“[T]he female category in elite sport has no raison d’être apart from the biological sex differences that lead to sex differences in performance and the gap between the top male and female athletes. The suggestion that we could choose to rationalize the category differently—for instance, on the basis of self-declared gender identity—or that we could make increasingly numerous exceptions in the interests of inclusion (as the IOC seems to have done to allow Khelif and Lin to compete in Paris) has no legs outside of certain progressive enclaves.” —Doriane Coleman, Professor of Law, Duke University, writing for Quillette.
“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?” —Winston, from his diary.
Aside from the obvious truth of point Coleman is making, I am happy to see mention of “certain progressive enclaves.” One of the things the progressive left perceives about itself is that it represents a large proportion of the population. In fact, according to Pew Research, the progressive left makes up only around six percent of the public and seven percent of the electorate in the United States. They are a distinct minority of voters even if we expand the definition (there are self-described liberals who are actually progressives). Another thing the progressive left perceives about itself is its righteousness. Progressives elevate themselves to the position of moral arbiter of justice and morality—asserting as just and moral a system that contradicts the tents of Western Civilization.
Why, then, are progressive left views so amplified? How did such a small group come to make others so fearful that they keep quiet about so many things? Because left progressivism is useful to the power elite who control the sense-making institutions—the administrative state, the culture industry, the educational system, and the mass media. Left progressivism is a major piece of the corporate agenda. Why? At the heart of left progressivism is the postmodernist project to undermine common sense and obviate normal pattern recognition systems—even artificial ones. The gender detection module, essential for reproduction of the species and maintaining safeguarding norms, is the primary target for disordering; if common understanding of something so basic and natural can be disrupted, then the population will be conditioned to accept whatever the Party tells it.
The gender project is the equivalent of the demand O’Brien makes of Winston in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: the falsehood “two and two equals five.” During his struggle session in the Ministry of Love, after insisting on giving the true answer to the number of fingers O’Brien holds up, which is four, Winton finally tells O’Brien what he wants to hear. O’Brien tells Winston that this isn’t good enough. “No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four. How many fingers, please?” Winston again gives the false answer. “You are a slow learner, Winston.” Broken, Winston asks O’Brien for help. “How can I help it?” He pleads. “How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two make four.” O’Brien responds, “Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”
“Sometimes, Winston, a man is a woman. Sometimes a woman is a man. Sometimes an individual is both man and woman at once. Sometimes the person is neither of them. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”
freedom and reason 