More Doubling Down on Faulty Principles
Remember when I talked about our culture biting absurd bullets? Here���s how it works:
A group argues for something by citing a reason that expresses a particular principle.
Other people point out that the reason given for A would argue equally for situation B, such that if we accept A because of that principle, then we must also accept the absurd B.
Though step #2 is intended to demonstrate that the principle being used to reason to A is faulty (since it equally supports absurd outcome B), instead of recognizing this, those arguing for A double down on their principle and accept B.
Well, this happened yet again this past week. I���m sure by now you���ve heard about Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who self-identifies as black. When the story first hit the news, there was shock and outrage. Clearly this woman was denying reality!
Not so fast, media. Didn���t you spend the last two weeks telling us that our own image of our true self is the true image, regardless of our irrelevant biology? Didn���t you say that living out one���s true self is courageous? Weren���t you lamenting the fact that societal bigotry causes those whose self-image doesn���t match their biology to hide the truth about themselves?
When challenged with these questions, the response���at least, at first���was that the Jenner situation was completely different. And how was it different?
She���s only a ���white person pretending to be black���Caitlyn Jenner is not ���pretending��� to be a woman.���
���This goes WAY deeper than that. This woman is disturbed, clearly. Mentally disturbed.���
She���s ���mentally disturbed��� because her self-image doesn���t match the truth about her body? Because she hid the truth about the difference between her self-image and her body? Because she wanted other people to see her the way she saw herself? But Caitlyn Jenner, who still has the body of a man, is not pretending to be something he���s not (while demanding everyone else pretend so, as well), and there���s no delusion on his part about the reality of his body?
Dolezal sincerely believes she is black. Just as sincerely as Jenner believes he is a woman. Dolezal ���felt very isolated with [her] identity virtually [her] entire life.��� Mustn���t this isolation also be a result of our society���s bigotry preventing her from being open about the discontinuity between her self-image and her body?
If the principle that ���self-image, not biology, determines reality��� is true, then it���s true in every case (and race is just the tip of the iceberg). That���s not an easy bullet to bite, but as I pointed out in my last post on the current bullet-biting phenomenon, the human drive towards consistency is strong. Someone was bound to try to resolve their cognitive dissonance by moving on to step #3 eventually, and that person was MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, who finally asked the question, ���Is it possible that she might actually be black?" In the video below, she wonders, "Can it be that one would be cis-black and trans-black?���
Is it possible that Rachel Dolezal is black? No, it isn���t. But it���s very possible that subjective self-image doesn���t determine objective reality. For anyone.
