Formulating Stronger Arguments For PC / SJ Conclusions
I've been thinking about how to do this off-and-on for quite awhile...though never with sufficient diligence.
The relevant sector of the left tends to employ shoddy concepts and terminology (e.g. 'privilege,' 'rape culture'), and rely on crappy forms of reasoning (wild leaps of interpretation, covert redefinition of terms, outright textbook fallacies (e.g. ad hominems are really popular over there)). Also their background philosophical views are a disaster. But sometimes, I think, there are stronger arguments that can be made for some of their conclusions.
For example, the main actual PC arguments about transgenderism are a mess, typically relying on some unsupportable premises about "social construction" and whatnot... But a (long) while back it occurred to me that you might make a stronger (and more liberal) case based on privacy rights: what business is it of yours, after all, what's between my legs? If I want to keep that under wraps, that should be up to me. And being forced to choose a restroom forces me to reveal information that I don't want to reveal. We already acknowledge that private parts are private in many ways...so what about an argument that says that I ought to be free to conceal information about the general nature of my junk? This argument employs a well-established and sane liberal (in the broad sense) principle, and doesn't require wild metaphysical flights of fancy. It probably won't get you the conclusion that others can be coerced into complying with non-standard pronoun demands. But it at least brings some of the relevant arguments into the realm of reason.
There's more...but grading's afoot.
The relevant sector of the left tends to employ shoddy concepts and terminology (e.g. 'privilege,' 'rape culture'), and rely on crappy forms of reasoning (wild leaps of interpretation, covert redefinition of terms, outright textbook fallacies (e.g. ad hominems are really popular over there)). Also their background philosophical views are a disaster. But sometimes, I think, there are stronger arguments that can be made for some of their conclusions.
For example, the main actual PC arguments about transgenderism are a mess, typically relying on some unsupportable premises about "social construction" and whatnot... But a (long) while back it occurred to me that you might make a stronger (and more liberal) case based on privacy rights: what business is it of yours, after all, what's between my legs? If I want to keep that under wraps, that should be up to me. And being forced to choose a restroom forces me to reveal information that I don't want to reveal. We already acknowledge that private parts are private in many ways...so what about an argument that says that I ought to be free to conceal information about the general nature of my junk? This argument employs a well-established and sane liberal (in the broad sense) principle, and doesn't require wild metaphysical flights of fancy. It probably won't get you the conclusion that others can be coerced into complying with non-standard pronoun demands. But it at least brings some of the relevant arguments into the realm of reason.
There's more...but grading's afoot.
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