Morose Existentialism Will Get You Through The Day

"The 'God Made Trans People' billboard is stupid! God didn't make me! I'm an atheist!" Okay. The billboard sits along a major highway in Kansas. We can deduce that the target audience is not you—it's the centrist evangelical Christians driving along that road who could probably be persuaded to become allies as long as we choose our words carefully and don't make them feel attacked for not already knowing everything about trans rights issues. Another one I see a lot is, "We shouldn't be talking about how right-wing legislation catches [privileged in-group] in the crossfire when [marginalized out-group] suffers far more!" I know. I agree with you. Which is why you and I are not the intended audience of this argument!

The entire point of rhetoric is to win over someone who doesn't already fully agree with you. In this case, let's say that someone is Jennifer, the moderate center-right mom in your neighborhood who doesn't really know or care about transgender issues but would be absolutely horrified by the idea of her teenage daughter having to submit to an invasive inspection of her body just to be allowed to play soccer. Tell her, "Banning trans students from sports will inevitably subject all student athletes to invasive gender-policing," or "Legal restrictions on gender-affirming care will make it harder for you to access the hormone replacement therapy you take to treat menopause symptoms," and she is more likely to question her existing beliefs and listen to the rest of what you have to say than if you lead with leftist talking points that she already has a calcified opinion about or which she thinks do not personally affect her.

Me: -runs hands through it a few times- immature amur honeysuckle. Get rid of it.

VG: what about this one? Seek says its a cabbage.

Me: -breaks a stem- milkweed. Keep it.

VG: what about this one?

Me: -rolls a leaf in my fingers, smells it, eats it-

VG:

Me: horseweed. Not invasive, but really aggressive. Not bad to pull it.

VG: I cant believe you ate that before you knew what it was.

Me: I had an idea what it was. None of the lookalikes are poisonous, so it was either horseweed or something else in the dicot family. Then when I smelled the leaves and it was spicy I figured it out.

VG: I was always told not to eat wild plants because it could be poison ivy.

Me: I mean, I was told that, too. But then I learned how to identify poison ivy. And then I started reading about medicinal and edible plants, learned what has lookalikes and whats obvious. Turns out a lot of invasives and 'weeds' are edible- horseweed, purselane, plantain, dandelion...

VG: but not ALL of the plant is edible.

Me: I mean... some arent worth eating, but all parts of dandelions are edible.

VG: what?

Me: ...where did I lose you?

VG: even the leaves????

Me: people put them in salads. My dad likes dandelion wine made out of the flowers. If you dry the roots up the make a tea that apparently is good for your liver.

VG: hey I found this picture of you.

Me: because I had to break off its stem to ID it.

VG: no... like why did you apologize to a plant?

Me: to help it grow.

VG: is that how it works?

Me: I mean... what am I losing by doing it?

VG: i usually scream at them.