Round-up: Children and Nonsense

From Marginal Revolution:  It turns out that toddlers can spot nonsense and decide not to learn from you if you're full of it.

"These results add to a growing body of literature that suggests that infants are adept at generalising their knowledge about the reliability of other people across varying contexts," the researchers said. "The unique contribution of the present study shows that, similar to older children, infants are able to keep track of an individual's history of being accurate or inaccurate and use this information to guide their subsequent learning."

Cathy Young (reason.com) owns the DSK issue.  Why is it when I read an incredibly well reasoned article, critical of the current legal system and it's unfair treatment of men, it usually turns out to be a woman writer.  (Sorry, I'd provide more links for examples but it's bedtime.)


Speaking of nonsense:

The point of gender-diverse parenting, and the goal we can keep in mind when evaluating each choice before us, is not our children’s coercion into uniform unisex-ness, but freedom to figure out gender for themselves: what gender they are, what being that gender means to their society, and how, and to what extent, to perform it.

Sorry (no I'm not), it is the job of the parent to teach a child what is expected of members of its society and how to live in the world into which they are born.  Don't let children "figure out gender for themselves". Children want to learn from us how to live and relate our society and gender is a big part of that. From there they'll figure out their identities.  Take the positive aspects of gender identities and teach them to your children.  There are as many opinions of what makes a man and a woman as there are men and women.  If they don't seem to conform, then so be it; accept it and help them adapt their own identity.  But don't set your child up as a pariah (with their own ideas) and then blame society for not accepting them.  Thankfully, it's now proven that most children know nonsense when they see it.


From the same author, with a dubious website name and an even dubiouser neologism - kyriarchy.  Well written, but sooooo not in touch with basic human realities.

Here is my own neolgism in response:
 
Luniarchy - a system whereby hierarchy is established based on the lunacy of an idea or holder of ideas. In a Luniarchy, the most ridiculous ideas are given the highest ranking and the lunatics who can best write or orate said ideas with a straight face is given highest position within the luniarchy. Members of the luniarchy are then subjected to the lunacies of the lunatics who are higher on the scale and use their talent for delusion and refusal to accept reality to oppress the lower classes. The only hope for a member of the luniarchy is to delve further into the delusions (drink the Kool-Aid) so that they can oppress others with their ridiculous beliefs or take the red pill**  and wake up from the matrix of delusions.
 
**NOTE:  I'm not endorsing all statements, but Hawaiian Libertarian introduced me to the concept and helped me see some of the commonly accepted truths I'd always suspected were myths.