Blog
Secretamos la concha / We secrete the shell
Un ensayo ilustrado sobre el conocimiento / An illustrated essay on knowledge. Mini-illustrations about not grabbing too tight and instead growing that which we’ll carry with us. In English (plain text) and Spanish (in images).
Why do politicians ‘swear in to office’ on a Bible?
Doing so is supposed to appear solemn, but it can’t really bind them to their promise. The politician may not believe God holds them accountable for promises on a Bible. Swearing in on a Bible only shows the cultural power of Christianity.
Two Duggar memoirs: Jill and Jinger as adults
Neither their abusive older brother nor the IBLP Christian fundamentalist organization is part of their lives now. The IBLP not only opposes women’s rights and no-fault divorce, it also promotes the idea that husbands are the leaders of their wives and children.
In myth, the extra-binary thing explains everything
‘Fabulous monsters’ are boundary-crossers that reconcile opposites. Trans people right now are the bridge fascists stomp on with their boots. Fascists need the bridge and also like to complain about it while stomping.
Everything is subjective and contains its opposite
This is not a reason to reject trans people and their language. They’re using shared language in an off-center way because the shared language doesn’t center them . Not their fault. Should they reinvent language?
Transphobia speaks in the voice of surveillance capitalism
It believes it knows, and can shape, who we are and what we’ll do. Surveillance capitalists believe in determinism, not free will. Transphobes, taking their cue, reject the gender freedom by which some of us are trans.
Why fascists target gender transition
It messes with their imagined ‘pure’ origin story for their compatriots. Just by existing, we overturn the alleged ‘mythic past.’ We expose its fictions. Fascists don’t want us to exist because we are outside their time.
He says your academic evidence is ‘laundered’
If you believe oppression is real, Peter Boghossian doesn’t think your academic work is real. Conservatives ask for their feelings to be validated and for “Western Civilization” to be saved through intellectual debate. Can we meta-debate that?
Being transgender is homophobic? That’s trope, not truth
Breakdown of ‘A Heretic’s Manifesto’ (2023) by Brendan O’Neill. They publish screeds without speaking to a single one of us, which goes beyond paternalism and shows an intent to control us in ways that are harmful to us.