ACLU Announcement About Sex

For eons, "sex" has meant something simple and specific, as set out by Wikipedia:

Organisms of many species are specialized into male and female varieties, each known as a sex.[1][2] Sexual reproduction involves the combining and mixing of genetic traits: specialized cells known as gametes combine to form offspring that inherit traits from each parent. The gametes produced by an organism define its sex: males produce small gametes (e.g. spermatozoa, or sperm, in animals) while females produce large gametes (ova, or egg cells).

Breaking news by the ACLU!

Let's look more closely at the first of the four graphics:

This is part of a trendy effort to redefine the word "sex" and it is fundamentally and objectively incorrect. The ACLU is as wrong here as if it were proclaiming that "The Earth is flat" or that that oxygen and hydrogen combine to make water.

"Sex" is binary. This is uncontroversial when we are discussing the sex of any animals other than human animals. Every successful farmer knows firsthand about the fact that sex is binary, and it would be a tragedy to meet a farmer who follows the ACLU advice. Any advice that claims to be about scientific facts, where human animals are given special rules, should send up numerous red flags.  The ACLU is now officially in the business of religion, apparently, at least in that part of fundamentalist religion that disparages core findings of science.

I will happily abide by any person's sincere request that I call them a "man" or a "woman." This is their choice as how they want to present themselves as to gender. On the other hand, the "Myth" in the ACLU announcement is a myth.  Trans activists will never be satisfied that they have changed their gender. They want more. Their strategy is to bully the rest of us into saying that hundreds of years of biology is false.  They are insisting that the rest of us chant with them that it inappropriate to call a baby boy (a baby with testicles and a penis) a "boy." It is apparently not enough to say that the baby's sex is male and that there is a 1% chance that this child might someday identify as a girl or a woman, that it's gender might someday be that of a girl or a woman.

We are in the midst of a language war and society will need to decide whether they are going to allow well-established word meanings crumble because a tiny minority of people claim that their are being "damaged" or "erased."  I sometimes think of a friend of mine who has no hands.  In a room filled people, he would never have claimed that he was being "erased" or "damaged" or "injured" or that his "civil rights" were being violated to the extent that people in the room might use the word "hand" when he did not have hands.  If they said, "raise your hand," or even "I've got to hand it to you," my friend would never have assumed that they were disparaging him in any way.  That's because 99% of the people in the room had hands (he once did too).  The 99% should not be expected to change their ways with regard to common language for the benefit of tiny minorities that have worked very hard to make themselves hyper-sensitive to ordinary experiences.

I'm certain that the trans activists would refuse to substitute the word "sex" (above) for gender.  The linguistics war will thus continue . . .

BTW, the ACLU is doubling down on the trans agenda, including the "right" of male athletes who switch to female at the age of 25, after having a lifetime benefit of testosterone including an extra 8 inches in height and 10% more muscle, complete with penis and testicles, to compete against women, meaning those born and raised female.

There is more from the ACLU.  They make it look so simple, when it this is being hotly contested by women athletes. 

These issues present a mismatch.  One side is presenting facts, while the other side is presenting highly distorted facts, combined with accusations and bullying.  In my previous article about 2 +2, I cited to James Lindsay, I will cite to him again, as follows:

[P]ostmodernism, particularly in the hands of the ideology of Critical Social Justice, is not at all interested in truth. It is only interested in power, which it will establish through its attempted revolution, which it in turn knows it can only achieve by turning otherwise intelligent, well-meaning people into “accomplices” by manipulating their good will, charity, fear of being disliked or ostracized, and, especially, unawareness of what is actually going on beneath the rhetorical tricks they’re being served up with intentionally limited context."

Time will tell where this will go.

Continue ReadingACLU Announcement About Sex

The Academy Under Seige

I'll be commenting further on Debra Soh's new book, The End of Gender.

Soh was recently interviewed by Joe Rogan. Right out of the gate:

00:35

Joe Rogan: You're a sex neuroscientist. Is that an accurate description?

Debra Soh: Yeah I'm a former academic sex researcher. My PhD is in sexual neuroscience research and now I work as a science journalist and a columnist

JR: Why former?

DS: Because the climate in academia has changed so much. Like you mentioned how things are topsy-turvy, but that's pretty much how you can describe academia nowadays, even in the hard sciences.

JR: Yeah, it's getting a little weird what do you attribute it to?

DS: I think it's a combination of things. I think it's particular ideologies coming in and taking over, but they've been there for a while. I think it's that that they've reached the mainstream. I see it as political correctness running amok. I see it as legitimate researchers not being able to speak out because they've got enough on their plate with their research. They’re teaching. They've got their students, you know. They're super busy. And then on top of it they don't want to deal with the mobbing that will inevitably happen if they do speak out, so things are kind of in favor right now of the craziness.

Continue ReadingThe Academy Under Seige

Woke Mathematics is a Thing

James Lindsay Tweeted this Tweet from an "ethnomathematics teacher."

Somehow, mathematics became a "white" thing, despite A) it's usefulness and availability to anyone who wants to use these principles and B) its worldwide origins, which extend to Greece, Egypt and the Middle East, among many other places.

From 3000 BC the Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria, together with Ancient Egypt and Ebla began using arithmetic, algebra and geometry for purposes of taxation, commerce, trade and also in the field of astronomy and to formulate calendars and record time.The most ancient mathematical texts available are from Mesopotamia and Egypt – Plimpton 322 (Babylonian c. 1900 BC),[2] the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian c. 2000–1800 BC)[3] and the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian c. 1890 BC).

Continue ReadingWoke Mathematics is a Thing

About Portland, Oregon

Michael Tracy is a journalist who offers his analysis of the "peaceful protests" of Portland Oregon. His article is titled, "How white radicals hijacked Portland’s protests." Here is an excerpt:

The overwhelmingly white, anarchist activists who populate the ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon should not be underestimated for their strategic savvy. In seizing the mantle of “Black Lives Matter”, they’ve discovered a work-around to arrogate moral cover for whatever insurrectionary upheaval they would have been ideologically committed to fomenting anyway. The Left/liberal political and media class is deeply invested in preserving the untouchable sanctity of “BLM”. So by fusing themselves in the public mind with this ambiguously-defined protest movement, or even putting themselves at the vanguard, the anarchist whites insulate themselves from the type of scrutiny that might ordinarily be prompted by activists whose ultimate goal is the overthrow of the state — and who are happy to engage in what they call “a diversity of tactics” (up to and including violence) to achieve this.

Continue ReadingAbout Portland, Oregon

My Plight: Burning Hours to Dissect Dumb Ideas with Precision

Claire Lehmann is Editor of Quillette. She nailed it in the Tweet below.

The Woke movement (she terms it "post-structuralist" thought) is a fermenting vat of vague, self-contradictory claims, much of them unhinged from the analytical evidence-based Enlightenment tradition that has proven itself by sending people to the moon. Wokeness functions as a Trojan horse; it looks like something good, but functions to disarm skeptical analytical thought. It functions much like fundamentalist religion, elevating raw feeling above analytical thought.

We need to meet Wokeness on its own terms if we are to show where it has gone astray. The challenge is that it requires a substantial investment to become fluent in Woke. Further, fully engaging seems like a non-ending exercise, given the continuous propagation of new ad hoc Woke concepts. Is it even possible to have a conversation where one side disparages analytical thinking, self-critical thought and even mathematics? It's the equivalent of sending a time-traveling Enlightenment thinker back to the Dark Ages to discuss the scientific method with Middle Age Church leaders.

I'm looking for the sweet spot--enough familiarity that I can demonstrate to timid outsiders that the Wokeness is drenched in destructive anti-intellectualism. Woke thought is also sprinkled with some salient legitimate concerns and emotionally-charged factual accuracies, however, so one needs to read and listen carefully.

Much of the danger can be nullified by putting the definitions of key Woke terms under the spotlight, terms such as "anti-racism, "critical," "systemic racism" and "gender."  Modern Discourses has compiled an excellent encyclopedia for understanding the origin and meaning of these terms by the Woke, as well as additional commentary.

In the meantime, how does one most efficiently convey this danger of Woke thought to the great majority of Americans, who are quietly hunkering down, waiting for this wave of socially-reverse-engineered thought to pass over? How does one best warn that this wave of anti-intellectualism and stifled inquiry will be around for a long time, given that a loud (but relatively small) mob of Woke activists has cowed the two key institutions that should be fighting the hardest against it (media and universities)?

That is our plight.

Continue ReadingMy Plight: Burning Hours to Dissect Dumb Ideas with Precision