Hello, everyone.
I wanted to share with you an article written by Professor Juan Cole regarding the term Islam, and the possible translations in which the early Muslim/Believer community had meant of the word Islam. According to Professor Cole, he argues that the term islam may have meant something different than the usually pressumed translation of "submission".
To read the full article, please go to this link: Paradosis and monotheism: a late antique approach to the meaning of islām in the Quran
To summarize, Cole makes a few points regarding the early association of islam as tradition rather than submission. He points toward John bar Penkaye, a seventh-century Christian living under the Umayyads, who spoke of the Umayyad authorities enforcing a tradition (mashlmānūtā) of Muhammad. A century later, Cole notes, it would become the common Syriac Christian term for Islam.

"The Syriac word derives from the trilateral Semitic root shlm, a cognate of the Arabic slm from which aslama comes. Late antique Christian authors used the Syriac term to mean tradition or a teaching that is passed on.¹² It can mean “scripture” itself. Cyriacus of Nisibus composed a work on the tradition (mashlmānūtā) of Paul. Rabbis spoke of the Mosaic mashlmānūtā or tradition, and also made the term synonymous with the Mishna, the oral scripture commentary, and hence an ongoing, living tradition.¹³ Dictionaries of Syriac give the verb from which this noun derives a wide range of meanings, including handing down, capitulating, betraying, succeeding and commenting.¹⁴"

The term "loanshift" is meant to describe a process in which within bilingual communities or societies a term or word in one language takes a new meaning or connotation because of the influence of a word in another language. The diverse meanings of the Syriac mashlmānūtā, Cole writes, "derive from it being a loanshift of the Greek term παράδοσις (paradosis), which has a similarly wide range of meanings having to do both with surrender and with the passing on or acceptance of a tradition."
The model of Alan Race and John Hick offers in the way which religions view the prosect of salvation toward other faiths and beliefs conform to three possibilities: exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. The Quran itself seems to ridicule the exclusivist policies of the Jews and the Christians in *the Cow (2:135): "*They say: 'Become Jews and Christians and be guided.' No, the word (millah) of Abraham, the pious gentile. He was no polytheist." The word "millah" is vowled in Arabic by the Aramaic loan, "meltā", and "this concept was in turn underlain by the Greek Logos.¹⁶".
Cole writes: "The wide range of meanings of Logos included the cosmic principle of reason generating the universe and a religious path to that truth. The early Christian thinker Justin Martyr put forward the Logos as an agent of religious pluralism. He responded to those Roman critics who berated Christians as hardhearted for dooming to hellfire all human beings born before Jesus of Nazareth. Justin Martyr held that Christ is the Word or Logos, the principle of universal reason "of whom every race of men were partakers; and those who lived reasonably are Christians."¹⁷ They included ancient Greek philosophers such as Heraclitus and Socrates as well as the patriarch Abraham. In contrast, the first-century CE Jewish philosopher Philo spoke of the Logos of Abraham himself, which he described as a God-given combination of eloquence and faith.¹⁸ The Qur’an in this passage rejects the idea that salvation is exclusively limited to those who believe in Moses and the Torah, or in Jesus and the Gospel. Rather, adoption of the monotheistic word of Abraham suffices, and Judaism, Christianity and the religion of Muhammad are all manifestations of it. That the Qur’an deploys a Greek concept, Logos, via its Aramaic loanshift, strengthens the argument that its use of islām might also be underlain by Aramaic and Greek technical terms."
He continues: "It is even possible that among the Arabic-speakers of Syria, Palestine and Transjordan the Arabic islām had for centuries been used informally to translate paradosis, and that millah or kalimah (the Arabic for “word”) had rendered the Logos." Which in itself is not too surprising - historical evidence points to substantial Arabic-speaking Christians throughout the Near East, and there were substantial Christian communities in Najran, Hira, Petra, Nessena, and Jabiya"
Now, onto Islam in the Qur'an section.
Cole notes that the Qur'an conceives of monotheism as a "perennial and ecumenical tradition, in which Jews, Muslims, and other monotheists all particpated.³⁸ He points to the Ranks 61:6 where the Quran criticizes Jews for rejecting the later prophets:"

And when Jesus the son of Mary said to the children of Israel, I am the messenger of God to you, confirming the Torah that you possess, and giving good tidings of a messenger who will come after me, called 'the Praised one' But when he came to them with clear signs, they said, 'That is manifest sorcery.'" The Quran continues, "And who does a greater wrong than one who fabricates lies about God, even while God is called him to islam? And God never guides evildoers.'

By translating islam as "submission to God", it becomes confused, since the first-century Jews worshipped the one God. Instead, Cole claims, the Quran "implies that first-century Jews, by rejecting Jesus, declined the summons to the fullness of the serial prophetic tradition (and here Jesus not only announces himself but points to a future successor.)"
This sin, however, is not depriving them of God's salvation. Cole classifies the denial of the succeeding Prophet's as a "venal rather than a moral sin".

"The Qur'an is inclusivist with regard to doctrine, holding that it has the whole truth of monotheism and that the revelation through the Prophet Muhammad is an essential continuation of the Abrahamic tradition, and that past religions have forgotten some essentials of prophetic monotheism. It is, however, pluralist with regard to salvation, accepting many monotheistic faiths as paths to salvation.⁴⁰"

In The Pilgrimage 22:78, Cole writes that "accepting the tradition is associated with Abraham, but also with Muhammad: '

"Strive strenuously for the sake of God. He chose you and has laid no hardship on you in religion. It is the Logos (millah) of your father Abraham. He named you monotheists (muslimīn) aforetime, so that the messenger might bear witness to this for you, and you might bear witness to the people. So pray and give charity regularly. Hold fast to God. He is your lord, the best of patrons and the best of succorers.' Here, Abraham himself is depicted as coining the term muslim, to describe one who subscribes to his primal Word (millah). Ages after Abraham, The Pilgrimage 22:78 says, Muhammad bore witness to this same Logos, and, it is implied, was enabled to do so because Abraham began the tradition or paradosis. The Qur’an views the Logos of Abraham as a universal monotheistic principle at the heart of each of the true religions."

The Family of Amram 3:19 declares:

"According to God, religion (dīn) is islām. Those who had been given scripture only differed out of covetousness, after knowledge came to them. God is quick in calling to account anyone who denies the verses of God." Again, the issue addressed by this verse is not the oneness of God or submission to him. Rather, the Qur'an is saying that in principle, Jews. Christians and Muhammad's followers all share in the monotheistic tradition and so participate in authentic religion, in implicit contrast to the false religion of polytheists. They therefore ought not to quarrel with one another over the details, since they share in a common core. The difference is that Muhammad's Believers recognized Judaism and Christianity as participating in the Abrahamian tradition whereas some members of the previous religions denied that recognition to the newer teaching. The Qur'an in 3:19 has brought together a Persian and a Greek concept. From Middle Persian it derives the word dēn, which came to mean "a religion.” ⁴¹ (It should not be confused with the Semitic word dīn, meaning judgment or service, which is also used by the Qur’an). In 3:19 the Qur'an is not saying that Muhammad's religion is called Islam and is the only true faith. Nor is the verse saying that Muhammad’s is the true and full islām, which the previous religions foreshadowed and to which they are ex post facto subordinated, which is how triumphalist Muslims read the verse.⁴² It is saying that the monotheistic paradosis goes back to Abraham, and that subsequent prophets all preached a version of it, even if their adherents decline to recognize this unity (cf. 3:84, which says God makes “no distinction” among the prophets)."

As I often write, and agree with Professor Cole and Professor Fred Donner, that the usage of the term muslim as the identifying marker for the followers of the Prophet Muhammad is anachronistic. The Quran identifies, and uses, the term "those who have believed" for the community of the Prophet, often being named Believers or Mu'minun. But Cole also points out an interesting facet in 39:22:

"One problem with reading islām here as "submission" is that God is the agent, not the believer. God would have to be seen as having imposed submission on these individuals, which logically speaking is no kind of submission. Moreover, the two lines of the verse are parallel, with those whose hearts have been opened to islām opposed to those whose hearts have been hardened against the mention (dhikr) of the divine, suggesting that the two words are synonyms. “Submission” is not a synonym of “mention.” But if islām means “the tradition of monotheism,” then the parallelism of “tradition” and “mention” would make sense."

I think this entire article is fascinating, given the Quran's clear universalism regarding the monotheistic traditions provided by the pervious prophets, of whom came to correct but perhaps more importantly confirm the past scriptures and traditions of their predecessors (of whom Prophet Muhammad is considered the last, according to Islamic tradition). I cannot do the article full justice here, so I highly recommend others to go ahead and read it (I believe it should be available for all on the website I linked).

1. Why am i writing this
   
2. What is it
   
3. the purpose of this technology
   
4. how it works
   
5. tips
   

Why am i writing this?
the purpose of this document is to raise awareness on the subject and provide a proper foundation of information to the public and those who may be targeted. These types of programs and technologies will become more and more common as time goes on and it may be difficult for some to get a handle on it without this information. This information is crucial in the early stages of exposure to this technology as it can help someone differentiate between schizophrenia, the voice of "god", a false conscience, an alien technology or any voice versus the actual technology being used on them. Having a trusted voice inside your head can be very dangerous and can have devastating effects on a person if they are being led the wrong way. Many dictatorship like countries have already adopted a very aggressive form of this technology, paired with their social values and strict policies it leaves millions of humans at the mercy and control of a small group of people. Behind closed doors this technology is at the forefront of government tools to use to control the population in a way that leaves them blameless.
what is this new technology?
This technology is an assortment of different directed energy weapons and a voice to skull technology that work together to project thoughts and hit the target with varying effects. The first one that most people will experience is a form of voice to skull which does exactly what it sounds like, it has the ability to project voices in your head and can be mistaken for one's "conscience" or the "voice of God" but is just a mix of human operator and conversational AI. This is usually accompanied by the same voice re-reading your internal monologue right back to you in real time. Directional voice is also commonly used, basically it sounds like someone is in the next room over or upstairs but this is just another illusion put in your head by the technology. This voice to skull is a very advanced form of conversational AI programmed with specific scripts to fit the targets life situation and the "programs" goal for said individual. The rest of the time its the actual human operator, its about 80% AI 20% Human operator. Just as they can beam outside voices in your head they can also “suggest” or “inject” thoughts that will feel like your own thoughts but will present itself as an intruding thought, yes they know how to make you think things without you even being aware. The "program" will also use an assortement of directed energy weapons (DEW) which can cause headaches, brain zaps, heart palpitations and chest pains aswell as nausea, tinnitus, very realistic hallucinations and paralysis. Another tool used is some sort of supressor which will essentially supress the electrial activity in the brain and can be turned up or down, this can cause you to feel very sleepy and if you give in then it can put you to sleep. These tools can be combined to create various effects for example, using the supressor while raising the heartrate can cause a form of sleep paralysis while you are sleeping. They can replicate almost all mental and physical health problems. Dreams are another field that this technology can manipulate with precision accuracy, dreams cannot be mistaken for anything but manipulation if you find yourself being targeted. There are hints of subconscious manipulation while you are asleep but there is not much information on this unfortunately. the program is a government level program therefore they will have access to suggest posts on the main social media’s that fits the targets situation in order to subconsciously adhere to the programs goal (instagram, Facebook, Meta apps) this fits the description for propaganda by repetition as they try to induce the illusory truth effect to double down on their goals for you. They are very well trained in psychological warfare and will use tactics like reverse psychology aswell as use/depend on cognitive biases against the target in tandem with all of these technologies.
the purpose
the purpose of this technology can vary depending on the target and the operator as well as which country it is happening in. there are a multitude of "programs" from research programs that aim to test new and existing methods and technologies on humans, this type of program is unlikely to be used on the civilian population as much as the other programs. Research programs will often leave its victims in a very disabled state often mistaken for severe mental and physical health issues. Re-education programs are used to control the population in a way to modify behavior and beliefs of the population to allign with the values and beliefs of the government that is conducting the program. Monitoring programs which are used to monitor persons of interest for potential criminal activity. People will typically fall into one or multiple programs. There is no way to tell how people are chosen for these programs.
How it works
I will begin by explaining how these different technologies work, in simple terms. The voice to skull technology essentially is a 2 way channel in which the individual and the operatoAI can communicate via thought. To achieve this, brain reading is paired with a form of microwave hearing. the way they read thoughts is the brain will give off specific electrical signals with each thought and action, they have algorithms that can decipher these specific brain signals and turn it into text which consequentially has given them a v2k word dictionary to refer to. the microwave hearing is done by sending electromagnetic energy to the skull which is then transduced by the cochlea and in turn enables the "hearing" of voices. The conversational AI is programmed with “Natural language processing” or NLP which is a field of artificial intelligence that focuses on interaction between humans and computers using language and what this means is it can interpret, understand and generate human language. This AI will talk to you 24/7 using this 2 way channel until a human takes over. This technology is also capable of thought insertion/suggestion and this will often present itself as very intruding thoughts that are abnormal to your day to day thought process but can be anything the program decides, Directed energy weapons can be classed into many subclasses, the ones i am referring to are the more subtle weapons meant for targeting, disabling and harming biological beings but i still have yet to understand how most of these work, any information missing here would be greatly appreciated.
Please note that the technology of today is more advanced then what is listed on these patents, its just to show you that alot of this was possible a very long time ago.
tips :
Here i will list a couple tips to deal with these programs and technologies altough there is no straightforward solution yet these will help.
Inform yourself on how it works, do alot of digging and verify the information with other sources.
music
Meditation
Exercise
Being outdoors
Staying off of social media.
Staying sober (very important)
Using the v2k’s natural language processing faults against it. The easiest one is sarcasm as it cannot detect sarcastic replies but there are many that i will be covering in another document.
Below i will include some useful links & patents
Here are some important patents:
US patent 4958638A (monitor vitals from a distance)
US Patent 20160375220A1 (Method to maintain peace through electromagnetic energy targeted to the brain)
US Patent 8049173B1 (this is what shows your location in real time)
US Patent 6470214B1 (voice to skull, assigned to U.S airforce in 1997)
Links
https://youtu.be/N02SK9yd60s?si=ONFisrO0ws7zuXgQ - James Giordano lecture about DEW, neuroscience
(https://www.reddit.com/emsurvival/) - survival guide
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T501LHx0R_Q) - Interview
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Torture/Call/NGOs/VIACTECAnnex.pdf) patent list (many of these are older versions of technology or just “ideas” compared to what we have today, its just to give you an idea that this did exist a long time ago and does today. Government science is always 20-30 years ahead of conventional science.
https://www.youtube.com/live/LCYH_K850Lw?si=P_kVPnJdCUSvXc35 - United states homeland security committee on AHI’S

So I have this problem that even though English is my first language, I was never good at it. I often pointed to things growing up and even now I do that. Like instead of saying "burner," I would say "Could you turn on the thing on the stove?"
And when writing, I randomly pick one word (usually the most common one) over its synonyms. Like the word shake over quiver or tremble. Or the word hurry over scurry, dash, race, scamper, etc.
So me enjoying writing is kind of weird. I like the creative aspect, the imaginative part of it, not the vocabulary and grammar and all that stuff.
Okay, so my question is how do you get better at this? In particular with synonyms. Most dictionaries are not helpful. They will define words in terms of each other, instead of telling me when to use the word sprint instead of dart or dash or race or whatever. Particular websites or books helped you?

So I have this problem that even though English is my first language, I was never good at it. I often pointed to things growing up and even now I do that. Like instead of saying "burner," I would say "Could you turn on the thing on the stove?"
And when writing, I randomly pick one word (usually the most common one) over its synonyms. Like the word shake over quiver or tremble. Or the word hurry over scurry, dash, race, scamper, etc.
So me enjoying writing is kind of weird. I like the creative aspect, the imaginative part of it, not the vocabulary and grammar and all that stuff.
Okay, so my question is how do you get better at this? In particular with synonyms. Most dictionaries are not helpful. They will define words in terms of each other, instead of telling me when to use the word sprint instead of dart or dash or race or whatever. Particular websites or books helped you?

Pandemic Meaning, Pandemic Synonyms, Pandemic Antonyms, Pandemic Verb and Example Sentences

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In the pursuit of knowledge, there exists a realm of fascination where the curious mind finds solace amidst the wonders of our world. As we embark on this intellectual odyssey, we are reminded of the words of the great Carl Sagan, who once said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." In this spirit, let us delve into the realms of fun facts, where the mundane is transformed into the extraordinary, and the ordinary is imbued with a sense of wonder.
Firstly, let us gaze upon the celestial tapestry above, where the stars beckon us to ponder their infinite majesty. Did you know that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches of our humble Earth? Indeed, the vastness of our cosmos dwarfs the imagination, inviting us to contemplate the boundless mysteries that lie beyond.
Turning our gaze back to our terrestrial abode, let us marvel at the remarkable resilience of nature. Consider the humble bamboo, which possesses the astonishing ability to grow up to 35 inches in a single day. Such rapid growth is a testament to the wondrous power of life, perpetually renewing itself in a ceaseless dance of creation.
Venturing into the realm of technology, we encounter the marvels of human ingenuity that shape our modern world. Behold the smartphone, a device that holds within its sleek exterior more computing power than the computers used for the Apollo 11 moon landing. In this age of technological marvels, we are reminded of the profound impact of innovation on the course of human history.
Delving into the annals of history, we uncover tales of intrigue and astonishment that have shaped the course of civilizations. Consider the enigmatic Cleopatra VII of Egypt, whose reign coincided with the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Yet, she lived closer in time to the first moon landing than to the ancient wonders of her own kingdom, a testament to the enduring legacy of human achievement.
Turning our attention to the intricate workings of the human body, we discover a myriad of marvels that defy comprehension. Did you know that your nose can remember up to 50,000 different scents? Or that your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks to protect itself from its own digestive acids? Such wonders remind us of the miraculous complexity of our own biology, a testament to the ingenuity of nature's design.
In the animal kingdom, we encounter creatures of all shapes and sizes, each endowed with its own unique quirks and characteristics. Consider the majestic elephant, a creature so immense and powerful that it is the only animal incapable of jumping. And yet, in its ponderous grace, it roams the savannahs of Africa, a symbol of strength and resilience in the face of adversity.
Turning our gaze to the realm of language, we encounter the rich tapestry of human communication that binds us together as a species. Did you know that the word "set" boasts the most definitions in the English language, with a staggering 464 variations listed in the Oxford English Dictionary? Or that the shortest complete sentence in English is simply "I am," a testament to the power of brevity in conveying meaning?
As we journey through the realms of geography and psychology, we encounter a wealth of knowledge that enriches our understanding of the world and ourselves. From the vast expanses of Russia, which boasts a surface area larger than that of Pluto, to the healing power of laughter, which can boost our immune systems and decrease stress hormones, we are reminded of the interconnectedness of all things.
In conclusion, let us heed the words of the great scientific minds who have come before us, for in their wisdom lies the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. As we venture forth into the great unknown, let us embrace the spirit of inquiry and curiosity that defines the human experience, for it is through the pursuit of knowledge that we may truly glimpse the wonders of our world. Fun Fact Fusion

Hello friends and allies,
I've been seeing "transgenderism" popping up more this last year and I want to take some time to talk to newcomers to the community about how this term harms us.
It's a word I once used, not knowing any better. I was looking for a noun that meant "to be transgender" and transgender-ity definitely didn't sound right, though it would be the better choice between -ism and -ity. The noun form of transgender is actually just "transgender."
"Transgenderism" is not the word for "being transgender."
I don't know if someone coined transgenderism or the history of its use. I'm not a big gender theory buff. (Anyone who has information there? I would love to hear it!) What I know is how transgenderism has come to be used in mass media. Transgenderism may have been a clumsy way to say "transgender" in the past, but these days, it's been appropriated by the American far right to label as an "ideology" a whole cluster of concepts: the science on transgender, gender theory, transgender culture, and the civil liberties movement for transgender people's rights. It scoops all that up into one term, so they can dismiss it all in the same breath.
The far right connects "transgenderism" to an ideology behind a grand liberal conspiracy to undermine American values. The far left does the same thing, only TERFs concern themselves with defining womanhood to exclude trans women out and engulf trans men. Beneath it all is an insistence that men and women are funamentally different, because they are of the male sex and female sex. Both TERFs and the far right believe in "gender essentialism."
Gender essentialism comes out of the concept of "bioessentialism." Bioessentialism attributes everything we are to an "essence" connected to our biology. Gender essentialism conveniently ignores evidence the biology of trans people may be unique. After all is said and done, their arguments can often be broken down to the belief that gender comes from sex. Even when social constructionist TERFs claim "socialization" creates a unique "afab" experience that includes trans men and nonbinary people, they just can't let go of trans men and embrace trans women who transitioned in early childhood. Nonbinary people are sorted based on their sex assigned at birth as well. This hypocrisy betrays the true beliefs of TERFs, though perhaps not every social constructionist.
Gender essentialists both, the far-right worships at the altar of male supremacy and TERFs at the altar of female supremacy. They hate each other but they will work together against us. Because they both accept the underlying binary sex-based definition of gender. Even though TERFs might allow for greater diversity in gender expression and promote women's freedoms and the far right might shield masculinity from sometimes undue attack, they both seek to confine men and women in opposing camps and never the twain shall anyone cross.
Pulling out the term "transgenderism" is a useful trick TERFs and the far right employ when they want reference this whole big mess of beliefs in one word. They've associated "transgenderism" with lie after lie about the nature of transgender and how we behave. "Transgenderism" stirs up fear and suspicion. "Transgenderism" is a more ominous sounding, pseudoscience shorthand for "the transgender agenda."
Why does it matter if we sometimes use the language of the gender essentialists? Language colors the way we think about our world. It sets the boundaries for concepts. These boundaries limit how people can interact with ideas. How can we experiment with ideas our has language exiled? English has no word for platonic, passionate non-sexual love. We have to rely on Greek. Every new English conversation has to involve a definition and clunky references to "agape."
Authoritarian regimes know the power of eliminating meaning from language. They do their best to capture the minds of their people by binding thought to words that collapse complexity into shallow dimensions. The language of an authoritarian overwrites meaning, to blatantly subvert the truth with misrepresentations. They may divert our attempts at critical thinking, like rain washing into a sewer swirling with confusing, inaccurate, inadequate symbols. These words slam doors in the mind and shut down questioning the accepted ideology.
The far right is masterful at the co-opting the language of minorities and liberation movements and manufacturing a crude neo(con)-English. The far-left dabbles in it to a lesser extent, by limiting questioning and dogmatically defining terms. Disagree with either group, and you'll have a hard time getting them to even compute what you're trying to say to them, because the gulf between our language systems. They encounter a word and it switches off their thought processing.
We're are under a lot of pressure from these groups to speak about ourselves within their ideological paradigms. We may not even encounter alternative meanings until we meet trans elders, study gender theory, or spend time learning about transgender history. Social media propagates their views, while our speech is sidelined...you used to be able to pick up on these things in trans spaces online but more and more these days, our spaces are flooded with their words.
We need to be careful not to let the narrative of who we are get away from us. We are such a small community; this can be a tall order. While we have great allies, and these days and more scientists than ever in American history are dedicated to looking at who we are without bias, we are still nowhere near as vocal as the far-right media machine.
When we don't pay attention to the words we use to describe ourselves, we allow people who don't truly know us define our experiences. They can't do that accurately. So, we end up with a cisgender narrative of who transgender people are. This is a huge problem, politically. It's a crisis for individuals as well.
What's the true cost of losing this battle? In the past, the medical and scientific community had a narrow view of what it meant to be transgender, which was based on the limitations cisgender professionals had and the biases of the culture at those times. This narrative excluded binary and nonbinary people. It kept anyone who didn't fit rigid diagnostic criteria, and a whole wardrobe full of "baggage" around interpreting that criteria, from speaking their truth. The terms "transsexual" or "transgender" were gate-kept and transition was held out of reach. Similarly, cisgender-dominated mass media has had its own related narrative--and these were stories that dehumanized us, made us into villains and objects of disgust, pity, curiosity.
Up until the Trump backlash, we had been making great progress combating the cisgender narrative of transgender. We changed the way the medical establishment pathologized transgender, to just gender dysphoria. We opened up access to transition to people who are gay, lesbian, bi, and whose gender expression doesn't fall into a stereotype of the gender binary. Trans people who'd been kept in limbo were finally able to access transition. Parents were able to protect their trans kids with appropriate medical care and social interventions.
We even got mainstream media to update style guides so they would use the right pronouns and words. Authors started to care about the impact of their ignorance and people who made us into laughing stocks and villains had to consider our humanity. Out in the general population, people who had only encountered us via false narratives got to know who we are for the first time. Acceptance grew. Tolerance was on the horizon.
Trans visibility meant these false narratives stopped obscuring trans people's diverse experiences. We got to see people like ourselves...or we gained the words we needed to question. More of us connected with our communities, when before we had been alone and not understood the cisgender narrative of transgender had anything to with us.
This transgender liberation is what we trans activists and allies fought for decades to achieve.
Today, in the midst of the backlash to "the transgender turning point," we can advocate for ourselves within mass media and the medical community. But we've become a pawn in a national--international--political strategy and we only have so much influence. These are challenging times for people who want to speak the truth and that is all the more reason we should be careful to keep our hard-won self-knowledge from slipping away. Here in our own communities, we have more control over how we tell our stories. We speak about our lives exactly as we experience them, more precisely than anything cisgender people come up with. Let's not let them take away the truth from within our communities, by replacing our words with theirs.
We must protect the freedom to define who we are, based on our own personal knowledge and the collective cultural process of interpreting where our experiences overlap and diverge. We may not always agree on our stories, but they are *ours* to tell. We should not surrender even one precious word to the cisgender hegemony.
Cisgender culture--far-right, moderate, ally, or TERF--cannot be allowed to set the boundaries for our self-knowledge. By promoting our own terminology and defending it in larger culture, we defend our freedom of thought and expression. This freedom is half the fight for our human rights. We are not their projections. Transgender people are not an ideology.
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From Wikipedia:
-ism is a suffix in many English words, originally derived from the Ancient Greek suffix -ισμός, and reached English through the Latin -ismus, and the French -isme. It means "taking side with" or "imitation of", and is often used to describe philosophies, theories, religions, social movements, artistic movements, lifestyles, and behaviors. It is typically added to nouns.
From dictionary.com
-ity definition: a suffix used to form abstract nouns expressing state, condition, or quality. See examples of -ITY used in a sentence.
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From https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095507973
Bioessentialism - The belief that ‘human nature’, an individual's personality, or some specific quality (such as intelligence, creativity, homosexuality, masculinity, femininity, or a male propensity to aggression) is an innate and natural ‘essence’ (rather than a product of circumstances, upbringing, and culture). The concept is typically invoked where there is a focus on difference, as where females are seen as essentially different from males: see gender essentialism. The term has often been used pejoratively by constructionists; it is also often used synonymously with biological determinism. See also essentialism; compare strategic essentialism.

Something rough on something smooth; Perhaps a mere foundation. Filtered through the eye or mind. In two ways: recreation.
A section, small and light, consumed In funny combinations. Some of them are not designed Before the demonstrations.

EDIT: I think this one might be tricker than I'd thought, so I've added some optional extra sections to make it a bit easier.
Here are some hints. I'll add more if they're needed.

1. I'd intended it to sound like it was about building materials and apparently it also sounds like it might be about food. It isn't about either of those things.
2. The first part refers to one meaning of this word and the second part refers to a different meaning.
3. Think about different meanings of the words "rough", "smooth" and "funny". I'm not saying that I've used unexpected meanings for all of them, but you might have made an incorrect assumption about one or more of them.
4. "In two ways: recreation" is probably the biggest clue. What can "recreation" mean?
5. This is a pretty big hint, so be warned: If you looked up this word in the dictionary, one meaning might well have "rough" in the definition and the other might well have "funny" in the definition. And if not those words, synonyms or other ways of expressing the same concepts.

Walkout Meaning, Walkout Synonyms, Walkout Antonyms, Walkout Verb and Example Sentences

Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. Where are your fingers? Seriously. It's a pretty easy question. You should be able to answer it. But how do you know? How does anyone know anything?
You might say, well, I know where my fingers are. I'm looking right at them. Or, I can touch them, I can feel them, they're right here and that's good. Your senses are a great way to learn things. In fact, we have way more than the usual five senses we talk about. For instance, your kinesthetic sense, proprioception. This is what the police evaluate during a field sobriety test. It allows you to tell where your fingers and arms and head and legs in your body is all in relation to each other without having to look or touch other things. We have way more than five senses, we have at least twice as many and then some. But they're not perfect.
There are optical illusions, audio illusions, temperature sensation illusions, even tactile illusions. Can you turn your tongue upside down? If so, perfect. Try this. Run your finger along the outer edge of the tip of your upside down tongue. Your tongue will be able to feel your finger, but in the wrong place. Our brains never needed to develop an understanding of upside down tongue touch. So, when you touch the right side of your tongue when it's flipped over to your left side you perceive a sensation on the opposite side, where your tongue usually is but isn't when it's upside down. It's pretty freaky and cool and a little humbling, because it shows the limits of the accuracy of our senses, the only tools we have to get what's out there in here.
The philosophy of knowledge, the study of knowing, is called epistemology. Plato famously said that the things we know are things that are true, that we believe and that we have justification for believing. those justifications might be irrational or they might be rational, they might be based on proof, but don't get too confident because proven is not a synonym for true. Luckily, there are things that we can know without needing proof, without needing to even leave the house, things that we can know as true by reason alone. These are things that we know a priori. An example would be the statement "all bachelors are unmarried." I don't have to go survey every bachelor on earth to know that that is true. All bachelors are unmarried because that's how we define the word bachelor. Of course, you have to know what the words bachelor and unmarried mean in the first place. Oh, you do? Okay. Perfect. That's great. But how do you know?
This time I mean functionally, how do you know? Where is knowledge biologically in the brain? What are memories made out of? We are a long way from being able to answer that question completely but research has shown that memories don't exist in the brain in single locations. Instead, what we call a memory is likely made up of many different complex relationships all over the brain between lots of brain cells, neurons. A major cellular mechanism thought to underlie the formation of memories is long-term potentiation or LTP. When one neuron stimulates another neuron repeatedly that signal can be enhanced overtime LTP, wiring them more strongly together and that connection can last a long time, even an entire lifetime. A collection of different brain cells, neurons that fire together in a particular order over and over again frequently and repeatedly can achieve long-term potentiation, becoming more sensitive to each other and more ready to fire in the exact same way later on in the future. They're a physical thing in your brain, firing together more easily because you strengthen that pattern of firing. You memorized. This branching forest of firing friends looks messy, but look closer. It could be the memory of your first kiss. A living souvenir of the event. If I were to go into your brain and cut out those cells, could I make you forget your first kiss or could I make you forget where your fingers are? Only if I cut out a lot of your brain. Because memories aren't just stored in one relationship, they're stored all over the brain. The events leading up to your first kiss are stored in one network, the way it felt to the way it smelled in different networks, all added up together making what you call the memory of your first kiss.
How many memories can you fit inside your head? What is the storage capacity of the human brain? The best we can do is a rough estimate, but given the number of neurons in the brain involved with memory and the number of different connections a single neuron can make Paul Reber at Northwestern University estimated that we can store the digital equivalent of about 2.5 petabytes of information. That's the equivalent of recording a TV channel continuously for 300 years. That's a lot of information. That is a lot of information about skills you can do and facts and people you've met, things in the real world. The world is real, right? How do you know?
It's a difficult question, but it's not rocket science. Instead, it is asking whether or not rocket scientists even exist in the first place. The theory that the Sun moved around the earth worked great. It predicted that the Sun would rise every morning and it did. It wasn't until later that we realized what we thought was true might not be. So, do we or will we ever know true reality or are we stuck in a world where the best we can do is be approximately true? Discovering more and more useful theories every day but never actually reaching true objective actual reality. Can science or reason ever prove convincingly that your friends and YouTube videos and your fingers actually exist beyond your mind? That you don't just live in the matrix?
No. Your mind is all that you have, even if you use instruments, like a telescope or particle accelerators. The final stop for all of that information is ultimately you. You are alone in your own brain, which technically makes it impossible to prove that anything else exists. It's called the egocentric predicament. Everything you know about the world out there depends on and is created inside your brain. This mattered so much to Charles Sanders Peirce that he drew a line between reality, the way the universe truly is, and what he called the phaneron, the world as filtered through our senses and bodies, the only information we can get. If you want to speak with certainty you live in, that is you react to and remember and experience your phaneron, not reality. The belief that only you exist and everything else, food, the universe, your friends are all figments of your mind is called solipsism. There is no way to convince a solipsist that the outside world is real. And there is no way to convince someone who doubts that the universe wasn't created just three seconds ago along with all of our memories. It's a frightening realization that we don't always know how to deal with. There's even The Matrix defense.
In 2002 Tonda Lynn Ansley shot and killed her landlady. She argued that she believed she was in the matrix, that her crimes weren't real. By using the matrix defense, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity, because the opposite view is just way healthier and common. It's called realism. Realism is the belief that the outside world exists independently of your own phaneron. Rocks and stars and Thora Birch would continue to exist even if you weren't around to experience them. But you cannot know realism is true. All you can do is believe.
Martin Gardner, a great source for math magic tricks, explained that he is not a solipsist because realism is just way more convenient and healthy and it works. As to whether it bothered him that he could never know realism was true, he wrote, "If you ask me to tell you anything about the nature of what lies beyond the phaneron, my answer is how should I know? I'm not dismayed by ultimate mysteries, I can no more grasp what is behind such questions as my cat can understand what is behind the clatter I make while I type this paragraph." Humble stuff. What strikes me is the cat.
Cats do not understand keyboards, but they know the keyboards are a fun place to be. It's a great way to get the attention of a human, they're warm and exciting, surrounded by noises and flashing lights plus cats love to get their scent on whatever they can, a mark of their existence. We aren't that much different, except instead of keyboards we have the mysteries of the universe. We will never be able to understand all of them.
We won't be able to ever answer every single question, but walking around in those questions, exploring them, is fun. It feels good. And as always, thanks for watching.