I don't think it's wrong to have these questions, which are natural I think these questions have answers and discussing the answers can be enlightening But as the old observational comedy routine about nine-year-olds points out, "WHY" questions have no limit They go on forever
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
As
@PhilosophyTube pointed out in his famous video about this, they are an excellent tactic from "skeptics" to just waste your time indefinitely without any intention of ever admitting you have a point1 reply 3 retweets 29 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
And as every freshman dorm room philosopher knows, the longer and deeper you go down the "WHY" rabbit hole, the harder it gets to talk about these things in ordinary, everyday small words, the more effort you have to put in to even know what you're talking about
1 reply 3 retweets 23 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
Which is why when someone demands answers to these very deep questions that cut to the core of who you are, demanding you justify the basic way you see the world and live your life, and then they cut you off because the words you're using are too big, they're not in good faith
1 reply 4 retweets 34 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
It's notable that Gender Trouble gets singled out here, because Gender Trouble was never intended for or marketed to your random conservative dad who doesn't get what trans stuff is about It was aimed at other academic feminists for whom this was an ongoing debate
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
It feels so abstruse and dense to an outsider because it's using language from within the field to defend "the performative theory of gender" from a specific line of attack Namely the feminist worry that "If anyone can just be a woman there won't be any more feminism"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
This (extremely oversimplified) concern is, of course, what TERFs are obsessed with and what they think of as obviously true to the level of a religious tenet So of course they think of Butler as the Antichrist and this book in particular as an abomination they attack constantly
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
But to someone from outside that whole tradition this is likely to sound like so much white noise Which they exploit Much like crackpots in other fields
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
Explaining that the speed of light is a "universal speed limit" isn't that hard Explaining WHY that is is, in fact, incredibly difficult - I could just show you Maxwell's equations but then how do I put it in words so that you accept the logic behind them
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JillTempered and
And then if I'm some weirdo who thinks Einstein was a charlatan and relativity is a lie for vaguely antisemitic reasons I can show you the middle of an email argument I had with a professor and go "Look at how much abstruse jargon and math she's using, look at how upset she is"
1 reply 3 retweets 24 likes
"Look at how much easier it is for me to explain my ideas to you in plain English, just talking to you Doesn't that give you a sense of whose ideas are better"
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