Bigot? Racist? Something Else?

The same moral issues raised by FGM apply in this case, and yet these operations are routinely done in the US. What gives?


Pressure mounts to curtail surgery on intersex children
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-surgery-intersex-children-20170725-story.html

Children whose sexual characteristics don't neatly align with the norm have for decades faced surgery to rearrange their anatomy to resemble that of more typical boys and girls — long before they were old enough to have a say in the decision.

But now the practice is under assault, as never before. The American Medical Association is considering a proposal discouraging it. Three former U.S. surgeons general say it's unjustified. And on Tuesday,Human Rights Watch and InterACT a group advocating for intersex youth — are releasing a detailed report assailing the practice and urging Congress to ban it.

"The results are often catastrophic," says the report, asserting that the surgeries "can inflict irreversible physical and psychological harm."

"The pressure to fit in and live a 'normal' life is real," said Kyle Knight, a Human Rights Watch researcher who wrote the report. "But there is no evidence that surgery delivers on the promise of making that easier."

One of multiple reasons for the concern: Some intersex children may undergo surgery aimed at assigning them as male or female, yet grow up to identify as the other sex — a potentially traumatic situation.

Intersex is an umbrella term encompassing various conditions in which internal sex organs and external genitalia develop differently than for a typical boy or girl. Experts say roughly one of every 2,000 newborns has so-called differences of sex development that might prompt a doctor's recommendation for surgery or other medical intervention.

Not to say that bigots and racists don't exist but there is another more benign category that can result from those conditions.

One can grow up in an environment so devoid of interactions with others that they make the mistake of thinking everyone thinks and approaches life in exactly the same way as they do. When they inevitably meet others who don't, it can seem logical to conclude that they are just 'behind' but not necessarily inferior.

The idea that people approach life from different angles can happen surprisingly late in life (or not at all) and this can be quite a shock to all parties.

The word for this is "human".

Pretty broad brush you got there...

Took the words right outta my mouth..

So do you. You are just as willing to ignore any facts that contradict your own ideology. Since you condemn others for practicing what you yourself practice, that makes you a hypocrite -- a rather smug hypocrite. You constantly seek to boost your pathetic ego by tearing others down.

You have wrongfully called me a racist simply because I'm critical of Islam. (Never mind that Islam is not a race.) You're just as guilty of screening out inconvenient facts as any other member.

You're guilty of your own shrill ideological excesses. Your claim that all cultures are the same is one of the most ludicrous I've ever heard. That puts you in the camp of the Regressive Left. When you say that all cultures are the same, you''re denying reality. Cultural differences abound. I'd ask you to look around, but you're not honest or decent enough to re-examine your own views.

You defend female genital mutilation practiced by certain Third World immigrants to Western countries. That makes you a cultural relativist, which also means that you're a moral relativist. Honor killings are a part of some foreign cultures. Does that make it right? Historically Russia has had a problem with antisemitism. Does that make it right?

You constantly blather about how certain mindsets on the part of people on the political left alienate independent voters. I hate to disillusion you, but you're part of the problem. You aren't able to see this because you're so stuck on your supposed superiority over everyone.

When Donald Trump was elected three years ago, I was depressed. But I've since learned that while Trump is bad in some ways, the Democrats are even worse! I'm convinced that if he doesn't create problems for himself (which definitely is possible but unlikely), Trump will be re-elected in a landslide; and the Democrats will lose control of the House. The entire political left will be repudiated to the point of humiliation. (I'm also convinced that a new conservative age is about to begin and that it will last for a very long time.) When that happens, you undoubtedly will cry in your beer. Perhaps you will join fellow "progressives" by getting together to scream at the sky. That means I'll have a few hilarious videos to watch. (Perhaps this is what Lenin meant by "infantile leftism" -- not that I admire that despotic monster.) I think about how you're undoubtedly going to react on Election Day in 2020, and it makes me laugh.

The last post here before yours was in 2017.

I know. But I don't care.

Thank you! I've resisted responding to her post since it was posted.