You figure that out you'll be a legend in the scientific community, and a billionaire overnight.

They got mad last time I threw a jet-ski hull in my roller bin.

They were doing fine until this nonsense: "but tariffs are bad I am told ..."

Do the rest of us a favor and fuck off already? Your obsession is unhealthy.

To be fair, the comment is accurate. There was an "uproar" over "trans mice" from idiots who are easily manipulated. Even the obvious hypothetical sentence at the end is still probably accurate.

Can I subscribe to your newsletter?

I had to come back and see how this thread developed. Was not disappointed. Of all the back and forth I think these are the most important statement you've made. I still believe, based on all my experience trying, you'll never educate those that are convinced they are correct, but at least maybe you can get them to show an ounce of compassion.

Because you two are arguing two different things.

Emphasis mine. Sex and Gender are two different concepts. Sex is a scientific definition, you have male, female, and various forms if intersex. Gender is a social construct that is typically defined by what's between your legs. But not always.

You're entitled to your opinion, there's mountains of research on the topic, you just don't like the conclusion.

That's a "you" problem.

Agreed. However, in this context, "made up" != "imaginary"

Statistics will tell you the likelihood of a specific degree landing a job and meeting a specific wage threshold. That's not a decision, that's just information that can be used to make decisions.

What's the threshold? "...the absolute highest chance..." is a copout answer. What's the acceptable risk for allowing* someone to get a degree? The degree has to have a 50% chance of being successful before you'll grant them a loan? A 99% chance?

How do you quantify the contributions to society from someone who gets a degree you consider to be "worthless"? We've already agreed that public service jobs are a worthy cause, because we're willing to forgive those loans, what other value-adds should be considered? Who gets to decide what constitutes "value"? Because I can all but guarantee you and I wouldn't agree on that.

Further, how do you answer that question when it's a degree that didn't exist before? There are no statistics on the viability of an "influencer" degree.

*And yes, I specifically chose the word "allowing" there. Mainly because there is a zero-percent chance I would have gotten a post-secondary education without access to cheap loans. I, like most of the people my age, missed the "work your way through college" boat.

Ha. Yeah, there are certainly some topics that I'm pretty immovable on as well, but the willingness/openness to accept additional information is still necessary for a functioning society.

Who gets to decide what's worthless?

You do realize how nearly impossible it is to get out of student loans, right? Your options are 1) Pay them back. 2) Go into public service and get them forgiven, or 3) Die before they are paid off.

To you? Obviously, yeah.

Who the hell would want to be a cop? Or an accountant? Or an actuary? Or a port-a-potty cleaner? Or a miner? Or a farmer? Or a programmer? Or a doctor? Or an X? Or a Y? Or a Z? How many jobs could you come up with that you would absolutely abhor, but are required to have a functional society?

Sounds like they should have went to school for something else, then.

So is politics.

No. See previous comment. Unless you also see things like Law, Politics, and Religion to be "imaginary" as well.

But not correct, either.

I, for one, appreciate your effort to educate. But unfortunately you're probably wasting your time. My experience in trying to talk reasonably to unreasonable people is that it's generally ineffective. Getting someone to understand and acknowledge that their worldview is incomplete is a difficult task. It's like trying to explain the concept of "born gay" to someone who thinks reading a book about two boy penguins turned their son gay.