Walter Williams: Reality May Be Optional

Creators Syndicate ^ | April 15, 2015 | Walter E. Williams

[jazusamo]

One of the wonders of modern times is that reality is often seen as a social construct and therefore optional. Thus, if one finds a particular reality offensive or inconvenient, he just "changes" it.

Say that one is born a male or a female but believes that nature made an error. Some believe that nature's "error" can be corrected by calling oneself another sex. Possibly a medical procedure on one's genitalia can correct nature's error. However, Mother Nature is ruthless. Sex determination is strictly chromosomal. Females are XX, and males are XY. There is no medical procedure that can change that. Once a male or female, always a male or female.

What about the chant "Hands up; don't shoot," echoed during street demonstrations and rioting and even in the halls of Congress? The lie was that Michael Brown had held his hands up to surrender to a white racist Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, Darren Wilson, who then shot him in cold blood. Even after it was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the reality was entirely different, it didn't matter. "Hands up; don't shoot" became the chant across the land.

"More women are victims of domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year." That's the lie produced by feminists in 1993. It received a boost at this year's Super Bowl game in a 30-second, multimillion-dollar ad co-sponsored by the NFL, currying favor with women's groups as a result of a few players' misbehavior. Regarding the grossly bogus study, feminist writer Christina Hoff Sommers concluded, "How a belief in that misandrist canard can make the world a better place for women is not explained."

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

What was the reaction?

If you didn’t get an answer, at least you planted a virus in the computer.

That’s about the best you can do.

[MrB]

Liberals have a remarkable propensity for avoiding logic, and their worldview is based on the rejection of objective truth, so...

The response was -
“We change what we believe based on new information all the time”

Yes... planted a virus, perhaps. Too much self righteousness and self esteem built up in faith in “experts” to allow the virus to go very far though.

[Ohioan]

That some people may be messed up--in the sense of not being fully functional--does not refute Walter Williams' point, which goes to the denial of reality by pseudo-intellectual Leftists, not only about sexual issues, but wherever reality does not conform to their fantasy driven wish lists.

That there have been reported cases of two headed calves, after all, does not refute the truth that all normal mammalia have single heads, and that no surgery or hormone treatments alter the DNA of those who seek to escape the personal reality of whom they are. (Nor does that mean that we cannot have compassion on those who are born with biological deficits.)

Williams, as usual, is spot on, as to his basic point, which has nothing to do with the fact that some people have biological issues, as well as psychological ones.

[MrEdd]

I didn’t argue that the general premise was wrong.
I pointed out that the exceptions to in are not that rare regarding sexual matters. Absolutely not on the order of two headed calves.

As such, a caveat should be mentioned.

You yourself are an example of why. You stepped into this conversation with a serious underestimation of the prevalence of these conditions and then proceeded to defend the perception of reality you had without bothering to research whether what you thought was true actually was true.

It isn’t a good idea to engage in that when your purpose is to point out someone else denying reality.

It’s hidden, but not as rare as you seem to have believed.

[S.O.S121.500]

They are rare.
But if you combine the various intersexual conditions with various injuries or illnesses that damage the Hypothalamus, testes, etc before puberty then you get a number approaching the prevalence of Down’s Syndrome. Rare but not so rare that most people never encounter someone affected. Admittedly these things are not as apparent to the eye as Down’s, especially as the afflicted usually prefer secrecy.
-—==0==-—
Before puberty? More like in vitro/uterus when denied essential ‘nutrients’(as enzymes) which are critical for proper genetic expression when lacking in the maternal diet result in congenital defects in less than optimal progeny.

[exDemMom]

So when discussing all the goofy people who want to change themselves into something that they are not (due to some deranged emotional or mental pathology) it is appropriate to mention intersex problems as a caveat and allow for people with problems that are physiological rather than psychological in origin.

Many problems thought to be psychological are, in fact, physiological in nature. Furthermore, engaging in negative thought patterns causes a variety of hormones and other signalling peptides that have physiological effect to flood the brain in aberrant proportions. This can change the epigenetic status of genes involved in neurological function, which, in turn, can change the physical structure of the brain.

In some cases, I think that retraining the brain through therapy can help, by diverting those negative damaging thought patterns.

In any case, I would like to see more research into the causes of "transgenderism"--I think that it is often the manifestation of an intense repudiation of self--and real treatments developed. Mutilating patients who become fixated on the idea that they are the "wrong" gender is as barbaric as lobotomizing patients, IMO.