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By the amount of attention this issue gets, one might actually think it were a real problem and not something that a specific segment of the population really w
by royaltheartist 7y ago
By the amount of attention this issue gets, one might actually think it were a real problem and not something that a specific segment of the population really wants to focus on. Even the open letter itself only mentions "conversations" and "proposals." No professor at a major university seems to have actually be sanctioned or punished for what they say on this issue, despite all the conversation around it.
We can compare that to the 10 trans people murdered (according to Wiki) just this year alone. And that's just the ones Wiki editors decided merited inclusion. There are probably more, some unknown, and countless other trans individuals who face violence and harassment on a near daily basis.
Meanwhile, the hollowness of these arguments and the crocodile tears of the people who focus on them is laid bare when considers the amount of anti-BDS legislation that have been passed, with many universities requiring speakers to sign statements saying they will not and have never engaged in BDS.
These people, these "philosophers", simply want to be allowed to be transphobic in public without consequences. But that's the real heart of freedom and free speech. You can say what you what, it's true, but you're not free from people talking back or deciding they don't want to hear from you.
- brighter2morrow 7y ago>We can compare that to the 10 trans people murdered (according to Wiki) just this year alone. 70x more people will be crushed by soda machines this year.
- royaltheartist 7y agoIf only there were a difference between murders and freak accidents.
- brighter2morrow 7y agoI think we should put things in perspective before going into a moral panic
- ErikCorry 7y agoYou are saying that philosophers should not be so concerned about philosophy because there are bigger problems in society. But they are philosophers. Of course they are concerned about philosophy. Beetle scientists are concerned with beetle academia. Why the scare quotes around "philosophers"? They are university academics in the field of philosophy. The question of "what is a woman" seems to be obviously the sort of question that a philosopher should be engaging with. If you don't want to hear their thoughts on that don't read their journals, but to declare the question out of bounds seems like a fundamental misunderstanding of what philosophy is. Other statements that are obviously philosophical include: "Sex and gender are two different things" "Gender is a spectrum" "Sex is a spectrum" "A person can change their sex" And I am not persuaded by the argument that people's free speech is not violated if their career is merely ruined, but they are not put in prison. You can be sure that the blacklisting of Colin Kaepernick sent a clear message to every black NFL player that they were not free to share their support for BLM. :-(