It's Bigotry And Bullying To Challenge Gender Ideology
There are many crises facing the world today. There’s inflation and political populism and bigotry. There’s climate change and war and our dwindling resources.
But there’s one crisis that compounds all of these; a crisis of thinking.
In my article, Why Can’t Kids Think Anymore?, I lamented the state of thinking in education and the wider world. I warned of a growing culture of “protecting” people from conflicting ideas instead of encouraging them to engage with nuance. I pointed out that we will never be able to solve any of the above crises if we can’t even acknowledge objective reality.
Walter is a depressingly good case in point.
Walter:
And teachers are getting fired after being falsely accused of teaching critical race theory. Also you can't say "gay" in Florida.
Steve QJ:
I'm about 80% confident that neither of these statments is true. First, because none of the "anti-CRT" bills ban teaching CRT. And second, because the "don't say gay" bill doesn't even contain the word "gay."
I admit, I haven't been following them especially closely though. So if you have any sources I'd be interested.
Walter:
The bigger takeaway is that it's conservatives quashing free thought in public schools by banning books, pushing religion, and defunding education in general. Conservatives don't want us to think for ourselves and they're not even trying to hide it.
Steve QJ:
Conservatives don't want us to think for ourselves and they're not even trying to hide it.
I think you're right. I'm just always astonished at how whenever somebody says something like this, they don't realise that their side of the aisle is doing exactly the same thing. I could reel of a dozen examples of students being investigated or expelled for challenging gender ideology for example. Which is exclusively left wing.
I saw that story about the teacher. There's far too little detail to say much about her case one way or the other (fascinating that only a single, partial line from her dismissal letter was quoted), but yes, parents complained because of the worksheet she gave to kids entitled "How Racially Privileged Are You?"
I have to say, I'd be pretty angry myself if my kid were given something like this. Teaching children to see themselves primarily through a lens of race is a terrible, corrosive idea and I'd very happily see it removed from all schools. Happy to go into further detail if you don't understand why I think this.
But yes, she was accused of teaching CRT because CRT has become the go-to term for ideology based race education. Quibbling about what exactly is or isn't CRT is a distraction. Again, there are no laws against teaching CRT. There are laws against teaching children about race in a race essentialist way. I think that's unreservedly a good thing.
Walter:
The difference is that it's an example of bigotry and bullying to challenge gender ideology. LGBTQ kids have an appallingly high level of suicide. The left wing objections are founded in reason, the right wing objections are founded in control and prejudice.
And actually there are a lot of laws against teaching CRT: https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2022/02/16/teacher-anti-crt-bills-coast-to-coast-a-state-by-state-guide/?sh=24d37ceb4ff6
Steve QJ:
The difference is that it's an example of bigotry and bullying to challenge gender ideology.
Fascinating. Why do you say this? Why is it bullying to state the undeniable fact that there are differences between males and females? Why is it bigotry? It's incredible how seemingly intelligent people throw these words around as if on autopilot. Those differences are the only reason why trans people exist. Yet somehow it's treated as evil to acknowledge them.
And what data are you using to support the claim that LGBTQ kids have an "appallingly high level of suicide"? Or are you just repeating the dogma based on a questionnaire of just 27 self-selected trans kids extrapolated out to the entire trans community? Are you aware that every single teen identity group (goths, emo, anorexics) have higher suicide ideation rates? Because kids struggling with their identity are overwhlemingly more likely to also be suffering from comorbidities like depression, anxiety, OCD, etc.
The left and the right are susceptible to dishonest, cherrypicked information that they unthinkingly hold up as fact. News media on the left and the right lies or at least presents half truths because you're more likely to click on and share it. The motivations are different, granted, but the effect is the same. In that it leads both sides to believe things that are demonstrably untrue on bad evidence and assume that anybody who is more aware of the facts is the enemy.
And no, there are not lots of laws against teaching CRT. Again, this is the result of you believing articles, or more likely skimming headlines, without actually investigating the claims for yourself. I'm not knocking you for that, it's only because I spend so much time writing about these topics that I have time to read through bills about race education. But as I said, if you read the bills, only one of them mentions CRT at all, and then only in passing. What they actually prohibit is teaching ideas like:
- One race is inherently superior to another.
- An individual by virtue of their race is inherently racist or oppressive.
- Individuals should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment on the basis of their race.
This is verbatim wording from the bills. I wrote an artcle about it if you're interested. Complete with links to the bills themselves (https://medium.com/illumination-curated/do-critical-race-theorists-know-what-racism-is-48b503fe8c1b)..
It’s always fascinating how often, when I take the time to disabuse somebody of a mistaken belief, they simply move on to the next thing. No more mention of CRT. No recognition that he was mistaken. No impact on his confidence in the other nonsense he believes.
Walter just moves on to the next piece of whataboutism.
Walter:
It's simply hateful to not recognize that gender is more complicated than just male/female. Conservatives often try to simplify complex ideas and mock them. Usually things are more complicated. One example is how Conservatives are happy to receive forgiveable PPP loans from the government, but then they become angry when the government forgives student loans. It's a double standard.
Steve QJ:
It's simply hateful to not recognize that gender is more complicated than just male/female
Wait, wait, you're saying it's "hateful" to believe that gender is limited to male and female? HATEFUL??!! Do you seriously not see how absurd that is?
I mean, first of all, you clearly don't understand the terms you're using. Male and female are sex categories. Not gender categories. Sex and gender are different things, remember? There is no third sex based category in mammals. There is no third gamete in addition to sperm and eggs. This holds true for every single animal species.
What I think you mean to say is that it's "hateful" not to recognise that there's more to gender expression than man and woman. Which is still absolutely preposterous. There are good faith reasons to disagree with this statement, depending on how you're defining "man" and "woman." You could make a reasonable argument that it's misguided or simplistic. But hateful??!! Good God! What has happened to people's minds?
Sadly, we’ll never know what happened to Walter’s mind because he blocked me after this reply.
I’m honestly at a loss. Walter had just gotten through telling me the importance of thinking for ourselves, he seemed reasonably open to facts and supporting his assertions with evidence (albeit poorly researched evidence), and then he treats me to the most stunning display of cultish, brainwashed “thinking” I’ve seen in a long time.
Sure, if I’d been talking to a QAnon believer or a COVID-denier, the conversation would probably have gone the same way. But I can’t imagine a more perfect refutation of the idea that only one "side” is guilty of this. In fact, the people who instinctively make excuses when “their side” does it are the most likely to “think” this way.
The problem isn’t that we have different political leanings, I’m sure Walter and I have similar political leanings. The problem is this tendency to build ideological forcefields around our ideas. Impervious to logic and evidence, fuelled by hyperbole and intellectual cowardice, and anybody who so much as pricks it is “hateful” or a “snowflake” or is trying to bring about the collapse of civilisation.
But the greatest threat to civilisation is our inability to think clearly. Our unwillingness to consider conflicting points of view. Our growing tendency to mistake disagreement for “hatred.”
I'm an optimist by nature. I believe that we can solve the crises facing humanity. But if we're to have any hope of doing so, we need to solve this crisis first.
I always mean to say "Thank you" after I read your posts. Your words make me feel like I'm not losing my mind and your arguments have come in handy for use when trying to approach some of these conversations. So, thank you for what you do.
I'm going to quote a passage 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 from Thomas Sowell's "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" and then put it into the context of your Commentary.
"'𝘔𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮' 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴-𝘢𝘯𝘥-𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺, 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴-𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘯𝘰-𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴. 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮--𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴--𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴--𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦."
Change 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 to 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 and 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 to 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 and you have not only Walter but perhaps most of the people 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 these kinds of ideas. I currently have a good friend a bit pissed off at me because I called him out on calling everything he doesn't agree with a lie. He happens to be to my political right, but I see the same behavior in people to my political left. 𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘠 have warts, but not me. Did I just do that?
I see this as a source of so-called anti-CRT or "don't say gay" claims. The anti-CRT people say, "You are teaching my children to be ashamed of their white skin" and the CRT people are saying, "we want a non-whitewashed history to be taught" and then of course the ant-CRT people will say "You only want to talk about the warts on white people" and on and on it goes like the bloody Hatfield's and McCoys multi-generational feud that started in a dispute about a pig.
It might be helpful if people would say, "Let us not debate each other's straw men. Tell me exactly what you want. I'll tell you what I see as an issue, and you can tell me what you think is wrong with my perceived issue. We can do this in both directions." It would be really special if people occasionally spoke about good things, accomplishments and successes, rather than, "You evil bastards!" That is small scale, but it might be the best that we can do for now. A long running well thought public debate like The Federalists and anti-Federalists did with their papers would be just great, but if there is something like that out there, rather than attacks on straw men that you know of, I'd love to have you point to it.
Annnd, I left out the accusational name calling.