By that logic they can do literally anything to a baby, including murder, abuse, and I don't really want to go on.

I don't see how that means they don't know how pregnancy works. Yeah, you could track it, or you could just cover all possibilities.

China's government is actually pretty good at getting things done

You're going to borrow-checker hell now

It does bring up the interesting conundrum: is there one "base" universe? Then how did that start? Makes no sense. Is it turtles all the way down? That also doesn't make any sense. And yet those are the only 2 possibilities (assuming a few intuitive things about logic and reality, which is a whole 'nother thing...).

Those conjectures aren't just equally plausible, they're the same thing.

I always thought I was just an introvert and shy, but as I've been transitioning (still early) I've felt more confidence than I thought possible. I don't expect to turn into an extrovert, but it's an amazing improvement so far! You say you'd transition in a heartbeat if society was more accepting, but if that's the case I recommend doing it anyway, or at maybe just dipping your toes in. Maybe you can try being a woman in private and a man in public, that way you don't really risk anything while still being able to experiment.

He's got it all wrong, the quantum fluctuations in the flux capacitor prove with 99.84859% certainty that time crystals oscillate at a resonant frequency of the speed of light with hydrogen chloride. It's quite simple, really, I can't believe he's so wrong.

Are you a sysadmin? Cause I'd like to $ top you.

I think the difference is world building. In the stories you listed there's a sense that you're only seeing a tiny fragment of everything notable going on. History is being made by everyone concurrently.

In Avatar, you see everything notable. We don't care what's going on on Earth (they never hint anything), we don't care what's going on outside this one tribe, the only thing happening right now is the conflict on screen.

Flesh, Blob, Square, Pants!

If you combine Econ 101 with American ideals of negative freedoms, libertatianism is what you get, and to be fair it sounds great on the surface. If you then turn a blind eye to all systemic issues that ruin that ideal of freedom/fairness you can even keep believing it!