Counterfactual

I don't know why; I just like the word. It rolls comfortably off the tongue. It means ... wait ... well, you might think it was obvious, but it's not. On the face of it, it means that which is counter to fact. However, in the world of philosophy it refers to imaginary thought exercises in which you consider what it would be like if ... something was different. What if you had taken a different job? What if you had married a different spouse? That kind of thing. So, okay, I suppose that's still "counter to fact." And what do we mean by "fact"? A "fact" is similar to a "truth," but it has more ... substance. It refers to something that actually exists, something that cannot be denied because it is, in essence, right there in your hands. Truth can be philosophical or simply ideas-based, but a fact exists in solid form, as it were. It is interesting, then, how much of our world operates today on a counterfactual basis.

There are lots of examples, but today's most obvious one has a name: "transgender." Transgender refers to the notion that Bill or Sally actually feels like they're a Jenny or Jack. In today's world, that means that Bill/Jenny actually is a female and Sally/Jack really is a male. That, dear reader, is a prime example of "counterfactual," yet our current culture defends it venomously. It doesn't take a religious zealot to tell you it's nonsense. It just takes common sense, an admission of the facts. No amount of "I feel" will change the chromosomes of Bill or Sally to produce the opposite sex. No medical process will give Bill ovaries or Sally testes. No hormone replacement process will instill a lifelong memory of female experiences in Bill or male living in Sally. We can dress it up. We can perform external operations like clothes and hair, even superficial surgeries to look more like the opposite sex, but the facts are nothing will change the biology and functionality of one to become the other. Facts.

Of course, my saying such a thing will get me labeled as "transphobic" or some such nonsense because our current society is virulently opposed to that kind of straightforward truth. I don't oppose those people who find themselves confronted with what was until very recently termed "gender dysphoric." It (correctly) referred to people who feel uncomfortable or distressed because the gender they feel they are differs from their biological sex. Why would I oppose these people? They're in trouble. They're in distress. They need help. Hating someone like this is as cruel and unkind as hating a baby born with birth defects. They don't need hate; they need help. No, I'm responding to the foolishness that our world has embraced that says the help they need is to jettison the facts, discard reality, and embrace their impossible dream. And I'm the hater? Our world dwells in counterfactual insanity. The Bible calls it "sin" (Rom 1:21) and "There, there, that's okay" is not a solution.