Rationality Rules (or not)

[ByGrabtharsHammarWhatASaving]

If you're not familiar with the YouTuber Rationality Rules, he's part of the "sceptic/ atheist community" and makes "debunk" videos. Recently he made a video on Transwomen in sports giving arguments for why they had a physical advantage.

He then appeared on the show "the atheist experience" which is a live call in show in Texas run by the Atheist Community of Austin (ACA). After his appearance they got some predictable complaints about platforming a witch, and he was cast out into the secular hellfire of being a far right transphobic bigot.

This is quite insane to me as The Atheist Experience was where I learnt all about logical fallacies. It was years of watching this show that taught me the techniques to identify the flaws in trans ideology, so I was shocked to see the cognitive dissonance. The ACA says as part of it's policy that no idea should be held sacred and everything must be up for debate - so much for that. RR has been informed that he needs to make a full apology, "educate" himself out of his wrongthink, and then make a correctional video in which he avows that we have in fact always been at war with Eurasia.

Here's the grovelling hair-shirt apology. Trigger warning: extreme levels of toe curling cringe.

Evidence of rightthink will follow in a few weeks. The ACA have said that they "hope it meets their expectations".

It's utterly pathetic and so disappointing from a society supposedly committed to scepticism. So much respect lost for all involved.

I don't watch YT videos, but I've followed the skeptic community online for nearly two decades and it's been depressing to see how many of them fall for the TRA religious dogma. Take PZ Myers - biological scientist and extremely anti-theistic, but now totally onside with the TWAW cult, without any awareness of irony. When the subject has come up on his blog, any GC comments are deleted, but not before he's let his little army of fans pile on.
Of course, the skeptic community - especially in the US - is heavily male and overlaps to some extent with the gaming community. So joining the TWAW cult is a way of looking after other men while making sure that women don't have any space to themselves!

Yes, I guess it depends which identity is more important to these men doesn’t it? Being an empirical free thinker or a defender of men’s rights. You can’t always be both

A few years ago there was a move to make "Atheism+" a thing, which was basically a call for the atheists/ skeptics, (liberal) feminists, and other assorted SJW groups, to stand together and champion each others causes. The name itself didn't get much traction, but it sounds like the idea did. Not that atheists are required to share any belief beyond the position that no God claims have met their burden of proof, but the naked intellectual dishonesty and neo-religious excommunicating of heretic thinkers has been very disappointing.

So... not able to watch the videos right now, but does he give a reason for recanting besides TRA pressure?

PZ Myers is appalling but his commentators are worse. There’s a regular poster on his blog (Ogvorbis, or something like that) who admitted sexually assaulting two children in the midst of a guest column posted by a rape survivor. As he claimed that he too had been sexually assaulted as a child, so it wasn’t really his fault, some of the other commentators said they forgave him and that they’d trust him with their children.

Myers himself has said there’s no difference between male and female DNA. How exactly he gets zebra fish to breed for his experiments is a mystery. Maybe he just keeps pairing random fish up until he gets lucky.

Not really. He was told to do some more research, i.e."here's the conclusion you have to reach, now go find an argument that'll get you there". His next video will cover those arguments, but he said it might take him a few weeks to find them.

AlwaysComingHome that's ridiculous. I saw a thread on twitter a while back where someone was saying that there was no such thing as male and female in any mammals. Someone asked "so how do I know if my cat is likely to fall pregnant?" They replied "just wait an see if it falls pregnant, obviously". Still not sure if they were trolling - so hard to tell these days.

I think several of those who started the Atheism+ movement have been accused of sexual assault or, at least, creepy behaviour. Richard Carrier used his blog to solicit prostitutes to talk dirty to him. It wasn’t immoral though as he didn’t intend to pay them and that makes it all right. Quite a few into polyamory in the movement too, only a few forgot to mention it to their wives.

His next video will cover those arguments, but he said it might take him a few weeks to find them.

How bizarre. I can't imagine what logical contortions he'll come up with. Surely a rational person would only change their mind if faced with a compelling argument backed by evidence?

It's bizarre. The aca seem to have retracted their condemnation of him - is that in response to the apology vid?

It has been really surprising to me how many people who claim to be about scepticism and rationality are all signed up to gender ideology, or identity pol in general. I didn't really know much about the skeptic and atheist movements before reading about this issue but it seems like such a strange fit.

Just saw the video. Wow. It was like watching something from a totalitarian state, or a hostage video. Loads of grovelling, almost no explanation as to why he changed his mind.

The only clue was about 'the effects of HRT on male bodies'. So, are they enough to compensate for male puberty, extra height, lung capacity etc? A quick glance at famous transwomen in sport like Hannah Mouncey suggests not. What about TWs who don't take medical treatment? The self IDed ones? By TRA logic they're women so should still compete. I hope this 'Rational' guy considers all that.

You remember when Martina Navratilova semi-apologised, said she'd go off and do some research, then came back and announced she stood by what she'd said before? I hope he can show the same integrity.

The aca seem to have retracted their condemnation of him - is that in response to the apology vid?

No it was after he promised to make the apology vid and correction video, but the "retraction" is a masterclass in "sorry not sorry". It was basically a "sorry you felt that way" rather than a "sorry we did it".

I’ve seen enough movies to think we should count their blinks to see if the are saying HELP I’M BEING HELD PRISONER BY A PSYCHOPATH in Morse code.

Omg... we should definitely all learn to do that.

wasn't Danielle Muscato some kind of rationalist speaker?
I did think that maybe he was doing a kind of real life 'look at how ridiculous this is' thing

Well, I watched the videos on transwomen in sport, and I suppose they were ok.

But given that he is someone who is all over being supposedly logical and being able to spot fallacies I wasn't very impressed at his attempts to do so in the video, which were rather wide of the mark. Which reflects what I've seen in the skeptic community generally, really.

No it definitely wasn't the best video, and I'd be surprised if he'd spent much time researching it because if he had he'd have known there was no way to make it without a massive backlash. It reminded me of the "my brothers name is jessica" thing - no idea what he was walking into! But to be denounced, and bullied into doing a complete u-turn, demonetising his video and donating all the revenue to charity, is just so extreme!