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Original poster

Clever people believing silly things

65 replies

Awayfromitall · 18/09/2018 18:55

Hi, disillusioned humanities academic here. I went into my profession because I liked research and wanted to be surrounded by clever people.

So how can I square that with a colleague telling me that intersex conditions prove humans are not a dimorphic species, and then coming up with the killer line "You could be XXY and not even know it." (XXY=meaning Klinefelter Syndrome, usually resulting in fertility problems and small testicles in males, some scientists don't even believe this should be classed as 'intersex'). I am a female who has given birth.

How can you hold forth on intersex conditions and not even bother reading the wikipedia page?

We wouldn't let our students get away with it. No matter what your politics, even your view on self-ID, this is just dumb, stupid, unworthy and it drives me mad. Sorry for rant.

OP posts:
Materialist · 18/09/2018 21:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Awayfromitall · 18/09/2018 20:52

thatdamnwoman, your friend is probably just shit scared. She'll want a job after the PhD and being labelled a transphobe is not conducive to that. Being transinclusive gets you brownie points, even if it fries your brain in the process.

I'm not saying I'm brave, either. Actually quite ashamed of my own cowardice. It is very hard being gender critical in academia. I know I will get asked to define 'woman' at some point and to my great shame I will probably mumble something weasly, along the lines of 'open to complex gender identities'. If I'm feeling cocky I might reply 'would you also ask me to define 'men'?

And there's also the impact on your teaching. If you are labelled a transphobe, colleagues might say that you're not a 'safe' person to be around students. Academics are not brave people. That's why they ended up in academia. [end of self-loathing rant]

OP posts:
borntobequiet · 18/09/2018 20:46

Every time I inadvertently catch Thought For the Day I think to myself “what are you on?” I was brought up a Catholic and remember vividly when I first realised that it was all made up nonsense. I still can’t understand why people believe religious dogma, but to me it explains how people can believe blatant untruths such as TWAW.

thatdamnwoman · 18/09/2018 20:43

It's horrifying, isn't it? Very bright woman I know, doing a PhD about lesbian women's experiences of something or other, calls herself a feminist — and yet won't define 'woman' as 'adult human female' and struggles these days to speak to me, a hateful terf. Except she's known me for years and is aware I'm not hateful. I think deep down she knows that my arguments are rational and hers aren't but she's joined the cult and the price of changing her mind is too high. Trans is cool and fun: being GC means hanging out with older hard-line feminists who aren't cool and aren't fun. She'd rather live with the cognitive dissonance than risk being exiled to a world of women-centred women.

OvaHere · 18/09/2018 20:42

I think being able to apply critical thought is a specific skill and not necessarily related to how academically high achieving someone is. It also may have something to do with entrenched thought patterns and an unwillingness to be wrong even in the face of evidence.

There is a certain strength of character to someone who is willing to reassess and change their mind from time to time. It's something we should all practice but in reality people are stubborn and it's something that seems to have become worse over the last 20 years.

Rufusthebewilderedreindeer · 18/09/2018 20:40

Teacher friend has explained the 'wash of hormones' trans gender theory to a group of us

And yes i just sat there...

Bowlofbabelfish · 18/09/2018 20:33

When I did my PhD there was one young woman who was an evangelical Christian who believed in the literal truth of genesis. She worked on evolution.

Cognitive dissonance is a bizarre thing

Original poster
Awayfromitall · 18/09/2018 19:52

Yes, What, it's astounding. Especially among academics. And this nonsense is creating real rifts between colleagues and friends. Just wondering if other academics are in a similar position?

OP posts:
Original poster
Awayfromitall · 18/09/2018 19:43

Tiger, that's what I want to know, too. It took me one gender critical article to see how flimsy the arguments of the trans rights movement are (speaking of the movement in its current political form). It's clear to anyone with half a brain, even if the policy side of things is hard to solve.

Prawn, ashamed to say I was just dumbfounded.

OP posts:
WhatTheWatersShowedMe · 18/09/2018 19:39

It seems to be that so many of the people that are happy to point out the complete bullshit believed by flat Earthers, anti-vaxxers, Holocaust deniers and climate change deniers have a HUGE gap in their critical thinking ability when someone says TWAW.

MIdgebabe · 18/09/2018 19:22

Couldn't you ask how many legs people have..and then point out that some people are born with zero to four legs...does that prove that people don't have two legs?

TigerDrankAllTheWaterInTheTap · 18/09/2018 19:20

I feel your pain. It's been interesting watching Skepticat and Andy Lewis on Twitter, both stalwarts of the Sceptic Society (I think that's the name) in days of yore, both trenchant critics of transideology now, both cast out as transphobes in a manner very reminiscent of the pre-Reformation Christian church labelling people as heretics for believing dangerous things like the earth goes round the sun, not vice versa. Why are the Emperor's clothes so visible to some people and so obviously invisible to others?

Prawnofthepatriarchy · 18/09/2018 19:18

What did you say to your colleague? I'd have found it hard not to verbally obliterate the fool.

Original poster
Awayfromitall · 18/09/2018 19:17

female brain, sadly

OP posts:
womensvoicesmatter · 18/09/2018 19:13

A case of being so open minded his brain has fallen out.