drafting "I Don't Do Policy"

diff --git a/content/drafts/i-dont-do-policy.md b/content/drafts/i-dont-do-policy.md
index b9499e1..244b1f7 100644 (file)
--- a/content/drafts/i-dont-do-policy.md
+++ b/content/drafts/i-dont-do-policy.md
@@ -4,4 +4,25 @@ Category: commentary
 Tags: politics
 Status: draft
 
-Almost everything I do is at least one meta level up from any actual decisions. I'm _not_ trying to tell other people how to live their lives, because _that would be crazy_. I am obviously _not smart enough_ to tell other people what they should do _and get the right answer_. True, I am skeptical of currently-popular _theories_ of how gender works and how gender dysphoria works, because I think they are _false_ in certain knowable aspects and that I have a more accurate view in certain knowable aspects. That is _not the same thing_ as telling people to detransition! Maybe lots _more_ people should transition! But in order to _figure out_ what the correct decisions are—or what the best decisions are conditional on your axiomatic subjective values—we need to _get the theory right_.
+Something about my writing that tends to confuse people, that I need to clarify briefly: people keep expecting me to come out with some sort of policy prescription, whereas I see myself as trying to _describe_ what's actually going on in the world without being delusional about how much control I have over it. I think my account of what's actually going on is a _relevant input_ into the computation of deciding what to do, but almost everything I say is at least one meta level up from any actual decisions.
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+People will see something like my ["The Categories Were Made for Man to Make Predictions"](/2018/Feb/the-categories-were-made-for-man-to-make-predictions/), and ask, "Okay, but what's the _policy takeaway_ here? Are you saying we should refuse to use trans people's preferred pronouns? Are you saying non-well-passing trans people should detransition?"
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+No! I'm not saying that!
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+"Then what _are_ you saying?"
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+I'm saying—exactly what I said in the 6000-word blog post. Are ... are you asking for a _summary_, or—
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+"We're asking what you're telling us to _do_."
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+I don't know what _you_ should do! Why would I know that? I'm _saying_ that useful words correspond to predictively useful concepts, and that biological sex is a predictively useful concept, and that there are at least two distinct classes of psychological motivation for why some males wish they could change sex, one of which is not an intersex condition, and that our hormonal and surgical interventions for approximating a sex change are imperfect, such that  [...]
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+That _doesn't_ mean that no one should ever try to approximate changing sex with hormonal and surgical interventions! A lot of people do it, and it seems to work out pretty well for some of them! Maybe _more_ people should do it!
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+But in order for someone to _figure out_ whether or not to do it, and in order for other people to _decide_ how they want to respond to that, it would help if we could collectively _get the theory right_. 
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+I don't do policy!