> to the point where the invented categories had reified into something kinda real
The "kinda" in that sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It's a "real" social construct. It's not "real" in the sense of representing "real" human nature, or a "real" order of how things ought to be, which is how that social construct is wielded in practice.
Right, plenty of things are social constructs. Race, gender, laws, money. Arguing over whether these things are real or not is, I think, missing the point. The real argument should be over whether they're beneficial concepts or not.
The "kinda" in that sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It's a "real" social construct. It's not "real" in the sense of representing "real" human nature, or a "real" order of how things ought to be, which is how that social construct is wielded in practice.