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Skeptical of Trans People Above All
They could have been skeptical of science denialism and supernaturalism instead
An old article by Edie Miller, “Why is British media so transphobic?” (The Outline, November 5, 2018), explains a lot for those who are wondering where the transphobia of the last decade came from. I like her short article because it goes a long way toward answering the question.
The Skeptics Movement
In the early 2000s, “the U.K. Skeptics movement” was, as Miller describes them, “a loose network of people who were far too impressed with themselves for not believing in astrology and homeopathy.” They informally promoted their “specific brand of scientific skepticism” — all science, practically no humanities — focusing on “the ‘debunking’ of alternative medicine and pseudoscience.”
With their “anti-humanities bias,” they believed that science could “reveal a set of immutable principles upon which the world was built,” and they held “almost no regard whatsoever for interpretative analysis based on social or historical factors.” As Miller explains:
“Part of this mode of thinking was an especially reductivist biologism: the idea that there are immutable realities to be found in our DNA, and if we just paid enough attention to Science and…
