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A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

economist.com

141–150 of 1001 posts

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#141
Sudden outbreak of common sense.

We need, on social media, to learn how to deal more effectively with excessively loud, but not very numerous, activists. As some previous articles noted, trolling gets more clicks than facts. This empowers extremists, from Q-Anon on to trans activists.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#142

Gender politics is a cancer on the left, even though I agree with it, it takes up so much time and energy away from things that would benefit everybody including trans people, like universal healthcare, better employee protection laws and better, more available education. Such a small percentage of the population has been the center point of so much discussion and debate, and for what benefit? All I see it doing is g…

> it takes up so much time and energy away from things that would benefit everybody including trans people, like universal healthcare, better employee protection laws and better

Distraction working as intended then? Neither political party has really shown any clear legislative intention on delivering on those things you ask for.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#143
post #98

I don't think gender ideology is an appropriate topic for HN. There is little to be gained and much to be lost from discussing it here. Little to be gained because it has nothing to do with software development, and because gender issues are thoroughly covered elsewhere. Much to be lost because gender issues are so divisive that we risk alienating members of our community.

For a while I'd really enjoyed HackerNews for the lack of politics. It was great not to hear about Trump during the Trump presidency, but since then and COVID times I find more and more highly politicized editorials being propelled to the top of the front page. I'm pretty close to no longer visiting here.

You're not alone.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#144
post #98

I don't think gender ideology is an appropriate topic for HN. There is little to be gained and much to be lost from discussing it here. Little to be gained because it has nothing to do with software development, and because gender issues are thoroughly covered elsewhere. Much to be lost because gender issues are so divisive that we risk alienating members of our community.

For a while I'd really enjoyed HackerNews for the lack of politics. It was great not to hear about Trump during the Trump presidency, but since then and COVID times I find more and more highly politicized editorials being propelled to the top of the front page. I'm pretty close to no longer visiting here.

This is normal fluctuation. People have been saying such things since the early years of HN—see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869.

There was a great deal of Trump discussion here, too. Such perceptions are prone to sample bias.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#145
What a tough problem to solve. My current thought on the gender identity issue is that society should default to the absolute minimum amount of categorizing people by their gender. What you identify as only matters to the extent that we divide people. Nobody would care if you used the women's bathroom, if such a thing did not exist. And when it is absolutely necessary for a distinction to exist, then we can spend the effort required to justify why, and along with that justification we should be able to clearly identify how it applies to transgender individuals.

This would mean throwing out a lot of the more epheremeral complaints "I feel unsafe if there is a man in the bathroom." Why? Let's fix that part, then. Because there are going to be scary women too.

I don't know. I don't have a really good answer I feel comfortable with. I do think a significant part of the problem, however, is not ideological, it is technological. It's way, way too easy to pile on with very little effort.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#146
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CIS (as born) women may also have (traditional) male-like traits. If you separate people by traits in prison, then why separate based on trans-ness alone? For example, large women are more likely to rape small women in prison simply because they can. If you separate based on such risks, then separate large women from small women also; why focus on just trans? Many prisons already separate by ethnic group simply to ke…

> "Regular" women The word you're looking for is "cis".

The world you’re looking for is “real”

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#147
One shouldn't expect courage from The Economist, but it's always wise to bet on their prudence.

I don't read The Economist for facts or details so much as to get a sense of what topics a current establishment can no longer afford to ignore. The details are secondary to the neccessity that a writer, a sub-editor, and a senior editor with tremendous personal stake in maintaining access to the circles that define establishment media, have collectively recognized that to remain relevant as a publication, the risk/reward on any ensuing controversy still means the magazine has to acknowledge which way the wind is blowing.

When The Economist says something is just starting, it means it's been brewing for at least several years and they need to comment on it. I don't think direct discourse on the topic improves the discussion on gender because the participants use a critical theory in which the promise of discourse is just bait to corner political targets for their mobs. However, we (and even The Economist) can recognize that popular tolerance for these tactics has finally reached an inflection point, and this change in attitude is what will finally allow real analysis and insight by thoughtful people into topics about gender.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#148
post #27

Freedom of expression/free speech doesn’t mean freedom not to be offended or that you have to agree with the views. If we do not support even the most offensive speech then we risk a very slippery slope leading to censorship and 1984.

[flagged]

> Or how being anti-Marxist makes you a racist.

Especially given the historical record on empowered Marxists and saying/doing things that are extremely racist and homophobic.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#149
post #98

I don't think gender ideology is an appropriate topic for HN. There is little to be gained and much to be lost from discussing it here. Little to be gained because it has nothing to do with software development, and because gender issues are thoroughly covered elsewhere. Much to be lost because gender issues are so divisive that we risk alienating members of our community.

For a while I'd really enjoyed HackerNews for the lack of politics. It was great not to hear about Trump during the Trump presidency, but since then and COVID times I find more and more highly politicized editorials being propelled to the top of the front page. I'm pretty close to no longer visiting here.

I'm not sure why you couldn't simply skip the topics that you don't like, and completely avoid them, regardless of whether the reason for your lack of interest is politics or just that you never owned a ZX Spectrum or whatever.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#150
The same has occurred in regards to race.

For decades the ideological left preached, quite aggressively and consistently, that we must move to a post racial society, that race should not matter. This was the clear majority belief on the left as recently as the beginning of Obama's first term. My entire childhood was filled with that preached gospel: a person's character is what matters, do not pay attention to their skin color, look beneath that, their skin color is not what's important, what is important is what's on the inside. And so on. That ideology made tremendous sense to me.

Now they are saying the exact opposite 24/7. Their messaging has entirely changed. Now race is paramount, the color of a person's skin matters in a huge way, everyone is to be divided by race, everyone is to be treated differently depending on their race. Society must be splintered by race. They're segregating everyone into tribes and pitting them against eachother.

So was the former ideology bullshit, or is the new ideology bullshit. Their credibility is shot, not that anyone cares. Next week they'll switch it again if it serves their pursuit of power, and proceed to memory hole whatever the last ideology was that they were pushing as though it never happened.

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