This is true, but there is a deeper truth. Some parts of reality are NOT subject to social decision, but some are. "World One", "World Two" and "World Three" were what Karl Popper called these areas. It is important not to confuse them. Keeping them straight can be difficult.
Worse, these areas interact. How does the covid virus spread? How does it act in the human body? What percent of cases die? What actions will lower the spread? What treatments make the disease less lethal? All those are in World One, physical reality not subject to opinion.
But what actions we choose to take to control the spread of the disease, what treatments we choose to explore and employ, they are all part of World Two, social reality. And they affect how many people catch the disease, and how many die of it.
With the gender issues, much the same, though harder to keep straight. Whether someone is male or female is World One. But the fact that some men feel they are women, some women feel they are men, and some of both groups feel they are neither is ALSO World One.
A man who believes he's "really a woman" is wrong (he's a man), but he DOES believe it. His beliefs are also a part of reality.

Then there's our World Two issues: how will we deal with this man and his belief? Refuse to treat him as a woman, and arrest him if he cross dresses?
Go along with his belief in all circumstances where it is physically possible? (We can check implanted breasts for cancer, but we can't take a pap smear of a non-existent cervix.) Or do we treat the man as a woman sometimes, but only sometimes?
And then there's World Three, the world of logic and reason. Whatever decisions we make will have consequences, many unknown at this time. What will these be? We don't know yet. Seems likely to me that treating men as women will affects our attitudes towards all women, e.g.
But some we do know. One, especially, is that male predators upon women will lie to make it their predation easier.

Another is people's feelings differ, and that we won't be able to make everyone happy all the time. (Though many will _fiercely_ refuse to believe that.)
But we do know that World One always wins within its sphere. The man who feels like a woman will still be a man, and still have his feelings (though feelings MAY change over time). Any policy that pretends EITHER set of facts can be wished away is doomed to failure.
And while some people will regard this man as "really" a woman in all important respects, other people will regard him as "really" a man, no matter what he and the first group insist. Therefore, we can have unending conflict over this, or we can work out a modus vivendi.
If we wish to settle these issues, we need to ask ourselves what CAN happen, what we WANT to happen, and what we can ACCEPT happening. And then argue, bargain, and decide on policies.

But whatever we decide, it will NEVER be universally accepted. That last is a World One truth.
My best guess is that in the end, we'll accept the trans identified as what they wish to be perceived as in some circumstances but not others.
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More from @Saintonge235

13 Sep
I DID click the link, and noticed that the article defines the "fully" vaccinated in such a way as to minimize deaths from Covid after vaccination. Somewhat dishonest, that.
Reading further, there is this (my additional text highlighted). That's 11,037 deaths not mentioned in the part they wish to play up.
Further down, we find the following information.
Read 6 tweets
13 Sep
.The vaccinations are going to be tested. THE EUA WILL BE THE TEST. Based on what little we know now, the results will be very bad for some children, especially boys.

This is one of the reasons I keep talking about World One, World Two, and World Three.
The parents clamoring to get their children enrolled in these trials are operating in World Two, the world of belief and emotion. They are terrified of the Great Killer Covid Virus®, and believe the Great Savior Vaccinations® will slay the evil virus monster.
Behind this is a belief, that it is possible to go through life without taking risks.

But the #CCPVirus is in World One, the world of physical law. In World One, the vaccinations have risks of harm, and will till we know far more about them, probably for decades to come.
Read 7 tweets
12 Sep
A quick perusal of Wikipedia reveals:

a) At peak, less than one in 12 Israelis lived on kibbutzim; many of the kibbutzim were basically military settlements at the border. Today, only about 1 in 45 are kibbuzniks.
b) Only 9 years after Degania was founded, the first moshav came into existence (moshav being farming communities with some socialist features, built around family farms).

c) Moshavim outnumber kibbuzim around 450 to 270; people prefer their own homes & land.
d) 15 years after Degania was founded, the first kibbutzim economic crisis hit; they have recurred frequently.

e) The socialist egalitarianism of the kibbutz movement has been very badly eroded over time.
Read 4 tweets
11 Sep
Most roads belong to the public, which has appointed the govt. to build and manage them. The right to set rules for their use follows from their public nature.

You are, however, free to drive drunk on the wrong side of the road on your own property.
Vax mandates expand beyond public property to all of life, and impose on people far beyond what is necessary to stop the spread of disease. The govt. arguably has the right to require tests, and to quarantine those that are infectious. It does not propose to do this, though.
Why it doesn't propose to do this I can't say. Perhaps it has something to do with its own statements that the vaccinated can still be infectious?

But whatever the reason, the claimed power needs legal justification that it very probably lacks.
Read 4 tweets
4 Sep
#ThisIsHilarious There are no changes to the story, although the headline has been altered (what was once a "Transphobic Hoax" is now an "Alleged Transphobic Hoax".) Instead, the "corrections" consist of adding new information. The first "update", at the end of the story,
says "Update, Aug. 2, 2021: On July 30, Los Angeles Magazine reported that five women, including the one who initially posted the Wi Spa video, have filed police reports alleging to have witnessed “male genitals” exposed in the women’s section of the spa on June 23. . . .
This does not contradict previous reporting by the Los Angeles Blade that LAPD sources suspected the incident to have been a hoax. This post will be updated if that assessment changes." The second update, at the top, says "Update, Sept. 2, 2021: The New York Post reports . . .
Read 5 tweets
3 Sep
So, it was "awful" of us to push education for women in #Afghanistan. We should have sought the elimination of the Taliban & the terrorists, and the establishment of a society the #Afghans would support. The results couldn't have been worse for women than Young's approach.
In the end, this comes back to the different approaches I mentioned in the first tweet of my response: 'Ought' implies 'can' on my part, something else on Young's part.
Over 6,000 U.S. service people died in the Afghan debacle, and perhaps as many as 150,000 #Afghanis. Trillions of dollars have been wasted. Perhaps I misread her, but Young doesn't seem to give a shit. The U.S. tried, and failure and its costs are irrelevant. So is the prospect
Read 5 tweets

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