Opinion
The clip from a teacher’s YouTube channel has gone viral on social media as a masterclass 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 illustrated by acclaimed children’s author JK Rowling.
Without expressing his opinion on JK Rowling’s possible transphobia, the teacher asks basic questions that ultimately lead the student to admit the unfortunate reality of being a willing victim of groupthink. Let’s dive into the short lesson and what it means for our society.
I heard it, so it’s true
Teacher 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, given the comments she made about the gender ideology movement.
The student asks Mr. Smith:
“Do you still like his work despite his bigoted views?”
Mr. Smith challenges the student to prove that JK Rowling holds bigoted views, as she bravely asked her question as if it were a fact.
The student responds:
“I heard he had a history of extreme transphobia.”
Like any good educator, Mr. Smith forces the student to provide concrete evidence of said “extreme transphobia.” After a few moments, the student produces as evidence a tweet from 2019 in which JK Rowling wrote:
“Dress as you like. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who will have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But forcing women to quit their jobs because they say sex is real?”
Mr. Smith asked the student to critically analyze the tweet without considering what other people said about the tweet. This is where the clip becomes comical.
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Relative reality
The student begins by admitting:
“I don’t really have an opinion on it, but I just go by what a lot of other people have said.”
Saying the above statement should be enough to bring an individual back to reality with a feeling of shame for being so vapid. However, it takes a little more prodding for this young man to realize how foolishly he has followed the masses.
Mr. Smith kindly says:
“We don’t follow what others say. Let’s try to learn to think critically.
It doesn’t take long for the student to admit the following:
“So to me not claiming sex is real is not transphobic, it’s just a fact.”
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It is important to note the student’s attempt to cling to the fact that JK Rowling’s statement I could being transphobic with three little words: So for me. This warning opens the door known as “perceived reality,” where if someone else thinks it’s transphobic to say sex is real, then he is.
Unfortunately for left-wing progressives, truth is truth, not They truth, no My truth, or perceived truth. It is simply the truth.
Foolishness
The student once again attempts to provide another example of Ms. Rowling’s transphobia, providing what he called a 2020 “excuse.”
Ms Rowling wrote:
“I respect every trans person’s right to live in whatever way they feel is authentic and comfortable. I would march with you if I were discriminated against for being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being a woman. 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’s okay to live your life as you wish. However, it is also okay to live your life as you wish; the freedom to be transgender does not equate to extinguishing one’s freedom to affirm the reality of sex.
To which the student admits:
“I feel like an idiot now.”
The student continues to freely admit to his credit:
“I hadn’t really thought about it until today because I just believed, oh, there’s five people saying this, it has to be correct.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, sums up the sad state of our education system and our culture.
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What’s the point
Higher education should teach critical thinking in all aspects of study. Unfortunately, this particular case study, courtesy of Warren Smith and his students, illustrates that this is not the case.
Mr. Smith tells the student:
“The point is to learn how to think, not what to think.”
Unfortunately, this is not the reality of higher education and not at all the goal of the progressive left that has control over higher education institutions and our culture. The goal is to indoctrinate society to think the way they want us to think. That has Always was the purpose of state education.
Exercising our freedom to question what we are told and what we see is seen as a threat to their power. Controlling our thoughts and silencing those who do not align with approved “groupthink” is the strategy of the left and the elite class of our society.
While I think Warren Smith’s lesson on critical thinking for this student was brilliant, I would have liked if he had explored whether the student knew what instigated JK Rowling’s first tweet which she used as “evidence” of “extreme transphobia” . For those who care (and we all should because context matters), the tweet was in response to researcher Maya Forstater who lost her job at a think tank for tweeting criticism of gender ideology.
Of note, Ms. Forstater won the court case after a long legal battle. Mrs Forstater said of her victory:
“My case exposed institutionalized discrimination and routine abuse and vilification of people with completely normal beliefs about the material reality of sex.”
Indeed, her case and this particular student’s ignorance both expose institutionalized discrimination against people with ordinary beliefs about sex. Until society stops drinking the Kool-Aid of groupthink, people like Forstater, Rowling, and countless others will continue to be falsely labeled as bigots.
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