Destiny is defined as a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency. Because the matter of predestination is an unfalsifiable claim (i.e., afterlife status), I’ve no interest in entertaining the concept.
Still, as is the case with word usage in general, there is more than one meaning for this term. Destiny may also be defined as the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. Here, “necessarily” may refer to a logical result or consequence.
Given the latter interpretation of destiny, I question whether or not it’s destiny for people to become so indoctrinated that what passed as education in yesteryear now represents absurdity in societies which are WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic).
Here, “absurd” refers to ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous. Specifically, I’m inquiring about whether or not people in the United States (U.S.) have been inculcated with relativistic ideology which passes as enlightenment to the degree by which many individuals struggle to define what a woman is.
For clarity, it may be useful to define terms relating to sex and gender. In a blogpost entitled Females Are Fallible, Too, I stated:
Herein, I intend on discussing females. Regarding this term, one source states, “An organism’s sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction.”
As “sex” refers to females, the common gender-related term concerning this category of human is “girl” or “woman.” Whereas a girl is a non-adult human female, a woman is an adult human female.
This isn’t a particularly complex matter to understand. Nevertheless, apparently many people in the U.S. have adopted ridiculous ideas regarding biological sex. Addressing this matter, I stated in a blog entry entitled Swimming in Controversial Belief:
[H]ard science suggests that there is male, female, and intersex categorization. Still, soft science—impacting hard science—advocates, “The idea of 2 sexes is overly simplistic,” and, “Some researchers now say that the definition should be widened.” This is an is-ought problem.
The is-ought problem occurs when one derives an ought from an is. To better understand this illogical and unreasonable form of argumentation, consider the following syllogism:
Premise 1: People’s feelings may be hurt if you say they can’t identify as another sex or gender (Descriptive).
Premise 2: John Doe is a person who identifies as another sex or gender (Descriptive).
Conclusion: Therefore, you oughtn’t to hurt John Doe’s feelings by saying he can’t identify as another sex or gender (Moral prescription).
Although this appears to be a valid deductive argument, because premises 1 and 2 accurately describe what is, these descriptions don’t logically lead to the morally prescriptive conclusion about what ought not to be the case. Thus, this isn’t a reasonable proposal.
Understanding the difference between description (is) and prescription (ought) is useful when examining absurdity expressed through WEIRD proposals. So, is it destiny that people will inevitably subscribe to irrational ideologies?
I argue that we aren’t destined for stupidity (lacking intelligence or reason) even though many people are by default ignorant (lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified). Relatively five minutes ago in human evolutionary history, people understood what a woman was.
We aren’t currently ignorant of this fact, although some people have apparently indoctrinated themselves into use of stupid arguments which suggest otherwise. Case in point, consider the streamer Destiny.
Given the hours of content I’ve consumed from his podcast, video, and other interview appearances, I suspect Destiny has a significantly higher intelligence quotient than I. Nevertheless, as he’s a fallible human being just like me, he sometimes has some absurd takes.
As an example, Destiny recently appeared on the TwinsPod podcast. In the episode, when asked what a woman was, Destiny replied:
Fuck, that’s a really complicated question. That’s an insanely fucking complicated question. Here’s, okay, here’s – without diving too deep in all this dumbass shit – okay, listen. Okay, Jesus Christ, okay. If I, If I, If I tell you a thing, okay?
Okay, in philosophy there’s a thing called a qualia. Okay, so what is it like to experience something, okay? Um, behind you is a red curtain. If you’d never seen the color red before and I say, you know, there’s a red curtain behind—I can never actually express what that qualia is to you.
You’re not gonna know unless you experience it yourself, right? So there are things that we experience and when we have two brains, okay? I can’t actually ever – I can never send you, uh, an idea. I can’t do it. It’s impossible, because our brains are separate. So what I do is I speak a word and when I say something, I hope that you have an experience that maps onto that.
So when I say, like, oh, this blanket is really soft, you might think soft like, oh like a dog or a kitty cat or a pillow. You’ve got other experiences that map onto, right? For all of the language that we use when we say words, there’s a whole bunch of associated concepts that, like, pop up when we say those words.
Now, they might not map cleanly onto some universal, you know, Platonistic form of a thing. So, for instance, when I say table and I tell you to define a table, you can never give me a definition that encompasses all tables and excludes all things that are not tables, right? DO they always have four legs? Is it something you can sit on or not? Like, it’s really complicated.
So when you say, like, well, what is, like, a woman—well, when you say woman, depending on the context, it lights up a whole bunch of concepts. So women, um, you know, they tend to dress a certain way. They tend to have certain hair. They tend to exhibit certain, like, characteristics. They tend to have certain body parts. They tend to have certain…
So a woman, it, like, it really kind of depends on the circumstance, right?
Is it destiny for someone as apparently intelligent as Destiny to botch a response to such a simple question? Regarding his reply, the Daily Mail reports:
Campaigners have slammed the internet personality’s ‘rambling’ explanation, describing it as ‘a reflection of a society that has lost its way.’ Jay Richards, a research fellow at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, told DailyMail.com that the question of what is a woman is ‘easy for anyone not in the thrall of gender ideology’. ‘A woman is an adult human female.’
This matter doesn’t have to relate to a right- or left-wing sociopolitical perspective. Yet, this is apparently where we are in the WEIRD world – making a truth-based topic devolve into conversations which are weird—of strange or extraordinary character. The Daily Mail continues:
Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and director of the campaign group Genspect, said the YouTuber was clearly ‘tying himself in knots’. ‘I believe that this man knows that a woman is an adult human female: we all know this,’ she said.
I’m surprised that a fellow psychotherapist admits such a thing, given that in the field of mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”) many therapists truthfully speak about such matters mainly behind closed doors. In any case, the Daily Mail adds:
During the conversation, Destiny oddly recounts a philosophical concept called a qualia, which he says is ‘what is it like to experience something. […] Mr. Richards of the Heritage Foundation told DailyMail.com: ‘Destiny’s answer is a perfect illustration of the danger of knowing too little philosophy.
He treats the question, what is a woman as so complex that it can’t really be answered. He invokes qualia — the contents of our first-person experience. But this has nothing to do with anything.
Destiny’s postmodernist approach to the topic is something with which I remain familiar. When in graduate school for social work, similar nonsensical arguments were leveled. Keep in mind that this was at a (then) top seventh-ranked social work grad program in the U.S.
Aside from highlighting the fallibility of humanity, it’s reasonable to ask what this blogpost has to do with mental health. To answer this imagined question, first consider how the Daily Mail concludes its article about Destiny:
The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has previously come under fire for replacing the word ‘woman’ with the vaguer term ‘pregnant people’ in its health guidance.
In December 2023, the erasure of the term women was seen in recommendations for a host of respiratory virus vaccinations for pregnant women.
A doctors’ organization said the CDC was ‘cowering to political forces’ at the expense of sound medical advice.
This matter has far greater consequences than solely the field of mental health. Violation of the is-ought problem serves as irrationality that impacts federal, state, and local policies which in turn may influence how psychotherapists conduct the performance of our duties.
Admittedly, I’m uncertain as to whether or not it’s destiny for people to become so indoctrinated that what passed as education in yesteryear now represents absurdity in societies which are WEIRD and will continue dumbing down individuals and organizations within the U.S.
Furthermore, when considering whether or not it’s destiny that people will inevitably subscribe to irrational ideologies, I maintain that we aren’t destined for stupidity. Of course, it’s difficult to make that claim when people apparently struggle to define what a woman is.
For now, as I have the ability to speak openly, honestly, and vulnerably about reality, I’ll continue advocating Stoic virtues of wisdom and courage in the face of absurdity and cowardice. And you, what will you do? By the way, what is a woman?
If you’re looking for a provider who works to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply helping you to feel better, I want to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
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