A great essay, indeed... as usual. So, we've both written about this a few times... you more vigorously and frequently than I .... e.g., "If Aneuploidies = Sexes, Then Two-Headed Turtles Aren’t Turtles."
On the one hand, it's hard to believe that the misunderstanding persists. However, on the other hand, given how many people are weighing in on the debate without any fundamental understanding of biology, perhaps it's inevitable that misunderstandings will be perpetually recycled.
Apr 11, 2023·edited Apr 11, 2023Liked by Colin Wright
Very interesting history. The "sophists" and their value of persuasion over truth is oddly relevant. The parallels are strong with today's trans activists and their moral certainty, their willingness to deceive in order to "save trans lives". Sadly their methods, their "impact" appears to be confusion and unnecessary medicalization of even children. These methods could conceivably lead to more suicide as medicalized people learn they never had gender dysphoria, they were deceived and were collateral damage of a political cause.
This is really useful. There’s no question in my mind that confused individuals are being used. It’s so heavily promoted. Is it a wedge issue that will pry the young away from solid ground and into shock troops for the powerful? Are there any kids able to resist or is it so pervasive they have to pledge allegiance or else? Surely some see that tolerance weaponized is not tolerance at all? And that they are being manipulated from above? FFS corporations are all over this. That alone should make it sus to kids.
The thing that really frosts my cookies about all this self-identification stuff is that belief in non-binary sex is not in ANY WAY necessary to support equal rights for everyone. I don't buy that Genderbread Person nonsense, not for an instant, and yet I think trans people should be able to hold jobs and get housing and vote and adopt kids and everything else. We as a society can decide that even though science tells us Rachel Levine is not a biological woman, we're OK if in most ways she lives like one.** To paraphrase the old saying, when crafting policy, science gets a vote, not a veto.
(**Yes, the issue of access to single-sex spaces is tricky, which is why I said "most.")
Intersex conditions are developmental defects; to use them as arguments for definitions of the sexes themselves is comically desperate.
Awaiting a child’s choice of “gender identity” is to dignify that foolish concept undeservedly. Leaving a child in a deformed state in obeisance to a fad is cruel.
I’d change the wording from “intersex” to “ambiguous genitals”. The phrase intersex implies a continuum, but of course there isn’t, and there’s no need to create a new word. It also somehow feels like a part of the CIA devoted to blackmailing world leaders with highly paid prostitutes in order to foment unrest in 3rd world counties.
Excellent analysis! Oh, the stories I could tell you about the social experiments that have been happening on college campuses for the last couple of decades goes deep (with pre-k childen), and it partially explains our current situation. Social engineering is real
Some humans are born with one leg, or three. That does not mean human are not bipedal animals, or that “leggedness” exists on a spectrum.
We need to come to terms with the fact that we are physical, biological beings, and some of us are born different than others. Sometimes this difference is damaging or even tragic, and instead of denying difference in the guise of faux-compassion, we should show real compassion and discuss these things honestly.
The entire project is organized as a cult. The wizards in a cult always try to create a simulacrum of reality, and they want you to believe in it. That is, they create a false reality that kinda looks real, but it's often twisted a little bit, it's a little off in relation to actual reality. This pseudo-reality is propped up with typically false logic and a false morality. James Lindsay has articles about this on New Discourses.
For example:
False reality: "Trans women are women"
False logic: "If you identify as a woman then you are a woman"
False morality: "If you disagree then you're an evil person who wants to eradicate trans people from the face of the earth"
They cycle through this stupid trinity all the time.
"Intersex people and XXy-chromosome people are a different sex"
"Because intersex people don't match the textbook definition of male or female it must be a new sex in need of its own categori"
"How can you call that a birth defect? You must really hate intersex people. You are a bad person."
"That laptop was Russian misinformation"
"30 experts in security (that we handpicked) says so, so it must be true"
"If you don't agree then you're probably an evil Russian asset trying to destroy democracy in the US"
"Trump is an evil white supremacist, because he said they were 'fine people'"
"We know that because all the media say exactly that, and so does the clip I saw on Twitter"
"You disagree? It's probably because you're an evil white supremacist yourself"
"Covid is insanely dangerous and you must be vaccinated to avoid infecting grandma"
"Only if everyone is vaccinated can we go back to normal"
"If you don't get vaccinated it means we can't go back to normal, and you're a bad person for keeping us trapped in these lockdowns"
Thanks for this sane assessment. My understanding of the obfuscating "assigned at birth" characterization of all natal sex by gender-identity ideologues is that it co-opts for political purposes a medical phrase historically used only in rare cases where DSDs make biological sex ambiguous.
"The reality is that the vast majority of humans are easily classifiable as either male or female."
Bit of your own "sophistry", and quite unscientific dogma. Standard biological definitions -- those published in reputable biological journals like Molecular Human Reproduction as opposed to the letter section of the UK Times ... -- stipulate that to have a sex is to have functional gonads of either of two types, those with neither being, ipso facto, sexLESS.
A set of definitions that excludes some third of us -- at any one time -- from the "exalted" categories of male and female.
A great essay, indeed... as usual. So, we've both written about this a few times... you more vigorously and frequently than I .... e.g., "If Aneuploidies = Sexes, Then Two-Headed Turtles Aren’t Turtles."
https://everythingisbiology.substack.com/p/if-aneuploidies-sexes-then-two-headed
On the one hand, it's hard to believe that the misunderstanding persists. However, on the other hand, given how many people are weighing in on the debate without any fundamental understanding of biology, perhaps it's inevitable that misunderstandings will be perpetually recycled.
Very interesting history. The "sophists" and their value of persuasion over truth is oddly relevant. The parallels are strong with today's trans activists and their moral certainty, their willingness to deceive in order to "save trans lives". Sadly their methods, their "impact" appears to be confusion and unnecessary medicalization of even children. These methods could conceivably lead to more suicide as medicalized people learn they never had gender dysphoria, they were deceived and were collateral damage of a political cause.
This is really useful. There’s no question in my mind that confused individuals are being used. It’s so heavily promoted. Is it a wedge issue that will pry the young away from solid ground and into shock troops for the powerful? Are there any kids able to resist or is it so pervasive they have to pledge allegiance or else? Surely some see that tolerance weaponized is not tolerance at all? And that they are being manipulated from above? FFS corporations are all over this. That alone should make it sus to kids.
We must stand for science and reality! This is terrible manipulation.
"Intersex" is not an identity
Don't self-diagnose DSDs
Congenital mutation
Has binary derivation
"Intersex" is not an identity
This is incredibly useful, thanks.
The thing that really frosts my cookies about all this self-identification stuff is that belief in non-binary sex is not in ANY WAY necessary to support equal rights for everyone. I don't buy that Genderbread Person nonsense, not for an instant, and yet I think trans people should be able to hold jobs and get housing and vote and adopt kids and everything else. We as a society can decide that even though science tells us Rachel Levine is not a biological woman, we're OK if in most ways she lives like one.** To paraphrase the old saying, when crafting policy, science gets a vote, not a veto.
(**Yes, the issue of access to single-sex spaces is tricky, which is why I said "most.")
Intersex conditions are developmental defects; to use them as arguments for definitions of the sexes themselves is comically desperate.
Awaiting a child’s choice of “gender identity” is to dignify that foolish concept undeservedly. Leaving a child in a deformed state in obeisance to a fad is cruel.
I’d change the wording from “intersex” to “ambiguous genitals”. The phrase intersex implies a continuum, but of course there isn’t, and there’s no need to create a new word. It also somehow feels like a part of the CIA devoted to blackmailing world leaders with highly paid prostitutes in order to foment unrest in 3rd world counties.
Excellent analysis! Oh, the stories I could tell you about the social experiments that have been happening on college campuses for the last couple of decades goes deep (with pre-k childen), and it partially explains our current situation. Social engineering is real
Some humans are born with one leg, or three. That does not mean human are not bipedal animals, or that “leggedness” exists on a spectrum.
We need to come to terms with the fact that we are physical, biological beings, and some of us are born different than others. Sometimes this difference is damaging or even tragic, and instead of denying difference in the guise of faux-compassion, we should show real compassion and discuss these things honestly.
Intersex athletes still have either male or female DNA, whatever their physical appearance.
The entire project is organized as a cult. The wizards in a cult always try to create a simulacrum of reality, and they want you to believe in it. That is, they create a false reality that kinda looks real, but it's often twisted a little bit, it's a little off in relation to actual reality. This pseudo-reality is propped up with typically false logic and a false morality. James Lindsay has articles about this on New Discourses.
For example:
False reality: "Trans women are women"
False logic: "If you identify as a woman then you are a woman"
False morality: "If you disagree then you're an evil person who wants to eradicate trans people from the face of the earth"
They cycle through this stupid trinity all the time.
"Intersex people and XXy-chromosome people are a different sex"
"Because intersex people don't match the textbook definition of male or female it must be a new sex in need of its own categori"
"How can you call that a birth defect? You must really hate intersex people. You are a bad person."
"That laptop was Russian misinformation"
"30 experts in security (that we handpicked) says so, so it must be true"
"If you don't agree then you're probably an evil Russian asset trying to destroy democracy in the US"
"Trump is an evil white supremacist, because he said they were 'fine people'"
"We know that because all the media say exactly that, and so does the clip I saw on Twitter"
"You disagree? It's probably because you're an evil white supremacist yourself"
"Covid is insanely dangerous and you must be vaccinated to avoid infecting grandma"
"Only if everyone is vaccinated can we go back to normal"
"If you don't get vaccinated it means we can't go back to normal, and you're a bad person for keeping us trapped in these lockdowns"
and on and on it goes ...
I would rather like to hear dr. Wright’s comment on these papers:
1) https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(16)54843-2/pdf
2) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajmg.a.34123?casa_token=xOlq4_5HVSgAAAAA%3Ar74qpo6a547IXLnMZe11iGML_wpbLJR-sngni1kspY7KiSK-oQou-aW9IbkkErafckW9lvIQWuNSdQQ
That is, hermaphrodites could manufacture both ova and sperm.
Thank you
Leon Retief
Thanks for this sane assessment. My understanding of the obfuscating "assigned at birth" characterization of all natal sex by gender-identity ideologues is that it co-opts for political purposes a medical phrase historically used only in rare cases where DSDs make biological sex ambiguous.
"The reality is that the vast majority of humans are easily classifiable as either male or female."
Bit of your own "sophistry", and quite unscientific dogma. Standard biological definitions -- those published in reputable biological journals like Molecular Human Reproduction as opposed to the letter section of the UK Times ... -- stipulate that to have a sex is to have functional gonads of either of two types, those with neither being, ipso facto, sexLESS.
A set of definitions that excludes some third of us -- at any one time -- from the "exalted" categories of male and female.
See my recent essay for details:
https://humanuseofhumanbeings.substack.com/p/binarists-vs-spectrumists