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Monday, June 15, 2015

ABlow To The Head

" I am A Medical Doctor, and I Play One on TV "
Ol' Doc Ablow

TPM
Fox Doc Uses Rachel Dolezal Case To Mock Transgender People (VIDEO)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/keith-ablow-rachel-dolezal-transgender

Psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow, the biggest race hustler on Fox News, used the case of a civil rights leader in Washington State accused of pretending to be black as an opportunity on Monday to mock transgender people. Note A

The member of Fox's "Medical A-Team" was asked during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" to “get inside the mindset” of Dolezal, the president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Last week, Dolezal became the subject of national debate when her parents accused her of pretending to be black and saying she was actually white.

“I’ve been saying for a long time we could find ourselves at this moment,” Ablow said on Monday morning. “I’m not judging folks who put forward a transgender position — Caitlyn Jenner and the rest. But, I did note that when you decide that a genetic reality is not reality, if this woman believes to her core that her identity is that of a black woman, one could argue, not me, but one could argue that she should be accepted according to her quote ‘racial identity.’”

“We could be coming to a time — strangely, some might say — where what people say they are is what you have to accept them as,” Ablow continued.

Host Elizabeth Hasselbeck brought up a recent comparison made by MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry.

During the "Melissa Harris-Perry" show on Saturday, Harris-Perry asked whether it was possible for Dolezal to be “trans-black,” relating the situation to cis-gender and trans-gender individuals. Note B

Ablow said people’s self-concept could end up being very important. Note C

“I think we’re heading down an untested path where people’s self-concept, or what they say it is, is going to dictate … the way that we have to behave toward them,” Ablow said. “If I believe in my soul that I’m a 65 year old — I happen to be 53 — if I believe I’m 65, I say it to my doctor, I feel it in my core, can I apply for Medicare?” Note D

Note A
I do not know what a "race hustler " is, and I do not necessarily agree that the good doctor is such.
He asks a legitimate question and puts forward some poorly thought out possibilities, but that's what one does in a brain-storming session: just throw any thought out there.

Note B
My favorite part of the post: cis-gender and trans-gender.
I will make a bet that the meaning of "cis-gender"  is a real stumper for 99% of the readers and viewers.

"Cis" and "trans" are Latin, and just as "trans" means "across, on the other side of" - such as Transalpine Gaul indicated the area across the Alps where there were Celts - so likewise does "cis" mean "on this side" - and Cisalpine Gaul referred to the Celts living on the Rome-side of the Alps.

Having gotten used to transgender meaning to cross over the gender divide, we now come upon cisgender to mean the stay-at-home-bodies who feel quite all right in the present sich (situation). I do not really see why we need cis-gender or cisgender. One could say something like "blokes who were born male" and "dolls who were born frails".
Whatever.
"Trans" and "cis" imply that there is a middle point, a division, one side of which is "trans" and the other is "cis" depending on one's point of view. However, there is no such middle point in gender.

It's just dummies trying to sound William F. Buckley, Jr.  The use of "cis" is a bloviation and an attempt by dimwitted cable TV newsy types to act as if they had gone to an "Ivory League" college.

Note C
This is quite an appalling way of trying to say something.
People's self-concept is important. I think even doctors not as brainiac as Ablow (a fitting name) would assert that a good self-concept is probably important for a good psychological balance.

Note D
"I feel it in my core..."?
I do believe that Congress can handle that problem. Congress could - if they so wanted - pass laws dealing with trans and cis (I was going to say "trannies and cissies" but there are a whole number of issues with that bit of nonsense.)
This reductio ad absurdum only makes Ablow Appear Absurd

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