[ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 237, Issue 13

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 10/06/2023 11:07, efc at swisscows.email wrote:
> Hello Ben,
>
> On Fri, 9 Jun 2023, Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat wrote:
>
>> On 09/06/2023 16:43, spike wrote:
>>> Teachers, don't get
>>> tangled up in culture wars.  Teach students what students come there to
>>> learn.  Don't try to make little political activists out of them.  
>>> You get
>>> fired doing that.  Simple.
>>
>> 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
>
> Why?

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.

>
>> 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
>
> X, Y chromosomes and biological sexes and evolution are facts or the
> currently best know explanation supported by science and experiment. Why
> wouldn't you mention it? It has nothing to do with culture.

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.

So acknowledging reality becomes a cultural thing, because there are 
people who refuse to acknowledge reality, and think that those who do 
are wrong.

>
>> 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.
>
> If you believe X, and someone else believes Y, I can choose to not
> believe in either or take either side. Of course X can define not X as
> Y, but that is just plain silly.

Of course, but there's no shortage of people who are just plain silly.

How many people do you think understand that Atheism is not a belief 
that there are no gods?
"I'm an atheist, I don't believe in any gods"
"Why do you believe there are no gods?"
"I didn't say that"
"Yes you did"
And so-on.
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.

>
> The best course of action is to refuse to take a side, refuse to
> acknowledge the definition of not X = Y, and get on with science.
>
> Of course you have all the right in the world to believe that I'm Y by
> being not X, but I do not have to accept that.

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.

>
>> 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.
>
> Or you just show what ever people you want and refuse to play the game.
> If you engage, _then_, you lost. By just sticking with science and
> rationality, you will solve the problem in the long term. No amount of
> culture war and wokeness can beat natural laws.

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.

The culture war and wokeness doesn't need to beat natural laws, it can 
still get you sacked or worse.

Ben
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