Blog

3 things I learned from ‘The Disordered Cosmos’
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s 2021 book on physics and identity. Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares meta-insights about how science and society can prevent us from asking questions and obtaining insights. Who’s included?

Does Moll Flanders know whether her mother is cheerful?
The Gettier problem in Daniel Defoe’s novel. Moll’s justified true belief (“My mother was a mighty cheerful, good-humoured old woman”) wasn’t knowledge. The novelist put an irony there.

Toward a better epistemology: Why do we care about what we know?
A reaction to the ‘Gettier problem’. Maybe there isn’t just one definition of knowledge. Maybe every type of knowledge is related in a “family resemblance.” Some are propositions. Some aren’t.

3 out of 525,600 minutes: U.S. military budget for gender transition
We can collectively afford gender-affirming healthcare. We know what a world with less military spending would look like. Trans people aren’t what plagues our shared existence. We aren’t what needs to be cut out.

English only, two sexes: A mashup of two executive orders
Interlace the lines to read things like: A designated language attacks women in society by depriving them of dignity. When I read Trump’s instruction ‘to designate one — and only one — official language,’ I remembered his prior instruction ‘to recognize two sexes.’

Pausing in the darkness
Trump’s latest anti-trans executive order calls us ‘anti-Christian’. Trump has labeled as ‘anti-Christian’: trans inclusion, trans visibility, supporting queer kids, and even holding Christians accountable to the law.

It’s official: All trans people kicked out of U.S. military
February 26, 2025, effective immediately. If the military decides you’re trans, it must kick you out. If you’re trans and you know it, you can resign within the month or else wait to be fired.

Now, there’s a no-sports order
Let’s kick it open, bounce it against the wall, and dunk on it. The anti-trans movement has never been about sports. it enacts arbitrary exclusion to make trans people less safe. It’s a political assault.

I use my real name on the internet
I always have. But even if I didn’t, the U.S. government could find me. Traits I believe are ethical are what authoritarians target. Being ethical is not safe. In times of political upheaval, it never is.