The asparagus rebuttal
An oldy, but I happened to see it and it made me wonder, how does one address this kind of thing?
Philosophers, following Hume, talk of the is/ought gap. Short summary: they’re not the same thing, but humans like to mash them together.
What people, or asparagus, think about what we are is not the same thing as what we are.
I think working scientists in general are pretty aware of that. Gender patriotism seems to tug them, or at least one of them, in the other direction.
Here’s the skinny: men are men; women are women. How any of them feel about being either is another issue entirely. Disliking being a man does not make a man a woman. That’s just not how it works.
(Also, asparagus doesn’t feel anything about its gender.)
Asparagus? They’re using asparagus as an argument? I know five-year-olds who can think better than this. What is she a prof of, anyway? Certainly not botany! Most of us are well aware of the lack of a brain or nervous system in asparagus.
It has to have been some kind of joke or metaphor or paradox – even Alice Roberts isn’t that lost in the fog. But what kind of joke or paradox, I couldn’t possibly say.
iknklast, Roberts is the current (since 2012) Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. You may not be surprised to learn that she was president of Humanists UK between January 2019 and May 2022 and is now one of its vice-presidents. Her specialist fields are biological anthropology and evolutionary biology; her PhD is in paleopathology and she holds three Bachelors; Medicine, Surgery, and an intercalated Bachelor of Science in anatomy.
In short, she really should know better than to spout such nonsense.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Roberts
Apparently, many people actually think that feelings are more important than whatever is dreamt of in your
philosophyscience,HoratioOphelia.It’s the same old two-step we’re constantly dealing with. The first step is to say that we’re not talking about facts of biology; we’re talking about feelings about gender. Once that’s agreed to, the second step is to go right on talking about biology. In and out, back and forth, motte and bailey forever. This is why it’s so important for them to get everyone else to accept a distinction between sex and gender: standing in one place without moving isn’t dancing. (Unless you’re Spanish.)
Or, more simply, gender is used always in these arguments as a bait and switch for sex.
Amazingly enough, Alice knows the difference when she’s on public TV… almost as if she knows the normies aren’t buying it and she’s covering her ass.