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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 1, 2024

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Personally I find the "gender" framework nonsensical.

I personally find it sensible.

But, I recall rejecting the gender binary was a fad among some online progressives. I've never seen a good contrarian following through with the obvious response to online trans people. "Trans women aren't women. No one is. There aren't two and only two categories. Gender is a spectrum not meaningfully described by this arbitrary binary. So no, a guy on estrogen is not a woman. People born with 2 X chromosomes aren't, so you transwomen also aren't."

I personally find it sensible.

Cool. Wouldn't it be great if people were free to embrace and reject philosophical views depending on which ones they find plausible, rather than being pressured to embrace them through social ostracism, threat of losing your job, and hate speech laws?

But, I recall rejecting the gender binary was a fad among some online progressives. I've never seen a good contrarian following through with the obvious response to online trans people. "Trans women aren't women. No one is. There aren't two and only two categories. Gender is a spectrum not meaningfully described by this arbitrary binary. So no, a guy on estrogen is not a woman. People born with 2 X chromosomes aren't, so you transwomen also aren't."

I'm not sure what's that suppose to achieve. Sure no one is a woman in the same way that chairs aren't really chairs, horses aren't really horses, and tulips aren't really tulips. Every category can be deconstructed until it ceases to exist, but none of that changes the material reality around us.