Minds are already the primary movers and shakers of Culture society, they don't need to take over, the status quo has already been aligned with their interests. Minds are created by other Minds performing essentially mental eugenics, the desire to dominate others would be a dangerous trait for them to let slip into the population.
No single Mind has dictatorial authority over the Culture though. I could see an argument for it being oligarchal or even a caste society. But I'm not following your reasoning on the enlightened dictatorship part. Could you elaborate?
Who's the eternal benevolent dictator of the Culture?
"Don't fuck with the Culture. "
The cope is strong with that one.
The feminine urge to crush a cis man's skull with your bare hands as an example to the rest of them.
I was in a game where a PC hooked up with an NPC and got her pregnant, resulting in a ton of problems for that character. It was quite funny when one of the other players noticed an unused sheep-skin condom listed on that character's sheet. Turns out, they'd looted a condom from a fallen baddie during a previous session but forgot about it.
My child-self would have died from pure excitement at the mere prospect of getting their hands on a RPi filled with emulators/games. Now I'm just an old fart and cant appreciate shit anymore.
It would certainly be more convenient if they/them became a generic pronoun for everyone regardless of gender. But at the moment it's not nessararily polite to use it that way in all circumstances. There are people that only use gendered pronouns to refer to themselves, to the exclusion of neutral pronouns like they/them. Generally if there's any uncertainty about someone else's preferred pronouns you can just ask. If you wanna skirt around it you can introduce yourself including your pronouns which will give others a safe opportunity to do the same. Messing up someones pronouns can be embarrassing but it's not the same as dropping a slur. (Though it can still be very hurtful to those involved.)
I haven't used these resources but here are a couple links I've seen floating around. (Someone else please speak up if there's any issue with these sites!) https://translifeline.org/ https://transrescue.org/ Hope this helps someone.
Eberron too please!