Guest post: We question all that

Originally a comment by latsot on Another late anti-vaxxer.

Former Silentbob – can I call you “Former”, I feel like we’re friends? – Former:

As Bjarte said, we’re not the ones who changed. We’re still applying skeptical analysis to unlikely truth claims. You’re the one who stopped doing that. We’re still skeptical of radio hosts who say we shouldn’t get vaccinated and anti-mask podcasters in their rocking chairs. We remain dubious when we’re told that a centuries-dead cult leader can be so upset by a cartoon that slaughter is the only moral recourse. We continue to raise a quizzical eyebrow at homoeopathic cures, ancient prophecies and magical underpants. We still think Bigfoot is probably just made up.

And we impose exactly the same scrutiny on the truthclaims of the trans. We find some of those claims lacking. Skeptical enquiry tells us that humans can’t change sex; that there are no man-brains and lady-brains; that the most effective cure for gender dysphoria is puberty. Along the way we learn of the long-term harms of irreversible puberty blockers; the railway rushing confused children toward life-changing surgery and the political manoeuvring to prevent other therapeutic options being presented. We see the conflict between women’s rights and the demands of gender identity extremists; the compromise of women’s safety and dignity in the removal of their spaces and the very language they use to organise and defend their rights; the opportunities opened by decades of their campaigning being swallowed by the inclusion of men. We see similar rights to safety, dignity and autonomy of homosexual men and women being gleefully eroded and rampant homophobia surfacing again in the name of an ideology that folds like a house of cards the moment you so much as glance at it.

And we question all that. We apply our skeptical enquiry. And we can only conclude the obvious. Now you may question our conclusions, but you cannot argue that we’ve changed. We’re doing the same things we’ve always done: examine extraordinary claims and see where the evidence takes us.

But you have changed. You’re the one like Josh, because you’ve abandoned all skeptical principles entirely in this one area alone. You accept truth claims you’d never have accepted from evangelical Christians or muslims or from the mouth of the Loch Ness Monster itself. But you’ve changed even more than that, because all of this special pleading is in the name of ideology. For you, ideology trumps thought, reason, evidence and compassion.

You’d never have stood for that in the old days, Former, and we won’t stand for it now. We don’t have an ideology. We won’t have one. An ideology would blind us, as it has blinded you.

So why the drive-by, if you’re really reaching out? Hang out. Engage. If you think we’ve fallen to an ideology, show us where it’s compromised our reasoning. If you think there’s a problem with ideas of AGP or social contagion, show us how we’re wrong. You know many of us, we’re mostly friendly. Unlike the commentariat of certain blogs we’ll argue but we won’t dogpile. We’ll pick apart your points, if we can, but we won’t try to stop you making them.

My guess is that you won’t, because you know I’m right. You believe things now that you’d never believe in any other sphere of human foolhardiness. But we’re not the ones scared of a fight, or of being proved wrong. So if you want to discuss these things, I’m sure you’d be welcome. If not, then I hope you remain, forever, Former.

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