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[–]endless_assfluff 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Eh, I'm going to expand on what the rest of the thread says. If you present it as an argument or satire, it works as a reductio ad absurdum. It won't support gender ideology if you keep it hypothetical.

I'm going to expand on that because I think some people may find it helpful. "Suppose kink is non-negotiable, homosexuality ('genital fetishism,' ugh) is a kink, and genital fetishism needs to be unlearned because it's bigoted" is the first line of a proof by contradiction---an argument that ultimately refutes the statement made in the opening sentence---not an assertion that these statements are true. (As you're saying, the next two lines would be "By the first two statements, homosexuality is non-negotiable, which contradicts the third statement. Hence these three statements cannot simultaneously be true.") For those who like simpler language, it's like saying "You can't claim these things are simultaneously true. When we apply formal logic, they conflict with each other."

The weakness of this strategy is that it doesn't work when everyone else involved (a) doesn't understand formal logic, (b) does understand formal logic, but chooses to ignore it because they believe holding the opposing belief is harmful; or (c) simply isn't listening because you are a TERF TERF TERF TERF TERF.

The strength is, they strawman every statement we make anyway, so it's easiest to see what's wrong with their ideology by letting them talk themselves into a fallacious corner. They can't use sound argumentative strategies because what they're claiming is fundamentally untrue. Never interrupt your opponent when xe is making a mistake, after all.

Other good reductio ad absurdum strategies include starting a gender arms race where one pursued sexually by a transperson can 'come out' as a gender outside of the list of genders said transperson says they're attracted to, Cantor-style ("sorry, I identify as contragender, it's a gender that no one finds attractive. Respect my gender identity!"); and claiming that because TERFs are so dangerous, TIMs should be able to use the women's room freely but women should have to pass a test to see if they're not a TERF---and if they fail, tough luck, they can't use the bathroom. (For anyone who needs to hear: yes, this is satire, I'm not saying you should seriously do these things.)

[–]SanityIsGC[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The weakness of this strategy is that it doesn't work when everyone else involved (a) doesn't understand formal logic, (b) does understand formal logic, but chooses to ignore it because they believe holding the opposing belief is harmful; or (c) simply isn't listening because you are a TERF TERF TERF TERF TERF.

Point taken. My mistake was assuming that one could construct an argument they would have to respect by framing it in such a way they couldn't refute. What struck me reading your post is that their mindset is absolutely no different than Trump's which is that words are meaningless to them, prior statements are meaningless. A mindset with zero interest in being logical.