Blog
Wanting to see and know: Positives and negatives of trans visibility
A tiny Chanukah reflection. Our terms, the formal definitions we’d give if asked, the way we informally use words: these are the detectors with which we make our way through the world.
A few drops of context: On snatching the Panama Canal
And why Trump is talking about trans people too. On Day One, it will be the official policy of the Trump administration that no one is allowed to be trans. Let’s talk about erasures.
He lied on his college applications and went to prison
‘Conning Harvard’ gives an example of what not to do. Adam Wheeler made headlines in 2010 when it was discovered he’d been admitted to Harvard under false pretenses. His prize-winning work had been faked too.
Too much ‘noo’ in the sphere (all spin, no facts)
Steve Bannon describes MAGA narrative in terms of Teilhard’s ‘noosphere’. Bannons says that liberals get sucked into fact-checking while Trump’s followers don’t let themselves be distracted by questions of truth.
5 quick ideas about why and how to resist
The rich already run everything, and they’re grabbing more power. Build your power with others and find new ways to resist. We have ways to make things, communicate, and live that don’t depend on corporations. Maybe we forgot. But we can do things on our own.
Anti-trans feminism since the 1960s
After a couple of recent essays by Sophie Lewis chronicling this movement. Particularly because the anti-trans movement is fond of suggesting that trans people sprang into existence yesterday, I’m fascinated with timelines.
Would you work with the ‘Alliance Defending Freedom’?
A 2022 Bindel–Joyce debate in which Joyce calls my gender ‘an attack on the whole institution of civilization’. She thinks she’s preserving ‘the Enlightenment,’ ‘evidence,’ ‘stable meanings,’ ‘how you do science’, ‘the whole institution of civilization.’
Republicans are planning their 2025 crackdown on immigrants
They’ll deport as many people as they can. Enforcers identify people, judges order removal, police find and detain them, & their country cooperates. Republicans want to do this for 11 million people.
Talk about values, but not with everyone—and choose when to say no
3 small, healthy tips for today. Contribute to the discourse if you think you can sway it. Sometimes, you just have to walk away. And sometimes you should push back and refuse to comply.