<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/06/2023 11:07,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:efc@swisscows.email">efc@swisscows.email</a> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.28.1686391670.27722.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">Hello
Ben,
<br>
<br>
On Fri, 9 Jun 2023, Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat wrote:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="color: #007cff;">On 09/06/2023
16:43, spike wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="color: #007cff;">Teachers, don't
get
<br>
tangled up in culture wars. Teach students what students come
there to
<br>
learn. Don't try to make little political activists out of
them. You get
<br>
fired doing that. Simple.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
like Catcher in the Rye, you're in trouble. You can't avoid the
culture wars, except by resigning. Even the sciences aren't
exempt from this. Teach biology
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Why?
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, and
many other works, contain what the media coyly call 'racial slurs',
and depictions of racism. This is seen as unacceptale now, by people
of a certain disposition, and some of them are determined to stir up
trouble for any teacher who dares to present this material to their
students.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.28.1686391670.27722.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="color: #007cff;">and you have to
either mention evolution or avoid it, you have to either explain
that a fertilised egg is not a person or not, you have to talk
about X and Y chromosomes or avoid the whole subject of
biological sex. Either
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
X, Y chromosomes and biological sexes and evolution are facts or
the
<br>
currently best know explanation supported by science and
experiment. Why
<br>
wouldn't you mention it? It has nothing to do with culture.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
I agree. The facts themselves have nothing to do with culture. But
teaching them does. When you teach, you are doing something that
affects the culture. Kids that grow up understanding and accepting
evolution are at odds with those who have creationist beliefs. Those
who understand that a clump of cells is not a person are at odds
with anti-choice people who think that women should not have bodily
autonomy. Someone who points out that everyone has XX or XY
chromosomes (with the occasional abnormalities, like XYY syndrome)
are at odds with those who want to ignore biology in favour of
'gender identity' (I know it sounds bonkers, but look at the
reactions against J K Rowling for simply stating a fact). I have
nothing against a man wearing a skirt, or people choosing to have
surger to alter their sex organs, but I realise that if you're born
with XY chromosomes, that makes you a man, and nothing can change
that (yet). This makes me an enemy of the "you're a girl if you say
you're a girl" crowd, who don't think chromosomes have a say in the
matter.<br>
<br>
So acknowledging reality becomes a cultural thing, because there are
people who refuse to acknowledge reality, and think that those who
do are wrong.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.28.1686391670.27722.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="color: #007cff;">choice is picking
a side in the culture wars. You can't be impartial. You either
teach, and fall foul of 'woke' ideology with all the
consequences, or you fail to teach and leave the kids in
ignorance.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
If you believe X, and someone else believes Y, I can choose to not
<br>
believe in either or take either side. Of course X can define not
X as
<br>
Y, but that is just plain silly.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Of course, but there's no shortage of people who are just plain
silly.<br>
<br>
How many people do you think understand that Atheism is not a belief
that there are no gods?<br>
"I'm an atheist, I don't believe in any gods"<br>
"Why do you believe there are no gods?"<br>
"I didn't say that"<br>
"Yes you did"<br>
And so-on.<br>
I've lost count of the 'discussions' I've had with people, trying to
explain that atheism is not a belief. There are many, many silly (to
be polite) people.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.28.1686391670.27722.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<br>
The best course of action is to refuse to take a side, refuse to
<br>
acknowledge the definition of not X = Y, and get on with science.
<br>
<br>
Of course you have all the right in the world to believe that I'm
Y by
<br>
being not X, but I do not have to accept that.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
What you accept or don't is beside the point. Especially when you
can be hounded out of your job by those who don't accept.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.28.1686391670.27722.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="color: #007cff;">I don't really see
how business is going to be any better, either. You either avoid
showing minorities in your advertising and branding or you
don't. You're damned either way.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Or you just show what ever people you want and refuse to play the
game.
<br>
If you engage, <span class="moz-txt-underscore"><span
class="moz-txt-tag">_</span>then<span class="moz-txt-tag">_</span></span>,
you lost. By just sticking with science and
<br>
rationality, you will solve the problem in the long term. No
amount of
<br>
culture war and wokeness can beat natural laws.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
My point is that you can't refuse to play the game. Show whoever you
want or not, there will always be people who are opposed to whatever
you do.<br>
<br>
The culture war and wokeness doesn't need to beat natural laws, it
can still get you sacked or worse.<br>
<br>
Ben<br>
</body>
</html>