In real life, some beliefs — no matter how fervently held — just don’t hold water. And a few of the transparently unbelievable ones are cornerstones of hard left political positions. Some examples:

• Lia Thomas and Rachel Levine are women.

No, they’re not women, they’re men. Curiously, until just a few years ago, that assertion would have aroused not a murmur of disagreement; now, many consider it hate speech. It’s not. It neither suggests disrespect nor advocates discrimination.

Both are men, born with male anatomy, each no doubt with male chromosomes in billions of cells in his body (cases of indeterminate chromosome patterns are very rare). Reportedly neither has had “sex reassignment” surgery — although even that would change only outward appearances, but not his sex. Yes, it is true that hormone treatment can modify to some extent the male traits that accompany natural physical development and puberty; but that’s an artificial and — at most — a limited adjustment.

The only basis for acceptance of the fantasy that these two men are women would be full buy-in to the fantastical new definition of gender adopted by the LGBTQ+ community — that gender is really just a state of mind, a personal selection that is irrespective of biology and anatomy.

Of course, Messrs. Levine and Thomas are only examples of a controversy that is sweeping the nation, but at its core makes no sense. The differences between male and female are perfectly clear, instinctively understood since the advent of humanity.

Everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and respect. But treating people respectfully and fairly need not require conviction that they are something they’re not, and should not impose corresponding unfairness on others.

• Mankind can keep the climate from changing.

Surely, we cannot. In fact, climate scientists largely, if sometimes only implicitly, agree that we cannot, although proponents of radical climate change policies tend to gloss over that inconvenient truth.

Our relatively little rock of a planet has been hurtling through space for four billion years (yes four billion, a number so big it makes your head hurt), heating up, cooling down, colliding with asteroids, undergoing constant geography realignment and atmospheric conditions that cycle between habitable and inhabitable for human life.

The component of global warming caused by man’s actions — and that could be modulated by changes in our behavior — is just a part (and quite possibly, a very small part) of those naturally occurring climactic changes.

In truth, we humans are very much like the ants on a log careening down the raging river, acting as if we’re in charge, shouting rudder orders — but we’re really just along for the ride.

As privileged residents on this little planet, and with untold generations sure to follow, it is incumbent on us to be good stewards of our environment, conserving our limited irreplaceable resources, managing our wastes carefully, and striving for long-term sustainability.

We cannot “fix” our planet, we can only treat it gently and adapt to its inevitable changes.

• January 6th was an insurrection.

No, it was a riot — an ugly, violent, unacceptable mob action — but nowhere close to a bona fide insurrection.

In 1961, the U.S. fomented an insurrection to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba. We recruited, armed, supplied and trained a small army (about 3,500 insurgents); and we procured, outfitted and manned a small navy (five vessels) and a small air force (about 25 combat aircraft). It wasn’t enough — the insurrection failed. But now we’re supposed to believe that a rag tag crowd of rowdy, unarmed hooligans would somehow be able to take over the U.S. government and install an unelected president? Nonsense.

• An unborn baby is not a human being.

Wrong: the fetus maturing inside a mother’s womb takes on the full range of human characteristics, well before birth.

That little creature carries its own unique DNA from the moment of conception: within weeks, it develops functioning organs and body parts and even a beating heart — the age-old indicator of human life.

We may argue — although in my view wholly without merit — that the little human has no legal standing unless and until the mother delivers it to the outside world through normal birth. But please let’s not dismiss it as anything other than a human being.

We can and must find a way to bridge our partisan divides. We must find a way to compromise on sincerely held views on the policies and practices needed to keep our nation healthy. But we can’t build sensible public policy without firm grounding in reality.