They Say It So Sincerely, It Must Be True

Until the smallest and easiest bit of logic or reason is applied.

1. I had a guy who insisted that softball hitters were much more skilled than baseball hitters. There was lots of theory about how there is less time to react and the ball has more curve etc. You can even google it: This guy wasn't the only clown to make the claim. But it all wilts under one question: If softball hitters are more skilled and they are mostly women, how come there isn't a single woman in the MLB? The pay is huge for players that can hit and there is no rule prohibiting women from playing.

2. This is an old one from my youth and so you may not be able to find anyone claming it now: Back then, people would often claim that guns will not work in space. The people who made the claim often felt that it was deep somehow: Futuristic Man will have no need for such primitive and backward things etc. I never understood the basis for even thinking they wouldn't work: The fuel and oxidiser are contained within the cartridge--chemical reactions don't need gravity.

Okay, (backing away slowly)...But why would I want to find Hillary likable?

To find Hillary Clinton likable, we must learn to view women complexly

The article is TL;DR but begins with a howler that does not encourage further reading:

Clinton is on one hand the most qualified human being to ever run for president of the United States,...

Without getting into the weeds of whether or not it is possible to like Hillary, let's just for the sake of argument say that it is possible and consider instead why one would want to go to the tremendous work of getting to like Herself.

1. If you are inclined to do this, doesn't this seem as if you are just looking for reasons to justify the vote you have already decided to cast?

2. If you currently dislike Hillary, what possible reason would you have to want to change your mind?

Advice for Caroline Siede, if you think Trump:

In fact, Donald Trump is the only candidate who is more disliked than Clinton. And he’s not only overtly racist, sexist, and Islamophobic, but also unfit and unprepared for office.

Why not follow your own advice and figure out how you have been conditioned by your life experience to hate a guy like Trump and overcome this bias--isn't this what you are asking of your readers? Or is she really focusing on case # 1?

Maybe we can just accept that the sum of our experiences give us each the ability to make judgments? Anyway the premise is weak enough: Find any interview with Dolly Parton and unless you are very unusual, you will agree that she is unrelentingly likable and is also a woman. So, societal conditioning notwithstanding, it is possible to be a woman and likable.

The article somehow reminds me of these lyrics:

Any world that I'm welcome to
Is better than the one I come from