I find it remarkable that this article attacking Dawkins appears on a website purported to be for atheists. Atheists except for this one thing (the magical gender soul), I guess.
I repeat myself….but the left seems to have been captured by the SJW religion. On a variety of issues. I know he can be an insufferable prig, but when Bill Maher is on, he is ON! Look at his video from October 29!
@7 Maher’s bit on phobia is definitely spot on, and he makes the point without mentioning the most thrown around “phobia” today. I’ve been saying this for years. If you’re men in a dresses and makeup, there is no way in hell I’m going to be afraid of you as a group, unless you’re carrying AK 47’s or something, and even then it’s not a phobia. Learn what words mean FFS. The fact that his audience all get it gives me some hope that all is not lost.
Common sense should eventually prevail, but given the morons on twitter, possibly not.
A funny thing about that Icarus photo…for me it triggered a vague memory of a movie visual which kind of hovered at the back of my mind all day and then started nagging me – what IS that? A male character in that crucified sort of position, as a shock-discovery. I kept thinking Silence of the Lambs but also no because the climactic scene is all horribly low to the ground, it has to be some other movie. But then I remembered, it’s what Lecter does to one of the cops. I only ever saw it once, but it stuck. Found a clip to confirm.
The image of crucifixion is also used in the REM music video of Losing my Religion. I don’t know if you ever watch music videos (my husband loves them).
I’m too tired to read the whole thing right now, but of course PZ pretends to misunderstand Dawkins’ “pretty damn binary”. Dawkins quite fucking clearly used “pretty damn” for emphasis. PZ knows this perfectly well but pretends he thinks Dawkins is using it to fudge the fact that it isn’t really binary by magicking away the bits that don’t fit.
No, PZ, you’re the one performing the incantations and chanting the magic words. If you mutter them loudly enough, perhaps it will drown out the voice in your head that is screaming at you to stop this madness and to admit that you’ve dug yourself into a hole and are betraying everything you used to stand for.
That Myers and others claim that the exceedingly rare instances of truly intersex persons helps support the general metaphysical claim that transgender women are women is laughable on its face. Sorry, but it’s glaringly obvious that the vast majority of transgender persons aren’t actually intersex. Myers’ related claim about androgen insensitivity syndrome, where a person with an XY karyotype develops as a “woman”, misconstrues how having female secondary sex characteristics with said condition neglects the fact that they also have some male sex characteristics like internal testes and testosterone levels typical of human males. So not typical adult human females.
tl;dr – Myers is a hot mess about a lot of things, because of his highly motivated reasoning that leads to him into making some real howlers like how many sexes horses have.
@14 “I’m too tired to read the whole thing right now…” — Do I detect a little ennui here? :D
Evolutionary biology doesn’t work without the sex binary, we wouldn’t even be around to wonder about it. Dawkins knows this but that Myers dude doesn’t? How does that Myers dude argue against creationism without a working knowledge of evolutionary biology? Maybe he’s just pretending to be a shitty atheist.
Actually just fatigue, this time, but I am no stranger to French diseases of the soul beginning with e.
If these were the old days, I’d roll up my sleeves and do a point-by-point rebuttal of PZ’s arguments, which I’d find immensely satisfying but which no other human would ever read. They’re all sleight of hand, most of it fairly clumsy. We’ve seen it all before.
As these are (reputedly) the new days, I can not be arsed.
@21 Understood latsot. Me too actually about the diseases but mine start with D and M (not an existential self diagnosis, unfortunately) but anyway… I do miss a good point by point rebuttal and I miss some of the more in depth discussions, so If You Wrote It, They Would Read, or I know I would. :) I have never engaged at Freethought blogs, and that’s because I have about a 15 year gap of not doing anything serious on the internet, which started with the closing of the TPM forum and culminated during the rise of twitter and facebook (not that I have the energy to do anything serious now either ;)) but my disillusionment was complete by then. I am only around now because my life situation in the past few years has made me more contemplative of things, and here at B&W particularly because of my internet friend Ophelia and her interesting (and contagious) passion for “discussing all the things.”
We should totally bring back point by point rebuttals. Andy Lewis is one of the few of the old school still doing an excellent line in PBPRs.
But they’re a youngster’s game, not mine. I’m just an ageing gladiator, one snit of a lion’s claw from bleeding out ignominiously but experienced and wary enough yet to have the lion in a headlock before even thinking about how the fuck I’m going to get out of it.
I keep thinking well, I’ll just settle in, summon up my motivating outrage at the illogic and assault on common sense of some garbagey diatribe or other by someone who oughtta know better. Then I start wondering if the outrage is there anymore to summon up. There is so much of it nowadays, and I have a yard full of leaves to rake up this time of year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It does take a fair amount of youthful pissedoffedness indeed.
It’s not a claim, it’s a biological fact. The truth claims are coming from the trans cult.
I find it remarkable that this article attacking Dawkins appears on a website purported to be for atheists. Atheists except for this one thing (the magical gender soul), I guess.
Well quite. It’s been that way for several years though.
FA s a large forum and used to allow a variety of views on the transgender issue, but then they got rid of her.
Also it seems remarkably ignorant to say Dawkins is posing as Jesus when he’s clearly posing as Icarus.
lol Sastra.
I repeat myself….but the left seems to have been captured by the SJW religion. On a variety of issues. I know he can be an insufferable prig, but when Bill Maher is on, he is ON! Look at his video from October 29!
@7 Maher’s bit on phobia is definitely spot on, and he makes the point without mentioning the most thrown around “phobia” today. I’ve been saying this for years. If you’re men in a dresses and makeup, there is no way in hell I’m going to be afraid of you as a group, unless you’re carrying AK 47’s or something, and even then it’s not a phobia. Learn what words mean FFS. The fact that his audience all get it gives me some hope that all is not lost.
Common sense should eventually prevail, but given the morons on twitter, possibly not.
The irony of the photo of Dawkins is lost on the woke, who lost their sense of humor long ago.
A funny thing about that Icarus photo…for me it triggered a vague memory of a movie visual which kind of hovered at the back of my mind all day and then started nagging me – what IS that? A male character in that crucified sort of position, as a shock-discovery. I kept thinking Silence of the Lambs but also no because the climactic scene is all horribly low to the ground, it has to be some other movie. But then I remembered, it’s what Lecter does to one of the cops. I only ever saw it once, but it stuck. Found a clip to confirm.
The image of crucifixion is also used in the REM music video of Losing my Religion. I don’t know if you ever watch music videos (my husband loves them).
A question:
How many Trans-Rights Activists does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: This is a bigoted trick question.
Light bulbs need not change in any way.
The residents of the house need to learn to accept the lack of light, to validate the dimness.
But of course:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2021/11/01/the-dawkins-ennui/
I’m too tired to read the whole thing right now, but of course PZ pretends to misunderstand Dawkins’ “pretty damn binary”. Dawkins quite fucking clearly used “pretty damn” for emphasis. PZ knows this perfectly well but pretends he thinks Dawkins is using it to fudge the fact that it isn’t really binary by magicking away the bits that don’t fit.
No, PZ, you’re the one performing the incantations and chanting the magic words. If you mutter them loudly enough, perhaps it will drown out the voice in your head that is screaming at you to stop this madness and to admit that you’ve dug yourself into a hole and are betraying everything you used to stand for.
(to be clear: I don’t think there are bits that don’t fit the binary.)
latsot @ 14
That Myers and others claim that the exceedingly rare instances of truly intersex persons helps support the general metaphysical claim that transgender women are women is laughable on its face. Sorry, but it’s glaringly obvious that the vast majority of transgender persons aren’t actually intersex. Myers’ related claim about androgen insensitivity syndrome, where a person with an XY karyotype develops as a “woman”, misconstrues how having female secondary sex characteristics with said condition neglects the fact that they also have some male sex characteristics like internal testes and testosterone levels typical of human males. So not typical adult human females.
tl;dr – Myers is a hot mess about a lot of things, because of his highly motivated reasoning that leads to him into making some real howlers like how many sexes horses have.
#14 latsot
Yep, and he bangs on for three paragraphs on that ginned-up point.
J,A,
Yes.
Holms
YES.
@14 “I’m too tired to read the whole thing right now…” — Do I detect a little ennui here? :D
Evolutionary biology doesn’t work without the sex binary, we wouldn’t even be around to wonder about it. Dawkins knows this but that Myers dude doesn’t? How does that Myers dude argue against creationism without a working knowledge of evolutionary biology? Maybe he’s just pretending to be a shitty atheist.
(and by “shitty atheist” I mean a Rebel Without a Clue) :P
twiliter:
Actually just fatigue, this time, but I am no stranger to French diseases of the soul beginning with e.
If these were the old days, I’d roll up my sleeves and do a point-by-point rebuttal of PZ’s arguments, which I’d find immensely satisfying but which no other human would ever read. They’re all sleight of hand, most of it fairly clumsy. We’ve seen it all before.
As these are (reputedly) the new days, I can not be arsed.
@21 Understood latsot. Me too actually about the diseases but mine start with D and M (not an existential self diagnosis, unfortunately) but anyway… I do miss a good point by point rebuttal and I miss some of the more in depth discussions, so If You Wrote It, They Would Read, or I know I would. :) I have never engaged at Freethought blogs, and that’s because I have about a 15 year gap of not doing anything serious on the internet, which started with the closing of the TPM forum and culminated during the rise of twitter and facebook (not that I have the energy to do anything serious now either ;)) but my disillusionment was complete by then. I am only around now because my life situation in the past few years has made me more contemplative of things, and here at B&W particularly because of my internet friend Ophelia and her interesting (and contagious) passion for “discussing all the things.”
We should totally bring back point by point rebuttals. Andy Lewis is one of the few of the old school still doing an excellent line in PBPRs.
But they’re a youngster’s game, not mine. I’m just an ageing gladiator, one snit of a lion’s claw from bleeding out ignominiously but experienced and wary enough yet to have the lion in a headlock before even thinking about how the fuck I’m going to get out of it.
I keep thinking well, I’ll just settle in, summon up my motivating outrage at the illogic and assault on common sense of some garbagey diatribe or other by someone who oughtta know better. Then I start wondering if the outrage is there anymore to summon up. There is so much of it nowadays, and I have a yard full of leaves to rake up this time of year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It does take a fair amount of youthful pissedoffedness indeed.