I don't consider myself a particularly intelligent person. I don't mean that assertion to come across as especially self-deprecatory, just as an honest assessment that my personal strengths lie elsewhere. I do not think of myself as particularly creative or innovative, and certainly not perceptive or quick on the draw. I do have something of a "gift" for rote memorization, but that's actually just a childhood trauma response - born from my efforts to meet the unrealistic expectations which others placed on me - and not really a native ability.

What I do have going for me - I think - is an intensely curious temperament. My personal and academic interests have always run something of a mile wide and an inch deep, but those interests reflect a sincerely held sense of wonder about the world. We inhabit a universe which is deeply complex, and in our scientific exploration of that world, there is beauty to be found. As humans, we forge cultural narratives and traditions which are likewise complex opportunities for study and engagement, offering tapestries replete with possibility and wonder. As an individual human being, enmeshed in these two spheres of science and culture, there are certain realities and narratives which I intrinsically know to be true about myself. But at this same time, there are other elements of myself and my journey which I continue to discover day by day.

I am curious about my world. I am curious about myself.

A recent executive order calling for the defunding of public radio and broadcast set out some examples of coverage and topics which the current regime finds objectionable. The very first example criticized a holiday special which stated, among other things, that banana slugs are hermaphrodites. The perhaps too obvious rejoinder, of course, is that - as a matter of scientific fact - banana slugs are in fact hermaphrodites.

Some have criticized that particular choice of pushback, as the examples in the executive order also found objectionable coverage of trans issues more generally, and perhaps our time might be better spent countering the obvious transphobia. I don't mean to weigh in on that internal, basically strategic debate on the Left, but I do think the regime's choice of the feature on banana slugs married - at least for the fascists - elements of transphobia with opposition to science and education, however muddled and specious the linkage between trans people, intersex people, and the complexities of evolution in other species.

As ultimately dangerous as I find the more obvious examples of transphobia, I think what really strikes me as offensive - particularly as someone who works in higher education - is just how incurious the proponents of the fascist project really are about the world. And perhaps that seems like a patently obvious observation about the Far Right, but I think it's worth a moment of our focus from time to time.

The other day, I learned that banana slugs are hermaphrodites, and I think that's deeply fascinating. Evolution is full of complex little solutions to changing environmental conditions like that, and while that specific bit of trivia might not have much impact in my life, the process of learning about the biological conditions of life on this planet naturally carries with it - at least for me - an enhanced appreciation for the beauty of the cosmos, and for the life which calls that cosmos home. I am delighted people study things like that. I am delighted that our journalists and storytellers share stories about things like that. My life is a little more full for experiences like that. And I want the people around me - and especially my two little nephews, who are just learning about the world - to have those same opportunities.

I am not always inclined to write off transphobia as the product of mere ignorance, as I think there's often a willful malice at work. At the same time, however, it's worth observing how much our current fascism - and perhaps all fascist movements - are rooted in an incurious spirit. Certainly the current spate of transphobic attacks are rooted in the willful opposition to a curious heart. The fascists and the transphobes are incurious about the natural world, and thus the factual existence of intersex people. They are incurious about psychology and anthropology and history, and thus the lived experience of trans people. On an individual level, they resist - with the persistence of the fanatic, ultimately born of desperation - the sort of probing questions about their own interior lives which might allow them to live just a little more authentically inside their own skin.

More compassionate souls than I might feel the pangs of sympathy for such incurious individuals. For my part, I am too focused on my own survival and the survival of those I care about, to concern myself overly much with those who have made different choices, choices ultimately hostile to my continued survival. Still, I do believe that bringing about a better world - one with room for trans and intersex people - will mean cultivating and elevating a curious spirit in our neighbors of good will. I am just not sure how we do that.

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