New ideas are constantly being invented and talked about in the world; some of them catch on, and spread, and spawn entire subcultures and political movements. Given that ideas vary, replicate themselves (from mind to mind, by means of speech or writing), and moreover, _aren't equally good_ at replicating themselves, it can be useful to think of the spread of ideas as an _evolutionary_ process. This is the study of [memetics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics): the winning ideas are not necessarily the ones that are true or useful, but rather the ones that are _better at replicating themselves_.
-True and useful ideas certainly have a selective advantage insofar as humans care about usefulness, but there can be other features of an idea that convey a selective advantage in memetic competition: for example, an [appeal to (alleged) consequences of accepting the idea](/2017/Jan/and-yet-none-more-blameable/). This is the reason so many religions prominently feature promises and threats of divine reward or punishment: "Believe X and you'll be rewarded; believe not-X and you'll be sorry" is _more memetically fit_ than "It happens to be the case that X, but this has no particular further implications," because the former proposition creates incentives for propogating itself that the latter does not. It doesn't _matter_ that the rewards and punishments don't actually exist—
+True and useful ideas certainly have a selective advantage insofar as humans care about usefulness, but there can be other features of an idea that convey a selective advantage in memetic competition: for example, an [appeal to (alleged) consequences of accepting the idea](/2017/Jan/and-yet-none-more-blameable/). This is the reason so many religions prominently feature promises and threats of divine reward or punishment: "Believe X and you'll be rewarded; believe not-X and you'll be sorry" is _more memetically fit_ than "It happens to be the case that X, but this has no particular further implications," because the former proposition creates incentives for propogating itself. It doesn't _matter_ that the rewards and punishments don't actually exist—
(at least, _I_ don't think they exist, because I am not a carrier of the X religion meme)
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-So, there's a thing about me, possibly even _the_ thing about me, where there is this beautiful feeling at the center of my life that has shaped me more than almost anything else, where obviously I know that I am in fact male, but I don't want to _identify_ with that fact; I [want to believe](/2017/Dec/theres-a-land-that-i-see-or-the-spirit-of-intervention/) that I could be female and still be the same person in all the ways that matter, and this sentiment is clearly tied to my sexuality, as if my brain just doesn't draw that much of a distinction between people I want to be _with_ and people I want to be _like_.
+So, there's a thing about me, possibly even _the_ thing about me, where there is this beautiful feeling at the center of my life that has shaped me more than almost anything else, where obviously I know that I am in fact male, but I don't want to _identify_ with that fact; I [want to believe](/2017/Dec/theres-a-land-that-i-see-or-the-spirit-of-intervention/) that I could be female and still be the same person in all the ways that matter, and this sentiment feels tied to my sexuality, as if my brain just doesn't draw that much of a distinction between people I want to be _with_ and people I want to be _like_.
... the scintillating but ultimately untrue thought.
This is _really important information_! This is _not_ the sort of thing someone should have to piece together themselves at age 28! This is the sort of thing that should just be in the standard sex-ed books, that boys having these kinds of feelings can read at age 15 and _immediately_ say, "Ah, looks like I'm in the same taxon as lesbian trans women, and heterosexual crossdressers, and guys who have these fantasies but don't do anything about them in particular, and bigender people who are on low-dose hormones and choose how to 'present' in different social venues; I wonder which of these strategies is best for me given my exact circumstances?"
-So, while I realize that a lot of people have strong feelings about this topic, and I wanted to be sensitive to that, I also want to promote this theory, because I want people to have accurate information about the underlying psychological condition, so they can make the best [choices](http://unremediatedgender.space/2017/Dec/lesser-known-demand-curves/) about what to do about it, whereas people might make poorer choices in a regime where everyone had to figure things out for themselves in an environment full of misinformation about "gender identity."
+So, I realize that a lot of people have strong feelings about this topic: after having invested and sacrificed so much to live as a woman, no one wants to be told that her female gender identity arose out of misinterpretation of misdirected male sexuality.
+
+I wanted to be sensitive to that, but I also want to promote this theory, because I want people to have accurate information about the underlying psychological condition, so they can make the best [choices](/2017/Dec/lesser-known-demand-curves/) about what to do about it, whereas people might make poorer choices in a regime where everyone had to figure things out for themselves in an environment full of misinformation about "gender identity."
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Let me tell you about the moment I stopped wanting to be sensitive—the moment of liberating clarity when I resolved the tension between being a good person and the attendant requirement to pretend to be stupid by deciding not to be a good person anymore.
-I was arguing over instant messaging about all this with a (cis, male) acquaintance I'll call "Kevin," who had no obvious personal stake in the matter.
+I was arguing over instant messaging about all this with a (cis, male) acquaintance.
+I said, We should understand the underlying psychological phenomenon _first_, _then_ decide on quality-of-life interventions based on the facts.
+He said that the quality-of-life interventions available from that seem small relative to the harm caused by insisting that late-transition trans women aren't real women, that the right time to consider confronting this would be after the culture war over trans rights is safely out of the Overton window, probably in 25 to 30 years.
-Understand the underlying psychological phenomenon _first_, I said, _then_ decide on quality-of-life interventions based on the facts.
+He said that I would have a generally better model of the world if I assumed that autogynephilia is not a real thing that has tangible effects.
-He said that the quality-of-life interventions available from that seem small relative to the harm caused by insisting that late-transition trans women aren't real women, that the right time to consider confronting this would be after the culture war over trans rights is safely out of the Overton window, probably in 25 to 30 years. He said that I would have a generally better model of the world if I assumed that autogynephilia is not a real thing that has tangible effects.
+I said, Okay, but then how am I supposed to explain the last 14 years of my life? Am I supposed to believe I was secretly a girl this entire time and didn't notice? Even though I didn't know, _and_ no one else knew, _and_ I had a male body _and_ the vast majority of my psychological traits were in the male normal range?
-But then how am I supposed to explain the last 14 years of my life? I asked. Am I supposed to believe I was secretly a girl this entire time and didn't notice? Even though I didn't know, _and_ no one else knew, _and_ I had a male body _and_ the vast majority of my psychological traits were in the male normal range?
+He said, Yes, you were a girl and misdiagnosed it; that's the simplest explanation of the facts.
-Yes, he said, you were a girl and misdiagnosed it; that's the simplest explanation of the facts. He said that my focus on what causes my MtF feelings is misplaced: it would not benefit me to find out. It will not benefit anyone else to find out.
+He said that my focus on what causes my transfeminine feelings is misplaced: it would not benefit me to find out. It would not benefit anyone else to find out.
It didn't feel like I was talking to a reasonable, sane person who happened to have different beliefs from me about the etiology of male-to-female transgenderedness.
The Orwellian horror here is not, of course, that someone in my extended social circle has opinions I disagree with.
-The Orwellian horror is that [...]
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-That the threat of being labeled a transphobe is
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-_Words should mean things_, or _Knowledge is better than ignorance_.
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-[...]
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-Obviously I'm totally in favor of trans _people_ having access to the hormones and surgeries that they want, and having their preferred pronouns respected.
+The Orwellian horror is that, had we been arguing in public, I'm not sure my incredibly smart and incredibly epistemologically sophisticated extended social circle would affirm that I wasn't wrong to want to talk about it (even if people might disagree about the facts). That, for educated liberals in the Current Year, appearing non-transphobic is more important than defending basic tenets of sanity that should hardly need to be stated, let alone defended, like _Words should mean things_, or _Knowledge is better than ignorance_.
-But if Kevin is a representative example of what the _subculture of trans activism_ does to people's heads, then maybe your _shitty delusional subculture deserves to die_.
+Obviously I'm totally in favor of trans _people_ having access to the hormones and surgeries that they want, and having their preferred pronouns respected. That's just individual freedom and basic politeness.
-If being a good person means submitting to social pressure aimed at getting me to _shut up and stop thinking_ about the true nature of the beautiful feeling at the center of my life for _twenty-five years_, then I have _no interest_ in being a good person.
+But if being a good person means submitting to social pressure aimed at getting me to _shut up and stop thinking_ about the true nature of the beautiful feeling at the center of my life for _twenty-five years_, then I have _no interest_ in being a good person.
I'm certainly not _trying_ to say things that will hurt people—_least_ of all people who are mostly just like me but read different books in a different order and are living out a pretty decent approximation of _my wildest fantasy_.
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / commitdiff