Liberal pundits reporting on a variety of conservative initiatives regarding women, immigrants, LGBTQ+ rights, minorities and other culture war issues often refer to the cruelty of various initiatives being the point. The cruelty is a feature – not a bug.
Sometimes I think that it is the stupidity that is the point. Take Florida’s proposed requirement that participants in girls’ sports respond to a questionnaire that asks about the participant’s menstrual history – age at menarche, date of most recent menses, number of menstrual cycles in the past year, etc. These are things that a pediatrician or OBGYN might legitimately ask, but the school? Give me a break; it’s just plain stupid!
Let me count the ways. Some girls may have endocrine disturbances that delay menarche or affect menstrual regularity. Others, especially elite athletes who are near their lean body mass, may cease menstruating. This is fairly common among distance runners, gymnasts, and dancers – to name only a few common sports.
Why choose menstrual history as the touchstone for gender? Because the people who make these proposals are not just medically ignorant but also stupid, of course. A simple cheek swab for karyotype would identify which students are XX and which are XY or XO or XYY, or mosaics, … The cheek swabs could be collected at school by the coach.
Some think that cruelty (discrimination) toward transexual people is the point of these requirements, but tonight I am seriously considering that it is stupidity that is the real point.
Those ignorant dumbasses are stupid with a touch of evil.