How Arguments Against Trans People Mislead by Concealing Their Premises
It’s a Sleight of hand. Many arguments against trans people work by leaving out important information. This trick is called an ‘enthymeme.’ An enthymeme is when someone makes an argument but leaves out a key idea, and the listener fills in the blank without even realizing it. This works because some words, like ‘children,’ ‘parents,’ ‘women,’ ‘safety,’ and ‘fairness,’ already make people feel a certain way. These words can make people agree with an argument before they even know what it is really about. A recent study in Canada found that phrases like ‘protecting children,’ ‘parental rights,’ and ‘gender ideology’ are used to make rules against trans people sound like they are just protecting others, even before it is shown that trans people are a problem. Here are some of the most important enthymemes I see operating now. Once you start listening for them, these missing premises show up everywhere. You can see many of these tricks in how politicians talk today. For example,...