Blog
Jeffrey Epstein said ‘you might want to focus on transgender biology’
He suggested this to evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers in 2019. ‘Little public interest’, Epstein warned, ‘where genetics would be helpful. I’ll do no harm and won’t give you drugs if you ask because it’s bad for you.’
The Epstein Files show a rift between atheists & the consciousness movement
What I still want to know is: Why are Epstein’s close associates anti-trans? Dawkins is not open to the idea that trans people might make interesting or worthy arguments. He does, however, declare he’d listen to how people could merge with chimps.
Your gamete isn’t what wins a boxing match. That’d be your fist.
And other ideas I have after listening to Richard Dawkins tell Lawrence Krauss about his book chapter in ‘The War on Science’. If they’re accurately representing what trans people say, why don’t they invite a trans person on their show to say it? Why the intentional exclusion?
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?
When we disagree on politics and I lose a friend
I have to be a good person, and even then, it’s up to someone else if they want to be my friend. They don’t owe me what I gave as a gift, and certainly they don’t owe me what I never gave at all.
Does ‘woke’ mean saying — or not saying — certain words?
In any case, careful speech—including refraining from speaking — can build trust. When the right wing refers to “woke,” they may want to prevent others from saying certain words—or to reserve certain words for themselves.
It’s not ‘free speech,’ it’s bigotry
If they really believe in free speech, this is how we’ll know. There are many reasons why people have prejudices and why they devote their speech to expressing bigotry. Not high on the list: commitment to free speech.