Jerry Coyne. Why am I not surprised.
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Perhaps Iâm misunderstanding something here. I thought that one of the big reasons the Nationalist Christians and Evangelicals and other fanatical religious types are so transphobic is that itâs "Against Godâs Will"â˘. I wouldnât expect atheists to buy into that argument, given that "There Is No God"â˘. What am I missing?
The rational and logical view would be that trans people are, you know, people, like everybody else. What makes them âdifferentâ is the same thing that makes everybody different: weâre all individuals, and our âdifferencesâ are products of genetics, environment, and probably a zillion other things we still donât have any clue about. They are what makes each of us interesting and worth getting to know and learn from.
So, what am I missing? Am I not seeing some critical detail that would make me see the errors of my ways? Or are they all just self-righteous assholes who have lost their sense of wonder and the joy of learning, and have devolved into hateful bigots who only continue to exist as long as they can prove theyâre superior to someone else?
What a wretched way to live that must be.
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From what Iâve seen, the secular and atheist TERFs replace âGodâs Willâ with âNatural Lawsâ in all places and continue identically.
Theyâre the ones who keep going on about how there are only two sexes because thatâs how it works, and when you point out that thatâs not how it works at all, they say, yes, but weâre dimorphic, and when you point out yes but itâs more of a bimodal distribution than a strict binary, they start talking about sessile and motile gametes, and when you ask what thatâs got to do with anything, they witter on about how there are clearly male and female morphotypes, and when you point out the overlaps, they ⌠until they basically end up with âBECAUSE IT JUST FUCKING IS, OK!!!â and block you.
At least, thatâs how it worked in my experience.
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Their supposed beliefs are entirely based on following the evidence wherever it leads, whether or not that leads to uncomfortable truths, so I donât think it matters to them if they end up agreeing with people whose beliefs theyâve opposed in the past, as long as they think the evidence supports their conclusion. Itâs not based in any kind of morality, but in cold logic, at least in their eyes. What I canât understand is why they think the evidence doesnât support the reality of trans people when, to the best of my knowledge, it absolutely does. So rather than following the evidence, theyâre deliberately choosing to ignore it, something which should be the closest thing to a sin that exists in their worldview. Why theyâve chosen this one specific issue to throw away the standards they previously were proud to hold themselves to, I donât know.
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Because theyâre bigots and not prone to introspection. Theyâve never really held themselves to that standard.
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There was a 19th-centure English sceptic who refused to believe anything without evidence.
And other peopleâs accounts of voyages around the world were hearsay, not evidence, since he had not been on voyages around the world.
And other peopleâs reports of ships disappearing over the horizing, with the hull disappearing 1st and the masts last, were hearsay, not evidence, since he had not been at the ports seeing these ships.
He made his own measurements at local canals, and determined that the earth was flat, with evidence that satisfied him.
Just as he did not observe other peopleâs voyages, these new skeptics and sceptics have not observed other peopleâs inner experiences,
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[three transphobes leave FFRF]
Donât let the door hit ya where natural selection split ya!
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Well at least she has made her position clear, and now I know what to think of her. She was always a little ambiguous before.
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Iâve heard all three of them mentioned for motivated reasoning on other issues too, picking and choosing evidence that just happens to match a conservative world view. Like sqlrob says, I donât think theyâve ever actually held to the standards you describe.
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I knew Dawkins had displayed sexist behavior in the past, but was unfamiliar with the other two before now. Itâs distressing how many skeptics and atheists (at least the white, male ones) have drifted further and further right over the years, especially during Trumpâs administration, right in the heart of the right wingâs complete abandonment of what little science and reason they did embrace.
Iâve mentioned it before at the old place, but I canceled my subscription to Skeptic magazine around that time, after noticing how Michael Shermer repeatedly wrote about what a horrible travesty and danger college âcancel cultureâ was, while remaining dead fucking silent for years about Trump and everything he and his administration were doing.
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Well, now youâve met Coyne, so hereâs something on Pinker that might explain how he slipped so easily into transphobia. 
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I donât know much about Coyne or Pinker, but Dawkins has a long history of misogyny, and transphobia is, at its core, a subset of misogyny. Dawkins clearly believes that men are superior to women in every way except being able to birth children. And he cannot fathom why any rational person who was âborn maleâ would want to be a woman, ergo any such person is clearly irrational and suffering from a delusion. Now, heâs smart enough to not express it in those terms, but that is, I am convinced, what he thinks.
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Off topic, but that is a very well designed website.
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It seems to me like a lot of âskepticsâ (who really get into it as an identity thing, not just what I think of as normal healthy levels of skepticism) are Libertarians, and in my experience if you scratch a Libertarian you often find a conservative.
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Natural laws was a Christian concept to start with, so I see them as Evangelicals with one less god. Dawkins in particular has struggled to leave his old religion behind.
If I was more charitable, I would say that they were dreaming of a world where they would be guillotined as reactionaries, but the evidence doesnât support that, they seem to be dreaming of a world where everyone else is guillotined as a revolutionary.
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Given the make-up of the courts, I could easily see this as an end-run around legal and ethical considerations. And one that could easily be applied to adult trans care as well. That and targeting trans-supportive physicians as âgroomersâ or what have you. Just found out from a good friend, whose brother is in a gay marriage, that he and his husband are being run out of Berkley Springs WV over a whisper campaign that his husband, a middle school principal, âshould not be trusted with the keys to the boyâs locker room.â The fact that he has worked there for almost 25 years and has a sterling reputation and record has no bearing, and the school system was not at all supportive, basically saying âwell, itâs a legitimate concernâŚâ That town used to be a relatively liberal bastion in WV (by WV standards, anyway) but has recently had an influx of white supremacists who are trying to take over the area. Lovely timesâŚ
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The joke is on them. The highest malpractice insurance rates are carried by OB/GYNs, and yet people still get pregnant and have children.
The biggest thing that has curtailed OB/GYN coverage in the US state abortion laws.
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