Alex WellersteinVerified account

Evergreen reminder: "socially constructed" is not the same thing as "not real."

My favorite, simple example of this: the value of paper currency is easily seen as a social construct (and this would be true even without a fiat currency). And yet everyone can readily see that it has power in such a society, that literally life and death can hinge on it.

what i find interesting is that “social” is never necessary, not does it provide any additional information over simply saying something is constructed. it’s mainly used to either make a banal observation seem intellectual, or to assert some unreal blank-slatist perspective

It is meant to be in contrast with the idea that these things are "natural," for what it is worth. You might ask "why do it" but it is because these terms typically get applied to things people think are natural (like, say, the concept of race).

race is so “artificial” that 23andme includes ethnicity in results

So, Twitter in two acts: 1) "Social construct is dumb and not even interesting" 2) "OMG how dare you call race a social construct, it's in genes" (23andme does not at all use the concept of "race")