Reply to Re: Let's talk terrorism
If you don't have an account, just leave the password field blank.
While I agree individual variation is much more significant than variation based on sex, I don't think it's that insignificant. I believe gender influences a person's thoughts in a million subtle ways, like weighted dice. If I could look into one thought, such as whether the person liked red or blue, I couldn't tell much. But if I could look at a hundred thoughts, I'm sure I could guess their sex with a great degree of accuracy. Unless you mean literally their brain, in which case it's just a rather disgusting mass and... well, probably not.
I was talking about the physical brain, actually because the physical brain is where everything is stored. It's greatly complex and we still don't fully understand it, but it's certainly not a "rather disgusting mass". As to your point about being able to read people's thoughts and be able to tell their gender, it does nothing to refute the assertion that environmental factors and socialization heavily influence gender and thought. You would still reading the thoughts of people who grew up in a gendered environment.
You do still get those different groups - geneticists can tell if your heritage is geographically Asian, African or European just by analyzing DNA. Granted, it's more of a muddy gradient than the sort of clear division races appear to be on the outside.
Well, it can only tell you if you're related to people, not what race your ancestors were. These tests don't account for migration, which, as I said, happened frequently throughout history. Just because you share DNA with people from a region, doesn't necessarily mean that your ancestors are from that region because of migration and interbreeding. Race is just flat out a terrible way of sorting people by genes.
I think the environment largely stems from biology. That is, an evironment where little girls play with dolls wouldn't have come to be if girls didn't have a natural predilection towards that kind of activity. It's by no means a perfect system, and in the past, women have been discouraged from seeking important roles in society - just not anymore. No one is teaching little girls their duty is to marry and leave the education to menfolk.
Again, you're asserting your belief as fact something that we haven't been able to scientifically study as I posted about earlier. Because of that, I also have an counter-anecdote: In modern times, girls frequently gravitate towards the color pink. This is not a natural thing, but a product of environment, as over 100 years ago, it really was no set associated color with gender.
As I said in my last post, discrimination in the past still has an effect on the world today. I think that's the case when it comes to blacks being poorer, and maybe, possibly even with women in leadership positions... But because of natural tendencies, a fair system is never going to be 50% women and 50% men.
You cannot assert that it is natural when it has not been scientifically established as natural. We have established that discrimination *has* and *does still* take place.
That was an interesting look into his beliefs, but it was, like, the most un-racist thing imaginable. =) I also realize it's been a pretty long time since Neil went to school... It sounds like he already didn't face much hard racism in the 80s, and everything's gotten a lot better since. (Except movies)
As pointed out by Shevek, that's just one of the many pressures faced by black people, one that a white person would certainly never face. It's just one of many small things that add up to a great deal of obstacles that most white people in the US don't have to deal with. If you're black and going to make to the metaphorical top of your field, you have to work just as hard or harder than your white peers, in addition to dealing with all that junk that they don't have to deal with.
I was talking about the physical brain, actually because the physical brain is where everything is stored. It's greatly complex and we still don't fully understand it, but it's certainly not a "rather disgusting mass". As to your point about being able to read people's thoughts and be able to tell their gender, it does nothing to refute the assertion that environmental factors and socialization heavily influence gender and thought. You would still reading the thoughts of people who grew up in a gendered environment.
You do still get those different groups - geneticists can tell if your heritage is geographically Asian, African or European just by analyzing DNA. Granted, it's more of a muddy gradient than the sort of clear division races appear to be on the outside.
Well, it can only tell you if you're related to people, not what race your ancestors were. These tests don't account for migration, which, as I said, happened frequently throughout history. Just because you share DNA with people from a region, doesn't necessarily mean that your ancestors are from that region because of migration and interbreeding. Race is just flat out a terrible way of sorting people by genes.
I think the environment largely stems from biology. That is, an evironment where little girls play with dolls wouldn't have come to be if girls didn't have a natural predilection towards that kind of activity. It's by no means a perfect system, and in the past, women have been discouraged from seeking important roles in society - just not anymore. No one is teaching little girls their duty is to marry and leave the education to menfolk.
Again, you're asserting your belief as fact something that we haven't been able to scientifically study as I posted about earlier. Because of that, I also have an counter-anecdote: In modern times, girls frequently gravitate towards the color pink. This is not a natural thing, but a product of environment, as over 100 years ago, it really was no set associated color with gender.
As I said in my last post, discrimination in the past still has an effect on the world today. I think that's the case when it comes to blacks being poorer, and maybe, possibly even with women in leadership positions... But because of natural tendencies, a fair system is never going to be 50% women and 50% men.
You cannot assert that it is natural when it has not been scientifically established as natural. We have established that discrimination *has* and *does still* take place.
That was an interesting look into his beliefs, but it was, like, the most un-racist thing imaginable. =) I also realize it's been a pretty long time since Neil went to school... It sounds like he already didn't face much hard racism in the 80s, and everything's gotten a lot better since. (Except movies)
As pointed out by Shevek, that's just one of the many pressures faced by black people, one that a white person would certainly never face. It's just one of many small things that add up to a great deal of obstacles that most white people in the US don't have to deal with. If you're black and going to make to the metaphorical top of your field, you have to work just as hard or harder than your white peers, in addition to dealing with all that junk that they don't have to deal with.
