24 Comments
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Thorsteinn Siglaugsson's avatar

Biology is of course a construct of the post-colonial paternalistic society, just like "western" mathematics (2+2 being 4 is oppressive to those who "feel" like it is 5) and soon physics (mustn't offend the flat-earthers).

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Gerald Posner's avatar

I forgot

Of course, that is right

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dd's avatar

You know one explanation for that.....goes something like this:

Buy a plant with 2 working machines, and another with 2 working machines, and there are parts that could make up another one, you really have bought 5 machines....So therefore 2 + 2 is five!

Yes, it's at that level....it's all a game of words.

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Miss's avatar

OK, reading this article ruined my Sunday, but I sincerely thank you. I will share this with others, even though it will ruin their Sunday too.

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Gerald Posner's avatar

Next time I'll try and avoid dropping a weekend :-)

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Diane Dimond's avatar

I mourn the loss of sanity in journalism.

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Tina Stolberg's avatar

Interesting that the style guide has decided what is still being debated by experts and the public at large.

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jxstanley's avatar

The long march through the institutions continues, chillingly, undaunted. (First paragraph ends “pure word” but should say “pure wind.”)

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Gerald Posner's avatar

Corrected. I marvel at how I can reread a draft several times, each time doing a little wordsmithing. Occasionally, those last minute edits create new errors that slip by. Other times, spell checker does an auto correct that slips by every read. That quote is one I know by heart, and it still got through. Thanks, fixed now.

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Jon Cutchins's avatar

Thanks for shining a light in a dark place Gerald- the true calling of the Fourth Estate. Let's beat them at their own game. Everytime we refer to biological sex let's call it 'sex assigned at conception'. See what they do with that.

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S A GOULD's avatar

Or sex observed by the ultrasound. Better yet, take it up with the father, as it is males who "decide" the sex of the baby.

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Rich Helppie The Common Bridge's avatar

Excellent coverage of the Transgender Coverage Topical Guide. I covered transgender in a recent interview on The Common Bridge. The parallels with lobotomy treatment is unmistakable.

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Craig Colgan's avatar

“What we are against is the teaching of contested political ideas as if they are accepted fact.” — Kemi Badenoch, British MP

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DB's avatar

People seem to have forgotten that we banned athletes from taking relatively small amounts of these drugs because they gave an unfair performance boost.

Remember the female East German Olympians?

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Julia Mason MD's avatar

I never thought we'd come to a place like this. Things were going well in the 1980s in terms of androgyny and freeing up gender expression. Now we tell kids if they're not comfortable in that little box, they need to jump into a new box, or be a new thing. I know a young woman who had her breasts removed to affirm her nonbinary identity. She regrets that now.

(Pssst, you've got "social distancing" in there where I think you meant "social transitioning".)

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Gerald Posner's avatar

well said

tnx, btw, corrected now - had Covid momentarily on the brain when writing about transgender

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Key's avatar

Can someone insert the Soviet “2+2=5” poster for the five year plan? Its caption says basically the same thing, with the enthusiasm of the workers identify the sum as five.

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Wanda Tebby's avatar

Ideological drivel being peddled as fact by main stream media is simply propaganda! It is censorship of facts and belongs in Communist China or Putin’s Russia not in the UK!

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Gerald Posner's avatar

Looking forward to our interview Rich

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STUFFED ANIMAL's avatar

So, most journalists and news editors aren't total airheads and dumbasses. You can't make them believe just anything. Clearly, they look at the stylebook changes and see the same red flags that you see. Why do they go along with it? What about the tenets of responsible journalism?

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S A GOULD's avatar

My veterinarian's office and one other animal supplies site have now substituted "gender" for "sex" on their forms. And a current article that claims worker bees are “literally trans-sexual” and “nonbinary." The AP needs to include them, and all the other species now being touted as not merely male or female.

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Rosemary Alles's avatar

Idiots.

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