Blog

Transphobia, the Interrupting Cow
Prejudice obstructs continuous and coherent thought. Transphobia upholds gender-conformist and authoritarian aspects of culture. It tries to link itself to important feelings, but it isn’t sincere.

Bathroom bills are intended to suppress trans life
They will require little or no proof. If the intent behind the law is to take you away, they don’t care about proof. They don’t care how you’re trans. They don’t care that you’re harming no one.

WDI co-author doesn’t support dressing however you like
In which Sheila Jeffreys says you can’t really wear what you like & there might be nothing wrong with being a transphobe. Jeffreys doesn’t believe people have the right to be trans. She thinks the reason to avoid a self-descriptor like “transphobic” is that it’s a naughty word.

If you’re told your position is harmful
Someone’s mad at your car. Did you almost run them over? I can pause and apologize. I care about others. I recognize that their perspectives are valid and their observations about my behavior might be correct.

I just want to select NO
The worst YES/NO interface design I’ve seen. We can create a nonviolent culture with the first questions we ask, being willing to hear an answer that’s polarized or ambivalent, loud or quiet.

Why someone complained about the review you posted to Goodreads
Their reason wasn’t as complicated as they made it sound. They say it’s too short. Or too long. What are they really complaining about? What don’t they like about your review?

If you don’t know if it’s a joke or a lie, what’s it called?
There is a word. When they issue statements halfway between jokes and lies, and they joke about it being a lie and lie about it being a joke, there’s a word for that.

Atheist-theist encounters
If you’re pretty sure there’s no god, when may you tell theists they’re wrong? Sometimes knowledge is best cultivated through personal encounters rather than intellectual demands. We see each other, and we’ll also know the world.

Moral analysis of what is ‘at stake in this story’
Naomi Kanakia on discussing novels. How to discuss a book itself and also let our learning transcend the book? To see the book as art, and to see it as a tool for our growth?