opinion
A clip from one teacher's YouTube channel has gone viral on social media as a master class in the ancient art of critical thinking. In less than five minutes, the teacher helps a young student through a simple critical thinking exercise using alleged transphobia explained by popular children's book author JK Rowling.
Without expressing his own opinion about JK Rowling's possible transphobia, the teacher asks basic questions that ultimately lead the student to acknowledge the unfortunate fact that he is a willing victim of groupthink. Let's dive into the quick lesson and what it means for our community.
I've heard that, so it's true
Educator and host of the YouTube channel The Secret Scholar Society Warren Smith conducted a thought experiment with a student who wanted to discuss public opinion of JK Rowling, in light of comments she had made about the gender ideology movement.
The student asks Mr. Smith:
“Does she still love her job despite her bigoted views?”
Mr. Smith challenges the student to prove that J. K. Rowling has bigoted views, since he boldly poses his question as if it were a statement of fact.
The student answers:
“I've heard she has a history of being very transphobic.”
Like any good teacher, Mr. Smith forces the student to provide actual evidence of “severe transphobia.” A few moments later, the student presents as evidence a tweet from 2019 when JK Rowling wrote:
“Dress how you want. Call yourself whatever you want. Sleep with any adult who approves of you. Live your best life in peace and security. But they force women to quit their jobs because they say sex is real?”
Mr. Smith asked the student to critically analyze the tweet without considering what others claimed about the tweet. This is when the clip becomes comedic.
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Relative reality
The student begins by recognizing:
“I don't have an opinion on the matter, but I agree with what a lot of other people have said.”
Uttering the above phrase should be enough to bring the individual back to reality with an accompanying feeling of shame for being so trivial. However, it takes more motivation for this young man to realize how reckless he was following the crowd.
Mr. Smith says kindly:
“Let's not go with what others say. Let's try to learn how to think critically.”
It does not take long for a student to admit that:
“So, for me, not saying that sex is real is not transphobia, it's just a fact of life.”
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It is important to note the student's attempt to hold on to the truth of JK Rowling's statement could Be transphobic in three little words: So for me. This warning puts a foot in the door known as “perceived reality,” where if someone else thinks that saying sex is real is transphobic, then they are.
Unfortunately for left-wing progressives, the truth is the truth, and it's not they The truth is, no for me The truth, or tangible fact. It's just the truth.
crap
The student is once again trying to provide another example of Ms. Rowling's transphobia, offering what he calls an “apology” from 2020.
Ms. Rowling wrote:
“I respect every trans person's right to live in whatever way feels authentic and comfortable to them. I will walk with you if you are discriminated against based on being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I don't think it's hateful to say that.”
Mr. Smith provides his analysis of this tweet, explaining that JK Rowling is trying to say with this tweet that it is okay to live your life as you wish. However, it is also okay for her to live her life as she pleases; Her freedom to become transgender does not mean extinguishing her freedom to state the truth about gender.
What the student recognizes:
“I feel like an idiot now.”
The student continues to freely acknowledge to his credit:
“Until today I didn't really think about it because I thought if there were five people saying it, it must be true.”
This, ladies and gentlemen, sums up the sorry state of our education system and culture.
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what is the point
Higher education should teach critical thought in all aspects of study. Unfortunately, this case study, presented by Warren Smith and his students, shows that this is not the case.
Mr. Smith says to the student:
“The main goal is to learn how to think, not what to think.”
Unfortunately, this is not the reality of higher education and is not at all the goal of the progressive left that controls institutions of higher education and our culture. The goal is to teach society to think the way they want us to think. which has always The goal was public education.
Exercising our freedom to question what we are told and what we see is a threat to their power. Controlling our thoughts and silencing those who do not conform to the approved “groupthink” is the strategy of the left and the elite class in our society.
Although I thought Warren Smith's lesson on critical thinking for this student was great, I wish he had explored whether the student knew what instigated JK Rowling's first tweet that he used as “proof” of “extreme transphobia.” For those who care (and we should all care because context matters), the tweet was in response to researcher Maya Forstater losing her job at a think tank over her tweets criticizing gender ideology.
It should be noted that Ms. Forstater won the court case after a long legal battle. Ms. Forstater said of her win:
“My case exposed the institutional discrimination against, abuse and routine mutilation of people with completely normal beliefs about the physical reality of sex.”
The truth is that her case and this student's ignorance in particular reveal institutional discrimination against people who hold normal beliefs about gender. Until society stops drinking the group-minded Kool-Aid, people like Ms. Forstater, Ms. Rowling, and countless others will continue to be falsely labeled bigots.
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