*bangs her head against the wall*

[conuly]

How do you get through to people?

Okay, let me try. Male parents are fathers. Female parents are mothers. IF you wish to claim that men have no maternal instincts, ever, but women do, please don't use the argument "they couldn't possibly have the same instincts, because men have paternal instincts, and no I can't explain how they're different, there's a whole letter different, you moron!"

That's just confusing.

And when you finally realize that you're being slow, please, the appropriate response is most emphatically NOT "how many kids did you say you had?"

That. Is. Not. Relevant.

Interestingly, this conversation would never have started if the OP hadn't broken a cardinal rule - never say "I don't mean to be prejudiced" or "No offense" or anything even remotely resembling a disclaimer before saying something prejudiced of offensive. If you feel you need to say the former in order to say the latter, don't say it. If you really must say it, please, you're less likely to seem prejudiced or offensive if you just leave the stupid disclaimer out.

Free advice. Take it.

And yes, I know, I'm IN bed, I'm going to sleep now.

Link posted at request of kinda original poster. Do me a favor, tell me when she started using the word "typical", would you?

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

"As effectual behaviours is more likely to keep an organism alive long enough to reproduce, it's more likely to teach its offspring the same thing, making it into what we call instincts over time."

As a matter of fact, that is not what we call instinct. Instinct is untaught, unlearned, pre-programmed behavior. Sounds like Tierney may have unwittingly fallen smack into Lamarck's fallacy (http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/15817?&print=yes).


"I like the theory because it rather fits with the issue of humans having seemingly less instincts than animals who aren't as long-lived. Because animals that live longer experience so many environmental variations and different situations in their lifetimes, they are less likely to develope these generation-spanning behaviours that eventually become what we call "instincts" than, say, mosquitos or something that only live one year... "

Uh, what about turtles, then? Sea turtles, for instance, which can live at least three or four times as long as humans and, being wide-ranging sea dwellers, may encounter a wide variety of environmental conditions? Turtles are hard-wired - not that they have no capacity for learning, but they are primarily creatures of instinct.