"My daddy told me books don't make a man"

Sure, but not reading doesn't make a man either.

There was a brief window of time where CD burners were new and beyond my financial reach, and so were new Zip drives, but companies were dumping Zip drives for rewritable CDs. I managed to score a free external Zip drive that was going to be trashed, and it was a godsend of an upgrade from 3.5" floppies.

Until I got a second-hand CD-RW drive, then I dumped it too.

Whee!

Modern advertising needs less invasiveness and more of this silliness.

The way they interpret bad press is never, "my idea is bad." Instead, they think, "my idea was misunderstood."

So until the people change, they same kinda of policies will continue to be pushed until they stumble upon a way to present it that doesn't generate loud resistance.

That's a constant at any big company, regardless of the type of work the company does as a whole. The higher-ups talk to each other and down to the rank-and-file in nonsense corporate-speak, congratulating each other for accomplishments they had little to do with or even actively impeded. Meanwhile, the people actually doing the work just go about their day, getting things done.

Every once in a while, we all get together and try to decipher what the "leaders" actually meant in their big presentation about the plans for the company in the coming year and it's going to affect us.

Also, like... so what if they are? Maybe it really is "just a phase" or whatever the fuck else someone wants to dismissively ascribe any behavior to.

Does that really mean the kid is any less deserving of the attention, connection, and understanding ear they are clearly crying out for? Is ignoring, shunning, or otherwise socially punishing them really the best way to address it?

Like you said, there are much easier ways to get attention. If someone is willing to claim to be trans just for the attention, then they are in serious need of a better support structure in their lives. Giving them shit for it isn't going to help anything.

I mean, yeah... That's exactly what people are trying to tell you. Because saying, "This type of thing weakens people" and citing your own personal experience as evidence sure doesn't sound like you're open to "alternate approaches."

Ah, classic.

"This is the way I was raised and I turned out alright, so it must be the only correct way to parent."

Eh, I understand where you're coming from, but the reality is that not everyone is going to be willing to tell a group of peers "no." We want to teach our kids that it's okay to do so, and we want to instill enough self-confidence in them to do it, but peer pressure is real and it's powerful, especially to young people.

Offering an alternative way for them to get out of an uncomfortable situation doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. We can work on building boundary-setting as a skill while also acknowledging that it takes time to build it.

Also... The owners of private property absolutely have the authority to ban filming on their premises. It becomes a trespassing issue more than anything else if someone doesn't comply and is asked to leave, but they absolutely can say that no filming is allowed.

But we're exactly the right crowd in their eyes, we need it the most. Saw the same kind of people while heading into an arena for either Metallica or Iron Maiden, I forget which one. Maybe both.