I do see what you’re trying to say, honestly, but I’m arguing that it doesn’t address what I myself am saying. I did acknowledge that your argument is about the natural state of things (cold hard reality) dictating our decisions when I said: “I understand that you’d argue there was a natural difference in physical prowess between men and women, but this does not explain why one grants cultural influence and the other does not. Discrimination, on the other hand, does.”
And that’s what I’m not entirely certain I’ve gotten across to you about my own stance - that while I agree with both you and jsroberts that reality influences decisions and/or the cultural make up of things at any given time, these realities do not account for cultural advantages/disadvantages that go along with the decisions. The fact that women cannot or should not do something and/or that men cannot or should not do something, has no bearing on why one group gets social, political, or economic advantage over the other.
EDIT: Maybe the best way to say this is - I don’t think that humanity’s options are unlimited (this we agree on), but I also don’t think there is one single “most suitable” answer that we naturally gravitate towards, which is close is not quite what I think you’re saying you believe. I think the reasons behind decisions, and why we wind up selecting what we do, is much more complex than that. We probably also agree with that, it just boils down to how much we think cultural power games play into it.
(Also, for the record, I didn’t read the Wikipedia article. I once was a lurker/silent part of an xkcd forum discussion on this, and I went back to it for the details. Technically, base-16 isn’t a multiple of ten. And there was some group that had base-2. Also, for the record, I really wasn’t trying to be a smart ass, I was trying to address your arguments in ways that I thought were sincere and appropriate, but this is because what I’m trying to say isn’t what you’re trying to say, and so I think you might be consistently thinking I’m being obtuse. I’m not: i’m trying to state my case in a way that isn’t paraphrased incorrectly when you next respond. So far this hasn’t worked out so well, but I tried. Believe me, I understand the frustration, it’s mutual, but we were both committed and stuck it out, which is good.)
Ditto. Until the next gauntlet is thrown!
