You know no amount of debate or discourse convinced the APA to take homosexuality as a "disorder" out of the DSM What happened was a team of activists stormed the APA annual conference in San Francisco in 1970, grabbed the mic and declared war against the psychiatric community
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As Lacan would put it (because he was, unfortunately, and ironically for this conversation, obsessed with people's balls) the discourse of the university is the discourse of the eunuch who seeks to find joy in his castration by castrating others
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I.e. they neutered you (or, to get less gendery about it, neutralized you) by shunting you aside into this ivory tower where your thoughts and words wouldn't actually change anything, they convinced you your job was to describe the world and not to change it
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And now you see your whole agenda as getting the rest of the world to just hold still so you can describe it better You think being neutralized makes you a smart erudite sophisticated civilized person and anyone who hasn't been neutralized comes off as a rude asshole to you
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Everyone, of course, flipflops around between all four discourses based on their mood and their convenience It's fascinating to see TERFs locked in this mode -- "I just want to have a conversation, this is a big juicy philosophical problem" -- and then suddenly switch
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Sometimes to the discourse of the analyst -- "Well, TRAs are very troubled people and I feel pity for them" -- but usually to the two most honest discourses, the discourse of the hysteric -- "I'm so TIRED and so ANGRY" -- and the master -- "You'll trans my kids OVER MY DEAD BODY"
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See a lot of people accuse me of "dehumanizing" my ideological opponents and I don't think I'm doing that In fact I try to remember, always, that there's a human face of flesh and blood behind the discourse of the university ("The facts disagree with you sir") or the analyst
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(Someone tried to pull the latter on me just the other day -- "Who hurt you, Arthur? What demons are you running from that you have to tweet anger at strangers all the time?" -- and the answer, of course, is always 1) None of your business and 2) You're changing the subject)
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The thing is, humans, unlike imaginary Rational Science Machines, are assholes They do shitty things for shitty stupid reasons that have nothing to do with you or with The Facts or any of that shit And you have to avoid letting them trick you into forgetting that
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End of conversation
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