Once upon a time, 'binary' was a mathematical term. Now it is an insult on a par with 'racist', 'sexist' or 'homophobic', to be deployed as a weapon in our culture wars. The enemy on this particular battleground is anyone who maintains that there are men and there are women, and that the difference between them is fundamental.
This 'binary' distinction is accepted as a given by the vast majority of the human race. No matter. It is now being categorised as a form of bigotry. Utterly bizarre? Scoff at your peril. It's fast becoming an enforceable orthodoxy, with children and young people particularly in the frame for attitude reassignment.
Many didn't know whether to be amused or bemused when the feminist ideologue Germaine Greer was attacked by other progressives for claiming that transgender men who became women after medical treatment were still men. What started as a baffling skirmish on the wilder shores of victim culture has now turned into something more menacing.
The Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee recently produced a report saying transgender people are being failed. The issue is not just whether they really do change their sex. The crime being committed by society is to insist on any objective evidence for this at all. According to the committee, people should be able to change their gender at will merely by filling in a form. Instead of requiring evidence of sex-change treatment, Britain should adopt the 'self-declaration' model now used in Ireland, Malta, Argentina and Denmark. To paraphrase Descartes, 'I think I am a man/woman/of no sex, therefore I am.'
Comment: Infighting between the Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham jihadist groups has been intense in the last couple weeks. Meanwhile, the Russians are still in talks with militants in Idlib to establish the terms of the safe zone. For the latest update on the situation across the country, see: Syria summary: Consolidating the west and marching east