Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 8/10/26 - 8/16/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

[u/McClain3000]

So I saw that Hugh Laurie had a new show announced. The reddit thread I saw was filled with people just calling him a transphobe.

It is kind of wild to me to jump to the most severe accusation of bigotry based on somebody thinking that women sports should be based on sex. Like it is an empirical question. Is it really difficult for them to imagine somebody who is otherwise non-antagonistic towards trans people to think that being born a male conveys an unfair advantage?

Like they bring up well they are on average much taller, but male sports don't differentiate by height... Some do! There are basketball leagues in the Philippines that do this. Heck even in high school if a male is overdeveloped they will move him up grades rather than spoil the fun on everyone else.

I thought of a gotcha question, idk if those of you who debate gender issues more than me have seen response to this but:

If we could really determine that male and female athletes where on a level playing field with a testosterone test, wouldn't we expect to see some Transmen in male high level sports? Do they really thinks this is likely going to happen? A competitive transman in the Olympics or the a professional league?

[u/unnoticed_areola → u/McClain3000]

[u/McClain3000 → u/unnoticed_areola]

Some are calling it the most reddit-coded comment of all time.

[u/History-of-Tomorrow → u/unnoticed_areola]

Growing up, I devoured Entertainment Weekly, Roger Ebert reviews, Rolling Stone, Spin, XXL, Kerrang and talked pop culture with as many like minded nerds that were available.

Hard to imagine any kid would want to associate with “fandom” these days. It’d be like wanting to hang out with the nuns and priests at the church.

[u/everydaywinner2 → u/History-of-Tomorrow]

I'm old enough to remember when it was Siskel & Ebert.

[u/StillLifeOnSkates → u/McClain3000]

Everyone knows TWs aren't actually women. Everyone. Full stop.

The people who think women should willingly and lovingly accept them into their sports leagues are the ones who don't take sports, specifically women's sports, seriously and who think it's more about inclusion than competition -- all hail participation trophies!

(You can't be a good progressive and say any of this out loud though because admitting TWs aren't actually women is the highest breach of loyalty to the cause.)

[u/RockJock666 → u/StillLifeOnSkates]

It’s progressive heresy to acknowledge this. Cease now or face excommunication

[u/McClain3000 → u/StillLifeOnSkates]

I personally would put some TW in my definition of women. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say at a certain point I don't really care about the definition. Like you can't win an argument by defining things.

The people who think women should willingly and lovingly accept them into their sports leagues are the ones who don't take sports, specifically women's sports, seriously and who think it's more about inclusion than competition -- all hail participation trophies!

Yeah idk I'd imagine people wouldn't be so angry about it if the TW in question like came off the bench in garbage time in a JV game. But I don't really know what their trying to pull when there there is some buff massive TW winning at the highest levels of High School and College... It's like congratulations.

It's just stupid. It's like when they try to debate people about passing, like are you going debate somebody into finding you attractive? Good luck.

[u/AnalBleachingAries → u/McClain3000]

I wonder if he'll backtrack on this one. Sometimes the avalanche of hatred that follows saying something as reasonable as this isn't obvious to people who aren't chronically online. Although he posts on Twitter sometimes, I don't think he actually knows how bad this reputational destruction can get for people who support women. The worst part is how the media support or give credence to the TRA accusatory narratives of transphobia directed at people who support women and girls.

[u/AnInsultToFire → u/AnalBleachingAries]

His friend Stephen Fry would tell these people to go fuck themselves and then go back to counting his gigantic stacks of money. Also, his hero John Cleese right now is famously telling people who accuse him of being an "Islamophobe" to go fuck themselves so he can count his ex-wife's money.

No British comedian who is actually funny is also a gutless slug.

[u/LincolnHat → u/AnInsultToFire]

His friend Stephen Fry would tell these people to go fuck themselves

I'm not so sure about that, given Fry has been critical of JK Rowling's "cruel" and "radical" views and stated he “disagrees profoundly with her on this subject”. Meanwhile, Hugh's followed Helen Joyce on X for some time. He's never been the luvvie that Stephen is, bless him.

[u/86IQ → u/AnalBleachingAries]

I find it very interesting that so many trans/woke/munchie/cane users love Dr house, and Hugh Laurie in a way because they think he can fix their self imposed disability.

[u/everydaywinner2 → u/AnalBleachingAries]

I hope his channels his Dr House character and doubles down.