A few months ago, and I blogged about this, Neil DeGrasse Tyson brilliantly did the worst “Well, Actually” spiel I’d ever heard. He, with complete confidence, did a number of incredibly stupid things. Now, he has had some famous brain farts like the time he claimed nutrition science was stupid because all that was neededContinue reading “Contrarianism is Bad for the Discourse”
Tag Archives: Postmodernism
The Law and Courage
Is the law contray to the virtue of courage? That depends on whether the law is moral and valid enough that surrendering is an act of courage or an act of cowardice. The law in America does not recognize any virtues except obedience to itself, is often effectively arbitrary, and uses all sticks and noContinue reading “The Law and Courage”
Why Philosophy is in a Rut
Contemporary philosophy is stuck in the incidental culture war between right and left in contemporary Western society. Philosophers are little more than left-wing or center-left polemicists. They say nothing and are strongly against saying anything. They will entertain completely useless questions such as free will versus determinism which, of course, is unfalsifiable and therefore hasContinue reading “Why Philosophy is in a Rut”
Loneliness & Hegel
Contemporary loneliness is a Hegelian antithesis. It is a reaction to the Hegelian thesis of the world before of creepiness and darkness that was pervasive as well as its hyperbolization in the media such as in the horror and the true crime genres. A Hegelian antithesis is a psychological phenomenon of reactance to a norm.Continue reading “Loneliness & Hegel”
Giving Toxic Relationships Happy Endings
It used to be a cliché that bad boys were faustian bargains and ultimately girls would be hurt by them. In the last few decades, they did a Taylor Swift and rewrote the ending so that Edward Cullen and Christian Grey, bad boys with so many red flags they may as well have been Soviet,Continue reading “Giving Toxic Relationships Happy Endings”
Appropriation: Physical and Cultural
A lot has been written about cultural and physical appropriation. The family of Henrietta Lacks recently filed a lawsuit over the nonconsensual use of her cells. This is stupid, they should just give all rights to them for free medical research because to do anything else would be evil. Those are legal rights since, morally,Continue reading “Appropriation: Physical and Cultural”
Fears of Strangers
I had to write a blog about this. I saw this headline and felt it belonged on The Onion. An actual major news website reported a story about someone at a Starbucks being creeped out by a stranger sitting next to him when the rest of the store was empty. Nothing sexual, violent, or evenContinue reading “Fears of Strangers”
The Psychology of Reactionary Politics
Reactionary politics is considered by many to be a synonym with conservatism but it is not. I define it as the politcs of unthinking reaction. I recently wrote an article about the anti-catcalling laws. How, among other things, the same movement against mass incarceration and arresting people for minor crimes are also for doing exactlyContinue reading “The Psychology of Reactionary Politics”
The Path to a Social Japan and the Birth of a New Paradigm
As touched on in the article I wrote about the anti-catcalling laws, the over-punishing of minor anti-social behavior is not the result of progressive politics even if it manifests itself in it. It is the bourgeois, suburban, fears of the uncanny and the marginalized. I referenced an The Atlantic article by Conor Friedersdorf where heContinue reading “The Path to a Social Japan and the Birth of a New Paradigm”
Cultural Relativism and the South
When I was a freshman in college, I took an intro to Antrhopology course and in the course of it we were taught the traditional postmodernist line that we should respect the customs and morés of cultures. This made me boil with rage and seethe with anger. At that time, I was in the middleContinue reading “Cultural Relativism and the South”
The Autistic Resistance 