Attacks on trans people are also attacks on science itself --Opinion

[VickySGV]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/24/opinions/attacking-transgender-people-is-attacking-science-turban-gill-peterson/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0Pdltf7TBTsUHRcPJVUwHg7PrFaiKAGI6gxjei0aTKkKi4a3ui4AlA43E

 

I have read other material by the two authors of this piece who are legitimate Scientists.  The links in the piece are very informative.

[MelanieTamara]

From the article...

 

"Though some conservatives have a strange obsession with focusing on other elements of biology (i.e., genitals and chromosomes), it doesn't make scientific or medical sense to give these unconscious parts of our bodies primacy over our conscious brains, where gender identity resides."

 

Whenever I hear the solely based physiological argument that if you have a penis you're a male and if you have a vagina, you are a female, I get so enraged. The total disregard of the cognitive part of the brain is astounding.

 

Do they even realize the cognitive and the autonomic parts of the brain are in disagreement quite often. Death for example. The cognitive part of the brain thinks you're going to live forever. The autonomic part of the brain says, nope, you got 10 hearbeats left and its dirt nap time.

[Davie]

Not sure why, but brain-dead people just don't get it. ?

[Charlize]

Unfortunately some people do not believe in science especially if their political or religious beliefs conflict.  Whole areas of the country are not getting vaccinated.  Those areas also seem to be the least accepting of gender diversity.  We have the freedom to believe what we wish but it would be lovely if folks understood that science is real.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Davie]

Thank you, @Charlize

Yes, the facts of science are based on universal truths like common observations, testable processes, and mathematics. These truths can be tested over and over again and they will produce the same results. These results have occurred over thousands of years and in hundreds of different countries. Science is not a belief. Science can tell you the size of your brain—belief has an opinion about whether your brain lives on the moon or not.

Please join us on Earth.

[Heather Shay]

good discussion - thank you.

[Robin]

Mind reading has not been scientifically proven, yet many of our critics appear to believe that they can do it.

 

Robin.

[miz miranda]

If someone truly has a religious belief than you can never win an argument that relies on facts since no amount of fact can challenge their faith.

 

Science is messy and can change over time. However, the key factor in science is that a scientific fact can be measured and those measurements can be repeated with the same result. On the other hand just because a scientist says something doesn't make it science, it must meet the rigor in the previous sentence. I think it has become fashion to claim someone who opposes your views is denying science and to  much opinion is proposed as fact.

 

I think it is fairer to say that much of the anti-trans rhetoric is faith based and presenting biological observation as measurable fact. It is meant to frighten and divide. I don't understand why people feel it necessary to control the lives of others over things that don't have an impact on them.

 

For example, has there ever been a single case of a transgender person attacking a cis person in the bathroom. I am  not aware of any such case. There are plenty of examples of the other way around. Having spent a career in a high tech industry working with many professional scientists, I can only say most people have no idea what science really is including so-called experts. This is a case of a basic human right of existence more so than science.

 

I like the Richard Feynman quotes:

 

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

 

I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.

 

Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.

 

[Ivy]

2 hours ago, miz miranda said:

For example, has there ever been a single case of a transgender person attacking a cis person in the bathroom. I am  not aware of any such case

Even if you can find one, there are already laws against this.

[miz miranda]

@Jandi I did a poor job of explaining my example. The point I was trying to make is that the often cited fear of attack argument is an unreasonable fear. In fact trans people are far more likely to be attacked by cis people.

 

Politicians of either party too often create redundant laws that add no value to society. Once written they are notoriously difficult to remove.  I don't know if it is finally been removed, but  Chicago used to have a law where one 'could be arrested for being offensive to the public eye'. The original purpose was before water treatment and was meant to keep people with epidemic illnesses such as cholera off the streets.

[Ivy]

I have no problem whatsoever with what you wrote. 

3 hours ago, miz miranda said:

In fact trans people are far more likely to be attacked by cis people.

This is true.   Bathrooms are one of the places I am most paranoid.  

I mostly want to get out alive, not molest some kid.