| > Why would I contest that? Good, you do not contest that, which, frankly, would have been a silly thing to do. > After I just said, "there are fewer Asians playing professional basketball because Asians tend to be shorter." So, "there are fewer women in IT because women tend to be [biological argument]" Now what here is the [biological argument]? We've already established that there is at least one woman who is just as capable a programmer or software engineer as
any man could be. That means this woman is exceptional because either: A) She has a specific biologically determined male trait or B) She is not exceptionally different in any biological way but somehow has a unique environment that allows her to be an exceptional programmer. Occam's razor suggests B here, in the absence of extra-ordinary evidence to suggest A. Therefore it would be prudent for any employer to offer a benefit for women to shortcut the much complicated and convoluted environmental and social factors that are involved in the B scenario. Any interlocutor who claims to have found evidence of the [biological component], and as such support A, but does not back this up rigorously, can be assumed to be working against the interests of the employer. Whether this is for ego, political, or religious reasons is irrelevant. |
Literally nobody has ever contested it. The google manifesto didn't contest it. You just imagined it. You're arguing against a straw man. You always have been.
> So, "there are fewer women in IT because women tend to be [biological argument]"
> Now what here is the [biological argument]?
If we go back to talking about women, you're just going to start imagining straw man again. You seemed to have a moment of clarity when I mentioned asians and basketball, so stick with that.
There are fewer asians in the NBA because asians tend to be shorter, on average. Even though that's true of the average, Yao Ming is over seven feet tall.
Not me, and not the google guy have ever said anything except the previous two sentences. Yet for some reason, here's what you have made up, entirely on your own, out of whole cloth: "There are fewer asians in the NBA, and those that are in the NBA are all shorter than the men in the NBA" <--- that's your straw man. That's not the argument that's on the table.
And this:
> She has a specific biologically determined male trait
is just another example of you not getting it. "Height" is not a "specific biologically determined <group> trait."
It's possible for a group of people to be taller on average, or shorter on average than another group. But that doesn't mean that "short" is a "biologically determined asian trait."
Here's a picture of the straw man you're arguing against: http://i.imgur.com/QurucPk.png
You must think that's what the google manifesto claimed, otherwise you wouldn't have said "specific biologically determined male trait."
Here's a picture of what everyone else except you is actually talking about: http://i.imgur.com/005ojrV.png
There are more men than women available at certain points on the line, but if you selected only people at some specific point, then men and women would have exactly the same value - just like how, there are fewer asians at the point on the line labeled, "seven feet tall" however, if I selected people at that point, Yao Ming would be seven feet tall.
It's really sad to me that your entire objection was based on a straw man. Some guy lost his job, and a lot of people are angry, and it's all because you imagined something that wasn't there. It's basically a witch hunt. You're seeing witches and demons where none exist. Congratulations, you're the modern equivalent of a superstitious person imagining dangers in the dark.