Those aren't really heresies, more like you've been exposed to strawmen liberal positions probably from reading too much breitbart or something..
- people should have body autonomy when it comes to vaccines, never met anyone who disagreed with this, but it doesn't really contradict stuff like vaccine mandates.
- the US does not owe entry to illegal immigrants, also never met anyone who disagree with this, just that we should do more to help refugees.
- there are two biological genders, seems like you're confusing sex for gender as gender isn't a biological concept.
- the US is not structurally racist, it is but most people seem to agree with you, it's rather the heresy to say it is than to say it's not...
- cops don't kill blacks at higher rates than whites, not a heresy to say, just different interpretations of data.
- young children shouldn't be taught controversial topics (sex, etc.) In what world is this a heresy
- math is not racist ??? who said math was racist. There are some people who are racist who hide behind math though, but it's not the math that's racist it's the person.
I only listed a few of the hot button heretical positions without attempting to prove or disprove them.
You seem to be a very unaware person of the costs of heresy today.
1. Truckers in Canada were labelled as racist, removed from donation platforms, de-banked, etc.. because they were against vaccine mandates. How does body autonomy not contradict a medical mandate?
2. Much of the left, and leftist orgs say that the US should have an open border
3. Biological sexes then -- many on the left don't agree with this and saying it like JK Rowling for example got her on the heretic list
4. LOL you are plain nuts if you think the common position from the left is the US is not structurally racist
5. data is data, blacks are kills by cops at a lower proportion
6. LOL are you even aware of the "don't say gay" stuff happening in Florida?
7. LOL many have said math is racist including BLM and other leftist groups. The whole construct of logic, match, cause and effect thinking, etc.. You really aren't paying attention.
1. Not true, they were de-platformed for the convoy not for being against the vaccine mandate, loads of people are. Vaccine mandates has nothing to do with YOUR body, nobody is going to your home, putting you in cuffs and forcibly injecting you. It's about making sure nobody is forced to interact with you in public where you may infect THEM. People have a right to not be infected by an easily preventable disease, this seems to me like also a valid right to protect.
2. Feels like a strawman tbh. Even if there are people saying this it's a radical position that's more similar to heresy than what you claim is the heresy...
3. People are really only arguing for gender. JK Rowling is arguing for 2 genders and why she is castigated.
4. Why focused on the left though? Maybe like 60% of "left" thinks the US is structurally racist, that still means most of the US thinks it's not.
5. On HN I expect you to know that you can cherry pick and slice data in any way to present any conclusion. Some people also don't think there's a gender pay gap for example. Your conclusion is not a "heresy" so long as presented with sufficient context, but it's the process of creating that context that betrays racist intent that makes you a target for being canceled. For most people it's trivially shown that black people are at several times risk of being killed by cops.
6. It's a right-wing legislation. Doesn't it counter your own point?
7. Rather than me not paying attention you read too much right-wing propaganda that strawmans issues. There is no democrat on an anti-math platform this is nonsense.
I'd push back on 3 - I thought it was about gender and sex was a strawman, but the Lia Thomas stuff changed my mind. There are people arguing about sex in such a way that doesn't make sense, has substantial 'heretical risk', and hurts women.
JK Rowling is castigated because she makes a distinction that the more aggressive people try to pretend doesn't exist.
The math thing probably refers to dumb policy in SF to remove algebra and standardized tests (the latter spread to some universities too which MIT recently reversed). It'd take longer to dig into this - but there are nuanced non-racist views here that would definitely get you into heretical territory pretty fast.
How did Lia Thomas change your mind? It's not controversial that she was born male. If you just google Lia Thomas there's almost overwhelming voices against her.
> JK Rowling is castigated because she makes a distinction that the more aggressive people try to pretend doesn't exist.
She does way more than "makes a distinction". She is actively against trans people. If you go on her twitter it's almost an anti-trans crusade. This is her main preoccupation these days and so will naturally garner hate. In practice, most people "makes the distinction", and this is normal and isn't heresy.
> The math thing probably refers to dumb policy in SF to remove algebra and standardized tests (the latter spread to some universities too which MIT recently reversed). It'd take longer to dig into this - but there are nuanced non-racist views here that would definitely get you into heretical territory pretty fast.
I still think it's too much to say it's anti-math, what it boils down to is education and access to education. Framing it as anti-math is very right-wing. There's no way a "pro-math" view would be heretical. MIT paused standardized testing because of covid not because they were anti-math, that kind of framing is really done by media commentators who are more interested in disrupting civil society than having honest discussions. Unfortunately it seems like people on HN are still susceptible to paying attention to those miscreants.
It changed my mind because what I thought was a strawman is actually what some large group turned out to be arguing.
Initially, I thought people were arguing that despite biological sex, there is a subset of people that feel like they should be the opposite gender (or a lot of variance within that) and work towards making that a reality. They still recognized the biological distinction though and that the groups were different.
To me the Lia case showed a lot of people arguing more than that. That sex itself is a social construction and Lia is a woman just like a biological woman is and there is ultimately no substantive difference (this is sometimes argued in a more obfuscated way, but this tends to be the core of it). It ends up being a lot of disputing definitions to shoehorn trans women in under the same word and group (which in the Lia case directly affects non-trans women's ability to compete with other non-trans women). With that axiom in place then it's easy to argue there's no reason she shouldn't compete alongside non-trans women. I think this is wrong. It also leads to weird language things like "men can be pregnant", referring to the class of biological women as "uterus havers" etc. (and then making pedantic arguments about this)[0]
JK Rowling seems to have made this her entire thing (probably partially in response to the blow back she receives from it), but I thought her writing here was reasonable: https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... and her comments about social contagion are definitely heretical but seem to also be true? Risks around this are real and I'd be worried about a young person regretting transition surgery - this is also a heretical view, but seems to happen.
"Cancel culture" and "heresy" is definitely when some dude refuses to debate your giant rational brain on a forum run by a party who agrees with your side.
It can be true that some benefit from transitioning and should be be able to carry that out and also true that some are persuaded to for social reasons and regret it. When people pretend it's all or nothing either way is when I get worried about bad outcomes.
- people should have body autonomy when it comes to vaccines, never met anyone who disagreed with this, but it doesn't really contradict stuff like vaccine mandates.
- the US does not owe entry to illegal immigrants, also never met anyone who disagree with this, just that we should do more to help refugees.
- there are two biological genders, seems like you're confusing sex for gender as gender isn't a biological concept.
- the US is not structurally racist, it is but most people seem to agree with you, it's rather the heresy to say it is than to say it's not...
- cops don't kill blacks at higher rates than whites, not a heresy to say, just different interpretations of data.
- young children shouldn't be taught controversial topics (sex, etc.) In what world is this a heresy
- math is not racist ??? who said math was racist. There are some people who are racist who hide behind math though, but it's not the math that's racist it's the person.