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.
‘Cis’ or ‘biological’?
They’re both adjectives, but we have preferences. No, ‘cis’ doesn’t imply that trans people are better. ‘Cis’ implies that trans people are equal. People who object to this equalization are transphobes.
Biologicals first!
OK, said the pack of hungry tigers. A slogan like ‘Biological first!’ might not work out so well for them. If we’re tied up by hungry cartoon tigers, our best bet is to untie each other.
‘Labels are for cans,’ yet you do see ‘trans’
The ‘soup can logic’ of using ‘trans’ but not ‘cis’. When people aren’t comfortable observing that some people are cis, often their discomfort rests in a belief that trans people aren’t people but soup cans.
3 strategies to fight transphobia
From ‘El terfismo en América Latina,’ an article in Volcánicas. Expose TERF connections to the Religious Right, multinational companies, neoliberal regimes & white supremacy. Give trans people platforms. Keep at it.
Nervous about sharing your uninformed opinion? Then don’t
Feel relieved? Good. But it was never about your feelings. “Just asking questions!” isn’t credible when the speaker is demonstrably not naive. Lots of people know lots of real information about trans kids.
Human rights don’t ‘trickle down’
Why must some discussions be silenced in favor of others? The commission’s name itself is peak Orwellianism. I must admit, sadly, that many rights are alienable. The Commission on Unalienable Rights has come to take them away.