Blog

The feeling of knowing
Steven Connor’s 2019 book ‘The Madness of Knowledge’. ‘Epistemopathy’ means the feeling of knowing. We have pleasant and unpleasant feelings associated with knowing. That’s part of why knowledge matters to us.

Turtles all the way down
Finding truth in emptiness. When we acknowledge there is no final turtle, we open ourselves to discover and live more. The turtle on which we are standing is never the last one.

We can’t prepare for this moment
‘Opening to Darkness’ by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel. What to make of this political and ecological moment, this chaos that arrives with no instructions? We can “see, collectively, in the dark.”

Do we choose to be who we are?
And what, by the way, is choice? If you can’t snap your fingers to change, how do you change? What do we ask people to do when we ask them to change? Why should anyone change?

Green birds are birds
I point this out because you asked. Look at these bird friends. Both are green. They’re both birds! Neither is confused. Neither is upset. And your mind will really be blown when you realize—

Yes, Virginia, there are brainworms
And some conspiracy theorists do have them. Yes, Virginia, there are brainworms. They exist as certainly as transphobia exists and abounds attempting to morally mandate trans people out of existence.

Is your clothing the wrong gender?
A proposed Texas law would classify you as a drag performer. A proposed law in Texas says there’s a proper, legal way to wear clothing and makeup—and to have a body. You must look like your “gender assigned at birth”.

You’re an individual who has identities
Robyn Blumner defending Richard Dawkins. Let’s not keep falling back on the idea that certain men are pre-approved to say whatever they like. Their free speech isn’t a stand-in for everyone else’s.

It takes two people to go on a first date
You may want info before a first date, but that doesn’t mean you’re entitled to have it. If someone isn’t allowed to have their gender at a key moment, they aren’t really allowed to have it at all. Cis people don’t own trans people’s info.