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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 2 years

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By: Daisy Stephens

Published: Jul 24, 2022

The Black Trowel Collective, a group of American archaeologists, claimed there are suggestions that many historical cultures had more than two genders and so archaeologists should be "wary of projecting our modern sex and gender identity categories onto past individuals".

The group claimed scientists have a "long history of imposing modern patriarchal gender and sexual norms onto the past".

"Human gender is highly variable and... human beings have historically been comfortable with a range of genders beyond modern 'masculine' and 'feminine' binaries," the group wrote in a blog post.

The Daily Mail claims that some academics are beginning to label ancient human skeletons as 'non-binary' or 'gender neutral'.

The idea has been criticised by historian Jeremy Black, who said gender is key to understanding history.

"It is an absurd proposition as the difference between genders, just as the difference between religious, social and national groups, are key motors in history," he told the Daily Mail.

"This very ideological approach to knowledge means that we're in danger of making knowledge itself simply a matter of political preference."

Life continues to imitate parody. 🤡

"projecting our modern sex and gender identity categories onto past individuals"

Current gender woo is the invention and imposition of bored, modern first-world academic elites, which makes this absurdly ironic.

"we're in danger of making knowledge itself simply a matter of political preference."

This is literally the postmodern, social constructivist belief and objective.

No one ever needs to respond to this deranged ideology with anything other than "no."

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potentially-a-poser · 6 months

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Why do conservatives only seem to care about “science” when it comes to invalidating trans people? They don’t care about science when talking about vaccines or environmental issues or germ theory.

#punk rock #punk #anarchism #conservatives #christianity #science denial #trans issues #environment #political activist #politics #anti facist #trans rights

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sophieinwonderland · 23 days

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"youre using actual research when it isnt even for you" im wondering if that user even opened any of those sources or even the document itself. probably not, most sysmeds dont try to learn and just want to continue being hateful, but i find it funny that they say those sources arent about us so confidently when many of those links ARE explicitly about plurality outside of a diagnostic lens... youre embarassing yourself /directed at him

This! 🤣

This is one of their favorite lines, I've noticed. Claiming research explicitly about endogenic systems is somehow not about endogenic systems.

I swear, we could literally take part in a study, personally, and they would still try to tell us the study wasn't about us!

#syscourse #pro endo #pro endogenic #sysblr #plural #plurality #endogenic #multiplicity #systems #system #actually plural #actually a system #science denial

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nogendermoretrees · 5 months

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Found myself driving behind a flat-Earther today

#flat earth #science denial #funny license plates

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imkeepinit · 8 months

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#science #science denial #science illiteracy

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mbrainspaz · 1 year

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scientist friend on the phone: I don't actually think flat earthers are real.

me: I'm looking at one right now. *waves and smiles at my only coworker who waves back*

scientist friend on the phone: I don't believe it! I've never met one!

me: are you... in the face of first hand evidence I've gathered... insisting that the existence of flat earth conspiracy theorists is a conspiracy right now??

her: ....you're hurting me.

me: What if I told you I know two flat earthers.

her: STOP

#i'm laughing at myself #conspiracy steve #conspiracy theories #science friend #I do know two flat earthers #science denial #conspiracy brain rot #the crunchy to alt right pipeline exists #dialogue from memory #flat earthers

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joy-haver · 2 years

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On Science, Denialism, and Community

These content warnings apply to 1 specific section, which is marked.

Cw colonialism, white supremacy, ableism, racism, eugenics.

✨✨✨information and trust ✨✨✨

I keep seeing people, who all have otherwise very thought out belief systems, saying things like “trust science” and “we wouldn’t have all these problems if people had better critical thinking skills” and “people just need to listen to the research.”

If you agree with one of those statements, I want you to really think it through for a minute.

Do you make all of your decisions based on research? Do you get all of your information from peer reviewed journals? If so, what are your standards for what you consider good research? Do you rerun all the numbers to make sure they didn’t make any mistakes? Do you check all the citations that the article your reading relies on and make sure that each of those is up to your standards? What about the citations of those articles? How do you know that the numbers they have you are true? How do you know the peer reviewers weren’t paid by the same company, or the same industry? How do you know for sure that there aren’t 100 studies that say the exact opposite thing that never saw the light of day because no one would publish them?

And like, of course you don’t do those things. You can’t answer all those questions. It’s literally impossible to always act on the best information available and always check everything. At some point, you are relying on trust. It’s just a question of how much trust, and who you are trusting.

Science denialism is one thing that can happen when that trust is broken. And, as I’ll describe bellow, that trust will be broken for anyone whose paying attention

✨✨✨Science as an institution ✨✨✨

I think it’s important to remember that the vast majority of what this society has called “science” over the years had been little more than propaganda pieces to justify colonialism, eugenics, and white supremacy. Anyone whose ever worked with data can show you how to manipulate it. But you don’t even need to manipulate it on purpose to do bad science. Hell, for most of the research that happens in this country, the grant selection process manipulates the data on its own. You can make science justify almost anything. The scientific method is okay as a framework, but it is not perfect. And the institutions that exist around it are very good at using the imperfections of the method to create their own propaganda. And they have a nice little shield of science to hide it behind.

But really, take a look around you. The scientific method has brought us many good results, but the idea of science has also justified the worlds worst atrocities. All social harms that exist today exist, in part, becuase they were given scientific justifications. Because at the end of the day, science will tell you whatever you want it to. Information that pushes back may come into existence sometimes, but it will be ignored unless it can be used to someone’s advantage.

[content warnings start here]

Even so called “good science” that genuinely is an attempt at finding truth and understanding reality is not morally neutral. Every advancement has its uses. Advancements in plastics might mean more plastic is made. Advancements in mathematics means more bombs. Advancements in psychology are used to propagandize you. Advancements in medicine are used to create more effective eugenics. Sure, sometimes advancements may help you a little. But the always help power maintain itself more. And sure, sometime s good science that isn’t useful to the system slips thru the cracks, but they will find a way to reincorporate it into the matchine.

And if that’s what the good science does, what about the bad science?

The sterilization and murder of disabled people, of black people, of immigrants, of indigenous people STILL happens in the name of science, separating indigenous people from thier families was done in the name of science. All of the fatshaming that we’ve propagated around the globe has been done in the name of science, and that has a death toll too. Capitalism is justified in the name of science. Incarceration is justified in the name of science. State power is justified in the name of science. Colonizing countries, destroying indigenous food ways, forcing people into sweatshops is done in the name of science.

The murder machine that is the USA relies on science, The propaganda machine that keeps people believing in it relies on science.

[content warnings end here]

And if you’ve ever tried to talk someone out of a belief that’s based in bad science, even committed and nuanced researchers, even using good data, most of them won’t change their minds. How could they? Because what’s the alternative? Aren’t the only two options to be committed to science or to deny it entirely?

✨✨✨Denial ✨✨✨

I think the reason we see so much total science denialism is because people start down the right track. They start to realize that a lot of what they were taught in the name of science is bullshit, and they are correct. You see this a lot with disabled people. Someone will realize, thru personal experiences, that doctors don’t know shit and are making most of it up as they go, and that even the research they do have is usually misguided or flat out wrong. And then they’ll say fuck it, I guess everything they say is a lie. And that’s where you get science denialism.

The problem doesn’t start with the denialists. It starts with the institution. And the more you tell people to just “trust the institution”, the more they will understand that you have no idea what you are talking about. You will push them further into their belief, because you are denying the existence of the very real problems they are pointing out.

But you know who is willing to listen? You know who is willing to understand them, and to teach them even more things that are “wrong”? The climate change deniers. The antivaxers. The TERFs. They are willing to soothe the part of someone that feels hurt, and betrayed, and lied to. They are willing to take that anger and give it a direction. They are willing to say “your right, and I’m sorry. Here’s what we can do about it”.

The only reason I didn’t go down that same path of denial is because I have a lot of free time to find and read academic studies, and I have enough training to understand most of what I read, or at least to know how to find information to understand. And also because I have a lovely community around me. But most people can’t do the research I’ve done, and even if they could, they wouldn’t have the time, and even if they did, no one person can be fully informed on every topic. And they shouldn’t have to be. But we literally cannot trust a single one of these institutions. Science has just as much blood on its hands as the church, and it’s trying it’s best to outpace it. Science is made of lies and propaganda. Can you really fault people for overcorrecting and going full denialist?

As long as we treat it as tho the problem is the denialists, we’ll just be creating the circumstances for more denialism.

✨✨✨ Community ✨✨✨

Remember what I said about trust? About how, at some point, you have to trust someone. Well, here’s the good news. You can actively choose who that will be. This is called community building.

For this to work, you have to be committed to reality. You can’t believe that things just happen, you have to understand that everything is causal, and you have to understand the causes of everything. You must be committed to making your worldview as consistent as possible, and you must be willing to foster that in other people.

Now, it’s not easy. And to do a good job of it, you have to have already interrogated a lot of your beliefs. You have to have a strong system of values and standards that you hold yourself and others to.

But if you have that, you can start to build communities of people you trust. You can split up some of the labor of coming up with ideas and unlearning, and then you can share it with each other. Now, you still have to be critical, even (especially) of the people you trust. You still have to put in work. But doing it as a community means that you won’t have to do so much work. You can share the load of unlearning and relearning. And you can use some of the information science gave you, but you have to verify it, and really think it through.

And when someone comes to you and tells you something, listen to the truth of it. Even if they are lying to you, listen for how they got to the point where they feel that they need to. Even if they are factually wrong, listen for the truth of the experiences that made them believe that. And comfort that part of them. Affirm their pain, affirm their mistrust, and don’t be angry with them. Instead, point them down a path that’s more grounded in reality, and introduce them to community.

✨✨✨closing statement✨✨✨

So many anarchists and likeminded folks realize that we must destroy institutions of power, and that the only way to do that is through community building. Science, heck, even Knowledge itself, is an institution. And of all the institutions we need to destroy and remake, it’s one of the most important. Because the institutions that we can’t live without, the ones that provide the most important services, are the institutions we must replace first. Our systems for food, housing, socializing, conflict resolution, and of course, our systems for making meaning, all need to be replaced before the old ones can be destroyed.

Revolution is not the act of chopping down the Great Tree of Power. Revolution is the act of growing a forest around it, choking it to death by removing its access to light and nutrients, until it is nothing but rot to feed our soil.

[Edit: I want to say that i don’t think I did a perfect job writhing this, and I am very very thankful for any critiques. I think I make have expressed myself only about 65% of how I would like to. I appreciate any add-ins or critiques or thoughts about it]

#anti doctor #antipsychiatry #antipsychology #disabled #disability justice #physical disability #anarcho disability #anarchism #mutual aid #prefigurative politics #spoonie #cpunk #cripple punk #science #research #science denial #dual power #power

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feral--bog--witch · 1 year

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If I had to see and read this, so do you

'Fully functional uteruos and can menstrate' but has no ovaries for hormone production to cause menstruation and its scientifically known that any ovaries or uterus in the intersex XY are always underdeveloped or malformed, but sure, we've got ourselves a real miracle of science

#rad fem #radfems do interact #radfems are right #radical feminst #terfsafe #terf please touch #terfs do interact #science denial

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womenaremypriority · 7 months

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People saying there’s infinite sexes ?? We’re never getting out of the patriarchy…

#radfem #radical feminism #radblr #gender critical #radical feminist safe #radical feminists do interact #My post #science denial

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thevivarium · 10 months

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*sigh*

#science #peer review #science denial

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socialjusticeinamerica · 2 months

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🤦🏾🤦🏻🤦🏿

#measles #anti vaxxers #Qanons #fuck the tories #science denial

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 11 months

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By: Dyani Lewis

Published: May 31, 2023

In India, children under 16 returning to school this month at the start of the school year will no longer be taught about evolution, the periodic table of elements or sources of energy.

The news that evolution would be cut from the curriculum for students aged 15–16 was widely reported last month, when thousands of people signed a petition in protest. But official guidance has revealed that a chapter on the periodic table will be cut, too, along with other foundational topics such as sources of energy and environmental sustainability. Younger learners will no longer be taught certain pollution- and climate-related topics, and there are cuts to biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics and physics subjects for older school students.

Overall, the changes affect some 134 million 11–18-year-olds in India’s schools. The extent of what has changed became clearer last month when the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — the public body that develops the Indian school curriculum and textbooks — released textbooks for the new academic year that started in May.

Researchers, including those who study science education, are shocked. “Anybody who’s trying to teach biology without dealing with evolution is not teaching biology as we currently understand it,” says Jonathan Osborne, a science-education researcher at Stanford University in California. “It’s that fundamental to biology.” The periodic table explains how life’s building blocks combine to generate substances with vastly different properties, he adds, and “is one of the great intellectual achievements of chemists”.

Mythili Ramchand, a science-teacher trainer at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India, says that “everything related to water, air pollution, resource management has been removed. “I don’t see how conservation of water, and air [pollution], is not relevant for us. It’s all the more so currently,” she adds. A chapter on different sources of energy — from fossil fuels to renewables — has also been removed. “That’s a bit strange, quite honestly, given the relevance in today’s world,” says Osborne.

More than 4,500 scientists, teachers and science communicators have signed an appeal organized by Breakthrough Science Society, a campaign group based in Kolkata, India, to reinstate the axed content on evolution.

NCERT has not responded to the appeal. And although it relied on expert committees to oversee the changes, it has not yet engaged with parents and teachers to explain its rationale for making them. NCERT also did not reply to Nature’s request for comment.

Chapters closed

A chapter on the periodic table of elements has been removed from the syllabus for class-10 students, who are typically 15–16 years old. Whole chapters on sources of energy and the sustainable management of natural resources have also been removed.

A small section on Michael Faraday’s contributions to the understanding of electricity and magnetism in the nineteenth century has also been stripped from the class-10 syllabus. In non-science content, chapters on democracy and diversity; political parties; and challenges to democracy have been scrapped. And a chapter on the industrial revolution has been removed for older students.

In explaining its changes, NCERT states on its website that it considered whether content overlapped with similar content covered elsewhere, the difficulty of the content, and whether the content was irrelevant. It also aims to provide opportunities for experiential learning and creativity.

NCERT announced the cuts last year, saying that they would ease pressures on students studying online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amitabh Joshi, an evolutionary biologist at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, India, says that science teachers and researchers expected that the content would be reinstated once students returned to classrooms. Instead, the NCERT shocked everyone by printing textbooks for the new academic year with a statement that the changes will remain for the next two academic years, in line with India’s revised education policy approved by government in July 2020.

“The idea [behind the new policy] is that you make students ask questions,” says Anindita Bhadra, an evolutionary biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata. But she says that removing fundamental concepts is likely to stifle curiosity, rather than encourage it. “The way this is being done, by saying ‘drop content and teach less’”, she says, “that’s not the way you do it”.

Evolution axed

Science educators are particularly concerned about the removal of evolution. A chapter on diversity in living organisms and one called ‘Why do we fall ill’ has been removed from the syllabus for class-9 students, who are typically 14–15 years old. Darwin’s contributions to evolution, how fossils form and human evolution have all been removed from the chapter on heredity and evolution for class-10 pupils. That chapter is now called just ‘Heredity’. Evolution, says Joshi, is essential to understanding human diversity and “our place in the world”.

In India, class 10 is the last year in which science is taught to every student. Only students who elect to study biology in the final two years of education (before university) will learn about the topic.

Joshi says that the curriculum revision process has lacked transparency. But in the case of evolution, “more religious groups in India are beginning to take anti-evolution stances”, he says. Some members of the public also think that evolution lacks relevance outside academic institutions.

Aditya Mukherjee, a historian at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Dehli, says that changes to the curriculum are being driven by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a mass-membership volunteer organization that has close ties to India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS feels that Hinduism is under threat from India’s other religions and cultures.

“There is a movement away from rational thinking, against the enlightenment and Western ideas” in India, adds Sucheta Mahajan, a historian at Jawaharlal Nehru University who collaborates with Mukherjee on studies of RSS influence on school texts. Evolution conflicts with creation stories, adds Mukherjee. History is the main target, but “science is one of the victims”, she adds.

Well, at least it'll put them on par with the anti-science and biology-denial of US classrooms. China no longer has anything to worry about.

#India #hinduism #islam #science denial #evolution #evolution denial #science #anti science #biology denial #math #mathematics #physics #religion #religion is ignorance #religious stupidity #periodic table #periodic table of elements #religion is a mental illness

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