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sixes_and_sevens comments on Transsexuals and otherkin - Less Wrong Discussion

11 Post author: lucidfox 15 July 2011 07:10AM

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Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 15 July 2011 04:03:33PM 8 points [-]

Why would it bother? It doesn't try and figure out a way to accept people who believe they're dead; it pathologises them as having a mental illness, because catering to their belief (by, say, manufacturing an environment which encourages them in thinking they're dead) is an expense that doesn't confer any societal benefits.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz comment score below threshold [+] (5 children)

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 15 July 2011 06:13:37PM 1 point [-]

What kind of a scenario are you envisaging here? Because I'll confess I'm having trouble coming up with one.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 15 July 2011 07:12:18PM 4 points [-]

As far as I can tell, transexuality got accepted (to the extent that it is) because enough people insisted on it.

Is courtesy to otherkin really weirder than respect for religion?

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 15 July 2011 07:34:46PM 6 points [-]

I don't think we're talking about the same thing, here.

When we have someone whose biological sex conflicts with the sex they feel they should be, we have the technology to superficially reassign their gender, and hopefully make them happier as a result. We can do something for them which helps them fit better into society.

When we have someone whose biological species conflicts with the species they feel they should be, what do we do for them? How do we make them fit better into society? In the absence of being able to transform them into zebras, and assuming we're not prepared to cater for them in some sort of giant safari playpen, we would probably pathologise it as a mental illness.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 15 July 2011 08:22:53PM 6 points [-]

I think you and I are at the point of needing more information about how otherkin would like to be treated if they can't physically match their self-perceived identities.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 15 July 2011 08:28:03PM 1 point [-]

Agreed :-)

sixes_and_sevens comments on Transsexuals and otherkin - Less Wrong Discussion

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