One such narrative relevant to the topic-focus of this blog is the progressive mainstay, "Psychological sex differences are fake/tiny/socially-constructed." A [metacontrarian](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kcTNWopvXFncXgPy/intellectual-hipsters-and-meta-contrarianism) counternarrative that I got a lot of exposure to as I sought out ideologically-inconvenient science during my twenties was, "Overeducated out-of-touch liberals _think_ that psychological sex differences are fake/tiny/socially-constructed, until they finally have children of their own and see for themselves how much is innate." As I slowly came to grips with just how deeply the progressive coalition has been _[systematically lying to me](/2017/Jan/im-sick-of-being-lied-to/) about everything I [want](/2017/Feb/a-beacon-through-the-darkness-or-getting-it-right-the-first-time/) and [value](/2017/Dec/theres-a-land-that-i-see-or-the-spirit-of-intervention/)_, I grew to mostly accept the counternarrative.
-And so as I've recently gotten some field data thanks to some of my friends actually having children (!!) in the past few years, it has been a _pleasant surprise_ to notice the metacontrarian counternarrative making _failed_ predictions in the form of my friends' kids' individual personalities not being overtly stereotypical: friend's daughter's (age 3) fantasy doll play frequently revolves around epic battles of good guys _vs_. bad guys (with the bad guys regularly being killed or put in jail); other friend's son (age 2) is the subject of adorable anecdotes about wanting to hug and not hurt people, and his current special interest is in endlessly rewatching the documentary [_Babies_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babies_(film)). A glorious [Hydeian](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16173891) counter-counternarrative emerges: maybe some sex differences are real, but the effect sizes are so small that you should just treat everyone as individuals!! Rah! 💖
+And so as I've recently gotten some field data thanks to some of my friends actually having children (!!) in the past few years, it has been a _pleasant surprise_ to notice the metacontrarian counternarrative making _failed_ predictions in the form of my friends' kids' individual personalities not being overtly stereotypical: friend's daughter's (age 3) fantasy doll play frequently revolves around epic battles of good guys _vs_. bad guys (with the bad guys regularly being killed or put in jail); other friend's son (age 2) is the subject of adorable anecdotes about wanting to hug and not hurt people, and his current special interest is in endlessly rewatching the documentary [_Babies_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babies_(film)). A glorious [Hydeian](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16173891) counter-counternarrative emerges: maybe some sex differences are real, but the effect sizes are so small that you should just treat everyone as individuals!! Rah! ⚥ 💖
On the other hand, if I'm remembering my [Maccoby](https://www.amazon.com/Two-Sexes-Growing-Coming-Together/dp/0674914821) ([RIP](https://archive.is/MbUUN) 😢) correctly, a lot of the standard social-play differences emerge a little bit _after_ toddlerhood. So I'm bracing myself for the possibility of a dreary counter-counter-counternarrative in a few years.
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff