Babies Not on the Level: The 221st Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying
Apr 17, 2024
02:11:54
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Evolutionary experts Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discuss men in women's sports, cancel culture vs. promotion culture, society's lack of wisdom, communication between cats and humans through eye narrowing, and more in a thought-provoking podcast episode.
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Quick takeaways
The study on transgender athletes lacks scientific rigor and manipulates categories, leading to flawed results.
Male athletes identifying as female outperforming biological women raise concerns about fairness in sports competitions.
Physical differences between transgender and cisgender athletes remain visible despite hormone therapies, sparking controversies over competition fairness.
Cat-human communication through slow eye blinking reveals gender differences in response, indicating a unique form of non-verbal interaction.
Deep dives
Lack of Fairness in Women's Sports Pay
The issue of women's pay in sports is highlighted by President Biden's tweet stating that women athletes are not paid their fair share. However, the tweet gets critiqued for its economic illiteracy and the fact that Democrats are not genuinely concerned about women's sports. Clifton Duncan responds bluntly to the tweet, pointing out the disingenuous nature of the statement and the lack of commitment to women's sports by Democrats.
Cargo Cult Science in Transgender Sports Research
The flawed methods and intent behind a study on transgender athletes competing in sports are likened to cargo cult science. The study, which lacks proper scientific rigor, explores the performance disparities between transgender and cisgender athletes. By manipulating categories and skewing results, the study fails to provide meaningful insights.
Physical Sophistry in Gender-Based Competition
The concept of physical sophistry is discussed in the context of transgender athletes competing against cisgender athletes. Cases of male athletes identifying as female outperforming biological women in various sports raise concerns about fairness and the manipulation of competition categories. The practice of misclassifying athletes leads to unjust outcomes and distorted results.
Gender Categories and Podium Positions
The visible disparities in podium positions between transgender and cisgender athletes in sports like swimming and running are pointed out. Despite hormone therapies, the physical differences between male and female athletes remain apparent during competitions, creating controversies over fairness, transparency, and authenticity in gender-based sports competition.
Cat-Human Communication through Eye Narrowing
In a study on cat-human communication through slow eye blinking, it was found that when owners slow blink at their cats, male cats are more likely to respond with the same expression compared to female cats. When strangers slow blink at cats in their homes, cats are more likely to approach the stranger, indicating a positive response to the gesture, suggesting a form of non-verbal communication between cats and humans.
The Twilight Zone Analogy to Current Society
Drawing parallels between a Twilight Zone episode where adults cater to a child's tyrannical behavior and modern society where an ascendant orthodoxy led by individuals with naive minds rules, utilizing cancel culture and promotion culture to enforce narratives and silence opposition. This results in a self-reinforcing, opaque ecosystem of censorship, impacting society's ability to navigate intelligently and uphold liberty.
The Use of AI in Controlling Narratives
An unsettling revelation from a study indicates the use of AI by entities to define lists of intolerable people, invisibly dictating narratives and controlling what can be spoken or published. The automated technology flags unacceptable narratives, suppressing them without accountability or transparency, posing a serious threat to freedom of information and societal discourse.
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In this 221st in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we talk about the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.
In this episode, we discuss men competing against women in women’s sport, and the new research that shows there’s no problem at all. We are in a world of science cosplay, full of science skin suits. Then: cancel culture and its mirror image: promotion culture. The promotion of zombies to positions of power is a weapon of the culture. Also, if wisdom is about delayed gratification, and the counter-intuitive, and being comfortable with uncertainty, then we are in a society of deeply unwise people, a society led by people with the minds of children—just like in The Twilight Zone. Finally: how cats and humans communicate with one another by narrowing our eyes at each other.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Hamilton et al 2024. Strength, power and aerobic capacity of transgender athletes: a cross-sectional study. British Journal of Sports Medicine: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/early/2024/04/10/bjsports-2023-108029.full.pdf
Hilton and Lundberg 2021. Transgender women in the female category of sport: perspectives on testosterone suppression and performance advantage. Sports Medicine, 51: 199-214: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40279-020-01389-3.pdf
Biden v Clifton Duncan: https://x.com/cliftonaduncan/status/1780532643051741657
Freddy Sayers at UnHerd: The Disinformation Industry: https://unherd.com/2024/04/inside-the-disinformation-industry/
Katherine Maher, new CEO of NPR, on the First Amendment: https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1780597079439446250
Humphrey et al 2020. The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat–human communication. Scientific Reports, 10(1): 16503: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73426-0
