Joseph Ratzinger, the guy the Catholic church gave the title "Pope Benedict XVI", died yesterday. There's one thing I'll always remember Mr. Ratzinger for, his 2012 Christmas address. This was his final Christmas address, and since he did voluntarily retire he probably knew it would be so at the time. He decided to use this last precious opportunity to speak out against what he apparently viewed as the biggest and most pressing danger in the world, which was… transgenderism, and tolerance of transgenderism, which he called "gender ideology". The resulting tirade was bad-faith, eliminationist, and contains many intellectual errors from misreading Simone de Beauvoir on up, but I'll always remember it for this one accidentally incredible paragraph, in which Mr. Ratzinger attempts to summarize the position of his enemies (i.e.,us); and accidentally manages to make trans people seem both heroic and incredibly metal:
The words of the creation account: “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27) no longer apply. No, what applies now is this: it was not God who created them male and female – hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves. Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man calls his nature into question. From now on he is merely spirit and will. The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned. From now on there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be.
I do not think I could have written a more inspiring declaration for transhumanism, or rationalism, or my own inherent dignity if I had tried. For this, Mr. Ratzinger, thank you.
