Do you think a father of children who decides he's female now at age 35 should have the right, legally and/or socially to call himself the mother of the children?
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
Because, he did. That is to say he wrote his name on school and other documents, omitting me, the mother, and placing himself in that slot. He's not the only one. This is common in his age group/lifestyle choice, as demonstrated on advocacy.com, where 11 men post, with photos, that they love getting "Mother's Day cards" now.
I think there might be cases when this is okay, but only after a very long conversation with one's spouse. Most such changes lead to divorce--understandably. But take a look at Jennifer Finney Boylan's memoir, She's Not There. Born James, she dreamed from the time she could think she was a girl. This memoir convinced me that people like her really suffer if they're not allowed to be themselves. But I think this condition is a whole lot rarer than it's made out to be.
There is no measure that predicts when this scenario changes, due to the physical damage caused to the system, the incontinence you can read about in the Ritchie Herron story. You don't honestly think the woman who stayed with Boylan didn't have pressure, there in NYC? I know someone who met her. I lived that same pressure, but not in high price Manhattan. I had a small amount of agency because I could imagine moving out and paying my own rent. My ex-husband does not deserve to call himself the mother of our children, whom I birthed naturally. Also, Boylan has stated publicly that he's from an evangelical Christian family background, where sex roles were laid out in very traditional terms. I do not see this person as the "prime example of true trans," especially in light of the cover on magazines, the glorification in the woke New York Times &etc. Did you know that the underage son is now following this dangerous path? Do you call that "true trans?" Please inform yourself before you make your grand judgements.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
I didn't suggest Boylan as a prime example of anything--just felt that her memoir showed me something I hadn't known before, allowed me to imagine a person like her. I knew about the son and wondered; I know Boylan did not want this transition, at least initially, doesn't discuss it, and appears to have accepted it. I have no idea what to think about the son. This can't be an easy situation for anyone. My only real point was that a person like Boylan seems to me very different from the recent trend of teenaged girls who want, in early to mid puberty, to take hormones and have double mastectomies, when they'd never appaeared to have gender issues in childhood. That's the disaster, something Chloe Cho has recently been publicizing.
The memoirs of the men who've "transitioned" in middle age, and the wife decided to stay, are typically quite sanitized. The secrets, the diagnosing coaches taking the lead down the path to surgeries, and the broadcasting of the new looks contrast greatly with the forces playing chess with an extra queen are devastating to the family, including suicidal ideation that mustn't be spoken of. Sex Changes by Christine Benvenuto (St. Martins Press, 2010) is the ex-wife story of the rising star, Joy Ladin, her husband. Ladin badmouthed Christine all over their Massachusetts college town, almost crashing her writing career. There are thousands of us ex-wives, only 4 books telling our experiences; deception, coercion and betrayal. We are told that if we chronicle our lives we are obligated to gloss over the trauma. I know. I did include the shock of revelation, the denial of our sons' trauma and the belittling of my role as mother, weathering this storm while simply holding on to my own sense of self as my ex claimed to be mother of our young children, causing them grief and confusion. Qualified child development psychologist srecognized this stress. It is attacked politically by gender ideologists, who deny the etiology from traditionalist religion, abuse and trauma in childhood.
Boylan is glorified on magazine covers, consulted regarding what is published in the Times on this subject. This is known. My ex does his own version of the censorship as COO of his tech firm. The fact that the doctors in the American Association of Pediatrics cannot speak freely if they disagree with the WPATH recommendations of child surgeries for "dysphoria" says it all.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
Thank you again for all your work, risk, and honesty with the evolving Street Epistemology project. Bravo in the 100K+ on YT.
1) Do you have an idea/plans for a book in the coming future? If yes, can you elaborate or at least tease what your thoughts are about it.
2) I really would like to hear what your input and involvement in UATX is? Visiting family in Nov there, will be investigating for younger family members.
Thank you again Professor B. Watching and sharing your content with family and friends has been inspirational.
When you’re conducting a reverse Q&A, 1) do you have a decision tree for the types of questions you ask based on the responses you receive? Also, 2) how do you decide to pivot to questioning another participant? Are there a set of general principles balanced with ‘ballparking’ when it’s time to shift one’s attention to question someone else?
Hi Peter, thank you so much for your great work. I recently got your Impossible Conversations book and am enjoying so far. I just had a few random and not so random questions for you.
Can you please comment on the idea that the reason for the overrepresentation of left-leaning professors and students in universities/academia is that these are educated, highly intelligent people and based on this education/intelligence they have come to the conclusion that left-wing ideology is the best basis for creation of a society that helps individuals to lead their fullest, healthiest, happiest lives.
Do you have any plans to visit Australia in the near future?
What is the best way to truth if the people creating knowledge (i.e., scientists) are only human and when that knowledge is disseminated, it is coming from a person with bias (however that manifests) and their own personal values? I am frequently disheartened by the fact that I am only one person and it is impossible for me do a deep dive into the evidence (e.g., evaluating methods of a study and checking references) for every claim/topic i read about. I feel like it is impossible to arrive at the truth.
First, incredible work, keep it up!!! Next time you're in Michigan, dinner is on me.
In one of your interviews, you mention an author/researcher who has published work on the self/ego, and how the self moves matter or matter moves the self/consciousness, and the relationship between consciousness and physical reality.
Realize this is a random question, but do you recall who you were referring to?
Hypothetically, if the theory of evolution was idea-laundered into the universities in the same manner as gender theory today, how would we know it? What conditions would need to exist for us to know we have discovered a laundered, but heavily entrenched idea several generations later?
Pretend you are you a woke social constructionist. Hypothetically speaking (since I am not aware there is any evidence), pretend you discovered that slave masters interfered in the sex lives of slaves they owned in order to produce children with traits that slave masters would want (such as obedience? physical strength? less likely to run away?) but are not beneficial to the individual in a modern society. Fast-forward to a modern society. Would a social constructionist say this increases or decreases the case for reparations?
Hello Peter. Thank you for addressing my question from June - which I just now watched. I asked what citizens might have done in 1930s Germany and Italy to prevent Fascist control. You admitted you were not informed sufficiently on the topic but know someone who is. Please tell me the person and if there is a better way to reach him or her. Thank you, Chuck.
I did ask you something and would love your thoughts on the matter. I know I'm not particularly patient. Also--forgive me--I am the one who problematized the sleeves on that $1.50 jacket.
I’d like to hear any more of your thoughts on antisemitism. I run an online support group for Jews experiencing antisemitism. My experience of it comes mostly from the Left, the Woke.
I really appreciated your comment on David Bernstein’s new book, “Woke Antisemitism.”
(1) Could the fourth amendment be invoked much more to protect a woman's right to an abortion? I use the term "right' advisedly. I think the constitution intended this right.
(2) I see similarities between the formulaic thinking of Ibram X. Kendi and the formulaic thinking of Madison Grant. Grant was, unfortunately, more intellectual and in some ways more convincing in his day (we all loathe him now). But the same sweeping rhetoric, the same fatal self-confidence. Comment.
Do you think a father of children who decides he's female now at age 35 should have the right, legally and/or socially to call himself the mother of the children?
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
Because, he did. That is to say he wrote his name on school and other documents, omitting me, the mother, and placing himself in that slot. He's not the only one. This is common in his age group/lifestyle choice, as demonstrated on advocacy.com, where 11 men post, with photos, that they love getting "Mother's Day cards" now.
I think there might be cases when this is okay, but only after a very long conversation with one's spouse. Most such changes lead to divorce--understandably. But take a look at Jennifer Finney Boylan's memoir, She's Not There. Born James, she dreamed from the time she could think she was a girl. This memoir convinced me that people like her really suffer if they're not allowed to be themselves. But I think this condition is a whole lot rarer than it's made out to be.
There is no measure that predicts when this scenario changes, due to the physical damage caused to the system, the incontinence you can read about in the Ritchie Herron story. You don't honestly think the woman who stayed with Boylan didn't have pressure, there in NYC? I know someone who met her. I lived that same pressure, but not in high price Manhattan. I had a small amount of agency because I could imagine moving out and paying my own rent. My ex-husband does not deserve to call himself the mother of our children, whom I birthed naturally. Also, Boylan has stated publicly that he's from an evangelical Christian family background, where sex roles were laid out in very traditional terms. I do not see this person as the "prime example of true trans," especially in light of the cover on magazines, the glorification in the woke New York Times &etc. Did you know that the underage son is now following this dangerous path? Do you call that "true trans?" Please inform yourself before you make your grand judgements.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com
I didn't suggest Boylan as a prime example of anything--just felt that her memoir showed me something I hadn't known before, allowed me to imagine a person like her. I knew about the son and wondered; I know Boylan did not want this transition, at least initially, doesn't discuss it, and appears to have accepted it. I have no idea what to think about the son. This can't be an easy situation for anyone. My only real point was that a person like Boylan seems to me very different from the recent trend of teenaged girls who want, in early to mid puberty, to take hormones and have double mastectomies, when they'd never appaeared to have gender issues in childhood. That's the disaster, something Chloe Cho has recently been publicizing.
The memoirs of the men who've "transitioned" in middle age, and the wife decided to stay, are typically quite sanitized. The secrets, the diagnosing coaches taking the lead down the path to surgeries, and the broadcasting of the new looks contrast greatly with the forces playing chess with an extra queen are devastating to the family, including suicidal ideation that mustn't be spoken of. Sex Changes by Christine Benvenuto (St. Martins Press, 2010) is the ex-wife story of the rising star, Joy Ladin, her husband. Ladin badmouthed Christine all over their Massachusetts college town, almost crashing her writing career. There are thousands of us ex-wives, only 4 books telling our experiences; deception, coercion and betrayal. We are told that if we chronicle our lives we are obligated to gloss over the trauma. I know. I did include the shock of revelation, the denial of our sons' trauma and the belittling of my role as mother, weathering this storm while simply holding on to my own sense of self as my ex claimed to be mother of our young children, causing them grief and confusion. Qualified child development psychologist srecognized this stress. It is attacked politically by gender ideologists, who deny the etiology from traditionalist religion, abuse and trauma in childhood.
Boylan is glorified on magazine covers, consulted regarding what is published in the Times on this subject. This is known. My ex does his own version of the censorship as COO of his tech firm. The fact that the doctors in the American Association of Pediatrics cannot speak freely if they disagree with the WPATH recommendations of child surgeries for "dysphoria" says it all.
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
Dr. Boghossian,
My psychologist friend in Alabama thinks that Babylon 5 is a pale shadow of the vastly superior Deep Space Nine. What can I tell this guy?
Thanks,
Neuberger
Thank you again for all your work, risk, and honesty with the evolving Street Epistemology project. Bravo in the 100K+ on YT.
1) Do you have an idea/plans for a book in the coming future? If yes, can you elaborate or at least tease what your thoughts are about it.
2) I really would like to hear what your input and involvement in UATX is? Visiting family in Nov there, will be investigating for younger family members.
Thank you again Professor B. Watching and sharing your content with family and friends has been inspirational.
Peter, thank you so very much for engaging in the vital work you’re doing. It’s inspiring and heart-warming!
I have two related questions:
1. What role does skepticism play in rational thinking?
2. Is it accurate to characterize Critical Theory as “skepticism to the nth degree”, or maybe “skepticism run amok”?
When you’re conducting a reverse Q&A, 1) do you have a decision tree for the types of questions you ask based on the responses you receive? Also, 2) how do you decide to pivot to questioning another participant? Are there a set of general principles balanced with ‘ballparking’ when it’s time to shift one’s attention to question someone else?
Is Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 worth it?
Hi Peter, thank you so much for your great work. I recently got your Impossible Conversations book and am enjoying so far. I just had a few random and not so random questions for you.
Can you please comment on the idea that the reason for the overrepresentation of left-leaning professors and students in universities/academia is that these are educated, highly intelligent people and based on this education/intelligence they have come to the conclusion that left-wing ideology is the best basis for creation of a society that helps individuals to lead their fullest, healthiest, happiest lives.
Do you have any plans to visit Australia in the near future?
What is the best way to truth if the people creating knowledge (i.e., scientists) are only human and when that knowledge is disseminated, it is coming from a person with bias (however that manifests) and their own personal values? I am frequently disheartened by the fact that I am only one person and it is impossible for me do a deep dive into the evidence (e.g., evaluating methods of a study and checking references) for every claim/topic i read about. I feel like it is impossible to arrive at the truth.
Lastly, how do you pronounce aluminium?
Thank you in advance for your answers :)
First, incredible work, keep it up!!! Next time you're in Michigan, dinner is on me.
In one of your interviews, you mention an author/researcher who has published work on the self/ego, and how the self moves matter or matter moves the self/consciousness, and the relationship between consciousness and physical reality.
Realize this is a random question, but do you recall who you were referring to?
Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question!
Hypothetically, if the theory of evolution was idea-laundered into the universities in the same manner as gender theory today, how would we know it? What conditions would need to exist for us to know we have discovered a laundered, but heavily entrenched idea several generations later?
Thank you so much for your work Peter.
Pretend you are you a woke social constructionist. Hypothetically speaking (since I am not aware there is any evidence), pretend you discovered that slave masters interfered in the sex lives of slaves they owned in order to produce children with traits that slave masters would want (such as obedience? physical strength? less likely to run away?) but are not beneficial to the individual in a modern society. Fast-forward to a modern society. Would a social constructionist say this increases or decreases the case for reparations?
What do YOU think?
Hello Peter. Thank you for addressing my question from June - which I just now watched. I asked what citizens might have done in 1930s Germany and Italy to prevent Fascist control. You admitted you were not informed sufficiently on the topic but know someone who is. Please tell me the person and if there is a better way to reach him or her. Thank you, Chuck.
I did ask you something and would love your thoughts on the matter. I know I'm not particularly patient. Also--forgive me--I am the one who problematized the sleeves on that $1.50 jacket.
I’d like to hear any more of your thoughts on antisemitism. I run an online support group for Jews experiencing antisemitism. My experience of it comes mostly from the Left, the Woke.
I really appreciated your comment on David Bernstein’s new book, “Woke Antisemitism.”
Two questions:
(1) Could the fourth amendment be invoked much more to protect a woman's right to an abortion? I use the term "right' advisedly. I think the constitution intended this right.
(2) I see similarities between the formulaic thinking of Ibram X. Kendi and the formulaic thinking of Madison Grant. Grant was, unfortunately, more intellectual and in some ways more convincing in his day (we all loathe him now). But the same sweeping rhetoric, the same fatal self-confidence. Comment.