i find that the easiest way to keep myself safe from shitty people is to be upfront, be open, be honest, and hold very little back. that way, shitty people will make themselves known to me quickly.
i was recently invited to a group chat by a newly-made friend of mine, call him M. M is interested in philosophy, spirituality, and doing a revolution to overthrow our corrupt society. although we disagree on many details, he seems to be a smart and empathetic bloke.
everyone on chat was aware of my being transgender, in part because i had humorously referred to myself as a "tranny faggot". weird that i would say that to a group of cis people, right? but wait and see the good sense of what i did.
the last conversation i had was with this other guy K, who i gradually realized was a "blackpilled" type, obsessed with skull measurements and "objective attractiveness". pretty gross already, but for the sake of learning more i decided to ask him if he had any peer-reviewed sources for the claim that people objectively find certain skull shapes more attractive.
instead of responding to this with even a shred of respect or patience, K seemed offended that i would even ask him. among the answers he gave me were: "it is obvious", "do your own research" and saying the word "SOURCE" in a mock-stupid voice.
how was i to do my own research about this? K said that i should take a bunch of photos of people i find attractive, do measurements of their skulls, and of course the obvious truth of his claim would be proven. but i didnt care to do any of that. "i am not doing your homework for you", i replied, "will you just give me a peer-reviewed source that actually supports your claim?"
apparently i was being so obnoxious to K that he decided to call me a "faggot tranny", and started using he and they pronouns for me despite using she/her before. how unoriginal!
now you see why i dropped those slurs before. let some asshole decide to use them on me, itll just expose them for being an asshole.
i laughed at K for taking my bait, and then he posted some gross looking troonjak meme at me, at which point i asked M if it was grounds to kick K out. M said some wishy washy shit about how this whole conversation was like, so pointless, and why cant we just get along. i took that as a no, and left.
M later dmed me and essentially blamed me for being too confrontational and not dropping the subject. i told him that that was unacceptable and that i knew i was in the right.
i dont love what happened, but im glad to be out of that chat earlier rather than later. if i had been less confrontational, i would have had to find out about K being a bigot piece of shit at a later time. it wouldnt have been worth it!
