I have performed electrical, mechanical and plumbing tasks. Connectors for those things are gendered according to physical characteristics that even children understand without explanation. You cannot treat the genders of those things as a social construct unless having your house burn down, flood or your automobile fall apart is OK withโฆ
I have performed electrical, mechanical and plumbing tasks. Connectors for those things are gendered according to physical characteristics that even children understand without explanation. You cannot treat the genders of those things as a social construct unless having your house burn down, flood or your automobile fall apart is OK with you. It took a little time, but I understand that trans people are using words long familiar to me in a new way. I understand that and can get past its dissonance. I won't participate in a debate where someone claims that the mental construct defines the physical with radicals. They do a disservice to the honest trans-people.
Race has a different relationship between the physical and attitudes. My daughter's 23andme DNA adventure makes it quite clear that there is an actual definable physical reality to "race." But my wife and I didn't burst into flames when we had sex and our children were in no way defective because of the racial differences.
In the grand scheme of things those differences are small, even though they are unambiguously observable in my wife and me, our daughters less so as an observable blend. They've heard the words, "What are you?" and "Where are you from?" many times. Asians are thought of as foreign by both black and white Americans.
How small are the differences? We all have more Neanderthal DNA than 90% of the people in the 23andme database, and our daughter has a little more than either my wife or me since some of our DNA is different. You couldn't look at any of us and say, "Neanderthal, Neanderthal!" and that is non-homosapien genome. They have a list of stuff that that DNA might make us more prone to, but they are things that other humans are also prone to without that DNA.
I would say that racism, but not race is a social construct. ๐๐ง ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ค๐ต, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต. We ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ completely ignore "race" and I think it possible ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ if we can get past the "Oh woe is me, I'm a victim. You owe me because of the sins of our ancestors" stuff. If that sounds like I'm saying who is the biggest impediment to good change, yes, yes, I am. I mention that because I see the trans-radicals as the biggest impediment to change. If you walk around with a chip on your shoulder, daring people to knock it off, some will see the best way of doing that as knocking you down. And you can count on it, someone will.
All that to say, we cannot honestly deny physical reality, but we can productively shape our attitudes about it (when it matters and when it shouldn't). Unfortunately, that is often difficult even without the radical assholes ruining conversation.
That goes to the heart of the matter. It is imperative that we don't abandon acknowledgement of reality with a dystopian destruction of language to achieve political ends.
While the slippery slope argument is technically a fallacy leading to logical extremes, we now live in a world of those extremes. To be fair and decent humans we do sometimes position ourselves on that slope where the issue becomes, how far down the slope do we dare stand?
I have performed electrical, mechanical and plumbing tasks. Connectors for those things are gendered according to physical characteristics that even children understand without explanation. You cannot treat the genders of those things as a social construct unless having your house burn down, flood or your automobile fall apart is OK with you. It took a little time, but I understand that trans people are using words long familiar to me in a new way. I understand that and can get past its dissonance. I won't participate in a debate where someone claims that the mental construct defines the physical with radicals. They do a disservice to the honest trans-people.
Race has a different relationship between the physical and attitudes. My daughter's 23andme DNA adventure makes it quite clear that there is an actual definable physical reality to "race." But my wife and I didn't burst into flames when we had sex and our children were in no way defective because of the racial differences.
In the grand scheme of things those differences are small, even though they are unambiguously observable in my wife and me, our daughters less so as an observable blend. They've heard the words, "What are you?" and "Where are you from?" many times. Asians are thought of as foreign by both black and white Americans.
How small are the differences? We all have more Neanderthal DNA than 90% of the people in the 23andme database, and our daughter has a little more than either my wife or me since some of our DNA is different. You couldn't look at any of us and say, "Neanderthal, Neanderthal!" and that is non-homosapien genome. They have a list of stuff that that DNA might make us more prone to, but they are things that other humans are also prone to without that DNA.
I would say that racism, but not race is a social construct. ๐๐ง ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ค๐ต, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต. We ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ completely ignore "race" and I think it possible ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ if we can get past the "Oh woe is me, I'm a victim. You owe me because of the sins of our ancestors" stuff. If that sounds like I'm saying who is the biggest impediment to good change, yes, yes, I am. I mention that because I see the trans-radicals as the biggest impediment to change. If you walk around with a chip on your shoulder, daring people to knock it off, some will see the best way of doing that as knocking you down. And you can count on it, someone will.
All that to say, we cannot honestly deny physical reality, but we can productively shape our attitudes about it (when it matters and when it shouldn't). Unfortunately, that is often difficult even without the radical assholes ruining conversation.
Imagine if we were forbidden to call plugs and pipe fittings male and female.
That goes to the heart of the matter. It is imperative that we don't abandon acknowledgement of reality with a dystopian destruction of language to achieve political ends.
While the slippery slope argument is technically a fallacy leading to logical extremes, we now live in a world of those extremes. To be fair and decent humans we do sometimes position ourselves on that slope where the issue becomes, how far down the slope do we dare stand?