A woman is not a feeling. Back when I was training to be a mediator, we had a list of feelings we could give people so that they would say things like, “When you have an erection in the girls’ changing room, it makes me feel terrified and disgusted” instead of “I feel like you are a pervert and I also have a strong feeling that you should be imprisoned.”
I think the best way to affirm people’s feelings about gender might be to give them such a list of feelings and ask them to precisely state what they are feeling. I could freeze to death and I still wouldn’t be a refrigerator.
It's a bizarre world in which cooking a taco if you're not Latwinky (or whatever the current woke nomenclature is) is said to be cultural appropriation, but trying to appropriate womanhood is celebrated.
"The only reason we’ve gotten into this surreal gender mess is because we’ve allowed our feelings to run away with us and have afforded them primacy over everything. It’s the only way you can convince a significant fraction of the population of the absurdity that all one needs to do to BE a woman is to “feel” like you’re one. It’s your truth, your lived experience, and we’re all supposed to play along with this fantasy."
Yeah, but WHY have we "...allowed our feelings to run away with us and have afforded them primacy over everything"?
I think Cindy has pointed to one very significant factor - and I suspect things like a vastly increased amount of 'screen time' has contributed to that. You can see groups of kids together only peripherally being 'together' because they always seem to have a significant fraction of their awareness and attention on their phones. Developmentally, I don't think this can be a good thing. It's not good for adults to spend too much time online either.
We have changed the way we typically interact with one another - it's faster, more immediate, and reactive. The necessary 'downtime' to reflect on things just isn't there as we get one 'hit' after another relentlessly vying for our attention.
Go fishing, camp out in the woods, . . . . do something, anything, to break the cycle and get away from this very mixed blessing of modern technology.
[edit : just noticed Cindy's subsequent reply pointing this out]
I’ve come to the conclusion that those under 40, or so, have been so infantilized that they’ve never matured past their childish “you hurt my feelings” stage. Their parents, their schools and institutions, have all created a couple generations of full-sized infants. Period. I’m always sickened when I look at the typical 25-year-old today compared to the typical 25-year-old of thirty years ago. Most of todays younger generations remain perpetual spoiled, immature, self-centered, weak children. They’re all a bunch of Peter Pans!
"Full-sized infants". Apt phrase -- however, I've seen the same thing in many of those in the 40-50 year old range -- in males more than females in this older cohort. What kind of adult devotes a material portion of their lives to playing Dungeons and Dragons with their friends each weekend? But, still, why did this full-sized infant creation event come about? What set it off?
I feel as if the advent of smartphones and the constant connection to the internet is what brought all this on. That along with fifty years of leftist ideology being taught in schools and universities. The only way to control a people is to make them weak and dependent. They’ve been playing the long game and it’s come to fruition. My hope is that it’s gone too far and the pendulum will now swing the other direction…but with AI in control we may be beyond hope.
I agree each of those factors probably played some part in the whole thing, but -- but, still, are these proximal causes or just synchronistic, associated (i.e., not causal) developments? My opinion is that the same big, general changes in human knowledge and technology that have made our lives so heedlessly comfortable, naturally and gradually led us to the place we are in now. What environmental motivation is there to 'grow up' when the still-operative economic and political systems serve to make it so easy to perpetually dwell in "Never-Never Land"?
There is always hope.....in the billions of years of this universe (who knows how old it is really?) there will have been societies reaching similar moments on perhaps trillions of planets and I am certain that this silly ( frankly laughable) situation is solved in the end when the majority of sane beings simply say.....ENOUGH. We can finally see that WOKE agenda is caught in the headlights and I believe the fight has only just began.
I think it's top down. Bilek talks about huge funders of gender - trans wings of major hospitals and universities. Bilek thinks it's for the pharma generated money (hormone customers for life), but I don't agree. I think it's about merging lives more and more with computers -for control. Having sex will take a person off-line, but with cross sex hormones that your body can't fully use and bottom surgery, it's harder or impossible to have a genital orgasm. People will turn more to online porn and other computer activities for all their leisure pleasure.
Pushing "feelings" is how the US Democratic party became pro war; "do you want these kids/people/men/women across the world to suffer so? What an unfeeling bastard!" The propaganda is very cruel; weaponizing human empathy to generate apathy and/or aggression. People really haven't been able to discern using their heads, hearts AND bellies. The left ranks high on feelings of empathy, and primarily perceive the world through that emotional frame. It take practice when there is heightened emotional connect coming at you, as well as attacks on your character. That's a strong person.
I am often amazed at how in one language there is only one word for two things, and in another language there are two words. For example, sky and heaven can not be distinguished in German ("Himmel"). On the other hand, we distinguish more between sensory perception ("spüren") and feelings ("fühlen"). If you feel that you are a woman, is it like feeling the sun on your skin, or like feeling that you have been betrayed?
And, final point, to draw it all down into the mud: all software is like an erect penis: it stays up as long as you don't fuck with it.
That's very brave to put your corniest past songs up! 😄
I'm going to be addressing this in my spiritual group, because a few people want to change to more gender neutral languaging in the teachings of our path. Commenting on your gender series had been SO helpful for me to clarify my views and parse out some truth. Thank you. I need clear thinking and a lack of reactivity to address this (as the co chair of the D&I committee).
I'm still trying to figure out things myself - and kind of working through it all as I go.
My sense of compassion for those who might be afflicted with severe gender dysphoria is in a continual battle with my rationality that tells me the ideology is a seriously flawed load of nonsense.
People talk about 'gender' as if it's a real thing with well-defined properties and understandings attached, but the moment you try to go a bit deeper than just the surface definition and all of the platitudes it just doesn't hang together - it makes almost no sense at all.
Yes, exactly, and that is how I'm going to frame the discussion. There's a difference between how people feel and are treated, and the trans ideology. I too have compassion for those with severe dysphoria and will treat them will respect and care. But that doesn't mean the trans ideology is true, or is a belief system that countries want to take on.
What is an adult? My answer to the WOKE is eloquently stated by Rage Against The Machine.....The classic track " Killing in the name of" Sing along loudly......FU#K YOU I WON"T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME.
Women's sports are another area on the edges where this stuff matters, to use your phrase. When I was involved in bicycle racing almost 50 years ago, there were very few women in the sport. Now there are large numbers of women cyclists, which is pretty great (saw a few today apparently training for the upcoming stage race here). So it's very disconcerting to see men pretending to be women and winning women's races; it's also demeaning and insulting to women.
A woman is not a feeling. Back when I was training to be a mediator, we had a list of feelings we could give people so that they would say things like, “When you have an erection in the girls’ changing room, it makes me feel terrified and disgusted” instead of “I feel like you are a pervert and I also have a strong feeling that you should be imprisoned.”
I think the best way to affirm people’s feelings about gender might be to give them such a list of feelings and ask them to precisely state what they are feeling. I could freeze to death and I still wouldn’t be a refrigerator.
It's a bizarre world in which cooking a taco if you're not Latwinky (or whatever the current woke nomenclature is) is said to be cultural appropriation, but trying to appropriate womanhood is celebrated.
"The only reason we’ve gotten into this surreal gender mess is because we’ve allowed our feelings to run away with us and have afforded them primacy over everything. It’s the only way you can convince a significant fraction of the population of the absurdity that all one needs to do to BE a woman is to “feel” like you’re one. It’s your truth, your lived experience, and we’re all supposed to play along with this fantasy."
Yeah, but WHY have we "...allowed our feelings to run away with us and have afforded them primacy over everything"?
Good question.
I think Cindy has pointed to one very significant factor - and I suspect things like a vastly increased amount of 'screen time' has contributed to that. You can see groups of kids together only peripherally being 'together' because they always seem to have a significant fraction of their awareness and attention on their phones. Developmentally, I don't think this can be a good thing. It's not good for adults to spend too much time online either.
We have changed the way we typically interact with one another - it's faster, more immediate, and reactive. The necessary 'downtime' to reflect on things just isn't there as we get one 'hit' after another relentlessly vying for our attention.
Go fishing, camp out in the woods, . . . . do something, anything, to break the cycle and get away from this very mixed blessing of modern technology.
[edit : just noticed Cindy's subsequent reply pointing this out]
I’ve come to the conclusion that those under 40, or so, have been so infantilized that they’ve never matured past their childish “you hurt my feelings” stage. Their parents, their schools and institutions, have all created a couple generations of full-sized infants. Period. I’m always sickened when I look at the typical 25-year-old today compared to the typical 25-year-old of thirty years ago. Most of todays younger generations remain perpetual spoiled, immature, self-centered, weak children. They’re all a bunch of Peter Pans!
"Full-sized infants". Apt phrase -- however, I've seen the same thing in many of those in the 40-50 year old range -- in males more than females in this older cohort. What kind of adult devotes a material portion of their lives to playing Dungeons and Dragons with their friends each weekend? But, still, why did this full-sized infant creation event come about? What set it off?
I feel as if the advent of smartphones and the constant connection to the internet is what brought all this on. That along with fifty years of leftist ideology being taught in schools and universities. The only way to control a people is to make them weak and dependent. They’ve been playing the long game and it’s come to fruition. My hope is that it’s gone too far and the pendulum will now swing the other direction…but with AI in control we may be beyond hope.
I agree each of those factors probably played some part in the whole thing, but -- but, still, are these proximal causes or just synchronistic, associated (i.e., not causal) developments? My opinion is that the same big, general changes in human knowledge and technology that have made our lives so heedlessly comfortable, naturally and gradually led us to the place we are in now. What environmental motivation is there to 'grow up' when the still-operative economic and political systems serve to make it so easy to perpetually dwell in "Never-Never Land"?
By the way, El Gato Malo suggested today that AI (he qualifies: "if [AI is] unfettered") might help reduce dependence caused by information filtering and manipulation by various external agencies and parties: https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/settling-in-to-the-reputation-economy
There is always hope.....in the billions of years of this universe (who knows how old it is really?) there will have been societies reaching similar moments on perhaps trillions of planets and I am certain that this silly ( frankly laughable) situation is solved in the end when the majority of sane beings simply say.....ENOUGH. We can finally see that WOKE agenda is caught in the headlights and I believe the fight has only just began.
I think it's top down. Bilek talks about huge funders of gender - trans wings of major hospitals and universities. Bilek thinks it's for the pharma generated money (hormone customers for life), but I don't agree. I think it's about merging lives more and more with computers -for control. Having sex will take a person off-line, but with cross sex hormones that your body can't fully use and bottom surgery, it's harder or impossible to have a genital orgasm. People will turn more to online porn and other computer activities for all their leisure pleasure.
https://thefederalist.com/2018/02/20/rich-white-men-institutionalizing-transgender-ideology/
Pushing "feelings" is how the US Democratic party became pro war; "do you want these kids/people/men/women across the world to suffer so? What an unfeeling bastard!" The propaganda is very cruel; weaponizing human empathy to generate apathy and/or aggression. People really haven't been able to discern using their heads, hearts AND bellies. The left ranks high on feelings of empathy, and primarily perceive the world through that emotional frame. It take practice when there is heightened emotional connect coming at you, as well as attacks on your character. That's a strong person.
New Seekers possibly dubious, but you can't go wrong with the 'Old' Seekers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkLculwds9k
Both are good but " ... there will never be another ... " anything like the original Seekers.
Loved the "Homeless" song. Just beautiful.
The Offspring had a nice mock-up of "Feelings":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnhoIf8dDVE
Original Lyrics: https://genius.com/Morris-albert-feelings-lyrics
The Offspring Lyrics: https://genius.com/The-offspring-feelings-lyrics
I am often amazed at how in one language there is only one word for two things, and in another language there are two words. For example, sky and heaven can not be distinguished in German ("Himmel"). On the other hand, we distinguish more between sensory perception ("spüren") and feelings ("fühlen"). If you feel that you are a woman, is it like feeling the sun on your skin, or like feeling that you have been betrayed?
And, final point, to draw it all down into the mud: all software is like an erect penis: it stays up as long as you don't fuck with it.
😄
fabulous description of software and the endless 'revisions' of it.
That's very brave to put your corniest past songs up! 😄
I'm going to be addressing this in my spiritual group, because a few people want to change to more gender neutral languaging in the teachings of our path. Commenting on your gender series had been SO helpful for me to clarify my views and parse out some truth. Thank you. I need clear thinking and a lack of reactivity to address this (as the co chair of the D&I committee).
I'm still trying to figure out things myself - and kind of working through it all as I go.
My sense of compassion for those who might be afflicted with severe gender dysphoria is in a continual battle with my rationality that tells me the ideology is a seriously flawed load of nonsense.
People talk about 'gender' as if it's a real thing with well-defined properties and understandings attached, but the moment you try to go a bit deeper than just the surface definition and all of the platitudes it just doesn't hang together - it makes almost no sense at all.
It's like the Phlogiston of the 21st century.
Yes, exactly, and that is how I'm going to frame the discussion. There's a difference between how people feel and are treated, and the trans ideology. I too have compassion for those with severe dysphoria and will treat them will respect and care. But that doesn't mean the trans ideology is true, or is a belief system that countries want to take on.
What is an adult? My answer to the WOKE is eloquently stated by Rage Against The Machine.....The classic track " Killing in the name of" Sing along loudly......FU#K YOU I WON"T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME.
PS I love the song by the new seekers..... imagine a Cardie B version LOL ... actually don't.
Yes - probably best not to imagine that 😄
Thought this organisation may be of interest to some in the UK Academics for Academic Freedom.
https://www.afaf.org.uk/afaf-membership/
Women's sports are another area on the edges where this stuff matters, to use your phrase. When I was involved in bicycle racing almost 50 years ago, there were very few women in the sport. Now there are large numbers of women cyclists, which is pretty great (saw a few today apparently training for the upcoming stage race here). So it's very disconcerting to see men pretending to be women and winning women's races; it's also demeaning and insulting to women.