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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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There's this chain of logic I feel like I've sniffed out - don't think I've ever seen it laid out all at once (so it makes me suspicious that it's an uncharitable leap of logic on my part, but I'll still venture posting...) - but seems to undergird a good deal of group ("oppressor-oppressed") dynamics in modern politics:

  1. The fruits of oppression, justice demands, must be forfeit.

  2. Groups naturally can differ in terms of mean talents or abilities. Taken together, these imply that:

  3. Unless something good that an oppressor-group has can be proven to be 100% nature and 0% nurture (which is a standard that can never be met) it is morally tainted, presumed illegitimate, and must be taken from them. Conversely, anything good that an oppressed-group has is doubly legitimate: not only is it the fruit of their natural superiority shining through (it can't be illegitimate, as that would mean that the oppressed-group is the Real Oppressors, as this is a binary status) but shining through despite the oppression! Likewise, anything bad that an oppressor-group has is doubly-legitimate, as they couldn't make up for it despite all the oppressing of their rivals, and anything bad an oppressed-group has can also be presumed illegitimate, probably the results of the oppression.

This makes for a supremacist's ratchet, quite frankly. Once a group has the brand of "oppressor" upon it, its only just place is equal-to-or-less-than everyone else, about everything, probably forever.

This is particularly clear in boys-versus-girls at school: if any measure by which boys outdo girls is presumed to be sexist, or measuring the fruits of sexism, and so in order for justice to be satisfied, this situation needs to be undone, while any measure by which girls outdo boys can be presumed honest, showing their natural superiority - well, what is the only possible way this can end?

i don't think the article claims that girls do better because they're just 'naturally superior'. yes, boys neurologically develop differently than girls, but that doesn't mean they're 'worse'.