She who will not be cancelled keeps going!

[Xanthangum]

twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1279755418621878272?s=20

"When you lie about what I believe about mental health medication and when you misrepresent the views of a trans woman for whom I feel nothing but admiration and solidarity, you cross a line."

Russell and Whitehead spent hundreds of pages proving that 1+1=2. They carefully defined what they meant by 1, what they meant by addition, what they meant by equals and what 2 represents.

Within those definitions, 1+1 always equals 2. That’s the truth. To make someone believe 1+1=3 in that system is to break the relationship with truth.

For someone to think they can come along and say ‘ahahaha but 1+1=10 in binary’ is not a clever gotcha. Of course if you redefine words and the system you are working in, you can get any answer you like. You haven’t broken the truth of 1+1=2 in the first system, which is what Orwell was referring to, you’ve stepped around it. A distraction.

Apparently 2+2 does not equal four in some number systems

Yes, not to IT geeks who think in binary.

Truly wasn't having a go YetAnother - sorry if it came across that way. Just frustrated and alarmed that yet another aspect of Orwell's fictional 2+2=5 post-truth world seems to be being absorbed into the debate.

Don't want to derail, but this short film is worth a watch on the 2+2=4 'debate' (working in standard base 10)

sorry if it came across that way. Just frustrated and alarmed that yet another aspect of Orwell's fictional 2+2=5 post-truth world seems to be being absorbed into the debate

Sorry Absinthe - I did think you were having a go at me. I've personally been in trouble at work over the whole trans/gender thing this week and I'm a bit sensitive. One of those situations where women who should know better have turned their backs because they are afraid not to kowtow to the men genderists.

yetanother - much sympathy and from me. I had it in the neck yesterday for wrongthink from one of my daughters (who, incidentally, seems to have decided my ability to do laundry, cook meals and clean up after everyone in the kitchen has not been impaired by my offensive 'Karen' opinions.)

Being brave enough to speak up and not being supported by female colleagues is really upsetting. So sorry that's happening. Hopefully the light JKR is shining will make a difference.

@CaveMum I agree, I’ve always thought of myself as a well-educated feminist but this board has been an absolute pot of gold for anyone wishing to really understand the issues.
I see Billy Bragg has also shown us misogynist leanings over on Twitter, although he did go very quiet so I’m wondering if he hasn’t gone away to look into things a bit more deeply.
I worry that a lot of ‘celebs’ are posting nonsense from a place of wanting to ‘do the right thing’ without realising the full impact of what they are saying.

The idea of 2+2=4 is cultural

I was very lucky growing up to have a wonderful Maths teacher who was originally from Iraq. He used to tell us the stories behind how (mostly) Arab scholars had discovered mathematical formulas and why they worked.

He used to get quite emotional about how when he moved to the UK he struggled with English but Maths is the same in every country. He said if we ever made contact with aliens, we'd start by communicating through maths because its a constant.

Don't want to derail, but this short film is worth a watch on the 2+2=4 'debate' (working in standard base 10)

I did like that, at the end, but up until then, I had goosebumps because it really mirrored my week so much!

I was very lucky growing up to have a wonderful Maths teacher who was originally from Iraq. He used to tell us the stories behind how (mostly) Arab scholars had discovered mathematical formulas and why they worked

Have you seen The Science of Islam? It's wonderful.

I see Billy Bragg has also shown us misogynist leanings over on Twitter, although he did go very quiet so I’m wondering if he hasn’t gone away to look into things a bit more deeply.

Sadly he's been a serial dismisser of women on this and basically will only respond to men about it, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

I was never really a fan of Billy Fan tbh. Just pretended to be because he was lefty and trendy.

Now I'm free to say that his voice really grates on me.

Apparently 2+2 does not equal four in some number systems

You can have all kinds of different number systems:

www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/convert-base.php

2+2 doesn't exist in binary.
2+2 = 11 in ternary
2+2 = 10 in quaternary
then from quinary onwards, including decimal, the system we use, 2+2 = 4.

Can anyone name one practical application for ternary or quaternary in everyday life?

I'm curious.

Obviously that made me curious so I had a quick look:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_numeral_system#Practical_usage

As an aside two plus two always equals four with the definitions of two-ness and four-ness that we have. Hope you write two and four (2, 10 in binary, 4, 100 binary, 11 ternary, 10 base 4) is irrelevant.

However you do have to carefully define two/four ness because two apples plus two bricks does not give 4 apples (or bricks) it gives 4 objects...

Back to (lovely fabulous) jkr now...

In accountancy exams
First years are taught that 2 + 2 = 4
Second years are taught that 2 + 2 = between 3 and 5
Third years are taught that 2 + 2 = why do you need to know?

Using maths to justify trans is nearly as dodgy as some accountants

Listening, when I did mine, my third year version was close the door... how much do you want it to be?!

“The idea of 2+2=4 is cultural” blah blah blah Western Imperialism

Ah - so now the noble savage did not only have no understanding of how babies were made and completely failed to notice the difference between bigger bodies with penises and smaller bodies with breasts before the white man showed up ... but now it turns out the noble savage couldn't count either.

What a progressive and wonderful way of viewing the world.

'To the terfs and the other loser transphobes:
You are not welcome here. Your desire to kneel on other peoples necks will not be tolerated.'

Yet another attempt to conflate gender critical thinking with racism - and gender critical feminists asking questions about their rights, safety and safeguarding with white, male cops in the U.S literally murdering black men.

I saw something on twitter a while back about a survey on whether kids should be taught Arabic numerals at school.

With the majority voting no, they would probably deem it progressive woke nonsense.

Noble
That is so classy, love it

it turns out the noble savage couldn't count either.

That has been the subject of a great deal of debate. Here's a non-academic discussion about this:

numberwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/is-one-two-many-a-myth/

A fair number of cultures use a limited base 2 system, but not developing counting at all is rare.

Please stop talking about maths!!! 😂

RedToothBrush Modular mathematics (so not quite ternary but definitely not simple base 10) is used in prime number based encryption, such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

Delirium
Maths is useful to the discussion
because its about facts and proofs
not feels and impressions

The whole TRA agenda has been about trying to undermine the facts of biology
and by standing up for facts and evidence and science and maths
we make the case that
XX = female
XY = male
and no amount of makeup or surgery or Twitter swearing will change that