Blog
We are the book we’re talking about
And we are what’s at stake in truth-telling. If the interlocutor opposes me because of who I am, will they be impressed that I read a book? No. Even if it is a book they have heard of? No.
Humility: A needed balance
On early modern philosophers and online trolls. In Lewis Carroll’s ‘You Are Old, Father William,’ a young person asks: ‘You balanced an eel on the end of your nose - / What made you so awfully clever?’
What is human dignity?
Where does it come from? How do we know it exists? Does dignity need to be pinned to God, or can it have secular grounding? Is it about humility, pride, or both? What does interdependence have to do with it?
10 clues this guy doesn’t want to hear your trans-inclusive pitch
On an ‘Evening Standard’ column, in which Richard Dawkins gets mad imagining that trans people might double-score on cake. He’s managed to make trans rights about himself. He wants to eat his cake and have it.
No one should inflict hunger in Gaza. Famine is a choice.
Headlines on the crisis for those who have overlooked them. We can find ways to coexist. And not to weaponize the control of food. It’s an absolute minimum. This year’s Yom Kippur fast isn’t easy. We can do better.
You’re not my type
Trans man explains dating preferences to cis man. For gender and sexuality, self-ID is the tiebreaker. If the question is, How do I know if I’m a gay man?, the answer is never going to be, Ask Blake Smith.
Saying ‘cleareyed’ when you mean ‘exclusionary’
The latest transphobic article in ‘Tablet’. He’s giving readers permission to reject trans people. He’s specifically telling cis gay men it’s OK to reject trans men , who can never be men.
She made an anti-trans statement in a professional setting. I said no.
No, that famous person doesn’t love trans people. I corrected the record. She said Germaine Greer likes trans people. She well knew that Greer has, in fact, been hostile to trans women. Otherwise she wouldn’t have brought it up.
When technofeudalism manifests as transphobia
Life is both experiential and commodified, but they don’t want us to have our gender in any dimension. Technofeudalist Elon Musk admits he’s driven by his own transphobia. Anti-trans people are trying to shut us down, and trans people are trying to survive.