What's missing from this elegant argument is intellectual history. Where's the proof that the thinkers behind gender identity ideology and the activists who implement it have been influenced by that form of theology? Few gender critical people who have given the matter some thought would dispute that gender identity ideology is like a theology and the trans movement like a religion. However, twin similes do not make it so. Facts do.
Also, while gender ideology has proven to be quite a catalyst for vocabulary growth, Gnosticism remains a recondite subject. Even most college educated people would be unlikely to come up with a working definition. They would be even less able to gauge whether Gnosticism is serving here merely as a thought-provoking metaphor or whether gender ideology's Gnostic characteristics portend a new and more dangerous turn in the trans movement.
Some day I may muster the will to read Mr. Osborne's piece in full. Until then, I am filing it provisionally in the conspiracy theory basket. It will take a lot of facts to convince me that "the dominant [Gnostic] overclass in North Atlantic democracies" has enlisted gender ideology as a tool for curing "overpopulation, or the wrong population, or an imbalance of population, to achieve political ends and become saviors of humanity."
It's precisely because Gnosticism is such an abstruse concept* that I am concerned about its potential for misuse by polemicists.
Excellent article, Eva! I love your take here on Gnosticism!
Thank you, Margot :)
What's missing from this elegant argument is intellectual history. Where's the proof that the thinkers behind gender identity ideology and the activists who implement it have been influenced by that form of theology? Few gender critical people who have given the matter some thought would dispute that gender identity ideology is like a theology and the trans movement like a religion. However, twin similes do not make it so. Facts do.
Also, while gender ideology has proven to be quite a catalyst for vocabulary growth, Gnosticism remains a recondite subject. Even most college educated people would be unlikely to come up with a working definition. They would be even less able to gauge whether Gnosticism is serving here merely as a thought-provoking metaphor or whether gender ideology's Gnostic characteristics portend a new and more dangerous turn in the trans movement.
The latter is certainly Matt Osborne's thesis in his "Gender Gospel Digest No. 4: A Few Notes On The Anti-Natalism Of Our 21st Century Gnostic Death Cults." https://www.thedistancemag.com/p/a-few-notes-on-the-anti-natalism?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Some day I may muster the will to read Mr. Osborne's piece in full. Until then, I am filing it provisionally in the conspiracy theory basket. It will take a lot of facts to convince me that "the dominant [Gnostic] overclass in North Atlantic democracies" has enlisted gender ideology as a tool for curing "overpopulation, or the wrong population, or an imbalance of population, to achieve political ends and become saviors of humanity."
It's precisely because Gnosticism is such an abstruse concept* that I am concerned about its potential for misuse by polemicists.
* "Gnosticism." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/gnostic/