Blog
Yep, I read the ‘Atlantic’ opinion essay on trans kids
Where exactly is the kid’s ‘difference’? How hard are you looking for it? Assuming it’s possible for a boy to feel gender-conforming or gay, why should it be impossible for the same kid to feel trans or like a girl?
What does drive the boat? On truth
Miscellaneous reflections on truth, flowing through me. I like to think my own versions are truthful. And why not other versions too? That to which others testify is likely to bear truth.
Moses is trans
My trans teaching for Passover. In Exodus, the Egyptian king assumes that men are a threat and that everyone can tell which babies will grow up to be men. Just look at the baby, he says.
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.