LifestyleMy lesbian friend is now trans and is trying to convince me that I am too

submitted by SillyGoose from self.LGBDropTheT

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[–]SillyGoose[S] 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I really appreciate how thorough this is. I think you are right. I have been very gentle with telling her that I am content in my womanhood since I do worry about upsetting her, but I suppose it is within my right to be honest if she is upsetting me. She is a really good friend when we aren't talking about all the gender stuff though.

In terms of college, I am pretty deep in the research process, so I'm not going to change my plans, but I realize that the schools I am interested in may not be the best for LGB in hindsight. I know they are really liberal, but that may mean TQ would dominate over LGB. I know pronouns in email signatures, introductions, and even pronoun buttons are things I have seen in marketing and on college visits. I don't really have other options though, since I know I want to go to a selective liberal arts school and they are pretty much all the same in terms of being woke and social justice hotspots. Anyway, if I may ask, do you know how bad things are with non-STEM classes/humanities classes? I am good with science but I kind of hate it so I was considering studying history/political science since that feeds well into law school, but I realize that poli sci probably attracts a lot of woke people. I'm not super invested in the subject I suppose, I just know I want to be an attorney. I know that may vary from place to place, but I'm sure you know a lot more than I do. Sorry for the longer response.

[–]gadflyinajar 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It depends on the quality of school, but I don't mean to discourage you when I say that any non-STEM classes that I'm aware of are currently barely even what they say they are. Things like poli-sci and history border on the worst, next to Sociology. My sociology class (which was mandatory) taught me, directly from the textbook, that there were two kinds of research in the field. The first is the scientific method. The second is "Intuitive Retrospective", where you look at data, and try to figure out through your "lived experience" what you think the cause of the correlations are. This is a logical fallacy, and they are currently filling up scientific journals with drek based on this reasoning at a lightning pace.

This is maybe fine, just a bit frustrating for a while, keeping in mind that you don't seem to care much about the classes this impacts. Just keeping your head down and answering the questions the way they want you to answer will get you through it. I never took any classes on law, but I imagine when you get to something based on the concrete present rules of law they can't gaslight you. Try to keep in mind that teachers are people too, I'm in my early 20s and already many of my friends are on the professor track. I love them, but these people are not the brilliant genius tweed-jacket intellectuals who can never be wrong that academia thinks they are. These people are not much older than you. If you've got a good head on your shoulders you can often realize whether or not what they're saying makes any sense at all, so do your own research and remember how to think. That should also serve you well as an attorney.

[–]reluctant_commenter 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

My sociology class (which was mandatory) taught me, directly from the textbook, that there were two kinds of research in the field. The first is the scientific method. The second is "Intuitive Retrospective", where you look at data, and try to figure out through your "lived experience" what you think the cause of the correlations are. This is a logical fallacy, and they are currently filling up scientific journals with drek based on this reasoning at a lightning pace.

Holy shit! That is a real trip. I've heard some crazy stories out of friends' sociology classes (don't want to risk doxxing or I'd share lol), but that's really extreme. I took an anthropology class and it wasn't that bad, but I think there may be different norms between the two fields.

Try to keep in mind that teachers are people too, I'm in my early 20s and already many of my friends are on the professor track. I love them, but these people are not the brilliant genius tweed-jacket intellectuals who can never be wrong that academia thinks they are. These people are not much older than you. If you've got a good head on your shoulders you can often realize whether or not what they're saying makes any sense at all, so do your own research and remember how to think.

Agreed, it's important not to idealize professors. Research is awesome, but humans in every field are fallible.

[–]gadflyinajar 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, we wonder why our arguments aren't getting through to these nutjobs, but it's because they're basically taught a 2+2=5 approach to reasoning. I could scarcely believe it, I might try and find the textbook this is taken from. The fact that I could so easily read the paragraph describing this "method" and see it as plainly ridiculous, and yet it made it into the book feels like gaslighting. Somehow it made it through enough editors, professors, and schoolboard committees to be "prescribed", so what right have I to criticize it? Is it more likely that I'm right and all these people are wrong? These days I worry more and more that I'm the crazy one, browsing tiny forums like this while the rest of the world revels in the smell of their own farts. Sure can't help but want to call out the emperor for his missing clothes, though.