"Language may be the most fundamental tool we have. It is certainly our primary tool for communication. It’s how we convey meaning to each other. It is language which helps us create a shared description of every aspect of the world."
Amen to that. ICYMI, a very good essay by Jonathan Haidt in The Atlantic on "Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid" drawing parallels with the Tower of Babel; archive and bare links though you'll need a subscription to read the latter:
"The text does not say that God destroyed the tower, but in many popular renderings of the story he does, so let’s hold that dramatic image in our minds: people wandering amid the ruins, unable to communicate, condemned to mutual incomprehension."
"mutual incomprehension" seems a fair summary of what has been "engendered" by the transgender "debate". Though much of feminism has to take a great deal of responsibility for that sad state of affairs since its conception of "gender" is a dog's breakfast of antiscientific claptrap and motivated reasoning.
In any case, you might also have some interest in an essay on the situation in Sturgeon's Scotland that is the direct result of the SNP betting the farm on the "trans women are women" mantra:
They might just as well have tried passing a law stipulating that "2+2=5"; Sturgeon and company should be tarred and feathered and then ridden out of town on a rail for that policy. Nice to see that she is getting hoist by her own petard, being forced, via a reductio ad absurdum of events, to face the odious consequences of it.
Great piece Lorelei.
Really interesting to think about how language has changed so dramatically over just the last five years, which I think is unprecedented.
I also really appreciate that you write a piece where, to some extent, you are feeling your way, and giving a really honest account.
It's refreshing.
"Language may be the most fundamental tool we have. It is certainly our primary tool for communication. It’s how we convey meaning to each other. It is language which helps us create a shared description of every aspect of the world."
Amen to that. ICYMI, a very good essay by Jonathan Haidt in The Atlantic on "Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid" drawing parallels with the Tower of Babel; archive and bare links though you'll need a subscription to read the latter:
https://archive.ph/mbrZh
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
Relevant quote therefrom:
"The text does not say that God destroyed the tower, but in many popular renderings of the story he does, so let’s hold that dramatic image in our minds: people wandering amid the ruins, unable to communicate, condemned to mutual incomprehension."
"mutual incomprehension" seems a fair summary of what has been "engendered" by the transgender "debate". Though much of feminism has to take a great deal of responsibility for that sad state of affairs since its conception of "gender" is a dog's breakfast of antiscientific claptrap and motivated reasoning.
In any case, you might also have some interest in an essay on the situation in Sturgeon's Scotland that is the direct result of the SNP betting the farm on the "trans women are women" mantra:
https://ianleslie.substack.com/p/death-of-a-slogan
They might just as well have tried passing a law stipulating that "2+2=5"; Sturgeon and company should be tarred and feathered and then ridden out of town on a rail for that policy. Nice to see that she is getting hoist by her own petard, being forced, via a reductio ad absurdum of events, to face the odious consequences of it.