About this episode
The episode features a debate on the definition of womanhood in the context of transgender identity, sparked by contrasting essays on the topic.
This debate came about after I wrote an essay, “ Trans Women Are Trans Women ,” in response to Matthew Adelstein’s essay, “ Why I Think Trans Women Are Women .” I wanted to have the conversation for two reasons. First, I’m a student of philosophy and former university lecturer of logic, debate, writing, and public speaking — basically, how to think and express those thoughts — so for me, civil discourse is a personal discipline much like chess or martial arts, two of my favorite pastimes. But it’s also a benefit to society because if more of us openly engaged in civil discourse over contentious issues by playing the game rugby-rough but, like all good ruggers, able to grab beers after — we’d be better off. Second, because this slogan represents the most extremist form of woke ideology, alongside “math is racist,” and as I wrote, it’s profoundly dangerous: Orwell had a word for the process of distorting basic truths in order to further some political agenda or enforce ideological conformity. He called it doublespeak . I often call it ontological gaslighting, like the scene in the book in which the Party finally gets Winston to accept that two plus two is five. This is how the book…
People in this episode
Host: David Josef Volodzko
Topics covered
- transgender issues
- civil discourse
- philosophy
- woke ideology
- political correctness
Keywords
- trans women
- civil discourse
- woke ideology
- Orwell
- ontological gaslighting
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Trans Women Are Trans Women, Why I Think Trans Women Are Women, 1984
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