmare. However, there seems hope still. If Nixon could be removed in disgrace, might Trump receive the same? Even with GOP in majority, might there still be a way to fight or is the country finished? Or can waiting out four years do any good? ^{— Unsigned, by: Harshlife / talk / contribs}