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?
Choosing what you won’t regret
Ask ‘Will I regret not taking this step?’ and feel confident you’re making the best choice for yourself.
The false narrative of regrettable transness
One function of ‘regret’ in anti-trans narrative. It’s the ‘good queer’/’bad queer’ distinction. The scapegoater projects; do they accept their own queerness? The idea of trans people is a scapegoat.
Why transphobia teaches us to be terrified of regret
What if you start to change your gender and regret it? Modern transphobia is a fascist cult. It is related to the destruction of the planet. Both kinds of oppression are related to the concept of Regret.
In myth, the extra-binary thing explains everything
‘Fabulous monsters’ are boundary-crossers that reconcile opposites. Trans people right now are the bridge fascists stomp on with their boots. Fascists need the bridge and also like to complain about it while stomping.
Everything is subjective and contains its opposite
This is not a reason to reject trans people and their language. They’re using shared language in an off-center way because the shared language doesn’t center them . Not their fault. Should they reinvent language?
Transphobia speaks in the voice of surveillance capitalism
It believes it knows, and can shape, who we are and what we’ll do. Surveillance capitalists believe in determinism, not free will. Transphobes, taking their cue, reject the gender freedom by which some of us are trans.