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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   22360 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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Great post. But I'm pessimistic; Scott's posted about how EA is positively addicted to criticizing itself, but the trans movement is definitely not like that. You Shall Not Question the orthodox heterodoxy. People like Ziz may look ridiculous and act mentally deluded (dangerously so, in retrospect), but it wouldn't be "kind" to point that out!

When I go to rationalist meetups, I actually think declaring myself to be a creationist would be met more warmly than declaring that biology is real and there's no such thing as a "female brain in a male body". (Hell, I bet people would be enthused at getting to argue with a creationist.) Because of this, I have no way to know whether 10% or 90% of the people around me are reasonable and won't declare me an Enemy of the People for saying unfashionable true things. If it really is 90% ... well, maybe there's hope. We'd just need a phase change where it becomes common knowledge that most people are anti-communist gender-realist.

I actually think declaring myself to be a creationist would be met more warmly than declaring that biology is real and there's no such thing as a "female brain in a male body"

Absolutely. To a rationalist (a label I consider increasingly inaptonymous), gender-criticals are neargroup, creationists are fargroup.

This lasts until the rationalists actually meet any creationists, of course.

Well that's the entire point of a fargroup, isn't it? You don't encounter them in your normal life. Like dark matter, they exist elsewhere, not bothering you.

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