Generic Confusion’s author, Greg wonders about allowing gender dysphoric children to choose their gender:
“What are parents to do when their child says he’s tired of being a child, and wants to be a roadrunner? What if their child wants to go around naked?”
I responded:
Is wanting to be a roadrunner, a diagnosable mental disorder? Is wanting to be be naked, a diagnosable mental disorder? Does one “grow out of” mental disorders? You’ve linked to some pretty conservative blogs, and historically conservatives have fought social service organizations in regulating and defining how a child is raised (IE. corporal punishment).
Does the Constitution somehow make this decision by parents and health care professionals any of your business? GID isn’t something that’s just dreamed up in the heads of the parents. It’s a known, mental disorder that is treatable.
I doubt I could have a logical debate with you on this topic since you seem to discount the psychiatric profession, and rely on “common sense.” It was common sense to presocratic Pythagoreans that the earth was flat. It was “common sense” to Thomas Jefferson that women not vote or be educated. It was common sense to George Wallace that African Americans should not have the right to vote, serve on juries, or hold public office.
This debate isn’t about transgenderism. It’s a debate between science, and “common sense.” Do you inspect your truth with a process of evaluating empirical knowledge or do you default to “common sense?”
common sense -A form of evidence that is based on conventional wisdom, tradition, or someone’s personal philosophy or perspective. It is hard to judge the validity and reliability of common sense because little supporting evidence is involved. Most people judge the validity and reliability of common sense by the person citing common sends as the basis for a decision. However, common sense can be a very biased approach to decision making and means nothing more than “what is common to me makes sense.”
science – Science refers to either: the scientific method – a process for evaluating empirical knowledge; or the organized body of knowledge gained by this process.