The use of opaque statements like “Trans people are just trying to LIVE our Lives” is a prime example of the motte and bailey fallacy.
“The motte-and-bailey fallacy (named after the motte-and-bailey castle) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy where an arguer conflates two positions that share similarities, one modest and easy to defend (the “motte”) and one much more controversial and harder to defend (the “bailey”).[1] The arguer advances the controversial position, but when challenged, they insist that they are only advancing the more modest position.[2][3] Upon retreating to the motte, the arguer can claim that the bailey has not been refuted (because the critic refused to attack the motte)[1] or that the critic is unreasonable (by equating an attack on the bailey with an attack on the motte).”
Mostly everyone in western democratic societies are free to reasonably live their lives – within the confines of what is currently acceptable in society. In this case, currently transpeople have *every* right afforded to other people that inhabit Canadian and American society. What transactivists and other parts of the activist Left don’t say is that they wish to radically alter society’s rules around *their* vision of the future (which,in my opinion, is mostly utopian dogshit).
So this is how this one works. If you call Activist Leftists out on their unreasonable claims such as biological sex isn’t real( The bailey) then they will retreat to the motte and say “Well you just don’t want trans people to live their lives” (the motte).
The solution is to not even grant them the motte. People in free societies CAN live their lives mostly as they see fit – with the proviso their ‘lifestyle’ doesn’t negatively impact others.
The denial of biological sex has significant detrimental impacts on female rights, boundaries, and safety in our society – most to the point the ‘inclusion’ of male rapists (because they fucking feel like women) in female prisons in Canada.
Always bomb their innocuous motte and raze their radical bailey.
We must guard against this sort of degenerate mob justice. See the entire article here.
“When talking to people about the state of universities in Canada, many deny the negative impact of “woke-ism.” My current “lived experience” in a province with a reputation for supporting free speech, however, indicates otherwise. It was challenging sacred cows associated with the “woke” character of Indigenization, trans activism and “anti-racist” initiatives, in fact, that led to my firing from my tenured position at Mount Royal University in December 2021.
For those unfamiliar with the word, “woke-ism” (spelled wokism in this publication) is the colloquial term for the postmodern tactic of reducing scientific objectivity to subjective authoritarianism, imposing its arbitrary interpretation of what is acceptable. Also referred to as “reified postmodernism” by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, the authors of the hilarious but revealing “grievance studies hoax,” this reactionary response to the intellectual progress driven by the Enlightenment tries to prevent certain ideas from being discussed under the auspices that the identities of oppressed groups must be “made real.”
Collision course: Frances Widdowson’s run-in with wokism got her fired from Mount Royal University in Calgary but she was still not prepared for the unruly mob of protest she faced in Lethbridge.
If, for example, a trans activist believes that they are completely debilitated as a result of “misgendering fatigue,” or if an Indigenous person is convinced that 215 students were murdered and dumped in a mass grave in a Kamloops Indian Residential School apple orchard, these views must not be contradicted because it is argued that such disagreement will “deny the humanity” of those who are oppressed, and disempower them. This, we are told, constitutes “hate speech” and “discrimination.”
Despite my costly collision with wokism at Mount Royal University in Calgary, I was still not prepared for what was to transpire at the University of Lethbridge earlier this month. I had been invited by philosophy professor Paul Viminitz to give a talk, to be entitled “How ‘Woke-ism’ Threatens Academic Freedom.” I was about to experience the fury of current wokism. UofL President Mike Mahon originally stated that the talk would be allowed to proceed because of the institution’s policy on freedom of expression. Woke faculty and students responded with intensifying pressure, leading Mahon to cancel my appearance a few days later.
Cancelled: University of Lethbridge (UofL) President Mike Mahon initially cited freedom of expression as the reason why Widdowson’s lecture should proceed; under pressure, he changed course and shut it down. (Source of photos: University of Lethbridge)
I remained adamant that I should go to the university to challenge Mahon’s assault on academic values (and repudiation of his institution’s freedom of expression policy). So on February 1 I arrived at the university to give my talk in a “Speakers’ Corner” type of format. But as I walked out of the elevator of University Hall and into The Atrium – a large public space on campus – I was amazed to see a crowd of about 700 people filling the main floor and upper level. While some in the audience had come to hear me speak, and a number were just curious onlookers, many were openly hostile to my presence, some brandishing signs declaring “RACISM IS NOT FREE SPEECH.”
“This campaign against Rowling is as dangerous as it is absurd. The brutal stabbing of Salman Rushdie last summer is a forceful reminder of what can happen when writers are demonized. And in Rowling’s case, the characterization of her as a transphobe doesn’t square with her actual views.
So why would anyone accuse her of transphobia? Surely, Rowling must have played some part, you might think.
The answer is straightforward: Because she has asserted the right to spaces for biological women only, such as domestic abuse shelters and sex-segregated prisons. Because she has insisted that when it comes to determining a person’s legal gender status, self-declared gender identity is insufficient. Because she has expressed skepticism about phrases like “people who menstruate” in reference to biological women. Because she has defended herself and, far more important, supported others, including detransitioners and feminist scholars, who have come under attack from trans activists. And because she followed on Twitter and praised some of the work of Magdalen Berns, a lesbian feminist who had made incendiary comments about transgender people.
You might disagree — perhaps strongly — with Rowling’s views and actions here. You may believe that the prevalence of violence against transgender people means that airing any views contrary to those of vocal trans activists will aggravate animus toward a vulnerable population.
But nothing Rowling has said qualifies as transphobic. She is not disputing the existence of gender dysphoria. She has never voiced opposition to allowing people to transition under evidence-based therapeutic and medical care. She is not denying transgender people equal pay or housing. There is no evidence that she is putting trans people “in danger,” as has been claimed, nor is she denying their right to exist.
Take it from one of her former critics. E.J. Rosetta, a journalist who once denounced Rowling for her supposed transphobia, was commissioned last year to write an article called “20 Transphobic J.K. Rowling Quotes We’re Done With.” After 12 weeks of reporting and reading, Rosetta wrote, “I’ve not found a single truly transphobic message.” On Twitter she declared, “You’re burning the wrong witch.”
“Wording from the UK Education Department guidance document directs schools and educators as follows:
“We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be complex and sensitive matters to navigate. You should not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality and interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age-appropriate and evidence based. Materials which suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity should not be used and you should not work with external agencies or organisations that produce such material. While teachers should not suggest to a child that their non-compliance with gender stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, teachers should always seek to treat individual students with sympathy and support.”
The chronically fragile have been working overtime in Canada as of late (thanks to the National Post for the article). Apparently respecting the material reality we all share can get you in trouble with the authorities as Josh Alexander found out.
“That Canada is becoming less tolerant comes as no surprise, but even so a Catholic high school getting one of their 16-year-old students arrested is a bit of a shock, especially when the heart of the issue is his religious beliefs.
Josh Alexander was arrested by police Monday afternoon for breaching an exclusion order, but the real crime that the student is being punished for is upholding his Catholic beliefs and doing so in what some would no doubt think is a defiant and troublesome manner.”
Stating the factual reality of our existence in some circumstances is a crime. Let that sink in for a bit.
Josh, a Christian, believes there are only two genders, that people can’t switch genders, and that male students shouldn’t use girls’ washrooms. But expressing those views in a classroom discussion on gender at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ont., got him suspended.
“I got suspended for comments made during a class discussion,” said Josh in an interview. “It was about male students using female washrooms, gender dysphoria and male breastfeeding. Everyone was sharing their opinions on it, any student who wanted to was participating, including the teacher
“I said there were only two genders and you were born either a male or a female and that got me into trouble. And then I said that gender doesn’t trump biology.”
Nothing unreasonable been stated so far. My quibble would be that using ‘gender’ instead of ‘sex’ when discussing these issues already concedes too much to ground to the gender ideologues.
Gender is the set of the prescribed stereotypes society has for members of the male and female sex classes. Like most stereotypes, gender is usually quite unhelpful and toxic when it comes to humans flourishing within society. So, gender = (usually negative) sex stereotypes.
““Freedom once taken for granted is lost,” the Grade 11 student added. “Freedom of religion is probably one of our most important freedoms so I’m not going to surrender it in the face of persecution.
“It just goes to show how little freedom of expression we have in our country.”
James Kitchen, a lawyer from the Liberty Defense Fund which is representing Josh, said in a statement that the student was told he could only return to school “if he agreed not to use the ‘dead name’ of any transgender student and agreed to exclude himself from his two afternoon classes because those classes are attended by two transgender students who disapprove of Josh’s religious beliefs.””
Another person cannot attend class because they disapprove of someone’s religious beliefs? This is in a Catholic School for heaven’s sake! It would seem that the new gender-religion has replaced the old religion but has turned back the dial to when it wasn’t socially acceptable to criticize religious belief. As an Atheist, I find this juxtaposition both perplexing and ironic.
There are no beliefs in a free society that should be beyond reproach. This includes transgender ideology and its unfounded (and completely risible) beliefs of a gendered soul, being born in the wrong body, humans can change sex et cetera. Different religion – same bullshit.
“Josh said he had never “dead named” anyone, that is referred to their previous name before transitioning.
“Compelling Josh to utter falsehoods regarding gender contrary to his beliefs and segregating him from classes are repugnant manifestations of religious discrimination,” said Kitchen.
Matters escalated when Josh was later served with an exclusion order.
On Monday, when he tried to go school, the cops were called and he got arrested.
“I walked into one of my classes. I sat down and everyone looked pretty surprised to see me there. Within two minutes the vice-principal was in the classroom asking me to leave,” Josh said.
He left the class and “almost immediately I was met with the police.” Josh was put in the back of a cruiser, driven off property and later released and charged with trespassing.”
Speaking the truth should not be a crime.
“But is that the society we want to become? Arresting 16-year-old kids for turning up at school when they’ve been suspended for their religious beliefs? Was there no other way? Could the school not have tried harder to find a solution? Was calling the police really the only option?
It appears we are now so intolerant that we cannot stand people defending their religious beliefs in a classroom at a supposedly religious school.
Josh doesn’t appear to be a shrinking violet. He obviously holds strong beliefs and is passionate about them.”
I have opposed organized religions for most of my adult life and I have never once felt threatened by my opponents. Nor have I had faced possibly severe social repercussions for stating my (decidedly untoward) views on religion. Gender ideology here in Canada though, seems to be the unquestionable religion of choice , and it demands utter obedience and compliance with its diktats.
Christianity and Islam once held this special status. Fuck that. I am not going back to not being able to criticize a self appointed sacred caste within Canadian society. Gender bullshit stinks just as bad as religious bullshit.
“According to its website, St Joseph’s works to promote “education within a framework of a Catholic Christian environment.”
It adds, “We truly believe in the enhancement of the spiritual, moral, and emotional well-being of those belonging to our community.”Kitchen, Josh’s lawyer, would disagree.
“Under the guise of ‘safety’, as that term has been revised by woke gender activists now pervasive in public institutions, Josh has been penalized for expressing his Christian beliefs regarding gender and modesty, beliefs which also happen to align with both objective truth and actual safety,” he said in a statement. “Josh not only has a right to express himself during class discussions and through public forums, he also has a right not to be discriminated against by his school for his sincere religious beliefs. Being suspended and excluded from attending classes is the height of discrimination.”
The activist Left or Woke have twisted the language. It is what they do. How does excluding someone = an inclusive learning environment. A brief detour on what they’ve done to the language:
Yeah. So, being inclusive is actually being ‘exclusive’ and encouraging the erosion of free speech and thought in society.
“The board said on human rights issues, it takes its guidance from the policies issued by the Ontario Human Rights (OHR) Commission and directives issued by the Ministry of Education.
Its washroom practices follow the OHR guidelines that state that trans people “have the right to access these facilities based on their lived gender identity.”
Do Catholics at a religious school have the right to access the facility based on their lived religious identity? The OHR is huffing gasoline on this issue. The idea that somehow ‘gender identity’ trumps material reality is a completely foolish and wrong headed notion. Facilities in the above statement refers to bathrooms – so if a boy ‘feels’ like a girl he can use the girls bathroom. No problems (other than the destruction of female only spaces and female boundaries) there, right?
The new transgender religion, like the old traditional religions are steeped in the hatred of women and seek to roll back their rights, boundaries, and safety in society.
The opposition to this new persecution of women is stirring in Canada (we sadly, are still far behind the UK in this area). Once the language obfuscation is stripped away and more cases are brought court perhaps we can start rolling back this pernicious transgender ideology and all the harm it is causing in society.
Educators, particularly the activist set, seem to have forgotten that they are part of team when it comes to children. The child-parent-teacher team only works if there is transparency and a set of common values shared.
Activist teachers and the systems that support them often destroy families, as is the case here. The ‘professionals’ involved should all be facing at minimum professional censure for their irresponsible actions that have led the harming of a child.
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