As in the case of Salman Rushdie or with the Charlie Hebdo cartoon, there would be more safety in numbers and moral panic would be better tackled if the universities were to get behind their teachers.
Bret Weinstein theorised that these battles for “equity” seen in universities are actually more of an insurgency with longer term goals.
Modern protest methods are death to open conversation and moral panic is closer to a religious fervour in that it requires “deprogramming” rather than refutal with better evidence.
As a biological concept “race” is indefensible. The idea of “one drop rules” is silly and most of what people care about are social concepts - population or lineage are better terms. The boundaries in evolution are not so clear as to allow for this delineations.
When it comes to genetic differences between races the natural selection of physical traits are not so clearly seen in cognitive traits. This makes sense as intellect would be selected for in every race and environment. Human beings are the most nurture influenced being with the physiology serving as the robot, the brain as the computer, and the mind as the software which is why humans are so adaptive. Sam Harris referred to “culture” as the software.
Described as an analytic framework which attempts to identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalised in society. The equity movement promises to end systematic oppression, but there are those who want to turn the tables of oppression and use what can be thought of as an “intersectionality quotient” to build the new hierarchy (with a black, lesbian, transgender, disabled lady nearer the top for example). Within the equity movement this can result in conflict where none need exist, such as between the indigenous population and the black population.
Sex is a biologically valid concept but our control over reproduction changes the Darwinian logic of the differences between sexes. An example would be that women invest more in lineage than men as a result of their natural limit of the number of offspring that they can have, while men are for more likely to take risks as there is no such limit. The female wisdom of long term thinking and the male wisdom of risk taking should be democratised but won’t appear equally in both sexes simply because we will it.
Bret Weinstein referred to sex as the hardware and gender as the software, believing gender to be bimodal rather binary. Transgenderism may not be something over which we have a grasp on the neurological level, but simply in an effort to be humane we must treat these people with all of the compassion of which everybody is deserving.
Cycling is less common amongst the black population but there is equal opportunity for those individuals to cycle, and so one would have to be confused to look at the bike shop as the source of this disparity. In this case systematic influences such as the addresses of these populations are likely responsible, but it’s not a rights issue. Equal numbers in everything is not a realistic goal nor is it something that would even necessarily be good.
Metaphorical truth sits in contrast to scientific or literal truth and is a truth which is factually incorrect but benefits those that believe it. Up until recently many would argue that this was true of religion but we have certainly passed that point. Equality is another example of a metaphorical truth because it is hard to agree that in a burning building containing the President they would not be the priority. However, we recognise equality to be an important goal and something for which we must strive.