Duck of Theseus: The Ancient Sophistry of 'Gender Identity' Gibberish

Stop the Presses - 12 September 2022

It is always too easy to dunk on Katy Montgomerie, who loves the attention anyway, so we usually ignore him here. But we are making an exception at The Distance just this once to point out this exquisite masterpiece. Just perfect. Bravo. Well done.

Philosophers have used the “Ship of Theseus” question to debate ideas for 2,500 years. Now we have the “Duck of Theseus” question to debate ideas for the next epoch of humanity. The stupid one.

A “Ship of Theseus” is a watercraft renovated over time so that no original part of the ship remains. Or think of a musical band that has none of the original members left in the concert lineup. Is it really the same ship/band, or is it really a whole new ship/band? See, that’s not such a simple question to answer, now, is it? Checkmate, gender criticals!

Restating Monty: if, through some means indistinguishable from magic, I was to transform my body into that…