wild how a lot of my lefty / progressive friends have been saying "your brain isn't done developing until 25, we need to base more things on this!" with zero reflection on how that logic is now being used in anti-trans legislation [thread]

yes, i'm aware adulthood's definition has changed based on culture and time. some places it was 13 others it was 23.

adulthood is not, however, something you can use "biology" to cement into place, because adulthood is a *combination* of biology, society, culture, etc.

which is to say that through the various societal and cultural and biological forces, we've averaged it out to around 18-21 in the modern era, but there is still a reason some things are gated off at different points

for what it's worth, 18 to vote and die but 21 to drink and smoke is stupid. but to think the solution is to push that to fucking 25? to disenfranchise people who are definite, absolute, adults, because their brain is still a bit squishy?

this is of course ignoring that the brain develops in stages and continues to develop your entire life. 25 is just the approximate point things "solidify" and you go into the biological middle years of your brain's life. it doesn't mean you get any smarter or wiser.

tl;dr biology and science as reductive answers to societal and cultural questions is not the obvious surefire answer it seems because biology and science are lenses through which we interpret the world, not the world themselves. they are methods, not solutions.

as a chaser in the event any dipshit ancap thinks otherwise: no, the fact that some societies put adulthood younger than we do now does not excuse creepy and disgusting attempts to pursue teenagers by older men. makhno had the right idea with that.

(the right idea was to do less than kind things to people who do that)