here is my conversation with Ray Alex Williams "Ksenia — 23:14@Lord Ray, Marquess of Raynalda , is it ok that i call you Rachel? Rachel, when you tried to lieve as Ray and was at the stage of repression you talked a lot about postmodernist philosophy, i know that you were phd student in the field of philosophy.And i paied attention that you criticized a lot Foucault, Derrida. Books of these philosophers are my desk books. As far as i understand you, you tried to find the reality outisde the social discourse, that gender is social, soft, but there is real sex which exists in nature ourside language and social convention and transcend society. I am not sure that it is possible to find reality. I am physicist and i can say you that even in the field of physics a lot of things are based on expert opinion, power dynamics between different experts. For example, in my field (molecuar dynamic simulations) a lot of calculations are based not on the first principles, but on the functional forms which are introduced by experts. and we often study not how system behaves in "reality", but how it behaves according to the expert opinion. it is not only a matter of interpretation, it is a matter of getting results of calculations and modelling. Leonard Susskind said that we condiser some particles as elementary not because they are "fundamental blocks" of the Universe, but because such consideration is convinient for our theroies (standard model of elementary particles). My point is that even in the field of physics i don't feel "reality", but you somehow wanted to find reality in the field of gender, sexuality. It is unrealistic for me...
Lord Ray, Marquess of Raynalda — 23:27I think lately I have come back around to my Wittgenstenian pragmatism about metaphysical and ontological questions like "What is a woman." like there is a pragmatics like figuring out prison policy for example but most of these debates are verbal disputes not disagreements over concrete isolated empirical facts. I think the gender critical position is coherent and clean and simple ontologically. And that's appealing. But for me I think people choose their worldviews for pragmatic purposes. And like for me coming back to wanting to be in the trans community again it's just pragmatic for me for basic communication purposes to use concepts that are specific to the trans community because that's my community. it's just about whatever works. and I do acknowledge that that are multiple competing overlapping language games happening simultaneously. like the gender critical position aligns with historical english usage and it can be still mostly useful for most situations in the cis world but when dealing with trans we need an additional language game. it's not about true or false but what's useful. that's kinda my American Pragmatism which was always my favorite philosophical schoolalso, I don't know if I am going back to RachelI am thinking of a more gender neutral namelike AlexAnd I already go by "Ray Alex" onlineand Rachel is so feminine-codedI don't know if I feel like a "Rachel" anymoremaybe I will again somedaybut not
Ksenia
— 23:34@Lord Ray, Marquess of Raynalda Ok, thank you. I chose russian name Ksenia (Xenia) because i am used to be "different", "stranger", so it is ideal match for me. My point is that we consider someone as woman due to social convenience and optimization of management of human resources. In the democratic society the priority is internal self coherence, but it is also part of optimization of management, reducing free energy (in terms of physics). Increased free energy is anxiety, neurosis, etc. I am russian, so i used to the fact that here rules always change, everything is volatile, and I see literally how society is shaped by power, so Foucault for me makes perfect sense.
@Lord Ray, Marquess of Raynalda " American Pragmatism which was always my favorite philosophical school" i read Richard Rorty a little bit, his book "contingency irony and solidarity" is it ametican pragmatism?
Lord Ray, Marquess of Raynalda — 23:39yes Richard Rorty is good example.
Ksenia — 23:41by the way, i like ontology/metaphysics a little bit, because it is fun You know that i started transition aftre reading Dugin I can say it only here, i think. Even in Russia my trans sister would crucify me for this...But i like his ontlogoy, the war of logoi, civilizations, and trans people are representatives of the black logos. I thought wow, it is so deep. yeah, indeed, i like something deep. I know that on social level a lot of things are language games, but i want still believe in fairy tales, in mystics
Lord Ray, Marquess of Raynalda — 23:43Where I think Foucault goes wrong in modern queer discourse is on the sports issue. That is the one example where we need a realist metaphysics and not a social constructivist oneBut the social constructivists want to insist that biological sex is just as socially constructed as gender itself, which is madnessI think postmodernism went off the rails in denying intrinsic sexual dimorphism
Ksenia — 23:47you are too american for me, you believe in the social system, in structure, in stability of rules. i can image turning my country into ashes. so i am more radical here. my dream is not only elaboration of social/langauge games in different area of life, but creation something new, maybe new onology will be created for the future society with humans, animals, ai and other systems which live together and exchange information. i don't know... trans and sexual issues will be tirival. "
