What safe spaces do we truly need? I don’t think there is such a thing as an intellectual safe space that insulates you and protects your from words or ideas that might contradict your own or cause you distress. That’s the sort of thing you might expect from your family, maybe your closest friends, butContinue reading “In defense of safe spaces”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Politically educational Google searches
I was skeptical after reading in Douglas Murray’s book about the political educational prejudices of Google image search. He claimed that searches for black couple gave you black couples, searches for gay couples gave you gave couples, searches for white couples gave you almost entirely mixed race or non-white couples, and searches for straight couplesContinue reading “Politically educational Google searches”
Wolves in the Wastes
Today I was reflecting on the strange cycle of distortion that a polarized populace and media have created, and how much it defines our view of the world around us. Having spent plenty of time living with the distortions and bias of the conservative media, it’s actually made it easier to see the same distortionsContinue reading “Wolves in the Wastes”
Leaving space for others to stand and oppose us
If you make white supremacy the only place white people (or cops) feelsl safe and understood, the only beneficiary will be white supremacists. Forcing people into ideological extremes with our rhetoric only erodes the great bulk of ordinary people caught in the middle and feeds the fires of the extremists at both ends. When enoughContinue reading “Leaving space for others to stand and oppose us”
The importance of resisting all political extremes
I feel the same obligation to fight extreme leftist woke culture as I do to fight extreme right Trumpist culture. They’re similar extremes of differing strategies. I see value in both conservative and liberal approaches, and I think what they really are is approaches or attitudes or instinctive value structures more than they are aContinue reading “The importance of resisting all political extremes”
Why words like “mansplaining” only make things worse
I have to question the value and effects of terms such as “mansplaining”, that reduce the moral and cognitive value of someone’s words, actions, and motivations to merely a function of their class belonging. Such terms were developed as a type of intellectual weapon, in principle to address a perceived power imbalance. Unfortunately, they doContinue reading “Why words like “mansplaining” only make things worse”
On one of my life’s great disappointments
If I had to pick one of my absolute greatest disappointments in life, it was realizing that I would never be a great musician. I wanted so much to be a great singer. But by middle school my total loss of my voice and my vocal nodes ended that dream. I felt the music soContinue reading “On one of my life’s great disappointments”
My girls
For me, the idea that there will come a day when I can’t hug and snuggle and love my girls is almost unbearable to contemplate. I love them more than the whole world. They’re the sun that rises and lifts me each day. They’re the life I live and struggle through and endure. They’re myContinue reading “My girls”
Reflections on parenting
I can remember a couple of the key discussions I had with Alex. I often felt like I fought the same battles with her every day for months and months without any progress (which I did). I got sad, I got angry, I got frustrated, I got cynical. I remember Alex would never hold myContinue reading “Reflections on parenting”
The inadequacy of modern and postmodern Christs
The postmodernist Christ is completely unnecessary. He did not and cannot conquer death, because he was not truly unique or divine and did not rise. He was a divine story and rose in our hearts, but in reality he died, and he had no more real power than any other prophet or story in ourContinue reading “The inadequacy of modern and postmodern Christs”
My goodbye to social media
It’s time for me to admit that I’m a bit of a coward. Over time, I’ve noticed a couple things. First, social media (and media in general) is making my life worse instead of better. It’s making it harder to work, sleep, love and care for my family, have good atitudes about others, care aboutContinue reading “My goodbye to social media”
How to respond to emotions
There is a certain response to questions that considers it more important to validate feelings, and the intuitions they represent, than it is to resolve them. That it’s more important and more kind to a person to agree with and respect their intuitive response than it is to test whether they are actually appropriate, potentiallyContinue reading “How to respond to emotions”
The social nature of moral norms
In practice, the majority of moral norms are socially negotiated. The excuse “everybody was doing it” may not make much sense to parents, but it has a lot of explanatory power when it comes to explaining actual behaviors. The perceived acceptability of a behavior has an enormous influence on its allowability and acceptance and itsContinue reading “The social nature of moral norms”
Do men actually like other men?
A question for thought, do men actually like one another very much? It always seems to me that women liked each other more and had more active actual relationships. Men have alliances, they enjoy playing together in a way that involves practice for competition, they also engage in dominance establishment activities. But to most menContinue reading “Do men actually like other men? “
The pursuit of the self
What percentage of your day is spent deliberately caring for or trying to bring pleasure to someone else? What effect is this likely to have on you as a person if it is little? If it is a lot? What are the likely long term effects of a society that encourages us to spend moreContinue reading “The pursuit of the self “
The value of disagreeability
There is much that we dismiss because it is disagreeable, and many people who we dismiss for the same reason. But simply because something is disagreeable does not necessarily mean that it isn’t true. Life and reality are often disagreeable, truth is often disagreeable. As a parent, it is a heavy and difficult burden thatContinue reading “The value of disagreeability”
Disadvantage
There is no upper limit to the amount of different ways a person can be disadvantaged. And for a great majority of people and these factors, our possession of them is neither to our credit or our detriment. We neither produced nor refused them, they are simply part of the fabric from which we areContinue reading “Disadvantage”
Two songs
This is the song that makes me feel like I’m a kid again, at home with my mom in our living room, on a peaceful afternoon. All those memories come back, the feeling of safety, of ease, of being cared for, of freedom, of relaxing after a good day, of looking forward to more goodContinue reading “Two songs”
Why I react so much to the words and thoughts of others
Excerpted from a personal letter. In my life, people I love bring home things and say things that really concern and disturb and upset me. They arouse dissonance within. Friends, family members. I’m the sort of person who can’t help but have a lot of thoughts about a lot of things. It’s just who IContinue reading “Why I react so much to the words and thoughts of others”
Strategies for unity
Unity and peace among people won’t be found by focusing on our differences but by embracing our commonalities. Representation is an incoherent concept for fixing human society and eliminating injustice because there is no limit to how you can divide people by their differences. If we can’t find the commonality within one another and setContinue reading “Strategies for unity “
Making Nobody Happy 